West Coast Ryan

Current Location: Nanaimo

[westcoastryan]

Has anyone else noticed the dress-code shift that happens throughout the semester?? #Finals #School #PeopleChange | #twitter

[westcoastryan]

3-years ago today we started a new chapter of our lives in Nanaimo. So thankful for the amazing friends we've made, the incredible opportunities, and Gods tremendous faithfulness. #3years #timeflies

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #7: "You can get anything you want." The belief that something is wrong if at any point in life I am anything less than fulfilled is dangerous and probably one of the reasons that teens can lose a decade or more of their life trying to find the "perfect" career, "perfect" spouse or craft the "perfect" body... When we teach them that Hollywood doesn't portray anything even remotely realistic, we break the disappointment cycle before it starts and point them toward the source of true meaning and fulfillment. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #6: "Everyone's a winner, just for trying." The era of the participation trophy produces adults that aren't ready for the real world where competition is fierce and NOT everyone wins. We need to teach our kids how to deal with failure, lose with grace, learn from mistakes and persevere in the face of defeat. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #5: "Faster is better - it's about the now." Everything in our world - from food to entertainment - is fulfilled with incredibly speed. But we need to set aside time to cast vision for sustained long-term gratification if we want to see our kids experience the joy of 40th wedding anniversaries, lifetime achievements and hard-fought breakthroughs. Living for more than the "now" is a critical life skill. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #4: "Every kid needs to go to college." Things have changed and a 4-year degree is not the gateway into job security and better salary the way it once was... As a parent, invest some time into understanding the emerging job market that your teen is considering and be prepared to think outside the box. Sending kids to university to "find themselves" usually just means huge student loans and 6 different majors. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #3: "You are special." Yes, they are unique, they are loved, and most importantly, they are ours... But they are not "special." They are, for the most part, entirely ordinary, and that's OK. Let's stop pretending that their value comes from their being outstanding and extraordinary... Because when they meet people more accomplished and talented than they are, depression is pretty much a given. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #2: "Everything is a choice." No it's not. Mature adults know that sometimes your preference just isn't the deciding factor. Prepare your kids for the times when they have to suck it up so they won't mistakenly think the whole world revolves around them. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The Lies We Tell Our Kids... #1: "You can be anything you want to be." It's well meaning, but this Disney sentiment just isn't true. Stop setting kids up for failure due to unrealistic goals. Focus on their strengths and help them find their things that they are both good at and teach them to think strategically, because talent isn't the same thing as execution. #ParentingTeens #TimElmore #GenerationY #Lies #LiesWeTellOurKids #twitter

[westcoastryan]

The only time I can think of this not applying (so far) would be if you're going to be performing some kind of surgery... but for everything else, probably words to live by.

[westcoastryan]

Pretending is the grease of modern relationships. Pretending perpetuates the illusion of relationship by connecting us on the basis of who we aren't. People who pretend have pretend relationships. But being real is a synonym for messy spirituality, because when we are real, our messiness is there for everyone to see... the truth is, we are a mess. None of us is who we appear to be. We all have secrets. We all have issues. We all struggle from time to time.

Mike Yaconelli in "Messy Spirituality"

[westcoastryan]

They say you’re getting old when the kids haven’t seen the movies you grew up with…. But it can also an OK way to mess with them.

[99percentinvisible]

If we had Dutch-style intersections, we’d ride our bikes everywhere, too

Urban planner Nick Falbo wants U.S. engineers to borrow a trick from the Dutch: Keep the bike lanes on the curb side of parked cars, and then add an island in front of the parking lane in the intersection so that turning cars are forced to give cyclists a little more space.

Just watch what he means. 

[westcoastryan]

REVIEW: Five Theological Words Your Teens Should Know Before They Graduate

I have written before about the importance of teaching theology to your students. Moral lessons only stick if the students can understand the theological 'why' to their actions. We should teach our...

So I saw this article posted to Facebook today, and it got me thinking....  hmmm.... what if we're not lutheran? (or we decide not to camp out on the penal-substitutionary theory of the atonement?)

Personally, I disagree with the article, so I thought I'd suggest my own "Top 5 Theological Terms Your Kids Should Know Before They Graduate". Here's my off-the-cuff list:

1) Adoption (See Ephesians... Paul's actual opus magnum, in my opinion, which sets out God's great plan to adopt humanity into the family of the trinity, in Jesus. Especially if we communicate with teens, this vocabulary is not only critical, it's scriptural)2) Repentance (Greek = metanoia.... which means "to change the way you know" ... crazy to think that most evangelicals aren't aware of what a paradigm-shift this word actually implies, well beyond 'turning from sin' as it's too often dumbed down to)3) Eschatology (If we're going to throw a few big theological words in, this one is the best bang for your buck... let's talk about the already-but-not-yet aspect of God's kingdom, and especially the return of Christ. Give teens notice that there is hope no matter how bleak, and that justice will be served.)4) Ontology (this is a fancy word that means the theology of personhood... again, if we're going to go down the road of big theological words, talking with teens about their identity and humanity might be a really important idea... especially since it's the backdrop of the entire scriptural narrative from Exodus to Jesus)5) Live-By-The-Spirit (OK, I cheated, but this is Paul's thesis for Christian discipleship. not moral codes, not good efforts and clean noses... we should teach this better)Those are my 5... .anyone else?s 

[semperreformanda]

Don’t equate the presence of God with a good mood or a pleasant temperament. God is near whether you are happy or not.

Max Lucado (via godmoves)

#snap

[westcoastryan]

“In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought…"

Pope Francis, responding to Christians who are more concerned with condemning that which they "oppose" than extending mercy, love and grace.

[westcoastryan]

An inconvenient truth that nobody wants to acknowledge... how come social media slacktivists have so much hate to share with the world?? And how come we license hate against certain groups of people like it's no big deal?? I just have this crazy idea that we could love everybody, even if we really disagree with them.