Opportunity Knocks

I used to hide under a rock when Halloween came around. That's what we were trained to do by our parents. And so we'd either hide away in our basement and watch a movie and turn all the lights off or we would go to our church that would have the classic 'alternative' option of some kind of festival and games night.

But as I've grown in Christ I've learned that although I don't agree with much or any of what Halloween offers I see it as a great opportunity that is rare in our culture and that only comes around once a year. It's the opportunity to engage with our community in a very personal way. It's the one time of year that people expect you to knock on their door and it's also the one time a year when people feel more than comfortable to knock on yours.

So instead of running and hiding from this event why can we not embrace what could come out of it. 

I think that as Christians we are inspired by scripture to be bold about who we are and who our God is. I'm pretty sick of having a passive Christianity that many of us were raised with. I think that just handing out candy is giving into the culture and doesn't show Christ's love at all. I think that hiding in the basement is really just hiding from what we might consider evil. I know of something that is stronger than evil and that is Jesus! I know of someone that is greater than death and hatred and sin and disgust and that is Jesus!

So this year I have challenged those around me to take up this opportunity to be a blessing in their neighbourhood and to be actively looking for places to shine the light of Jesus into what is so often a dark event. Do you think by chance that this could be an opportunity like no other all year long? Why should we run from it. Shine the light into the dark places!

John says, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So then we are more than conquerors!

Romans 8! 
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So then let us not stand timid and shy of evil but to claim the truth of Jesus in the face of it! Resist the devil and he will flee from you through the power of Jesus Christ.

So what does your Halloween look like? 

Impossible Task

So I am officially a coach for Isaac's hockey team although this year that is a pretty limited and overstated title. More than anything I am the stats guy and I have the credentials to go onto the ice for the practices so I get the title of being coach without really doing much at all.

Anyways, each player, and coach, on the team was given the opportunity to put forth two songs that they wanted to have as music that would be played in the dressing room before games. This is where the title "Impossible Task" comes into play. How does one go about suggesting only two songs? I have a whole playlist that could take a few hours of music to suggest but I had to limit it to just two and so I'll share with you my logic.

First, I wanted the songs to be lyrically clean and not enjoying the vanities of life such as sex, money, drinking and the like that so many songs revolve around today. I also wanted the lyrics to have no need for bleeps or pauses for when the multiple swears would be blanked out cause I don't think this really detracts from the whole enjoyment experience.

Second, for warm up music you want something that will get your blood pumping! You don't need any love songs or any slow intro's or anything, the song has to get going and quick! There are some great songs that fit into those sleeper categories but save them for a hot date or to fall asleep to, not for the hockey dressing room.

Thirdly, I guess I wanted something that was something new that you didn't always listen to but that still fit especially with my second point. I'm pretty sick of what's  on the radio and I think the kids need to know there is something better out there than Rhianna! (I'm not sorry if I offended you by that statement!)

Lastly, I know that the whole team sees me as "the minister" and so I wondered how my music choices would reflect that. Did I want to be surprising to them and pick something they didn't predict or did I want to stick with the remixed version of Kumbaya?

Well here are the two songs that I chose along with the write up of what I gave to our hockey team organizer as descriptions of my choices.

Ok, so here are my two songs that I get to pick. This was tough to narrow it down to 2 songs but here she goes:

1. From the sweet era of the 70’s comes a great victory song. I hope the kids will love to jam out to something that doesn’t make the radio anymore but that should go down as a forever loved classic. I won’t name it for you but I’ll let you watch this vid with some awesome horn instrumentals in it!

2. I saw another player have a song by POD and it brought back some great songs that they had. I’ll send you the video of a song called BOOM and with a top comment on a different video of the same song reading, “Played ping pong to this song.... the game became a fist fight” how can you not love the song that follows. I’ll send you the video that you have to watch to appreciate the last comment. I think this is a great pump up song that at least gets me fired up! “Is that all you got? I’ll take your best shot!” Enjoy!!

So there's what I chose. What would your songs have been? Do you think I met my 4 criteria well? I trust that I did and I really can't wait to hear these songs in the room while I'm tying Isaac's skates at the next game! Cause that's the way I like it!

Something Beats Nothing

So I know it's been a while. I know that I've been slacking. Well, maybe not slacking. In all honesty my life has been very busy and for the first month or two of my blogging absence I was just actually really busy and couldn't take the 15 minutes to sit down and journal out my public thoughts. But if I were honest I would say that this past month I've had the time, I've had the desire but I've been struck with fear.

Will I remember how to do this?

Will anyone care anyways?

This one will have to be great after going so long not blogging...

What if it's not perfect.

Just a week or two I re-listened to a speaker that I saw back in March named Jon Acuff. He said a lot of really good stuff in his presentation but the thing that stuck out most to me was that 90% perfect and shared is better than 100% perfect and in your head.

His message reinforced that life is about a conversation to be had in community and that trying to perfect life by ourselves is a fleeting task.

Accepting that we are not perfect is not easy but it is so true! So here's my first blog after my hiatus. It might not be perfect. It might not be the shocker I wanted. But it's me and it's the start of something bigger than I could ever be alone.

Check out Jon Acuff's blog! His Oct 24th post talks about the exact same things as I'm writing here today.