by
Chet
17. August 2011 20:19
Linkin Park is one of my favorite musical groups to listen to while I run, work out, or just drive and need some noise. As I was listening to them while on a run yesterday, though, I remembered another reason I like them... They ask some hard questions, they deal with the real mess that is the life we live with. I have no idea of the spiritual state of these guys, but the fact that they're a rather popular band (especially a few years ago I think) means they're connecting in some fashion to their audience, and I think, if we're honest with our hearts, it's not just because of their sound. They deal with real stuff.
So I was thinking as I ran that I wanted to blog about a song or two of theirs, to just listen to the words and digest the heart of the matter... not so much the answers they're providing, but rather, the questions they are asking. Because those same questions are the questions many of those I have a heart for, and a bit of influence over, are dealing with. So I picked th...
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by
Chet
1. August 2011 12:23
I just finished reading Tony Dungy's latest book - The Mentor Leader, while laying on the couch in our rental travel trailer. My wife and son are playing on the beach of the Gulf of Mexico, and my daughter is (finally) getting a good nap in the back of the camper.
What a book this was! I am an avid student of the concept of mentoring, as it's something I very much desire as a trait that defines much of what I do, especially in relationships I have in which I have the opportunity to truly share life, as I call it. Whether it's with the teens I teach and hang out with at church, my staff, my customers, my family, or even myself, I believe there is much to be gained in sharing life with one another on a daily basis.
The end of this book could not have come at a better time for me. While on this 10 day vacation that we're on, I'm having the opportunity to live on "island time," to put the clocks away and schedule by daylight, amount of heat, rain showers, and naptimes. It's been a wond...
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by
Chet
6. April 2011 23:13
This past weekend I was preparing for a teaching opportunity with a group of high schoolers at my church. We’re in the middle of a discussion about what we believe and, just as important, why we believe it. We’re wading through things like absolute truth, assumptions, peer pressure, and all sorts of other interesting, heart probing subjects. It’s quite enjoyable to walk through this with these young minds, but at the same time, it’s probed my own heart as well. I see where so many of the beliefs I came to know in my 20’s were simply extensions of things told to me or experience in my teens, and much of THAT was simply an extension of my childhood. It wasn’t until I was around 29 that I really started to dig into my belief “system” and explore what if what I really believed could stand up to the test of life. Many things have changed during the past 5 years, and I am so thankful for that. What would a young person’s life, especiall...
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by
Chet
15. January 2011 00:18
So I don't have any way to prove this, and you can't disprove it, but it really doesn't matter. I'm going to take the liberty to allow the idea in my head that I almost ran over an angel with my sled tonight.
Tonight a gaggle of us went sledding down a hill by my friend Tricia's house. There were a bunch of teens and a few good adult friends, too. Colton came along too and had a blast. We were there for probably 2 hours or so. About 10 - 15 minutes before we left, another couple and a kid showed up and were doing some sledding. I amost ran into the woman while Isaac and I were playing chicken by aiming our sleds diagonally from opposite sides of the hill.
Anyways, we finish up, head back to Tricia's, and as we're getting out of the cars, one of my teenage friends Zorina exlaims, "I can't find my keys!" Yes, she'd had them in her pocket while sledding. Yes, they had somehow, strangely, most obviously very abnormally, fell out amongst all the bumps of sledding. You could see it in he...
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by
Chet
17. November 2010 23:29
This past Sunday I was reminded about the reality of the bigger picture, even the "more real" world that The Matrix gave us a great picture of, although it was quite allegorical. Much of my world is nice and neat, surrounded by what I would imagine are God-fearing and God-honoring people. If I want to really reach out into the hearts of teenage kids, I need to go hunting for them outside my church doors, right? I mean, these guys and girls are doing fine, doing great, and loving and worshipping God at any chance they get... right?
Right?
Wrong.
Dead wrong. And I should know better. I've seen how "hurt" a heart can get by just putting a mirror on my own. Not just hurt by mean people, but hurt by my own false impression of myself, of God, and my picture of what others think. Even if it's totally false, I still bought into it. How much more so the young men and young women I'm getting to know better and better. While it's not a mid-life-crisis as we often think of it, it certainly is...
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