Dear Friend,
For some time now my budget has been busted. I have been spending way more than I can afford or even have. And right now I feel so sad because the people around me are also suffering financially. So here is what I have decided to do. I have asked all of my friends to pool as much of their disposable income with me as they can.
Some can afford a little and some can afford more. Many are not giving at all. I am doing my best to lay on thick the guilt trip to those friends who are doing well (or at least better than me.) The tact I have taken is to make them feel bad for being a success when people around them are not. The trick is that I say this fairly loud and in the presence of people who aren't doing well. The people who are poorer than me even add to the angry feelings toward the folks that are doing well.
I mean, who do those wealthier people think they are after all? Why do they have money while others don't? Wait. Don't answer that. I don't even want to know. I just want to hear the sound of them opening their wallets.
Now, once I have created this pool of funds, I have decided to turn around and open a huge line of credit using those funds as collateral. Sure the interest rates are fairly high on this sort of fund, and I am having to borrow that money from people not in my neighborhood, but in the end, it feels soooooo good to hand out wads of cash to people. I mean, they need the money right? And I am giving it to them, right? How cool is that. By the way, I actually took the loan out in their name. So when the lender from the other neighborhood shows up to collect, well, let's just say that won't really be my problem.
It just feels good to help, well, to help right now. Right now is when we need it the most, right? I mean, sure, we are living on credit together, but as long as I keep handing out the cash, it seems to me that nobody is asking questions, you know? They just need the cash.
So what if in a while they figure out the cost of that cash? They need it now, no matter the cost. And I am willing to help, no matter the cost. Gosh, that makes it sound like I have values and like I am taking on the responsibility of that cost. I am not. My friends and neighbors are, but let's not get distracted by those details. Let's just be good neighbors and get out there and buy new microwave ovens and locally manufactured automobiles and homes.
Oh man, take the wad of cash I handed you and follow my example by getting out a loan against your wad of cash. It is amazing how you will feel, well, right now! Maybe later you will realize it costs more, and more for a fairly long time (how long have we all been making payments on those crazy credit cards now?) but that is the magic of living on credit. Sure you are paying for it until you die, but man what a house, right? Well, what a house until the not so close neighbor takes it away when they come to collect their loan back. But I just can't think about that right now.
Right now I need to do something. And not a smart well thought out something, but a right now kind of something. A quick close your eyes and sign on the dotted line and ignor the fine print kind of something. We don't have TIME for talking about alternatives or shopping for better loans or whatever! Because, in the end, I know that I will feel good once they hand me that briefcase full of money. And I know I will feel better once I am handing that out to my neighbors! Who cares if it comes from China, right? Who cares if we are paying for it darned near the rest of our lives. We just need to focus on the cash, people! Focus! Over here! Not over there, over here! Seriously, stop looking at the fine print over there and just look at the cash in this briefcase over here.
Clearly this is the answer. Just ask all of my friends. When the chips are down and we are out of money, we just pull out the credit card and go have dinner and movie, right? I mean, what else could we do? Wait. Don't answer that. Focus!
- America, 2009
Updated:
Hi! America here! That was me back in 2009. Wow, I was not really thinking of my future. I quickly found myself buried under amazing debt and it wasn't until I stopped panicking and started talking to all of my friends that I started to get things under control. Unfortunately, here in 2030 life is getting a little better. I have paid down a lot of debt, but it started with getting my spending under control. My friends called it a budget and while it took a few false starts to learn how to live on one, I am now doing much better. Budgets really help you to prioritize, I tell you. For a while there I was calling things priorities that should never have been. After the spending was under more control and I was doing a lot better monitoring my ability to live under my budget, next I was able to refocus a bit. It is funny. Living under a budget helps you set realistic goals (and in my case my goals were all over the place.) By re-examining my purpose I was able to focus on my goals again, pay down my debt and focus on that purpose. It's funny what happens when you are in a tight spot and panic sets in. I really stirred myself up and got all freaked out. Thank goodness some of my friends were not all joining me in my panicky freakout sessions. I even accused those friends of not caring because they weren't freaking out with me (I was such a dork!) If they hadn't been patient and forgiving I might not have chilled out and took their advice. It is funny. I really knew what I needed to do all along. It is just too bad I made the decisions I did anyway (I guess the fact that I am still paying for it serves as a good reminder.) In the end, I can say that being in a tough spot was somewhat my fault and somewhat not, but my reaction is something I needed to own up to. And I continue to own up to it each day. Thank God for caring, patient, long suffering friends.
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Trading Up
There are plenty of opportunities in life where we have to make a trade. The hope is always that we end up with the good end of the deal. Not too long ago I bought a new car. In fact, while I have owned six cars in my life, none of them until the car I now own have been new. I am now on my seventh car and this car is new.
I remember the day I showed up at the dealership to buy the car. I had visited once before and sort of knew the car I was going for. Having had the car I was driving for years, I was completely aware of what I wanted from a car mostly because of what I was not getting out of my current vehicle. The bottom line was that while my current car was old, it was the car I owned and I was ready to part with it to trade up. No doubt people do not typically trade down, right? Sometimes, however, you do see this, but that was definitely not the case when it came to me.
This is life, I am convinced. We have some equity in the situation we find ourselves in, and surely we do not want to start from scratch in life. We want to trade up. But not unlike my car, it was far harder to bite the bullet and suddenly go into a little debt to trade up. I owned my car. The seat conformed to me! I knew exactly what was wrong with the car and likely when it would break down next! “Do I really want to trade at all?”, was the question. But it really isn't the right question. The real question is, “Can I get away with trading up?” Sometimes you have to get so tired of your situation that you are ready to go into a little debt to suddenly find yourself in a whole better situation. But it is sometimes difficult to break the momentum of what is known, to embrace what is not known.
Let me tell you about the best deal on the planet. I kid you not, even with the current financial situation that we all find ourselves in, you aren't going to want to pass up this deal. The debt is far less valuable than the deal you get in the end. Here is that deal:
Jeremiah 31:13
The young women will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrows.
Mostly people who don't spend much time with the Bible would likely be fairly well surprised to find that the Bible is filled with these sort of statements. This is God basically saying to people that they will be so excited about the joy that comes into their lives as a result of trading in their sorrows that the natural response will be to start dancing simply because they are happy. Not dancing to perform. Not a broadway show dancing, but more like a flock of 13 year old girls all giggly and jumping up and down when they get together and having not done so in at least a few hours. God is basically saying he will make us excited like 13 year old girls! Secure in my masculinity, I can say with all honesty, that is a good thing. That is pretty darned happy!
Here is the thing though: Like nearly all of the other statements like this in the Bible, God is really going for a trade. It isn't enough to want the joy. He wants your sorrow. Isn't that crazy? There is only one way to give up your sorrow. You have to trade it in. Sorrow is like a gas-guzzling car. The more you drive it, the more fuel it demands. The more fuel you invest in it, the harder it is to give up that investment and trade in. We invite the creator of our sorrow (ourselves or some friend or enemy) to ride along in our sorrow, but this is never good. They don't respect the investment we've made in this ride and their riding along only makes things more costly to us. The bottom line is that we have to unload this sorrow and the only way is to trade it in!
So how do you trade in your sorrow? Well, if you've recently traded in a car (in the last ten years) and were paying attention, the trade goes something like this. You and the dealer walk around the car and as well look inside. Your car is painfully on display. As the dealer walks around it, they point out blemishes and dents, scratches and missing parts. They sit in the seats and start fiddling with things that you fear will fall out or off or apart. The dealer does this for a reason. They want you to see everything that diminishes the value of the vehicle. After this fiasco, the deal begins. The offer is extended.
God isn't quite like this. Well, God is, but not for the same reasons. It ends up that God cares more about you than the car, in the end. At each blemish or dent, scratch or missing part, God knows there is a story. As the dealer, God stops and asks, “Tell me about this dent here?” God won't accept the short version of the story. If you are going to get the deal, then you have to revisit the whole ugly story with God. But rather than diminishing you, God says “That was a horrible wreck. I am so sorry you went through that. Now, tell me about this dent over here?”
You talk your way through each dent, each scratch, every missing part is inventoried and each story is listened to patiently. This is the deal. God wants to know and expose each piece of invested equity. God wants to know who hit you and who you hit.
At the end of the examination, God first tells you what you already know. The car is nearly totaled; God thinks it is a miracle that you are still on the road! But the thing is, God knows this financier and you are about to get the deal of the century. As you could have imagined, Jesus is the financier. He is standing there with a check made out in the amount of the new car. You don't have to pay a thing! Jesus is fully prepared to foot the bill. But there is a debt that you still endure as the result of this amazing deal. You have to let Jesus show you how to drive this new car. He will show you it's power, it's handling, every feature and how they work. He will ride along and show you not only how to make a safe left turn, but just when to make it. And soon, you will be driving it and he is like OnStar! Easier than hitting a button on the dash, you can get directions, help when you can't find the keys from time to time, as well as the fuel when yours runs out.
So here is the next challenge: If you are not used to making the trade, the first one is always the biggest one. And the older your car, the harder it is. Don't worry. From one traveler to another, it is totally worth it. Here is what you do:
The thing about the human heart is that unless you've made the trade, then you are carrying around plenty of old and new sorrow. The act of trading it in results in joy. So pick one sorrow and start to walk around the situation with God.
If you are anything like me, then many of my dents (not all of them) are the result of my poor driving. So after I walk around the situation, I have to get humble and end up saying, “I am a pretty crappy driver. Sorry about that. I want to be a better driver. I don't want to keep driving a car that is all dented up. It sucks.” And each and every time in response to your humility God says, “Well, yeah, you can be a pretty crappy driver. And in this situation, this dent was pretty much your fault / the fault of your poor driving. But I totally care about your driving and your ride and I want to see you become a great driver, for your sake and for the sake of others! So, I forgive you for your crazy impatient nutty driving. Let's take a drive together and I will show you how to handle this situation in the future. I can make you a pretty darned good driver and that will get pretty fun for you, you know? So let's do this deal. Give me this sorrow, and I will give you some joy in trade.”
And... BAM... you are into a new car, just like that. And dude... what a deal! I promise you that you will want to take the time to do more trading with God. And after all is said and done, you will have a garage filled with gladness. But just promise yourself to remember that each time you find that your garage contains a sad old rust-bucket, that you will go make the trade. Don't lie to yourself and say that the “character” of that old-piece-of-crap makes you who you are, or that you can't imagine parting with it after so many years (clinging to some old sorrow.) That is not who you are!... It is only holding you back!... You have to let it go and trade it in!...Why in the world would you keep driving around in that crazy old gas-hog at this point!? Right?
Disclaimer: God is not a car dealer. I acknowledge that sometimes the reputation of car dealers as a stereotype doesn't evoke good feelings. Sometimes when we think of car dealer we think of a sneaky, shifty guy in a leisure suite swindling and being swindled. The fact of the matter is that God will not swindle you, nor can you swindle God. The equity in the deal is your real sorrows... you can't fake humility or repentance if you contributed to your own sorrows. You have to be real... but it is worth it. The trade is totally inequitable IN YOUR FAVOR!
I remember the day I showed up at the dealership to buy the car. I had visited once before and sort of knew the car I was going for. Having had the car I was driving for years, I was completely aware of what I wanted from a car mostly because of what I was not getting out of my current vehicle. The bottom line was that while my current car was old, it was the car I owned and I was ready to part with it to trade up. No doubt people do not typically trade down, right? Sometimes, however, you do see this, but that was definitely not the case when it came to me.
This is life, I am convinced. We have some equity in the situation we find ourselves in, and surely we do not want to start from scratch in life. We want to trade up. But not unlike my car, it was far harder to bite the bullet and suddenly go into a little debt to trade up. I owned my car. The seat conformed to me! I knew exactly what was wrong with the car and likely when it would break down next! “Do I really want to trade at all?”, was the question. But it really isn't the right question. The real question is, “Can I get away with trading up?” Sometimes you have to get so tired of your situation that you are ready to go into a little debt to suddenly find yourself in a whole better situation. But it is sometimes difficult to break the momentum of what is known, to embrace what is not known.
Let me tell you about the best deal on the planet. I kid you not, even with the current financial situation that we all find ourselves in, you aren't going to want to pass up this deal. The debt is far less valuable than the deal you get in the end. Here is that deal:
Jeremiah 31:13
The young women will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old, together, for I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrows.
Mostly people who don't spend much time with the Bible would likely be fairly well surprised to find that the Bible is filled with these sort of statements. This is God basically saying to people that they will be so excited about the joy that comes into their lives as a result of trading in their sorrows that the natural response will be to start dancing simply because they are happy. Not dancing to perform. Not a broadway show dancing, but more like a flock of 13 year old girls all giggly and jumping up and down when they get together and having not done so in at least a few hours. God is basically saying he will make us excited like 13 year old girls! Secure in my masculinity, I can say with all honesty, that is a good thing. That is pretty darned happy!
Here is the thing though: Like nearly all of the other statements like this in the Bible, God is really going for a trade. It isn't enough to want the joy. He wants your sorrow. Isn't that crazy? There is only one way to give up your sorrow. You have to trade it in. Sorrow is like a gas-guzzling car. The more you drive it, the more fuel it demands. The more fuel you invest in it, the harder it is to give up that investment and trade in. We invite the creator of our sorrow (ourselves or some friend or enemy) to ride along in our sorrow, but this is never good. They don't respect the investment we've made in this ride and their riding along only makes things more costly to us. The bottom line is that we have to unload this sorrow and the only way is to trade it in!
So how do you trade in your sorrow? Well, if you've recently traded in a car (in the last ten years) and were paying attention, the trade goes something like this. You and the dealer walk around the car and as well look inside. Your car is painfully on display. As the dealer walks around it, they point out blemishes and dents, scratches and missing parts. They sit in the seats and start fiddling with things that you fear will fall out or off or apart. The dealer does this for a reason. They want you to see everything that diminishes the value of the vehicle. After this fiasco, the deal begins. The offer is extended.
God isn't quite like this. Well, God is, but not for the same reasons. It ends up that God cares more about you than the car, in the end. At each blemish or dent, scratch or missing part, God knows there is a story. As the dealer, God stops and asks, “Tell me about this dent here?” God won't accept the short version of the story. If you are going to get the deal, then you have to revisit the whole ugly story with God. But rather than diminishing you, God says “That was a horrible wreck. I am so sorry you went through that. Now, tell me about this dent over here?”
You talk your way through each dent, each scratch, every missing part is inventoried and each story is listened to patiently. This is the deal. God wants to know and expose each piece of invested equity. God wants to know who hit you and who you hit.
At the end of the examination, God first tells you what you already know. The car is nearly totaled; God thinks it is a miracle that you are still on the road! But the thing is, God knows this financier and you are about to get the deal of the century. As you could have imagined, Jesus is the financier. He is standing there with a check made out in the amount of the new car. You don't have to pay a thing! Jesus is fully prepared to foot the bill. But there is a debt that you still endure as the result of this amazing deal. You have to let Jesus show you how to drive this new car. He will show you it's power, it's handling, every feature and how they work. He will ride along and show you not only how to make a safe left turn, but just when to make it. And soon, you will be driving it and he is like OnStar! Easier than hitting a button on the dash, you can get directions, help when you can't find the keys from time to time, as well as the fuel when yours runs out.
So here is the next challenge: If you are not used to making the trade, the first one is always the biggest one. And the older your car, the harder it is. Don't worry. From one traveler to another, it is totally worth it. Here is what you do:
The thing about the human heart is that unless you've made the trade, then you are carrying around plenty of old and new sorrow. The act of trading it in results in joy. So pick one sorrow and start to walk around the situation with God.
If you are anything like me, then many of my dents (not all of them) are the result of my poor driving. So after I walk around the situation, I have to get humble and end up saying, “I am a pretty crappy driver. Sorry about that. I want to be a better driver. I don't want to keep driving a car that is all dented up. It sucks.” And each and every time in response to your humility God says, “Well, yeah, you can be a pretty crappy driver. And in this situation, this dent was pretty much your fault / the fault of your poor driving. But I totally care about your driving and your ride and I want to see you become a great driver, for your sake and for the sake of others! So, I forgive you for your crazy impatient nutty driving. Let's take a drive together and I will show you how to handle this situation in the future. I can make you a pretty darned good driver and that will get pretty fun for you, you know? So let's do this deal. Give me this sorrow, and I will give you some joy in trade.”
And... BAM... you are into a new car, just like that. And dude... what a deal! I promise you that you will want to take the time to do more trading with God. And after all is said and done, you will have a garage filled with gladness. But just promise yourself to remember that each time you find that your garage contains a sad old rust-bucket, that you will go make the trade. Don't lie to yourself and say that the “character” of that old-piece-of-crap makes you who you are, or that you can't imagine parting with it after so many years (clinging to some old sorrow.) That is not who you are!... It is only holding you back!... You have to let it go and trade it in!...Why in the world would you keep driving around in that crazy old gas-hog at this point!? Right?
Disclaimer: God is not a car dealer. I acknowledge that sometimes the reputation of car dealers as a stereotype doesn't evoke good feelings. Sometimes when we think of car dealer we think of a sneaky, shifty guy in a leisure suite swindling and being swindled. The fact of the matter is that God will not swindle you, nor can you swindle God. The equity in the deal is your real sorrows... you can't fake humility or repentance if you contributed to your own sorrows. You have to be real... but it is worth it. The trade is totally inequitable IN YOUR FAVOR!
Monday, January 5, 2009
Why Worship?
For some of us, we go to church every week and participate in what the western world calls worship. To some, worship is the attendance at a weekly church gathering, the worship service. In the most general sense, worship service then means a meeting devoted to God and God’s Kingdom. And that devotion amounting to an hour or more of time then equals worship. To others, worship is the act of singing, but even this might seem odd to many who don’t attend church meetings regularly.
The only time the non-church goer sings to people in regular life would be at either a birthday party or mockingly at the fans of some opposing team sitting on the other side of some sports venue. Now, go back a generation or two and men would “croon” swooning love-songs to their ladies. Any and all of this is, well, to a degree worshipful singing, even if it is a bit plain, expected or antithetical. So why do churches continue to sing worshipful songs to God if society has lost the knack for this way of expressing oneself? I am going to propose that it is not lost, nor is the act of singing the actual worship element within the church-related worship experience. Hang on to get my meaning...
I am going to throw down a Bible verse here which I will take the liberty to transliterate into a modern context (bare with me):
Romans 12, 1-2. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Now the Steve version:
OK. People, in light of the fact that due to the mercy of God on a daily basis and in an effort to remind ourselves of that mercy in the face of some not-so-merciful world circumstances, dedicate your whole self to the idea and act of uniquely being aware that you are and can be a blessing back to God. In doing this you are remembering God’s mercy and your very life will become the spiritual definition of worship. Again dedicate yourself to being aware that you can be an actual blessing to God in life in practical ways, but do this by altering your typical life-rut by rebooting your head out of your mundane view of the way things are and will be. Only by making the view fresh and new, seeing life through God’s perspective will you then be able to see the difference between what God wants for you, which is good, pleasing to you and perfect for you, contrasting that with all of the other typical crap that makes the rut that is your life if you just keep grinding forward without relating to God in practical ways and on His terms.
IN OTHER WORDS: God would prefer our “worship”… our “happy birthday” song in celebration of His mercy be in the form of living a grateful life dedicated to being a living blessing to God, so that we can dodge the crap of life and see the difference between the crap and the good stuff God would want for us.
In a sense it seems God is saying that our lives, if lived as an act of worship toward Him, on His terms, will result in getting a clearer view so we can grab on to His best for us. The act of living worship becomes this revolving door of blessing. First, He is merciful, THEN we remember by living grateful transformed lives that become the definition of worship, NEXT He in turn helps us walk into more blessings, and THEN we live more worship, ect. (on and on)
The singing part is just amazing. Being a musician, I have bumped into wacky facts about music over the years. In the context of my thoughts on worship here, I thought I would share one. Most people may not be aware that it is far easier to memorize musical lyrics than it is to memorize the spoken word. Why? Because something about music opens up our long term memory. In other words, when we sing about (1) how merciful and great God is toward us, or (2) sing to Him about our dedication toward being a blessing, or (3) to one another to remember amazing things about God or about God’s character, we are actually assigning those thoughts to our long term memory. I can say honestly that I learned a few songs as a kid that I would give anything to forget (maybe you know what I am talking about… to this day I find the song “Hang down your head Tom Dooley” completely depressing), but the long term nature of music ensures that once it goes in, it is far easier to access later when we need it. And in all of heaven and earth, if ever there was a time to learn or remember about the mercy and faithfulness of God on nearly a daily basis, this is that time.
So, in a sense, the singing part is really more for us than it is for God. It helps us remember like that Bible verse says. The real worship is in the remembering. But let me encourage you further…
Do you remember how awesome you are? OK that is a silly question. Of course you do, but it is nice to hear isn’t it? It is also nice to remember it when you are needing to be awesome and not a jerk or a bump on a log. Remembering attributes is generic praise, and generic praise is also a kind of worship. Better yet is specific praise…
Do you remember that time we went to the moon and bought icecream cones and sat in a crator telling each other jokes all afternoon? Oh, that wasn’t you? My bad. Likewise, it is far better to “remember” your own real memories. Don’t always let someone elses song become your song. That is fine too, but like the Psalmist says, let your song be “new every morning.” Each day is filled with cool little situations we can sit back and chat with God about at the end of the day…
“… and remember when Chris told that stupid joke and the two of us laughed for about ten minutes. God, thanks for making laughter. I totally needed that.” The thing is that our lives are all cluttered with crap to the degree that we don’t even see the neat little stuff that God places in our paths everyday. We step on or over them all of the time mostly because we don’t see them. Don’t get me wrong. There is plenty of stuff in life to get cranky about and maybe we should let ourselves get upset about that stuff. BUT… not at the expense of losing our vision for the good stuff God intends for us. That totally isn't worth it, is it? It ought to be OK to get pissed about bad stuff AND get thankful for the good stuff. Worship opens us up to the good stuff, changes our minds, clears our vision, changes our perspective and helps to remind us that God is at work around us and toward us.
If you are not used to talking with God about the good stuff, then here is a simple exercise for you:
After work today, well before you go to bed, sit down in that rut you have worn into your favorite chair or bed or couch. Get comfortable, but not so comfortable that you fall asleep. Now, just begin to review the day. If the first few times you do this only crap come to mind (i.e. "And God, my boss totally pissed me off today. He doesn't see how hard I work. He only ever mentions the mistakes. I don't want to hate my job but today I am seriously close!") well, that is totally OK! Here is where the Bible is pretty cool. In another scripture it says "cast your cares upon the Lord, because He cares for you!" In other words, until you finally hit that groove of getting a renewed and transformed vision of the world around you, he is ready to take on the burden of what is on your heart and mind. Do this for at least 14 days. At first, take only a minimum of 5 minutes to do this. I promise you.... it will make a difference! I am offering a moneyback guarantee! But wait... there is more! If you can't hit that groove, then find someone who can. They will likely be willing to help you see God's mercy in your life! This is important stuff.
The only time the non-church goer sings to people in regular life would be at either a birthday party or mockingly at the fans of some opposing team sitting on the other side of some sports venue. Now, go back a generation or two and men would “croon” swooning love-songs to their ladies. Any and all of this is, well, to a degree worshipful singing, even if it is a bit plain, expected or antithetical. So why do churches continue to sing worshipful songs to God if society has lost the knack for this way of expressing oneself? I am going to propose that it is not lost, nor is the act of singing the actual worship element within the church-related worship experience. Hang on to get my meaning...
I am going to throw down a Bible verse here which I will take the liberty to transliterate into a modern context (bare with me):
Romans 12, 1-2. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-- this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Now the Steve version:
OK. People, in light of the fact that due to the mercy of God on a daily basis and in an effort to remind ourselves of that mercy in the face of some not-so-merciful world circumstances, dedicate your whole self to the idea and act of uniquely being aware that you are and can be a blessing back to God. In doing this you are remembering God’s mercy and your very life will become the spiritual definition of worship. Again dedicate yourself to being aware that you can be an actual blessing to God in life in practical ways, but do this by altering your typical life-rut by rebooting your head out of your mundane view of the way things are and will be. Only by making the view fresh and new, seeing life through God’s perspective will you then be able to see the difference between what God wants for you, which is good, pleasing to you and perfect for you, contrasting that with all of the other typical crap that makes the rut that is your life if you just keep grinding forward without relating to God in practical ways and on His terms.
IN OTHER WORDS: God would prefer our “worship”… our “happy birthday” song in celebration of His mercy be in the form of living a grateful life dedicated to being a living blessing to God, so that we can dodge the crap of life and see the difference between the crap and the good stuff God would want for us.
In a sense it seems God is saying that our lives, if lived as an act of worship toward Him, on His terms, will result in getting a clearer view so we can grab on to His best for us. The act of living worship becomes this revolving door of blessing. First, He is merciful, THEN we remember by living grateful transformed lives that become the definition of worship, NEXT He in turn helps us walk into more blessings, and THEN we live more worship, ect. (on and on)
The singing part is just amazing. Being a musician, I have bumped into wacky facts about music over the years. In the context of my thoughts on worship here, I thought I would share one. Most people may not be aware that it is far easier to memorize musical lyrics than it is to memorize the spoken word. Why? Because something about music opens up our long term memory. In other words, when we sing about (1) how merciful and great God is toward us, or (2) sing to Him about our dedication toward being a blessing, or (3) to one another to remember amazing things about God or about God’s character, we are actually assigning those thoughts to our long term memory. I can say honestly that I learned a few songs as a kid that I would give anything to forget (maybe you know what I am talking about… to this day I find the song “Hang down your head Tom Dooley” completely depressing), but the long term nature of music ensures that once it goes in, it is far easier to access later when we need it. And in all of heaven and earth, if ever there was a time to learn or remember about the mercy and faithfulness of God on nearly a daily basis, this is that time.
So, in a sense, the singing part is really more for us than it is for God. It helps us remember like that Bible verse says. The real worship is in the remembering. But let me encourage you further…
Do you remember how awesome you are? OK that is a silly question. Of course you do, but it is nice to hear isn’t it? It is also nice to remember it when you are needing to be awesome and not a jerk or a bump on a log. Remembering attributes is generic praise, and generic praise is also a kind of worship. Better yet is specific praise…
Do you remember that time we went to the moon and bought icecream cones and sat in a crator telling each other jokes all afternoon? Oh, that wasn’t you? My bad. Likewise, it is far better to “remember” your own real memories. Don’t always let someone elses song become your song. That is fine too, but like the Psalmist says, let your song be “new every morning.” Each day is filled with cool little situations we can sit back and chat with God about at the end of the day…
“… and remember when Chris told that stupid joke and the two of us laughed for about ten minutes. God, thanks for making laughter. I totally needed that.” The thing is that our lives are all cluttered with crap to the degree that we don’t even see the neat little stuff that God places in our paths everyday. We step on or over them all of the time mostly because we don’t see them. Don’t get me wrong. There is plenty of stuff in life to get cranky about and maybe we should let ourselves get upset about that stuff. BUT… not at the expense of losing our vision for the good stuff God intends for us. That totally isn't worth it, is it? It ought to be OK to get pissed about bad stuff AND get thankful for the good stuff. Worship opens us up to the good stuff, changes our minds, clears our vision, changes our perspective and helps to remind us that God is at work around us and toward us.
If you are not used to talking with God about the good stuff, then here is a simple exercise for you:
After work today, well before you go to bed, sit down in that rut you have worn into your favorite chair or bed or couch. Get comfortable, but not so comfortable that you fall asleep. Now, just begin to review the day. If the first few times you do this only crap come to mind (i.e. "And God, my boss totally pissed me off today. He doesn't see how hard I work. He only ever mentions the mistakes. I don't want to hate my job but today I am seriously close!") well, that is totally OK! Here is where the Bible is pretty cool. In another scripture it says "cast your cares upon the Lord, because He cares for you!" In other words, until you finally hit that groove of getting a renewed and transformed vision of the world around you, he is ready to take on the burden of what is on your heart and mind. Do this for at least 14 days. At first, take only a minimum of 5 minutes to do this. I promise you.... it will make a difference! I am offering a moneyback guarantee! But wait... there is more! If you can't hit that groove, then find someone who can. They will likely be willing to help you see God's mercy in your life! This is important stuff.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Learning In an Industry That Never Sleeps
I hate computers. Actually, I really like computers and I hate that fact, because they are like these sense-less infants with insatiable appetites for knowledge and mobility. You can feed them all day long and into the night and they never stop growing. In fact, if you feed a baby it only ever has two arms at most with which to wield havoc on your life (though I know parents who might want to disagree with that.) But with a computer, you feed it and feed it and the next day it has ten arms reaching in every direction. This baby is no typical baby. And once your friends and family (and employer) catch a glimpse of this amazing baby they want to see it do trick and want you to raise one up for them, too. Pretty soon you find that you are doing all that you can to keep up with this monster of a baby as the world around you begs to see more tricks.
Like parents of human babies, you begin to realize that it takes far more than 9 to 5 to keep up with this toddler. You can’t sedate it or pawn it off on relatives or a sitter. Every day it is growing out of control and within a few days you catch yourself saying, “Where did that new appendage come from?” and now you have to quickly “master” the abilities of this growing baby, so you can remain the respectable teacher of it.
My baby’s most recent new appendages are PHP, Ajax, WPF/E, XAML, and SharePoint. I see these suckers reaching and grabbing and throwing and warbling every day. There are a countless number of fingers reaching everything within the grasp of my available time.
So I have decided to cut back. I am cutting back on sleep, personal time and most importantly anything else that may have critical importance to my life or career, as I get completely absorbed and enveloped in the weeds of this gigantic organic/dynamic playground. I have been trying to cut out frivolous stuff like eating and time in the bathroom (two things that are like a perpetual cycle unto each other) to make more time for baby, but I find I am getting weak fast, so I have to get back on the trough.
Back to Reality: I would give anything for this silent competitively growing tech-revolution to plane off and give the proverbial “parents” a little break, but I don’t see that happening. The fact is that we are on the very early upward trend of a massive technology parabola that only just started in the very late 1970s. Soon, meaning in my lifetime, there will be a nearly vertical adoption curve of growth and change around how we think about and live with technology (from the inevitable evaporation of the cube sitting on the floor called a computer – it will be completely integrated into other products and not be an end in itself, to the ways we interact with the request and delivery of information- no more keyboards, mice and monitors, but something altogether more intuitively integrated) and we will need new technology just to keep track of the old technology that just became outdated.
So, here is my prediction: Wetware is what is next. In 1997 I imagined I invented the term when I found myself thinking about the future interface between human biology and digital appendages. I think we will see the creation of wetware products that will help deliver stored and indexed information to us in a faster more intuitive manner. It will be like a Bluetooth device that attaches to our glasses and displays information related to as many human interactions as possible, automatically cross-referencing and indexing information in their contexts at an incredible rate. Kids will wear this stuff their entire lives and when they get old, everything they ever experienced will be available at their fingertips, sorted by statistical relevance by the age in which they found and reflected on it. Gone will be the days of getting old and forgetting stuff. Our “brain” will be managed externally. And big brother will pay big bucks to get a peak at your bit-matter ( not quite grey-matter.) Companies will specialize in helping sift through your digital preferences and help you articulate your opinion better than you could ever do. In fact, you won’t have to show up at the hardware store and ask for “one of those puddy slash tapey things that help the pipe stop leaking.” Your wetware will cross-reference “puddy-slash-tapey, pipe,leaking” with the product catalog of the store you walked into and ask for the right product by name, on your behalf. Business Intelligence will take on a whole new meaning and Marketing will be reduced to intense logarithmic calculations about the probability of your interest in their product rather than blanketing you with a shotgun blast of eye candy to try and get you to buy their products. This is how advertising dollars will be saved. You will volunteer your statistical interest via wetware, without you even knowing it, and the ad will move along to a slightly more likely candidate. Our time will be focused on things that seem to add value while the rest of the digital planet rolls forward on the boring details that we would never have even attempted to collate on our own.
Next blog entry: "How we will survive an energy crisis in the future when we let technology manage our preferences" or "How to grill a ham sandwhich"
Like parents of human babies, you begin to realize that it takes far more than 9 to 5 to keep up with this toddler. You can’t sedate it or pawn it off on relatives or a sitter. Every day it is growing out of control and within a few days you catch yourself saying, “Where did that new appendage come from?” and now you have to quickly “master” the abilities of this growing baby, so you can remain the respectable teacher of it.
My baby’s most recent new appendages are PHP, Ajax, WPF/E, XAML, and SharePoint. I see these suckers reaching and grabbing and throwing and warbling every day. There are a countless number of fingers reaching everything within the grasp of my available time.
So I have decided to cut back. I am cutting back on sleep, personal time and most importantly anything else that may have critical importance to my life or career, as I get completely absorbed and enveloped in the weeds of this gigantic organic/dynamic playground. I have been trying to cut out frivolous stuff like eating and time in the bathroom (two things that are like a perpetual cycle unto each other) to make more time for baby, but I find I am getting weak fast, so I have to get back on the trough.
Back to Reality: I would give anything for this silent competitively growing tech-revolution to plane off and give the proverbial “parents” a little break, but I don’t see that happening. The fact is that we are on the very early upward trend of a massive technology parabola that only just started in the very late 1970s. Soon, meaning in my lifetime, there will be a nearly vertical adoption curve of growth and change around how we think about and live with technology (from the inevitable evaporation of the cube sitting on the floor called a computer – it will be completely integrated into other products and not be an end in itself, to the ways we interact with the request and delivery of information- no more keyboards, mice and monitors, but something altogether more intuitively integrated) and we will need new technology just to keep track of the old technology that just became outdated.
So, here is my prediction: Wetware is what is next. In 1997 I imagined I invented the term when I found myself thinking about the future interface between human biology and digital appendages. I think we will see the creation of wetware products that will help deliver stored and indexed information to us in a faster more intuitive manner. It will be like a Bluetooth device that attaches to our glasses and displays information related to as many human interactions as possible, automatically cross-referencing and indexing information in their contexts at an incredible rate. Kids will wear this stuff their entire lives and when they get old, everything they ever experienced will be available at their fingertips, sorted by statistical relevance by the age in which they found and reflected on it. Gone will be the days of getting old and forgetting stuff. Our “brain” will be managed externally. And big brother will pay big bucks to get a peak at your bit-matter ( not quite grey-matter.) Companies will specialize in helping sift through your digital preferences and help you articulate your opinion better than you could ever do. In fact, you won’t have to show up at the hardware store and ask for “one of those puddy slash tapey things that help the pipe stop leaking.” Your wetware will cross-reference “puddy-slash-tapey, pipe,leaking” with the product catalog of the store you walked into and ask for the right product by name, on your behalf. Business Intelligence will take on a whole new meaning and Marketing will be reduced to intense logarithmic calculations about the probability of your interest in their product rather than blanketing you with a shotgun blast of eye candy to try and get you to buy their products. This is how advertising dollars will be saved. You will volunteer your statistical interest via wetware, without you even knowing it, and the ad will move along to a slightly more likely candidate. Our time will be focused on things that seem to add value while the rest of the digital planet rolls forward on the boring details that we would never have even attempted to collate on our own.
Next blog entry: "How we will survive an energy crisis in the future when we let technology manage our preferences" or "How to grill a ham sandwhich"
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