Today I was celebrated. 🙂 It is my 31st birthday today. My wife and my children planned all sorts of fun things for me: you know… gifts, cake (cupcakes, actually), and special activities in the evening. And, on top of all that, the theme of the day was the Dukes of Hazzard! It was great!

Just wanted to say that I love my family. All of my great kids, and especially my wife. 🙂 Thanks for my great day, Jen. I love you! 🙂

The other day I was reading something about caroling in the newspaper. It was a little article in the local paper about being ready for carolers, and how to best welcome them, should they visit your home. But, then there was another little piece on how to organize a caroling party.

And I thought, “That would be fun!”

I started to think about what it would take to get something like that going, and who would be willing to do such a thing. There would be many details to coordinate, so that everyone could participate and enjoy themselves thoroughly.

And I thought, “I guess that’s a good thing about the ‘church’…”

But then it occurred to me, that while we can manage and organize groups of people in institutional settings, we also are quite good at attaching some sort of agenda to the proceedings.

If indeed a church were to organize a christmas caroling party, you can almost bet that there would be some sort of ulterior motive along with the “holiday cheer”. Be it a smile, and a nice catch phrase, “God loves you, and so do we at First Church on the Corner!” or, perhaps more aggressive interrogations… uh… conversations… about where/if the resident of the domicile “goes to church.” Or, there is always the standard “Gospel Tracts.”

Nice.

It’s not just in caroling. Christians are not welcomed into peoples’ lives because they have an agenda. Whether getting people to church or to heaven, there is an agenda. In everything we do! From the obviously planned “Bring a Friend Day”, to the more subtle “game nights”, or “open gym” or any of the webs we disguise as social events – everything we do is for some alternate, “higher” purpose. We can’t just enjoy life together!

Come on people. Just be real. Just be you, and relate to people as you are. Don’t try to get them to be something else, or do something you think they need to. Let God and them sort out what they will DO… you just love them, hang out with them… just be real.

Oh, that frustrates me so much. And the sad thing is, some of you, my fellow believers, who are reading this will say that I am overblowing this… that not everyone has an “agenda”. No? I do beg to differ. It is in every piece of corporate life, and then what we call “outreach”. Our love is selfishly motivated to see results in people that we think they should produce.

How sad.

So, I may still get some friends together to walk around our neighborhood and sing. But that’s all we’ll be doing. Just, having fun singing. Not “building community”. Not “reaching lost people with the ‘Love of Jesus'”. Just, being a community. Having fun, living life together. No agendas.

Just… life.

I found this article last night, on the Think Secret website. They are a site dedicated to news related to Apple computer and especially rumor news.

This article is not a press release, but often TS has some good inside information. So, this is pretty cool! I actually submitted this idea to Apple last year (to which I got an email from Apple’s legal team, choc full of legalese…) 🙂 I think the Mini is designed to sit in your entertainment center. To be the Digital Entertainment Hub for the American home. It’s perfect!

Now, my idea included Apple working out a deal where they had some sort of store like the iTunes Music store where you could purchase not just individual TV shows, but also movies, AND, best of all, individual cable channels! Buy by the channel. Seems very iTunes-ish. Very on-demand. Very cool. Then you build in this DVR thing, and you’re set. With Apple’s great software interface, and cool looking hardware… everyone will be wanting these!

It’s Apple’s next iPod. Seriously.

Read the article…

Always like to pass along fun diversions as I come upon them…

Click here to play

I was just listening to a podcast about the print industry. They were discussing the ways that the world of print is adjusting to the electronic media that is quickly becoming the mode of choice for information trafficking. The phrase, “Print is dead,” was being tossed around a bit, but then dispelled, as print has not died, just … changed. What you are reading right now is the new version of “print”. Most who read news/blogs/info on the web do not actually “print” that information, but, still, it is the communication of information through words that are read.

All that has changed is the medium by which those words are transfered. No longer is it paper in a book or newspaper or magazine. It’s pixels on a screen of a computer, or a cell phone, or a PDA, or any other hand held device.

I think that’s neato.

And I experienced a bit of the shift just yesterday, when a Buffalo Bills magazine came in the mail. Fifteen years ago, I would have sat down and soaked up every bit of the great content of that publication. But this time, as I perused the printed pages, I found that all it contained was rehashed old news! By the time they can get a magazine out to people in print, through the mail… the information has already been read and assimilated as needed. It’s already been said!

That was just a funny moment for me, and I thought it worth commenting on. I am glad for the new medium. It has defintely allowed for more voices to be heard. It has obviously made information much more rapidly available. And, it’s just cool.

And less trees have to die. That’s good, isn’t it?

I like trees.

I was listening to the Glenn Beck Show today (a best of show, since it’s Thanksgiving today…) and they were commenting on a football coach who made some remarks about the other team having more “Afro-Americans” and that being the primary reason that his own team lost the game. So, the radio program was mostly just having fun talking about how people shouldn’t be offended by that… cause it’s true! They went on and on about how there are some general stereotypes of groups of people that are generally true. That it doesn’t mean if you’re black, you are a good athlete, or, that if you’re a good athlete that you’re black… BUT, that they are generally true.

Well, if you know me very well, you can imagine I was not happily agreeing with all of that.

It’s not that I am blind to “trends”. I do understand why we create stereotypes. But, my issue is (and always has been) …. why MUST we LABEL?

Sterotypes and all forms of prejudice and racism come from our us vs. them, labeling mentality. We must for some reason group and identify people. Categorize. Label. Why can we not let people be individuals? Why must we pre-judge people by placing them in some sort of group?

See, for a long time I have hated the male/female stereotypes. I don’t fit a lot of them, and perhaps that’s why I dislike them? But, mainly, I see people using stereotypes as ways to excuse poor choices (women are “moody”, so that’s ok… men are “visual” so, checkin’ out the ladies is ok… etc). In fact, I see no benefit to stereotypes at all. They are only labels that limit and inhibit true, open, deeper relationships.

I wrote a long post about this once, which I never published (at my wife’s request) to protect the innocent. 🙂 But, in summary, it was called “They” because I was part of a conversation where we were talking about people who had some particular physical handicap, and we called every person who had that handicap “They”. We lumped every person into one group, making them some homogenous entity rather than individuals. It just bothered me that even with the best intentions, we were reducing individuals to a mass, nameless and faceless “they”.

If we could somehow stop labeling, I think we’d be better off. There would be no racism, or prejudice. We could just interact with each other without assumptions. I think that’s a bit unrealistic, but I do wish it were possible. I will continue to strive to NOT label in my life.

And I guess that’s all I can do.

(PS… I wrote this while making mashed potatoes for the big family dinner today, so hopefully it kinda makes sense…) 🙂

Before I write anything else… just wanted to say, I miss blogging. I looked back and noticed that most of the blogging I did this month was while on vacation! 🙂 Guess I’m feeling busy these days. The Bills show and my web design business do keep me fairly busy. Along with my growing family, I suppose. But, I think there are just times when my trust in God’s provision makes me feel like I need to give more time to the things that will “make us money” … and unfortunately, blogging is not one of those yet.

Any donors out there?

🙂

Well, on with the blogging…

Remember I said at the end of my Academia post that Ian would be reading that post. Well, let me tell you, at age 6, Ian read that post! (I had to explain a few… ok, a lot… of words, but he read them all! Amazing!!)

We went to Pizza Hut tonight for Ian’s free Pizza for reading in the BookIt program. I should have told them he’s reading college level material. 🙂

You know, I am fairly certain that I am not a product of the opposite of everything my parents tried to train into me. I am pretty sure that they did a good job of passing along their values of loving God, and loving people, and a good, healthy work ethic, and just a general contentment in life.

But…

What I see in my son fascinates me.

He is drawn to all of the stuff we are working so hard to get free from in our lives. The things that we feel are binding us, not allowing us to experience life to the full as Jesus meant for us… these things that we are graciously removing from his life before he gets too deeply involved… these things he wants. He is drawn to them like a magnet.

So, if I really want to help Ian, should I surround him with all the things he must learn to shun and convince him that all the things I really don’t want him to be entangled by are the very things he should seek after? THEN he would by nature be drawn to the opposite, which would be what I wanted in the first place?

I’m very confused. 🙂