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.

i found my reason.

to ring in the new year two friends of mine and i played 18 holes of frisbee golf and joined another friend for about two hours of boot hockey (it's a minnesota thing) with the high temperature of the day reaching 5 degrees. we're freaking crazy people!!!

anyway... upon playing boot hockey with single digit temperatures, numb fingers (which eventually warmed up, thank God), many very funny falls, and one of the best times i've had since moving here in early august i had an apostrophe. "you mean an epiphane." lightning had struck my brain.

i found my reason.

i moved to the twin cities for one reason only. i was created to play boot hockey. i shared this revelation of tremendous inspiration with my friend gunter at the end of the second game and he laughed at me. it didn't take him very long to realize that i was very serious. it was upon the realization of my extreme sincerity that he regained his composure to pat me on the shoulder and affirm my reason for being in the twin cities.

you see... it's a beautiful balance of skill, grace, and the lack of both that make boot hockey so incredible. i absolutely love the sport and look forward to many games in the future. i think i'm going to have to find some mittens though.

as much as i have other reasons for moving to the twin cities (reasons i am far more passionate about and would love to share with you at any time), i believe that we all have reasons for doing the things we do. i would suggest that on the frequent occassion we question our reasons. why do we do the things we do? what's our inspiration? what are we living for?

i think knowing the answer to these questions says volumes for who we are. think about it and decide if who you are is who want to be remembered for.