“Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as… as… as a fiddler on the roof!” Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof.

I was sitting with my kids the other day when they asked me, “What are we having for dinner?” Someone said, “Pizza,” so we headed out to the local pizza joint to enjoy a little combo and pepperoni.  It was fun.  And as I sat there I recognized the desire to build traditions within my own family, things that my kids will remember 20 years from now and say, “Remember when we used to do that.  Yeah that was fun.” So I’m thinking of started a tradition of Monday night pizza excursions. It’s just an idea.

I grew up with a deep family tradition.  My mom was the matriarch of the family and at least once a month we had a big family dinner around the table.  I remember some of the best moments of my life were at that table.  I was one of the youngest so I listened more than I talked, but seeing my family interact was a tradition that I will hold forever.

What is the one tradition you remember in your family?

“I am a university student who follows Jesus.”

The above video is an interesting take on what it’s like as a university student in today’s generation, and wrestling with all this it is to be human.

Thoughts?

PS: Sorry for any confusion.  The voice in the video is not mine.  A friend sent me the video link.

It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. I’ll be honest.  2010 was a very hard year for me.  There were so many highs and lows that I often felt like I was riding a roller coaster and couldn’t get off.  But one thing that has remains a consistent source of joy for me is this blog.  Thank you for participating, engaging with me, and making it what it is.  It would not be that without you the reader.

These are the top 10 posts for traffic in 2010.

Growtivation – How Megachurches Roll – It’s funny to me that we are drawn to humor about how we operate as the body of Christ.  I actually know the guy who produced this video.  We grew up together in one of the first megachurches in California. It’s still funny if you grew up in an evangelical church.

A New Kind Of Christianity – Book Review Question 1 – Brian’s book was an important part of the dialog this year.  He wrestled with our historical understanding of Christianity in an interesting way.  I love Brian and he is one of the more influential men in my life, but unfortunately I didn’t like the way he set up his argument.

Hard Wired For Connection – It’s hilarious to me that one of my more geeky posts this year is in the top three.  But I think as we begin to understand how we are wired, we begin to see the value of exploring it.  In learning about it we get past our fear of it.

If You Really Knew Me – This video of a hid doing a rap about standing up for his virginity was epic to me.  The point was that he took the risk.  He stood up for himself and saw something important to fight for.

We Love You Ken Silva – This was my response to a man who likes to find fault in those who don’t believe exactly like he does.  I almost didn’t publish this one but it just kept hitting me over the head.

Punitive Justice – In our attempt to understand God, we have to look at the concept of justice.  And that means wrestling with really horrific stuff.

8th Letter – Return To Love – This was probably one of my most personal posts for the year in regards to my work in missional church engagement.  What would it look like to return to love as the central element of the church.  This post arguably led to this project.

Is Denying God Wrestling With God – This was an interesting post about a friend wrestling with what it meant to walk away from faith.  I suggested that denying God is still wrestling with God, but not everyone took that same stance.

Confession Is Good For The Soul – It seems like videos make posts popular.  This is a video confession of a kid wrestling with what it means to be a Christian.

A Certainty That Leads To Love – If I had to pick a favorite post out of this list, this is the one.  In all of our desire to “know” it must still lead to love.

A good friend of mine Neil Christopher is planning an upcoming youth network and conference called Evo.

Dates: Feb 24th-25th, 2011 | Price: $20.00 | Location: Northway Christian Church
7202 W. Northwest Hwy, Dallas TX 75225

Evo is a gathering FOR youth workers, BY youth workers. If you want to come and dialog with other leaders who are passionate about youth… this is the event for you.

We are denominational and we are non-denominational. We are Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, DOC, C&MA, Catholic, Presbyterian, and none of the above. We are missional, emergent, progressive, orthodox, mainstream and everything in-between. We are those who simply care about youth more than we care about labels.

This is one of my favorite songs for meditation and prayer. Peace to you.

Broken conversations, broken people, we’re broken Lord.
Terrified illusions, seeking comfort, we’re seeking more.
We need each other more than we need to agree.
Father, Son, Spirit bless us with your love,
with your grace and peace.

Peace.
Let there be peace.
Let there be peace.
Let there be peace.

Let us see and not destroy. Let us listen. Let us listen.
Let us suspend judgement for the sake of love, for the sake of love.
We need each other more than we need to agree.
Father, Son, Spirit bless us with your love,
with your grace and peace.

Love.
Let there be love. (among us)
Let there be love. (among us)
Let there be love.

You can download the song for free here.

I’m reading Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience, and I’m diggin’ it. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (don’t even try to pronounce that) explores the state when our bodies are generating what he calls optimal psychic energy to achieve our goals.  To explain the idea he breaks down the beauty of complexity by stating flow requires complexity, not simplicity.

“Complexity is the result of two broad psychological processes: differentiation and integration.  Differentiation implies a movement toward uniqueness, towards separating oneself from others.  Integration refers to its opposite: a union with other people, with ideas and entities beyond the self.  A complex self is one that succeeds in combining these opposite tendencies.”

Mihaly uses the idea of a engine.  In order to work, each part is highly differentiated but only works effectively in union with the other parts.  Alone each part is useless to a large extent.  It’s limited if it operates exclusively in differentiation.  But if its differentiation is appreciated in union with the other parts, it shines.

“A self that is only differentiated-not integrated-may attain great individual accomplishments, but risks being mired in self-centered egotism.  By the same token, a person whose self is based exclusively on integration will be connected and secure, but lack autonomous individuality.  Only when a person invests equal amounts of psychic energy in these TWO processes and avoids both selfishness and conformity is the self likely to reflect complexity.”

What I think he’s suggesting is that complexity is the highest form of community because it is only possible when autonomous individual parts feel comfortable enough to just be who they are in a gathering of people.  I started thinking about what that would look for things like marriage, business partnerships and church.  In many ways this is only possible in the space of intentional grace, where people are comfortable in their own skin but are comfortable with other people’s skin too.

Blows my mind.

(Hat tip: Chartophilia) (Click here for larger version)

If you could make one constructive change in your the way your church or spiritual community operates, gathers, questions, or communicates, what would it be? No ranting.

Humanity looks beautiful from God’s perspective.

This video caught my attention.  It’s life in New York City from up high.  The photography is so unique that it almost looks like it’s surreal claymation.   It looks like stop motion.  But as I watched it it reminded me of the unique facet of life when we just observe.  It made me realize that from God’s perspective, life is this unique story of motion and movement, coordination and conflict.  And its all good.