Archive of category ‘Random Rants’

Check out what I did for April Fools Day:

Minutes after I sent this email, three of my coworkers were anxiously searching the third floor for the nonexistent homeless man. It took a few minutes before they finally realized they’d been fooled.  In total, I tricked about seven people with that email!

So, what’d you do for April Fools?

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Since I’m currently in the middle of a Twitter fast, there are a few things I have to say here on my blog:

• Having your basement flood sucks.
• The new Japanese place in Bluefield ain’t that bad!
• I’m getting more creative each year at finding new ways to procrastinate when it comes to doing my taxes.
• Coming soon to a Web browser near you: The latest divisions of Whitt Media — RapidRetouch.com and BDubRecords.net.
• Now that I finished learning CSS basics, I realize why every Web designer hates IE6 so much.
• Always carry a Beta58 with you.  You never know when you’ll end up at a church that uses VocoPro mics…

Whew, well that felt good to get off my chest.  That doesn’t count as tweeting, right?  Man, this Twitter detox is hard!

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I decided to shut down my personal Twitter and Facebook sites for 40 days. It’s not exactly for Lent, but the goal is similar.  I’m excited to gain a new perspective.  I’m going in with an open mind as to what my social media fast might reveal to me about myself and what changes I should make to my life.

I’ve gotten rid of everything on Facebook, leaving only the bare minimum:

After only 36 hours away from Twitter and Facebook, I’m already discovering just how much of my time is devoted to those two sites. I made a similar discovery when I fasted from food last year.  I was amazed to learn how much time I spent thinking about, shopping for, preparing and eating food everyday.  I didn’t anticipate to learn the same thing during a social media fast, but I’ve already done a good bit of pacing, looking for something to fill an unexpected void.

I’d be lying if I said that introspection was the only reason I’m doing this.  I’m also trying to free up some time and mental energy to focus on developing a marketing strategy for new areas of my business, chiefly rapidretouch.com and bdubrecords.net.  That will also involve creating new blogs, YouTube accounts, Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts, etc.  In other words, I’m hoping to harness the power of social media for my business, which means that the current craziness of my online life has the potential to get exponentially worse if I don’t find a smart smart strategy.

There are other reasons as well. For example, I’d like to return to devoting more time to more weighty things that have more permanence – such as blogging and authoring books.  I also need to get a grip on my Facebook profile and perhaps create some new privacy settings.

Have you ever considered a social media fast, and why?

Category: Cool Stuff, Random Rants, Spirituality | 2 comments »

Conan O’Brien posted his first (and only) tweet about interviewing a squirrel in his back yard.  Less than 24 hours later, he’s approaching 300,000 followers on Twitter.  Other oddities from his new Twitter page?  He follows zero people (maybe I could be the first?) and the “Web” link comedically points back to the same Twitter page.

My favorite part of Conan’s new Twitter account, though, it his one-line bio: “I had a show. Then I had a different show. Now I have a Twitter account.”  Have you ever felt that way?  It reminds me of this passage from the Bible:

When all you owned was taken from you, you accepted it with joy. You knew you had better things waiting for you in eternity (Hebrews 10:34, NLT).

The people receiving this letter lost more than a TV show. Their property was plundered.  They were beaten and endured public ridicule.  They went through “terrible suffering.”  And they did it joyfully.  How?  They knew better things were coming.  Specifically, an eternity where sin and suffering become distant memories of the past.

I hope you have that hope too. Whatever loss you endure on earth — whether it’s the cancelation of a late night TV show or something far worse — keep pressing on, looking to better days that are coming.  Better than you’ve ever imagined!

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In the Twittersphere, my tweeps are always doggin’ on Facebook, but I’m not giving up on it just yet.  Here’s why:

First, and most importantly to me, Facebook has highly customizable privacy options. With Facebook, I can choose to make my profile viewable only by my friends and not the public.  Beyond that, I can choose exactly which friends get to see each part of my profile.  For example, I can (and do) restrict my Facebook “friends” who aren’t really my friends from seeing the intimate day-in-day out details of my life.  I have different privacy setting for my notes, status updates, links, contact info, photos and videos (and even different privacy settings for each photo album and video).  Facebook gets an A+ in my book for privacy.

Second, it requires very little of my time because I use it as an aggregator. In other words, I don’t have to create any new Facebook content.  It’s all imported automatically.  For example, my status updates come from Twitter.  My notes are automatically imported from my WordPress blog.  Videos I edit for YouTube videos come in as links.  You get the point.  With almost no effort, I can have all my social media content come under one umbrella.  All I have to do is check in once a day for comments and messages.

Third, the expandability of Facebook via apps is a great idea. At times, it’s highly annoying (as when I get 10 Farm Town requests a day), but it’s still a great concept.  One of my favorites is Visual Bookshelf app, which lets me share which books I’ve been reading and even write reviews… or the My Band app, which lets me stream my own music right from my profile.

All that being said, I still know that Facebook is by no means perfect. I find the banality of the conversations going on there nothing short of mind-numbing.  Contrast that with Twitter, which (at least among my followers) focuses on my professional interests like photography, graphic design, worship leading, etc.  That’s why I read every Twitter update but hardly ever dredge through Facebook content.  I guess that’s because I’m more of a left-brained person, I’m more interested in concepts (“Canon released the 7D to rave reviews”) than the details of people’s lives (“Having pancakes for breakfast again…”).

I guess social networks are what you make of them. The person who uses them to connect with old high school friends is going to have a much different experience than the person who uses them for professional networking.  Whatever your preference, you can find it.  So, make the most of it, and don’t give up on Facebook yet!  I haven’t!

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In Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes, he writes:

A thermostat is far more valuable than a thermometer… The thermometer is an indicator… The thermostat, on the other hand, manages to change the environment…

Which are you?

Thermometers know when something is wrong. Thermometers known when it’s too cold in church.  Thermometers can see your house’s paint is chipping and lights are burning out.  Thermometers can tell you that your Internet service is down… again.  Thermometers watch and complain.  But they do nothing.

Thermostats take action. When it’s too cold, thermostats turn the heat on.  When home repair needs to be done, thermostats grab a paint brush and a ladder.  When computer problems happen, thermostats try solutions until something works.  Thermostats don’t complain.  They do something.

The world has plenty of human thermometers.

What we need are more thermostats.

[ht: Photo by Axel Bührmann]

Category: Cool Stuff, Musical Musings, Random Rants, Worship Confessions | Place a comment »

Last month, I tried an ancient spiritual discipline on for size — fasting. It was nothing major — once a week for a maximum time of 24 hours.  I’m no expert, and in truth, I’ve never really understood what the benefit was supposed to be.

God is sovereign, after all, so how could driving by the drive-thru without getting supersized fries cause him change his mind? “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19).

Maybe it’s not about changing his mind as much as it is knowing his mind. But, see, I’m not really much of a charismatic Christian either.  I’ve been led astray one too many times by “gut feelings” that I mistakenly attributed to God’s leading.  And it seems like every cult on earth today started with some guy hearing voices and assuming it was a new revelation from God.  So I didn’t go into the experience expecting to hear anything from God that I could not read for myself in the Bible.

Still, I wanted direction from God, and even though I assumed he didn’t lead that way, I wanted to give it a try. The idea came from a good friend of mine who shared that he was regularly fasting about a situation in his family.  In the providence of God, I also stumbled upon several books and Websites about the topic (five of them, to be exact).

So I dove in, and here’s what I learned:

• It’s amazing how much time we spend on food — buying food, planning how we’ll cook food, shelling out money for food, passing the time munching on food, etc.  You don’t realize this until you stop.  The time you get back is amazing, and if you devote it to God, that alone is worth the experience of fasting.
• Most of us eat more for entertainment than nutrition. We eat to socialize.  We eat to calm our worries.  We eat to ward off boredom.  I’m even eating cereal right now for that very purpose.  It’s not that I’m hungry.  It just feels weird whenever my mouth is not chewing on something sugary… even at midnight.  How much money could we save by stopping eating for non-nutritional purposes?  How much healthier would we be?  Imagine the resources that would free up in our budgets and calendars so that we could do those things we’ve always wanted to do… like help feed those around the world who can’t even eat for nutritional purposes, much less entertainment.
• I learned that it’s OK to tell your body, “No!” Fasting is a discipline that helps put your mind and spirit in control.  In a strange way, it was gratifying to feel hunger pangs and interpret them as something normal and expected — even, dare I say, good — instead of a god that must be obeyed.
• Fasting in a safe way is healthy for your body. According to much of the literature out there, it’s a good way to detox and help your bodily systems regulate themselves.
• The experience was not a magical window into the mind of God for me. My questions were not clearly or fully answered.  Neither was I able to alter the plans of God to fit my desires.  But it did increase my faith, and my spiritual life definitely benefited from the exercise.  Although God did not give me revelation, he did give me illumination as he deepened my understanding of the Scriptures I read.
• The concept of fasting can be applied to more than just food. For example, I also chose to refrain from using Twitter and Facebook on Sundays.  This refreshing Sabbath from social media was a type of fasting that enabled me to keep them from becoming idols in my life.
• Finally, I learned that being secretive about fasting is as dangerous as being boastful about it. In desiring to be discreet, I declined going to lunch with friends and coworkers without giving a reason.  By the end of the month, I had some explaining to do because they thought I hated them!  A non-prideful explanation that you are fasting is a perfectly legitimate response to those who ask.

So, where do we go from here? I’m not exactly looking to do a 40-day fast, but I would like to expand to try 48-hour fasts and possibly 72-hour fasts in the future.  It’s undeniable that fasting is prominently featured in the teachings of the New Testament, so it’s a shame many Christians today don’t even give it a try.  I’m still learning, but I am trying.  Hopefully, my comments will be helpful to someone out there in a similar situation.  If you have any comments about your experiences in fasting, I’d love to hear them!

[ht: photo by Christian Cable]

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Donald Miller’s new book finally came out this Tuesday — three years after the publication of his last book and a full six years since his bestseller, Blue Like Jazz.  It was just a few years, but the wait felt like an eternity.  If you’ve read any of Don’s books, you know what I’m talking about.  They’re addictive because they give voice to something in your soul like nothing else.  There’s no writer like Donald Miller.

The CEO of Thomas Nelson hooked me up with a copy of Don’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, last month, so I’ve had a chance to read it already. I didn’t know exactly what to expect.  I had read online that Miller’s next book was going to be a work of fiction — a break from his characteristic style of reflective memoir.  I was a little worried how that would turn out, and apparently, so was he… so much so that the project never really got off the ground.

In his new book, Miller talks a little about his struggle to write again after the huge success of Blue Like Jazz. Under such enormous pressure, his life stalled.  Unwilling to get out of bed, a sort of depression set in.  He realized he had reached the end of his life’s narrative.  He had accomplished his goal — so now what?

And beyond that, he realized that while he wrote good stories, he didn’t live good stories. This idea came to Don when two filmmakers approached him about making Blue Like Jazz into a movie.  They told him that his life was too boring to make a good movie, so they had to invent a new Don who could carry an audience’s attention.  This inspired him to discover an even greater principle — if he could re-write the script of his life to make a better movie, why not re-write the script of his real life too?  Why not live a better story?

The problem with the real Don’s life was that he was content to be comfortable.  That’s a problem we all face. Generally, humans won’t exchange comfort for anything.  He wrote, “Without an inciting incident that disrupts their comfort, they won’t enter into a story.  They have to get fired from their job or be forced to sign up for a marathon.  A ring has to be purchased.  A home has to be sold.  The character has to jump into the story, into the discomfort and the fear, otherwise the story will never happen.”

Once the story gets rolling, though, that’s not enough.  To be interesting, the character has to want something. Miller writes that the reason Star Wars is such a good movie is that you can point to any character in the movie and say exactly what his or her ambition is.  He added, “It made me wonder if the reasons our lives seem so muddled is because we keep walking into scenes in which we, along with the people around us, have no clear idea what we want.”

But in any good story, the main character can’t easily obtain what he or she wants. The same is inevitably true in life.  We have to overcome obstacles to reach our ambition.  Miller writes, “It would be easier not to try, not to get out of bed.”  But it’s the plowing through these obstacles and making memorable scenes that makes a good movie… and a good life!

All this applies to my life quite directly.  Like Don, I have in many ways reached the end of my narrative. All the goals I had set for myself, I have already reached.  Valedictorian (check).  National Merit Scholar (check).  TV Reporter (check).  Graduate degree recipient (check).  Church staff member (check).  Like Don, I’m at a point now of asking, “What’s next?”

Also, like Don’s narrative, my story has become pretty boring. This book has inspired me to set new goals for the next phase of my life, to question what it is that I really want to devote my life to, and to bravely face the obstacles that I will inevitably find along the path.

It took a brave man to write so honestly about his struggles, and hopefully his book will inspire all who read it to bravery in writing a better story for themselves. Pick up your copy today.  You’ll be glad you did!

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Almost a decade ago, I hiked in the Rockies, and I was a lot better prepared then, compared to this weekend's ill-fated date night adventure!

Anytime your date night ends with a desperate call to 911, you know you will have an interesting story to tell in the morning! My wife’s already shared a few recollections of our misadventures on her blog in an entry titled, “Surviving Date Night.”

I think that any date you have to “survive” doesn’t sound like much fun.  But Jessica said it was the best night of her life.  I wouldn’t go that far, but I will admit that getting lost in the woods at dark is an experience that taught us a lot!

You see, this story starts with me having a completely terrible weekend.  Our main computer in the auditorium gave me the Blue Screen of Death Saturday morning.  (For you non-computer-people out there, the Blue Screen of Death is Windows’ way of giving you the finger right before your computer gives up the ghost.)  I had worked extra hard Monday through Friday so that Saturday could be a fun day, but it quickly became evident that, that scenario would have to wait for another day.  This particular day would be spent first resuscitating this poor Dell workstation and then re-doing all the work I had done during the week so that our worship service could happen the next day as planned.

By the time that unpleasant and frustrating task was finished, I was ready to let off some steam. A good workout or run would do.  Jessica suggested we go hiking instead.  My ears perked up.  That would be perfect!

We headed out to the city park with our trusty sidekick, Marley.  I expected to find the simple trail I had hiked many times as a child.  To my surprise, though, the park no longer hosted just this single trail that made a simple loop.  The government had added three or four new trails of varying degrees of difficulty.  The excitement grew!  A challenge was just what I needed.

We chose the steepest one we could find — the blue path! I started with gusto, running uphill at a good pace.  Jessica lagged behind, but I told her that this was our P90X for the evening and that she should take it to the extreme!  When we finally made it to the peak, she said that we should turn around and go back, but I was still in explorer mode.  Computer problems seemed so far away up there.  I felt like a real man, bravely leading my family off into uncharted territory!

We pressed on, heading downhill. But soon the trail ended.  Simply ended.  We had two choices — turn around or pick one of the other trails that intersected with our blue path.  Still in an adventurous mode, I chose another trail, and we set off.  That same scenario happened four or five more times, and before long we had no idea how we would backtrack even if we had wanted to do so.

We were truly lost. But it was OK.  This was the city park, after all.  How badly could we be lost?  I pulled out my iPhone, but it was unable to triangulate our location very well.  It just showed our location as a big circle in the middle of a forest.  Very helpful.

Before long, it became painfully evident that it was getting dark. Not wanting to alarm Jessica, I just picked up the pace.  I ran to the end of each trail, hoping that just around the corner would be a familiar landmark.  Nope.  Just more choices to be made.  Another four or five times, we picked a random trail and hoped for the best.  Several times, we heard wind rustling the trees or a plane flying by or the, mistaking these sounds for traffic on a nearby road.  Our hopes were dashed each time, as we realized just how far away we were from the real world.  Only eerie silence and the sound of our own steps.

Soon, it was hard to see where we were going. Once dusk falls in the forest, it falls hard.  Still walking very briskly, I pulled out my phone once again and tried to place a call this time.  No one answered.  I tried another number.  Jessica asked what I was doing.  ”Calling Mom,” I whimpered.  I finally got her on the phone and shared our situation.

“We’re lost in the woods, and it’s getting dark,” I told Mom.

Her response?  ”What do you want me to do about it?”

Good question.  I replied, “I don’t know.  I just though you should know.”

Mom’s advice was to call 911, so that’s what I did. I was hoping they could triangulate our location via my phone’s GPS and place us on a map.  Then, they could lead us out.  It would be as if they were in a helicopter overhead, shouting down directions for how we could get out of the giant tree maze.  Maybe that was expecting too much of my county’s 911 system.  I’ll never know because about two minutes into my emergency call, our path started to widen.  We saw the parking lot’s light through the trees and heard the sweet sound of rap music coming from some guy’s car stereo.

With only a few minutes of daylight remaining, our path finally intersected with a gravel trail, which led us back to our car. I thanked the nice 911 lady, apologized for wasting her time, and hung up.

Suddenly, I felt so foolish.  In reality, I had been just a few more steps away from the parking lot. If I had been able to see myself from a helicopter, I would have never called 911.  There would have been no fear of the unknown because nothing is unknown from up there.  The path would have been clear.  But from a hiker’s point of view, we had no idea which direction we were  headed.  We could have been going in circles on different trails through the woods.  We could have been walking farther and father away from the park, never circling back.  Or, we could have looped back and walked so far that we had passed our original starting point on another trail.  There was no telling where we were because we didn’t even have a map.

We were so lost that, even at the very end of our adventure, only a few more steps from safety, I considered turning back. What a terrible decision that would have been — trading two minutes of easy walking to the trail’s end for for two hours of crawling up steep hills in the dark.  If someone had been able to see us from a helicopter, they would have shouted down, “Just keep going!  You’ve almost made it.  You’re almost there!”  But, without that perspective, we could have been five miles away, for all we knew.

If we had only brought along some basic supplies, this would have been a different story. A map and compass could have kept us from going in circles.  A flashlight could have crushed darkness’ chokehold on our emotions.  Even without someone yelling down to us from a helicopter, we could have known that we were almost back to safety.

All this got me thinking:  Most of us are lost in the woods on life’s journey. Right now, you and I may be just two minutes from our paths intersecting with greatness.  But, not knowing that, we let our fear of the unknown prevent us from taking those last few steps forward.  There’s no helicopter shouting down to us, so we better remember to pack our maps for the journey.  What’s the map?

In Psalm 119:105, we read that the psalmist says God’s Word is a “lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Although Scripture won’t directly tell us which job to take or who to marry, it can guide our decision-making.  If we say, with the psalmist, that we will not depart from the law (Psalm 119:102), that makes our choices a lot easier.  And even if it feels like dusk is falling, God will still light our paths so that we can take the next baby step without fear of falling.

I know I’ll never go on another hike again without a map.  And that was the last time I will ever step into the woods without a flashlight! Lessons learned.  I just hope to remember the lesson in the rest of my life too.  Step out with me in faith… one step at a time.

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Earlier this month, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, addressed the future of the Southern Baptist Convention.  As someone who grew up in a Southern Baptist church and still deeply cares about the future of the denomination, I watched this hour-long address with particularly high interest.

I admire Dr. Mohler because he seems to be simultaneously progressive when it comes to methodology while conservative when it comes to theology.  This is a winning recipe for any denomination, but particularly for the SBC, which at times seems to stubbornly hold on to structures of the past when it could benefit from updating its methods.  Instead of balancing secularism (being part of the world) with sectarianism (being separate from the world), the SBC’s choices have increasingly separated them from the culture surrounding them, even in the “Bible Belt.”

If you think these are just my opinions, you’ll be surprised to learn that Dr. Mohler says many of the same things in his address. If you just want to scan the speech, check out these portions:

• 28:00 – Dr. Mohler says the SBC is trapped in the organizational logic of the 1950′s in my ways, comparing the denomination’s mindset to that of failed automaker General Motors
• 47:00 – Dr. Mohler discusses how the SBC has become a sect in many ways
• 53:00 – Dr. Mohler says the SBC must be a missiological think-tank — continually updating strategy
• 55:00 – Dr. Mohler says the SBC has gained a reputation of “denominational crankiness,” always bitter, upset, angry, frustrated, bickering.  If you’ve ever seen the inner-workings of a church the subscribes to a congregational form of government, you know what he’s talking about.

As the talk ends, Dr. Mohler admits that the SBC has unfortunately garnered a reputation as being backward and unloving. The first and hardest step to solving any problem is usually identifying what is wrong and owning up to it.  He has to be admired for speaking, at times, difficult words.  He ended the address with this wise challenge:

“Let’s not be caught in the dark, wondering why we missed the opportunity while it was day.”

Indeed, Southern Baptists are at a crossroads. Here’s hoping they take choose a path that preserves the important theological heritage they steward.

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Last night, I saw the strangest thing on TV — color bars. No sitcom.  No news.  No reality show.  Not even an infomercial.  Just color bars.

Do you remember when TV stations used to stop transmitting overnight? I do.  I’ve always been a night person, and I remember lying in bed as the last show went off the air, dreading the appearance of the infamous color bars.  (That was before the days of TiVo, when you could watch whatever you wanted whenever you wanted.)

Nowadays, TV stations almost never go off the air. Instead, they sell overnight time to infomercials and news shows.  BUT… our local NBC affiliate still goes off the air once a week on Sunday nights.  I wonder why.  Surely there’s some money to be made by selling Sham Wows in the middle of a Sunday night just like a Monday night!

What about you?  Is there ever a time when you go “off the air”? Is there a day that you unplug?  Is there a set time when you produce nothing… create nothing… generate nothing… sell nothing… worry about nothing?  Just rest?  Just put up color bars?

For starters, I’m trying to make Sundays a Twitter-free day, a Facebook-free zone, a brief time when the ol’ blogosphere will just have to go without an update. Unplugging for even a few hours is so refreshing.  Maybe that’s part of what a 21st century Sabbath rest looks like.

What’s yours look like?  When do you put up color bars?

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I was incredibly excited about the launch of the new MacBook Pro’s and the iPhone 3GS.  I followed the developers conference live on my iPhone while grocery shopping — at times literally stopping dead in my tracks in the aisles with my jaw dropping to the floor.

Now that the dust has settled, though, it looks like not a lot has changed. All we’ve confirmed is that Apple and AT&T are good at creating a buzz.

First off, let me just say how funny it is to see this at the bottom of Apple’s iPhone comparison page:

For a company that made an ad blasting PC’s for having too much fine print, that’s a whole lot of fine print!!!

And within the fine print is where you’ll find some of my chief disappointments with the new product lines:

• No low prices for existing AT&T customers. Existing iPhone 3G users like myself who are still under contract would have to pay $499 for the new 32 GB iPhone 3GS.  (Some would have to pay as much as $699, but I can’t tell why the difference.)  So much for these great “low prices” they’re advertising.  That’s why I’ll be just sticking with my good ol’ 16GB iPhone 3G for now.
• No voice control for old iPhones. Although a free OS upgrade will be available for iPhone 3G’s like mine, unfortunately, that upgrade does not include voice control.  Apple claims it’s because the 3G doesn’t have the processing power to handle it.  Really?  If that’s the case, then how are a bunch of apps doing it now?  And how did my oooooold Motorola phone do voice commands five years ago?
• No video for old iPhones. The free OS upgrade I’ll be getting also won’t enable video features on my iPhone 3G.  Why?  Jailbroken iPhones have been recording and streaming video for a while now!
• No video calling on new phones. A big disappointment with the new iPhone 3GS is that it doesn’t include a forward-facing camera (for video telephone calls or video conferencing).  That might have made it worth the price to upgrade, and that would be something to truly get excited about!
• No Multimedia Messaging Service yet. And what can you do with that video?  Not much!  AT&T doesn’t have MMS ready to go. MMS?  I had that feature with a generic cell phone company like U.S. Cellular years ago.  Come on!
• No tethering yet. How about tethering?  AT&T is dragging their feet there too.  It’s rumored they want to charge $70/month for unlimited data tethering.  Let’s get real.  That’s twice as expensive as most ISP’s and way less than half the speed.
• No design update. And the iPhone 3GS doesn’t look any different.  No aluminum unibody.  No glowing Apple logo.  No matte black finish.  Nothing exciting or new.

And that’s just my critique of the iPhone.  Don’t get me started on the MacBook Pro’s, which all have non-removable batteries now.   Still no Blu-Ray support.  And although they a modest upgrade in hard drive space and processor speeds available, they still don’t have quad-core processors.   The upgrade to 8GB RAM is significant, but it comes at a hefty premium — $1,000!   And did you realize the 13 inch MacBook Pro has no microphone input?  Yep, that’s right, and the 15 inch model has been robbed of its ExpressCard/34 slot, meaning it’s impossible to add something like eSATA to the laptop (which is should support natively anyway).  Plus, they all look the same (no distinction from high-end to low-end.)  And they lack a lot of the cool features some PC’s now have (integrated biometric security, etc.).

So that’s how I’ve gone from enraptured to enraged overnight… realizing that most of AT&T and Apple’s news just confirmed they’re good at creating a spectacle and not true innovation.  Where is Steve Jobs when you need him!

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People usually have one of three reactions to Twitter:

• Yay!
• Boo!
• Whaaaa?

You either love it or hate it or don’t have a clue what it is.  (For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Twitter is a mico-blogging service where people post brief updates of 140 characters or less.)

John Piper summarizes several arguments against using Twitter on his blog:

These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it.

But he also points out that there are some positives:

Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.

In the end, John came to the conclusion that because his mission in life is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, he would do that in all ways possible, including via Twitter.  (Twitter qualifies as part of “all things,” you know.)

All things were created through Christ and for Christ (Col. 1:16).

So, to tweet or not to tweet?  John chooses tweet.  And so do I.

Like him, you probably won’t see many updates from me like:

• Taking the trash out
• Taking a nap
• Eating lunch

Instead, hopefully you will see thought provoking posts that will cause you to stop and think about living out your faith in the midst of your busy day.  That’s my goal, at least.  Follow me at: http://www.twitter.com/billwhitt

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How do people related to each other at your church?  If it’s like the average church, there’s probably a heaping helping of gossip, slander and general malevolence between people who just can’t get along.  What should the church leadership do about this type of strife?  Check out this document from John Piper’s church:

http://www.hopeingod.org/resources/images/107247.pdf

Very wisely, the leadership has set some expectations for how church members should relate to one another.

For example, check out this section on conflict resolution:

• Whenever we are faced with conflict, our primary goal will be to glorify God with our
  thoughts, words and actions (1 Cor. 10:31).
• We will try to get the “logs” out of our own eyes before focusing on what others may
  have done wrong (Matt. 7:3-5).
• We will seek to overlook minor offenses (Prov. 19:11).
• We will refrain from all gossip, backbiting and slander (Eph. 4:29-32). If we have a
  problem with others, we will talk to them, not about them.
• We will make “charitable judgments” toward one another by believing the best about
  each other until we have facts that prove otherwise (1 Cor. 13:7).
• If an offense is too serious to overlook, or if we think someone may have something
  against us, we will seek reconciliation without delay (Matt. 5:23-24; 18:15).
• When we offer a word of correction to others, we will do so graciously and gently, with
  the goal of serving and restoring them, rather than beating them down (Prov. 12:18; Eph.
  4:29; Gal. 6:1).
• When someone tries to correct us, we will ask God to help us resist prideful
  defensiveness and to welcome correction with humility (Ps. 141:5; Prov. 15:32).
  When others repent, we will ask God to give us grace to forgive them as he has forgiven
  us (Eph. 4:32).
• When we discuss or negotiate substantive issues, we will look out for others’ interests as
  well as our own (Phil. 2:3-4). 

Does your church have something like this?  Should it?

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I love church signs… love to make fun of them, that is.  Don’t get me wrong.  I bet there are good intentions behind these cheesy messages.  I’d just like to know what the point is.

My response to most signs (including the ones pictured above) is a groan and a sigh.  But others cause more of a visceral reaction.  A church sign in my town recently said:

“Now, even Darwin believes.”

I guess the thrust behind that is that anyone who believes in evolution is destined to burn in hell forever, at which point they’ll believe in God.  But, as a friend of mine who emailed me about the sign said, “Who can account for another person’s salvation, let alone where he’s spending his afterlife?”

My chief problem with messages like that one is that it’s a message of hate, not hope.  Even if their premise were true, what Darwinian scientist is going to drive by, read the sign, veer off the road into the church lot and ask how to be saved?

It’s ineffective and it’s divisive.  And this particular example misrepresents the Gospel.

According to my reading of the Bible, it’s faith in Christ that secures your position in God’s family, not your stance on evoltion.  You can believe the earth is flat.  You can believe in flying pink unicorns.  You can believe God created the world through the process scientists call evolution.  As long as you accept that Jesus lived the perfect life you couldn’t and died the death you deserved, your place in heaven is secure.

There are plenty of evolutionists who believe in God.  And there are plenty who do not.  But thanks to church signs like this one, those who do not will probably write off churches and never set foot inside their doors.

If that’s what this church was going for… Mission Accomplished!

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