Thursday, December 31, 2020

2020 in cities

01 - Ocean City, MD, USA
02 - Shamokin, PA, USA
03 - Quito, Ecuador, SA
04 - Bogota, Colombia, SA
05 - Pine Grove, PA, USA
06 - Pine Knoll Shores, NC, USA
07 - Washington, DC, USA
08 - Cambridge, MD, USA
09 - Tybee Island, GA, USA
10 - Hilton Head Island, NC, USA
11 - Cumberland, MD, USA
12 - Fairfield, CT, USA

Standing goal - get outside the US at least once a year but just made it to South America in early 2020. Here's hoping 2021 allows everyone to get on the move a little more.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

2020 in Books

1 - Leading a Church in a Time of Sexual Questioning, Bruce Miller via Greg St Cyr
2 - New Power, Henry Timms and Jeremy Heimans via Brian Sanders
3 - Rediscipling the White Church, David Swanson ^^
4 - The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
5 - Canoeing the Mountains, Tod Bolsinger ^^
6 - Rings of Fire, Len Sweet **
7 - Chocolate City, Chris Myers Asch and George Derek Musgrove via Mark Batterson ^^
8 - Born a Crime, Trevor Noah ^^
9 - Positive Irritating, Jon Ritner **
10 - The Psychology of Mone, Morgan Housel **
11 - Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc., Skye Jethani via Dustin Youngstrom ^^ 
12 - The Biggest Bluff, Maria Konnikova
13 - How to Future, Scott Smith ^^
14 - Beautiful Resistance, Jon Tyson
15 - The Adventurers Son, Roman Dial
16 - The Moth Presents All These Wonders: True Stories About Facing the Unknown, Catherine Burns

** - Best reads of the year
## - Need to get back to because it is good
^^ - Didn't finish but might.

This was a terrible year for reading, I blame Instagram. 
On my shelf for 2021:
The Practice, Seth Godin
Better Decisions, Andy Stanley
Epic, John Eldredge
Win the Day, Mark Batterson

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

HBD KT


Well KT, 2020. But seriously. Happy birthday in one of the strangest, challenging times of our age.

2020 certainly makes it easy to be a pessimist. In many senses, you have inherited your parents skepticism. As someone told me a few years ago, "You are not easily impressed." On the surface, it looks like cynicism. And 2020 well, yeah of course. 

The difference though, is hope on the horizon. As bad as it gets, you can figure it out. You can muddle through it. Do the best you can, because how bad can it get?

The other side of the coin from pessimism is optimism. Things don't get better unless someone calls it out to fix the wrong. Someone must close the gap between what is and what could be. Optimists envision the art of the possible and work tirelessly towards a new future.  True skeptics are satisfied with articulating the negative from their seat in the stands. There are cynics, though, that are closet optimists and they get their skin in the game. They cannot and will not be satisfied from the stands.

So.... get in the game.

Proud of you - love you

DAD