Life at 3 miles an Hour

How many times do I get asked that question in an average week ... just minding my own business ... heading in to grab some grocery item ... walking through downtown ... on my way for coffee?  I'm not a fan of that question on a number of levels.  First of all, it implies that the intended interchange is only going to take a minute, when a more honest inquiry might be "Can you spare 10 to 15 minutes".  Secondly, there is a level of guilt imposed when my first reaction is "no, I really can't".  I mean really, am I that busy that I cannot invest 60 seconds out of my daily allotment of 86,400 in the life of another human?  None of us are that busy. Lastly, no where in this interchange is there any indication that what is most likely being sought is some sort of financial investment. "Oh you don't have cash on you, that's no problem, we can take a card or Venmo". Practically speaking, one could say just don't engage.  Just ignore. Just say ...

I've always been a proponent of cause and effect.  Very simply defined, doing this leads to that … very simple and uncomplicated.  Even though culture and an industry of ambulance chasers resists and seeks to eradicate undesirable effects (insert responsibility here), cause and effect still rule the day... unless you're trying to carry a cup of coffee between your legs while driving.  In the physical realm its fairly easy to predict and measure … in the emotional and spiritual realm its a bit more complicated and nuanced. From a human standpoint, it all comes down to choices, for good or bad.  You choose to breakup over a text, you're a looser … cause and effect.  You choose to go shopping with your significant other rather than golf with a buddy, you're a romantic.  These kinds of decisions may seem small and insignificant, but the results are noticeable and often immediate.  I get those. They are much easier to understand.  What I have diffic...

" If I speak in the tongues [ a ] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."  For most of the past 6 years my existence has centered around what is arguably the most intense urban renewal project anywhere in the country.  For more than 10 years now this 10 block by 10 square block section of the city has been in a constant build mode that is taking place on the streets, under the streets and upwards of 40 stories above the streets.  It can so many days be such a source of stimulation overload.  The daily game of street roulette to determine which street or sidewalk is open and which ones closed became very old very quickly.  I often am driven from my office to seek sanctuary and silence … or at least a dull roar.   Personally it has driven me, against everything I've always believed about interacting with the world, to spend a good part of my days wearing ear buds or even full on headphones.  So, a...

It's been well over 2 years since my last post here.  It's not that I've not been writing at all … I do have other outlets that are a bit more specific to my current role.  I just haven't been able to write here … in my own personal space, unloading and examining my own personal wrestling with faith and function.  It's not that I haven't tried.  Not a week goes by where I don't remember back to when it felt natural to process my inner thoughts and demons while chasing a cursor across a screen.  So many things have happened these past 28 months that could have, should have, and in other times would have found their way to my screen as a record of my having lived them... and yet they didn't. Some of it I'll attribute to living a certain way for much of your adult life, and then suddenly not … at least not in the same way.  Some of it I'll attribute to what I understand of conventional "writers block".  The rest I'll attribute to a...

For most of my life I would have been considered anything but urban. I've lived in the cornfields of the Midwest.  I've lived among the rural farms of Upstate New York. Some of my fondest memories are still the many days of my life spent in the solitude and wild of the Adirondack mountains.  In many ways I am convinced that those were the days that formed my inner places.  I am an introvert by design. I am a writer of sorts and this place breathed the life and contemplation into my soul necessary for words to then be poured out.  I could feel the very presence of God there. The secret places of the forest seemed to wrap themselves around me and even now, nearly 30 years after last stepping foot on those paths, I can still feel them calling to me.  Especially now. These past 17 years I have chosen to live within the city limits of one of our country's major urban centers.  In fact for these past few years it has been considered the fastest growing urban cen...

In my earliest years I never gave it much thought.  I guess that I kind of had a "the world is flat" opinion that never really prompted a consideration for what lie to the West, beyond "the Great river" that split our country.  Sure I read the text books, saw the movies, studied American geography, played "Oregon Trail".  It wasn't until we made our cross country drive 16 years ago to take up residency on the West Coast that this nagging question "Why?" began to dominate my thoughts on travels back and forth on highways birthed from the wagon trails of old. Every time I find myself heading back to the West on these same highways, I imagine life before these asphalt trails  and the unimaginable effort it took to navigate this treacherous and desolate terrain.  I attempt to imagine the unimaginable and it always leads to "Why?" in so many contexts.  Why would you leave the relative comfort of what you knew?  Why risk for something ...

I wrote a letter the other day.  When I say that "I wrote a letter", I mean I actually wrote it ... with a pen and actual paper.  I'll have to admit that it was a unique experience.  It wasn't a post it or a memo, it was an actual letter with a beginning, middle, and ending ... on paper ... in ink ... with questionable penmanship.   It was void of all the usual trappings that I have become accustomed to.  There was no spell check, and I couldn't just backspace to get rid of my spelling shortcomings.  There was none of that annoying blue underline grammar check begging the question "are you sure you want to construct this phrase this way?".  I tend to ignore those anyway. Possibly more of a challenge though was my entering in to this letter without a clear vision of where I was headed.  There wasn't even a blinking cursor to follow across the pages.  Actually, this lack of direction delayed its writing for several days.  All I had...

This post will someday make its way into a book if I ever can begin the book writing process.  For now, since I seem to have enough of a challenge just getting a post done here or there, I will settle on a few hundred words to unload something out of my soul.  I have a dilemma.  Its a fairly serious one, far more serious than the decision for or against skinny jeans.  My dilemma is that I feel compelled, from the depths of my soul, that my story is to encourage others to dive deeper into their own stories ... and in doing so to overlay God's story into theirs so much more fully than most are ever likely to do.  My story has driven me out of a secular life into something that I'd term professionally sacred.  I make my living doing this, but on top of that, my very living is doing that... so much more than average.  Allow me to be painfully honest and to remove any humility for a moment.  My journey has not been average, by professionally...

"I don't know where you're leading, unless you've led me here" is a line from a Rich Mullins song, penned near the end of his life.  I think about that line often.  Every once in awhile I slow down and look back over the years to the afternoon spent lying on my back on this rock, in a clearing in the Rockies at 10,000 feet.  I've just passed the 10 year anniversary of this 4 hours spent alone with God in a place that only God could have created.  To be honest, this past year has gone by so fast that I've not really taken the time to stop and look back again.  But I'm back for a morning in the place where so many posts were originated on this blog that took its name from this moment in time on "my rock".  I'm back and looking once again at this picture that reminds me of this defining chapter in the story that would propel me into the life and ministry that we now find ourselves in.  All that I can say, in an honest reflection, is that I...

I put my shirt on backwards this morning.  That's all you really need to know in order to understand my current state of mind.  Or perhaps one more detail; it took my, nearly blind without her contacts in, wife's observation to point it out to meets morning.  Just one more piece of evidence in the mounting case against my own personal abilities to carry out this task laid before us.  I'm referring to the launching, or planting .... Launching just sounds so much more forward motion like ... Of this new community dedicated to following and being Jesus in the city. I'm very much ok with not knowing what I'm really doing ... In fact, I think that my awareness of this...my assessment says that I'm very "self aware"...is in fact brilliance in the making.  It keeps me off my feet and desperately relying on Gods still small voice to propel us forward. I am not ashamed to tell you, from the inside, that this church planting thing is not as cool and brave and ...

I'm sure that you couldn't tell by my youthful appearance and slim, disciplined physique ...whatever... that I once upon a time held a job with high holiday esteem.  Two weeks ago I was reminded of this when observing a friends Christmas display and about a dozen photos of her children in their growing years sitting on the lap of a jolly fat man with a white beard.  No it wasn't someone's uncle Earl, it was Santa himself.  Some photos contained the real Santa I'm pretty sure, but some were obviously the "fill ins".  That's right, I was Santa.... Or at least a good fill in.  It occurred to me, for literally the first time, that in numerous homes somewhere, probably on the East coast, there are moms, grandma's etc with photos of me in their living rooms at this time of year.  Let me clarify ... They are photos of me in a red suit with their children on my lap.  Anyway, it was a fairly distant memory and only a fleeting thought, until quite by chanc...

So it's been nearly a year today since we've surrendered our "God given" right to owning a vehicle that we could call our own.  If you weren't aware, the selling of our SUV and a subsequent blown head gasket on our econo car led us to the place of considering our ability to really urbanize our lives and walk, literally, away from car ownership for an undetermined  amount of time.  It was the grand experiment.  Quite honestly I thought that it would last a few months, and most certainly not beyond the rains of a Seattle winter.  It's been a year now and, although nothing is ever certain, I don't see a vehicle anytime in the foreseeable future. We can walk to most anything.  We zip around in Zip cars when necessary, we recently joined the smart car fleet from Car2go, and if needed, Enterprise is always ready to pick us up.  All of this adds up to more intentional trips and far less cost.  When we began this experiment, there were many questions t...

So last week I had the privilege of being in the enchanting realm of the mouse.  While my Seattle friends were suffering  through some particularly frigid temperatures, I was tagging along with my wife at her conference in the wonderful world of Disney.  It's a tough life, but occasionally I can bear the burden.  Anyway, it afforded me the opportunity to take part in some very insightful and sometimes inspirational people watching.... Sometimes not so inspirational. One of the sadder trends that I've observed over the years is one facilitated by the tsunami of social media.  In a place that almost screams presence, many are not at all...present I mean.  In their desire to be connected to their circles, they become disconnected to their surroundings.  I often wonder how they are tweeting and facebooking the experiences that they are not actually taking part in.  This year, in particular, I was witness to, in my opinion, a great casualty ...

I’m feeling a bit like Bilbo Baggins this morning. I’ve just completed a “There and Back Again” kind of experience. I’m home again, by the water, fog rising, espresso hiss in the background, and the distinguished Starbucks aroma filling the air. It’s a long drive from Boise where I’ve spent the past few days on a teaching assignment and watching my daughter tour her Fall choice for academic furtherance. It’s a long drive, there and back again. Although I’m sure I had it better than Bilbo with a Mazda 6 to enhance the journey, it was long and grueling at times just the same. I would imagine that the mountains that we crossed would rival his Misty mountains as well. In case you’ve not experienced it, let me share with you that this country of ours still holds a great deal of desolation. You could still die, frozen and alone in the mountain passes, and rest areas don’t always appear on demand. I did wonder at times why we have spent so much time and money investigating whether or ...