Remember
Remember where you are right now.
Remember to be a friend. People hide their insecurities, just like you hide yours. Consider the feelings of others first, and don’t worry about yourself so much.
Don’t be afraid of awkward moments. Push through them. If you are not experiencing awkwardness, you are not growing.
Remember the consequences. Remember the pain you feel right now. There are reasons your teachers, your pastors, and your parents said the things they said.
Remember that ninety-nine percent of the things you worried about never happened.
Remember not to think too highly of yourself. Because you do. Forget about yourself and you’ll have more fun.
Remember to write things down or you will forget them.
Definition
Definition is crucial.
Without it, all activity under the sun crumbles. Words become meaningless, work becomes pointless, and relationships become flat.
Without definition, there can be no communication. We could not comprehend what is spoken or written. Without definition, there is no order. If jobs, tasks, and positions are not defined, institutions fall apart. Without definition, there is ambiguity in relationships. There would be no clarity between professional and personal, romance and friendship, acquaintance and comrade.
Definition is the context for communication, order, and community. It is the antithesis of chaos.
It is scary to me that society champions relativism the way it does. We accept phrases like truth is relative, which is really the same thing as saying there is no definition. And if there is no definition, there is no context, only a vacuum.
Chaos will inevitably follow.
Order
Control is an illusion.
It’s strange that we have to let go of what we actually don’t hold on to. We presume to have control over the things that, in reality, we don’t. The addiction to control is humanity’s dirty habit. Most of the stress in our lives is caused by it. If only we knew how to let it go…
Anarchy and deconstruction is not the answer. The answer is order.
Instead of control, we ought to strive for order. There is a difference. Control is dictatorship and ownership. Order is management and stewardship. Order gives us direction and conformity. It gives us definition. We cannot control, but we can maintain order.
When we accept that all we really need to be concerned with is being good stewards of that which we’ve been given, our enjoyment of life will increase.
Coldplay Show
We all desire to experience something greater than ourselves. I think that’s why we go to concerts.
Last Friday, I took a trip down to Charlotte with my friend Jill Nance, to see what ended up being the last stop of Coldplay’s Viva La Vida tour in the U.S. The concert was amazing. Coldplay delivered an incredible experience, both musically and visually. But there was a little surprise that made the night all that more special. And it happened like this…
When we first found our seats we were a little disappointed. We were off to the side and far from the stage. Not the seats we thought we had.
And there was this huge box right in front of us.
I made a comment about the box blocking our view, and the lady sitting next to us leaned over and said, “Don’t complain. You won’t be disappointed.”
She spoke like someone who knew something we didn’t. She had this subdued excitement, but she wasn’t subduing it very well. Then I noticed there was a foot switch on the box. Rumors spread. Anticipation grew. There was chatter. Interrogations. Tweets. Then suddenly, life was in Technicolor…
And it was all Yellow…
Halfway into the show, while we were all tweeting and losing ourselves in the Strawberry Swing, I stopped for a moment to contemplate the similarities between rock concerts and religion. Something about the way the guy next to me with the Bud Light was lifting his hands.
Then there was commotion by the box. Some roadies next to us began to lift tarps, revealing a piano and guitars. The crowd around us started to stir, and suddenly the box in front of us lit up, and two roadies lifted the piano onto it. Coldplay finished playing Strawberry Swing, stepped off the main stage, and walked all the way over to our little box.
The entire band performed two songs five feet in front of us!
I don’t even remember what the first song was. The second was a piano-solo rendition of The Hardest Part. Standing next to a professional photographer, who at this point was finding it unbearable that all she could bring into the show was a cheap point and shoot, I tried my best to capture the moment via cell phone.
And then I got video of Chris Martin shaking Jill’s hand…
It’s an interesting thing to me that Chris actually looked bigger on that little stage. It was the way the energy of the crowd surrounded him. In that moment, he was larger than life. I kept having to tell myself he’s just a guy. More talented and harder working is all. But the music has a way of tricking you.
I am convinced that the music and spectacle we create are reflections of something greater, something we can’t quite put our finger on. It’s beyond any one person. We are drawn to it. That’s why, among other things, we go to concerts.
I use to think those girls at The Beatles shows – the sobbing, screaming fans that maul each other for a closer look – were ridiculous. And they are. But in the same way we all are. We are all drawn to something greater than ourselves.
I will not judge them again.
The Backcountry
“I want to repeat one word for you: Leave.” -Donald Miller
I have concluded that the best time to get away is when it feels like the worst time. When life is too busy, when there’s too much going on to even breathe, that is when you must… leave.
Last weekend my old college roommate, Joel Smoker and I left our homes and ventured into the backcountry of Shenandoah National Park. Three days and twenty-five miles later, we hiked out of the woods with the refreshment that comes from blazing the trail, sleeping by rivers, and realizing that for a time we’d completely forgotten about the busyness we’d left left behind.
