Walk With The (Sean) Wise

We're split down the middle And nobody wins; When one war has ended, Another begins. We don't like the outcomes That aren't for our side, So we fight each other Instead of the tide. We can't hear each other Over our own sound; With feet firmly planted, There's no middle ground. The Red and the Blue is The new North and South; We're not shooting bullets, We shoot off our mouth. I fear that our nation Has this for its end: Brother against brother And friend against friend.

Today, while you're at work or at school, Take care not to be seen as a tool, Because on the first day Of the month before May, Everyone wants to make you their fool.

At the onset of me writing this post, my blog has tracked a total of 5,453 page views. Of these, 1,026 views came in the last month, the majority of the time I have been taking part in my personal Lent Blogging Challenge. The audience for those views was mostly from the United States, but also included people in Russia, Germany, Portugal, France, Poland, Canada, Switzerland, Romania, and Australia. These figures are fascinating to me! I don't share these pieces of information to brag on myself at all. I'm just a poor boy from Michigan who has something to say every once in a while. I've been writing on here mostly to get my thoughts down and hopefully even help someone along the way. Never in my life did I think that anything I ever did would be anywhere near this far-reaching. For those of you who started this 40-day journey with me through this challenge, thank you for sticking with me and encouraging me along the way. You've kept me going and brought me to this p...

My favorite church services have always been the ones where multiple congregations get together in the same place. It was my privilege today to play host in Virginia, MN to Salvation Army congregations from Duluth and International Falls, MN and Superior, WI. There's something special about people from different places and circumstances coming together for the purpose of praising God. I see those occasions as glimpses of heaven. God's kingdom includes people from all nations, from all walks of life, who went through the Son to get to the Father. For all the things in the world that try to divide us and keep us apart, isn't it amazing that God has made the ultimate plan for us to be united? So, friends, as much as we can make it happen, let's get together!

She was a beautiful violinist, dedicated to her craft. But nothing could have prepared her for the man who would steal her heart when she accidentally glanced over her stand to the opposite end of the orchestra. A star-studded ensemble highlights this epic tale of forbidden love. Critics say: "It's sure to pluck on all four of your heartstrings." "Adele provides the perfect soundtrack." "The cast should raise their bows and take a bow." Cello from the Other Side -  coming this fall to a theater near you.

My favorite characters in a lot of TV shows and movies are the awkward guys that stumble over their words, are socially awkward, and yet are somehow heroic in the end. Perhaps it's because I identify with their awkwardness. Or perhaps it's because the clean cut, always perfect, never awkward characters seem completely unrealistic to me. Here's to everyone went can't think of what to say, who stutters, who trips over air, and whose bodies shake uncontrollably in uncomfortable circumstances. We are real. We are human. We are awkward.

A house divided cannot stand, But one small fight breaks us again. Our differences could make us strong If we'd just learn to get along. The pettiness of trivial things, As well, the anger that it brings Leave us biting each other's backs, And as we bleed, true love is taxed. We could be winning the same prize, But instead, civil war will rise. We kill our own and set more traps And watch our once great house collapse. A house divided, it will fall, And we, who dropped the final wall Must work together, hand in hand To build on Christ and make it stand.

For those otherwise unaware, the NCAA Men's Basketball Playoffs are currently happening. March Madness is in full swing, and people from sports analysts (not me) to people with zero interest otherwise in college basketball (that would be me) have filled out brackets, trying to guess who will win every game throughout the entire series. It's certainly not an easy thing to guess, and very, very, VERY few people actually end up getting all (or even most) of the picks right along the way. I've developed my own strategy for filling out my bracket every year. Here are the steps. In tribute to my undying love for my home state, if the Indiana Hoosiers are on the bracket, I click them through all the way to winning the championship. I then click through any schools I've started cheering for through my times of moving around, such as the Michigan State Spartans, North Dakota State Bison, and Minnesota Golden Gophers, if they happen to be on the bracket, up until the point...

All the snow melted, Then more snow covered the ground. Oh, Minnesota...

My bride smiled lovingly at me as I pulled her into my arms. After sharing a short, fleeting kiss, we shared in a sweet, warm embrace. She leaned lovingly towards my ear, and her angelic voice began to speak. She said, "you can put the white stool back in the bathroom. I'm almost done folding the kids' clothes." Oh, how I love when she whispers those sweet little nothings in my ear!

They told him to keep Jesus out of his speech, But what he does next? Keep your Kleenex in reach! They said she was sick, With what? They couldn't say. The doctor did what?! I've been shaking all day. This kid's ugly face Made others laugh and tease, But what he does next? Now I'm weak in the knees! What really happened? How much news will I miss? I'm still not clicking, Even though you said THIS!

My hair is going gray. I have zits on my forehead. My left eye is lazy. I can't usually breathe through my nose. My teeth aren't perfectly straight. My hands are shaky sometimes. I'm more than just a little overweight. My right foot turns out. I am asymmetrical. I am not perfect. I am flawed. And yet, God chooses to use my weaknesses to show His strength, my insignificance to show His greatness, and my flaws to show His perfection. Everyone has their own flaws. Anyone who thinks they don't deceives themselves and puts a limit on how God can work in and through their lives. Don't be ashamed of these imperfections. Rejoice in the fact that God has chosen them to use, that through them His glory will be made known!

There once was a blogger named Sean, A Lent challenge he did take on, But he's falling behind, For he missed twenty-nine! And alas! That whole day is gone.

Given that the clocks go ahead tonight and I'm already tired, here are some quick thoughts about Daylight Savings Time: I don't mind the time change in November, but the dreaded time change in March is enough for me to really not like DST at all. I find it interesting that DST lasts for almost eight months, but the four months that it's not on is still referred to as "Standard Time," even though it is 50% less common. Indiana didn't observe DST during the years I lived there. It saddens me a little bit that they changed that. I really hope the congregation at my church remembers the time change and comes to service on time tomorrow. That's all I have on the subject tonight. I'm sure I'll be more vocal about my feelings on the matter tomorrow. Fortunately, tomorrow is also my day off of blogging. Don't forget to set your clocks forward!

Relient K was the band that really sparked my love of music. Their second album was packed full of fun, pop culture reference overloaded, punk rock goodness. However, I never would have discovered this band or this album if it wasn't for a song entitled For the Moments I Feel Faint. It became an instant favorite for me when I heard it on the radio, and it was added quickly to the list of songs my friend Chad and I covered when we performed concerts in his storage shed. This song was loaded with thoughts and questions that I was dealing with myself, and honestly, I still deal with those questions from time to time: "Am I at the point of no improvement? What of the death I still dwell in? I try to excel, but I feel no movement; Can I be free of this unreleasable sin?" I've been to that point of feeling stuck, not knowing if I'm growing or getting anywhere in life, spiritually or otherwise. To hear that frustration expressed in a simple melodic song helped m...

One thing my wife and I have both enjoyed considerably throughout our relationship is playing board and card games. Our skills in most of them are pretty evenly matched, so it's always fun to play through to the end just to see who will end up winning. Every once in a while, we'll pick up a new game from the store and play through a couple times just to see if we like it. Tonight, we played a game that was regifted to us by the guest speaker at the conference we were at last week. The game is called Cross Cribb, and it's a hybrid board and card game variation of cribbage, one of the first games my wife taught me early in our relationship. It was fun to see what was the same, what was different, and ultimately who came out on top. (My wife totally smoked me.) Life could be really easy yet totally boring if we continually just did things the way we know how. Yes, familiarity is great, but variety is the spice of life! I encourage you to try what I'm learning to love -...

Revisiting the past can be a lot of fun. I'm binge watching Fuller House (a total spoof of the original Full House series) while playing the original American version of Pokémon Red on my Nintendo 3DS. My wife and I also wait for new Girl Meets World episodes on Friday nights. It's true that there's nothing new under the sun, but sometimes there's something refreshing about revisiting the past, especially when that past is the 1990s.

Tonight, I'm foregoing my longer post in order to spend time genuinely connecting with my lovely bride. Married guys, I highly advise you to do the same. No other human relationship is as important as that of husband and wife. Take time to truly, deeply, genuinely, and practically love her.

There has always been a part of me that wanted to be the author of a newspaper advice column. I heard about them as a kid, and as kids often do, I thought, yeah, I could do that. I didn't realize at the time that someone actually had to want my advice before I could give it, let alone publish it! Even now, I have a desire to give whatever advice I can to those who want it. However, I've often taken the route of offering advice and solutions when they weren't even requested. I can't help but to try to fix things sometimes, especially when, to me, the solution seems so glaringly obvious! But counseling classes, seven years of marriage, and personal experiences otherwise have all taught me that sometimes (OK, most of the time), people just want someone to listen. In today's society, everybody has an opinion on just about everything, and it's not uncommon for someone to give you their opinion, solution, or "expertise," whether or not what they're t...

Seven billion people inhabit this world. You are one person in seven billion. That's a pretty hefty crowd to get lost in! I used to think that I was fairly unique in my appearance and personality. But then, a friend of mine at camp said that I looked and acted like a character in an Adam Sandler movie. This week, even, when I went to pick up my daughter from school, there was a man walking out of the building. He gave me an excited, smiling greeting. I was really excited that someone was actually happy to see me, even though I had no idea who he was! But then he apologized and told me that he was only excited because he thought I was somebody else. It's easy enough to get lost, overlooked, and ignored in a crowd of seven billion. It's even easier when you can be mistaken for someone else. If we don't have a solid sense of who we are, it can be easy as well to not even recognize ourselves. That can be discouraging and disheartening if we allow it to be! But then ...

Technology is changing. Computers are becoming smaller and more portable. Keyboards are now detachable. In fact, I'm not using a keyboard or typing this post at all. Every word except for a few that were automatically predicted was written in cursive on a tablet.  I've recently seen a lot of articles about school districts no longer teaching or allowing the use of cursive handwriting, often with the belief that it is archaic and unnecessary these days. Not too long ago, I would have agreed with that sentiment. But now, as I sit here writing on my tablet, I realize that getting rid of cursive for the sake of typing is the same kind of thing that made Latin a dead language. Many lessons we could have learned from history are gone forever because they were considered too archaic. It's interesting to me, though, because it seems as though the more advanced our technology becomes, the more we desire for some sense of return to the old methods as well, like me now "wr...

Water cleans. Water messes things up. Water cools. Water burns. Water rejuvenates. Water kills. Water sanitizes. Water contaminates. Water has many purposes it can be used for, both good and bad. Water makes up about 60% of your body. Which purposes will you fulfill?

A few days ago, I started reviewing some of the older posts on my blog. This didn't take too long since I haven't been nearly as prolific in my writing as I had intended. One thing that caught me slightly off guard, though, was that there was a post from a couple years ago that had the same title and a very similar premise to a post I wrote just a couple weeks ago. This was not intentional in the least, but it was definitely interesting to see. I'm not the same person I was yesterday (let alone two years ago!), but in some small way, it is still rather refreshing to see that I'm not entirely different either. I'm still me - the spoiler loving geek who wrote two spoiler-themed posts two years apart, a poet, a lyricist, a trombonist, and many other qualities that have stayed constant for many years and hopefully will for many years to come. If you get to know me now, chances are you'll still be able to recognize many of the same qualities in me for many years to...

Father of the fatherless, The abandoned, and the lost, Come, gather up Your children That You purchased at high cost. Comfort us as here below We seek to know the reasons For the sorrows, grief, and pain That find us in each season. Children will grow up one day, And friends no longer need us. Even fathers walk away, But You will never leave us. Father of the fatherless, Come and comfort me tonight Let me know through my distress That You will make all things right.

Tomorrow, my wife and I, along with Salvation Army officers from all of Minnesota and North Dakota, will start a three-day conference in the city of Fargo. This is the first time I've been back in Fargo since moving out in August of 2010. As excited as I am for the conference and connecting with my other officer friends, I may be even more excited to revisit some of the memories we made during our almost two years living here. My bride and I essentially started our marriage in Fargo, moving here just shy of two months after getting married. We celebrated our first anniversary at the Hotel Donaldson restaurant downtown. Less than two months later, our first child, a beautiful baby girl, was born at the Innovis (now Essentia) hospital. We would often get together with friends of ours who lived only an hour away in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. A lot of memories (most of them good) flood my mind as I think about this town. I do know, though, that change is pretty much the only constant...

How are you doing? Various forms of that question are asked all the time in our society. Unfortunately, it's not generally meant as an open invitation for answering with the truth. It has come to mean the same thing as "hello" in most instances. Often, the one asking this question is caught off guard if the answer is anything but "good." And yet, for many reasons, it is a question that needs to be asked regularly and answered honestly. In this day and age, though, struggles of many forms are seen as fatal flaws. This often comes from a sense of shame inside oneself - a shame that keeps us from being honest with those who are truly seeking to give us the help, love, and support that we need. Our walls and defenses go up so fast and so strong that no one is allowed inside to know how we really are doing. We block ourselves off to fight alone in the battles that God's people were called to be united in. We divide and are conquered. What happe...

Doctor Who, the Legends, and the Flash All have means to go back to the past, But things aren't what they seem! Messing with the time steam Means the life that they knew could not last.

I love playing the trombone. For just over sixteen years, I've counted myself among the fine subspecies of humans known as trombonists, and that's one choice I'm more than happy to have made. Currently, I play with a group called the Mesabi Community Band. The music is quite challenging at times, but it's always fun. Thursday nights have become very special to me as I get to enjoy this great group of people and spend some time behind the mouthpiece of my favorite instrument. Perhaps I could go on about how the glissando is the best thing to happen to band music or how the more "f"s in a dynamic marking, the better, but I'll spare you that. Maybe I'll just encourage you to pick up a trombone and take some lessons. Maybe you'll learn to love it like I have. Maybe you already have something fun you like to do or play. Maybe we should all focus more on these beneficial, enjoyable things than on all the things that tear us apart. So what's you...

The clock has near struck midnight, My post is not yet written. Sometimes, I think that I can't chew As much as I have bitten. The day comes and the day goes, But no time seems to be right To open my neglected blog And to take the time to write. This challenge is important! To it I am committed. This day will have its promised post - It comes at the last minute.

The internet crashed at my house a couple hours ago. This was of particular devastation to my wife who wanted to keep watching her new favorite show on Netflix. Unfortunately, the internet crash did away with any plans we had for the night. It's interesting to me how dependent we are on the internet these days. I've found that this generation is simultaneously the most connected and disconnected because of it. With the click of an app, I have access to information and stories of almost 2,000 people who have shared some part of my life with me. However, I also end up never actually talking to a good majority of them - I don't intentionally build relationships with them. You see, it's so easy to take for granted the "friends" we have on Facebook when they're all right there on our screens. It's also easy to think that we know someone well just because we read their daily status updates. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy social networking and think it...

I've delved a lot into geek culture in my life. In recent years, geek culture has become popular culture, as evidenced by the latest movie release into the Star Wars saga. The Force Awakens ranks in as the third-highest grossing movie worldwide of all time, and rightly so. As far as I'm concerned, it was absolutely fantastic. One big thing the film had going for it was that Star Wars fans had been waiting ten years for a main series movie release and 32 years for a sequel to Return of the Jedi. That is a LOT of anticipation to build on! Filmmakers, fans, and media reporters all did well to keep spoilers of this new release under wraps until after the official release date. Secrets were kept under lock and key. Reviews were demanded to be spoiler-free. Some of my friends on Facebook were even making death threats to those who would dare share anything about Episode VII before they had the chance to see it. All the secrecy was very hard on me, because unlike many of my fel...

I wrote almost an entire post, and then my browser closed. The entirety of what I wrote has disappeared, and I lack the motivation to rewrite it now, even though I tried to just a moment ago. I am committed to this challenge, though, so I'll go on with this. Today, I was reminded that following through with a Lenten resolution such as this challenge is a way of showing discipline, giving credence to one's devotion to God. I believe that writing is a gift that can and should be used to glorify Him, and this blog being available to the general public is a form of ministry, should I choose to use it that way. If I am to live up to the calling that God has placed on my life, then I shouldn't neglect these avenues of service that have been made available to me. In all honesty, though, losing the content I had already written was disheartening. For a moment, I considered not even posting tonight. "I'll just write something tomorrow, even though I don't post on...

Several years ago, back when I was writing new song lyrics about once a month, I had a moment when I just couldn't think of something original. (OK, so I had several moments like that, but if you've listened to today's popular music recently, you know that I'm not the only one, but I digress.) In that moment, as in this one, my mind was flooded with lyrics from other artists that I had grown to admire over the years. I became frustrated, but in that frustration, I penned some new lyrics anyway. I'm not sure what I did with them, but I do remember the beginning of the chorus: "And so I'm stuck singing someone else's song Because words to my own just can't be found." Recently, I've realized that it's OK to not necessarily have my own words in any given moment. All modern Western music is confined to twelve chromatic pitches, only twelve notes in varying octaves to cover the works of every genre, every musician, and every song. Eventu...

Light is an interesting thing. You can often see its source and its effects, but not so much its path. You can tell when its path is blocked because the blockage forms a shadow. You know light is present because you can see, and what you see and how you see it is caused by the light reflecting in different ways off of various objects. Without light, there is no color, no sight, and no life. Is it any wonder, then, that Scripture says, "God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all" in 1 John 1:5? Reflect on that.

Breathing is something a lot of people take for granted. An involuntary reflex, it just happens without thinking about it. The lungs expand to let air in and contract to let air out. It's a simple process, really, and one that is vital to life. What an amazing thing it is that your body can just do that! I, however, am not one of those people that can take breathing for granted. Being an asthmatic and allergic to 87.5% of environmental allergens had made breathing something that I am quite grateful for. When it's actually possible to breathe through my nose (a true rarity, really), I consider it a miracle and do it intentionally as much as possible just to enjoy the fact that I can. Up until just over a year ago, I had massive tonsils that blocked sometimes up to 100% of my throat, making even mouth breathing next to impossible. I'm beyond grateful for the tonsillectomy that took away that obstruction as well! Be grateful if breathing is so easy for you that you can tak...

What are you doing? What should you be doing? If you continue to do what you're doing, what will happen? In high school, those three questions were often asked before a student was sent to the dreaded RTC, an acronym that stood for "Responsible Thinking Center." Not being one to (regularly) misbehave in class, I can only guess what happened in the RTC because I was never actually sent there. On a couple occasions, however, I did have to go through that conversation with a teacher. It went like this: Teacher: "Sean, what are you doing?" Me: "Talking." T: "what should you be doing?" M: "Listening." T: "If you continue to do what you're doing, what will happen?" M: "I'll go to RTC." And that's where the conversation would end. In the years since I've been out of high school, I never really thought again about the RTC questions, but honestly, that is to my detriment. Responsible thinkin...

I don't want to write today. It's not that I can't - there are certainly plenty of things that transpired over this past weekend that are blog-worthy, but honestly, my heart can't handle writing a full post about some of them. That being said, I'll continue day five of my challenge with five short thoughts that reflect this past weekend for me. Enjoy. 1. Life and loved ones need to be cherished while we have the capacity to do so. We really never know when the end will come, and sadly, death is no respecter of youth or circumstances. Stop taking life, friends, and family for granted. Love them while you have them. 2. Sometimes a long weekend is all you need for a proper getaway, especially if you have good friends who will bring you into their home and stay up past midnight just to talk for hours and let you unload everything. I am truly blessed to have spent this past weekend with a beautiful family including a couple friends who have really been pillars for my...

I exhausted my daughter tonight. A friend and I took the three daughters we have between us to Daddy Date Night, a father/daughter dance put on by a Christian radio station in the town he lives in. When we weren't eating desserts or drinking punch, my little girl was either pulling me to the dance floor to spin her around or to a couch to snuggle, rest, and talk about life. I loved every minute of it. Dads of daughters, I highly recommend taking her out, getting to know her, and reminding her that she's beautiful. If we don't, society's standards if beauty will often tell her that she's not. Connect with her so deeply that when she's looking for reassurance of who she is, she will subconsciously hear your voice repeating these three sentences: You are beautiful. You are loved. You are enough. Don't ever give her room to doubt those important truths. You are the first man God put in her life. It's a very weighty responsibility, but it's a...

In your darkest moments, In the depths of fear and pain, Lies will be your downfall, Honesty your greatest gain. We can't share your burdens If they're bottled up inside; Open up! Let us in! You no longer need to hide. When you let the truth out, "I can't take this anymore!" Those who care about you Will all of their love outpour. Life is overwhelming, But true friends are all about. Let light shine in darkness; It can never be put out.

Sometimes my mind is just empty. Sometimes I'm OK with that. There is truly a value to the silence that comes when everything is still around you - so still, in fact, that you could hear your own thoughts if you had any. And not having any, as was the case in the moments right before I started writing, was a welcomed silence in a place that is usually too loud to truly concentrate. I've recently seen the effects of having every possible thought and every emotion imaginable happen all at once, and it's truly overwhelming and devastating. In those moments, you could be in an absolute soundproof room, but your mind could still be noisier than everything going on in the world outside. The chaos is beyond order. The senselessness is beyond comprehension. The noise leaves no room for silence. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to just process one thought at a time and have that be enough? It's certainly a pleasant notion to just deal with what's right in front of ...

I'm committed to doing a forty-day blogging challenge, and it starts today. Every Monday-Saturday from now until Easter, I will write a new post. The themes, elements, and styles will vary, but they will all be reflections of what's on my heart and mind. This is my Lenten challenge - an opportunity to commit myself to digging deeper and following through on a self-driven commitment - an area I openly admit to struggling with. Case in point, this is my third rewrite of the first post, and up until now, I didn't really know the direction I wanted to take it. So before I get too deep into this, I'd like to start with a formal introduction. Hi. I'm Sean. I live in northern Minnesota with my beautiful wife and two amazing kids. Sometimes I get really caught up in the busyness of life and forget to connect well with them, with God, or even with myself. These blog posts will be used for some of my own personal introspection - a means of finding out who I am apart from w...