What You Don't See Coming

The movie Stranger Than Fiction starts with an unassuming Harold Crick (played by Will Farrell) brushing his 32 teeth 76 times (38 times up and down, 38 times side to side). He then uses a single windsor knot for his neck tie instead of a double (which saves him approximately 43 seconds per day). We know all of this because it's being narrated as he does it - and that leads to something interesting. The very fact that we hear a narrator's voice describing these otherwise ordinary things makes us ask at least two questions: (1) Why is this story being told? and (2) What does he not see coming?, and we assume that something is about to happen which will make us look back on the fact that he started his day counting brush strokes as being somehow ironic.


That's what the voice of a narrator does: it makes us assume that this is a story worth telling because of what the characters don't see coming. I wonder if there is a way you can apply some part of that to your life? How would it change the way you look at your life as it is right now if you carried those two assumptions with you (That (1) you are in a story worth telling because of (2) something you don't see coming)?


Of course a lot of this has to do with who (or what) you've got in your 'God spot'. Do you believe in the kind of God that has made some kinds of people that are in a story worth telling and some kinds of people that are not? Do you believe it's decided largely by chance or circumstance? Do you believe that God even ever made anyone who could afford to have 'days of low possibility' (or days spent counting brush strokes)? Or did God only ever make one kind of person - a person who is living in a story worth telling because of what they don't see coming? Obviously I'd like to suggest the latter to you as something deeply worth considering.


I'd love to challenge you about making decisions from a deeper place this Sunday. Join us at Westside or tune into the podcast through the week.


Have a great weekend,


Chris

Stop. Think. Live.

It’s a trick of consciousness. We somehow manage to live most days with a kind of auto-pilot moving us from one familiar environment to another without much thought at all. But it’s amazing how a tiny bit of news can change all of that. In September of last year, university professor Randy Pausch was given a bit of news like that. What he thought was just a prolonged case of the flu turned out to be terminal pancreatic cancer; and in a flash – just like that – all the things we take for granted become all the things he dreams about: more time for the unscripted, ordinary moments about people, passion and purpose..

One of the things I mentioned this past Sunday has to do with the different ways you can view the same set of circumstances. Even if you’re at the bottom of North America, you’re still better off than 98% of everyone else alive. Which is the long way around saying your hell is someone else’s heaven. Even the worst set of life circumstances, here translates into a stunning upgrade for most of the rest of the human race. Think about it. They could take the same bits and pieces that feel like hell to you and construct something they’d be deeply grateful for. How could that impact you if you let it?

Perhaps the best part of being 5 years old is how you are physically present in a radical way. Today is all you know along with the simple pleasure of a moment for a moment’s sake. You were undistracted by the whole world of ideas which has to do with things we fear, things we want, things we think we are (or aren’t). Radically physically present.

Now can you tie those three threads together? Can I suggest three sentences? (1) Don’t wait until you know you’re dying before you figure out how to really live. (2) From the same life circumstances you can construct a whole world of things to be thankful for or a whole world of things to be grumpy about. (3) The challenge of our adult lives will be to reconstruct all the best parts of what you were at 5 years of age: wide open to wonder, physically present, ready to learn, able to trust.

Randy Pausch (our university professor from the first paragraph) gave a lecture last fall at Carnegie-Mellon University entitled “The Last Lecture” in which he shares some of his reflections on finding out you’re dying and what it means to really live. It’s taking the internet and media by storm right now, and it’s one of the most inspirational and challenging things I’ve seen in a while. If you feel like being challenged, why not find a comfortable chair and let him tell his story to you. Not only will it change the way you look at your circumstances, but it may change the way you spend every single day you’ve got left.

We’re in the midst of a string of Sundays where we’re unpacking the idea of maturity. Join us at Westside or tune into the podcast through the week. Please let us know if you have any feedback. More perspectives only add to the process.

Have a great weekend,

Chris

One Step Further

When I was a kid we had an electric fence around our vegetable garden to keep the rabbits out. Of course it did a lot more than keep the rabbits out. It also led to a never ending cycle of fascinating experiments designed to uncover the mysteries of electricity (and our personal pain threshold). In retrospect I can’t believe I was raised in a world where my backyard play area also included a fully exposed live wire around the vegetable patch and nothing much was thought of it. It kind of makes today’s concepts of safety seem a bit over the top (or the opposite – that concepts of safety back then bordered on negligence!).

In the many years since then, I’ve found other parts of life that are just like that electric fence. The wire is not visible and the shock feels a bit different but the dynamics are the same: whenever I put my hand past that line I get zapped. These lines a bit trickier, though - like the line between work and rest, or the line between being honest with myself and telling a story, or the line between self control and self indulgence. I’ve been shocked many times, yet it never seems to be enough.

These two ideas collided as I considered something about my journey with God. I was reading a part of Psalms which was detailing a bit of a ‘spin cycle’ in Israel’s history. They would take a few steps away from the life they’d agreed to live with God and get burned. Eventually the ‘burn’ would get bad enough that they’d realize what had happened and take a step back. Then they would heal, a bit of time would pass and their guard would come down and they’d forget. Then they would take a few steps away from the life they’d agreed to live and the cycle starts all over again.

It’s just like that childhood version of my brother and I standing by the rabbit fence endlessly surprised all over again at what it felt like to put our hand on the wire. Shock! Then we’d pull our hand off. A few moments would pass and we’d think, “It wasn’t that bad…”, then Shock! And we’d pull our hand off again…

I guess all of this has led to a hunger. So much of my life has been shaped by shock-avoidance as I stand near the fence and try not to get burned. So much of my life has been shaped by taking only as many steps back as is required to shut the shock off. I’m starting to wonder about getting away from the fence all together. What would it feel like to deal with a different set of signals? Instead of “Shock! there’s a problem so step back…”, what about “Surprise! here’s another surge of strength so move ahead!”

There are at least two ways God can make Himself a reality to you. He can be the bite on the other side of a problem or He can be the surge of freedom on the other side of courage. Have you stepped far enough away from the fence that you not only no longer feel the shock but you are starting to encounter the ‘surprise of another kind’? Do you practice only problem avoidance? Or have you started to practice ‘possibility creation’?

I’m dealing less and less every day with shocks and problems. Every day, more and more I’m switching to ‘bread crumbs along a trail of great possibilities’. Try it. You might like it.

Something to consider – and something to ask questions about.

Join us on Sunday if you can or tune in to the podcast through the week.

Have a great week.

Chris

LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

I've always been glad for the chance to have a purpose-based career and after more than 15 years I'm still saying, "I can't believe I get to do this" (on most days anyway). If it's something you may be interested in, drop us a line. We are still building the staff team at Westside and that means we're on the hunt for people of passion and purpose who want to make a difference. I don't want to post job titles and job descriptions because that's always felt backwards (you carve out a cubby hole and then try to jam someone into it). I'd rather start with great people who are interested in serving and then shape a great job around them.

Adventure doesn't keep appointments and "some day" is really just the part of today we hide from. It may just be the case that you need to say, "It's time". It may be for a year or for 5 or you may really be surprised. Either way, we were made to make purpose. We're building a 'dream team' and a 'brain trust' of great leadership at Westside and there are only a few missing pieces left. If a purpose based adventure is something you're interested in, hit reply and let me know. I promise to take it seriously.

8 Sentences about Growth

From The Seeking Heart (by Francois Fenelon): “If you are not careful, you will acquire so much knowledge that you will need another lifetime to put it into practice.”

This past Sunday at Westside we talked about the personality traits that tend to ‘activate’ our explosive potential. I suggested there’s really just one: a radical openness to 5 kinds of input (can you be led, can you be challenged, can you be taught, can you be cared for and can you be continually re-engaged in grace for someone else).

I think those two thoughts (paragraphs one and two above) come together at a very important intersection. Being radically open without taking any action means we have all kinds of great information which does nothing. Taking radical action without being open means you might be growing, but only at the ‘snail’s pace’ made possible with one person’s worth of insight (your own).

If you had to pick one problem for your own, which would it be? Why not have a discussion about it this week with someone you trust?

Join us on Sundays at Westside or tune into the podcast through the week (www.wkc.org).

Have a great day,
Chris