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Random Thoughts

Ten Years

Ten years ago this month was the launch of Junkyard Wisdom™. Technically my blog started 11-years ago, but it had the ridiculous name Roy Goble’s Blog. I mean really, what creative genius came up with that???

So ten years ago I started a crowdsource competition to find a good name. It was shocking how many people wanted to participate! There were over 75 different nominations in one week. Most of them were truly awful! But they were all fun, most made me chuckle, a few even made me reflective.

Eventually I narrowed it down to eight good options and I …

Leadership, Random Thoughts,

Black Lives Matter

Black lives matter to me.

This makes some of my friends uncomfortable. Usually, for two reasons: they want to say all lives matter, and/or they want to point to the eponymous organization Black Lives Matter which has an agenda they find upsetting.

Well, nonsense.

Our hearts and minds have become so polarized we find it increasingly difficult — even impossible — to embrace opposites. Whatever we call it – spiritual tension, wrestling with God, or cognitive dissonance – we struggle to reconcile two truths that seem to contradict each other.

Worse, we can’t even embrace two obvious truths without wanting …

Junkyard Management, Leadership, Random Thoughts,

Yeah, but …

Have we forgotten how to listen? Have we forgotten how to communicate? Is it all just slogans, memes, and bumperstickers these days? Are those mostly written to be abrasive and provoke others, as they reaffirm our own bias?

I’m not quite ready to say, “Yes, yes, yes, and yes.” But we’re getting close. The tone is sometimes too toxic for listening. Which is sad.

Freedom of speech is at the bedrock of our nation and our culture. It is our strength. But as with all strengths, it can be leveraged against us. It’s easy to divide people simply by saying …

Random Thoughts,

Lumberjack Jesus

This was a week unlike any other. It has been a week of sorrow, frustration, anger, and loss. Reflecting on what to write has left me dizzy and finding the right words is beyond me. Hopefully, in time a unique Junkyard Wisdom perspective on the recent events will come to me.

In the midst of this it is good to have a friend who reminds me Jesus is present. All we need to do is imagine Jesus as a lumberjack. Yes, a lumberjack. Or, well, whatever you wish.

Bruce Kirkpatrick and I met through his service at Extollo, which provides …

Random Thoughts,

What is the Church?

Jesus made it clear to the disciples: you are to be known by your love.

Note that he didn’t say we would be known by our theology, our politics, our opinions, our anger, our success, or our popularity.

Surprisingly, he also didn’t say we would be known by our intelligence, connections, or wisdom (even the junkyard kind).

We are to be known by our love.

Over the last few months, as church buildings sat vacant, have we been known by our love? Is the conversation about reopening them — when, how, is it safe — a loving conversation?

A few …

Junkyard Management, Random Thoughts,

COVID-19 and Junkyards

Sanitization has became our new national pastime. Rightfully so, of course, because we all need to be washing our hands regularly and sanitizing what we touch if we want to beat this pandemic.

I grew up working in my Dad’s junkyard. Junkyards are messy places. Everything in them has a touch of grease, grime, and dirt. At the end of a long day it would take a lot of soap and water to wash up. I remember how my Dad’s hands seemed to have a permanent thin layer of grease under his fingernails.

Our lives — even our lives in …

Book Reviews, Family, Random Thoughts,

The Color of Life

About ten or fifteen years ago I was part of a small mentoring organization in the Bay Area. The focus was to identify and nurture “home grown talent” in ministry, business, church work … really anything that involved the integration of faith and vocation. I met some wonderful people, including Cara Meredith.

Cara struck me as thoughtful, a good listener, and eager to learn. We had several mutual friends — not unusual when you both live and work in the same region — so even though the mentoring program faded away I still heard occasional updates about Cara’s life and …

Leadership, Random Thoughts,

Rose Mu

One of the most fascinating people I’ve met over the past year is Steve Gumaer. Steve is the founder and President of Partners Relief & Development, which provides emergency relief for millions of misplaced people. That’s a fancy of way of saying he and his team work in war zones.

Think about that for a moment. They work in war zones. To help people who are victims of the war — the lost, orphaned, homeless, hungry, cold, grieving, and sometimes tortured people who find themselves surrounded by chaos. Into this walks Steve and his team.

When Steve agreed …