In September of 2001, I packed all of my belongings in to a Honda Civic. ALL.

That summer my stepmother had slowly amassed a small collection of college necessities for me. A nice comforter, which I am typing this entry while sitting under, a husband, and some new pillows. I felt the odd need to bring both of my guitars, my brand new laser printer, and a newly built AMD Athlon 1.6GHz rig (somewhat speedy at the time).

Last weekend I packed a few boxes in to my WRX Wagon headed for a shared storage unit. These boxes represented about a third of what was in my apartment. My Mexican Martin Acoustic resides in a church office and my bass guitar in a closet at church. My two electric guitars I’m staring at here next to me, and the digital recording setup is in a box behind the Hello Kitty Stratocaster. My terrain-park snowboard is next to the Switchfoot autographed guitar and the powder-day board next to my golf clubs in the storage unit, behind the ski/bike rack.

My pastor is riding my mountain bike, although I would have given him my road bike had I not sold it last year to a 14-year old kid. My home audio setup is at my fiancee’s, since I sold my TV to a friend two years ago. And aside from the laser printer which is also at my fiancee’s, and the desktop computer, which I gave to my Father as a spare computer (he has like 5), everything feels like it has been acquired after 9/11/01.

Source: Diana Walker

I recently told a friend that all I felt I needed more in life was a Mini Cooper S. This was a half truth. There was of course the garage I wanted to put it in, which meant a home that came with said garage. And a GT28RS Disco Potato attached to the motor, because I have vowed never again to have less than the approximately 270hp currently on the WRX.

I like stuff. I really do. Stuff, stuffs, and more stuffz. But where does it end? There’s always more horsepower to be made, less f/stops to get down to, and more MB/s to read/write.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
-Luke 12:34

Diana Walker’s famous photo of Steve Jobs at home in 1982 always comes to mind when I think about stuff. What do we really need? It’s probably all here in this picture. A light (yes, that’s a deeper metaphor), music, and some Steve Jobs (or rather, products made by the company he runs). So why all this need for stuff? Moral, mental, and emotional depravity. I suck, therefore I want.

Jason Fried, Co-Founder of wildly successful 37 Signals discusses “Why You Can’t Work At Work”… or why I can’t work at work.  Here’s my favorite tidbit…

… and managers are the biggest problem, because their whole world is built around interruption.  That’s what they do.  Management means interrupting.  ”Hey, what’s going on?”  ”How’s this going?”  ”Let me call a meeting, because that’s what I do all day.  I call meetings.”

Check out 37Signals’ new book REWORK and look out for a review in the next few weeks.

Source: Big Think

Christmas and easter… the two sundays that evangelical christians make a huge fuss about. the two times that most all “Christians” go to church. the two sundays that even those who might never regularly attend a church… go to church. the two sundays that you can get all your volunteers to help out and go to church. but why?

why not every other sunday? shouldn’t the celebration of Jesus’ birth be celebrated every sunday? shouldn’t the death and resurrection be something we take to heart when we serve every sunday? why is it that when a lot of us give our time it is centered and focused on a sunday in late march or early april or in late december when every retail outlet in america is excited about Christmas too?

what if you treated next weekend, which is neither Christmas, nor easter, with the same fervency, planning, dedication to excellence as you did your last “Christmas service” or “easter service”? you are reading this, so certainly you had a free moment this week to perhaps put in a little extra planning. what if you treated every guest at your church like you did the ones that showed up on Christmas Eve or easter sunday? i would argue that those that show up on a random weekend in july might appreciate that too. i would argue that it would be more beneficial to your church to focus on all those other sundays when you might actually notice someone new sitting alone instead of noticing the 100 people you last saw an easter ago are back.

i have, of course, made a gross generalization. flame suit on. but what if you showed up at church this sunday and put in the same effort you would on a “special” sunday? what if you made every worship service a “special” one? what if you realized that the God you worship died and rose again not just for sunday, but today, and everyday?… and with that… any given sunday…