All year I taught a physical education (P.E.) class on Mondays for middle and high school students. It was lots of fun, and especially a learning lesson for this coach. During the year Dutch gained strength, endurance, confidence, coordination, and became a friend of exertion. Attitude is essential to this course, and weekly I extolled to all in public, and to Dutch in private, the value of a good effort, exertion, proper form, and enjoyment of sport and games. Most of what we did was get moving through warmup, games, introduced the fundamental aspects of a few sports, learning the necessary skills, rules, and working on those in an environment of grace. For many of these kids this was the first foray into organized sports of sorts, having not participated on teams in the usual leagues. Seeing their enjoyment of exercise, being kids at play, was fulfilling as a tutor and coach. This brief introduction to playing catch, not only enjoying a few sports (many of their choosing), but also to gain confidence in playing them.

The most frequently played game was one I invented on a whim to make use of the painted lines in the parking lot, with a triangle at one end. Tri-Ball was born and this fast-paced game of catch and goal-scoring on teams (think ultimate frisbee with the disk traded for a small rubber ball) got them moving rain or shine. After a warmup, a hilly walk-then-run course, self-checking heart rates and a short lesson/lecture outlining the rules or effect of exercises, we played games, learned the day’s new skill — how to hold a basketball, aim, shoot, and follow-through; the “windows” for catching a soft football; ways to place that kickball were the defense cannot catch it; making contact with a level swing in wiffle ball — or added on to their expanding skill set (a bounce pass after dribbling a basketball, how to stand and move fluidly when throwing a ball). Rather quickly our hour was almost up.

The last request of every P.E. class? “Can we play tag?!” Ultimate tag is a favorite (everyone’s “it”), sometimes borg tag, until class was complete.

After a few months, I gave instruction in how to set a fitness goal and the related emphases of exertion, sustained effort, then rest, and recovery. We talked about “polarity,” such as a hard effort followed by an easy or restful day, rather than going all-out over-and-over. Teens need rest, plenty of it. Changing paces, or “shifting gears” is a rare ability for people of all ages, so we worked on that in the by and by. Their fitness goals ranged from a custom training plan for pushups for a few who chose that path, consistency on wake-up times to do chores, a short workout, and eating a healthy breakfast. Others focused on walking hills 3x/week for others, to keeping a log of sleep and nutrition. Each student set their sights on an end goal, a timeline, and how to go about keeping track of progress. Let the training begin.

Dutch’s first goal? “To tag four people in one game.”

What?! And then he seriously described the effort, coordination, strategy, and tactics that go into this feat. He’s an ultimate tagger, and I see him not only playing as a kid with joy, but also with a sincere competitive drive. Tag is not just a game, friends. It’s a sport. With friends. You compete with them during the game, then laugh and retell the previous game’s highlights and turning points.

Son, I’m sold. But I want you to set another goal after you reach that one. As Dutch kept a training log of all the cross-training that went into getting better at tag, his fitness formed. Strength through pushups and weights. Endurance through running uphill and a regular mile with his old man. Racing hard on his bike up and down hills, leading the way when sister and younger brother (towed in a Weehoo) ride a few miles together. Circling back to encourage and wait when he gets far ahead. Arm wrestling challenges with friends. Tactical training with sticks and swords. Did I mention games of tag? Logging hydration, eating greens and protein. All of it noted mentally and personally.

An aside: I know many men my age who have all the gear, who look athletic with their fresh running shoes or fancy new bike, but won’t wake up to put in the hidden work. Fitness eludes, not because it’s expensive but because it’s costly. It takes time, effort, intention, coaching. It takes turning off the screens late at night to get the needed rest for the coming day. It takes one more rep when you want to quit, or skipping the day’s workout when injured. It takes having a goal bigger than one’s apathy. These men have the time but not devotion, the tips and tricks but not the drive. Many get that expensive training watch yet use few of its many features. What if these men turned on that GPS and enjoyed an all-out game of tag?

In my thirties I tried to recapture the fitness of my former years. In some ways I did, being able to run faster and farther, endure more uphill suffering on the bike, lift more, and all the rest. After twenty-one years of chronic pain my lower spine healed (praise God), marked by a moment six years ago last week. Then a whole bunch of life-related injuries and stressful setbacks marched along to slowed this aging man down. Still training, yet more adaptive and functional. Seems like every week I’m notified that a Strava segment has been captured by a friend or stranger, all over the Original City. Doubt I’ll be atop any of those leaderboards again.

Now I am not chasing a younger self, but rather an older son. And I am humble enough to admit Dutch beat me arm wrestling for the first time a few weeks ago. He’s humble enough to admit his old man surely won the best-of-three challenge. He chuckled and said, “Dad, it will be another decade before another son beats you for the first time arm wrestling.” I quipped, “Justice will be only thirteen then.” Dutch didn’t miss a beat: “And you’ll be fifty-three.” Ha.

Dutch enjoys all of these modes of exercise, the sameness and the variety, which is the point of having a fitness goal to begin with. You gain confidence as you train for it. by direct effort you train today for what we could not do, even tomorrow. This steadfast patience and learning process is an analogy for all of life. Yes there is “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat,” yet more often it is overcoming the enemy of apathy and angst to trust the process and put in the work of happily suffering for good. You grasp humility as you see your own limitations and how your health makes it so you can effective serve others, and teach them as well.

“My brothers and sisters, I myself am convinced about you that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another.”

—Romans 15:14

To measure some of these efforts I strap a Garmin GPS watch on Dutch’s wrist. He reaches the distance or the prescribed time, then hits stop, and writes it down. All without a show or praise. External motivation is a vapor, internal motivation endures.

Then Dutch announced his new goal over dinner of been and cheese burritos. Kari heard it as “an expansive training watch.”

In reality our man-child had said, “an extensive training log.”

Yes, indeed, son. It is what we do in the hidden moments of our lives, the training behind-the-scenes, the efforts when no one else knows, or is awake, or would join us if they were. Priorities, and devotion. I love Dutch, and how he sees sport and fitness as fun, enjoyable, an expansive field for making progress. He makes learning a priority, he devotes himself to it. He’s also a great classmate and teammate to others, a consummate encourager, putting in his best effort even in new sports he doesn’t have lots of practice in. (This Dad laments not teaching him how to shoot a basketball earlier.) He’s growing in wisdom and stature, before God and man, in real-time.

One day he may have an expensive training watch. But that’s not necessary right now. He doesn’t try to look athletic. The young man is.

We often laugh in our home about this misunderstanding of the “expensive training watch” versus the extensive training log. One looks impressive, the other is impressive.

Tonight we will run a mile together before dinner. Tomorrow I’ll run 5K as fast as possible before sunrise. Dutch says he’s doing 100 pushups on Saturday. He’s been training regularly so he can enjoy it. We’ll put in the effort, together, with proper form. He’ll critique me and say I skimped on a few. We’ll do chores, haul firewood, fix a few things. We’ll get good and tired having fun as we age together.

Some people in our church and city ask me what I’m training for these days. Life. I’m training for life. As a father, husband, pastor, servant, neighbor, friend. Each of those roles deserves my best effort, and requires training. For a year and a half I’ve been patiently recovering from a set of neuromuscular and neuroskeleton injuries. The lack of running for a long time discouraged me deeply, but then I set new goals — and training regimens — to be able to lift our toddler without pain, handle the pressures and pains and joys of pastoring, and keep up with these four kids for years to come. No official races on the horizon or calendar; might have retired since turning forty, at least for a while.

Officially I’m just a Dad training to remain healthy in these kids’ lives. The other day I chased down Dutch on a mile run before dinner. It was so fun.

Tag, son, you’re it.

“Our lives amount to what we become within; and it is from within, from our heart-flow, that we live out our lives.”

—Dr. Adam Poole

 

This new book is Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson.

All through this new book we see reminders of the common grace of blogging, and especially when writing online is done with motives aligned with God’s. The authors aim to equip readers—bloggers and would-be bloggers—to “pursue excellence in the craft, including theological precision, beautiful prose, visual appeal, and the edification of readers,” which they do in a systematic way, “all drawing from the best industry practices.”

It is that industry they hope to shift from an almost-default self-congratulatory intent for bloggers to instead “serving your readers and glorifying God.” Along the process they model a helpful axiom, helping us all do the same: “Lift others up, and lift Christ up higher still.”

The table of contents highlights the flow of good words, and I found that chapters I didn’t initially think essential became my favorites, for the way Vrbicek and Beeson interact with the information and one another, trading chapters.

Facets of this good book: a great section on “aligning our motivations,” followed by chapters on purpose, disciples, commitment, obstacles, behind-the-scenes aspects (“widgets” and costs), networking (read and find other bloggers), success (monetizing & “winning”), and in conclusion: cultivating a cross-shaped blog.

It’s that goal that makes the book so helpful, ultimately.

Get your own copy of Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World

Appendices:

1. Is blogging dead? (26 bloggers weigh in: “NO” is the resounding response, though the craft has changed and grown more diverse.)
2. Glossary: 88 words and phrases bloggers should learn, as a quick reference.
3. Pull quotes, included in the e-book and scattered throughout the print version.

This book on blogging is engaging, story-formed, well-designed, organized, thoughtful, and inspirational, as *blogs* ought to be!

Here’s to a resurgence in thoughtful blogging! This book will help along the way in so many ways.

While you’re invited to subscribe to this blog below, I also encourage you to visit and follow the authors’ blogs:

• Benjamin Vrbicek’s blog is Fan and Flame, found at benjaminvrbicek.com. I have been reading his writings for years and met him about a year ago, and have staying in touch.
• John Beeson’s blog is the Bee Hive at thebeehive.live

 

Four things and some travelpixels for this week’s travelogue:

1) Are You Able to Help?

A college friend was in a horrific car wreck yesterday and remains in critical care and an induced coma. Jake and his twin brother Josh are truly two of the most able-bodied men I’ve ever met, seemingly as fit in their forties as they were as wrestlers at OSU. All that changed for Jake this week.

Update on Jake as of 7:51pm on Thursday 9/24:

Jake went into surgery at around 4:30pm and both of his legs had to be amputated above the knee… he is still in an induced coma and the swelling in his brain is still a major concern. Please keep praying.

2) Still Standing (& Kneeling) after Wildfires

Tuesday morning September 8th I went on an early ride, as I’m apt to do, yet this time the winds were so fierce, I returned home, wondering how bad this windstorm was and the havoc wreaked in the Cascade foothills. Checking the news for power outages I learned of nearby wildfires, more sparked that night. This set in motion a weeklong sprint, full of opportunities to care, communicate, and prepare to evacuate. Thankful to God, and for all those who served in official and unofficial ways. Some friends worked hard to keep fires from devouring and destroying my wife’s hometown, and the two closest to us have been contained (smaller fires, “incidents” as they’re known). We were drawn to our knees daily, praying for strength, hope, wisdom, and the safety of people we love and care for.

Reuters (see photos and video) on the wildfire headed toward Molalla:

The operation thrived on close and long-standing relationships, [Matt Meyers, a friend of ours] said.

“I’m up here fighting these fires with people I’ve known my whole life,” Matt Meyers said. “Communication was easy: We could just stand at the tailgate of a truck and say: ‘Steve, do you remember where Brian killed his first buck? You take your crew there.'”

The result was a victory – for now – over what had seemed like an overwhelming threat. The Beachie Creek and Riverside fires are not yet contained, leaving residents on edge. But many are optimistic that the miles of fire lines the brigade cut through the forest will provide a buffer if the winds blow the flames back their way.

“I think we saved the damn town, to put it bluntly,” Meyers said. “I’m a humble man, but I feel comfortable saying that.”

Asked what it meant to him to see his community come together to save itself, Meyers said: “If I had not sweated out all my water, I think I would cry just thinking about that.”

3) Patience is the word, and the way.

Today is the third day of forty praying a word and Scripture. PATIENCE:

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…” —Colossians 3:12

How shall we embrace and embody God’s patience?

In her book If, Amy Carmichael says, “If I do not look with eyes of hope on all in whom there is even a faint beginning, as our Lord did…then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Calvary demonstrates how Christ dealt with the incorrigible and how Christ followers likewise ought to deal with slow growers, late bloomers, and those yet unseeing.

—Alicia Akins, writing a new article for United? We Pray: Be Patient with Slow Growers, Late Bloomers, and Those Yet Unseeing

Akins describes three ways to pray patiently for others:

1. For humility to engage people at their various stages of the sanctification process.
2. For a deeper fuller awareness of our own ignorance.
3. For zeal and persistence to pray those faint beginnings into blossoming fruit.

4) How Our Emotions Help Us

Hear here episode eight of the Kari Patterson podcast:

On the one hand, letting our emotions enslave us or dictate our behavior leads to bondage, and keeps us from being useful to serve those around us. But on the other hand, emotions DO play an important role in our lives, if we wisely tune into what they’re telling us. They may not tell us the truth about reality, but they do tell us a lot about ourselves.

Episode seven was recorded in the smoke in the evacuation zone: Emotional health, so we can be useful. The first ninety seconds:

I’m here in Oregon in the midst of the wildfires. What a week. First chance I’ve had to steal away and share thoughts, both on events of this week, and my personal journey through learning about how we must learn to have victory over our emotions in order to be useful and serve others. Something tells me this is something we’re going to need ASAP.

Listen to the whole episode.

Kari and I are collaborating on a new podcast, and she’s the voice, I’m the tech help and will sometimes chime in. Eight episodes in (see clip above from #7, also #8 embedded), want to say this has been both a long time in the making, and a weekly date for us in the recording studio. For the next while episodes of the Kari Patterson Podcast focus on emotions. What’s the podcast about? …

Available most all the places you enjoy podcasts:

Travelpixels: clean air & blue skies return!

Bonus: a son’s ride in cleanish air

As the smoke began to clear, with the onset of heavy rains, we thanked God and celebrated lives and homes being saved. Then on Saturday 9/19, on the first morning when the air outside was clean enough to breathe, I set out on an early ride again. Ten days cooped up inside made for an eager cyclist. This day also marked three years since my father’s death, so I imagined Dad riding alongside, teaching me to ride all over again. Benjamin Daniel will be born in about six weeks. The elder Daniel (who had no middle name but gets this middle name!) will have to meet him in glory. #renewrecreate #wearetruesons

A travelogue is “a movie, book, or illustrated lecture about the places visited and experiences encountered by a traveler.” While traveling the Interwebs, here’s what I’ve encountered recently (or not-so-recently), and commend to you. Above are some essentials for the journey right now.

 

So Many Options!

Barry Cooper – Beware the god of Open Options:

“He kills our relationships, because he tells us it’s better not to become too involved. He kills our service to others because he tells us it might be better to keep our weekends to ourselves. He kills our giving because he tells us these are uncertain financial times and you never know when you might need that money. He kills our joy in Christ because he tells us it’s better not to be thought of as too spiritual.”

Call-down-fire Christianity

Kari and I are collaborating on a new podcast, and she’s the voice, I’m the tech help and will sometimes chime in. Two episodes in (see clip above from #2), want to say this has been a long time in the making. For the next while episodes of the Kari Patterson Podcast will feature themes from a book she’s been working on, The Second Mile. What’s the podcast about? …

Episode #4 released this week: Essential Chords. Listen:

Maybe a few had an inkling, but for the most part, no one knew 2020 would be like this. What a great reminder that only God knows the future, and therefore only God knows how to prepare you for the future. In this episode Kari shares a few experiences that gave her a heightened sense of urgency about The Second Mile, and why we need to be prepared.

Available most all the places you enjoy podcasts:

Flashback to 2020: A Year Without Hindrances

“We’ll have plenty of hindrances [in 2020], but none too great for God’s love and power to overcome.”

—BENJAMIN VRBICEK, “NEITHER SIN NOR DEATH NOR ELECTIONS CAN HINDER GOD’S WORK IN 2020“

Coming back to this late 2019 article by Benjamin Vrbicek, as we have all experienced plenty of hindrances in 2020 AND these words are still true!

What about the 2020 election?

The issues are more, and politics are multi-sided. Justin Gibney, co-founder of the AND Campaign was interviewed by Skye Jethani on the Holy Post podcast:

• Read the 2020 statement from the AND Campaign [PDF version]
• A good read for this election year (and referenced in the interview): Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement by Justin Giboney, Michael Wear, and Chris Butler

What is the role of Christians in civic discourse and elections? I don’t have many answers but want to share some from this journey. Identity politics is an idol my friends. Personally I’ve noticed the deep pain and anguish experienced by many, especially those in minority communities, which is being mainly exploited by one political party and mostly ignored by another. Followers of Jesus can do better, for our sisters and brothers have all been made in God’s image. It’s not us vs. them. And Jesus offered Himself to make for Himself a people from all people groups.

And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slaughtered,
and you purchased people
for God by your blood
from every tribe and language
and people and nation.
You made them a kingdom
and priests to our God,
and they will reign on the earth.

—Revelation 5:9-10

Baptizing Babies? (This one’s a hug, not a punch.)

This scholarly article by Gavin Ortlund (Themelios journal volume 45, issue 2 [pdf]) feeds my inner theology nerd, and so clicking makes me happy as do the forty-six footnotes. It’s not just that I agree with the author, but also how he deftly approaches the subject: “Why Not Grandchildren? An Argument Against Reformed Paedobaptism”

Ortlund, a baptist (credobaptist) pastor with a presbyterian (paedobaptist) pastor father adds to final footnote: “I have benefitted from countless conversations with paedobaptist friends over the last 12 years during which this argument has crystalized in my mind.” While I agree with Gavin’s conclusion it is especially the method of this study and the tone and rigor in which he engages theology here that I especially commend to you.

Travelpixels: riding light in the dark.

I like riding bikes. This Summer I’ve ridden more than ever, partly due to a back injury that keeps me from running. Truly the only time sitting isn’t uncomfortable is while on the saddle upon two wheels. #rideon

My Dad and brothers taught me to ride a bike. Today on our Dad’s 76th birthday I thought about him & wept happy-sad tears in missing him, and so when a rock in the road caused a flat tire (first in ~1K miles) it was memories with of life with my Dad — ever-fixing, teaching, patiently enduring, always encouraging — that urged me eagerly through that obstacle on home. Grateful for my Dad, and for being a Dad. #renewrecreate

 

Make Habits > Resolutions

“For me, establishing habits is far more effective than setting goals,” Kari wrote this week, highlighting five habits that have impacted her the most:

1. Four chapters a day.
2. Early bedtime.
3. Gobs of greens.
4. Walk and water.
5. Cut complaining completely.

» Read the whole article over at Sacred Mundane, with a new design too.

Speaking of resolutions, you may be familiar with Jonathan Edward’s seventy, written as a young man. Number 28 relates well to Kari’s first one above:

Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

—The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards via DesiringGod.org

While we may aspire to make big goals let us also make good, godly, and healthy habits. This is how we mature and come of age.

How to Master the Bible

Fred Sanders quotes James Gray on the process on studying the Bible after mastering it. Intriguing concept which at first seems backwards, but I can attest this is true in personal experience:

“How to master the English Bible! High-sounding title that, but does it mean what it says? It is not how to study, but how to master it; for there is a sense in which the Bible must be mastered before it can be studied, and it is the failure to see this which accounts for other failures on the part of many earnest would-be Bible students. I suppose it is something like a farm; for although never a farmer myself, I have always imagined a farmer should know his farm before he attempted to work it. How much upland and how much lowland? How much wood and how much pasture? Where should the orchard be laid out? Where plant my corn, oats, and potatoes? What plot is to be seeded down to grass? When he has mastered his farm he begins to get ready for results from it.”

—James Gray, How to Master the English Bible (1904)

Gray’s method is mostly reading and re-reading, with intentional and focus. I’ll be doing that mainly in Genesis to begin 2020, reading the rest of Scripture once through the year as well.

-isms are apt to ruin us. Try Materialism for example…

Randy Alcorn begins, “God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people.” Thus is the premise of ten observations he makes on how materialism as a way of life ruins one’s faith during this life and distracts from preparing for the life to come. Note how the main warning isn’t so much that “stuff is bad,” nor to promote a sacred v. secular duality; rather, let’s make space for nuance and discover the pitfalls ahead, especially for us who are (relatively) rich: “Of course, the wealthy man is no more inherently sinful than the poor—he simply has more means and opportunity to subsidize and impose his sins upon others.”

—read the rest » “Ten Ways Materialism Brings Us to Ruin,” by Randy Alcorn

Next up, Benjamin Vrbicek has two posts on here, as he’s so prolific.

A Year Without Hindrances

“We’ll have plenty of hindrances next year, but none too great for God’s love and power to overcome.”

—Benjamin Vrbicek, “Neither Sin nor Death nor Elections Can Hinder God’s Work in 2020“

Concerning Christmas

Since it’s still Christmas (twelve days spanning December 25 to Epiphany), here’s more with a timely message on Romans 8 mixed with the birth of God’s Son —”What if Christmas Doesn’t Come From A Store?” — with a holy opportunity set before us:

Notice that the point of Jesus’s words in Matthew 5 and the words of Paul in Romans 8, do not command us to go on a “sin diet,” like we just sin less and then have some “cheat meals” here and there. God commands us to starve sin, not diet from sin. Christians don’t seek to limit our sin; we do whatever we have to do to eliminate our sin.

And the word “our” in “our sin” is key. Christian, be far more concerned about your greed than the greed of corporate America. Be far more concerned about the sex viewed on your smartphone than the sex filmed in Hollywood. Be far more concerned about the health of your marriage than the cheapening of marriage by our government. God’s view of sin is that of something dangerous, something that robs us of joy and God of his glory. We don’t have this view; sin is something we laugh at and coddle.

—Benjamin Vrbicek, “What if Christmas Doesn’t Come From A Store?”

Travelpixels: a bonus GoPro photo

 

(Why four and not five? Because four is a superior number.)

Apatheism* > Atheism

We live in a culture of and ME and “meh,” not so much ardent anti-God hostility. In a stellar essay, Kyle Beshears explores the latent apatheism* underpinning a lot of people’s lives:

Sometimes, the disinterest comes from the kind of person you would expect—an agnostic who, after years of oscillating between religious and areligious beliefs, has finally thrown their hands in the air and given up. Other times, the disinterest comes from the kind of person you would least expect—a self-described religious person who, for one reason or another, is utterly indifferent to the very foundations upon which their worldview was constructed. Either way, the result is the same.

…
But dismissing God does not terminate our quest for meaning. The very moment an apatheist sets down GQs is the same moment they pick up a feeling that there must be something more that is missing. [Charles] Taylor argued that our age “suffers from a threatened loss of meaning.”

—Kyle Beshears, “Athens without a Statue to the Unknown God,” Themelios, Volume 44, Issue 3.
*Apatheism is indifference and apathy toward the existence of God. More specifically, it’s “a general attitude of apathy or indifference regarding how we answer [existence questions relating to God].”

The case against God is a case for God

Speaking of Atheism, noted adherent Richard Dawkins, PhD, published a new book, Outgrowing God, in which he attempts to give a fresh vision for, well, outgrowing god(s), as a believer in science as opposed to religion. Rebecca McLoughlin (author of Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion) reviews Dawkins’ book and surmises:

Rather than offering the best case for atheism in an accessible form, Dawkins’s book consistently fails to engage opposing arguments and frequently falls short of the research standards we should expect of an academic author—whatever his beliefs.

I read it eagerly, hoping it would offer fresh insights into the latest atheist arguments. I like to keep my finger on that pulse. But I was disappointed.

—Rebecca McLoughlin. » Read the whole article: “Richard Dawkins’s Latest Case for Outgrowing God”

Don’t Worry About Anything

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” —Philippians 4:6 was the most-read Bible verse of the year on YouVersion.

Renew Church just finished a journey through Paul’s letter to the Philippians: The Path to Joy. Dawson Hunter recently preached on 4:1-9, including that anxiety-ridding verse.

Not a “Networking” Pastor

I enjoy relationships with other pastors, especially in our city. We’re all different, and multifaceted. Yet I find a lot of pastors either are hyper-networkers (sometimes) or more introverted and averse to this type of collegial investment in knowing others and being known. This is ministry as a human being. To that end, Benjamin Vrbicek (a pastor in PA I met in person this year!) muses on some common themes for the year:

” … for whatever reason, I hate the word networking. It feels greasy. When I hear it, I think cheap suits, slick hair, gaudy gold chains, and a guy who points with his index finger as he talks (cf., Prov. 6:12–13). Even if this is a cliché, at one point or another, we’ve all had the miserable experience of being used. I call it networking after Genesis 3, east of Eden.”

—Benjamin Vrbicek, “Networking for Pastors who Hate Networking,” an article for Gospel-Centered Discipleship.

Travelpixels: a bonus GoPro photo

 

“Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord.’ It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.”
—C.S. Lewis, “Learning in Wartime” (1939)

 

To celebrate my 40th birthday I’ll be doing a triathlon as a fundraiser for Next Generation Ministries (NGM), aka the FortyMan 40.3. (Due to recent bike crash, I hope to race later this Summer; birthday is June 17th, also Father’s Day this year.)

In forty words, here’s my WHY:

Which one hugs today: Apathy or Angst?
What if both try their worst?
Duty and pleasure are friends not foes,
Honor and risk-taking as well.
Find the best motivation: Love produces Hope.
How about you? Let’s make Forty unlonely, man.

How you can join in » see FortyMan fundraiser.

Today on Father’s Day I remember my earthly father, Daniel Patterson, who gave his all as an encourager, adventurer, friend, husband, and good Dad.