6 weeks of training

5K in 36:04 minutes. I’m pretty stinking proud of my athlete wife!

Things I’m learning from Disney

And it’s 106 days until we go! The back story: Jennie’s been planning a trip to Disney (land, now world) for the past two years and so a week or so ago we booked and now we’re on our way.  The next step was to tell the kids – since then Mads has spent about 6 hours packing. Of course being married to the consummate organizer we immediately let Disney know we’re coming. What happened next is why Disney is the leader in creating incredible experiences for their guests.

A beautiful envelope arrives in the mail… clearly Disney. We open it to find an elegant personalized note “especially for the Gilpin family.” A book and DVD that would speak directly to my inner child…. actually more importantly to my kids. The theme of the DVD is “where dreams come true.” The entire thing focuses you on dreaming. My kids are dreaming, I’m dreaming and Jennie’s drolling (she’s been dreaming for about two years so now it’s turned to droll at this point). Anyhow the most amazing thing happens as you watch the DVD – your imagination comes alive. Your kids imagination comes alive. You focus on the future and what might be. You start talking and planning together for what’s coming up in a couple of months. There’s no doubt that Disney gets it – not just that they have a great marketing angle, but that they are setting expectation way before you ever leave your home and then the clincher – they actually deliver on what they promised!

I wonder what might happen if the church started applying some of the things we could learn from Disney?

• Personalize it.
• Help people dream.
• Begin to set expectation before people even leave their homes.
• Deliver an experience that surpasses expectations.
• Deliver what promised.

I think there’s something in there for us.

Sometimes I wish I was nine again…

Okay, so have you ever wished that you were nine years old again… life was so much less complicated then. Anyhow thanks to a link from Kem Meyer yesterday I was able to laugh ’til tears streamed down my face and remember what it was like to be nine years old again (kinda). check out more stuff here. This one’s pretty funny… take an hour and watch some more on you tube. Laughter’s good for the soul.

Life lessons no one ever tells you about

Okay, so maybe I’m being a little soulful today but I’ve been thinking about the things that no one ever tells you as you journey through life… life lessons that experience teaches us. I remember when we had our first born, suddenly a little bundle of joy lands in our lives and we realize there’s no instruction book on how we’re supposed to handle things. The same is true of life, there are just some things that life teaches us via experience:

1. Sometimes God doesn’t make sense (I guess that’s why His ways are higher than ours – but if we’ll trust Him things will work out for our development).

2. People will most always question your motives without ever understanding your heart. Exercise patience.

3. God will always ask more of you than you have to give. Learn to lean into Him for the courage and strength to do it… That’s how He wants it to play out. Life would be a whole lot more boring if we were just to do what we could do in and of ourselves.

4. Life is 100% spiritual. We have to choose to live life being spiritually minded, as opposed to carnally minded. See point 1 and 3.

5. Make sure to surround yourself with the right people – people who believe wholeheartedly in you and your dreams, but love you enough to tell you the truth.

6. Don’t under-estimate nor under-value the power of friendship.

7. Life (and momentum) is fragile.

8. Leadership hurts (if you’re a leader you know exactly what I’m talking about). God doesn’t even tell us that it’s going to hurt before He asks us to step into what He’s called us to – definitely a whole lot of wisdom on God’s part, not to mention millenniums of working with people.

9. Live above the fray. Play for an audience of one. It’s a challenge to care only what one person in the arena of life thinks and ignore the voices of the other 20,000. But it’s absolutely necessary. There can only be one coach and He’s the One that our ear needs to be tuned to.

10. I’m not smart enough, wise enough, strong enough nor rich enough to make things happen (by the way neither are you). And only by praying and doing what God tells us to do (see point 1 and 3) can we accomplish what we’re supposed to accomplish.

So what life lessons have you learned solely through experience?

Evolution

So I’m sure you’ve seen the Dove Evolution video on You Tube… if not click here first. Sometimes in life things just seem to work out this way…

I have one word to describe it…

It’s very rare, if at all, I’ll go to a movie on opening night. Last night was one of those times. I have one word to describe the latest Indiana Jones movie…. ridiculous. That’s right, ridiculous. Sure there were some comedic moments of relief but we’ve moved from the pursuit of some genuine archaeological artifacts and big rolling boulders to nuclear explosions, refrigerators, aliens and UFO’s. come on! I expected more from George Lucas and Steve Spielberg. It probably didn’t help that I spent 30 minutes looking for a parking space in the Colonie Mall Parking Lot. The saving grace was quality time with my wife and some friends. Always a good thing.

Music Review… just go download it.

So I just downloaded Delirious’ new offering, “Kingdom of Comfort” two days ago. Haven’t listened to anything else in two days (except for my wife and kids, and a little Ed Young). I think this one is the best Delirious has ever produced. Passionate and ethereal. Thought provoking and convicting. It won’t just have you playing air guitar (or drums) in your car on the way home (not that I have, or at least will publicly admit to), it will challenge you to perhaps change your world view and get involved in making a difference in the world we’re apart of. You cannot help but self-reflect on your priorities after hearing this album. We’ll worth the download (or CD purchase if you’re still doing that). So what are you waiting for?