How to Be Healthy, Fit, and Have No Friends

June 8, 2012 — 50 Comments

It just needs a finishing touch: meat.

Have I found that new and improved “me” yet?

As you may remember, a week ago I told you that I was launching, much like a church or a corporation, a new and improved “me.”  A complete “rebranding” if you will.  In other words, I want to get healthy.

I had a plan, or a “vision” (as plans are now referred to).  It started with the humble goal of doing a juice diet for longer than my brother (who broke down after 48 hours and went to McDonald’s.)

So, is the new me a success, or did we have a failure to launch?  Here’s what I’ve learned, ten days into this “health” thing.

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In Miscellaneous
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Why Privacy is Overrated

June 6, 2012 — 27 Comments

Privacy is overrated.

Just a few moments ago, again, I saw a familiar update in my Facebook timeline.  In read:

“Facebook is now a publicly traded company!!!!  That means anyone on the internet can use any of your status updates or photos without your permission!!! Blargh!!!  You do not have my permission to invade my privacy, internet!!!!1″

Right.  Then I clicked “block user.”

This sort of thing pops up pretty frequently, every time people get a whiff of some change on Facebook, but now that Facebook is on the stock market, it adds a new, scary element to the whole crazy idea that someone’s going to steal your identity…via Facebook.

And since this is so inane that it just has to stop, I’m going to clear this up right now.

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In culture
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Did Jesus Ever Find His Dream Job?

June 4, 2012 — 32 Comments

How many of you, right now, are working your “dream job?”

None of you.  Because right now, you’re reading this blog, probably on company time.

Aside from that, most of us, according to the stats, are not working our dream jobs.  We had to settle for something less, something that pays the bills.

Our jobs wear us out, frustrate us, but probably worst: they don’t feel that important.

You can deal with frustration if you feel like your job is important.  But no one can stand feeling like they are wasting their time or talents, or that their job has little meaning…or they are missing God’s plan for their life.

That’s what it’s all about, right?  God must have had something bigger, better, more spectacular planned for me than just this, right?

…Maybe not.  Maybe there’s a good reason God doesn’t have a better plan for your life.

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In work
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A New and Improved Me…Maybe

June 1, 2012 — 25 Comments

This is not a fitness or health blog for a reason.

And that reason is I do not pay enough attention to my health to have anything to say about it.

But with summer vacation here, and some extra time on my hands (outside of the thousand tasks to do which must wait for summer), I have decided to embark on a quest for better health.

It’s going to be rough.

It’s going to be tough.

I’m three days in, and I want to quit already.  I am bearing my efforts to you in the full knowledge that I may fail as early as this weekend.

So, what is it I’m doing…or hope to do, to get myself in tip top shape?

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In Miscellaneous
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Everything Has Strings Attached

May 30, 2012 — 31 Comments

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

Thousands of teenagers all over the world are saying that phrase to their parents right now.

And it’s that phrase, or something like it that pretty much makes America what it is today.  Did you know Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence included this quotation:

“Yo, Brits.  This is America, and we do what we want.  So get off our jock.”

This original patriotic spirit of independence still runs thick through our plaque-encrusted veins, and you can usually count on someone exercising their first amendment right to gripe and moan whenever someone tells them what to do.

My friend, David, sent me this story, where dozens of employees at a Christian university resigned over a “lifestyle contract.”

So, are these brave men and women, sacrificing their own welfare to make a statement true patriots…or just complete idiots?

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In America, culture, work
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Idolatry, Apostasy and Heresy!

May 25, 2012 — 48 Comments

Last Sunday was an interesting one.

I visited two churches while in Seattle for the weekend.

First, I visited one of the fourteen Mars Hill locations.  We sang some good songs, and watched a sermon via video recording from Mark Driscoll.  Having seen Mark speak at Catalyst, I have to say he’s more engaging in person, but the video was very well produced.

Later that night, I visited St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.  The sanctuary is one of the most magnificent rooms I’ve ever occupied.  It’s square shape, wooden beams, great columns and glass panels at the front vaguely reminded me of how I imagine Solomon’s temple looked.  I was there to hear a choir of monks singing.

Two churches which could not be more different.  And their differences didn’t stop with style.  If you were the kind of person who gambled, which church would you bet on still being here in a hundred years?

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In church, homosexuality, pastors
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