Life is Short

The CCDA is comprised of thousands of Christians throughout the States and around the world. Founded by Dr. John Perkins, “the CCDA is a network of Christians committed to seeing people and communities wholistically restored. We believe that God wants to restore us not only to right relationship with Himself but also with our own true selves, our families and our communities. Not just spiritually, but emotionally, physically, economically, and socially. Not by offering mercy alone, but by undergirding mercy with justice.” (http://ccda.org/about).

Many of us work in broken, poor neighborhoods across America. We fight for social justice, for racial reconciliation, and for the poor. But most importantly, we love Jesus and seek to follow his command to love him, and to love others.

From Wednesday evening through Saturday Evening, approximately 3,000 people gathered in Indianapolis for the annual CCDA conference. The theme for this year was Innovate. When efforts are old or just aren’t cutting it, and when realities within the poor communities we work change, we must innovate with fresh solutions.

This was the third CCDA national conference I have attended. However, it was different for me in that during my first conference, I was a college student, and during my second conference, I was officially representing a nonprofit organization. During this conference, however, I was representing myself and came to learn without any ties to a school or organization.

Having traveled with several good friends from my church community in the Chattanooga area, I came away from Indianapolis greatly encouraged and inspired. Conversations during the 16 hours on the road were delightful (coming & going combined). I saw several friends from Boston. I met some people doing incredible work around the world. I sat under the teaching of community development warriors including Dr. John Perkins and Wayne Gordon. I learned. I fellowshipped.

There are many thoughts & reflections I am taking away from CCDA 2011. (I just got home today)! Here are just two of these reflections. I may add more to this blog post, or publish subsequent blog posts as I continue to reflect, but I wanted to get these two in writing now.

1. “If we’re too busy to spend time with God, we’re simply too busy.” I am an avid Twitter user, and read this (unrelated-to-CCDA) tweet by @ourdailybread, followed by the tweet’s link (http://odb.org/2011/10/13/too-busy-to-know-god/) Thursday morning and was reminded what drives those of us who are members of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA): our utter dependence on God for everything we do.

   The CCDA is Christian first. So often, in our busyness, we get preoccupied trying to “do good” or “serve the poor” that we forget to spend time with our Creator. Throughout each annual CCDA national conference, Dr. Perkins preaches a “bible study” each morning before the conference kicks off for the day. On Friday morning, preaching from I Timothy, Perkins said that Jesus called his disciples to live with him, and that it is only after being his disciple, steeped in the Fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23) that we can then go out into the world.

   What a great reminder and wake-up call this was for me!

2. Urban American communities and the Christian nonprofits which work in these communities continue to need innovative technological improvements, in some areas that I have not thought of before. Moreover, there are ways I haven’t thought about before in which I could partner with nonprofits across America to help residents learn technology skills.

   I had some great discussions with folks in my car on the drive to and from the CCDA conference, and I learned more about several great organizations. I can see that God is continuing to shape my vision for the future, and that it is one that is constantly evolving. The more I talk about it, the better I am able to articulate it. And the better I’m able to articulate this vision, the more people God seems to put into my life to prod me on, and to help me think of even more ideas.

   As many of my readers know, I studied Community Development but have always been a self-taught computer & IT geek. My vision is to someday merge these two passions together so that I (and my business, Smooth Stone Services) can help nonprofits around the world with their technology needs. I hope to cultivate the ideas and relationships formed (and/or strengthened) over the past 4 days in following whatever he has in store for this business.

These are reflections that I take seriously, and I will work to put these into practice, even now.

To learn more about CCDA, you can visit http://www.ccda.org.
To learn more about my IT consulting business, Smooth Stone Services, you can visit http://www.smoothstoneservices.com

After giving it some thought I have decided to begin steering my blog back to my personal life – and not just blog about technology stuff. I honestly haven’t come up with a great solution for blogging about my personal life, my thoughts, and generally what I’m doing and thinking about doing in the technology industry (like the post I wrote back in March on Technology Solutions for Nonprofit Organizations) versus raw technical topics that 3/4 of my friends & family would have no interest in (and hardly any understanding about).

So if you are one of those 3/4, I apologize.

As I am continuously working on ideas and plans for launching Smooth Stone Services into a full-time venture that will provide web hosting and technical support to nonprofit organizations around the world, I do plan on blogging about pure, raw technical topics. But those will be on Smooth Stone Services’ website from now on (that website has recently been redesigned and upgraded with more features including an interactive forum & wiki as well as a blog for site administrators – like me).

I’ve had an interesting past few days, as well as an interesting few months. As many of my friends know, I am now officially in my last week of work at TechMission, the nonprofit organization I worked with as an AmeriCorps intern, for the past year. Next Wednesday, June 2nd, will be my last day. On Monday, June 14, I will begin a new internship with a freaking-awesome company called Acquia that provides Drupal services. I’m pumped.

In addition to my time at TechMission, I have worked hard on my own business plan and in building a stronger foundation for Smooth Stone Services to eventually turn into my full time business / ministry. All of this time working has kept me busy to the point of not doing much else. Building your own business on top of working a full time job is hard! But this is what I plan on doing for at least the next year or two – and maybe longer.

But right now, I feel like I’m on a bunch of different rabbit trails. Here’s the main point of my blog tonight: I’m getting really excited for my future (whatever that is), but also have a lot of things on my mind. Just a few minutes ago, I set the following to be my Facebook status message:

I forgot how much of what encourages me: a) talking to old college friends on the phone; b) listening to Sleeping at Last (and other music – I don’t turn my stereo on much); c) Taking an evening to “chill” – do a bit of yard work, eat a good dinner, don’t have anywhere to go; or d) All of the Above. If you answered “D” then you win… well nothing. But it’s been a good night.

I have a friend getting married in under two weeks. For the first time in a long time, I cleaned my room yesterday. After being literally sick for about a month, I think I’m finally starting to feel better. And tonight – I took time to chill. Life is good.

Listening to Sleeping at Last a few minutes ago, their song Needle & Thread came on. I’ve never been one to pay attention to lyrics much, but a certain part of the song always sticks out to me whenever I listen to it: We are made of love.

I looked up the lyrics tonight, and they are beautiful. Here’s an excerpt:

That we are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of it.

“You were a million years of work,”
Said God and His angels, with needle and thread.
They kissed your head and said,
“You’re a good kid and you make us proud.
So just give your best and the rest will come,
And we’ll see you soon.”

As I move on from TechMission to my next adventure at Acquia, I want to give my best in all I do. But more than that, I want to give my best in everything I do – building my own business, eventually doing “community development”, and even simply living life.

It’s the simple things in life – taking time to relax, read the Bible, do something physical, listen to good music, talk to old college roommates on the phone – that I don’t do nearly as often as I think I should. But, as Sleeping at Last mentions in another one of their songs, “You are meant for amazing things.”

Life is Short. Why waste it by staying too busy all the time?