Insta-tastic-gram

It’s been loving playing with Instagram lately.  A very satisfying mobile, social, creative and webgeekery experience.  It’s a real example of something that’s beautifully executed both in and of itself but as a platform for other apps - I’m loving all the spin-off sites like Statigram.  Check these stats that came through on email when I signed up – again, just a lovely engaging experience:

‘Teacher’ – my tribute to my dad

shot of dad taken for a local paper on his 25th Anniversary as a minister

My dad died a couple of weeks back. The funeral was last Friday. It was a true celebration of his life. A few people have asked to have a copy of my speech so I thought I’d put it up here on my blog>>>>

Mountains and Valleys

Does this resonate with any one?

When you start your walk in life you seem to quickly develop a concept of mountain top and valley experiences. With it comes an expectation that to make a success of being human it’s about getting to the mountain top and then staying there. Whatever it takes…

You soon realise that it’s actually impossible; but you fall into a mindset that the answer to this ‘lesser’ existence is that life is therefore about accepting there are valleys but striving to get up the mountain again as quick as possible and trying as hard as you can to stay there…

exhausting eh?

Then as time progresses you realise the valleys help you appreciate the mountains more and you don’t get so bent out of shape about it when you stay for a while…but you’re still thinking about the mountain…

However, sometimes you do stay on the mountain top for a little longer… and then it happens – it becomes a plateau – you’re just there with nowhere to go and it’s well, normal…

So, after further time you realise that most of your learning in life takes place in the valley and you start to realise that there’s value and life there too…

so you find yourself making your way back down again…

…and then it dawns on you that the journey up and down the hills from valleys to mountains and mountains to valleys actually introduces you to new people, new (& often shared) experiences, challenges, joys, trials and everything else… and you realise there are numerous routes up and down this thing and even higher peaks and lower depths than you’d realised before…

…and that actually life is all about ups and downs, rises and falls, successes and failures, bursts of energy and times of rest and in all of it you just need to savour the moment…

and be…

today

pretty good advice…

At the start of the new millennium the Dalai Lama apparently issued eighteen rules for living. Here they are – I’m loving 5! >>>>>>>

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
   1. Respect for self
   2. Respect for others
   3. Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

12

Do less,

tell stories.

And all in good time

embrace creativity,

have faith,

head the house,

change perspective,

be dad,

lose plan b,

ask for help.

Delight.

And wait…

Letting go and letting God

Had an interesting experience last night.

Asher, our 15 month-old boy, started having croup at about 9.30pm. We rung the doctor but in parallel I just felt really strongly that I needed to pray and not just rely on medicine. I picked him and started praying but really had nothing to say in English so I started praying in tongues.

I just paced up and down the hall and landing in prayer.

While doing so I felt really strongly that I should keep going till the cough went. Slowly his breathing became easier and the cough more intermittent until he was quite peaceful. I then put him down without a complaint and he slept through.

It was a pretty powerful and profound event actually and, I feel something more significant than just God answering a simple prayer for Asher.  I think there was something applicable to the rest of my life.  Given:

• in Asher’s case there was no way he could intelectualise or theologise faith – he was dependant on me to pray for him.
• I haven’t got a clue what I actually prayed because it was in tongues so there was nothing in me that was getting in the way or praying the wrong thing
• The whole experience was just a God thing – based on a non-thought-through instinctual response.

…I think God was saying: “ok son, give up, chill, let me even do the praying for you for a time. All I want you to do is stay obedient and faithful”

…and so that’s what I’m going to do.

Immersion

Another thing that really struck me about last month’s Recreate Conference was the collaboration between the musicians, speakers, artists, conference leaders but also, and particularly, the PA guys and tech crew.

Everything and everyone worked in harmony to create a truly immersive experience.

A few highlights were:

• the 1211 band leading worship straight after Communion.  They came in as the communion was finishing, all sat in a circle all facing inward and the rest of us (about 150) sat around them.  There was no sense of performers/audience – we were all in it together, looking at each other, singing along; interacting.  Plus it was SO VERY COOL seeing it all be led from the drums!
  
• During the worship time one morning Brock Gill joined in and made a point about being filled with the spirit.  Being an illusionist he did this by arranging three bowls and filling them with water – nothing unusual in that but the bowls never got full and the jug he was using never emptied!  In context it was a very powerful way of describing the infinite, untapped blessings God has for us and we just need to be in a permanent state of being filled
• The Andrew Peterson show where his various band members did mini gigs acoustically or stripped down and then the main event was a full-on multi-musician extravaganza.  Through each ‘movement’ the lights changed, the sound swelled and changed - the whole experience was multi-sensory.

In the latter days of the conference the CEO of Audio ethics, the tech crew spoke on his approach to his ministry/job.  He was properly into the science of light and sound and how it affects human emotions. He knows what level of light causes reverence, what causes chatter, how different hues and intensity effect mood and so on.  He works in sync with speakers, artists, musicians to make everything seamless.  His heart is to effectively communicate the word of God and he’s a master of craft fully understanding how best to facilitate communication – even as far as how different nationalities / cultures respond to different freq’s of sound and light.

I’m really inspired by this and want to work hard to support the cohesion of teams at church and make sure there’s never any sense of ‘them and us’ with regards the tech crew and musicians.  I want to get to a place where we’re really pushing things hard in video, light, sound as different specialist disciplines all working in unison.

I want to create an immersive experience every time we meet as a church…or for that matter every time I’m involved in anything – it’s so much more powerful.