Last night was the greatest baseball game I have ever watched. It started off as a crazy game at the beginning. I was sitting in my favorite sports bar, surrounded by smoke, friends, and my hamburger. About inning 7 I was walking out the door so frustrated that I couldn’t even stand to be around people. As I drove home the Texas Rangers had just hit another homerun and I was over this whole World Series thing.

Fast forward an hour or two and I was standing alone in my apartment, waving my arm in a circular motion telling the runner to score from second base on a triple by David Freese. An hour later I was calling and texting every St. Louis Cardinals fan I know and celebrating. What a night.

As the night continued and the clock grew closer to my wake up time (5am) I started to dread the morning. High on the excitement of a comeback win I was more interested in sleeping this one off then getting up to go to a breakfast 25 minutes away.

The alarm sounded, I jumped out of bed, then jumped back in. I probably laid there for 15 minutes going back and forth on going or not. I played every situation out.
“I made a commitment, I need to go.”
“But if I go I will be tired for the rest of the day, and I have a lot of work to do, a baseball game to watch tonight and precious sleep to gain.”

Guess what? I decided to go.

As I walked into that breakfast, the guy(s) that I was meeting with said that part of the reason the breakfast was so early was because often times people ask to meet with him and he uses the earliness of the morning to weed out the people who simi-want to pursue mentoring and their dream and those that will do whatever it takes.

I will be honest, I didn’t want to go, but after hearing that I realized why I needed to be there.

There will always be more time to sleep, more time to watch television, more time to lay on the couch, and more time to surf the internet. But missing out on an opportunity to grow and pursue something is not worth missing for an extra hour of something we do every day.

I realized something this morning, most of life is about showing up and being faithful.

*kyle

Recently I started a new full-time job at Cross Point Church in Nashville TN and I had some questions about what exactly I have been up to. From “I thought you already worked there?” to “Will you keep doing free-lance work?” I wanted to answer some questions and give some answers as to what I am doing as well as what the future holds.

Anything new happening for you?

*kyle

This was a talk that I gave at the Speak Conference last week. Wanted to share it with you and hear what you think? Share your thoughts in the comment stream.

I am going to assume 2 things about you:
1.You want to impact the next generation
2. you have something to share with the next generation

You can make 2 assumptions about me:
1. I wear plaid therefore I am a hipster
2. I am going to communicate with you how to connect with the next generation It is fair to make assumptions.

We make assumptions each and every day. These assumptions are all based off of what we wear, listen to and buy. If you walk into a coffee shop and see someone with a mac you immediately think, “man that guy is a genius.” We make assumptions daily, that is how we find commanality with others, that is how we find connecting points. You might have walked in here tonight looking for that connecting point with someone. Maybe you recognized someone from twitter or noticed someone wearing the latest non-for profit social good tshirt. You might have walked in here and for a moment felt safe. But I am sure you also walked in here with some nerves. You walked in here wondering what was going to happen, what is it going to be like.

We all do that. Mainly because we are all looking for a place of connection. We are looking for people to connect with and a place to belong. And as I realize that about our society, as I realize that we are all looking to connect to something I continue to ask myself, Why? Why are we looking for people to share something with. Why do we check twitter daily to see if someone as @ replied us? The why questions continue to come back to haunt the things we do each day.

Mark Twain says this:

“The 2 most important days in life are the day you were born and the day you discover the reason.”

I love that quote because it brings into the very essence of life. It brings into the question of why, the question of discovery, and the question of purpose. And so to connect with the next generation you have to find the why. So why do we need to connect with the next generation? Because we stand at a moment in time where there has never been more connecting, never been more opportunity, and never been more resources then today. But we also stand in one of the greatest down times in our economy, one of the highest rates of divorce, one of the great deficits of debt, and one of the loneliest societies in the world. I truly believe that connecting with the next generation could change the world So let me make another assumption, some of this has resonated with you. If so I have three ways that I think you can connect with the next generation.

1. Connect them to a story:

One way people start to connect or resonate with something is that they become apart of something bigger then themsleves. Part of the reason why the revolts in Egypt become a movement was because it united people to something bigger then themselves, something bigger then a person. It united them to a story of hope. Connecting people to a story provides them an an active role in connection.

2. Connect them to you:

The power of story is huge, one aspect of story is the chance to hear from individuals. Allowing generations to learn from each provides a place for sharing rather then telling. That simple shift in mindset, sharing rather then telling, can be the very key that allows generations to move forward together and do bigger and better things.

3. Connect them to momentum:

Momentum is a tricky thing. We often dont pay it enough attention, but it is the thing that we need the most to fuel our dreams. As a young person myself I often find the frustrations of trying to make it up a mountain with a ten speed bike rather then a sports car. Allowing the next generation to find some momentum in the things that they are doing could set them up to change the world. That momentum comes from times of discovery, encouragement, responsibility and support. One of the greatest things you can do for someone is helping them find the downslope of an idea.

See connecting goes both ways. Because all these things can be reversed. When you start to connect people to a story you get connected to a story. When you start to connect people to you, you start connecting with people. When you connect people to momentum you suddenly connect to momentum.

I have recently become obsessed with pictures of clouds. Some of my favorite pictures come from people who take pictures out of airplanes looking over the clouds. The colors, the details, the sky, there is just something that grabs me about these images that makes me smile. But my favorite cloud pictures are the ones that are above the clouds. The ones that make the clouds the floor and the sky the limit. I think the reason why I love these pictures so much is because they show me a different view. They provide me a chance to catch a glimpse of something that I do not see every day and they reveal a whole other picture. I think today we have that chance in front of us. We have a chance to peer above the clouds and see the future. We have the chance to break down the wall that seperates generations. We have the chance to be a part of something that is bigger then us and we have the chance to soar above the typical mundane life. Everyone is looking to connect, it just all comes back to what you are willing to do to connect with others.

“I’m participating in a blog series hosted by Ally Spotts called Confessions of a 20-Something Christian, where 20-Somethings get honest about their lives, loves and regrets. My confession is…I Wish I Was  A Bad Kid.

I wanted to start this post off with Usher. Usher you ask? Why yes, Usher. You know, “these are my confessions.” Don’t lie, I know you do. As I type all I can hear is Usher singing that line over and over. You might be doing the same thing because that song was popular when we were teenagers. I do not want to go as far as to say it shaped the youth of America, but it sure came close.

See I have nothing to confess that is song worthy, or for that matter, worthy of making people gasp. If I was honest with you (which I am being right now), I kind of wish I had something that was gasp worthy. You know, a past? You ever go to church and hear people’s testimonies and be amazing at what they have gone through? It makes you feel like you have to do some bad stuff to have a powerful testimony. What do you do when your confessions are minor league in a major league world?

You have to understand something, I am not perfect nor do I claim to have it all together. I struggle with sin daily and make more mistakes then I can count. But sometimes the things that I struggle with don’t seem so bad stacked up against what I hear other people struggling with. I can go down the comparison checklist. I have never done drugs, never drank alcohol before 21, never been drunk, never had sex with a girl. Now if it was about keeping score I would assume that I would be winning. But to me that sounds a bit more like legalism then reality. A sin is a sin, and of that I am the chief.

The struggle for me is the battle of risk and reward.

I have this idea that God is in the reward business. The more I put in the slot machine the bigger reward I will receive in the end. I do not know how this came to be. Maybe it was all the time I spent getting up for church every Sunday at 6:30am, or the Wednesday night youth group meetings where I helped set up and tear down. There are probably several reasons why I view God this way. But the issue is that often times I treat God, relationships, and life like a giant reward system that will only produce something good if I give it something good.

You got time for a story? If not just skip to the next part. If so, well let me tell you about a girl I dated in high school.
At the time I was finishing my senior year and was headed into the summer with a girlfriend and a job. The girl was great, the job, not so much. I worked at a factory that made t-shirts. For 8 hours a day I stood behind an oven folding shirts that had just been pressed with the latest color or graphic for a company or sport team. I worked this job for two months and then decided one morning to quit. I couldn’t take the monotony, the routine, the country music (we listened to country music over the speaker), I just couldn’t do it anymore. So I did the only logical thing, I just didn’t show up. Yes it was probably bad that I didn’t show up, but what was the worse part was my timing. I decided to quit the week my boss was on vacation. This was a big deal because I left the factory two man short of a five man crew. Basically all business came to a halt until my bosses vacation was over. To make matters worse, my boss went to my church. Remember that girl I was dating, well that lasted about as long as my job did. In fact, she just stopped talking to me the week I decided to quit my job. How is that for karma. I remember one day driving in my parents subdivision and it all clicked with me. If I call and apologize to my boss my former girlfriend would call me back and we could date again. Well as you can imagine, that did not work. And so I was left with an awkward phone apology and no girlfriend.

If you missed the story, basically I thought I could trick God into giving me what I wanted. But the simply thing is that this “game” that I was trying to play would eventually bring me to a point of brokenness and frustration that I have never felt before. There was a time in college where I wanted to be the kid that made out with random girls, went to the bar, and cheated on his homework. I really wanted to take the easy way out, to do the things that everyone else was doing. I felt like there was something wrong with me, that I was the kid that couldn’t go outside to play because I had allergies. Looking back at those days in college I wish I did bad things. Maybe to fit in, but more to better understand grace. 

I think the Bible is pretty clear about doing sin because we can  (just read Romans), but I also think that people who have experienced grace see God differently. They understand that God is not a reward machine that gives out prizes based off how good they can be. They understand that grace is way more about a gift that you cannot earn. I have moved past wishing to be a bad kid and instead want to better understand the grace of God.

I don’t think it goes back to me wanting to be a bad kid as it is that I want to better understand grace. That I want to see God not as a vending machine but as a gift given to me that I do not deserve.

A thought to consider from Paul:  Philippians 3: 4-14

Follow the conversation on twitter by checking out this hashtag #20somethingconfession