Month: August 2021

Allow Yourself to Suck

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

When I took my first steps, I wasn’t very good at it.  I took no more than two or three till I plopped down.  And that little upstart next door neighbor, Ronny Jorgenson, didn’t help matters.  On his first attempt, he zipped half way across the floor.  He just seemed to be more natural at it than I.  But, you know what?  I didn’t let it bother me.  I let Ronny lace up his Mizunos, and I slobbered on myself as I toppled across the living room.

I was okay with sucking at walking because I remained oblivious to social pressures attached to it.  I was supposed to fall a lot because I was learning.  And I didn’t compare myself to Ronny Jorgenson because I didn’t know I was supposed to.

Be okay with sucking at guitar.  When you learn a new lick or riff, be okay with fumbling the chord changes and missing notes.  What would have happened if you were as impatient learning to walk as you are progressing with guitar?  You’d probably still be sitting in the middle of the floor relying on others to bring you things and take you places.  But if you make yourself okay with slow progress, you will eventually look up and realize you have traveled much farther than you thought.

Abiding is two way

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

Remain in me as I also remain in you . . . if you remain in me and my words remain in you . . .

John 15:4,7 (NIV)

When I travel to see my kids, the same road that takes me there brings me home.  It’s a two way road.  And there is an additional way that road is two way: just as I can take that road to see them, they can take that road to see me.  It’s two way.  

Abiding is two way.  If we abide in him, he abides in us.  We don’t pledge ourselves to a cold set of facts.  Abiding in him is not ethereal, intellectual assent.  It is a relationship where he travels the road to abide with us just as we have traveled it to abide with him.

His words are the mechanism of this abiding.  We abide in him as we internalize his words.  Through his words taking residence in us, he abides in us.  We have come to equate his words with the physical printing of the Bible that we carry with us.  And the Bible certainly is his word.  But we must expand our thinking when it comes to his words.  His words are his teachings, his philosophy, his ethic, his character, his aim, his goal, his mission.  Having his words abide in you is much more than reading words from a page or even memorizing passages.  It is letting them invade you, shape you and form you.  When we abide or remain in him in this way, he abides in us.

Zone 1 Starbucks

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

The gravel crunches under my combat boots.  Laptop tucked under my arm.  Walking under the arched canopy (in the Army we call them sun-shades), I pass tables and chairs in a Paris-sidewalk-café-esque arrangement.  Hints of cigar smoke hang in the air and dove waddle around looking for bits of croissants that have fallen.  My boots clunk on the metal steps and the hinges groan as I tug on the door.  

My eyes adjust to the dimly lit interior. Layers of grime on the armrests of the chairs reveal the years of soldiers, contractors and government civilians who have taken refuge in this place.  The smell inside is pungent and stale at the same time— a mixture of expended coffee grounds, brewing espresso and mold and mildew lurking in the dark corners.

I get my grande Pike Place and settle into one of the chairs where thousands have sat as they have sought a little bit of respite.  Separated from family and civilization.  Being held to a ridiculous expectation of work output.  Dealing with crises at home.  Some are getting ready to go into combat in a few hours or days.  Some supporting the ones in the fight.  Some will not come back.  I am right now sitting in a chair where someone wrote the last email they would ever write to their loved ones.

But still, this place is a refuge.  It is a reminder of a normal life.  A life that is not filled with early mornings and late nights.  With long training days and deployments to far away places.  Of a time when good-bye will no longer be said.  If this Starbucks sat in the States, it would be condemned and closed down.  Here, on Camp Arifjan, it is an oasis.  And one of my favorite places.  I’ve spent two years in total on this installation.  Hopefully, I will spend no more time here.  But if I do, I know my grime covered chair will be waiting for me to sustain me until I go home again.

Pruning (John 15:1-11)

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

How many times have you set a New Year’s resolution to get healthy?  Or maybe you already work out, but you decide to take it to the next level.  So you set that goal.  “I want to run two miles in under 20 minutes.”  Or, “I want to increase my max lift by twenty-five pounds in six months.”  But now you are faced with another question— do you want to put in the work?  The setting of the goal can be exciting.  But eventually the work must start and the excitement ebbs.

Most of us aspire to walk closer with the Lord.  We want to be more faithful and more spiritual.  But then comes the work.  The work of growing in Christ is pruning.  Jesus was clear— good healthy branches will undergo pruning.  Picture what pruning is.  Pruning takes a sharp knife and cuts away living parts of the vine.  At the moment, it hurts, but it is necessary for the overall health and growth of the vine.  Pruning in your life hurts, but it always yields greater overall health and is always worth it.

Content Management

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

“Content management.  Isn’t that what we used to call ‘writing’?  I’ve been in the content-management business all my life.  I look for content that interests or amuses me, and then I manage it into a narrative.  It’s what all writers do if they want to keep paying the bills.  Dickens did it very well.  So does every good crime writer: Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler.” (From The Writer Who Stayed, William Zinsser, page 4)

I love simplicity.  I live by the cliché, “less is more.”  Let me illustrate.  I could tell you: “Create tension in the muscular fibers of your bicep to create a medial flexion while simultaneously initiating extension of the proximal digit of the extremity.  Time and gauge the distance to trip the circuit to cut the flow of alternating current so the incandescent filament stops emanating photons.”  Or, I could say “flip the switch to turn off the light.”  Too often, we make writing far more difficult than it needs be.  When Zinsser refers to writing as “content management” he gives me a simple plan.

Where do I see a plan in that statement?  Change it to an imperative.  Manage content.  Now I know what to do.  When I begin writing, no matter what the genre, I begin with a batch of content.  If it’s prose, I have facts and arguments.  If it’s fiction, I have characters and a story arc.  Either way I have a collection of content.  So now I need to manage that content.  I must organize it.  Refine it.  Make it do what I want it to do.  Looking at my writing as content management makes it simple for me.

We are the Branches

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

What if you woke up tomorrow and it was not guaranteed that your lungs would remove oxygen from the air and infuse it into your bloodstream?  You can actually do an experiment right now to see what it would be like.  Hold your breath.  For as long as you can, stop breathing.  Despite how crucial is the capillary action of our lungs, it is so commonplace we take it for granted.

Our union with Christ is absolutely crucial, but sometimes it has become so commonplace we take it for granted.  No experiment exists to help us envision what it is like to not be in union with him— to be branches securely connected to the vine.  But imagine if you can not being able to pray.  Imagine not having the constant presence of the Holy Spirit.  Imagine not being assured of your eternal destiny.  All of these things are afforded to us by our union with him.  It is really, truly remarkable that we are bonded deeply in Christ.

Guitar.

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

I love guitar.  I have played for 35 years, but I am not 35 years good.  And I think there are a lot of people like me.  They love to play, but for whatever reason, have not progressed as far as they would have like to.

I want it to be a site of encouragement, motivation and sharing.

I’m not a professional.  And even though I have played for three and a half decades, I have not consistently progressed.  But I have had a rebirth in my effort to grow.  And I have learned some things about being solidly an intermediate player.  And that is the unique perspective I will bring to the guitar world.  I am going to talk honestly about the struggles I have in progressing, but not as a virtuoso who can’t really understand what it’s like for a person like me who has to practice repeatedly to do even the simplest things.

I hope this will begin to generate some followers and we can have a little fun together.

New posts coming soon.

Abiding

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

I was walking through the woods one day and stumbled upon the strangest sight I had ever seen.  It was a tree branch.  As a branch, it was pretty ordinary, but two things were remarkable: first, it was suspended in the middle of the air.  It just hung there on its own completely self sufficient.  Second, the tree grew out of the branch.  That’s right.  You just read that last sentence again to make sure you read it correctly.  The branch didn’t grow out of the tree.  The tree grew out of the branch.

If you are still reading at this point, you are saying “preposterous!”  By now, you have probably written me off as a crack-pot or maybe even a crack-head.  And if I had been serious, you would be right.  About the preposterous-ness… not about me being a crack-head.  Trees do not grow out of branches.  Branches grow out of trees.  Branches cannot exist on their own.  They can only exist if they are firmly connected to the tree.

Yet, too often, we treat our relationship with God in such a way.  We treat ourselves as if we are the essential element, and he is something that emanates from us.  We have it backwards.  What follows is a series of articles from John 15:1-11 that will focus us on being securely rooted in him.  Abiding.

You are a Writer

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

You are probably a writer and you don’t even know it.  Most of the time when we think of someone being a writer, we think of hard bound books and glossy dust covers with intriguing author poses.  Or possibly it’s the journalist stabbing at the keyboard rushing to meet a deadline.  Most of us will never be those people.  But I still say, you are probably a writer and don’t even know it.

Are you responsible for sending out the emails for your working group?  Do you prepare a weekly Sunday school lesson?  Do you contribute to a newsletter for your hobby group?  Do you sit down regularly to pen notes of encouragement to your friends and family?  If you fall into any of the above categories—  or any like them— you, my friend, are a writer.  No, you are more than a writer.  You are a fellow journeyman upholding the prestige of this ancient craft.  So, perfect your craft.

I have scoured many writing websites.  So far all the ones I have seen are devoted to that individual who strives for the best seller list.  But if that is not your end game, you are no less of a writer.  And you need a website that can help you perfect your craft.  I intend to bring that to you.  So stop back on a regular basis to get some help in perfecting your craft.