This blog was supposed to be another counterattack against stupidity; instead, it is an admission that, if not for the grace of God, I would be living in my own, personally-selected version of utter stupidity.
God forgive me for my sense of entitlement. I have been forgiven for so much. Please take all of my heart, and teach me your ways.
How did I get here?
Read this ...
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Because every fire breathing robot deserves its own soundtrack ...
Because every fire-breathing robot deserves its own soundtrack, here's One Month Off (Filthy Dukes Remix) by Bloc Party. Kele and the boys from Bloc Party played First Ave on Monday. Yep, this is the same band Noel Gallagher said sounded like a "band off University Challenge.""A 7.2-meter (23.6 foot) tall aluminum made robot 'Giant Torayan' blows fire into the air during a rehearsal of the 'Roppongi Art Night' special art event at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Japan, Friday, March 27, 2009. The robot, created by Japanese artist Kenji Yanobe, is one of main art installations for the event that aims to transform the entire area of Roppongi for one night from Saturday, March 28 to Sunday with art of all types under the theme of 'Encounters.' (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)"
Friday, March 27, 2009
Words gone awry
I've been thinking about this, and at the risk of sounding like a complete moron, I'd like to share it with you:
How do you feel about reclaiming the semantic nuances of the Christian faith? First matter of agenda: "We're going to church" should be replaced with something that bears even a minute resemblance to what a "church" actually is. Remove indefinite article "a" and replace with "the", and capitalize said object in most instances, because individual streams or expressions can barely comprise an such an ancient and venerable network of bodies.
Progressive pastor here in the Cities calls his Sunday services "seminars". Get my drift?
Am I way out of line here?
How do you feel about reclaiming the semantic nuances of the Christian faith? First matter of agenda: "We're going to church" should be replaced with something that bears even a minute resemblance to what a "church" actually is. Remove indefinite article "a" and replace with "the", and capitalize said object in most instances, because individual streams or expressions can barely comprise an such an ancient and venerable network of bodies.
Progressive pastor here in the Cities calls his Sunday services "seminars". Get my drift?
Am I way out of line here?
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Power Distance (A primer for passion)
Social media are shrinking to new lows the power distance-- the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.
Examples:
Power distance is low . . . time to respond!
How, you ask?
1. Get your cause right.
2. Figure out who wants to hear it.
3. Fire.
4. Aim.
5. Fire again.
If you hit something, you'll know. People are naturally passionate; even apathy is a passion, ya know . . . your job is to find out where their passion lies and how to harness it in practical ways.
CAUTION: Using the old rules of broadcast media do not work with social media-- a noted cult of generosity. To get, ya gotta give. A lot. This is what we call "value-based offerings."
I have noticed the Facebook chatter begin to build as:
1) More users join. Opening the "Book" to non-university students catapulted FB into a clear #1.
2) Applications add functionality.
3) Causes mobilize the bourgeois to movement.
How do you cut through the clutter? Give! Recognize people are naturally selfish, and give them what they want.
That's all for today. Shalom, my revolutionary brethren.
Examples:
- Both the Pope and the President of the United States have YouTube pages.
- Doritos allows user-submitted content to appear as a Super Bowl commercial.
- My local newspaper features user comments as high as the byline.
- Mothers angry about a Motrin campaign Tweeted the ads right off the air.
- You can read the Bible in any language-- free online.
Power distance is low . . . time to respond!
How, you ask?
1. Get your cause right.
2. Figure out who wants to hear it.
3. Fire.
4. Aim.
5. Fire again.
If you hit something, you'll know. People are naturally passionate; even apathy is a passion, ya know . . . your job is to find out where their passion lies and how to harness it in practical ways.
CAUTION: Using the old rules of broadcast media do not work with social media-- a noted cult of generosity. To get, ya gotta give. A lot. This is what we call "value-based offerings."
I have noticed the Facebook chatter begin to build as:
1) More users join. Opening the "Book" to non-university students catapulted FB into a clear #1.
2) Applications add functionality.
3) Causes mobilize the bourgeois to movement.
How do you cut through the clutter? Give! Recognize people are naturally selfish, and give them what they want.
That's all for today. Shalom, my revolutionary brethren.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Color-coded
One way I've changed in the past few months is my level of organization. For a long time, it was convenient to say, "I'm not organized," and then outsource all my comings, goings and doings to someone else more "Type A".
But then, people asked of me things I hadn't been asked before. In other words, people were outsourcing to me.
"Manage this."
"Research this."
"Call these people."
"Get Job A done with Persons 1 & 2"
"Show up at Point A at this Time X, and be ready"
So, I established systems of organization to supplement the limited amount of Random-Access Memory in my brain. I wrote things down. I referred to lists. I color-coded and organized my life.
And I feel a lot better! I get more done, and I have more context for where I am, at every step of the way. I wouldn't call myself "organized" now, but I definitely am developing systems to keep myself in the game.
1. Write your goals down
2. Write action items to accomplish those goals
3. Highlight when you're done
Write organization blog. Check.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
A bitter end to a promising beginning
With a sad heart, I closed my Bible. Over the past month, I had read the stories written in 1 & 2 Kings. I read the stories of Israel's greatest kings, David and Solomon. I saw Yahweh raise a nation of slaves with broken backs into a nation of wealthy and wise cultural elites. Jerusalem was a boom town of boom towns.
I saw unspeakable riches flow through the Holy City. I saw sailing ships sailing and traders trading. I saw a religiopolitical system that seemed to work, even though the monarchy was never Yahweh's ideal.
I saw a beautiful beginning. The covenant was honored. God smiled down on his people.
It was a rocky road, yes, but David was always a survivor. He sinned, but he repented. The author of 1 & 2 Kings never glosses over David's sins, but in history, but we also know that few have pleased the heart of Yahweh like David. No matter what new and astonishingly evil king took the throne, Yahweh remembered David. Eventually, the sins of Judah became so great that Yahweh's anger could not be stopped. Josiah was a great reformer, but he died from wounds sustained fighting Pharaoh Neco of Egypt.
Josiah will stand and say, someday, that from the House of Judah, one greater than the rest emerged. He is Jesus Christ. He is why I'm here, a Gentile in a foreign land, trying to wrap my mind around the story of God's chosen people.
Today, I feel God's call to remember the stories that have been told, to brush off the dust of antiquity and let them deal with me in a profound way. In the Books of 1 & 2 Kings, I see stories of love, family, redemption, anger, evil and hate.
The author spares us no details. We see mighty kings reduced to vassals, or worse-- palace dogs whom the Babylonian ruler took pity on and showed kindness to. Could David or Solomon ever have imagined such an end?
My pastor says, "Do not doubt in the light what God did in the darkness." In a culture of perpetual obsolescence, do we value the stories of old? Have we made the wisdom of the ancients, their lengthy genealogies and centuries of oral tradition, into a reference book?
In my tradition, I see this tendency. We are very good at living in the moment, and dreaming about the future, but we forget that nothing is new under the sun. That's the message of wisdom, and that's what 1 & 2 Kings speaks to me.
We must remember the ancient wisdom. We must not allow our heart to grow cold to the teachings of the fathers. No matter how scary it is, we must let these historical books work us over, through and through.
The message of 1 & 2 Kings is harsh, but still it holds hope for tomorrow. One thing that God showed me at my youth camp is that we can have a better future. Through our economy may fail, our strength must not.
As people of prayer, we must move God's heart so deeply and so purely that, if ever our church is reduced to evil and rubble, something in God's heart will remember our faithfulness. The system of temple worship may be corrupt and so far from its original intent, but God will raise up among us people of great faith, like Elijah and Elisha. He will uphold his promises, no matter what Joe Stupid or Tom Dumb is doing in positions of leadership.
God is no respecter of persons, but he does remember those who move his heart. If a thousand years is like a day to the Lord, we can imagine how the stories of the great men of our past still move the heart of the Lord.
I'm compelled to be that kind of person! I don't want anything this world has to offer me; I just want to please the Lord. It's time to live in that mode, that my life would be a sweet sacrifice to the Lord. Only then, can I rest.
I saw unspeakable riches flow through the Holy City. I saw sailing ships sailing and traders trading. I saw a religiopolitical system that seemed to work, even though the monarchy was never Yahweh's ideal.
I saw a beautiful beginning. The covenant was honored. God smiled down on his people.
It was a rocky road, yes, but David was always a survivor. He sinned, but he repented. The author of 1 & 2 Kings never glosses over David's sins, but in history, but we also know that few have pleased the heart of Yahweh like David. No matter what new and astonishingly evil king took the throne, Yahweh remembered David. Eventually, the sins of Judah became so great that Yahweh's anger could not be stopped. Josiah was a great reformer, but he died from wounds sustained fighting Pharaoh Neco of Egypt.
Josiah will stand and say, someday, that from the House of Judah, one greater than the rest emerged. He is Jesus Christ. He is why I'm here, a Gentile in a foreign land, trying to wrap my mind around the story of God's chosen people.
Today, I feel God's call to remember the stories that have been told, to brush off the dust of antiquity and let them deal with me in a profound way. In the Books of 1 & 2 Kings, I see stories of love, family, redemption, anger, evil and hate.
The author spares us no details. We see mighty kings reduced to vassals, or worse-- palace dogs whom the Babylonian ruler took pity on and showed kindness to. Could David or Solomon ever have imagined such an end?
My pastor says, "Do not doubt in the light what God did in the darkness." In a culture of perpetual obsolescence, do we value the stories of old? Have we made the wisdom of the ancients, their lengthy genealogies and centuries of oral tradition, into a reference book?
In my tradition, I see this tendency. We are very good at living in the moment, and dreaming about the future, but we forget that nothing is new under the sun. That's the message of wisdom, and that's what 1 & 2 Kings speaks to me.
We must remember the ancient wisdom. We must not allow our heart to grow cold to the teachings of the fathers. No matter how scary it is, we must let these historical books work us over, through and through.
The message of 1 & 2 Kings is harsh, but still it holds hope for tomorrow. One thing that God showed me at my youth camp is that we can have a better future. Through our economy may fail, our strength must not.
As people of prayer, we must move God's heart so deeply and so purely that, if ever our church is reduced to evil and rubble, something in God's heart will remember our faithfulness. The system of temple worship may be corrupt and so far from its original intent, but God will raise up among us people of great faith, like Elijah and Elisha. He will uphold his promises, no matter what Joe Stupid or Tom Dumb is doing in positions of leadership.
God is no respecter of persons, but he does remember those who move his heart. If a thousand years is like a day to the Lord, we can imagine how the stories of the great men of our past still move the heart of the Lord.
I'm compelled to be that kind of person! I don't want anything this world has to offer me; I just want to please the Lord. It's time to live in that mode, that my life would be a sweet sacrifice to the Lord. Only then, can I rest.
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