anomaly…

Jason Durant, Hayden FBC youth minister, is a good friend that recently asked me to do a project for some of the local churches.  they are working on an event (much like a conference) called Anomaly that focuses on Christians’ place in culture.  it was a pleasure to work on the video and there will definitely be more content to be a part of the event.  thanks to Courtney Nix and Dustin Faulkner for your creative ideas, VO, and acting.

fresh…

It has never been so clear to me that we thrive on freshness, newness, and recency.  It seems these become part of the foundation of our repetitive and recurrent lives.  you get up in the morning… it’s a new day;  you pick up the paper… it’s news; you check your inbox… it’s filled with new messages;  you pour yourself a coffee… it’s freshly brewed; you read the paper, check your voicemail, sit in meetings, buy expensive tickets to the newest movies, and the list goes on and on.  it’s funny that I first started putting these thoughts down a few weeks ago and Dustin has just made an interesting post about time.  take a curvy line for example; you have to have knowledge of a perfectly straight line before you can want your line to be made straight.  same goes for freshness; you have to have knowledge of the newest magazine before you realize yours is outdated.

freshness plays a big part in everyone’s day, but it’s all relative.  I love my DVR, but I’ve realized that even if I’m watching a program 30 minutes behind schedule, I feel like it’s just not the quality of live television.  there is just something different about reading a New York Times from the day before. the amount of time for something to be fresh, or not to be fresh, is all dependent on the situation and form, but it’s essential and it keeps us moving from one item to the next.  just think about the different forms of freshness that you demand or are exposed to everyday…

first impressions…

ahhh, the ultimate priceless value of first impressions… many of them are so crucial to the success and health of a relationship.  I started classes a few days ago, and I realized just how important those first few minutes are in a class.  as soon as you step into the room, you have several very important decisions to make in a very limited amount of time: 1. scan the room for open seats; 2. inspect the students for familiar faces and/or acquaintances (determine if the person is someone that you must smile at or actually go and talk to); 3. search for students that you want to be future acquaintances; 4. don’t trip walking to your seat.  there is quite a lot of pressure in these first few moments because, most likely, your seat selection will determine your happiness in the class.  if you do make a bad choice, then you will be forced to publicly show your disapproval of your selection and move to another seat during the next class meeting.  you will be faced with the decision of sitting beside the awkward high school acquaintance for the entire semester OR moving beside the attractive person across the room in hopes of pursuing a lifelong relationship.

thanks Dustin for inspiring thoughts on first impressions.

witnessing…

this post is by no means an excuse for not being more bold/outspoken about my faith.  while growing up, my perception of “witnessing” involved door-to-door confrontations, bold public announcements, and/or awkward subject changes in conversations with people I hardly knew. I felt like witnessing was this strange task that I knew I was suppose to do, but it was never effective nor successful.  my active pursuit of opportunities began to dwindle away, and I finally I realized that I was somewhat failing at this Great Commission thing.  in the last year, I began to examine “witnessing” and really started thinking about the bigger picture.  I live in the Bible Belt where most people (I would be willing to claim a ridiculously high and unreasonable percentage) know Christ or have come in contact with the Christian lifestyle in some way.  so with that being said, those same people [that need Christ] have an immediate resentment when anyone mentions Christianity, Jesus, or salvation.  with Christians having the unpopular image of hypocrisy, I’ve found these people are going to be far more interested in actions and consistent lifestyles.  I still look for opportunities to share my faith, but I believe starting a casual and friendly relationship is one of the best prefaces to eventually sharing my faith by a contagious lifestyle.

funny in 08…

why are some things funny and some things aren’t? this post is significantly constrained by my perspective; Time magazine has plenty of reporting on the year 2008 that’s more objective.  I have found the following in 2008…

FUNNY

1. Angry businessman in cubicle

2. Aardvarks

3. Michael Scott

4. Skalleywags

5. California Raisin characters

6. Cheap, plastic-trimmed scooters

NOT FUNNY

1. Dwarfs

2. AIDS

3. Financial Bailouts (or rescue plans)

4. War in Iraq

5. Ten Items or Less

6. Christian Parody t-shirts