Give Hope

I think given the choice between doing something that you are passionate about and something that gives others hope, you (and the world) would be better served choosing the latter.

The conventional wisdom of career advisers, management scientists and entrepreneurs says that if you want to be happy and engaged in your life’s work you should focus on things that you are deeply passionate about.

That by focusing on your passions, you will bring a level of energy and commitment to your work that will lead to both enjoyment and long-term success.

While I don’t disagree with this, I believe encouraging myopic pursuit of one’s passions fuels self-important self-supremacy.

In doing so we are training up generations to think that “following your dreams” is...

Kingdom Quote #005

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

– Albert...

I’m pretty sure CAPTCHA is messing with me

I’ve noticed over the past few weeks that whenever I’m presented a CAPTCHA box (one of those security fields that has you type the words that you see on your screen, supposedly to make sure you’re not some kind of robot) the words in the box have been a little suspicious. As if the program was trying to tell me something.

I’d get presented with a combination of words like “lazy” and “worker” or “heavy” and “foundation“. Never anything overt, but always a combination that could have another meaning implied if you read into it. And always something slightly derogatory.

Of course I would dismiss it every time because acknowledging it as more than just coincidence would give credence to the fact that a mischievous and malicious computer program was out to get me. I have a hard enough time maintaining outward appearances of...

Why I No Longer Consider Myself a Democrat

Thank you Tim Keller for blowing up my worldview yet again. From Ministries of Mercy: The call of the Jericho Road (affiliate link):

“While accomplishing this task [loving in word and deed], Francis Schaeffer said, Christians may at times be ‘cobelligerents’ with the Left or the Right, but never allies. ‘If there is social injustice, say there is social injustice. If we need order, say we need order … But do not align yourself as though you are in either of these camps: You are an ally of neither. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is different from either — totally different.‘”

“The...

22 Ways to Use Twitter Fast Follow

Twitter’s introduction of the Fast Follow feature is a brilliant strategy for expanding the reach of Twitter to non-users. Fast Follow is a great tool for churches, ministries and businesses to add to their social media tool belt.

Here are 22 ways that I see these organizations adding Fast Follow to their social media strategy.

Church social media uses

Sending time-sensitive messages Sending service time or event reminders Notifying people of inclement weather service cancellations Promoting ministry-specific events Communicating prayer requests or member needs Sending daily devotionals Providing supplemental information (such as additional Bible verses to read) during services Communicating...

Twitter Introduces New “Fast Follow” Feature

Yesterday Twitter announce a new service that allows anyone in the US to subscribe to any user’s tweets via SMS. Accoding to Twitter’s blog:

Fast Follow. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. For example, let’s say you want to get Tweets from New York City’s office of emergency management (@NotifyNYC). Just text ‘follow NotifyNYC’ to 40404 in the US.

Fast Follow functionality allows people to subscribe to an organization’s tweets via text messaging regardless if they have a Twitter account or not… effectively extending the reach of Twitter as a communication tool. Now churches and ministries can use Twitter...

The Lie of Significance

Life, for most, is a continual quest for significance.

We seek it in our work, our relationships, our pursuits. Anywhere we can, we look for it. We believe that when we find significance we will be content. Somehow we will be filled.

So great is the desire for significance that entire industries have grown up seeking to make some money in return for giving people’s lives meaning. The formula’s always the same:

Name a discontent and show an example of someone who is dissatisfied or suffering Present a cleverly-named solution Show the amazing change that has taken place in your example’s life as a result of your solution Take your money to the bank

The problem is that the promise of significance is a lie.

I can not give your life meaning because it already has...

Get Angry

I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet. It’s a video of Representative Andrew Weiner from Brooklyn tearing into Republican opponents from the floor of the House of Representatives. It’s been making the rounds on the Internets and I even heard about it on a radio morning show talking about it today.

On the radio they were laughing at how during this impassioned rant he is able to regain enough composure to respect parliamentary protocol. Which, I admit, is quite impressive and comical.

But here’s the thing, Rep. Weiner is reacting to the defeat of a bill that would have provided $7.4 billion for healthcare for the 9/11 first-responders and workers who are now suffering serious health side-effects from spending so much time breathing in the dust from the...

All Your Data Are Belong To Us

Concerned about Facebook’s use of your private data? Consider this – while a lot of attention has been given in the past year to Facebook’s aggressive push to capture more and more data about users, Google has (more or less) managed to fly under the radar as it embedded itself into the entire fabric of the entire Internet.

Google is watching you right now

The amount of information that Google collects from your web browsing session is staggering. Yet we don’t hear as much backlash against Google, largely in part because the data collection happens behind the scenes with most users unaware of how frequently they’re sending data to Google.

The guys at Free Art and Technology (F.A.T.) Lab have developed a clever browser plug-in that demonstrates this by sounding an alarm every time data is sent to Google from a web site....

Find Inspiration

I’ve been watching reruns of the show The West Wing. The stories of these fictitious men and women striving to make America better, driven by a vision and a passion to fulfill the greatness of this nation, united by their belief in a greater purpose for man inspire me. The show inspires me. There are moments in the show that move me and stir something deep within my heart.

  The power of inspiration is that it lifts us to heights that would be unobtainable if left to our own devices. It awakens something lying deep inside, releasing the floodgates of unimagined potential and causing us to come fully alive.

We live under the burden of death. Weighed down by sin. Bent low as a consequence of the fall. Our senses become dulled and our spirit is dampened by the incompleteness of this world. We...