Why I am not writing new posts :)

One idea I wanted to try out was just letting you know what I've been into lately. Let's see.

Books:
Rumors - I've been really getting into Rumors of Another World by Philip Yancey lately. It is extremely thought provoking, but requires very attentive reading. Meaning, if you miss a couple of sentences you will most likely miss a good point Yancey points out. The last couple of chapters have been about sin, grace, forgiveness, guilt, etc. There have been many tremendous analogies that I've read in the last week it's almost overwhelming. Blog posts on these analogies and thoughts coming soon!!!

Confessions - Another one I have been glancing at is a book called Confessions by a dude named St. Augustine. It could quite possibly be the most difficult book I've ever attempted to read. After all, it is written in the 90's.... 390's that is :D. This book (or series of books rather) was recommended to me by a certain Philip Yancey! Even though the book is difficult to understand at times, he certainly has some great points for a guy who lived 1600 years ago!

Musak

The Morning Of - This is one of the most random finds for a band I've ever had. I found them on top of the charts on purevolume.com. From the first song, I could easily tell they were Christian. The six-some has at least 3 vocalists who sing very good harmonies and a female lead singer who I believe could sing on Broadway. Check out www.purevolume.com/themorningof

Flight of the Conchords - Flat out entertaining. Favorites include: If You're Into It and Most Beautiful Girl in the Room

I apologize if you were looking for one of my normal posts. One will soon come...

Some recommended reading...

Donald Miller's very interesting take on God's plan for us and how we need to give up control to the one in charge.

The Not-So Amazing Race...

Why are humans so obsessed with competition? Why do we need to be better than others so often? Try this experiment: Turn on your tv. What do you see? A reality show? A sporting event? Politics? Each of these have a thing in common. They are all about some people being better than the other. This fundamental virtue of humans is undeniable. We need to be faster, stronger, smarter…. BETTER than others! This is extremely evident by the way we treat professional athlete and movie stars. Because they have a talent for beating others, they get to an almost godlike status.

Donald Miller brings this up frequently in his book “Searching For God Knows What”. In his words, he calls it “The Lifeboat Theory”, and the basis of his idea is this: You and about 10 others are in a lifeboat. The weight from the amount of people is too large and the boat is starting to sink and take on water. One person will be chosen by the group to be abandoned. This person will not be saved. The point he follows that with for the rest of the book is – We all don’t want to be that person that has to be thrown from the lifeboat. So, in everything we do, we must make sure we aren’t the type of person that the group would want to turn on and give a toss overboard.

This may include putting others down to make them look like a good target. Or showing off what our individual skills are to prove our worth to the group. In a way, I believe this explains bullying. When someone thinks they are in danger of losing ground to others, they will do something drastic, maybe as far as pushing around a lower ranking person to do two things: (1) Push the other person down and closer to the edge of the lifeboat. (2) Show off the bully’s strength and worth to the group.

What makes it so hard in this world to build each other instead of trying to rise above them? Imagine how much happier, productive, and trusting the world would be if everyone gave up on trying to be better than each other, but instead helped them to get better. Yeah sure, you might be looked at by some as “weak” by the people still competing. This is the driving force of competitiveness and aggression in our culture. You and I both don’t want be seen as weak. What our world needs is people who can help others and ignore the rest of the world who are calling them weak. We need to find the common thread of basic humanity and look less at differences. You will be amazed at how much more you appreciate someone and their WORTH to you when you ignore your differences and focus instead on your commonalities. This will take the focus off of changing the world for the better but changing ourselves for the better world. A different perspective will make anyone look better or worse, it’s up to you.

This Is Your Life (Continued...)

Ok. So after reading my last post, hearing other viewpoints on it, and picking ideas up through daily life (friends talking, reading, etc.) I would like to elaborate a little further on the subject. First of all, I will not recant what I feel about being your own you and being the person who makes you come "alive". This is central to human happiness, meaning, worth, and human LIFE really. Finding the thing that gets you "on fire" for what you are doing is the important thing, then it's just a matter of following through with it.

The thing that has come to my attention though is one that I maybe shouldn't have overlooked. Yeah, you should definitely try to be the person you want to be, but at the same time, you should look for what God has planned for you. The reason I chose to elaborate a tad more on this is because it might have seemed a bit self-centered on what we can do in our lives. It's true you should not let others tell you what you can or can't do, but there is One you should listen to whenever you have the chance and He is the one who created your life, its choices, and most importantly its PURPOSE!!! You may think that your purpose may not have as much significance as another's, but just because someone seems like their purpose in the world is greater than yours doesn't mean what you do isn't as important. Rather, where would the most influential people be without the others below them holding them up. I believe carrying out God's will in this world is a group effort without one person being more important or valuable than another. A great passage about this can be found in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 and then again in verses 12-26.
Having said that, I have a very nerdy analogy, but it really worked for comprehending things for me. Picture this: A rock band. Broken down further into individual instruments, broken down further into individual notes (i.e. A bassists low G, a drummers snare drum). Individually these things don't make the greatest music, but together, they can make something nothing of them could make on their own. Here's the connection, all of us have our note, our pitch, our CALLING. The song (God's Will/Plan) can not take form unless they all fit together. Not one is more important or more of the lead, but all are necessary to making the song as good as it can be. What we all need to do is find what note makes us add the nicest sound to God's plan; find where the calling for our lives is needed to make harmony with the rest of the song. *

*Please excuse the corniness of my analogy, it's what came to mind :D

This Is Your Life

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
- Gil Bailie

A lot of people end up asking the world what to do with their lives. The tendency is to hope that somebody else will tell us who to be. In this society there is a lot of expectations put on people to be something that may actually not even be in the best interest of even that person. I’m not saying that I have everything that I want to be figured out. Instead, what I am saying is that I hope that I can be the person who truly makes me “alive” as Gil Bailie says and not what anybody expects me to be. “Alive” in this sense can be described as acting instead of reacting; choosing where to go instead of “flowing where the strongest current pushes”. These currents being: Friends, Family, Peers, Hardships, and just society in general. In the words of Jon Foreman, “This is YOUR life. Are you who YOU want to be?” This is very true and a big part of my life. As much as I can, I try to think of how I can make my life mine. Tasks like these can be incredibly difficult for anyone, especially teens though. How many times can you honestly say that you make a decision at school/work/etc. without worrying about what others might say or think about your actions? For many (including myself) this number is very low. It really shouldn’t be that way. Our focus for finding what to do with each of our lives should be finding something we are passionate about and becoming that person instead of what ANYONE else is passionate about or thinks is important.

Just to confuse you I’ll throw this extra tidbit in. So if you are for some reason going to listen to my advice and not listen to what others have to say about your life, why are you taking my advice!? : )