A Parable

There was once an elderly man who loved bird-watching. He knew every bird he happened upon, and he had an ongoing checklist of birds he wanted to see before he died. He never went anywhere without his binoculars, bird-watching field-guide, and a meticulous itinerary of birds he wanted to see. He was a member of a local birdwatching club, as well as a national association of bird-watchers. He went to conventions. He started sticky-threads on bird-watching forums.

One day, the man wanted to take his 8-year-old grandson out into the field with him. He longed to share his experience with his grandson, hoping his grandson would enjoy it. Also, he hoped to spot one of the seasonal species and he had read about being seen recently in this area.

While carousing the field with his grandson, the man went on and on about his knowledge of birds, talking about all the birds he had seen in his life, what kind of birds they can expect to see today, and what times of the year are best to see particular species of birds. But as the minutes turned into ours, the man secretly became frustrated at his lack of a sighting.

Then the boy said, "Look Grandpa, there's a bird!" as he pointed up towards the top of a tree.

"Oh, that's just a crow," said the man. "That doesn't really count as a bird sighting. They're much too common."

"Well," said the boy, "I think its beautiful."

The man stood stunned at what his boy had just said.

After a minute of silence as they both stood watching the crow, the boy said, "Thanks for taking me bird-watching, Grandpa."

World, meet June Embers

No, it's not the name of old lady. Or an Adele protege trying to come up with the newest nonchalant stage name. It's my new band, and we can be listened to here:




(Or here, if you insist: June Embers)

You can download it for free. Just do us a favor and come to a show. :)

A devotional for people who don't like devotionals

If your looking for a great, inspirational, and practical book to read in little pieces every day (i.e., a "devotional"), check out End Malaria. It's a compilation of 2- and 3-page blurbs from successful business guru types on how to be successful, relevant, and most importantly joyful in our post-industrial world of work.

And best of all, you don't have to be a business guru or entrepreneur to enjoy these little blurbs of wisdom. You just have to apply it to whatever it is that you do--work or hobby. (Unless you do something that you don't care about.)

As an added bonus, when you buy the paperback for $25, 20 of those dollars go the Malaria No More. When you buy the Kindle edition for $20, 100% of that goes to Malaria No More.

Check it out.

Cogs

At the turn of the 20th century, the economy was built on buildings. The more stuff we built, the better off we were.

In light of this, by the middle of century, we began valuing security more than anything. The mantra for the middle-class was work for GM as a button-pusher or a knob-turner, and you'll be set for life. For the elitists, it was climb the corporate ladder and the farther up you get, the less hard you have to work, and the more money you make. And finally, for the education system, the goal became to teach kids to be compliant so that we can objectively measure your intellectual growth, and the system can keep being fed. (And maybe if you're lucky, you'll end up with the white-collar mantra.)

Now, things are changing. Our economy is no longer built on concrete, but on ideas. And thanks to the internet, ideas spread--instantly. Which means individuals have more power than ever... You don't need a publishing company to be a writer anymore. You don't need to live in Silicon Valley to invent something.

There's a story in the book of John about a time when Jesus broke the rules. And that made the high-and-mighty religious leaders angry. (Or maybe jealous.) And like all anger, it was fueled by fear; namely, the fear of their carefully constructed system being torn down, along with the security it provided for the elite.

Jesus understood that for real change to happen, someone had to break the rules and deny the elite their comfortable status.

(Side note: There’s a great book by business writer Seth Godin called Lynchpin which explains how being a cog in a system is no way to go about business, work, or life in general. It’s a great read for anybody wanting to break the mold.)

Jesus demonstrated that we shouldn't be weaving baskets in a world that doesn't need baskets.

A little explanation to my previous post

Regarding my previous post (Why I Believe in Evolution and Why It Doesn't Matter), I've been getting some questions about why I mentioned evolution in regards to the posted video. I believe that Jill Bolte Taylor's message is that we have the ability to choose to evolve into more and more humanness. We can choose to simply survive (as animals do) or we can choose to thrive in our existence (as humans do). We can use each other for survival (as animals do), or we can rely on each other for spiritual growth (as humans do--Christian or otherwise). We can herd around each other and gather resources to advance our species' development, or we can admit to our need for others in order to become more ourselves alongside each other.

The key word is choose. I believe in evolution--not necessarily monkeys slowly getting taller and less hairy and slightly smarter--but rather that things change (i.e., become more advanced) with changing circumstances. The circumstances of giraffes are that trees are getting taller, therefore their necks have to get longer. And the circumstances of humans have changed in a manner that requires something a little more "advanced" (spiritual) than that of animals, trees, and amoebas.

We have to choose. We can stay where we are, or we can evolve.

As for the part about Seth Godin... You'll have to read Lynchpin to get that one. Which I highly recommend.

"It's only temporary"

"It's only temporary."

I hear a lot of people say this. About money, about material, about love... about life. The problem with this rather lousy excuse is the word "only." It assumes that temporariness negates purpose, and that the only things that matter are eternal things. Or at least that eternal things are more important.

Sadly, this philosophy is very popular among Christian circles, namely, "This life is only temporary", etc.

I believe the opposite is true. Things are only precious because they are temporary, and the fact that something is temporary makes it precious.

If eternal things are all that matter, than life doesn't matter. And if life doesn't matter, life is easy. When our psyche is craving a little TLC, all we have to do is sit around and speculate about the end times and how we can most efficiently get people saved for "some day"... Because as long we convince ourselves that our version of "some day" is the right version, right now doesn't matter. But we still get the satisfaction of "having a purpose."

Mmm, easy is yummy.

But the truth is, meaning and preciousness are found in the temporary. What matters is now. Your work matters. Your love matters. Your worship matters. Your hobby matters. Star Wars on blue-ray matters. Because what you do with this life matters, because this life only lasts for a finite time.

Everything eternal is out of our control. Speculating about it does 2 things: [a] Makes us feel in control of something we're not (I think that's called worshiping a false god), and [b] wastes precious time from this life.

Don't worry about the eternal. Instead, cherish things that aren't going to last. They're only temporary.

Why I believe in evolution, and why it doesn't matter

Seth Godin calls it "the lizard brain." I call it fear. Whatever it is, it is beautifully explained here: If everybody lies, maybe it's just because everybody's using the wrong side of their brain.