Posts from — November 2008

Jeopardy. “Alex, I’ll take Norwegian fjords for $100 please.” You’ve seen it plenty of times. Answers are given in the form of questions. Each answer doesn’t necessarily add up to a lot of money but in the end if you answer a lot right you can walk away with some decent change.

My wife Janie had seen some glory while on the CBS The Price Is Right. She won a lot of stuff on that show during the Bob Barker days when we lived in the Los Angeles area and were working with the launch of one of the original Vineyard churches. Long story short, “If she can do it, so can I.” A mutual friend of ours coached me on how to succeed in the game show biz without trying too much. He was in the Screen Actor’s Guild as are many who do well on those things. He gave me some tips. I went down to the try outs locally to attempt to get onto Jeopardy.

The first part of the try out is a knowledge quiz. That portion of the try out blitzed out the majority of the crowd. Of the fifty who began there were maybe eight still left who had apparently graduated from college and knew a bit about geography. I ended up doing a photo session with a Polaroid Instant Shot camera. The guy who took my picture said “Give me your best shot!” I thought he meant “Fake your best acting face” so I put on a pose that looked something like an edgy car salesman who was hyperactively hungry for a sale. I was way over the top with my look.

Some minutes later when it was time for the people present to do a quick interview together with the producer he pulled out my picture but couldn’t locate me in the group. Seriously. I was impossible to find in that very small group. The face I mustered up some minutes before was pretty much impossible for any sane human being who was not overdosed on crank to do once again. He didn’t say much but he flashed my picture to the assistant nearby. They looked at it together for a second and started laughing. Can you imagine the nerve of them. They were laughing at my portrait. I was in danger of having my poor little feelings hurt. But I learned some powerful summary lessons.

Be Yourself.

You are acceptable in and of yourself. You are worth rejoicing over as you are without the Actor’s Guild add-ons.

It’s Not Worth It To Fake It.

To change forward toward alterations is one thing but to fake it is to ignore who we really are deep down in God’s creation of us. When we try to be someone we are not we wallow in lies and the admission we don’t like the us we have been made to be.

Rejoice In Your Own Capacities.

You are good enough in your own story. There is no need to attempt to be or do anything that is different than what you are about. There are desires in you right now that are worth feeding. Nourish your creative hungers and see what comes of it. Who knows, you might then end up on a really cool, intelligent game show such as Family Feud!

The Starbucks “Pay It Backwards” story is an echo of what has taken place with SE stuff for fifteen twenty years. It is encouraging and scary at the same time. It is essential that we explain WHY we are doing what we do to show God’s love. To be nice to people for niceness sake does essentially nothing for people other than raise their spirits for a moment for so. It is vital that an act of mercy be tied to the presence of God in some way.

A connect card is a decent habit to get involved with. Check out KindnessResources.com for a variety of cards to choose from. Leave these in your wake at least to show others why you have done what you have. Otherwise you leave it to the recipient to draw a conclusion on their own regarding the act of charity.

Friends of mine are serving as roving “Street Pastors” in various cities in the U.K., Europe and North America. This short news clip captures the espirit de corp of these folks. Their attitudes are contagious as you will catch on this video.

Check out this video:

This has been a stellar week for me. My birthday was on Tuesday. I’m old but not that old. My son Jack thinks I’m old because I’m older than 21. I think I am younger than a lot of much younger people because I engage in playful activity a LOT.

“When you stop playing you begin to age.” – Steve Sjogren

A year ago at this time of course my birthday occurred again. It’s funny how that works every year about the same time on the calendar and everything. This has been a lifelong pattern for me so far. I’ll keep you posted on future developments here.

Last year I had less than 10 people outside of my physical presence in some way express birthday wishes to me. That may be a lot for some people. I didn’t think it was few necessarily. I was glad to hear from about a dozen people. Nice stuff. This year that number was a staggering sum closer to 150 – no exaggeration (thank you to those who are still well wishing me who think my day is different than it is – I’m not legalistic – I’m pretty much celebrating the entire month of November!). Now there are some differences between this year and last. I have over 1000 Facebook friends — a lot more than last year. But the people who wished me a happy birthday this year were mostly ones I knew last year. Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yes there is. Glad you asked.

Keep doing small things with great love faithfully.

Don’t give up.

What you sow will return upon you in abundance… (for better or for worse.)

There are universal spiritual-physical-relational dynamics we send into the universe that “Go around” and in time “Come around” to us. I wish this sort of thing were more scientific. It is a lot like quantum physics. There are rules to it but we don’t know yet how to explain them all. As far as I can tell it is not in the least a tit for tat matter that we can quantify or calendar in but it is indeed a spiritual truth that we can bank on in the long run. The good guys win. Yeah. The bad guys lose. Yeah again. What we sow we will reap even as Jesus followers – thus it is a good idea to pray for mercy on a regular basis in light of the misdeeds we have accomplished (committed).

Those of you who know me realize I am big on wishing others a happy birthday. I’ve been doing this for about 20 some years. I have done some wild and crazy things in the name of celebrating birthdays. Some of these things have been rather expensive even. Too much to go into here on a mere blog, but the years that I commissioned an artist to do original art and produce cards for several thousand people at my church on their birthday – GREAT IDEA now that I think of it. I am almost irritating in my enthusiasm about wishing others a happy birthday. I don’t do this with everybody but with some some years — it could be you — I call them pretty early and sing them all a Bill Murray-style of a lounge singer with the vibrato Las Vegas sound. It sounds like a prank call at first. If you get one don’t hang up – it’s for real. If you live on the West Coast I apologize in advance. I happen to live in Florida where the time is always three hours ahead of you. I sometimes forget that it is 6:15 A.M. there. You’d be surprised how often I connect and am the only one who remembers the day though… That’s another blog perhaps.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who in some way wished me a happy bday. You have no idea how much all of that means to me. I have teared up in my reflection of this in the writing of this blog. In my life a sincerely spoken, heartfelt good word goes a long way. YOU’D BE SURPRISED HOW MANY OTHERS OUT THERE ARE LIKE ME! It is worth the effort to keep on keeping on in your well wishing of others – whether bdays, anniversaries, or just an “attaboy” for being consistent at doing their job. “Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word rightly spoken” wrote Solomon. Hide that in your heart today.

Most interesting comment I received:
Scottish Pastor I’ve never met in person who had apparently never seen my face except recently on Facebook: “Steve you look so young considering your age.” (When does feeble officially start?)

My response to him on Facebook: “Yes, the secret to my young face — I avoid Scottish bar fights like the plague — the kind where people bash your face in with their forehead then kick you until you are unconscious.” I think I’ll stick to Starbucks and sipping coffee!

Christianity Today has posted a thorough story on the role of SE and outreach. It is exciting to see the wheels of progress turn in this direction! How many of you can relate to the points raised here by the CT writers?