Sustainability to Scale

Huzzah!  Sustainability Workshop will be growing to 500 students.  Read the press release here.  This is great news for Philadelphia and a testament to all the hard work that the good people at Sustainability Workshop have been putting in to make this happen.  Now if anyone has a building that can house 500 students that they'd be willing to contribute, let me know.

Fels Folks Getting 'Er Done

I had the pleasure of attending a Fels mixer earlier this week and hearing from Rich Constable, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs and one of the key people Governor Christie tasked with the preparation for and then aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.  Mr. Constable also happens to be a Fels alum, and his Fels training has been evidenced in this most crucial and high-stakes role: working across silos, combining analytical thinking with practical problem-solving ability, and just plain getting 'er done.  This fellow Fels alum salutes you!

The Blessing That is the Thorn in the Side

Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:8-10

The proverbial thorn in one's side can be, in reality, a lot of different things.  But they have one thing in common: you can't go a day, an hour, even a moment, without feeling their pain.  Whether it is a serious physical or mental injury, the loss of a loved one, or a breach in an important relationship, it is a wound from which there is no respite.  In many cases, we can scarcely take a breath, literally or figuratively, without it dominating our thoughts.

How can a thorn in the side be a blessing?  Indeed, people who have lost a limb, battle with depression, or had a loved one taken away from them often become embittered towards God and the world.  If they once believed in an all-powerful and all-loving God, they no longer do, choosing instead to believe in no god and in the cruelty and capriciousness of a godless existence, or else in a God who is either not all powerful, not all loving, or just plain mean. 

Thorns in the side can be serious impediments not only to enjoyment of life but belief in a God who is good and caring and abundant and wise.  Even if our thorns are relatively painless, their existence seems a gnawing argument against what we want to believe about God: that He is fantastically generous and supremely powerful as the Creator, Provider, and Defender of our lives.  And so we half-trust Him, and hang our real hopes on something or someone else, all the while never quite finding the peace and fulfillment our souls ache for.

No one knows exactly what the apostle Paul's thorn was, and for the purposes of this post it doesn't matter.  What does matter is that it was sharp enough for him to beg with God to remove it, and that it served as a source of reminder for him that God was still good even through it.  In fact, the thorn elicited one of the Bible's great statements about the Christian life: My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”  

When we are assailed by the thorns of our lives, we feel weakness, yes.  Grace, sufficiency, power, and perfection, not so much.  And yet this is the Christian life.  It is not doing good deeds and obeying rules and striving as much as we can to do as much good as we can, as much as it is being fully God's, to be loved and to be loved through, in spite of and especially through the wounds that we inflict on ourselves and on each other.

We are never long removed from the thorns in our side, or from the weakness they make us feel.  It can seem a curse and a cruel indicator of the impotence of God or the capriciousness of the universe.  Or we can, humbly and faithfully, experience power perfected in that very weakness: God for us, and God working through us to reach others, even and especially through our most painful wounds.  May the modern-day church be known for this kind of posture upward towards God and outward to a world that is similarly wounded, embittered, and needy.

Lazy Linking, 90th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked lately on the Internets:

90.1 The rise and fall of “pray for Boston” as an Internet meme http://bit.ly/14ESn7g @theatlantic

90.2 John Piper's message is bigger than saying homosexuality is a sin http://bit.ly/10YuMJP and http://bit.ly/13nJbzt @world_mag

90.3 27 signs you were raised by Asian parents (I esp agree w/: 2,3,4,5,6,9,12,13,14,15,16,19,of course 27) http://bit.ly/15mDVA7 @buzzfeed

90.4 Some of the greatest start-ups ever sound like awful business ideas http://b.qr.ae/10TSpTk @quora HT @kottke

90.5 The conservative argument for immigration reform http://bit.ly/11frRtn @theatlantic HT @modeledbehavior and @sean_rust

Resilient

We in America are many things, because we are a diverse people.  We look different, act different, live different lives and dream different dreams.  

But we have some commonalities.  When we are cut, we bleed.  When we lose someone, we mourn.  

And when we get knocked down, we get up. We are America.  And we are resilient.

"And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

Nice Meeting You

Whoever says meetings are a waste of time from getting real work done isn't participating in real meetings.  I attended an awesome workshop on how to run a good meeting 15+ years ago at a random business conference, and since then I've been trying to put these basic principles into practice:

(1) Start on time, end of time.  When you sag on either end, you waste people's time and you throw things off.

(2) Have an agenda.  If you're going to meet just to meet, then yeah
it's going to be a waste of time.  Know what you're meeting for.

(3) Be prepared.  Send to-do's ahead of time so people know what they are expected to accomplish before and during the meeting.

(4) Decide.  Either make the decision in the meeting, or figure out how and who will make the decision.

(5) Figure out next steps.  This includes if and when we'll be meeting again, and what everyone's supposed to do between now and then.  

(6) Be consistent.  Set the expectation that this is how meetings are going to go, and over time people will get on board.

Almost everything I do at work I do with others.  Their work is precious, as is their perspective.  Without meetings, I can't tap into any of that.  And without good meetings, I waste something else, which is their time and their trust. 

Will You Run In

You see this all the time now, regarding tragedies like the Boston Marathon earlier this week: while others ran away, they ran in.  “They” is usually public safety professionals, but sometimes it is average Joes and Jills instinctively reacting to crisis by going towards others’ need rather than their own safety.  Whether it is because it is your job or because you have a loved one in danger or because you are just responding out of instinct, it is a remarkable and heroic impulse. 

I don’t know about you, but these tragedies cause serious self-reflection on my part, and I usually don’t like what I find when I’m searching my soul.  Because I’m pretty sure that, in the moment, I would run away and not run in. 

I would almost certainly act out of self-preservation rather than out of seeking to be as helpful and useful as possible at a time of great need and great uncertainty.  It may seem better to say that such a reaction is not out of any fear of danger or harm as much as it is a commitment to my wife and kids, who need me and who would suffer tremendously without me.  But that is no less true for the policemen and fire fighters and ordinary citizens who yet rushed towards the explosions to help those who were hurt.  Wouldn’t their families and workplaces and faith communities and neighbors mourn their losses just as much as mine would?

I think this is part of what it means when Jesus talks about hating your family and even your own life in order to follow Him (Luke 14).  “Hate” is such a strong and ominous word, and it poses a challenge in interpreting what Jesus means by using it so forcefully in the context of following Him.  Some say he’s speaking metaphorically – our love for Him must make all other love connections like hate in comparison.  Others use this command to justify their animosity towards family members – “I never did like my parents, and now the Bible is telling me I don’t have to have anything nice to do with them.”

It’s hard to say this in a Christian culture in which family is so important.  The Christians I know tend to value family very highly, which is reflected in having lots of kids or cultivating multi-generational linkages or guarding quality time around the dinner table or on special occasions.  These are, unequivocally, good things.

And yet the journey of the Christian disciple is such that anything – anything at all, including and perhaps especially very good things like family – that gets in the way of total commitment to following Jesus can be considered an idol, something that takes away from our worship of God and something that therefore should be put to the side. 

This, I believe, is the context of Jesus’ command.  He is at the peak of His popularity, with crowds hanging on His every word and action.  Knowing what true Christian discipleship requires – knowing what it will require of Himself – He turns around and warns all of the hangers-on that you can’t be a follower unless you hate your family and even your own life. 

Consider the analogies that bracket this arresting statement – someone just bought a field, someone just bought five oxen, someone just got married, someone is thinking about building a tower, someone is thinking about going to war.  The message is clear: you are either 100 percent about this or you are not.

Being 100 percent for Jesus sometimes looks like hating your family and even your own life.  It means that while taking care of yourself and your loved ones is important, it is not always paramount.  In extraordinary situations, we may be called on to do something that puts ourselves in danger, and in doing so exposes our family members to great loss or harm. 

I truly believe that God is a protector, and that He works all things out for the good of those who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose.  But that does not mean that we will not suffer harm or even loss of life in the act of following Jesus, and that does not mean we will never have to choose between being there for our family members and doing what is required in the heat of the moment.

My assumption is that after Jesus issued this jarring statement, many who were once high on the miracle man from Nazareth turned away, deciding they didn’t or couldn’t hate their family and their own lives in order to follow Him.  And so it is today.  Some of us live bland, half-committed lives to God, which are really not lives to God at all.  Some of us are faced with the starkness of Jesus’ command, and choose to walk away.  And others say yes, and entrust themselves to Him whose own road of Christian discipleship entailed laying down His own life.

The Fairest of All

Central Park may be more, well, central, in New York (in that it's right in the middle of Manhattan and is therefore utterly accessible).  But Fairmount Park in Philadelphia is greater and grander.  This past weekend, I took the kids for hiking, rock climbing, and duck feeding.  We could have stayed there forever.


This urban Christian may love riding the subway, walking the sidewalks, and being in the middle of all the city hubbub...but he also likes and needs nature.  And so do his kids.  Thankful for this urban treasure, and for those who have stewarded it through the years.

Lucky 13

Thirteen years ago today, in front of God, family, and friends, Amy and I tied the knot.  Since then, there has been sickness and health, richer and poorer, better and worse.  The best part about marriage isn't that everything is good times.  Rather, it's that, through good times and bad times, you're with the same person you've committed to for the rest of your lives.

This is true even though I'm not the same person as I was 13 years ago, and nor is Amy.  How scary, to stand before the altar, knowing that you're stuck with the body standing in front of you, no matter that the person inside that body is going to evolve over time, and that you yourself will evolve.  Perhaps scarier to know that you will be the number one influencer of how that other person evolves over time, and they will be yours.  How scary - and yet how wonderful.

Below are the lyrics to the first song we danced to as a married couple.  The sentiment is the same 13 years later.  I'm a lucky guy.

At the Beginning - Anastacia

We were strangers starting out on our journey
Never dreaming what we'd have to go through
Now here we are and I'm suddenly standing
At the beginning with you

No one told me I was going to find you
Unexpected what you did to my heart
When I lost hope you were there to remind me
This is the start

(chorus)
And life is a road and I want to keep going
Love is a river I want to keep flowing
Life is a road now and forever
A wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

We were strangers on a crazy adventure
Never dreaming how our dreams would come true
Now here we stand unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you

(chorus)

I knew there was somebody somewhere
Like me alone in the dark
I know that my dream will live on
I've been waiting so long
Nothing's gonna tear us apart

(chorus)

Life

A heart-wrenching article by The Atlantic on the Kermit Gosnell trial has been in heavy rotation on my Facebook news feed.  See also this courageous article in USA Today.

I process this information as a West Philadelphian and as a Christian.  I also process it as an adoptive dad of an abandoned baby girl whose birth mother must have at some point contemplated abortion, and as part of a married couple that has never had the joy of bringing a newborn baby home from the hospital.

This to me is sadder than Sandy Hook.  What shocked the nation about Sandy Hook was the high number of murders and the young ages of most of the victims.  This story is far worse on both counts.

I have no other words.  If you want to read what else I've written on this subject, you can go here or here or here.  I also commend this post from my friend's blog, "Suburban Family Guy."

Whadja Get Me, Dad?

Last month, I had a business meeting in Washington DC.  One of the great things about Philly is being able to do business in the nation's capital without missing breakfast and school drop-off in the morning or dinner and bedtime stories in the evening.

And one of the great things about being a dad is getting done with your business stuff and buying your kids fun things at some museum gift shop.  Sure enough, my meeting was not far from the National Geographic Museum, which has a very good gift shop.  So good, in fact, that this spendthrift had trouble keeping the spending to one book each (a book of activities for Aaron, and a road trip atlas for Jada).

Of course, even better than buying gifts is giving them, since you get to see the delight in your kids' eyes as they receive something new and fun, and show unadulterated appreciation that you thought of them enough when you were out of town to buy them a souvenir of your trip.  My dad was a spendthrift like I am now, but I still remember that he got me and my sister stuff when he had to go out of town.

I'm reminded of a business trip I took when I used to run a youth entrepreneurship program way back when.  I forget where I was coming from, but I remember going straight back to the office, right in time for our after-school program.

When I rolled in with my rolling suitcase, the students remembered that I had told them the week before that I was going to be out of town for a few days.  One came up to me and said, "Whadja get me, Dad?"  Somewhat flustered, since it probably would've been nice if I had thought to get him and the others something, I fished around in my bag, found some shampoos and soaps that I swiped from my hotel room, thrust them into my student's hand, and said, "Here!"

Everyone realized it wasn't a real gift, including the recipient of the soaps and shampoos.  But you could tell he was touched by the special treat of getting something new and fun from someone important in his life who had gone away for a few days and who had now returned.  This student didn't have a dad at all, let alone one who delighted in buying him something on a business trip and who delighted in giving it to him upon his return.

Sometimes we chastise kids for having a "whadja get me, Dad" mentality.  And, to be sure, expecting and fixating on stuff is not good.  But c'mon: let kids have that desire, to get something new and fun, from someone important to them who remembered, amidst all the other important stuff going on during their trip, to get a little something to give upon their return.

Church in the City

I had the great pleasure sitting down with Laurence Tom, pastor of Chinese Christian Church and Center (CCC&C), last month for coffee.  CCC&C is one of many churches that I visited when I was an undergrad in the early 1990's, and although I never attended there regularly I had lots of friends who did.  (And I always enjoyed their annual square dance - who doesn't like a good square dance?)

Pastor Laurence and I don't go back as far as that, but our connection to each other is deep because our mutual love for the city and our mutual desire to see God glorified in the city.  As a kid from the suburbs, my understanding of living out one's faith in the city has evolved from the occasional forays to soup kitchens and rescue missions to a meaningful engagement with urban people, urban places, and urban systems.

So I was delighted to hear that this is on Pastor Laurence's heart as well.  As with many congregations in Philadelphia (including the one I am a part of), CCC&C has a lot of people who are here for a couple of years and then on to something else, whether because they are students or medical residents at a local institution or because they are pushed or pulled to another place because of economics or employment.

And Pastor Laurence's position is that, while they are under his care, whether for a year, a decade, or a lifetime, part of his job is to make sure that they really engage with the city in which CCC&C is located.  Urban Philadelphia, with all its grit and grime, becomes a place not to shun or to dart in and out of for quick-hit service opportunities, but rather a classroom and laboratory and tableau.

Congregants connect with CCC&C for good teaching, religious experiences, and good friendships, yes.  But also history and architecture and governance and struggle, which our city is rich in, even and especially Chinatown.  (It helps that Pastor Laurence has a city planning degree.)

In a metropolitan area of millions of people and thousands of churches, I am always glad to meet like-minded servants and to think that there are many others doing the same good work.  Kudos to Pastor Laurence and to CCC&C. 

Meet the Principals

As much of a big and risky investment as it might have seemed, buying into my firm was a no-brainer on many fronts.  Probably the biggest draw for me was being able to go into battle with the three people who are now my fellow principals and owners.  I enjoy each of them socially, admire their integrity, and have so much to learn from each.  Together we are a nice bunch:

Peter Angelides is a rare combo of planner and PhD economist, which is a great mix for a lot of the work we do.  He's also worked for a big consulting firm (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) and teaches at Penn.

Steve Mullin was Finance Director and Commerce Director under Mayor Rendell in the 1990's.  Through that, plus the many boards he sits on and the many classes he teaches, I joke that half of the city has either worked for him, been one of his students, or sat on a board with him...except that that's not actually too far from reality, or at least it seems that way when I walk down the street with him.

Dick Voith has worked at the Federal Reserve Bank and was vice chair of SEPTA, so he brings some serious econ and transportation creds to the table.  He was also quite the stud basketball player at Haverford (still the school's all-time leading scorer) and you'd be surprised how many gigs we get from people he plays pick-up hoops with. 

Even though we're working on a lot of stuff all at once, we're small enough that we're all involved in each others' business.  So this is who you're getting when you hire us.  I think it's worth your while.

Plant Sale at PIC

Spring has sprung, and if you're in the market for some plants, consider supporting a great preschool and after-school program in the process.  That's right, PIC's plant sale is now on, and they're taking pre-orders until April 15.  Click here for more information or to order.

Feel Free to Disagree

I can't speak for all bloggers, but I feel good when I receive "likes" and other affirmative comments in response to stuff I write.  But you know what else makes me feel good?  Disagreement.

Don't get me wrong, I don't write inflammatory things just to provoke a rise out of people.  I despise that kind of baiting.  And, I don't revel in confrontation or conflict, and in fact work hard to foster peace and consensus.

But disagreement is good, because it stretches me to think about things differently.  Every argument has two sides, and even if I believe and voice one side, I want to learn more about the other side.

So "like" away if I say something you approve of.  Say nice things if I've hit the nail on the head.  But if I'm off, or you think I'm not seeing things quite right, or have a completely opposite perspective as mine, please speak of.  I "like" it when you do.

Spruce Hill Community Association is Seeking Volunteers for Spruce Hill's May Fair

Spruce Hill Community Association's May Fair is a fun day at Clark Park, with all sorts of tables to visit and friends to meet and (for the kids) games to play.  On that last thing, I'm looking for five volunteers to staff the moon bounce and obstacle course area.  There will be a person there from the place we're renting these things from, to make sure no one gets hurt, but we still need the station staffed in terms of collecting money and getting kids in and out.

If you're interested in helping out, the event will take place on Saturday, May 11, and we need coverage for one-hour slots from 10:30 am to 3:30 pm.  Leave me a note in the comments or send me a message if you're available.

Huang Family Newsletter, March 2013

Another crazy month for the Huangs.  Lee's increasingly busy at work, juggling client work, networking, and business operations.  Amy's days were packed with counseling sessions, plus she attended a conference in-town.  Aaron and Jada are making progress in their swimming and ballet classes.  They both had dental appointments, a visit to their new doctor, and their semi-annual developmental pediatrician exam. They got to go to New York for the day to see cousins. 

You Got Rolled

Anyone who clicked through any of yesterday's "lazy links" got Rick Rolled...not that there's really anything wrong with Rick Astley's breakout song, "Never Gonna Give You Up."  (I also spelled out FOOLS in the description of the links, in case you weren't otherwise suspicious.)

That was fun.

Lazy Linking, 89th in an Occasional Series

Stuff I liked on the Internets lately:

89.1 For the last time already: charge me more for gas! http://bit.ly/13vMy5U @nytimes

89.2 Ouch! Google Glass in legal hot water http://bit.ly/XiIdjE @techcrunch

89.3 On second thought: Angelenos car-wacky image is actually unfounded (so I take back all the jokes) http://bit.ly/WhwBgF @nextcityorg

89.4 Let me get this straight...you can't tolerate those who are intolerant? http://bit.ly/YkETpM @desiringgod

89.5 So close and yet so far for Mitt Romney once again http://bit.ly/YL7vIE @nationaljournal