some props.

I received some props from Color Inc. Pick of the day.

Thanks Guys!

porfolio.

I just posted my portfolio online.
Check it out. Let me know your thoughts.

http://brownlikethecolor.carbonmade.com/

change.

I will now be reserving this blog for personal/non-YL related posts, and will be focusing my attention on our new Young Life area’s blog. Please feel free to visit here, or for ministry updates visit our GR West YL blog.

Grace and Peace,

Carson

www.grwestyounglife.wordpress.com

mykey.

Last week USA Today announced Ford Motor Company’s new technology ‘MyKey’ will become standard on most Ford models.  Ford’s inspiration for this technology comes from a desire to “help parents control some of their teen drivers’ behaviors”. ‘MyKey’ allows parents to designate one key as their teenager’s. When the teens’ key is used the cars parental controls are activated; encouraging seatbelt use, limiting speeds, regulating audio volume, and a handful of other risk managing features.

With car accidents being the leading cause of fatalities for 16-20 year olds my first thought is a technology like this makes sense. My concern lays in the potential for this technology to further erode the involvement of parents in their teens life. Especially when, according to an American Journal of Preventive Medicine report, teens value their parents opinion but feel unable to talk to them about issues. With MyKey in place will one less conversation be had? Will teens interpret this as a lack of parental interest in their life?

By only focusing on what technologies do we can easily find ourselves blind to what they could be undoing.

at the final show.

I was going to the final Blessed Ambrosia show a few weeks ago. This is a progressive metal band who I’ve building a relationship with for a while now. As I walked up to the merch table I saw a kid who this past year seemed to have disappeared. Prior to this year I would run into him downtown or give him a ride somewhere. We would catch up, but he always seemed guarded. As I approached the table his face brightened up. I was little surprised. When I asked him what he’s been up to this summer he replied with a smile, “a lot of video games and disk golf”. After telling him how I’ve only ever played disc golf with a Frisbee he invited me to come out with him and try it with a disc. At this point I was throughly surprised, he initiated an activity with me. So I took him up on it.

A week later, after a few days of disc golfing together, he started telling me about his past year. That he was into some hard drugs and ended up going to jail for car theft. He was in a 6 man cell for 40 days. A heavy number. While he was there he did a lot of reading. One of the books he read was a Christian devotional book. He told me that as he read and reflected in his cell he realized that he couldn’t control his life any more, and he had to let God lead him. As we played I just listened to him tell this 40 days.

He continued to share about his summer and how it’s been hard for him to resist some of the pressures out side of jail. Then he said something I wasn’t really expecting. He told me he had been praying God would put people in his life to encourage him in his faith. At the final show he prayed that prayer to himself, and when he looked up from praying he said “and you were walking up to me at the merch table”, he continued, “I remembered how you were involved with Young Life and I was really happy to see you”.

Of all the kids that myself and our area’s volunteer leaders come in and out of contact with, it’s moments like these that we are greatful for pursuing what God is going in the world.