On this 25th day of the month...

Conviction Notice…

I love the month of December. I like Christmas especially in the Northeast as I get to snuggle into more clothes, sporting additional fashion.  The dry indoors are accompanied by sweaters. The short days can be a drag, but it is such a treat to drive through neighborhoods and see different people’s interpretations of the joyous holiday season.

At the top of my list of favorites from Christmas is the cheer. Outside of the general rush that is felt by some due to the pressures of the holidays, people are generally more pleasant. I notice more mingling among strangers. I notice Christmas cookies showing up on a whim in the office. I notice Salvation Army bells ringing throughout cities. I notice clothes drives, and missions trips, and all-in-all a great sense of camaraderie.

Josh Wilson, however, reminds us that Christmas is “more than once a year”.

While his song refers to the general acts that surround the holiday, similar to what I have already mentioned, I believe that his message is much more profound.

Christmas is more than once a year.

Love is more than once a year.

Christ is more than once (maybe twice counting Easter) a year.

Christmas is indeed a special time as the recent birth of the royal British baby gives a small snapshot into the hullabaloo that surrounds the birth of a king. Celebration and cheer is necessary, even liberating.

But Christmas is a small microcosm of the greater story, of the greater sacrifice, of the greater redemption, of the greater calling.

So I ask myself, do I live like Christmas is more than once a year? I think that answer may be similar to the question “are you satisfied with your prayer life?” which hardly concludes in a satisfactory response.

It is these reminders where I am thankful that no matter how many steps away I may be from God, I only have to take one in the right direction for He has made up the rest of the distance to meet me.

So I think it would be appropriate to say on this 25^th day of the month…

Merry Christmas :) 

The Ripple Effect

Image courtesy of https://wiki.ucfilespace.uc.edu/

“…to fix our broken systems, we need to accelerate the number of changemakers in the world, and ultimately get to a world in which everyone is a changemaker.” –Bill Drayton

Often, change starts with a vision, an ability to see a different set of circumstances at another point in the future. The path to that endpoint does not necessarily have to be clear, but the endpoint often does.

I saw this personally during my trip to Haiti last month. The leader and changemaker that I was working with received his vision for a better Haiti while he was educating himself in the United States. He saw what it was like to have stable infrastructure, to have efficient systems, to have an orderly and honest administration. Therefore, after he completed his education, he moved back to Haiti in pursuit of this vision.

Of course, change is hard. One of his greatest obstacles is that the environment within Haiti often mutes peoples dreams and passions. There are constant influences and experiences that give their citizens the illusion that they can’t have an impact and they cannot change.

Therefore, this returned leader spends much of his time convincing others to be changemakers. This often meand inspiring passion and inspiring a vision, and giving these changemakers the hope that this dreams can become reality.

If we have the gift to be changemakers with a vision, I feel that we do have a duty to share that with anyone who will listen. To accelerate change, we need to accelerate the number of changemakers.

We have to work on the ripple effect of our individual drop.

This is post #3 of 10 in reaction to ideas posted on fastcoexist.com through Mark Cheng from Ashoka, an organization that provides venture capital to social entrepreneurs around the world. His ideas originate from his attendance at the Skoll World Forum in April 2013 and are entitled "10 Ideas Driving the Future of Social Entrepreneurship". 

Change is Accelerating

Want to see good art? And want to be inspired? Take the 8 minutes and learn from a variety of influential voices and how they perceive change going forward in the world.



"...never before have we had so many ideas and tools to help us cope with this change."


Collisions and connections are happening at such an incredible rate, and I think this video essentially captures two of the greatest pursuits of man: relationships and purpose.

We have so many tools that are driving innovation, and the latest software/hardware developments are making the world smaller. Collaboration is growing. Change is replicated at great rates.

I love that they start the video with a tight-lipped and baffled reaction to the question "What will the world be like in 50 years?"  The fact that so many contorted and sighed and shook their heads means that they have a vision that the next 50 years of improvement can grow beyond our perceptions. We can't wrap our minds around it. The networking is fantastic. As one voice in the video, Geoffrey West, stated that it is "almost spiritual".

I think we are just beginning to grasp the potential of the collective minds around the world and the systems/tools that can assist in getting us there.

And God has known all along.

WOW!

This is post #2 of 10 in reaction to ideas posted on fastcoexist.com through Mark Cheng from Ashoka, an organization that provides venture capital to social entrepreneurs around the world. His ideas originate from his attendance at the Skoll World Forum in April 2013. 

It's About Changing the System

“Broadcaster Ray Suarez expressed it eloquently when he said, ‘Nobody ever comes out and says they are in favor of starving children, or inadequate sanitation, or war and conflict. And yet they persist. So how is it that if no one is for these things, and everyone is against them, these problems continue?’”

I have to remind myself that many of the issues that exist within the world are systemic with stubborn persistence.  Tying back to the introductory post in this series, the hunger for solutions must be just as persistent, without undermining the complexity of the original issue.

Many societal problems are multi-dimensional, often requiring attention to multiple aspects. For example, providing clean water to rural communities in third world countries is simply a result of a combination of a lack of resources, education, collaboration, or even simply vision.  In another example, corruption within governments persists due to the nature of political competitions and campaigns, economic requirements from foreign partners, and a strained dependency on essential needs for the general populace. This complexity must be acknowledged to impart sustainability.

Due to its complexity, systemic change is also difficult to measure in numbers.  Therefore, it can be more effective to measure in stories.

Prove that clean water enables children to go to school. 

Prove that giving a businesswoman a small loan enables her son to train to become a local doctor.

Systems are complex, but the persistence in recognizing these complexities is continuing to provide progress.

Also, despite the complexity, God somehow knows and understands how all our lives are intertwined within each other and also knows the ways in which we interact with His world.  Therefore, we should bring our sufferings before him in prayer and allow Him to partner with us in fixing these systems. With the greatest Systems Engineer on our side, we should have full confidence in redemption.

This is post #1 of 10 in reaction to ideas posted on fastcoexist.com through Mark Cheng from Ashoka, an organization that provides venture capital to social entrepreneurs around the world. His ideas originate from his attendance at the Skoll World Forum in April 2013. 

Social Entrepreneurship (def.):

(This is the first post in a 10-part series on social entrepreneurship. To receive updates on the remaining posts, I encourage you to subscribe via email... once I convince you it will be a good idea in my below message). :P

I like to use visual aids to explain concepts, often using pictures and videos. You can scroll through my past blog posts to see this style exemplified.

I opened my browser to a Youtube home page and typed in "what is a social entrepreneur". There was only one video that answered the question most directly and most succinctly, although there were some excellent references to one of the grandfathers of social entrepreneurship as well as thoughts posted from the leader in the global discussion on social entrepreneurship.  Anyway, here be the winner, created by a social network provider for social entrepreneurs (see if you can guess the country of origin):



Social entrepreneurship is an attractive term.  It sounds good, for no one argues with the "sexiness" of entrepreneurship. And if you are an extrovert, putting the world "social" on the front makes it nearly irresistible! Discussions on social entrepreneurship has a way of making people talk in sweeping generalities with fantastic ideas at wide-sweeping change, embracing the idea of CHANGE with as much fervor as a 5-year-old near an ice cream truck.

I poke fun because I actually do believe in the discussion. I do believe in the zeal. I do believe in the passion. But social change is difficult. But social change requires long commitments. But the pursuit of social change can at times be... well... "unsexy".

Still, as it may be, I think the discussion is necessary... for it is often over dinner, at the local bar, or even during the church coffee hour that these big ideas turn into tangible efforts. These discussions provide the soil from which good fruit can grow. We will stand and praise the fruit and will present its pretty colors at the grocery stores, but the shoppers may never know about the time your tractor broke, or the time the seeds washed away in a torrential downpour, or the time that you got a flat tire while bringing the fruit to market. These discussions often focus on the shiny fruit, but forget to remember the toil that is involved in bringing its shine. But even still, I believe in the discussion, for it is the beauty and dream of bringing shiny and tasty fruit to the marketplace that will see us through the difficulties.

This is my hope, that the one "drop in the sea" that is my blog, has a ripple effect of discussions as I embark on this series. While I welcome the interaction in my comments section, the discussion is more likely to happen internally with yourself and then re-awakened at another time, where a further discussion among friends and acquaintances will bring forth the ideas and the commitments.

I encourage you to subscribe to my next series of posts which will be reactions to ideas that have already been posted through fastcoexist.com by Mark Cheng from Ashoka, an organization that provides venture capital to social entrepreneurs around the world. His ideas were inspired by this past year's event hosted by the Skoll World Forum in April 2013.

By entering your email address in the blog's left-hand menu, you will have the opportunity to listen/join the discussion on the 10 Ideas Driving the Future of Social Entrepreneurship.

Did I spark your interest? I would be honored to have you on-board!