TRAPPSTR

I’m going to Haiti

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

Every now and then life gift wraps a monumental opportunity and sneaks it under the tree. That’s what happened this past weekend.

My friend Chris has been in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake on January 12. He’s been there working with an organization called Employ Haiti. EH goes into disaster areas immediately after the event to help build businesses and give people work. They’ve had tremendous success doing this in post-war Iraq and after Hurricane Katrina as well. So I’ll be heading into Port-au-Prince this weekend with Chris and three other good friends. We’ll be flying into the Dominican Republic and then making the 6-9 hour drive into Port-au-Prince. We’ll be there Friday to Monday.

What will we be doing? Well, that’s yet to be determined. We’re hoping to make our way into some of the tent cities and offer help if possible. I’m not going with delusions of rescuing babies from the rubble and being an American Superman. But hopefully we can offer some help, however small.

Several of you have already asked how you can help:

1. PRAY – I know. I know. This is the first thing people ask for when they go on a trip like this, and sometimes I think they’re just pre-conditioned to say it but not really mean it. But I could not be more sincere when I say that I want and need your prayers. This is a highly unstable region right now with the possibility of more earthquakes and other things that will keep my mom up at night. I’m not a fearful person. God is sovereign. He is in control. Amidst the greatest chaos and suffering, my life sits quietly in his hands. But please pray for our group–Chris, Collin, Thomas, Matt, and Brett.

2. GIVE – I’ve been researching online and reaching out to people who are on the ground in Haiti to try and determine the greatest needs. Lots of different opinions–food, clothing, shoes, tents. We’ll be limited with what we can bring in, but I’m hoping to pack my bags to the brim. I’m funding this trip personally, but if you’d like to help out with some of these needs, just shoot me an email at iamtrappstratgmaildotcom.

I’ll be tweeting, facebooking, and updating TRAPPSTR.com as much as possible. You can follow along on Twitter here and facebook here. We’ll be videoing and taking lots of pictures along the way as well.

I’ll let you know more as we get closer to leaving. Thanks, friends.

P.S. Can you do me a favor? Pass the link to this post along to everyone you know and ask them to pray. That would mean a lot. Here’s the link: http://TRAPPSTR.com/?p=885

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The closet and the spur

Posted on 10. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

Facebook stumbled upon something special when they gave us the status update a few years ago. I remember when it first came out. A box at the top of my Facebook page that simply said, “Brett is ____________.” How weird, I thought.

But Facebook knew that humans love (big surprise here) talking about themselves in front of their friends. Twitter quickly capitalized on facebook’s discovery and launched a service that made talking about yourself in front of your friends its lone function. And (big surprise again) it exploded.

I’ve been right in the middle of the micro-blogging madness. I love it. It’s fun. It gives me something to do when I’m in the bathroom…or at a wedding. And yet

I’m irked.

I’m irked because I think both Facebook and twitter can be nothing more than a way to showcase our awesomeness. Look at what I did, where I went, who I hung out with. And in the Christian world, it turns into a showcase of righteous acts.

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”   – Matthew 6:6

The King James version translates “inner room” as “closet.”

“Go into your closet” Jesus says, as opposed to parading around in the streets so that everyone can hear your fancy prayers. And he says the exact same thing about giving in verse 4 and fasting in verse 18. This was the very thing Jesus got so mad at the Pharisees for. Jesus would rather you practice your loud spirituality in a cramped dark room with ski jackets, musty shoes, and 1980’s baseball cards. Hmmm….

But that’s not why I’m irked.

I’m irked by Hebrews 10:24…

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

I think Twitter and Facebook are the absolute best platforms at spurring (encouraging) others. But you’re not going to spur anyone to anything holed up in your closet. Encouragement happens out in the open, where people are. When my friend Billy tweets that he’s finished reading 10 books so far in 2010, I know that it’s not to showcase his righteousness. It’s to celebrate a personal victory and to spur on others. And, if my attitude is right, that’s exactly the effect that tweet has on me–a swift bootspur to the buttocks to remind me to stop watching lame reality TV and go read something.

The closet and the spur.

Can the line get blurry? Of course. Will I screw up sometimes, showcasing my righteousness when it would be better kept in the dark? Yep. Would the Pharisees have loved Twitter? Yeah. But I think Jesus would have too.

But there’s grace for me, and you, and our Pharisee non-closet moments.

So put on your cowboy boots and start tweeting. You encourage me more than you know.

What do you think? Do your friends on Twitter/Facebook make you better?

(P.S. – Way back when this blog was just an baby–last August–I wrote an article about Twitter as Mentoring Machine. It’s called “My 100 Twitter Dads.” You might want to check it out.)

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5 lessons from Bama’s championship run

Posted on 02. Feb, 2010 by Brett.

The college football season ended about a month ago officially. Unofficially, it ends tomorrow. Tomorrow is National Signing Day which is the deadline for high school recruits to make their college choice. This post is in honor of CFB’s sad ending and the eight month slumber til it cranks up again.

I don’t consider myself an expert in anything. But if there’s one thing I’m a semi-expert in, it’s the current state of Alabama football. I grew up an Alabama fan and remember fall Saturday’s with my dad, posted up in front of the Magnavox–jumping around and high-fiving and yelling so loud the dog would pee on the floor.

Since then, I’ve logged way too many hours on Bama message boards, bustling communities of thousands of super-fans with handles like CrimsonReign, TideWinder44, and SabanToothTider. These guys know everything– on-the-field schematics, recruits’ stats, insider information. If Sportscenter, TMZ, and Married with Children had an Internet lovechild, this would be it. The drama is palpable. And as a loyal superfan, you get to put yourself right in the middle of it.

And that’s where I’ve been. I’ve seen the highs and lows. Bama’s last decade has been one of unending drama–ridiculous losses to pathetic teams, NCAA sanctions, sex scandals, six consecutive losses to a bitter rival, and outrageous coaching changes. But somehow, through all the insanity, Bama fought back to the top of the heap in 2010. I was right there in Pasadena when it all went down, just like I was as a 12 year old kid in the SuperDome when Bama won it all in 1993.

How’d we go from worst to first? Success doesn’t happen accidentally. It’s a recipe. And when you’ve been peering into the Bama pot for so many years–like I have–a few key things bubble to the top. Here’s the championship formula as I see it. (High profile coaches scanning fan blogs for tips, take note…that means you Lane Kiffin)

1. The Success Tri-fecta: Leadership, Talent, Coaching (in that order)

When Nick Saban came to Alabama in January of 2007, it was nothing short of a spectacular hire. Saban was a proven winner, having won two SEC titles and a national title at LSU. He was just the right leader Bama’s jacked-up program needed. A relentless general that demanded excellence in everything.

But leadership alone wouldn’t cut it. After leadership, came a flood of talent. By the Rivals.com recruiting rankings, Saban signed the number one ranked class in 2008 AND 2009. While previous coaches had scratched around in the dirt for some talent, Nick Saban packed a crimson caulk gun full of miracle gro and jabbed it right into the heart of Alabama’s program. The talent level soared as was seen in this year’s 14-0 run where Bama beat ten teams with a winning record–something that had never been done in the history of NCAA football.

Leadership and Talent gets you 2/3 of the way there, but you must have solid coaching to complete the trifecta. The excellence, dicipline, and execution that Saban requires of his players is legendary. Equally well-known are his complex defensive schemes that keep quarterbacks on their toes or on their backs (see Ryan Mallett, Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, et al). Fans naively think that signing top classes makes you an automatic national title contender. Nothing could be further from the truth (see Phil Fulmer). Success–in the sports or business sector–never happens outside of good coaching. Leadership. Talent. Coaching.

2. Change isn’t a catalyst for success. The RIGHT change is

While sometimes random change is the catalyst an organization needs, that wasn’t the case with Alabama. Athletic Director Mal Moore struggled for over a decade to find the right coach. There was Mike Dubose, then Dennis Franchione, then Mike Price, then Mike Shula. It was a coaching carousel that made the turnstiles at Magic Mountain feel innocent and new. But the Crimson Tide needed a Winston Churchill. It needed the right change. That change was named Nick Saban, and he did in three years what the previous four guys couldn’t do in 17 years.

3. Catalytic events create momentum…

When asked about his quick success at Alabama, Nick Saban has consistently pointed back to one catalytic event. In April of 2007, Alabama played its annual A-Day practice game. Bama fans, all juiced up to see their new leader, showed up en masse. 93,000 fans streamed into the stadium…for a practice (It was actually more than that. Estimates said that another 10,000 couldn’t get in. I would know, because I was one of the ones locked out.). A listless fanbase was suddenly electrified with a new surge of momentum.

4. …But unleveraged momentum is worthless

Many times, Coach Saban has referenced this one event as the spark of momentum that caught recruits’ attention. Essentially, this became another weapon in his recruiting arsenal. Coaches look for every conceivable competitive advantage in the recruiting process. After all, would you rather go to a program that can’t fill its stands on gameday or Alabama where fans fill the stadium even for fake games? Passion is a powerful thing and Nick Saban knew to leverage it to tip those recruits sitting on the fence. Catalytic events are rare opportunities. When one appears, it must be leveraged like crazy.

5. The process is more fun than the final product

I’ll never forget a post I saw on one of the Alabama forums just a day or so after the national championship. Keep in mind, these forums are places where guys have been dreaming, for years, of the day when Bama would once again hoist the crystal ball. Only a few years earlier, our team had lost to Louisiana-Monroe in an embarrassing defeat that had the whole SEC laughing at us. We were at rock bottom. A national championship seemed so far off. Yet here we were, with the entire college athletic world under our feet. After years of staggering around in the desert, this was the ultimate satisfaction, right? To paraphrase the poster…

“Is it possible the process was sweeter than having arrived?…This doesn’t feel like I thought it would.” A few others chimed in to agree.

Wow.

That sentiment was reflected a few weeks later at Alabama’s national championship celebration in Bryant-Denny Stadium. About 20,000-30,000 showed up to revel in Bama’s big win.

Hmmm… 93,000 hopeful fans show up to watch a troubled team practice, but only 25,000 show up to celebrate the Tide’s ascension to pigskin glory. Could it be that the “process is sweeter than having arrived?” I think so. What a shame to experience the letdown of arriving, having missed the beauty of the journey.

And with those five lessons, I will officially step off the ledge and close the door on this tremendous college football season. See you in August. Roll Tide.

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“I gotta see that…”

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Brett.

It happens to me every time I go to the theater. It happens to you too. The lights go down and the previews start. And at least one preview will be so good, it will make you want to leap out of your chair. One preview will have just the right balance of explosions and guns and pretty girls. One preview will grab your heart, Last-of-the-Mohicans-style. One preview will tell a mini-story so good that it elicits those four words that movie producers drool over. You lean over to your buddy and say,

“I gotta see that.”

Months before this movie releases, you’ve already decided to see it based off a perfectly crafted two-minute story. You’ve already “bought” the movie, putting it on layaway in your brain. Months before release, James Cameron or Peter Jackson or Quentin Tarrantino has slipped his hand into your wallet, grabbed ten bucks, and tossed it into his bottomless kettle of riches. The I-gotta-see-that-moment fetches an invisible fortune months before the product hits the shelf.

All because of a silly little two-minute story.

In 2010, the best storytellers win. Businesses that tell better stories will outperform the competition. Non-profits that tell the best stories will stick around, while the others will melt away. Hundreds of millions of dollars are flowing into Haiti because of the expert communicators–citizen-journalists, photographers, etc–telling her story.

Deep within the Apple labs, master craftsmen have been fashioning their latest creation. For months, we’ve been hearing rumors about the new Apple tablet. Apple is so good, the mysterious pre-story rumors make them millions. On Wednesday, Apple will make millions more when story-master Jobs takes the stage and subsequently takes the breath away of tech-crazed consumers everywhere.

We are creatures of story. If your thing isn’t working, maybe your story about it sucks. Tell a story worth hearing, and you’ll get the response you want…

“I gotta see that.”

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Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

Posted on 21. Jan, 2010 by Brett.

I’ve been trying to wring the water out of a sponge with ten broken fingers.

Sweating, stressing, feebly twisting that sponge around in agony. But I get nothing. No matter how great my effort is, my grip is just too weak.

The sponge is a day, and all the water is the maximum amount of productivity I can squeeze out of that day.

With every digital distraction I indulge, with every pointless task I engage, with every goofy bit of nonsense I drill into, a finger breaks and my grasp on that day weakens.

But…

I’m learning: Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

Inspect. Prioritize. Work. Repeat.

My work day can be a towering waterfall of tasks, projects, priorities, emails, appointments, phone calls, and relationships. Each item tumbling down the falls and gathering in a big pool of stress at my feet.

But I’m learning.

I’m learning to disengage from the urgent. That’s the tough part–turning down the volume on the swarm of howler monkeys wanting my attention. When I do that, the waterfall freezes in time. The scene goes quiet, I take a step closer, I squint my eyes, and I…

Inspect.

Inspect.

Inspect.

What am I looking at? What’s really important? What does my time window allow for? I write it down. After I inspect it, I judge the value of every item and how it aligns with my bigger goals, shifting and sliding my To-Do list around like a Rubiks-cube. That’s how I…

Prioritize.

Prioritize.

Prioritize.

It’s fun to get underneath the Waterfall of Busyness and splash around and kick my feet. All the motion and noise and excitement make me feel important. But commotion isn’t productivity. I need to call a timeout–Inspect and Prioritize. And only then should I begin my Work. A few hours later, I Repeat it all over again.

And as I do that, the bones heal, the color comes back to my fingers, and I’m ready to strangle every ounce of goodness trapped in this day.

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Haiti Quake: 5 ways to give

Posted on 13. Jan, 2010 by Brett.

By now, most people have heard of the catastrophic earthquake that has hit Haiti, leaving buildings demolished, children trapped in rubble, and countless dead. These situations are when the church should shine. It’s simply a modern day good Samaritan story, on a much bigger scale. We are passing by someone, wounded and bleeding in the street. We look down.

We have a choice to make.

It’s easy to give and tons of options. Go be the church…

• Samaritan’s Purse – Ministry run by Franklin Graham. Great reputation and great work
• The Orphanage Called Canaan – If you’d like to support a smaller organization doing great work with orphans, give here.
• Gleaning for the World - Jonathan Falwell’s ministry. Follow at www.twitter.com/gftw
• WorldVision – Longstanding relief org
• Compassion International - Another great relief org

And of course, please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers!

What other relief efforts have you heard of?

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“There’s a (marketing trick) for that”

Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 by Brett.

Advertisers and marketers have always used subtle, psychological gimmicks to persuade to buy their products. Back when Miley Cyrus’s mega-hit, Party in the USA, was number one, I wrote about how that song is one big crockpot of teen marketing madness. Well now the fine folks at AT&T have given us a little fodder here as well. I noticed it last week in their anti-Verizon ad campaign featuring actor Luke Wilson…yes the same Luke Wilson from Old School. The purpose is to strike back at Verizon’s claim of a better, stronger network. Look at the picture below which is a snapshot from one of the commercials (If you can’t see that pic, click HERE).

On the left, you have the AT&T side, showing how their network’s superior downloading speed. The right side is the Verizon side and the download is creeping at a much slower pace.

Now notice the background.

First, the AT&T “side” fills about 2/3 of the left side of the screen. The Verizon side is decidedly smaller.

Also, the walls on the AT&T side are set much further back and provide for much more depth. On the Verizon side, the walls come up a lot closer, almost into the foreground.

By taking up 2/3 of the screen AT&T is subtly communicating that they are BIGGER. By setting the walls back on their side, they are communicating that they are DEEPER.

And isn’t that the whole point of this gazillion-dollar ad campaign? To convince us that AT&T’s network is BIGGER, DEEPER, MORE EXPANSIVE, and just all around better. Verizon ads show the bigness of their network with all those people following around that annoying guy with the thick-rimmed glasses. After all, more is better right? We’re Americans! Of course! This is AT&T’s counter, just a little more veiled.

Back in college when I was studying English, they taught us that every detail in a story is put there on purpose. The author doesn’t just add superfluous details. There IS a reason. Same principle at play in this commercial. But as a lifelong Verizon fan, I ain’t buyin’ it. Go build more cell towers AT&T and stop it with your shady ads. :)

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$232,000 makes for a big shopping cart

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by Brett.

Over the weekend, I came across an article in the Daily Mountain Eagle, a newspaper in the small town of Jasper, Ala., which is just south of my hometown of Florence. Hunter’s Chapel Holy Church of Christ, is raising money to build a 100 foot tall cross that can be seen from the Interstate. The pastor is quoted as saying, “We’ve had a lot of negative things that people remember Walker County for. We just got through all the bingo stuff, and I think this would be a positive for people driving through Walker County.” The project comes with a hulking pricetag of $232,000.

Better get a bigger offering plate.

Let me say: I don’t know anyone at this church. I don’t know the pastor. I don’t know the members. I don’t know their motives. I don’t know what good works they’ve funded in their community. They may be doing some awesome things. I don’t know their theology. They may be ushering in the next Pentecost for all I know. With all that said, I question the wisdom in a project like this.

It’s weird to me that the pastor hopes the cross can help makeover the county’s image in light of their recent electronic bingo drama. But I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the ultimate goal of the enormous cross is to remind unbelievers about Christ. And I guess a monstrous cross towering over the interstate does that. But I don’t know of anyone who came to Christ simply by seeing a cross. Do you? (I’m really asking, not being sarcastic). I’m from Alabama; there is no shortage of religious symbols. If filling some guy’s windshield with an oversized cross were enough, I suspect all of Gatlinburg would be evangelized by now. In fact, the Bible says that faith comes from hearing the word (see Rom 10:17). Hearing, not merely seeing, is the key. People need Jesus, and maybe some scruffy trucker will find him in a mega-cross. Doubtful though.

This church has the right to spend this money however they want. But may I suggest a few alternatives?

• Shoot my friend Josh an email. He has a vision to build an orphanage in the jungles of central America that will house abandoned kids who run around barefoot and naked. It only costs $144,000, so that would leave $88,000 in spending money for a smaller cross.
• Or they could donate the money to Bethany Christian Services. They help couples adopt kids without parents. With that kind of money, the church could fund 10-20 adoptions. After all, isn’t adoption a perfect picture of the Gospel? I wonder if there might even be some kids in Walker County who need parents?
• Check out Toms Shoes. With $232,000, they could buy about 4,218 pairs of shoes for people in their own community. The cool thing is that Toms would then donate the same number of shoes to people in third world countries. That’s 8,436 people with 16,872 unbloody and unbruised feet.
• Every 30 seconds, a little boy or girl in Africa dies from malaria. Nothing But Nets is fighting the problem with $10 mosquito nets. That’s 23,200 lives saved, if you’re keeping count.
• Or they could help kids who can’t eat or read in other countries. Compassion International does a great job helping kids like that. The church could send the cash their way, and sponsor 500 kids for a year.
• Of course, they could always keep the money locally and build a community outreach center, or help people who have lost their jobs, or launch a franchise of thrift stores like these guys.

$232,000 can buy a big shopping cart. I wonder what Jesus would put in it?

What do you think?

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Top 9 tweets of 2009

Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by Brett.

The Chinese calendar has it wrong. 2009 has been the year of the tweet. I estimate that I’ve read over 108,000 tweets this year. I’ve favorited the best ones along the way and culled that list down to my top 9 tweets of 2009. Some are funny. Some are pure art. Telling a joke, a story, or some revelation in 140 characters is a beautiful thing. These are the best of the best. These are the ones who cleverly pack huge payloads of value into a small space, and our lives are better for it. We salute you master tweet-writers!

(My comments in red)

9. @prodigaljohn Of all the fence options for a new ATL kids’ bike path, barbed wire is an odd choice. Unless a fence made of scorpions was the other option.

Pure comedy from John Acuff, headman over at Stuff Christians Like.

8. @JimmyScroggins Jerry Rankin: A rat-meat eating, Jesus-loving, gospel-preaching field missionary who helped focus the IMB on church pltng. Worthy of honor.

Great tweets use vivid images. This is a great example where Jimmy describes a late missionary as “rat-meat eating.” Simple. Glorious.

7. @taylorbrooks You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank, you’re not the car you drive, you are not your flipping khakis.

I found out later that this is a variation of a quote from the movie Fight Club. I loved it so much, I wrote a whole blog post about it.

6. @mattskeller I just put on a jacket. Its getting colder. The sun has set on this day. One day closer to you.

I remember where I was when I read this tweet from my friend Matt, and for some reason it struck me with its beautiful simplicity. The best tweets prove that less is more.

5. @jacobsjosh My friend just got dumped. Current Facebook status of his ex-girl? “Freedom equals fun!” Wow; at least there’s plenty of fish in the sea…

My favorite tweets are ones where people tell quirky stories from their everyday lives. Thanks to my friend Josh for this fantasticly funny observation.

4. @claytonbell How to get to get rich: 1. Get M size shirt, call it XL. 2. Bedazzle MASSIVE cross/dragon/skull on shirt. 3. Sell shirt for $60 dollars.

I thought this was a really witty way to communicate a universal truth: Bedazzled, sparkly muscle shirts suck and men have no business wearing them…ever.

3. @challies “This is just one of the ways I know you love me,” said Nick when I fixed his Lego for him.

I’m not a parent, but I love it when moms and dads share these tender moments. I see God in this tweet.

2. @MattChandler74 I keep trying to explain we live on less an a 1/4 acre but to no avail http://twitpic.com/nkupn

Cute-kid tweet of the year in my opinion. I love how this tweet makes no sense until you look at the pic.

1. @benambuehl Liza: “Why is that man laying down?” Me: “I don’t know baby, I don’t know.” #bellringerfail http://tweetphoto.com/7030313

Tweet of the year! There is so much right about this tweet it makes me want to breakdance in church! It comes from my friend Ben (Liza is his daughter). What makes this tweet absolutely remarkable are the multiple overlapping elements. It makes use of

1. Something we have all experienced (Salvation Army bellringer)

2. Storytelling

3. Dialogue

4. Humor

5. A fail statement (more humor)

6. And an absolutely hilarious photo

Congrats to Ben Ambuehl, 2009 TRAPPSTR.com Tweeter of the Year!

And thanks to all of you who make my life richer through Twitter, Facebook, and this blog! God bless you all, and Happy New Year!

(A while back I wrote “6 Tips for Writing Red Hot Tweets.” Check it out.)

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Here’s to you

Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by Brett.

Here’s to wrestling matches on the floor

Here’s to football games in Tuscaloosa

Here’s to Braves games on the couch

Here’s to Wilson Dam little league

Here’s to cotton fields and arrowhead hunts

Here’s to Yoo-hoo, bottle only

Here’s to not wanting to be mentioned in your sermons

Here’s to that time you apologized for that thing you said

Here’s to integrity…

And your love

Here’s to elegance in death

Here’s to final hours

Here’s to tears of pain and tears of joy

9 years later

Here’s to you, dad.

Thanks.

June 21, 1949 – Dec. 31, 2000

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