Monday, December 21, 2009

Before and after



I used to think that the best stories had a beginning a middle and an end. Then my brother introduced me to Anime and more often than not you are just dumped into the middle of a story and have to figure everything out. It was frustrating at first, but now I realize that it engages you in the story more, you have to work at listening and watching within the story to figure things out. You actually have to work as a participant while watching or reading the story.

Once there was a man. He grew up in a home that loved God and he became a Christian. His faith was his own and he was very passionate about it. He was a warrior and fought for his homeland on many occasions. His faith often led him to speak truth into the lives of others and affect them in profoundly life changing ways. Eventually he met and married a wonderful woman and they had several children together. One day though this man saw another woman. He left his wife and children and committed adultery with this other woman. After some time the man died.

Was this man really a Christian? Was he really saved? Be very careful with your answer. Give it some thought. Take some time to consider why you answer the way you do because it is vastly important.

Once there was a man who knew nothing about God. He lived his life in a rough neighborhood and grew up very poor. He was given some religious education, but it didn't show in anything more than an assent to morality and was not a real aspect of his life. He had several girlfriends whom he slept with, got into fights and was just a regular rough blue collar Joe. One day he started reading the Bible and through this became a Christian. He worked hard and graduated college, married his high school girlfriend and then started a successful church as a pastor. After some time he died.

Was this man really a Christian? Was he really saved? Be very careful with your answer. Give it some thought. Take some time to consider why you answer the way you do because it is vastly important.

Many people would answer that the first guy is not a Christian and the second guy is. I would have to ask you how do you measure someone's Christianity? If everything we get is by grace, and all the things anyone ever does for God are just fulfilling basic requirements how do you measure Christianity?

We get so caught up playing God in other people's lives we forget it isn't our job. We don't know the beginning from the end, we don't know the full story. Often times these question come up and we assume that we can accurately judge everything about a person's life from limited information. We assume sin done before becoming a Christian is less bad than sin done after becoming a Christian. We assume our actions affect our salvation.

That first person could be King David from the Bible, the entire nation of Israel from the Old Testament, or a story about someone related to me by a friend.

The second person could be Kevin Seelinger a Young Life guy I knew, Mark Driscoll, Abraham from the Old Testament, or several friends of mine.

My answers about how people are living and whether or not they are saved has changed from time to time because I think that I know the beginning and end of every story. Instead we live life like an Anime. (Yes, big eyes and over done emotions are reality!) We get dumped into this world and have to work to interact with the story that is going on around us.

I often fail at treating people like they can be given grace. I just look at them and assume (wrongly) that they were always like this and cannot change. I diminish the power of Jesus Christ by not giving out grace and realizing that the story I am working out of is bigger then I am.

The other thing I find myself doing is assuming that people who end well are saved and people that end poorly are not. We find both examples in the Bible. If we assume on the salvation of people who are several thousand years removed from us and show them grace, why not in the here and now? I think it hearkens to a desire for control. If we can follow the rules then we will be okay. We are assured of our salvation by our good works and piety. Wait how are we saved again? Oh right, through grace! How do we live life? Oh right, by grace! If we miss this then we miss what God wants to show us. It's all about Him. Only, ever, always about Him. If it becomes about anything else then we have missed the point.

Now this is not a post condoning sin. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, had to die because sin was so bad and we could do nothing about it. This post is about remembering our place and living in grace, showing grace to others. Welcome to the story it's big, bold and beautiful.

Challenge: What story are you living out of?

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Games as a metaphor for life


Hello all you sports enthusiasts!
I am sure there are many of you out there who spend some time each week, month, or year plugged into the television watching with awe the exploits of your favorite team. It can be exciting and exhilarating when other people are rooting with you! It is a great experience as we watch superb athletes compete for a prize.

Now for the metaphor.

I find that I live life not by the principles of an athlete playing the game, but rather as a spectator. It seems that life has not become a group activity where everyone is playing the game their hardest and best. Rather, it seems, I am on the sidelines talking on a cellular phone stop to play the game for a few minutes and then do something else. Real athletes spend almost their entire lives practicing for their short time on the field. I bemoan the missed catch and cheer about the amazing touchdown pass, but spend little time thinking about how much time and energy went into that one fantastic moment. Practice in all reality is something I shy away from. It isn't sexy, it is sweaty, hard, boring and repetitious. Practice is very much like the military. It's gritty, dirty and takes motivation, determination, courage and guts. Instead, I find, as a child of my culture I live my life as if I will only have to play the game for two minutes and find even that is too hard. I don't practice to play the entire game of life but rather the convenient moments that are easy and fun. Theodore Roosevelt said this in a speech given at the Sorbonne Paris, France, April 23, 1910 and it bears repeating.

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Even Paul the Apostle said "Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops." (2 Tim 2:3-6)

Thinking about these things I have been asking myself questions. Am I allowing distraction, laziness, fear and cowardice to rule? Am I on the sidelines cheering, or practicing hard long hours to meet the challenge? Dedication comes through focus on one thing. In all the examples of people who accomplished amazing feats in business, sports, or science we find the willingness to put in long hard hours toward the accomplishment of an amazing goal. The question I am asking myself lately is, Am I living or just subsisting?

How about you?

Sunday, December 13, 2009

What questions say about you!

I think we have all heard the statement "There is no dumb question!" This is true, but as we said in the military under our breath, "Yeah but there sure are a lot of dumb people." On the other hand I don't think we ponder much about what a question is asking at it's core, or rather what the questioner is asking at their core. Reading Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance pushed me to think about questions, not only to think about "the most important questions", but also to see what substantive information I can gain from a question.

When someone asks a question beginning with "Who..." it is a question of identity and person hood. Who are you? Who am I? Who is this? We seek to identify a person sometimes for our own safety but also so we can remember and classify them. We never ask "Who is this tree?". Who is a functional recognition of person hood.

Questions asking "What..." are questions of action. When your mother asked you "What are you doing?" as a little child you could very well know fear if you were misbehaving. The "What..." question can also be a question of identification of something non-human. What is this?

Asking "When..." is a question of time. When is a question of precise happening, but can also be vague. When did this happen? can be accurately answered with...long ago!

For those of you following the five W's and an H rule will not be disappointed as "Where.." questions have to do with location. These also can be as specific or as vague as the answerer may want to make them.

"Why..." questions deal with motive. Why did you commit that crime? The question "Why am I here?" presupposes as part of the answer some larger motive in existence.

Questions of causation are dealt with by "How..." type questions. "How did this happen?" is a typical one, as is "How was your trip?". In the latter question it is imprecise but accepted as someone's concern with your well being.

If you have made it this far you may be wondering why I am going through this as the points I am making seem blatantly obvious. They are very obvious, but I think most people miss them because of this. A question tells the person being asked not only where you are deficient, but also something about you. If you are a person who continually asks "Why..." questions then you are concerned about others motives. If you ask "How..." type questions you are a practical person who is concerned with the basics of things. I don't care why! How did this happen? There are whole television shows devoted to "How..." questions. Brainiac, and Myth Busters. The other thing that is fun about questions is that sometimes they are rhetorical! A parent rarely walked into a room that is a disaster and asked, "What happened here?!" without knowing! This also tells you that the person asking the question assumes on your knowledge or that the question is so obvious as to not need explanation. Questions can be a search or many other things but they always reveal something. Pretty neat huh?

Challenge: Beef up your question inventory! Try asking questions that you are not used to asking, or answer every question with a question. It is harder than you think! (Unless you are British because they use the interrogative voice way more than the average American. They consider it more polite.)

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Why being right doesn't really matter.



Hi!
My name is Andrew and I love to be right. It doesn't matter the situation, and it doesn't matter the topic. Life is a game and if being right is the scorecard, then I want to win. What's odd about my desire to be "right" is that it doesn't really matter. This truth came home to me in a big way recently.

I have been filling out a job application that wanted a job history first and then a place for education, address, etc. As I started my job history I realized that I haven't really been very amazing. Oh I have done things, but nothing out of the ordinary. I have skills but so do a lot of other people. It was really telling that my ego was deflated based on an expectation of someone reading a job history of mine. In reality I felt lame. I looked at what I had accomplished, compared myself to others, and saw how little I have really accomplished. I looked at my life for a second and realized how much I use my intellect to insulate me from my fears. Sometimes even writing (because I know I have some ability there) is me trying hard to be smart, to be cool, to be right. How pathetic.

The reality is that fear often motivates me more than love. The reality is I live in a dumpy basement apartment crammed with different piles of books I am currently reading (or was a month ago) random papers, and Rubbermaid tubs of clothing because I don't have room for a dresser. When people ask me how school is going I say "Fine", or "Good" because I can't describe how awful I am at deadlines. Even the name deadlines is crazy. If you don't meet them...you die! Gahhh! I fear failure at school not because it is hard, but because I gave up and quit several years ago. That quitting haunts me a bit and is a weird emotional snafu that comes up at the most inopportune times. Now I get to work full time and go to school, not because I want to but because I have to. Yuck.

Between my hang ups, fears, random self loathing, and slightly crazy life I defend myself by being right and having answers. This was all blown apart on a recent trip to Alaska. I talked to a buddy who has had three major catastrophes in his life. He asked questions that I realized if I tried to answer or give some sort of solution to or try to "fix" his problems I'd say things that would in reality be stupid. There was no "right" answer. This wasn't an academic challenge or a debate. This was real life come screaming into my buddy's life and into mine. Pain. Real, tangible, heaviness in the room you can feel, nothing you can do about it, pain. His pain was felt by me in a very real way and it exposed all my stupid, desires to be right and all the stupid walls I put up for exactly what they were. What do you do with that? I could be "right" all day long and my friend, who I love, is still sitting there in emotional agony.

So I gave up. I just sat there and listened and tried to be a friend without any stupid easy answers that sound trite in the face of cancer, divorce, betrayal, loss and death. I just reminded him of truth. That this is a crappy world full of sin and death. That it is so crappy God sent His perfect Son and people can't stand Christ so they kill him. The beauty of it is that even though people are God's enemies and killed Christ God showed His power and raised him from the dead and through that death forgives us and invites us to be adopted into His family. That is where true hope lies.

Otherwise I live in a harsh loveless place, powerless, without any control over anything. If you don't believe that watch Instinct with Anthony Hopkins. There is some good psychological stuff in there about control.

I choose to believe in the reality of hope in Christ and a good God who goes out of His way to love us. In the end me being "right" won't solve anything, builds up my own pride, and in the face of the difficulties of life really doesn't matter. Time to give up the self serving game for something better called love.

Challenge: When difficult things happen in life where is your hope? Put up a post I'd love to hear about it.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Another way Americans are selfish

Today I read a great article about the "War in Afghanistan". I think it speaks volumes to some of the policy's of those in power - namely us. We can whine and cry about Hope and Change but the truth is we all just want free health care. What a sad state of affairs. How did we go from the Land of Opportunity to "The Land of Entitled Handouts"? I think the nation is in great shape and the politicians we elect are representing us adequately. Rather I should say the politicians some of us elected. Not everyone voted. NOT EVERYONE VOTED! Women fought for years to vote, blacks fought for years to vote, people aged 18 fought to vote. Now you ask the normal person on the street if they voted and you have a less than 50% chance of an affirmative. Apathy rules the day.

Because apathy rules the day, politicians are not held accountable. Oh, right before an election you gave me handouts with my own money? Thanks I'll vote for you again! Wait what about all the decisions that politician made over the last 2-4 years? Might that have a greater bearing on whether they are a good person to vote for or not? Oh, right that would take work and research. Sorry, Lost is on. The politicians actions directly represent the lazy apathetic people in this country. We will continue to support those who keep us comfortable and happy. The government's money is our money! The government's rules are our rules! There isn't some magic money box in the sky. It's this little thing called taxes. The more government spends the more taxes they are going to collect. Newsflash...taxes are going up.

Obama's stuck. Even if he wanted to bring all the troops home, he would then dump more warm bodies into a non-existent job market. That's not politically expedient. Even if he wanted to bring troops home he won't because he has asked other countries to man up and send more troops. That's not good foreign relations.

What does all this have to do with selfishness and Afghanistan? Well if we knew the effects of our war efforts on a population like Mexico we would not support it for an instant. If there were bombing raids on a Mexican village and 20 Mexicans died there would be an uproar! Every news camera crew from every major network would be camped out in Mexico. In Afghanistan it is sanitized by news reports with no blame. "17 killed by bomb in Afghanistan today." Well who killed them? Who set the bomb? Just random numbers and random bombs that walk out into the street killing people. Last time I checked bombs needed makers. The war is sanitized by it being far away, against people we truly don't understand instead of close and personal with our next door neighbors. The other thing is that we support it because we don't truly care as a collective enough to find out if our government is really making good decisions. It isn't trust it is laziness. We want someone else to do our thinking while we sit back and keep ourselves entertained.

While I don't have a magic answer that will solve everything, I know full well that more people calling for accountability in more matters would make a difference. If politicians knew they would be called into account for the sloppy messes they make they might think a bit more long term, instead of what is politically expedient for the next election coming up. Change comes through responsible people making responsible decisions they are accountable for. If we really want change it has to come from us as a people first. Otherwise we continue to support the status quo.

Challenge: Get to know the names of some local politicians. Try to find out what being the Speak of the House means. Practice a little bit of civics. It could just be enjoyable.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Why someone telling you “You can be anything you want to be when you grow up!” is absolutely ridiculous.

When I grow up I want to be…a tree. This is something I tell children whenever the question comes up. The truth is I can’t be a tree, but me saying I want to puzzles small children and keeps them quiet for a minute. The reality is we are not born into a vacuum, and there are limitations in life. You cannot be “anything” you want to be when you grow up. Sorry to burst you bubble. Most people who have said this statement are teachers. They are trying their level best to get you to think outside the box. They are trying to help you not limit yourself. Unfortunately people take this statement meant for learning and blow it way out of proportion. There are many factors that influence who you are and what you can accomplish. One of those is your inherent abilities. Some people can never, and should never, play an instrument, or sports, or hold a public office. Some people are awesome with their hands but could never write a novel. Each of us just by our genetic make-up has limitations. Even if we are amazingly smart and talented there is this thing called time and aging that eventually limits us as well. Even if we had the capacity to learn and do everything, time will slow us down and make us focus on a few of our strengths. Another one of those things that hang us up is our position in life. If you were born to dirt poor parents there may be limitations on where you go to school, how high you can rise in life, etc. Now I know all the rags to riches stories they are in Reader’s Digest every month. Most of us though, statistically, never rise above the station of our parents. It isn’t that we can’t I think it is just we often lack the desire, gumption, work ethic, etc. We become apathetic, complacent, and content. The last thing that can hold us back is the real subject of this writing, and that thing is identity.

Identity is the sub-level, base instinct, of who you believe you are. In the Matrix movie it is called “residual self image”. Identity is a base level of how we see ourselves that we have difficulty overcoming. Now the beginning statement is an attempt to get people to develop a better identity. To people in hard or difficult circumstances the statement may get them, when they are young; to not accept the world they see around them. It is an attempt, early on, to try to get people to re-identify their identity. To people in better circumstances, or more affluence it is an attempt to get them to strive and work for a dream. If you live where everyone has a car at 16 and your parents are independently wealthy you accept that this is a normal part of life. You are rarely outside of this comfortable existence so you accept what you see. If you live in an area where drugs are a problem, then you accept that they are a normal part of life. You accept that you will probably deal drugs for a job, etc. You have never seen any other life and so become so inured of what you see that you cannot think above that level. You identity has become rooted to the environment around you. If you grow up in France, speaking French, eating French food, you understand that your identity is French and you have certain cultural ideas that are part of your identity. If you grow up Catholic, you can say all the prayers, you feel comfortable around a liturgy, you have a base assumption about things that you rely on and trust in. Your religious identity is Catholic. All this just to say often the greatest impediment to our development as people is our identity. Late at night or early in the morning when you cannot lie to yourself and the rush of the day has ended, or has not begun, ask the question: Who are you?

In the movie Wanted the main character is beaten for not answering the question, “Why are you here?” His answer that stops the beating is, “Because I don’t know who I am!” In the Dark Tower saga by Steven King whenever the Gunslinger apologizes he always begins or ends with the phrase, “I have forgotten the face of my father.” Identity is so important that it permeates all of our cultural heritage, oral tradition, and stories. It comes from our past and propels us towards the future. Your identity is there and it determines how you envision yourself, which determines how you think, which determines how you act, which determines your place in this world. If you change someone’s identity then you can change the inward person and the outward action. That is why you hear of stories of people who escape bad circumstances and “rise above” them. They changed their identity from those around them. It is why you have stories of a prince who took a common girl, shy and unimposing. He married her and took her away for a year. When they returned she was radiant, bold and impressive. Her view of herself had changed from, “I am a shy commoner” to “I am the Queen of this land”. Her identity had been replaced by the prince. This is why we like stories that show change. It not only shows us that it is possible but also gives us hope. Identity can build us up or tear us down. Everyone has one and communicates it to those around them through their actions. Often our dysfunction comes from a poor identity. Often our greatest victories and successes in life come from identity as well. Who we are is eventually more important than what we do. What will a man do if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?

Challenge: Think about these three questions for 15 minutes. Be brave, take a chance, and look at who you really are. What is your identity? Who are you at the core? Who do you want to be?

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

What is in a name?

“It would not contradict the laws of nature, if this piece of wood should lift itself into the air without any ostensible cause. According to the mechanical aspect of nature such a miracle, being a reversion of the opposite process, would not be impossible but only extremely unlikely.

Fritz Hasenoehrl quoted in Science Theory and Man by Erwin Schrodinger

I read this quote the other day and it got me to thinking. Part of that thinking produced the experiment known as Quantum Peculiar of which I will try to explain in the most round about way possible. Hold on for the most convoluted explanation of naming a blog as possible!

An anonymous reader posted that quantum are the singular particles being measured that are part of a larger whole called quanta. If you consider humanity as quanta, a single person as a quantum what does this say? Well first what are the qualities of quantum physics that would make a respected scientist make a quote like that listed above? Oddly enough this quote argues for the legitimacy of miracles. Miracles are time events that cannot be consistently tested or shown to be applicable over a wider range, but an event that is still valid. You would do better to call them outliers. They are legitimate, but don’t necessarily fit into the average data as a whole. You don’t negate a hole in one or the Big Bang because it cannot be consistently reproduced. We would all agree that there is more than one way to understand and explore the universe and truth. One way is to test something over and over again under the same conditions to “prove” that it is correct. This is known as the scientific method, or inductive reasoning. It is a set of specific facts or a principle that results in a general conclusion. You pick up an object and drop it. It falls. You do this over and over again and attempt to make a general conclusion from your data. Aristotle said that things fall because they are trying to return from where they originated. Wood falls because it is trying to get back to the roots of a tree. Newton called it gravity and produced a mathematical equation to measure how fast something falls and how long it takes. Both arguments of Aristotle and Newton are conclusions from data. Data is neutral. It is conclusions that are biased. We say Newton was “right” and Aristotle “wrong”, but a better way to think would be to say that “Newton’s conclusion is valid because it fits the data and subsequent alternate testing data better”. As we know, even Newton's conclusion from the data were incomplete in the extremely micro and extremely macro scale. Good conclusions from a data set but not perfect. This is one way to find truth.

Another way to find truth is to look at things proceeding from a general principle or observation to a specific conclusion. This is what is also known as the legal method. You cannot scientifically prove (if someone is dead) that they were ever alive. Why? It is no longer testable! I cannot poke and prod and test a dead body and ever “prove” that it was once alive. I can on the other hand go from a general principle “people can be alive” and make observations the “prove” that someone was once alive. I can talk to people that saw them alive, I can see things that they made, I can read things they wrote, I can watch video that shows them walking and talking. This general principle “people can be alive” I apply to a specific conclusion that Robert Browning was once alive. Someone else could come along and look at the data and say Robert Browning was actually a zombie who looked alive, but really wasn’t. This is an alternate conclusion based on the same data set. Data is neutral. Which conclusion best fits the data? I think many would agree that Robert Browning was alive based on the data set since we don't see many zombies that write poetry and produce children. This is another way to find truth.

Now in debate often times a dirty trick people will use is to say that someone’s conclusion is not “scientific” and then go on to counter with an idea that is also not scientific, but only perceived to be. Two ideas of how the universe started are that: 1. God created it out of nothing. 2. There was nothing then a big bang happened and all the matter in the universe appeared. Both are unscientific. You cannot repeat the experiment. I can’t go back and ask God to recreate the universe over and over to compile data. I cannot go back and ask the Big Bang to happen over and over so I can measure it. Both ideas are actually deductive arguments and both are equally unprovable with the scientific method. So if you post or argue with people be consistent. Compare apples with apples and cars with cars. Don’t compare apples and cars. This isn’t the SAT (although this one is free); apple is to car as Inductive is to Deductive. Both are ways of thinking and finding truth, but must be compared within themselves. OK, this next part is really going to bake your noodle later on!

The uncertainty principle states that even if you take and repeat an experiment many times under the exact same conditions the results will not always be the same for minute particles. This really messed with the minds of determinists. (You can try this yourself! Take ten things that are exactly the same (coffee mugs, plates, bowls, etc) and set up an experiment to drop and break them. Will all the pieces break off in exactly the same manner, same direction and same speed? Why? All conditions being the same can you predict the location of all the broken pieces? Why or why not?) Another way to think about it is imagine millions of atoms in a gas. We can measure the average of all those tiny parts as a pressure, but are all the atoms providing equal pressures at all points on all surfaces? Maybe several of them are traveling faster, some slower, some putting more pressure, some less. What we measure on a macro scale is accurate, but it is an accurate assessment of a normal statistical average of many tiny things.

If you have followed me this far you may wonder where I am going with this. Go back and read the first quote and then read on. Don’t worry I’ll wait. Now as a quantum in society, we are small bits of a larger whole. Six billion or so last time I checked. Sociologists and anthropologists have noted that groups of human society tend to have similar actions even though when asked about specific actions they might deny acting in that way. We are, as people, peculiar quantum particles in society, but where are we going? We all contribute to a quantifiable average, but what is that average? If we are tied to the Second Law of Thermodynamics as a society of people on earth we are going to always be worse off before. It may be very slowly and almost imperceptible, because you must realize you are one tiny particle! If I drop a pad of paper the statistical average is that all the particles in that paper are influenced by the force of gravity. There were some though that went up, there were some that went sideways, but as whole they “all” fell. Have you ever noticed bad things still happen? Why is that if we are improving as people? Are we as society cheating the Second Law of Thermodynamics? Are we quantum peculiar? We need to explore this question because the answer is important.

It has been presented quite often that science and the belief in God are opposed. This is not really the case they are just different conclusions from the same data set. People believe in God because they ask the questions above and choose to believe in outliers like, miracles, Jesus, angels, etc. People believe in science because they ask the questions above and choose to believe in outliers like, evolution, the Big Bang, etc. Both are untestable conclusions based on deductive reasoning. There is a certain amount of faith in something that cannot be rigorously tested. Cool thing is there is more than one way to go about ascertaining the truth.
That is why I named this blog the way I did. It is about the big questions in life. Why are we here? Are we good, bad, amoral? Is there a purpose? What conclusions best fit the data set? Are we asking the wrong questions? Which direction are we going and why? All these questions and more are part of being human or rather – quantum peculiar.


Challenge: Why do you believe what you believe? How did you come to that conclusion? Is it a consistent and good fit for the data set? Why?

Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Beginning

Greetings to all who are reading this blog. It has been some time since I have written in some type of public forum, and although my posts were not widely read I found some solace in writing as I always have. Since leaving the military and a certain community contingent I have explored, grown, been challenged, and experienced an overall good life change. I haven't written about any of it and so I feel I have lost some of the good that can come when sharing with others. A friend of mine once said, "I would give up occasional epiphany for life long consistency". It was a good thought and while I used to think he was right in the either/or sense, I now believe in a both/and construct. I think that by living consistently you can have constant epiphany. This thought has stuck with me for quite a while and brought about what you are now reading.

I feel distracted above all things and often wonder what greater good I have given up by constantly being pulled in twenty different directions instead of just focusing on one thing. Right now I am a dim light bulb, instead of a sharply focused laser. Yes, It may have made me a better conversationalist, but it has also created in my heart and mind a feeling of unfinished business in everything I do. I feel like I cheat others of something excellent I could produce, I cheat myself by not finding satisfaction in being an excellent finisher, and I cheat God by not working for His glory. This writing is dedicated to focusing on doing what I love to do (write) to the glory of God and do it consistently. The goal is to post at least one thoughtful piece each week for a minimum of a year that follows three criteria:

1. The post must convey a sense of exploration in walking with the eternal God (real relationship) without the trappings of religion (lifeless rules).
2. The post must have a focus on love instead of self.
3. The post must contain at least one action associated with it.

I want this to be a positive output because I often fall into the trap of listing things I am against versus what I am for. As a Christian I want to be know as being for an eternal, perfect, loving, father God instead of just a rules based guy who is against certain things. This outlook seems to create a more positive outflow of writing for me, instead of sarcastic, critical, rants against things. I also want this to be a positive thing for people to read. More often then not I think we read and listen to "news" for entertainment. Most of it is bleak or an attack on something, or someone. As the news agencies like to say "If it bleeds it leads!" When was the last time a news article or blog prompted you to think differently, do something differently, or change something in your life? If you can't think of one then let me be the first. For those of you who read, if you decide to comment, a good place to start would be letting me know if I am meeting the three criteria listed above. Also if there is a challenge let me know how it worked out for you, or what you learned.

I also believe that the written word can change people's, thoughts, minds and hearts, that what we input has a direct relationship to what is produced (GIGO, fruit, and Pareto). By restructuring inputs, quality, and focus I want to produce something worth writing! I also want you, gentle reader, to be reading something worth thinking about, something of quality, something that challenges you. There will be a variety of topics from politics, economics, health, management, God, writing, science, games, books, poetry, sports, movies, music, etc. Hopefully I can keep it organized by topic using the Labels feature, but we'll see!

The grand experiment has begun!

Andrew


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