Kids Talk About Christmas

I love Christmas time. But I get caught up in the busyness of all that needs to happen this time of year. I have a feeling that I’m not the only one.

This year, I’ve done two things that have helped me not get lost in the busyness as much.

The first thing we did was take my 15 month old daughter to the mall and pick up a tag to get a child in need a Christmas gift. There was something special about explaining to my daughter that we are helping someone just because we can and it would be special for them, even though we will never meet this person.

The other thing that helped me focus on the Christmas season was shooting a short piece with preschool kids talking about Christmas. It was kinda a last minute project that I rushed through. After it was done, I watched it through and remembered the magic of the season as the kids told the Christmas story.

Check out what the kids had to say!

And don’t forget the reason for this crazy season!

Try Softer, Not Harder

I’ve never been one to find much comfort in Yoda’s great axiom, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.” Sometimes you give things your every little bit of energy, focus, and determination, but you can’t get it done. You know what I mean, right? I “do” but I fail. No amount of determination or trying harder ever seems to change the situation (or in my case, the ability to accomplish). Since it seems that I can’t succeed, do I give up and resign myself to the “do not“?

Or maybe I’ve been missing Yoda’s point. Maybe it’s not about the effort or intensity that we put towards a task. Maybe “doing” isn’t just a matter of attaining the desired outcome. Maybe it’s a matter of trying softer.

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A Few Life Questions For Ya

I’ve been prepping today for some video interviews that I’ll be doing for my church. Without much of experience conducting interviews, and without a super clear idea of what the end product is going to be, I put together a long list of questions.

And I’ve got to say, they really make you think about where you are in life and what you want to get out of it. For those who want to do a little self-reflection and contemplation, below are some of the questions.

• What do you want more of in life?
• What do you want less of in life?
• If resources, consequences, or failure wasn’t an issue, what would you be doing now? How would you change the way you live?
• What are a couple of your big dreams?
• What is getting in the way of living the life you want?
• What’s best about your marriage/family life?
• What’s most important to you in your job?
• What brings you 80% of your joy (in leadership)? What brings 80% of your stress?
• What are your dreams for your business/company?

6 Lessons From A Long Week

The thing that sucks about learning by experience is at times you fail. Or often, in my case. With the failures, you pickup nuggets of wisdom, techniques, or approaches that will help you down the road. And then there are those other failures… the ones where any possible lesson to be learned is inconceivable (and yes, I know that word can’t be used without making you think of Princess Bride).

Well, this past week was one of those where experience kicked my butt. And part of my therapy is sharing them with you.

6 Lessons From A Long Week

1. Don’t think a project that you had 2 weeks for last time can be done in 3 days without lots of planning.
2. Don’t let advice of others steer you away from your vision for a project. Stay true or else you won’t be happy with the product and you may lose your desired impact. Trust your gut.
3. You don’t always need new to make an impact. Sometimes the same thing over and over again can make a bigger impression than creating a new product just because the last one was cool. Ride out the momentum of your great work, but don’t wait too long before starting the next big thing.
4. Magic Triangles and Augmented Records are exactly what the sound like: science fiction. Well, at least it would have been if it all worked as easy as it first seemed like. (I was trying to integrate an OSX server into a Windows Active Directory environment to give more structure and control over Macs.) I’ll save the details for another time.
5. It’s okay to be inexperienced and not know how to do things. Everyone has to start somewhere. Just because you may not be like that one person or know how to produce what you see in your head, it doesn’t mean you’re not good enough. It just means you’ve got room to grow.
6. Remembering your victories (however small they maybe) and what you have going will keep you centered. For example, I took a pretty cool photo that was fitting for my rainy, Oregon week. And I have a beautiful, loving, creative spouse who loves me and an amazing, gorgeous daughter that make it all worth it.

Christianity & July 4th

I stumbled upon an article today about Independence Day & Christianity. The article challenges some of our assumptions and understanding of what we are really celebrating and the implications of it. Though hard to swallow, I find myself agreeing with the author. Here is a quote from the article:

No matter what position you hold in regards to being a Christian and war (I happen to hold to nonviolence), I believe we cannot justify glorifying the ‘winning’ of our independence from our friends across the pond. How can we celebrate that we killed thousands upon thousands of people because they were taxing us without giving us representation in parliament?

What do you think? Jump over to Sojourners for the full article.

Choosing Joy Over Circumstances

“When I am consumed by my problems—stressed out about my life, my family, and my job—I actually convey the belief that I think the circumstances are more important than God’s command to always rejoice. In other words, that I have a ‘right’ to disobey God because of the magnitude of my responsibilities.” – Francis Chan, Crazy Love

What a great quote! This challenges the way we face the struggles and everyday living of life. I don’t know about you, but joy isn’t my normal response when I have a ton on my plate and they all demand a ton out of me. I get stressed and consumed with the issues.

I’m curious on how the world would change if Christians really rejoiced always. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not talking about that fake “Praise God!” or “God is good!” when you are asked how you are doing. That just annoys me. I’m talking about a sincere joy to be facing the struggles that come our way because we have a great God who is walking with us through it all and is more than powerful enough to get us through.

I think it would rock the world if we started living that way.

A New Direction

The truth is I try too hard. It’s something I recently realized. I’ve been trying too hard to be who I think I should be compared to others. And the thing about it is that there isn’t any one thing that I compare myself to. There is always something that I’m not good enough at or can’t do.

The reality is that I am good enough and okay. I read a great quote from Oswald Chambers recently that got me thinking about this.

“Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with others as He is with you.”

I am okay with me. I’m going to start living that way. And I think you’ll notice it on the blog too.