Walk With The (Sean) Wise

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...