Last year I wrote 29 reflections/highlights/insights/things and the year before I wrote 28 reflections, now I bring you 30 reflections/highlights/insights/things! I can’t believe the “big 3-0″ hits today! Unreal! As I wrote earlier in the week, I’m actually not fearing it and I’m actually looking forward to it. Why? Here is one reason why….

The years teach much which the days never knew. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This reminds me of sitting in Pastor Michael’s office, during one of our Monday morning discipleship sessions, reflecting on something (which was normal, as he would spiritually kick my butt time and time again!) and looking at him and saying, “I just wish I could get old fast!” Kind of strange coming from the mouth of a college student, but then again it wasn’t for me. It was sometime during college that I realized growth, maturity and wisdom can’t be forced. It develops over time in the heart, mind and life of an individual. It takes time. It was then that I realized the years are a great teacher. So here’s to another year and another decade behind me and a just a tad bit more wisdom, growth and maturity hopefully to my life! Oh yeah, the learning might just be beginning, if this quote is true…

Everything I know I learned after I was thirty. - Georges Clemenceau

1. Number 1, has to be what I just wrote! I’m excited to welcome this new 30-something chapter to my life because it seems to bring a whole new set of adventures and lessons to my life!
2. I have absolutely beautiful and stunning sisters, that every year continue to amaze me with their beauty, talents, creativity and so much more! I love you Megs and Miks!

3. My parents seem to become cooler and cooler with everyday I know them. I can’t quite describe this. They have always been my biggest cheer leaders, but they seem to become greater and greater with age! They amaze me. Thank you Mom and Dad! I’m thankful I was conceived 30 years and 9 months ago!
4. Even though age brings wisdom, years also break hurts. I think the 29th year of my life, might have brought more emotional hurts than the previous short 28 years. Many events transpired over the last year that brought me to my knees in tears and also in prayer! Most of these events, I of course, wish I wouldn’t have had to deal with, but then on the other hand I’m grateful for them. Doesn’t make sense does it? At least not by the world’s standards, it doesn’t make sense! But if God does exist and is indeed sovereign then each hurt, betrayal and etc. had a purpose, it wasn’t some random event that happened at the result of broken people, including me! (Romans 8:28) Therefore, I am grateful for the hurts that the 29th year brought, because God was working for His Glory and my good in the midst of it all!
5. I love traveling. Every time I’m traveling, I feel at home! I love it! New places, new faces, new cultures and more of seeing God’s beauty expressed all over the world! (below: Nerja, Spain & New York, New York)

6. Much to my mother’s displeasure, I’m still accepting applications for this position! (see below) (I listened to my mother tell me, at least, once again, this week, that she would like grandkids sooner than later! Haha! You’ll have to talk to Megs and Tom about that one mom!)

7. In my 29th year I discovered that the “coaching blood” of my father also flows in my veins! Last year, because of several situations, I became the head coach of the Prague Lions Junior Team and I couldn’t have asked for a better first season as a head coach! We only had one loss and it was by a mere two points. Then we went on to have one of the biggest comebacks in Czech football history and then repeated this in the Championship game to reclaim the crown! What a huge blessing! I’m stoked about our fall season! GO LIONS!
8. The Czech Republic celebrated 20 years of freedom from communism last November and as I was in the midst of the crowd I had a this overwhelming longing to see another revolution in this country! This isn’t anything new, I’ve said this before, but being in a throng of Czechs celebrating political and social freedom, made me long for a deeper change here. Please continue to pray for the Czech Republic, pray that this revolution would take place!

(more…)

I had intended to get a post up entitled, “the last month of my 20s…” but sadly that moment passed, but I couldn’t let the moment pass to blog on the last week of my 20s. It’s actually been a fun year of being 29 and being around many people (my players) that are much younger and hearing their youthful jeers of me nearing the big 3-0. It’s also been a year of looking forward to what my 30s will bring and embracing the 30 number and knowing that before I know it I will be blogging “the last week of my 30s” (If blogs even exist in 10 years!)! With that realization, I’ve refused to be one of those in the twilights of his 20s that is “drowning in his pool of twenty something self-pities!” So with this last week of my 20s, I’ll embrace being a twenty something for but a few more days and moreover I’ll revel in being a thirty something sooner than later!

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” -Mark Twain

My players (I’m working with guys as young as 14), have asked me does it scare me, that I’ll be 30 soon. Again this is coming from a teenager, but they are serious. I have twenty something friends who have the same questions. It’s been comedic at times and it has made me ask, “What will it be like not be a twenty something?” But the quote from Mark Twain above seems to sum up how I feel, in that I really don’t mind it. It’s is also amazing, when I see this played out in the lives of many oldER people in my life, who really don’t care how old they are but continue to live in such a beautiful way! So I say to the big 3-0, that will roll into my life Sunday - “BRING IT!” So here’s to “mind over matter!” Have a great week and no matter how old you are BE A REVOLUTION & MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS WEEK!

Happy MOM’s day to every Mom out there, but especially to my Rock Star, Diva of a mom, Kate Harrod! Below is one of my fav pics of my mom!

So here is my Mom’s Day post for you Kate Harrod!

I pray you have a great day and know that your kids one-third of the world away from you miss you and adore you so much!

Thanks for everything you have done for you us and will do for us!

As I was thinking about you this morning, I thought of many things about you that have insprired me (or us) in our lives, so I thought I shared them with you and the two readers of zACHhARROD.com! Mom, thank you for inspiring us to…
…put our whole hearts into anything we did!
…love.
…not be afraid of emotions. It’s okay to cry.
…be in touch with our roots, your roots.
…travel. My mom would take us kids with her to her midwifery conferences all over North America. I think this is where her kids’ travel bug came from. (So mom, I guess , in some ways, it’s kind of on you that we live overseas! Thank you for taking us with you!)
…work hard.
…never quit.
…be good citizens, even if we voted differently than you voted!
…never settle for mediocrity.
…dream.
…strive to excellence in all do!
…make the most of what we have.
…love learning.
…be more than the status-quo.
…and much, much more….

I love you so much Mom! Thank you for everything you are and more over thank you for being my friend! Happy Mom’s Day!

…I said more vids were to come, I didn’t lie! My boy, Kachna, and I finished this one this morning. Check it out! It’s for our recruiting campaign - Zkus Hrát - which means, “Try to Play!” There will be more to come, of course, all in Czech! With that said, I hope you enjoy it, even if you don’t speak Czech!

Hello! It has been quite some time since I’ve made an appearance around here. I’ve been saying that a lot in the past few months. It is the rare moment that Zach Harrod makes an appearance on his own blog! Something is wrong with that! I need to get around to finishing all these “drafts” I’ve started. Trust me my silence on my blog hasn’t been without reason. It’s been a crazy 2010 thus far, and 2010 that has left me grasping, sometimes helplessly, for something firm to hold on to. Most of this, if not all of this, has revolved around the team (the Prague Lions) that I’ve worked with since 2004. I won’t get into the details, but with all the craziness going on with my team this off-season, I wanted to create a video to motivate my guys (mostly the juniors, but the seniors as well) to work hard but also to drive home key values of our team. Core values that I’m working into a leadership program, that is similar to what Coach Jim Tressel, of The Ohio State, has done with what he calls the The Winners Manual: For the Game of Life. I hope to blog some more on this in the future, as right now I’m working hard to put it together, which also include translating stories and quotes from English to Czech, as part of my Czech homework! I believe deeply in this, because at the end of the day if football is only about x’s and o’s and doesn’t develop young men to be better teammates, students, workers, sons, brothers, fathers and overall better citizens, then what is the point?!?! So with that said, I put this quick highlight video together for my junior team.

A rough translation of the text is this, “When no one else believes, and all that is left is the faith of the team, what does this this create?”

odvaha - courage
bratrství - brotherhood
láska - love
vernost - loyalty
váše? - passion
sláva - glory

Enjoy and look back for more Lions videos, as I’m wearing the hate of marketing/PR guy/videographer for the Lions, as well as the roles of Offensive Coordinator for the Senior team and continue as the Head Coach for the Junior team. GO LIONS!

collision

• instance of one moving object or person striking violently against another : a midair collision between two aircrafts.

• an instance of conflict between opposing ideas, interests, or factions : a collision between experience and theory | cultures in collision.

As I begin writing this, I’m currently 35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean and I’m preparing mentally, emotionally and spiritually for something I have yet to experience in my short 29 years of existence, that being - a collision of my world! As I sit here writing this, Kachna is watching the Michael Jackson tribute, Martin is over my left shoulder laughing at a movie and Matej is sawing logs in a deep sleep. This three guys are about to experience a whole new world in about 4 hours, but I’m also about to experience this collision. I can’t wait!

The levels of collision will be interesting. Yes there will be the collision of Czech and American cultures, which are “two of my worlds.” But there will also be the world that I work in and my family, that world as well with those who support me through prayer and financially. Then on top of that there will be this collision of the skeptic, I’m-an-atheist Czech world with American Christianity in the form of meeting my ministry partners (a.k.a. supporters) and also meeting Christian college students. I’m sure there are some more worlds that will collide over the next two weeks, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.

Collisions indeed can be deadly and even ugly (which I’m hoping and praying won’t be the coming collision for us), but I like to see beautiful collisions and also think of collisions as beautiful things. See when things collide there are marks, their are results from a collision, these results can either be deadly or beautiful. Or even both deadly and beautiful. I think back on my freshman year of college and the collision that it was. My world of cultural Christianity and I’m-a-Christian-because-I-go-to-church-every-now-and-then attitude colliding with the true God. In that collision there was both death and life. It was indeed beautiful. I’m praying that the coming collisions will bring the death that is necessary for life, and thus beauty. Would you pray with me for beautiful collisions and also I encourage you to go out today, stir things up, be a revolution and be part of some beautiful collisions!

That’s right I’m coming to America! I leave in less than 12 hours, but this time it will be different! I’m bringing three of my guys!!! Tomorrow at noon (Prague time) Matej, Martin, Kachna and I will be leaving the ground on a plane bound to Chicago! I can’t wait! It should be great! We would love your prayers! Pray it up please! We hope to see you while we are in the States, some of you will have 3 chances, here they are:

February 10 – Southern WI/Northern IL - Simple Cafe (525 Broad St. Lake Geneva, WI)
February 11 – Oshkosh Area at RiverValley Church (1331 High Ave, Oshkosh, WI)
February 17 – Xenia, OH at AIA Headquarters (Staff Dining Room, 1197 S. Detroit St.)

We hope to see you!

I’ve caught lots of grief from friends, both in Prague and in the States, about my twitter (Don’t know what Twitter is? Where have you been living? Sorry for the sarcasm, here’s an explanation.) habit over the last year or so. It’s actually been pretty entertaining at times. I’ve been “defrieneded” on facebook (because I send my tweets to fb) due to my tweeting habit and then I’ve had others say they love it. Quite a contrast, isn’t it? In the midst of this, I’ve actually grown to enjoy twitter and the positives of tweeting and being on twitter. Here are some of the positive that come to my mind (I’m not trying to be a twitter evangelist, but you can read others for that.):

• Feeling connected with friends that are an ocean away.

• Being able to pray for those friends as they are doing life and ministry. I know I can do this without Twitter, but it’s a good reminder.

• People standing with me in prayer. It’s cool knowing that when I tweet there are people that will read it and lift me or that request up in that moment.

• Being challenged theologically, biblically and so much more. I love that I have such a difference people, whom I follow, that are constantly challenging me through their short 140 character messages.

• It’s taught me to be brief, well briefer, or should I say getting to the point, if that’s possible! Those of you that know me, know that I’m not one who is lost for words ofter, and I struggle with being concise. Well 140 characters, let’s say, is a bit of challenge for me.

• It’s entertaining. I follow some people that just make me laugh. Living in Prague and the challenges that it can present, I find myself needing to laugh more. Twitter brings laughs through some hilarious people.

Those are some great things, yeah? But I’ve also seen negatives of the world of tweeting and those are why I did my short week plus tweet detox. Here are the negatives for me:

• It consumes my life. I find myself not wanting to miss a tweet and in not wanting to miss a tweet, I can live on on twitter (actually my iPhone). This is the main reason I said, “I need a tweet detox.”

• With it being time consuming, I don’t want to look at a screen more than the faces of people in front of me! So it can rob me of relational time. I want to engage the person, who is actually in front of me, in conversation, with my heart and not stare as some well-picked profile pic.

• Tweeting can lead me from my identity in Christ and who I actually am. I can fine, or have found myself, worried about being some of other guy - who will wow people, make me people roll laughing, make people ponder the deepest of thoughts and so on. I have found myself trying to reinvent who I am, because of others, instead of simply being me, Zach Harrod.

There is why I did my detox. Some of you out there, might think I’m needing some professional help. No worries, I don’t think I am addicted and I think where I am is actually very healthy. However, needless to say, I needed to step away. I needed to see, what life was like without twitter. If I could do it in a healthy and redemptive manner. I was led to asking this, because recently I’ve had good friends hang up there tweeting (or fb) cleats and have called it quits because social networking was consuming them. I give these friends credit that they acknowledged it was affecting them in negative ways. With that said, I think my week plus, was enough to strip me of the negatives of my tweeting, enough to me, to still do relationship with those around me and live in a way that is healthy, while still tweeting. It’s actually been more refreshing since the detox, I don’t feel the pressure to tweet or to read every tweet. I also can actually enjoy twitter redemptively now! Who knew that was possible?!?! No if I could only get back on the blog train and write regularly! We shall see… Thanks for stopping by!

Tomorrow morning I’m heading out of town on a jet plane to Nerja, Spain! And I can’t wait! Every year Campus Crusade for Christ has a Midyear conference for STINTers (Short Term International Interns) and long-term staff members who are serving throughout Europe. I haven’t attended this in the past, but this year it couldn’t come at a better time. I’ve been going hard for some time now and I need some space to catch my breath, to pray and to process much going on in ministry and also in life. It will also be great, being around those who are serving throughout Europe. Would you please pray that the Lord would meet me in a special way over this next week! Thanks for the prayers and thank you for being you!

As promised some time ago, here is a little taste of Barcelona in zhtv fashion! I hope you enjoy it and I hope it encourages you go get a passport and see this great world that God has created! Get out there in the midst of it and be a REVOLUTION for the King and His kingdom!