perspective

Getting Peed On

21 Jan ’12 By Christopher Hopper 10 Comments

While flying to Michigan last night I heard a lot of complaining.

The weather was bad.

Flights got canceled.

I experienced my first aborted landing.

People had to wait in line.

Lots of passengers missed flights.

And everyone blamed the flight attendant for the pent up negative experiences of their entire lives.

But you know who wasn’t complaining?

The men’s urinals.

Some of the people I admire most are those who have every right to complain but never do, happy to serve people who’s needs they consider more important than their own. ch:

Filed Under: culture, leadership, travel Tagged With: attitude, complaining, gratefulness, perspective, urinals

Rearview Mirror

10 Nov ’11 By Christopher Hopper 9 Comments

Every morning I leave for work, I drive down this road and look back in this rearview mirror.

My wife is back there.

My children are back there playing.

Without me.

Ahead of me lies conquest. Mission. Vision. And yet behind me lies the same: training my children for mission, conquering new realms with my wife.

It’s a world torn in two.

That’s because I exist in the beautiful strain of tension. We all do. The pressures that exist between who we’re becoming and what we were, what we’re pressing toward and what we never want to leave.

Neither world is wrong, only being in the wrong one at the wrong time is. And that’s why the Holy Spirit is so important: He alone can dictate the proper rhythm for your life, faithful through the nuances of all it’s seasons.

Because when I come home later in the day – little voices squealing my name – that rearview mirror shows others I leave behind: hurting lives, valuable families, noble Kingdom endeavors.

Make sure there are goals within your day job that reach beyond the temporal; and make sure your home life sees as much time in the front window as it does in the rearview. ch:

Filed Under: culture, leadership Tagged With: direction, driving, goals, mission, perspective, pursuit, tension

The Value of Pain

4 Sep ’11 By Christopher Hopper 14 Comments

What does a picture of me and a cousin possibly have to do with valuing pain?

Easy.

A snow storm.

Here’goes:

As I was driving into New Life this morning, I had one of the fundamental laws of physics rolling through my head:

Objects in motion tend to stay in motion; objects at rest tend to stay at rest.

As I applied that same idea to my life, I recognized another very interesting “law” I’ve found to be true:

People who live intensely tend to enjoy life more; people who live blandly tend to enjoy life less.

As cousin Philip Thomas and I lounged in the St. Lawrence yesterday (in-water for over 2.5 hours straight), he said yet another striking truth that correlates to all this:

People who live through the pain of cold winters enjoy hot summers even more.

“My two bothers live in Florida,” he said. “And whenever I visit we’re always talking about how much we miss the extremes of New York and how much we wish we were back north, even the winters.”

There truly is something to be said for valuing what you get less of. All my friends who’ve lived in Phoenix, AZ have noted that you eventually get sick of the sun, as crazy as that sounds to me.

Even today, an incredible woman, Patty Jennings – a regional director for Operation Christmas Child – was saying how children she’d given shoe boxes to in parts of Africa didn’t know what to do with a pack of crayons. Because they’d never had any.

Talk about being grateful.

Intensity, extremes, and hardships serve many purposes; one of the greatest, however, is giving us a profound and almost hyper-sensitive appreciation for what we have.

I can tell you, I’ll be clinging to this photo of me and Phil when it’s February. I’ll even remember Brian Fetzner took it of us – can’t say that of all pictures.

Live big, live loud, live hard. The intensity with which you live life in the extremes will increase your appreciation of the present. ch:

Filed Under: culture, leadership Tagged With: Brian Fetzner, cold, extreme, hardships, hot, intensity, Operation Christmas Child, Patty "PJ" Jennings, perspective, Philip Thomas, St. Lawrence, summer, the river, value

Big Day

31 Aug ’11 By Christopher Hopper 16 Comments

As I was tucking Eva in to bed, she looked up and said, “Tomorrow is going to be another big day.”

Her sheer enthusiasm and determined hope struck me.

“Yes, it is Eva,” I replied. “It absolutely is.”

But while I had no immediate recollection of exactly what made today “big,” nor was I aware of anything significant we had announced we were doing tomorrow, I knew I could agree with her.

Because she would make it a “big day.”

And as I shut off the light and slipped out of her room, I realized that’s exactly how God intends us to look at each tomorrow.

It’s going to be big.

Adventure.

Conflict.

Discovery.

Resolution.

Life.

And he designed it for living. Yet, so often our days aren’t “big days.” They’re flat, repetitive, predictable, and stale.

God’s fault? Our spouse’s fault? Our boss’? Our chosen (or unchosen) line of work?

Or ours?

Because we failed to catch something that a 6-year-old did. And maybe we have to act like we’re six to rediscover.

Life is a gift. Only the grateful make best use of it, and find everything wondrous.

Because the grateful can never be disappointed. ch:

Filed Under: #heavenmeetsearth, culture, leadership, The Hopper Kids Tagged With: attitude, bed time, big day, eva, life, perspective

Perspective on Freighters

21 Aug ’11 By Christopher Hopper 2 Comments

Big is relative to your perspective. Thus the importance of exercising our access to the mind of Christ in the midst of our turmoil. ch:

(1Cor2:16)

Filed Under: culture, leadership, pictures, The Hopper Kids, travel Tagged With: #theriver, 000 islands, boats, christ, corinthians, fear, freighters, judah, mind, perspective, St. Lawrence River, the 1, water, worry

Goggle Adjustment

5 Aug ’11 By Christopher Hopper 2 Comments

Sometimes life can look funny. Even cruel. And so can God.

We as humans have a long and sorted past in placing more weight on what we see than what we know to be true.

The problem isn’t with God. Nor is it with life.

It’s with our perspective.

Try adjusting your goggles. (It’ll help you notice the friends around you, too). ch:

Filed Under: culture, leadership, pictures, The Hopper Kids Tagged With: God, goggles, judah, perspective, swimming, truth

A Perfect Moment

19 Jul ’11 By Christopher Hopper 8 Comments

I believe each day has at least one perfect moment.

Most of them happen fast: the flare of the last second of sunlight on the horizon, an unexpected hug, the shock on someone’s face from a surprise.

But perfect moments can also be hidden from our perspective. No, not necessarily our visual perspective; I mean the perspective of our attitude.

-A washer and dryer that cleans our clothes with the push of a few buttons (or twisting of a few knobs if you’re old-school).

-The fact that your car has four tires on it from the same manufacturer; all inflated.

-A faucet that dispenses drinkable water at any temperature you desire.

Those are just three perfect moments worth taking a picture of today that 98% of the rest of the world’s citizens will not have the luxury of capturing (even if they did have a digital camera).

Mine? Was seeing my 3 kids make an impromptu bed and watch a movie.

It lasted for 60 seconds. ch:

What perfect moment did you take a picture of today? Feel free to post a link for us.

Filed Under: culture, leadership, pictures, The Hopper Kids Tagged With: attitude, gratefulness, perspective, photography, pics