Words to Live By

"...the only way to get through the sad is the funny."-Katie Crouch (The Rumpus Magazine)

Finding God Where We Don't Think He Normally Goes...

“A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there’s more conversation.” William Blake (1757 – 1827) 

Check out this blog entry from Resistance and Renewal  entitled  Finding God on Sundays (in the pub) .

For a majority of mainstream Protestant American Christians the idea of going into a bar is abhorrent due to certain cultural beliefs (not necessarily scriptural based beliefs). That said, a pub in England, (short for a Public House), is not the same thing as most bars in the USA-there are pubs where people bring their kids and its a community meeting place.

Become a Life Coach!

You ever have something annoy you and you're not entirely sure why it annoys you? I saw the photo above on a website and something about it rubbed me the wrong way. I assumed it was just me being in a snit and went about my business. 

A couple of hours later, it hit me: This annoys me because of the assumptions that it makes about being a life coach. This gives the impression that being a Life Coach is a matter of taking an online course and starting to tell people how to run their lives. Remember the old SNL sketch of Matt Foley-the motivational speaker? 

Chris Farley portrays a 35 year old loser who lives in a van down by the river but portrays himself as a famous motivational speaker who scares kids away from drugs by his tough talk. 

Sure, I'm over simplifying it and this could be a fine course with good information. But my point is this-being a life coach should be more than a title that you wake up one morning and decide to call yourself. It should be more than just an online course you take that lets you decide you have the right to speak into people's life. 

Why do I feel so strongly about this? I hate the casual approach to people's lives. I don't feel that a one size fits all approach works in all arenas. Being a life coach, (I prefer the term mentor), should be a result of someone being truly successful in their life; they should be someone who knows you intimately and who you decided to trust. 

In my own life, there have been several people who "decided" they were going to be my mentor when I was younger. Then there were people that I watched from afar and tried to emulate their lives. There are people I have known intimately who have taken me under their wing and helped me and gave me an example to shoot for. 

When I see the difference between that and the casual concept of life coaching, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Yes, I understand that this could be purely my opinion and that there could be valid online courses to teach you how to help others. I'm willing to believe that. However, my point remains that choosing a mentor is not the same as choosing a hair stylist. There are far too many casual relationships in this world that may give us the appearance of real success without producing any substantive growth in our character.