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Over the last couple of years my husband and I have swapped up being unemployed. We began cutting expenses every where we could. One of those was with cable TV. After some research, I bought a Roku box, upped our internet plan speed and dumped all but local cable channels.

I don’t consider myself much of a channel surfer. I generally know what I want to watch and turn right there. My husband, on the other hand, is quite the surfer dude. I think he could sit in his recliner and flip through the same 60 or so channels over and over and over again, never really watching anything.

Now he only has about 15 channels to surf and doesn’t know what to do with himself. Switching over to Roku isn’t quite the same. Instead of shows in progress, we’re surfing through possible shows to watch. Theoretically we have to actually decide to watch something before seeing anything. It is definitely an adjustment, and more so than I expected.

I’m not complaining. I realize this type of viewing on demand is most likely the future of TV. We may as well get used to it and shift our brain’s concept of channel surfing. I’m not so sure my husband is ready to make that shift, but everything changes eventually, even the most laziest of pass times.

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Texting is so convenient many of us regularly substitute it for voice or even face to face conversations. An interesting study was conducted recently at the University of Wisconsin on the soothing effect of the voice over texting and instant messaging.

According to the study, when girls who were feeling stressed by a test talked with their moms, their stress hormones decreased and comfort hormones increased. When the girls communicated with mom via text, nothing happened. The study concluded several possible reasons but ultimately suggested the tones, intonations, and rhythms of mom’s voice trigger soothing effects, rather than her specific words.You can read more on the study from wired.com here.

Other recent studies have shown that teenagers prefer communicating face to face over texting and phone conversations. That says a lot considering unlimited texting plans are almost a requirement for teens.

“It doesn’t matter how many smiley faces you put in your IM. It’s not going to have the same effect as talking in person,” said Leslie Seltzer, lead author of the UW study. Definitely food for thought whether you’re a parent or not.

Related articles

• Power of Mom’s Voice Scilenced by Instant Messages (wired.com)
• Texting is killing real business communication (finance.fortune.cnn.com)

Beautiful imagery from Margaret Feinberg’s Hungry for God.  Speaking of John the beloved’s intimate relationship with Jesus, she says:

The imagery of reclining into Jesus’ arms is a glimpse into the closeness that develops when we spend sacred time with Christ.

Close your eyes and try to imagine the feeling of “reclining into Jesus’ arms.” Perhaps the best example we can draw on is that of a child sitting in a parent’s lap, being held and loved on. Not a care in the world. The ultimate peace and contentment.

We can have that feeling regardless of human relationships by spending “sacred time” with God and allowing the intimacy to

develop and grow.

 Some have said that prayer doesn’t change God, but only changes us. Yet on several occasions in the Bible, God makes a concession based on a mere human request.

She goes on to site Old Testament examples of Abraham, Moses, and King Hezekiah. Then in the New Testament Luke shares the story of the persistent widow. What are wanting to change God’s mind about? It is possible. Keep asking.

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There are several stories throughout the Bible that make one wonder, why in the world did “they” include that? The stories seem off the wall and nothing to do with redemption. One such story came up in my Bible reading this morning. In 2 Kings 6:5 amidst the recorded adventures of the prophet Elisha is the incident of the lost axe.

While Elisha’s servants are cutting down trees by the Jordan River, one accidentally drops his axe in the water and it sinks. He cries out in despair because the axe was borrowed, so Elisha makes the iron tool float to the top to be retrieved. The purpose of this story isn’t to demonstrate a magic trick or to take up space. It is an every day life snippet that shows us God is concerned with every part of our lives, even losing a borrowed tool.

Many times we neglect to pray about little issues that may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but God cares about them too.  When people are starving and suffering from disease, we may feel reluctant to pray for a sore throat or lost keys. Once when I was guilty of this, God asked me, “Do you not think I have enough power to take of your small stuff on top of healing people of cancer?”

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While the labels are often used synonymously, there is a difference between the two.  Maybe a group of nerds decided to re-invent themselves and do a little PR to improve their image.  Many times a name change is required to pull that off.  And sometimes new packaging, so out goes the pocket protector and on goes the graphic T.

Apparently the term nerd came from Dr. Seuss, and the term geek got its beginning in the circus.  Well, not a lot of difference there.  But over time several distinguishing characteristics have developed between the two.  Take a look at this very informative infographic.

I personally like the geek persona.  I’m not really one myself, but I can do a pretty good impression, especially when I’m wearing my black rimmed glasses.

Related articles

• How to tell between a geek and a nerd (agbeat.com)
• The Anatomy of NERDS and GEEKS – Infographic (geektyrant.com)
• Review: Geek Girls Unite by Leslie Simon (thebookgeeksreviews.wordpress.com)

Katie Strnadlund‘s article, Sweet Tension: Creativity vs. Justice deals with the question of money spent on technology and creative projects compared to fighting injustice around the world.  Katie is a church creative and admits to struggling with this from time to time, but she seems to have found a good balance within her reasoning.

God has called us to gather together as believers and that requires us to be able to effectively communicate with one another as well as those who aren’t part of our community.

It requires technology.  The level and expense will vary with each congregation depending on the personality of the attenders and those in their community. What another church across town or across the country is spending their money on is not for us to criticize, unless of course it is a blatant and obvious miss-use of funds.  Katie goes on to say,

It’s not an either/or situation, it’s both/and.  God commanded us to ‘go into all the world’ and also encouraged us to ‘not give up meeting together.’

The Passion Conferences are a good example of this balance.  They place a high emphasis on giving to stop injustice around the world, but the conference sessions are ripe with plenty of screens, lights, and sound.  Their website is innovative and streams the sessions.  They could have given all that money to fight injustice.  But wait a minute, they have, haven’t they?  They’ve invested it into conferences and the internet to reach people around the world with the gospel and the fight for justice far more effectively than had they given all the money away.

Katie sums it up well,

Let’s do both and do both well, not one at the expense of the other.

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