Posts Tagged ‘relationships’

Some (further) thoughts on change

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

If you follow me on twitter or are my friend on FaceBook, you have probably already seen a thought I tweeted earlier this afternoon.

I wrote: One of few constants in the world is change. I’m beginning to see this as a *great* thing!

I wanted to expound on this ~140 character tweet and give some nuggets of thought behind it, if merely for the fact that I think this is some good stuff that’s taken me some time to figure out, am still figuring out, and is definitely worth sharing!

I really do think change is a great thing.  However, for me, change is not easy.  I feel, sometimes, it is painfully hard and I don’t like it.  A lot.

The change I’m referring to is not the ‘small stuff’ but the big life changes we all experience and grow from as a result.  The type of change that God instills in our lives and pushes us to figure out who He wants us to be.  This type of change is hard, difficult, and is easily pushed aside for the status quo.

Through a lot of prayer, meditation, and counsel I am beginning to see benefits, at least in my own life, that change has brought, is bringing, and can bring if I embrace it:

  • I do not like the status quo.  Not just in my personal life but all around me, within certain thresholds.  Even if I don’t show it all of the time.  Even though there are constants in life and in the world, I treat too many other things as the status quo when they shouldn’t be.  Change or a more ‘evolving’ way of living is the only way to break the status quo.  However, lets not get too much of a post-modern thought process underway…
  • I’m at my best when I’m being stretched.  Change is bringing new variables into my life that is forcing me to stretch my knowledge and understanding of what I know and how I react.  I’m learning new things about myself, life, and the world I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.
  • Living a constant life takes what fun we have on Earth and turns it into a more mundane way of living.  If you’ve seen Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell you know where I’m coming from with this.

I hope you guys enjoyed these thoughts; at the very least, though, this is a plug to get you to follow me on twitter or to friend me Facebook if you haven’t already!

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Relationships. Rinse and Repeat.

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Relationships have been on my mind lately — partly due to my experiences over the past few months – trying to adapt to my new environment as part student/part adult professional/part New York City dweller (more on that later) – and also partly due to a very deep and ongoing Summer sermon series at Forefront called Ancestry, ‘exploring our past and shaping our future’.

Over the past couple of weeks my friend, Brian Moll, who’s the lead pastor at FF, has started this series by delving into intimacy and relationships (among other topics) pulling context from the Old Testament and relating to and incorporating teachings from the New Testament.

While a lot of profound of thoughts have been presented and I’d encourage you to head over to the church’s website and checkout the vod/podcasts, I’ve had a lot of thoughts swirly around my head in regards to my own relational condition.

The one thought that keeps coming up but that I keep fighting is that I don’t have this thing (meaning relationships) figured out and never will.  Deep down, there is a part of me that wants to master friendship and perfect the art form of relationships and I see this as a black and white situation rather than in shades of gray that it really is.  At the end of the day I’m yet a novice in the world of friendships and relationships, continually learning and honing.

I’m at a place where I’m having to (painfully) admit this to myself.

You may wonder why I’m sharing this with you.  Often times, I think all of us, either in practicality or in our spirituality, at one time or another think we’ve mastered a skill or honed an ability to the point and we forget to take care of it and keep it tuned.

I’ve come a long way from my early college days – six years ago – of being jokingly called an ‘anti-social butterfly’ but just because I’ve made great leaps and bounds (in my opinion) shouldn’t mean that I should want to accept the status quo and say that there aren’t areas of my social fiber I wouldn’t like to change.

I believe that while we can never master the friendships or relationships in our life it doesn’t mean we should stop trying.  Not everything will work to your or my advantage but the human condition provide an infinite opportunity for improving one’s personal and relational life.  This is something I’ve realized I need to take advantage more of in my own life.

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A non-tech girlfriend for a tech-savvy guy…

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

For the record – I’m talking about me as the tech-savvy guy…

Spoke with my bio-mom today on the phone… She was visiting my brother in Kansas City – he’s stationed near there for the short term. They were both trying to find pictures of my girlfriend, presumably from her ‘friend account’ on either FaceBook or MySpace – linked to mine.

Well, what they didn’t know is that my girlfriend belongs to neither of those services. In fact, my girlfriend found it quite humorous that my family – or anybody for that matter would expect a significant other to automatically be on the other’s social network page.

After telling everybody that my girlfriend was intentionally not my friend because she chooses to not be a ‘virtual friend’ – my mother goes on to seek reassurance that we’re still dating…

Now, I ask you this: Why is it so hard to imagine a tech-savvy individual, like myself, dating a self-admitted ‘techno-phobe’ (or something like that)? Why does society expect similar people to be paired together in relationships? Haven’t ‘we’ gotten past that yet?

Rating 3.00 out of 5

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