Charles Olson
Chuck Olson has been executive pastor at Lake Avenue Church since 2002. Before coming to Lake, he served at Rolling Hills Covenant Church, Rolling Hills Estates, CA for eighteen years. His calling in life is to develop, challenge, and inspire leaders to lead with their lives – their most important asset. He is constantly pursuing ways to resource leaders to look at the 'interior' issues of life and leadership...Read more...
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March Madness is now in the books and for all of us whose brackets blew up in the first round, we now wake up to the reality of April Sadness! Such is life. (BTW, congrats Wildcats, you took the Superdome by storm and showcased an impressive performance on college basketball’s biggest stage).
So what comes on the heels of the ‘sweet sixteen’, the ‘elite eight’, and the ‘final four’? You guessed it! The ‘top ten’!
It was my day off. And it couldn’t have started better.
I headed out from the home a tad earlier than normal because beating the morning traffic in LA is both art form and big-league accomplishment. After clocking a few miles on the 110 freeway, I arrived at Redondo Beach for a time of solitude just as the skies gently ushered in a new day.330. That’s the number placarded on the wall of the left field pavilion at Dodger Stadium. And that’s the number that served repeatedly as the Olson family ‘vision test’.
You see, growing up as a young boy in a family that is visually-challenged, the question was never, WILL I need glasses? It was simply a matter of WHEN.Some books entertain. Others educate. And then there are those books that mess with you.
I’m talking about the books that by design or default show up on your bookshelf (or get downloaded on your Kindle) that knock you off stride. Bust up your mental models. Remind you that you have some learning to do.
Or perhaps some unlearning.Years later I can still see in my mind’s eye the shattered cabinets strewn like a yard-sale on a windy day atop the unforgiving concrete floor of the loading dock…
For half a year, between college and grad school, I worked for my father in a family- owned business that designed, fabricated, delivered, and installed high-end, custom-made wood products. I was part of the delivery phase of the business food chain, wheeling around southern California in a white 29-foot split-axel cab-over Ford flatbed truck delivering newly manufactured goods to countless construction sites chomping at the bit for the the day when they would morph into hotels and schools and office complexes.
I love toolboxes! I’ve got several of them.
I’ve got one that sits in the garage atop a makeshift workbench that is always propped open, ready when I need to snatch a pair of needle-nose pliers or a Phillips-head screwdriver.
I’ve got one that is stashed away in a cabinet that is filled with the tools I have stockpiled through the years from various family members who, either by trade or hobby, loved to use their hands to craft and create.It was not my best moment. Far from it.
Back in the day when I still had some capacity to get off the hardwood a few inches, I joined a basketball league at the local gym. One night a week, guys from the community would lace up, stretch out, and team up for a weekly shot at fading glory! While I hate to admit it, during one of the games, in frustration, I slammed my fist against the wall behind the basket. To this day, it seems like I can still hear the embarrassing echo reverberate throughout the concrete box. (Not exactly a radiant witness to my teammates who knew I was the pastor at the church a few blocks away).It is a moment that is pasted for perpetuity in the scrapbook of my heart.
In June of this year, forty-seven of us cleared our calendars, packed our bags, stamped our passports, and headed to Israel. It was nothing less than a ten-day “journey of a lifetime”.
Day four would take its place as THE highlight among too many to count.
Let’s take a quick glance over the shoulder to see where we’ve been.
You may recall that a couple months ago, I rolled out a BHAQ (Big Hairy Audacious Question). It went like this: Is it possible to be more passionate, more energized, and more productive for the Kingdom…a year from now?
Sound familiar?
…we are in the middle of the movie, so to speak…
Over the last two months, we’ve been chasing down an important question: Is it possible to be more passionate, more energized, and more productive for the Kingdom…a year from now?Let’s catch up where we left off.
Last month I stepped on the mound, gripped the seams of the cowhide, and pitched a question to you--a big question. It went like this: Is it possible to be more passionate, more energized, and more productive for the Kingdom…a year from now?
I’ve got a question for you. An important one. Really important.
You’ve heard of a BHAG, right? But how about a BHAQ? A big hairy audacious QUESTION.
Here it is: Is it possible to be more passionate, more energized, and more productive for the Kingdom…a year from now?
It had been a long day. But a good one. An important one. A memorable one.
Little did I know that this TRIP of a lifetime would include a RIDE of a lifetime!
Our busload of 40 had just finished exploring the rose-red city of Petra, a phenomenon tucked away in a valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba where nature and man have conspired together to create a civilization carved out of sandstone that stands unmatched in the architectural annals of human history. In other words, Petra is a destination that simply sits in the category of you’ve-got-to-see-it-to-believe it. It’s a place where photos only offer a tease of its magnificence.Ten men. Two hours. Twice a month.
I have the opportunity, make that the privilege, to meet regularly with a handful of men who are lights-out serious about following Christ.
