Stuff Jesus Digs

The Books That Pastors Read

Reading has become very important to me in the last few years. I'm not sure if it is my realization of how little I really know or simply how much I've seen the impact of what a slow methodical reading of a book chapter by chapter can impact mine and the lives of others.

I like the idea that I have a pastor who is focused on expanding his thought and growing his view of God. Thanks for journeying with me Jon!

Books I'm reading right now:
Uprising, Erwin McManus (On Chapter 8, with my small group)
Blink, Malcom Gladwell (Second time through, this time with the marketng team at work)
The Emotionally Healthy Church, Peter Scazzero (On Chapter 3, with a couple of guys)
Getting Things Done, David Allen (Chapter 2, with Biz Dev at work)
Juice, Evan Schwartz (Chapter 1, sitting in my bag waiting for that spare moment)

Link: Paradoxology: The Books That Pastors Read.

Amazing show, and the movie was good too.

I have to admit. I love to go to the opening night of new movies, especially if there is a specific type of person that is stereotypically associated with the movie.

The best is that opening night you get to experience the movie at a whole different level than just watching the movie. My favorite example is Dusty and I going to the opening of 8 Mile with Eminem. This is likely a movie that I would have never seen if we didn't go opening night. We talked about going to see it in a part of town that might have some actual hard core
hoodlums, but we decided Regal 11 in Tigard would have just the appropriate mix of hoodlums and wannabee rappers. We weren't disappointed. We pull up, and the place is just crawling with teens
(keep in mind that I'm a 30-something father of three) many of which have the full wanabee rapper garb going on. Beyond that, there are cops, literally in every corner of the theater parking lot with the lights on their cruisers spinning, just to keep the peace.

Sitting waiting for the movie to start was really great. Sitting on the aisle seeing everyone come in and trying to be so cool. Talking trash to friends, being very loud. An then, almost as if on cue a fight breaks out in the snack line. Of course the ample security and extra police officers on hand squash it pretty quick.

My wife thinks I'm crazy, but you just can't beat opening night...

Too much!

Wow, seems like God is working on me overtime these days. Seems so hard to even remember at the end of the day all the things that have gone through my head let alone get them to the blog.

Today had some tough business stuff and a good opportunity to follow through on my commitment to pray at the moment instead of just saying I'll pray later. The more I do this it is harder to see the difference between the "work" stuff and the "Jesus" stuff. (Love you E!)

StuffJesusDigs.com

OK, I registered this domain over a year ago. Now I've finally done something with it! If you've linked to my blog, please move your link over to StuffJesusDigs.com.

Link: Stuff Jesus Digs.

Blogging since 1996?

I saw a link asking people how long they have been blogging. It is kinda funny to be going back and look at what you did years ago to try to decide if it was a weblog. I started writing articles on my web site in 1996, but I don't think that any of those would be considered a weblog although the index page for my MacTips would certainly fit into what we currently see as a blog with the new stuff being added to the top and older stuff rolling down.

Later I did my "Eight-Dot-Oh" pages listing all the updates to the Mac OS. They were in classic weblog format including a title, date, description in a rolling format. Later I even had those same pages generated dynamically out of a filemaker database. Pretty amazing how easy so much of this stuff has become!

So I guess I've been blogging for 8 or 9 years? Really this blog is the first thing that I've done where I set out from the beginning knowing I was blogging.

Link: The Macintosh Guy.

Tattoos for Jesus?

Link: pomomusings: Portable tract....

There are few things from my childhood that carry the stigma of rebellion that tattoos. In my modern upbringing getting a tattoo was right up there with doing drugs, riding motorcycles, and going to strip clubs. While I don't have a tattoo of my own, I can certainly see that they can be a great way to spark communication.

I've gotten in the habit of asking people about their tattoos when I see them. The simple words, "Tell me about your tattoo." takes all the judgement out of the conversation and people are always happy to share what their tattoo means and why they got it. It is a really great way to get people to open up and share something very personal yet, public.

Shawn McDonald

Link: Shawn McDonald.

Amazing music and an even more amazing story about a guy who found Jesus, got off drugs, and is touching the world.

This week he has a free download of one of his songs on iTunes. -Simply Nothing

"Jesus, on the other hand, is a monster music fan."

Link: What's On Jesus' iPod?.

He's Back!

Link: God Speaks.

Seeing the results

"Seeing the results of your actions is not important. Only your actions are." "Your work is out there, you just gotta have faith."

-God, in Joan of Arcadia