I’m thankful for childhood friends from Queen Anne and Bellevue who still take the time to say happy birthday even though they knew me as the juvenile I was (and still am in many ways).
I’m thankful for my high school friends in Kentucky for their birthday wishes, because they accepted me at a time when was a long way from where I started.
I’m thankful to my college friends and their wishes because they put up with my mullet and tennis shorts that were so tight it’s surprising my voice ever changed, and because they were there to help me grow up a bit.
I’m thankful to my graduate school and 20’s friends because you watched me discover who I was, and who I was becoming, and you helped me gain the confidence to become an adult (whatever that means).
From North Queen Anne, to Bellevue Christian, to Jessamine County, to Seattle Pacific, and to Claremont…thanks to all of you.
I’m thankful for my church community through Eastlake and their wishes because we are now doing life together, raising kids, serving together, and trying to figure out how to be obedient and closer to God while being human.
I’m thankful for the birthday wishes from my friends who are a part of our community in Kirkland, and the opportunity to do life together, support and love our kids, and for the opportunity to coach your kids in basketball and soccer.
I’m thankful to the friends who have been around through big parts of all of that, knew me as a pressured teenager looking to get into a little trouble (from bottle rocket wars to naughty things with mail boxes and snowmen, from dorm room games to cemeteries, and from the Red Door to the 318, and from Jalisco’s to Targies to the High Brow). You have had my back for decades and because of that, I’m so thankful.
I’m thankful for the wishes from those with whom I work. You impact my life every day. Work has been very good to me. I can’t believe what I get to do and who I have had the opportunity to work with. From SPU to Boeing and Microsoft, from Heineken to Foster Farms to the Free Methodist Church, and from RTDS to Bad Bobby and beyond. My work life is filled with people who are amazing at what they do and deeply invested in architecting hope and possibility into the lives of human beings.
I’m thankful to my students and former students who took the time to wish me a happy birthday. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that what you do and say matters. From Azusa, to Degree Completion, from OB to I/O…thanks to all of you.
I’m thankful to my extended family and friends of family. You have imprinted on my life in ways that I cannot fully understand in such powerful ways. Thank you for your birthday wishes.
I’m thankful for the birthday wishes from my wife Jackie. Enough said….
I’m so thankful for the warm birthday wishes from my sons…they do love birthdays! And for the annual gift of sharing my birthday with Ryan. What an awesome thing.
If I missed any of you, it’s not because I’m not thankful for you, but because I’m still the same guy you have always known who doesn’t catch every detail, but I’m thankful for you and your wishes.
I haven’t always invested in the facebook birthday wishes, but today it made me realize how good it made me feel that even though some of you saw me through some really awkward times, successes, failures, and even mistakes, you still took the time to send birthday wishes. Anyway, thanks y’all. You had an impact on me today.
Posts in the Rob Mckenna Category
I’m thankful for many things on this birthday.
Posted Friday, May 27th
How does change happen for you?
Posted Wednesday, February 25th
There’s no doubt that goal setting is important. We know it works. But, the fact is that we know it works for people who set goals. If it’s such a good idea, then why is it so hard to set goals? I think it’s really interesting to think about the times in your life when you’ve been able to achieve something very meaningful to you and then think about what it is that allowed you to set the goal, and then go after it. Think about the last time you set a goal and you knew that you would chase that goal, or you knew you would get it done in spite of yourself. What was the goal? What was it about you that made it work in that situation? What does that tell you about the goals that work for you? In what ways have you tried to set goals that didn’t work for you? Reflecting on what goals you HAVE achieved instead of those you HAVE NOT, what does that tell you about how you should set goals in the future?
There’s no doubt that goal setting is important. We know it works. But, the fact is that we know it works for people who set goals. If it’s such a good idea, then why is it so hard to set goals? I think it’s really interesting to think about the times in your life when you’ve been able to achieve something very meaningful to you and then think about what it is that allowed you to set the goal, and then go after it. Think about the last time you set a goal and you knew that you would chase that goal, or you knew you would get it done in spite of yourself. What was the goal? What was it about you that made it work in that situation? What does that tell you about the goals that work for you? In what ways have you tried to set goals that didn’t work for you? Reflecting on what goals you HAVE achieved instead of those you HAVE NOT, what does that tell you about how you should set goals in the future?
What Impact Are You Having on Your World?
Posted Monday, February 16th
This week I asked one of the emerging leaders who is taking part in the blog to generate the blog topic for the week. Her post is below. I look forward to your answers to her question at the end.
Week six’s class discussion left us with more questions than answers. The quartet conversation brought up some thought-provoking ideas that spurred our conversation about authenticity and then last week’s blog laid the foundation for our discussion about sacrifice and its relationship to loss. As a class, we wrestled with both questions for a considerable amount of time but did not even come close to unanimously agreeing upon an answer. An hour and a half into the class session, during the break, I talked with a couple of people about the complexity of the concepts we routinely discuss in this class and how people’s insightful responses do not often confirm our own thoughts but instead introduce and provoke more complex and layered thoughts. Everyone in the conversation agreed that although the questions surrounding these topics are almost always difficult and often times ambiguous, it is important that we at least attempt to form thoughtful responses to them and then be willing to modify these responses when we hear legitimate arguments that may contend with our opinions on the issue.
Acknowledging the complexity of these questions and their tendency to linger and prod at our minds, what question or concept introduced in class has stuck with you the most thus far in the quarter? What concept has made you re-evaluate your behavior or another part of your life? How have the people outside of the class whom you have discussed these concepts with reacted? How did you feel about their reaction?
This week I asked one of the emerging leaders who is taking part in the blog to generate the blog topic for the week. Her post is below. I look forward to your answers to her question at the end.
Week six’s class discussion left us with more questions than answers. The quartet conversation brought up some thought-provoking ideas that spurred our conversation about authenticity and then last week’s blog laid the foundation for our discussion about sacrifice and its relationship to loss. As a class, we wrestled with both questions for a considerable amount of time but did not even come close to unanimously agreeing upon an answer. An hour and a half into the class session, during the break, I talked with a couple of people about the complexity of the concepts we routinely discuss in this class and how people’s insightful responses do not often confirm our own thoughts but instead introduce and provoke more complex and layered thoughts. Everyone in the conversation agreed that although the questions surrounding these topics are almost always difficult and often times ambiguous, it is important that we at least attempt to form thoughtful responses to them and then be willing to modify these responses when we hear legitimate arguments that may contend with our opinions on the issue.
Acknowledging the complexity of these questions and their tendency to linger and prod at our minds, what question or concept introduced in class has stuck with you the most thus far in the quarter? What concept has made you re-evaluate your behavior or another part of your life? How have the people outside of the class whom you have discussed these concepts with reacted? How did you feel about their reaction?
Does Sacrifice Have to Hurt?
Posted Monday, February 2nd
This last week I had a chance to spend some very intense and amazing time with a friend of mine who is a senior business leader. That doesn’t mean he’s a senior in high school who leads in business, but for those of you who need it bottom shelf like me, it means he’s occupied some pretty high level roles in the organizations where he has served. One of the most intriguing conversations we had (of which we had many) was around the question of sacrifice and what sacrifice looks like in the lives of leaders. The question we kept coming back to was this. Does sacrifice have to hurt? In other words, is it possible to think about the idea of sacrifice without the necessity of it hurting or having some potentially painful cost for the person doing the sacrificing?
It’s a really interesting question isn’t it? Does sacrifice have to hurt? If not, why not? Is it enough to take on a servant’s heart as a person, and if so, is that the same as taking on a sacrificial heart as a person? When calculating the cost of leading others and the personal cost to you of living a sacrificial life as proposed in Philippians 2 from the Bible, does it have to hurt? I’ll leave the response to you experts!
This last week I had a chance to spend some very intense and amazing time with a friend of mine who is a senior business leader. That doesn’t mean he’s a senior in high school who leads in business, but for those of you who need it bottom shelf like me, it means he’s occupied some pretty high level roles in the organizations where he has served. One of the most intriguing conversations we had (of which we had many) was around the question of sacrifice and what sacrifice looks like in the lives of leaders. The question we kept coming back to was this. Does sacrifice have to hurt? In other words, is it possible to think about the idea of sacrifice without the necessity of it hurting or having some potentially painful cost for the person doing the sacrificing?
It’s a really interesting question isn’t it? Does sacrifice have to hurt? If not, why not? Is it enough to take on a servant’s heart as a person, and if so, is that the same as taking on a sacrificial heart as a person? When calculating the cost of leading others and the personal cost to you of living a sacrificial life as proposed in Philippians 2 from the Bible, does it have to hurt? I’ll leave the response to you experts!
