Some of the funniest things you just can't plan

On Saturday night I'm hanging out with Jenn eating Korean BBQ. Just in case you haven't read her facebook note yet, here's the basic plot:

She brings up ex-boyfriends. First, she brings up #6 to be specific, and the story of how she broke up with #5 a little later on. Shortly after that she thinks she recognizes the people sitting at the other end of the long table we are eating at. One guy there gets up to go, and the rest of the 4-person group follow. We are done a few minutes after them and leave.

Then in the car (while still in the parking lot)...
"F---! That was ex #5 sitting at the same table!!!"
(a lot of laughing ensues)
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Hmmmm.....I'm sure he didn't hear you retell the story of how you broke up with him."
"Just drive, Chris..."

"How did you not recognize him?"
"It's been 4 years. Am I supposed to remember who everyone I meet looks like?"
"How about the ones you've had a relationship with."

And then we go on to talk about various relationships one should remember physical appearances, and banter back and forth about the same crap. Man, when Jenn separates herself from people, she severs that connection! Note to self: If you want Jenn to remember who you are, be sure to talk to her and see her every now and then. Too funny...

leadership conference in St. Louis

I just got back this past Sunday night from a conference and it was pretty exciting to be there. There were several highlights from the weekend, but one of the biggest ones for me was the opportunity to hear Dr. Robert Rohm speak, which was a first time for me. Dr. Rohm is an expert on personality styles and speaks all over the world. His book Positive Personality Profiles is incredibly helpful in learning how to relate to others better at work, in your home, etc.

If you don't know about these personality profiles, you basically start with two questions. Most of the time (you can change your mind later on), are you:
1) more outgoing or more reserved?
2) more task-oriented or people-oriented?
You then have 4 different personality profiles D-I-S-C, based on how you answered those two questions. Keep in mind that people are a combination of all 4 of these, but most people are predominantly one or two of these.
D= outgoing and task-oriented
I= outgoing and people-oriented
S= reserved and people-oriented
C= reserved and task-oriented

Dr. Robert Rohm is also a world-class speaker. One of the best speakers that I have seen in terms of delivery, amount that I learned, and examples used to illustrate points. It's pretty neat and interesting that Rohm's 4 daughters are dominantly each of the 4 different personality profiles.

All in all, it was a great weekend, with over 20,000 attendants hunger to learn. More on the conference later.

blessings

an idea whose time has come

I recently purchased Glory Road on DVD. It's in the middle of a line of inspirational, based-on-a-real-story movies put out by Disney, that seems to be a trend now. That's fine because I like them quite a bit. This particular one is about how a coach named Don Haskins took a little known school called Texas Western (now UTEP) to win the NCAA championship and legitimized black basketball players in the NCAA, who up until that point had been discriminated against in this area.

Because of this discrimination, Coach Haskins plays only his black players in the championship game against Coach Rupp's University of Kentucky. This game was one of the greatest upsets in NCAA history and one of the most important games in the history of basketball. An interview with Pat Riley (one of the Kentucky players) showed how the true importance of that game wasn't seen until later on when history started talking about it. Of course blacks were/are competent enough physically and mentally to play in the NCAA.

All of this to introduce the topic. You cannot stop an idea whose time has come. "God chose an interesting venue to take care of this problem," said Pat Riley in the same interview. It wasn't until later that they realized the game was about more than just a college championship. You can say the same thing about several things in America's history. One is the automobile roughly 100 years ago. And now there is the internet, and how much that has become and will be a part of our lives.

Are you a visionary? Can you see the trends? Can you see what is right (as in the case of blacks playing in the NCAA)? Or are you like one of those people 100 years ago who said, "An automobile?! Nobody is going to want that!" Let's all learn and grow together.

to God be the glory

This post is dedicated to Zach Blickens, a friend of mine who is a youth pastor and worship pastor at River of Life in Cedar Rapids, IA. You can find more info about him and his wife's ministry here.

Last Thursday, I heard a message on Daniel 2. Daniel is a great example of a young leader. Many people of faith can benefit by taking his example of leadership. In this chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar can't sleep due to repeated dreams that keep him awake. He demanded his magicians, scorcerors, and "dream experts" to not only interpret the dream, but first tell him what the dream was. If they can't, they will be put to death. Well this was impossible and they said no man can do this. Daniel and his three close friends- Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah- got wrapped up in this, too. They came together and fervently prayed to God for wisdom. God granted them the mystery of the king's dream and Daniel ended up telling the king his dream in great detail.

I encourage you to read about the dream and the whole chapter. There are many points to be made, but the one I want to bring up is how Daniel gave the glory to God. First, when he received the mystery of the king's dream, he praised God. Then, standing before the king, he gave God full credit for being able to relay the king's dream and its interpretation. In addition to that, he gave credit to his friends twice in the chapter for their accountability to him. After all, they prayed fervently to God with Daniel and ate the vegetables and water diet with him in the previous chapter.

Now why do I dedicate this blog to Zach? Because he always praises God for gifts that he and others have, good things that happen in his life and those around him, and probably even the bad things sometimes too. He doesn't take credit at all when he receives compliments because he knows that everything good comes from God. So when I try to be more like that, I think of Daniel's character in these few chapters, and Zach too.

Ode to Mink part 2

One of my best friends, Stephanie, just got married after Thanksgiving. Lots of good feelings come to mind seeing her married. If you missed my first Ode to Mink blog, you can view that here.

Stephanie has been wanted to get married for a long time. If you've ever read Wild At Heart or Captivating, a lot of that stuff resonates true with her. She's very romantic and does want to be swept off her feet. She's also very adventurous.

Stephanie has wanted to get married for a long time- probably since childhood. The first time she met Peter was even during childhood. I got to talk with her on the phone a little bit after she got back from her honeymoon. She told me a couple things. One, that little things excited her in the house, such as folding his laundry. I told her that it wasn't surprising, given what I knew about her about wanting to get married for a long time. Yet her response was different than I thought. She said that being married is quite different than what she had been thinking about all this years. I would agree. Obviously someone can't picture exactly what their marriage is going to be like. However, I think that wanting to be married for so long would lead to being excited about simple chores. Things such as folding laundry for her husband, atleast in Stephanie's case.

And Peter is so good for Stephanie, as well as Stephanie for Peter. He's a strong Christian with great integrity. He's a hard worker, but also just a very likeable guy with a good sense of humor.

You have to roll with the times. My friendship with Steph has changed a lot since high school. Back in the day we would hang out whenever. I would work in the daytime at Albert H. Wohler's Insurance, then a few hours at night at Jewel-Osco. Then we would actually hang out for an hour or two when I got off of work at Jewel around 11 or 12. We both would be exhausted the next day, but sometimes do that again anyway. Obviously, friendships change when one of the friends gets married, especially good friendships. But ours has been changing since college.

It's mostly been less hanging out time. But no matter how brief or infrequent, I have also appreciated time spent together. Whether it was just a conversation over the phone in college, a brief stop at her parents' house, or catching a meal now with her, Peter, and other friends. Stephanie is one of those friends that I know I can pick up where we left off no matter how much time has elapsed in between talking. However, while we are all still in Chicago, I am excited to spend any time I can with Mr. and Mrs. Gorham.

Personal Mission Statement

A little while ago I wrote a blog based on a talk I heard at a leadership conference. Well, it turns out that the speaker, Chuck Goetschel, just posted notes from that talk on his blog. You can find it here. Additionally, you can find a link to the article by Laura Stack that he got that exercise from in writing a personal mission statement. Or he can view that here. Please take a look! Whether it is for the first time, or to look again to make sure I got things right, if you wrote your mission statement after my first blog. Let's try and spend more time doing the things that are important and not urgent, rather than the other way around.

The Karate Kid

The best films are the ones that continue to entertain you and make you feel over multiple years. All the while adding more layers of depth and meaning to when you originally saw it. The Karate Kid is one of those films for me. There are so many good things about this film itself that I could go on for quite awhile. I'll try to be succinct though.

My brother, Lance, and I grew up watching this film. In fact, it probably defined our childhood in terms of films. Sure, we watched the Star Wars movies and The Princess Bride a lot, too, but The Karate Kid topped them all. We would act out a few scenes from the movie, especially the one where Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel that he is actually learning karate from all the work he is making him do. Each of us always wanted to be Mr. Miyagi so we could slap the other guy for lowering his eyes when he bowed.

There are so many factors in this movie. It's a coming of age/unlikely friendship/martial arts film. There are issues regarding moving and starting in a new school, dating across social classes, the right and wrong way of teaching martial arts, being a single parent with a teenager, and overcoming odds to earn respect and find balance (in multiple areas of life).

The acting and filmmaking is also quality. Not that I know everything now, but there are a few things I've noticed since I first saw the film. There is one scene they did in one shot! No cuts at all. This is when Daniel wakes up under the care of Mr. Miyagi after the Cobra Kais give him quite a beating. The dialogue is quite lengthy yet still, there are no cuts or other angles. Also, the shot when Daniel first enters the tournament floor with Mr. Miyagi and Ali is quite remarkable. It starts with them entering, follows them as the Cobra Kai pass them, and then sweeps up along the bleachers to give you a panoramic view of the tournament. Quite a shot since it follows the leads, shows you a few karate matches, and has hundreds of extras either as audience members or tournament workers in the shot.

That first scene I mentioned with the dialogue was successful only because of the chemistry onscreen with Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita. Pat Morita was a stand-up comic. His voice is not really like that. He completely created that persona with the voice. Ralph Macchio related to his Daniel character, not being very muscular. Although in his words, he "wasn't as defiant" and his onscreen character. Martin Kove, who plays Kreese, also did a great job of being the menacing teacher who instilled the wrong values of martial arts into his students.

Which brings us into that dichotomy of teaching martial arts. The philosophy of martial arts in the film is authentic. The writer, Robert Mark Kamen, studied and practiced the martial arts for a long time. Kreese and Mr. Miyagi were the exact opposites. Kreese was all about the physical sport. You know- "strike first! strike hard! no mercy sir!" Mr. Miyagi was all about the mental toughness. Karate was used only to defend yourself as a last resort. Because the best martial artist is actually the best peacemaker. Even if someone is looking to start a fight with you, the better martial artist will resolve the encounter peacefully without throwing his/her fists.

Well, so much for being succinct! There's even more I could write about but I will stop here. Perhaps I will expand on some issues and add more another time.

blessings