God Even Cares About a Lost Axe

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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?”

Geeks & Nerds, Do You Know the Difference?

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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)

Is Technology an Injustice?

The book Outspoken has many thought provoking articles for the church creative.  One that stood out with me addresses a wonderful movement in the church that has inadvertently resulted in some unbalanced thinking.

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.

Related articles

• College students raised over $1,000,000 this week!! Check this video out (kimlouvin.wordpress.com)
• Extravagant for God

What do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

Image by The Doctr via Flickr

It’s a question everyone has heard or will hear.  And it gets serious at the end of the teen years.  I have two children in that situation right now, trying to decide what they want to do with the rest of their lives.  I’m not so sure that means much any more, though.  Yes, if you’re going to college, you need to decide some course of study, but less and less does a specific course of study indicate what you will do the rest of your life.

The world led by technology is changing so rapidly now that many careers become obsolete over the course of a lifetime.  Long gone is the need for milkmen, switch board and elevator operators.  Jobs predicted to become obsolete soon are bank tellers, mail clerks, photo processors, travel agents, etc.  Print journalism is struggling only to be followed by book publishing and cable television.

Statistics show the average person will have as many as five “careers” in their lifetime.  I’m looking for number 5 now.  So where does that leave the budding high school or college graduate?  Where we all need to be – searching on a much higher level.

What do I want to do with my life, shouldn’t be answered with a career choice.  It must be answered with a lifestyle choice?  How do I want to live my life?  How do I want to impact the world around me?  What can I do to make the world around me a better place?

Related articles

• Finding Your Life Path

Weekly Link-Up

Here are some of the best links I’ve seen this week.

Pat Robertson’s 2012 Predictions

Twelve in 2012: Trends in Healthy Churches

12 Church Technology Goals for 2012

Orangutans Use iPads to Video Chat With Friends In Other Zoos

God’s Love Language

Gary Chapman wrote a bestseller years ago about our Five Love Languages: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch.  In essence, whichever one or two of those five things we most do for others to express our love, is our love language and how we most likely will best receive love from others.

I thought about this last week while reading the December 30th entry in Philip Yancey’s Grace Notes.  He quoted a profound question he was asked by someone during a difficult time in his life, “Philip, do ever just let God love you?”

My question is, how does God love us?  Can you apply one of those five love languages to how he has loved you?  Are you letting him love you?

Is Your Drive Burning You Out?

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There was an interesting discussion on burn-out on the Geeks and God podcast a while back (that I just got around to listening to).  The hosts connected burn-out with the over-achieving personality.  People who work long hours always trying to be the best at whatever they do.

Being our best is certainly called for, but it takes a bit of humility to accept we may not ever be THE BEST, no matter how many hours we put in.  We have to learn to be content with OUR BEST.

Bible Commentator Matthew Henry once stated, “Discontent is a sin that is its own punishment.”  We rob ourselves of joy and fulfillment in every part of life when we try to be more or accomplish more than God has equipped us to.  And we end up tired of doing the very thing we’re trying to achieve.

Set goals for this new year, but be reasonable.  And if even the reasonable is hard to come by, don’t neglect your family and relationship with God to try to make it happen.

What Are Electronic Reminders Doing to Our Brains?

Ok, so I finally got an iPhone, and I’ve been giving Siri a workout.  Everything I need to remember, I tell her, and she reminds me at the appropriate time.  I’ve used cell phone reminders before and actual notebooks on a regular basis.  The older I get, the more I have to use something, but I’m definitely seeing an increased level of use with Siri.

It all got me wondering if we are training our brains not to remember things because we have an electronic device with us at all times that will remind us.  I know the human brain evolves and transitions over time according to our general life style and how we use it.  Will it one day stop remembering people’s birthdays and when to take out the trash?  We will eventually have to tell Siri to remind us to take a bath?

Why I Finally Bought an iPhone

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When Apple first introduced the iPhone, I thought, “that is way too expensive, I’ll never spend that much for a phone.”  But after two dud phones by reputable companies, I was tired of taking chances.  Despite a company’s overall reputation, they have so many models on the market, you just don’t know what you’re getting.  I’ve learned that the hard way.  I knew I could count on Apple, so I finally bought an iPhone.  Granted I did not pay any where near the list price of $650, but it’s still the most I’ve ever paid for a cell phone.

The difference here is quality, not name brand.  It’s like that with the church too.  Take this statement supposedly made by Martin Luther more than five centuries ago.

“The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays — not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.”

Christians should always be viewed as giving quality effort no matter what we’re doing.  It’s the quality that counts, not the label.