The Best Job in America

Now some might say that playing Jack Bauer on TV is the best job in America but, according to CNN, I have the best job in America! Wow, do I get a trophy or something?! Well, its not like getting paid to play baseball or nothing but it will do for now I guess. What interests me is that job fulfillment didn't play a factor in the ranking. I guess I'm not suprised by that but my evaluation of a great job would be knowing that what I do matters. That the world is a better place because of what I do. Now certainly we can (and should) ask those same questions of our lives overall. I definitely feel like I do a lot of meaningful things that help the world - I just do them after work. If that's the case then, does my job have to be world-changing if some other part of my life is? As old as I may seem to some of you, I'm still way too young to claim to know the answer that question.

I'm in a book!

Perhaps that whooshing sound is my fifteen minutes of fame rushing past me but I found a book today that I'm in! Well...I was co-author of a chapter in the book. Still cool if you ask me. Words I wrote are in a textbook now. Check it out at Oxford University Press and reserve your copy today! (I've been promised a zero percent commission on every copy I sell)

An Easter Story

What if you were walking along the river one day and you saw a man drowning in the river? You run up to the bank of the river and call out to him. He answers back insisting that he is not drowning and tells you to go away. Watching him for a second, its readily apparent that the man's words do not reflect the severity of the situation. If someone doesn't jump in an save him immediately he will, without a doubt, drown. So you jump in the river, grab him, and start pulling him toward the river bank. All the while he curses at you and tells you he doesn't need your help. When you reach the shore, he rips himself out of your arms. Screaming at you he says, "I told you that I didn't need your help!!!" And then he storms off.

Time goes on and the man you save goes back to his life. He enjoys a good life with people and things that he loves dearly but the event at the river continues to haunt him. For any number of reasons, he can't admit to himself that he was in trouble and needed to be saved. He convinces himself that he owes you no gratitude since, after all, he didn't ask you to do what you did. But still the event remains fresh in his mind day after day, year after year.

But as time goes by, he starts to take a new perspective on that day at the river. Maybe his situation had been a little more dire than he had been willing to admit at the time. He starts to think that your actions were more appropriately based on the facts of the situation than his words at the time. He looks around at his life, everything that's beautiful and everything that he loves. He realizes that every day he's lived from that fateful day to this is, essentially, a gift because he wouldn't have had it if you hadn't saved him. This realization falls over him slowly, first understanding, then denial, then acceptance.

Finally, he's ready to admit that he did need your help. That he has you to thank for the life he can enjoy now because he wouldn't have had his life otherwise. That every good thing he has is in some way tied to the fact that you saved him years earlier. He begins the work to find you and thank you. It's difficult at first but, with some work, he tracks you down and has the chance to finally show his appreciation for what you did at the river. Any such appreciation comes with it some regret for how he treated you at the time, and so he apologizes as well.

This Easter we focus on Christ's sacrifice with a tone of appreciation and apology. The Apostle John says it this way that, "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Drowning in our own sin, Christ saw it fit to save us even as we cursed him for it every step of the way. Praise be to God that he paid more attention to our situation than he did our words. Would we, today, turn around and thank him for what he did and praise him for how awesome he is.

Happy Easter everyone. Praise Jesus for first enduring, and then conquering, death itself. For that we praise him.

Bringing Chaos to my Order

I'd worked so hard to prepare for the day that was coming...

In one month I would graduate with my PhD, get married, move to Richmond, and start a new job. It was something coming over the horizon that was so gigantic that you saw it for miles before you ever got to it. I'd thought about it for at least a year and begun to make plans accordingly.

I was putting the final touches on my dissertation and preparing for my defense. We took trips to Richmond and scoped out apartments to live in. I applied to three dozen different jobs looking for something in Richmond that I might enjoy doing. We were planning the wedding and all the details associated with that. Planning, planning, planning. Preparing, preparing, preparing.

But at some point something changed. My efforts to be responsible and diligent became my efforts to "plan out" anything that had the potential of being difficult. I'd busied myself with planning so I wouldn't have to deal with the fact that I was afraid of all the change that was about to happen. None of the change was bad but if was going to be difficult to acclimate to nonetheless.

God broke through my busyness to confront me with my fear and tell me it was okay to be that way. I wrote down in my journal what I heard from God at that time: "You run and run and run because you're greatest fear is true. Graduating, getting married, getting a job, moving to Richmond, everything else is going to be hard. It's going to be difficult no matter how much you prepare. And I'm not going to let you sidestep this one... I can bring chaos to your order."

Idols come in many forms, they are whatever you've chosen to worship instead of God. Our idols are worthless because they are not as worthy of our worship as God is. And for me at that time (and I'm sure many others) my idol, what I chose to worship instead of God, were my own plans and my preparations - my attempts to control an unknown future that I was afraid of. Sometimes we find that our plans are safer than faith. Why trust God when I can just control everything and take care of it myself?

But our best attempts to control our own future can't compare with God's ability to guide our lives. But that's definitely a step of faith because God's plans aren't at all predictable, comfortable, or safe. What we think we want is predictability, comfort, and safety but standing on the other side of that kind of life I'm reasonably sure I'd be pretty disappointed with living such a boring life.

Long story short, "the month" came and went. All of our preparations really helped us get started in Richmond but, as God predicted, it was (and still is) hard. I'm pretty sure that the unknown will never be comfortable for me but knowing that God's active in what's happening in my life is exciting and comforting in its own way.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps." - Proverbs 16:9

The Thinking Diet

This is Brad Wilson's idea but its just so brilliant I had to post on my blog...think about it and let me know what you think...get it...think about it(!)...hmm...might make more sense after you read it...

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Burning calories by "thinking hard" instead of "working hard".

Think about it. The neurons and electrodes in your brain require some sort of energy to operate. So every time to think a thought your brain is sending electro charged signals through the chemical compounds of your neural connections. These electrical currents must come from somewhere! Where does the energy come from to operate your brain? From calories of course. From your metabolic system. Therefore, I must conclude that I can burn calories by thinking.

There's big money in this. I could write a book or two, make a cookbook, start a TV show and radio show, develop an entire program. I'll call it: "The Thinking Diet: Burning Calories by Thinking Deep Thoughts".

Now the only thing I have to do is run some tests to determine what sort of thoughts burn the most calories. For example, maybe thoughts on early renaissance architecture burn more calories than thoughts on femoral arteries. Or maybe thoughts about figs can use more calories than thoughts on checkers stratagem.

Instead of working out, we'll think-out and ponder figs for an hour every day. We could start Think Tank Gyms. No longer do we need expensive weight equipment and tread mills. We'll stock our Think Tank Gyms with lots of chairs and books about early renaissance architecture. People will pay us to provide them with coaching and training classes to better prepare their minds for thinking-out.

I'm pretty sure it will work.

-brad

Kickin' Ass at the Monument 10K

So I ran my first 10K yesterday with my wife here in Richmond along beautiful Monument Ave. Richmond's such a cool city, they always seem to have fun things like this going on (and 20,000 people show up for the party). Katie and I came in just a little over our lofty goal of an hour and a half to place 14516 and 14518! That's right folks, 14,500th place!!!! Booyah, yea!! And with that we still be like 5,000 people! hehe, anyways it was pretty fun and I think you should come run the Monument 10K with us next year.