No one can focus on every discipline at once. I love to talk about disciplines; I’m passionate about it, but it relies on context. Within nutrition, there are times for disciplines that help one lose weight and there are times for disciplines that help one gain weight; the same is true with both psychological and spiritual disciplines!
You are on the Ethernet air with Doctor Showbizhair. Last week JC and I had a cool little conversation on an excellent book called Grain Brain, by David Perlmutter, MD. Now we only had twenty minutes to talk about stuff and we got a little side tracked on a fascinating subject. But since this is about Grain Brain I suppose it should be limited to discussion. Continue reading “Brain Drain”
The whistle blows and everyone in the factory gets to go home in Baxter Springs, Kansas. Three of said workers at this steel factor were young boys from the near-by town of Greans. These boys were well on their way into manhood, but they had not seen much of the world outside these two towns and they still loved to play. So, on the way home, they stopped to explore the caves some – as many young men would.
I have an old roommate from college; we just got back in contact after a few years of us doing our own thing. Every time we talk, he says something to the effect of, “You’ve been in school the whole time I’ve known you.” The sad part? He’s right. I’ve been an adult for 16 years. For eleven of those, I’ve been in school one way or another. And I’m going back for more. Continue reading “On continuing education”
I am southern, and I am from the country. Our (mobile) home was surrounded on 3 sides by farmland and the other was a swamp. Everything was 20 minutes away, except for the corner store my grandpa’s brother ran. Blue jeans and boots and flannel shirts weren’t a grunge fashion trend for us, it was work clothes. My neck has been red from working in the hot sun all day.
That is,until a couple of weeks ago. A colleague of mine posted an article quoting Flannery O’Connor. In addition to confirming my fears and suspicions about ministry in the South, it also opened my eyes to a part of my culture that I had neglected: diversity in literature.
People always have questions about whether or not they can judge others, or whether or not others can judge them. Too often do I hear stuff like “Jesus said, ‘judge not lest ye be judged,’ so you can’t judge me!” or “You can’t tell me what to do! Your Bible says that you aren’t supposed to judge me!” or from other believers I might hear, “I know I’m not supposed to judge but can’t I at least speak up against….” The truth is that we all make judgments about everything we come in contact with and that’s perfectly fine.
Whenever someone prefaces a conversation with “I was playing video games for like 8 hours this Saturday,” or “I binged watched the whole first season of (insert favorite show here) on Netflix last night,” I normally ask them one thing.
Do you know what opportunity cost is?
The following story is told in first-person, from the perspective of a personal friend of mine. This is based on a true story; however, some names have been changed for the sake of privacy.
Something I really hate to do is apologize. Not because I’m a bad person or because I think it wrong…. It’s just hard for me. I have to apologize for some of my past mistakes and past teachings. I have been glorifying and romanticizing self-sacrifice to the point that I missed the point of scripture at certain points in my life. I would love to just start with that straight apology and get it over with, but as a story teller I have forbade myself from starting with the climax.
Continue reading “Why God Doesn’t Want Your Sacrifice….”
We’ve looked into the lives of Abram, Sarai, and Hagar and seen many things. We’ve seen obedience, mistakes, jealousy, rage, faith, and doubts. We’ve seen real genuine emotions in these people and caught a glimpse of ourselves as well. The ways we interact with people and ways we often may not “measure up.” Despite the truth of the bad, we’ve also discussed how the story continues. How people can triumph even after a failure. And today, we’re finally going to see the pinnacle of Abraham’s faith. His greatest spiritual triumph. Let’s pick up where we left off.
TEAMzao 