Audio Bible

I bought and audio Bible last week and it's opened up some new options for how scripture interacts with my daily life. Besides its convenience though, I wonder if there is a different power in the spoken Word of God as opposed to personal silent reading.

Gift vs Discipline

When I see someone excelling in a particular area, it's hard to know sometimes what is a gift and what is a discipline. ie: do they come by it natually or was it earned. People have different gifts that make things easier for them. I recognize that some gifts are not well excercised and therefore don't develop. On the other hand, hard work doesn't make up for everything. Maybe the real question is when I see people doing the things that I wish I were good at, when do I aspire to match them and when should I recognize that I never could.

Motivation

Being a software developer and working with others, I'm recognizing that all you have to do sometimes to get something moving is to tap the developer's curiosity of whether it can be done. If it feels innovative, the developer will spend his own time trying to figure it out and proudly deliver the result.

Emergents

Perhaps the biggest thing that bothers me about the emergent movement are the guys that just want to make me think. They define themselves as undefined and want to shock me and jar me from my comfortable worldview. They are indiscriminate, wielding arguments with no intention of committing to them.

Home owner

I called myself a homeowner and was corrected by someone who told me that very few Americans are homeowners since the bank really owns the home. Fine. I guess I'm an equity-builder then. Still beats renting in my opinion.

Travel

I like traveling. Well, I guess I like being other places. I'm not such a big fan of traveling, especially when airline security is involved.

Choices

Perfectionism makes decision making pretty tough. Think about it; it's a lot of pressure when you're trying to make a perfect decision. Never mind the fact that you will not have all of the information that you'd like upfront and you can't be guaranteed of the consequences. Whether it's the lettuce wraps vs. the Chinese chicken salad or Atlanta vs. L.A., choices get harder when we feel responsible for the perfect one. What if neither choice is perfect. What if both are just good?

I don't know

I used to hate word problems in 4th grade. My mind would sort of freeze up at them. At the end you would have to answer questions, and there would often be an option that said "Not enough information". Most of my word problems in life fall into this category.

Inertia

Inertia seems to be a good paradigm for an understanding of how we work. When we're moving we keep moving and when we're not, it takes a push to get us there. This seems significant for a few reasons. I've wondered before why I seem to be so much more productive when I've got lots of other things happening. The reality is that as I get busier, I literally move into a different gear that allows me to get more done. When I'm less busy, small things seem to be more effort, and I'm generally less motivated to do much.

Busy is cool

Ask anyone how they're doing and besides fine, you'll get one other answer, "busy". This happens most of the time at work where busy-ness is a measure of importance in the workplace. Most of us probably are busy - there's a lot to do, but the expectation and perceived value of busy-ness is what I find interesting. I don't know anyone who likes to be overwhelmed, but I know a lot of people who like to talk about it. I don't know anyone at work who would tell me that their workload is very reasonable. Instead, everyone is busy.