Perspective in Myrtle Beach

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

Perspective often determines your level of enjoyment.  I could sit at a five star hotel with wait-staff responding to my every whim.  But if I focus on what I don’t have rather than what I do, I could be miserable.  For example: they put me next to the elevator, I didn’t get the room I requested, they were out of prime rib at the restaurant.  Or I could stay at a mid-range hotel with no amenities and have the time of my life.  What’s the difference?  Perspective.

We love coming to Myrtle Beach, SC.  And we love going in the off season.  It is 8 October as I sit on the fourth floor balcony and write this.  It is hurricane season so it is overcast.  It is not the prime season, but we are as happy as can be.  There are no crowds to deal with.  We got the room at a discounted rate because of the time of year.  And we can sit on the balcony and enjoy the majestic ocean.

I think our challenge is to find this kind of perspective in other areas of life.  Maybe I didn’t get the job I wanted, but what advantages do I have in my present job?  Maybe one of my relationships isn’t going that great, but what am I learning?  Maybe I am not making desired progress toward some of my goals, but how am I growing?  Perspective.  Whether it pertains to your beach hotel or an area of your life, it can be the key to contentment.

And as you can see in the last two pictures, it turned out pretty spectacular anyway.

Dealing with Questions About Faith ~ Jesus provides encouragement for belief

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

John 20:19-31

Jesus provides encouragement for belief.  Three times in this passage (John 20:19-31) he approaches the disciples saying “Peace.”   He also offers proof of his wounds both to the large group and later, individually to Thomas.  He doesn’t stand back and watch them flounder.  He doesn’t even make them come to him.  He proactively seeks them to bolster their faith.  He does more than just understand and accept their struggles.  He initiates encouragement.

Jesus still encourages his followers today.  He moves and works when his people come together corporately (worship services, church).  He actively calls people to go into vocational ministry to lead his body of believers.  He works through authors like Lee Strobel with The Case for Christ and Josh McDowell with Evidence that Demands a Verdict.  And many, many others.  He doesn’t expect you to flail on your own.  He anticipates the struggles you will have on the road of belief, and he still initiates encouragement today.  If you have trouble seeing how he initiates encouragement for your struggles with questions, ask him for wisdom so that you can see where he is active in your life.

Prompted Writings

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

What are Prompted Writings? See here

Prompt: with great joy, I share with you what happened after…

(First Draft)

With great joy, I share with you what happened after I opened the letter.  Well, first, I suppose I should tell you about the letter.  I received a letter in the mail today.  The plain, white, letter sized envelope didn’t look out of the ordinary.  The edges were a bit worn from the processing and handling, but other than that it was ordinary.  But when I opened it, I saw nothing inside.  I pulled the flap back and opened the mouth of it wide to see if perhaps a small piece of paper stuck to the inside.  I turned it upside down.  I tore the envelope open to see if anything was written on the inside.  Nothing.  Strange.

That’s when I looked at the front again, and noticed the return address.  It was from Steven Elrod.  That went all the way back to grade school.  Sixth grade to be exact.  Half way through the year, a new student moved into our class.  It was a small school and an even smaller class.  So a new student was not common.  But then he also left as mysteriously as he came a few weeks later.  Ask me now why I even remember him and I couldn’t.  I had maybe a handful of conversations with him, never did anything with him outside of class, and I certainly hadn’t kept up with him in the last forty years.  So why was I now getting a letter from him— or more precisely, an envelope.  Then I noticed the return address.  China? 

(First Revision)

Opening that letter ignited a chain of events that still has my head swimming.  Well, first, I suppose I should tell you about the letter.  I received a letter today.  The envelope didn’t look out of the ordinary.  The edges were a bit worn from the processing and handling but nothing other than that.  The strange thing— it was empty.  I felt inside.  Nothing.  I turned it upside down.  Nothing. I tore it completely open and smoothed it flat on the desk to see if anything was written on the inside.  Nothing.  Strange.

That’s when I looked at the front again and noticed the return address.  It was from Steven Elrod.  That time-morphed me all the way back to grade school.  Sixth grade to be exact.  Half way through the year, a new student appeared in class.  It was a small school and an even smaller class.  So a new student was not common.  And then, a few weeks later, he left as mysteriously as he came.  Ask me now why I even remember him and I couldn’t tell you.  I had maybe a handful of conversations with him, never did anything with him outside of class, and I certainly hadn’t kept up with him in the last forty years.  So why was I now getting a letter from him— or more precisely, an envelope.  Then I noticed the return address.  China? 

Dealing with Questions About Faith ~ Jesus meets you where you are (part 2)

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

John 20:19-31

A few days later on that same ski trip [Dealing with Questions about Faith ~ Intro], I had another experience.  I went on a trail.  There are the main trails going down the mountain, but many small paths wind through the trees off of these.  They will go for a few yards before exiting back onto the main trail.  Well, I had my lessons and had two full days on skis.  I decided that I was ready to go off-trail.  

I zipped up the little path and navigated everything pretty well until I got to the end and someone had built a little jump into the path.  Looking back, it was really a very small jump, but with only about twelve hours of skiing prowess under my belt, it was a little much for me to handle.  My feet went straight up in the air.  I came down, bottom first landing in bank of soft snow (thank goodness).  But I was folded in half with my feet and my arms sticking straight up in the air above my head.  I was stuck.

My brother, who was a more experienced skier than I, saw me and followed me.  He was able to pull me out and get me going again.  After I was safely on the main slope, I said to my brother “I am so lucky that you decided to take that trail, too.”  Rolling his eyes he replied, “I saw you go up there and figured you would get yourself in trouble.” 

Because he took my lack of experience into account, he was there to get me back on the right path again.  And in a very similar way, Jesus knows that we lack the experience for the challenges of life and faith that come our way.  So he comes to where we are so he can get us on the road of belief again.

Allow Yourself to Cheat

/ Ken May / 2 Comments

If I’m going to be a real guitar player, I can’t take the easy way out.  Because, let’s be honest, the easy way is for ameteurs.

How many times have you uttered something like that?  I did for years, and I realized it really held me back.  I haven’t thrown in the towel.  I still try to master things.  I just cut myself more slack now when I don’t get there as quickly as I think I should.

Here is an example.  I was playing for church this morning.  One of the songs had a classic rock riff that went G-C2-Em-D.  The C2 was giving me fits.  I was hitting it clean about 50% of the time.  A few years ago, I would have stubbornly held to it.  But, today, I realized I wasn’t in the groove, so I switched and started playing straight C.  And after the service, person after person came up to me and told me they couldn’t believe I switched and played a straight open C instead of the C2.

No.  They didn’t.  No one knew.  They weren’t concerned about it.  And I was right not to be concerned about it either.

I finally allowed myself to live in this realization: I am an amateur.  So it makes sense that I will sound like one.  But even an amateur can sound good.  And as long as I’m sounding good, isn’t that the goal?

Dealing with Questions About Faith ~ Jesus meets you where you are

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

John 20:19-31

Jesus meets you where you are on the road of belief.  He exemplifies this in the way he deals with the disciples.  Their world had crumbled.  Crushing fear pinned them behind locked doors.  They abandoned everything to follow him.  They burned bridges, cut business ties and strained family relationships.  Now they were targeted by the law.

Jesus took all of this into consideration in the way he approached them.  He didn’t come in rebuking them for their fear.  His first words to them were “Peace.”  He then offered them proof by showing them his wounds.  He is telling them “You don’t have to doubt me.”  And he had a habit of doing this.  One time he approached the father whose son the disciples had been unsuccessfully trying to heal.  Rather than rebuking the man, he told him to believe and not doubt.  The man replied with those infamous words “I believe; help my unbelief.”  Another time, Paul expressed that he and his companions in Asia Minor became so discouraged they no longer wanted to live.  Jesus encouraged them.  In all these instances, Jesus came to the place where they were: afraid, hiding and needing proof and reassurance.

Sometimes we struggle in our walk of faith.  We are decidedly unlike the disciples in that we did not get to witness the resurrection with our eyes.  Jesus underhands that.  And he approaches you wherever you are on the road of belief.

My Back Porch

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

A crane glides to a landing mere yards from me.  A Canadian snow goose bobs just a few feet from the shoreline.  The morning air is crisp.  A chorus of birds fills the air with surround sound.  The glass top of the pond that sits within casting distance of my back porch reflects the palette of the rising sun.

For two years, my wife and I have immersed ourselves in the resort-like beauty of our back porch in the house we have rented in Sumter, South Carolina.  This is one of the newer additions in town, and we were blessed to be able to rent it.  Our house was built in the late 00’s.  The main draw for this neighborhood is that it has a large, S-shaped pond that covers approximately twenty acres.  Houses line the banks of the pond.  We had an inside connection through a friend who was friends with the land lord.  The house was coming available at exactly the time we were moving.  

I have vacationed on the Outer Banks in a three story beach house that sat right on the shore.  I’ve been to the Bahamas, the Jordan River and a resort on the Persian Gulf.  Those places are all amazing.  But I have enjoyed my time on this back porch every bit as much as those.  You don’t have to travel far to have an amazing trip.  In this case, it’s taking a few steps out my back door with a cup of coffee in my hand.

My greatest enemy.

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

When it comes to guitar playing, a particular giant continusoulsy confronts me, and I find myself having to slay it again and again.  You might expect me to say it’s time to rehearse.  Oh, rehearsal for the amateur guitarist.  How often have we daydreamed about working on our most recent lick or riff while saddled with life’s responsibilities?  But rehearsal time is not what I’m talking about.

So it must be staying focussed during rehearsal.  That’s it.  When I do finally find time to sit down, getting sidetracked or not really having a plan eats away at my productivity.  The precious moments fly away, and I’ve not accomplished much of anything.  We have all felt that frustration.  But that isn’t it either.

Comparison.  Comparing myself to other guitar players kills my progress more quickly than anything else.  I either compare myself to someone with much less experience, and my motivation tanks.  Or, more commonly, I compare myself to prodigies and professionals who are able to rehearse ten hours a day, and I wonder why I don’t sound like them.

I am slowly learning how not to compare myself to other players and be happy with my own talent level.  And, more importantly, to be happy with my own level of progress.

What’s your biggest giant when it comes to progress with guitar?

Tips

/ Ken May / Leave a comment

“[On Writing Well] is full of what might be called tips. But that’s not the point of the book. It’s a book about craft principles that add up to what it means to be a writer…Tips can make someone a better writer but not necessarily a good writer.”

From On Writing Well by William Zinsser, p.48

In his book, On Writing Well, Zinsser responds to a teacher who asked him to give tips for writing to his English class.  He tells the teacher he doesn’t do tips.  The quote above explains why.  It comes down to developing the craft of writing.

The thought of developing within me the craft of writing stirs my soul.  A current ripples within me when I contemplate the endeavor of taking a blank sheet and flooding words across it and then channelling the churning waters so that structure and style begin to form and the passion in me flows out and sweeps my readers away.  That is a good writer.  That is an author who is on fire for his craft.  That is who I am striving to be.

Dealing with Questions About Faith

/ Ken May / 1 Comment

John 20:19-31

I was thirteen the first time I went snow skiing.  My church youth group arrived at Winter Park, CO, a day earlier than expected.  A friend and I had lessons scheduled the next morning but decided to hit the slopes that afternoon to see what we could learn on our own.  Disaster was about to ensue.

We stayed on the practice slope the entire time.  On the last run of the day, my youth minister took us down the bunny slope.  If you haven’t been skiing, the practice slope is a very gradual and short slope designed for exactly what its name suggests: practice.  The bunny slope is barely a notch above the practice slope.  The only real difference is that it is longer.  Doesn’t sound too threatening, right?

After a dozen falls, he looked at me from thirty yards down-slope.  “Can you make it to the bottom?” He hollered to me.  “Yeah..sure,” I waved him off.  So now I was on my own.

I did not yet understand the color coding.  Green for the easy slopes.  Blue for intermediate and black for advanced.  Knowing this would have made big difference, but as it happened, I crossed from the bunny slope to a more advanced green.  I did ok.  From there, I went to a blue— that was worse.  And from the blue, I turned on a double diamond black.  My life was pretty much over.  I somehow made it to the bottom of the slope, but it wasn’t with my skis attached to my boots anymore.  And I didn’t talk to my youth minister for quite some time.  You see, I got off the path I was supposed to be on, and I didn’t have anyone there to get me headed the right direction again.

This series of reflections from John chapter 20 verses 19 through 31 focuses on Thomas and the other disciples whose world had just crumbled and they were at a cross roads of belief.  They were locked in a room hiding together.  They had gotten off the path and needed someone to get them headed in the right direction again.  That’s when Jesus entered the room and stood among them.  He didn’t chastise them for their questions.  He gave them a gentle course correction to get them back on the path of belief.  If you believe in God, but struggle sometimes with how that belief intersects the circumstances of your life, then this study is for you.