Just Thinking

When things get dark.

One of my favorite books, you know, one of those ones you keep reading again and again, is “God Was In This Place & I Did Not Know It” by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. It’s a collection of various rabbis understandings and thoughts on the passage in Genesis 28:16 where Jacob wakes up from a dream and exclaims … well, he yells the title to Rabbi Lawrence’s book.  It has been a constant reminder to me to be aware of God’s presence with me at all times.  It always amazes me how blind we are to the miraculous that hides just behind the ordinary, and just beneath the mundane minutiae of our daily lives.  It’s one of the things about my character that I am most frustrated with.  This past week was another reminder for me. Read more…

I love this poster!

Lately, I’ve been struggling more than usual with the problem of procrastination.  I have big plans, and ideas, task lists, and dreams, but I just can’t seem to get them done.  It’s as if there’s always something else that needs doing, or that gets my attention.  It feels a bit like high school again, when the only time I would ever clean my room was when I had a paper due the next day, and cleaning my room was the last thing I could do to put off writing the paper just a little bit longer.  I’m intrigued by my struggle with procrastination and I’ve been wondering why it is that it’s been my constant companion for so many years.  A few days ago I did what I always do when I am intrigued by something, I bought a book on the subject.  It’s a nerdy practice, I know, but it has also led to the development of a pretty decent personal library.  I even have a book on the art of mind control practiced by the ancient ninjas.   Read more…

Taking an icy dip!

One of my favorite podcasts is the video podcast from TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design).  I find the different topics and ideas presented to be incredibly stimulating, and I love learning how to be a better presenter from some of the incredible communicators that show up at the TED conference.

This past weekend I was watching some of the latest postings to the podcast and came across a fascinating talk by a guy named Lewis Pugh. Lewis Pugh had a concern.  He watched as the polar ice cap kept creeping back and how the ice at the North Pole kept getting thinner and thinner and he decided to do something about it.  He wanted to do something that would grab the business and political leaders of the world by their “collars and shake them” to make them aware of the problem of climate change.  So, what Lewis did is arrange to take a little dip, only he decided that he would take his short, twenty minute, one kilometer swim at the North Pole.   Read more…

Hey there, everyone. I’m sitting in the Denver Airport waiting for my flight to Boise and catching up on a little blog reading. Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on getting the painting done in our new home, and I’m really getting sick of it. I chuckled when I came across this post from Michael Hyatt, so I thought I would share it with you. Definitely worth the read.

Check out the post.

I thought I’d post the video from my message this past Sunday.  We were looking at the life of Joseph and some of the ways he managed to survive a life in the pits.  I should warn you that it’s a pretty large file.  :)

Download the message video here.

Is it really all good?

“It’s all good!”  That’s what the guy at the convenience store said to me.  I couldn’t help thinking how incredibly wrong he was.  Life is not all good!  I mean, how are you supposed to tell a child in Iraq that’s lost his family to the war that it’s all good?  Or what about the parent that’s lost their child to a drunk driver?  There are so many things in life that are simply not all good, that the sentiment just seems utterly foolish.

And then what about all the little, day to day things in our lives that are simply not all good?  What about the days that you wake up with a sore throat and stuffed up nose?  These are not all good days.  Or what about those days when it feels like everything and everyone is against you?  These are not all good days either.

I guess I should probably stop before I get us all depressed about the state of life.  It’s just that I think that what people need is not more “fortune cookie” type sentiment, but truth.  People don’t need to hear that life is all good.  What they need to be reminded of is that much of life is really very good.