Archive for February, 2010

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!