A Stone's Throw

Great post by Vince Antonucci, planter of VERVE, a church on the strip in Las Vegas.  He talks of a High School football coach in Arkansas that has punted only one time in the past two seasons…and is the coach of a state championship this year! There has been LOTS of talk about high profile coaches “going for it” on 4th down and it not working.  This coach thinks the “numbers” lean toward “going for it” on 4th and “whatever” equals success!

Interesting concept.  Much like The Dip by Seth Godin.  The secondary title is “A little book that teaches you when to quit (and when to stick).”

There are times in our lives when we simply need to “go for it” no matter what!  I think the most difficult time to continue on is when you feel like giving up.

I love what the back cover of The Dip says:

what is the dip?

It’s the fifth job interview where they never even call you back.

It’s the garage band playing to an empty club in the middle of nowhere.

It’s the seventh time you fall on your butt while learning to snowboard.

It’s the middle of the marathon, when the excitement of the starting gun is a dim memory, and the joy of the finish line is a distant dream.

It’s any rough patch you have to get through before achieving your big goal . . . if in fact you’re chasing the right goal.

What else?

Oh yeah, it’s also the key to your career, your company’s future, and maybe your ultimate happiness.

We are at that place (possibly) at FP Carthage.  We have been here in Carthage for a couple of years and some of our team is tired and feels like needing a rest.  Things just aren’t like it was “in the beginning.”

It reminds me of the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980 when the USA Hockey Team beat the Russians in the semifinals of the Olympics to eventually win the gold medal.  Part of the backstory of the 1980 Olympics is the coach, Herb Brooks, was cut from the USA hockey team that eventually won a gold medal.  He came back 20 years later and led a group of college players to beat the best hockey team in the world. I love these kinds of movies that bring a group of people together to do amazing things that were though never possible!

I pray that we would “go for it” and “dig deep” and all of those other sports cliches and see amazing things happen in all of our lives.  Paul said it this way  in Philippians 3:12-14 “¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Here’s the trailer for the great movie “Miracle.”  Enjoy!

Vince Antonucci: Dont Punt.

I am really excited about getting my “invite” to Google Wave!  Check out the demo video–short version (they had a 1 hour 20 + minute LOOOONNNNGG explanation video as well) to see what it is all about.

Aaron Stockton, Kevin, and myself were doing some brainstorming the other day on Google Docs and love the whole real time experience.  When one person writes a sentence, it shows up on the other two people’s screen—amazing!!  Well, from what I can tell, Google Wave is like Google Docs on steroids!! It is also similar to some of the applications our staff has tried before at 37signals.com like Basecamp. We loved Basecamp, but it was a pay service and we are a ministry.  Any time we can save money on administrative costs, we can use that money in the ministry or for missions–for the Kingdom.  I am looking forward to experimenting and implementing Google Wave with our team.  Now off to look at the LOOONNGG Version.  You can check out the short overview in the meantime!

YouTube – Google Wave Overview.

Each Sunday night I will be summing up the previous week’s events in a “numbered” list, along with the “sum total” of our attendance for the week…even though “I’m not very good with numbers.”