Electric Ethos

An Idea my friend Eric Watt has been working on for nearly 20 years. Check it out!

http://www.goatsforchristmas.com/

Psalm 100 (NIV)

A psalm. For giving thanks.

 ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

 ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
       come before him with joyful songs.

 ³ Know that the LORD is God.
       It is he who made us, and we are his;
       we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
       and his courts with praise;
       give thanks to him and praise his name.

 ⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
       his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Over the next month I am going to write a few thoughts and reflections about this great Psalm in preparation for Thanksgiving. This will be a six part series that will look at one or two verses with each post. I want to encourage you to read, reread, meditate and memorize this passage to prepare your heart daily to reflect a life of sincere thanks. I think you will be encouraged as you read each post but I also think you will find yourself being challenged in many areas of your daily life. Let me know what you think and feel free to leave comments.

When it comes to athletic adventures like soccer games I am always the optimist.  Even when over-matched and undersized I believe that my teams have a chance to win.  I want my players to know that I believe in them even when they have had a rough day on the field, and I never want their rough day on the field to changed my optimism for their athletic future.

Soccer Tribe

A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine about my young soccer tribe and he encouraged me to record my thoughts about maintaining a positive environment on the sideline on an ongoing basis. The following list is from the coaches perspective and is intended to assist parents, coaches, players, grandparents and fans keep it fun on the sidelines for young soccer players.

• Be passionate about the game and the people.
• Congratulate the opposing coach every game.
• Congratulate every player every game even on the other team.
• Celebrate growth in your players on the field and off the field.
• Affirm your players to their parents.
• Learn the names of all the players
• Talk with other parents on the sideline and learn their names.
• Offer to assist the coach at some point during the season even in a small way.
• Bring hot cocoa on cold rainy days and share.
• Cheer loudly and often.
• Always be the positive voice on the sideline or in the stands.
• Root for the underdogs, the players struggling to keep up.
• Bring a snacks that are healthy.
• Bring extra water for the family who was running late.

One final thought would be to encourage you to leverage the passion for soccer that you and your players or children have to do something good in your community or around the world.  I’m sure you have had even better ideas that the list above so let me know how you would add to the list.  Here’s to your soccer tribe.

The Hippo Roller

In a couple weeks I will be traveling to Swaziland a small land-locked country in South Africa.  I am excited about the adventure as well as the possibilities. The purpose of the journey is to lay the ground work for a return trip with a team of friends from the Seattle area next summer. 

This will be my first trip to the continent of Africa and as insignificant as I am in the grand scheme of things I want to make a lasting impact in the communities, villages and tribes we visit. Right now I am thinking about leveraging the resources I can gather and the people I know and love in one or more of the following ways. Together we could build a community center, dig a well, develop soccer fields, teach sexual education for families and fund micro enterprise.  I think these are all valid ideas but I really want to pull together a coalition that will work together to make an impact beyond simple ideas and a site seeing adventure.

Hopefully the following video will spark creativity and help us think of new ideas for positive change in the heart of South Africa.  Hopefully you will be filled with compassion.

I am open to new ideas and creative partnerships so let me know what you think. If we work together we can be part of a small win in South Africa. The idea of a trip like this is to connect the passions we live with on a daily basis to the needs of the world. If we can take the things we love to do here at home to make an impact locally and globally, this is what I call an electric life. Please check out the Hippo Roller information page.

Over the past ten weeks my pastor at Shoreline Community Church has been speaking about adversity.  For several years now he has been searching the Bible for principles that could guide us during tough times. As the series wrapped up I offered to share Pat Lynn’s story via video because Pat had mentioned that this was something he was interested in doing. I hope the following video helps you to become whole and find healing body, soul, mind and spirit. I love my friend Pat Lynn and I wanted you to hear part of his story in his own words.

Pat is an inspirational person, his heart for people is hard to miss.  As an energy carrier Pat brings life everywhere he goes.  Pat would be a great guest speaker for any school, youth group, civic organization, church or non-profit. Feel free to share this link with your friends.

http://www.electricethos.com/?p=727  

Pat @ Husky Stadium

Pat grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington and was a star basketball player. He went on to play ball at the community college level and finished his playing career at Northwest University.