January’s Synchroblog is about hope. Below is a list of writer’s who are thinking and dreaming about it.  We believe the power of voice has tremendous capacity to inspire and give hope to people.

The list of participant’s and their posts:

The Trouble With Hope: John Ptacek

Hope = Possibility x Imagination: Wayne Rumsby

Little Reminders: Mike Victorino

Hope for Hypocrites: Jeremy Myers

Now These Three Remain: Sonny Lemmons

Perplexed, But Still Hopeful: Carol Kuniholm

A Hope that Lives: Amy Mitchell

Generations Come and Generations Go: Adam Gonnerman

Demystifying Hope: Glenn Hager

God in the Dark: On Hope: Renee Ronika Klug

Keeping Hope Alive: Maurice Broaddus

Are We Afraid to Hope?: Christine Sine

On Wobbly Wheels, Split Churches and Fear: Laura Droege

Adopting Hope: Travis Klassen

Hope is Held Between Us: Ellen Haroutunian

Hope: In the Hands of the Creatively Maladjusted: Mihee Kim-Kort

Paradox, Hope and Revival: City Safari

Good Theology Saves: Reverend Robyn

Linear: Never Was, Never Will Be: Kathy Escobar

Better Than Hope: Liz Dyer

Caroline for Congress: Hope for the Future: Wendy McCaig

Fumbling the Ball on Hope: KW Leslie

Content to Hope: Alise Wright

Hope: Oh, the Humanity!: Deanna Ogle

I’ve been quiet here for a while for very good reason.  I’ve been in the process of starting an online magazine called Provoketive. It’s an idea I’ve been developing for over a year.  Most of my writing on issues like life, faith, justice and culture will happen over there, so if you are interested in following me, jump on over and grab the RSS feed for Provoketive.  We’re creating a space that will be very similar to this one but on a larger scale.  We’re also looking for writer’s.  We’ve been live now for 4 days and we’re already seeing over a thousand page views a day.

Come join us.

This was my talk I gave at the Outlaw Preachers ReUnion 11.  It’s called The Circle of Good: Living a Life of Inclusion.  It asks, “Is there something you can do to lose the love of God?”  I break down the Genesis story to show that there is no second category. Let me know your thoughts.

Recently, a prospective client called me looking for help with a website.  It was a great call, but it was also a really great reminder of what it means to move from technology to message. The client wanted help updated to a new look.  It’s very easy to think about the technology, to jump into the idea that we need a new look that comes from great graphic design.  It’s a very typical conversation I have with my clients.  But as we began to talk, we were able to move to a deeper conversation in marketing: the message.

Technology is a means for communicating.  The message is what we’re communicating.  In most cases, upgrading a website will provide a short term fix that gives people a feeling that you’re doing something, perhaps upgrading the look and feel.  But the more valuable investment is to listen deeply to how you are communicating with and to your client.

As we talked I was able to help the client think really think about ways to communicate as opposed to just presenting information.  It’s easy to give a website an update and miss that the technology is a means for communicating something.  The message is the really important component to think about.

Are you thinking about the message you are communicating?  Or are you settling for a cheap fix with technology?

Walt Whitman’s O Captain, My Captain! is so rich with meaning. The ship has reached it’s course and the trip is done. But the captain has given his life for his endeavor.

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up–for you the flag is flung–for you the bugle trills; 10
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths–for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

I’ve often asked myself, “What am I living for”, but I find myself asking myself, “what am I dying for?”  What am I giving myself up for, so that others may live.  In my work with people, we often resorts to the comfort zone that allows us to do easy things.  But the cross provides us with a terrifying vision of life in its fullest. To give our life is the greatest of love.

How would you answer that question?

As you might have noticed I’ve made changes to the site.  I’ve updated the look a little and have begun incorporating my business development and communications work into this site.  Over time it will likely  become the primary means of communications for my work with prospective clients.  I encourage you to check out my work.  I have extensive background in business development and communications for some of the world’s most respected companies.  You can see a list of my clients, my branding work, my communications work and eventually my publishing work.

My primary focus now is on developing my business in business development, communications and coaching.  I will still have the occasional post on theology because I believe we are all theologians, but that will no longer be my primary focus.  I’ve loved these last five years, and cherish the conversations I’ve had with all my readers.  It has been a pleasure.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in my services, please feel free to send them my portfolio.  You can download it here.  I greatly appreciate any work that comes my way and do everything I can to satisfy my clients.

In my work with coaching people, I often find that people are afraid to feel. In learning to avoid the negative emotions that produce pain, we inadvertently learn to turn off our emotions entirely. Much of the journey as a human being is often relearning how to feel.

Each week, I will post a photo and ask two questions. What is the emotion you see in the photo? What do you think is the story behind the emotion?

Engage with me.

———————————————————————

Coaching Offer: Are you living to your fullest potential? Are you stuck behind an obstacle you just can’t seem to overcome? Are you wrestling with anger, frustration with work, or family and long for a deeper, more meaningful experience with life. Consider Leadership In Life, a life coaching program for those who want more out of daily living. Call me today at 916.952.0934 or email me and receive a free half hour introductory session to explore your story, desires, hopes and dreams.

In my work with coaching people, I often find that people are afraid to feel.  In learning to avoid the negative emotions that produce pain, we inadvertently learn to turn off our emotions entirely.  Much of the journey as a human being is often relearning how to feel.

Each week, I will post a photo and ask two questions.  What is the emotion you see in the photo?  What do you think is the story behind the emotion?

Engage with me.

———————————————————————

Coaching Offer: Are you living to your fullest potential? Are you stuck behind an obstacle you just can’t seem to overcome? Are you wrestling with anger, frustration with work, or family and long for a deeper, more meaningful experience with life. Consider Leadership In Life, a life coaching program for those who want more out of daily living. Call me today at 916.952.0934 or email me and receive a free half hour introductory session to explore your story, desires, hopes and dreams.

What is the most courageous thing you think you can do?

This past week I’ve had several conversations and a coaching session around courage. And one person shared that he needed to do something really crazy courageous.  As I asked him why, he thought that he needed to challenge himself in a way that would get him out of his comfort zone.  While I agreed that getting out of his comfort zone was a good thing, I also challenged him to consider something deeply courageous that was practical: to love the unlovable.

He didn’t bite. He wanted outrageous, and sexy.  He wanted something that would get noticed.

In today’s world, it’s easy to assume that courage is about doing things that are off the charts.  Courage is taking on bank robbers, entering a burning building, or visiting the moon.  And while each of these things does require courage, for the most part, they are out of the realm of every day life.  Even the firefighter only visits a fire 1-2 times a month.  So how do we display courage in an every day world?

What if courage is found in the act of love?

We all have our comfort zones, those little spaces of relationship that only a few people can get inside.  We think anyone can get it.  But the moment someone enters, we’re likely to usher him or her out, into the safe confines of an arms distance.  Love requires the courage to see a larger kingdom, one that is inclusive, inviting, and might even produce some irritation.  It requires seeing that there are no boundaries.

We like our boundaries because they provide the false comfort that they will protect us.  But once we build a wall to protect us, we build a wall that imprisons us.  And sometimes we even find ourselves outside of our own circle.  When Jesus called us to love, it was for our own sake.  It was for the sake of our own restoration.  To love, to tear down the walls that keep us from engaging relationship, meant tearing down our own obstacles to healing and life.

Love is courageous because people can hurt us.  When we leave our protective barriers down, we run the risk of people stepping into our comfort zones, or worse, inflicting damage.  But what if the intrusions aren’t really about the irritation, but instead our inability to love when it really matters. Every relationship provides an opportunity to love.

People always ask me how far love should go.  And I always ask back, “How far do you want love to go for you?”  If we examine Jesus as a courageous life, he was willing to stretch out his arms and say, “This is how far I will go to show you that you are worth it to me.”  Jesus lived a courageous life because he was willing to take on love even unto death.  But in doing so, he got to experience resurrection.

How are you choosing to love today?

———————————————————————

Coaching Offer: Are you living to your fullest potential? Are you stuck behind an obstacle you just can’t seem to overcome? Are you wrestling with anger, frustration with work, or family and long for a deeper, more meaningful experience with life. Consider Leadership In Life, a life coaching program for those who want more out of daily living. Call me today at 916.952.0934 or email me and receive a free half hour introductory session to explore your story, desires, hopes and dreams.