fundamentals

i play soccer on an indoor team at the blast in burnsville. we are the flying chinchillas and we're not that bad. we win most of our games and usually play well together. a couple weeks ago, we were playing a team we should have beaten by five or six and struggled. i was on the side with my close friend, our injured goalie, and we were discussing what was missing.

fundamentals.

while half the guys on our team have collegiate soccer experience, some of the guys are lacking the proper fundamentals of the game. that can hurt you sometimes.

now, those guys are developing the fundamentals and it shows in our play. i'm glad to have those guys on our team. but it brought something to my attention.

sometimes i forget the fundamentals. sometimes i get caught up in the moment and forget to pass the ball to the open man and rip it when i have no shot. sometimes i clear the ball out of our half to an open player of the opposing team, when all i needed to do was trap the ball and give a short pass to a team mate. sometimes i forget the fundamentals.

can i be a little vulnerable? i forget the fundamentals of my relationship with God sometimes too. sometimes i forget that He wants me to talk to Him. sometimes i forget that He speaks to me clearly and on matters of today through the Bible. sometimes i forget that living on my own will not work for long and i will get burnt out and frustrated. i need to be constantly reminded of the fundamentals.

keep your eyes up... watch the field
make the easy pass.
trap the ball... then move.

pray
read
rely on God

new home

two days ago i moved in with a couple friends of mine.

i'd like to introduce you to my friends glen and jenn edwards.

they have a 3 month old weimaraner named emma. cute!
i now live closer to eagan, the hub of my existence.
i'm happy.

why not the funny ones?

it could be for the fact that we didn't watch many when i was a little ben lakin. possibly it has something to do with the sense of humor i got from my father. for whatever reason, i am not a fan in any way of "the funny ones".

some friends are watching nacho libre and want me to watch it with them. i wish i could want to watch it with them, but for the love of art i cannot. i am not amused.

stupid movies are lame.

last night i went to the dakota jazz club and restaurant with a bunch of people. the music was great and the food was as well. it was comforting, exciting and inspiring to realize that there were about 15 people there and i knew all of them prior to showing up at the dakota. not only that, i was able to meet some guys from eau claire. one of those guys was the leader of the music team at a church in eau claire. he and i were able to talk through a bunch of ideas that are on the forefront of both our minds.

last night was a huge encouragement that community is developing at the path and God is doing far more than i could perceive or even imagine.

is that german?

i need to tell you about my friend, austin ferber. he is my most quotable friend.

"anything's worth writing a song about"

i can't touch that.

me - "ferber, is that german?"
austin ferber - "sounds like it."

amazing.

anyway, i was thrilled to learn that my friend austin plays the keys. not only is it nice to have other musicians become interested in playing at the path, it's an enormous blessing to have a good friend be one of the first to jump in and become a part of the team.

there have already been a number of others express interest in playing and i am anxious to begin testing the waters with all of these musicians. if you are a musician and are interested in playing at the path, shoot me an email (ben@thepathcc.com) or comment on this blog. get in touch with me somehow and we can talk about where your gifts fit in the scheme of things.

if you haven't met austin ferber, it's worth coming to the path to meet this guy. i guarantee he will make your day.

take a hint

in the beginning, (i like opening stories like that. they seem to be a bigger deal.) anyway...

in the beginning, we were happy to have enough guys for a full indoor soccer team. the sessions are only 8 weeks long, so we could build on that foundation the next session. we had one individual who, putting it nicely, had no clue what he was doing. at the end of the first session, we decided collectively that it was in the best interest of the team to do two things. the first thing we would do is move up to a more competitive division. the second thing we would do is dismiss a certain individual on the team with the first thing in mind, since this certain individual lacked the skills to keep up with the less competitive division.

we had the unofficial, yet unanimously supported, head coach of the team write a gentle email explaining our desire to be more competitive and the changes that were necessary to make that desire a reality. this certain individual replied accepting the offer for him to play the next session, an offer that was not given. as a matter of fact, the offer was very politely removed from the table in the gentle email.

our unofficial, yet unanimously supported, head coach had a dilemna. "do i reiterate a simple concept and risk damaging this person's self-confidence forever?" "yes!!" we all found the decision somewhat easier.

so, i wonder... how many times have i been that guy? how many friends have tried to gently dismiss me from a place i just didn't belong? how many times have i been so obviously and awkwardly out of my element that it hindered the performance of others? i hope i've not been there. but if you're my friend and i have been, do us both a favor and don't dance around it. just tell me. i can take it... i think.

back and back again...

i lose track of things rather frequently. these things could be objects or appointments or anything really. name something.... it's very likely i could lose track of it.

have you ever lost track of something you like a lot? sure, we lose tracks of keys and that's frustrating. we lose track of a wallet or purse and that's a huge headache. but then there are some things we lose and it sucks because you really liked that thing. i hate losing track of hats, especially if i've had one for a long time. have you ever lost track of your favorite pair of shoes? yeah. me too.

how awesome is it when you find that thing?! there's a different kind of feeling when you find something that you really like but didn't necessarily need as opposed to finding a wallet or keys. with a wallet or keys, it's mostly relief and partially joy. however, with other things it's reversed. there is so much joy. you don't really need relief because life would not be over or even inconvenient without this thing. it's all happiness and celebration... like a present when you don't deserve a present. freaking awesome!!!

this happens for me with people. i'll meet someone and start hanging out with them and for whatever reason one of us will leave. i've just met this person, so it's not like i have a huge casm of emptiness with them gone. but it's really amazing when we end up in the same place again unexpectedly. these people are like presents when i don't deserve a present and i thank God for them.