Were Better Together

Were Better Together

This could apply to almost anything; marriage, friendship, peanut butter and jelly.  The reason i emphasize this here and now is because we just hosted two regional events in the DFW mid-cities with resounding success.  Here is more info.  www.PureYMR.com  We will also host two events for the Dallas area in Sept/Oct 2013.


Here is the link to our "How to Start a Network" manual.  http://bit.ly/WAWCuA

Were better together.

Grace

Grace

A precursory google indicated grace was: a restaurant in Fort Worth , a Christian concept as noted by several dictionary sites, a Christian ministry, a chemical company (Grace being the name of the founder), a popular name for a church and then comes the rest of the internet.  End of day it is a Christian term and a name.  I think Bono has it right, "It's a name for a girl, It's also a thought that, Changed the world"

Words lose their meaning and this is certainly the case here. Having grown up in a Christian home, i have know the official nomenclature for my tribe.  The reason i chose to understand this word a little better is because i feel i give less grace to others than i should. Like most profound words there is an ethereal, probably Divine understanding of the word as well as an intertwined attempt at incarnation..

The concept existed before the New Testament but the Greek word charis was a concept was borrowed from Hebrew (chanun) which was a more complicated and abstract word for beauty then Divinised later to be married with the practical where it currently remains.  The picture i get is a young, innocent teenage female with proper attire, indescribable beauty and impeccable character; kinda like the unattainability of a 12 year old future queen with the practicality of the girl next door.

So i lack this virtue and now that i understand it more will endeavor to possess, model and give it more.
 My actions to people will be more beautiful
 I will lavish more upon others
 I will look away from judgement and justice
 I will be nice, be patient, look for the good in others and smile a lot more

Bono, take it home...

She takes the blame

She covers the shame

Removes the stain

It could be her name

Love is Over-rated

"I want love to, grab my fingers gently, slam them in a doorway, put my face into the ground."  --Jack White, Love Interruption (video here)

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. 1 Corinthians (video here)

Love is the most overused and misunderstood word ever. In my work w teenager i often make the blanket statement that you cannot understand love until you are at least 18. They hate that. The truth is the concept of love is difficult to understand, ever!

Here is the incongruency...
I love God...
I love you...
I love my spouse...
I love my parents...
I love Basketball...
I love Pizza...

Really? 

The same word is used to describe your excitement about lunch and affection for deity?
Maybe we dont really understand what love actually is.
Love in music or pop culture amounts to a cachophany of white noise.  It's become hyperbole in excess. 

The Beatles told us "All you need is love" and the reason why was... love is all you need.  Hmmmmm. The movie Love Actually should have been titled sex actually.  A quick review of the movies release the past two months feature several marriage and love themes, one about an affair and one of the most popular love stories of the past several year, Twlight.  Incase you live without any media influence (if you do, good for you) the latter is a love story about vampires, again I say hmmmm... love and the undead.

Greek love

The Greeks had it right.  Koine Greek which was spoken when Greece was the dominant world power had 4 different words for love, I think we should adapt them imediately.

Phileo -- Friendship love.  It is based on mutual interest.  
Storge -- Commonly called a Motherly love.  Ususlly expressed only amoung family members.
Eros -- Erotic, sexual love.  Enough said.
Agape -- The ultimate, self giving and pure love.  Unconditional love of Divine nature.

As stated earlier, things would be a whole lot easier and more understandable if we adopted ancient Greek wisdom and were more speific with our concept of love.  
I addition to immediately adding the four words to our way of life I offer two final thougts.
love 1.  God is love (no wonder we have such a tough time with this)
2.  Love is an action word

New Years, New Gears

New Years, New Gears

For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?  Isaiah 43:19a

Wanna shift into high speed this New Year?  There is no time like the beginning of a year to start to think about ramping things up.  Maybe a better way to look at this is not so much in terms of speed but in terms of shifting gears; shifting into a new gear for a new year.

OK, so 2013 will provide you 8,760 hours, you can only use them once, how are you gonna do it?  Of course, there are things that demand your time.  So lets see what they are and then how much time we actually have…

Most people…

will sleep 7 hours a day which is 2555

That leaves only 6205

 work 8 hours a day (5 days a week or 260 days a year) which is 2080

That leaves only 4125

spend 3.5 hours a day eating/doing chores/caring for others which is 1277.5

That leaves only 2847.5

spend 2.5 hours per day driving which is 912.5

That leaves only 1935.5

spend 2.5 hours per day on leisure time (sports, tv, internet) which is 912.5

That leaves only 1023

spend an average of 50 minutes each day waiting which is 304

That leaves only 719

spend an average of 45 minutes in the commode (genders vary) which is 274

That leaves only 445

I’m sure I forgot some stuff and maybe you can even add something additional but the bottom line is this, WE ONLY GET 445 HOURS DISCRETIONARY TIME EACH YEAR.  Yep, that’s about 18 days.  Not much if you think about it. 

WHERE DO I FIND MORE TIME?

·         ZZZZZZ.  Is there a way to only sleep 6 hours and recoup 2 hours a day?  Probably not, we were designed for 7-8 hours of sleep each day and 1 day in 7 off completely (think Sabbath).  There are also lots of physical challenges related to sleep deprivation.

·         WORK.  Yup, this takes the most the time.  If you want to change the world, make your work count.  If you have a job that lets you change the world those 8 hours, awesome.  If not, try to find one.  If you are not the world changing type, make your 8 hours at work be productive and efficient and you can get promoted, make more money and enhance the rest of your time.

·         QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY.  An hour is only an hour in theory but an hour of quality time with someone you love is worth more than non quality (AWOL* time)

·         BE A DOER.  Don’t be that leisure time casual-don’t-wanna-change-the-world kinda person, make things happen.

PRIORITIES ARE BETTER THAN TASKS

Time management is a great thing to keep in mind this time of year but I recommend thinking more about priorities.  If we think more about who we are and what is important, daily tasks become easier.  An oversimplified version of time management is this:  1, Prioritize and 2, Delegate.

Priorities mean focusing on what is most important.  If you are thinking God, Family, etc, you are right. Here is the catch, most people know what is important but don’t dedicate a lot of brain power focusing on it or time doing it.

Here is an alliteration I use for my priorities; the first three are in order, the rest change seasonally.  Faith, family, friends, finance, fitness, future.  These are theory unless I live them daily and have them impact how I live my life.  Its one thing to say that faith is important but another to love my brother,  pray, help those in need, be patient with my kids or attend a worship service.

MAKE THE MINUTES COUNT (but think priorities)

When is all said and done there is way more said than done.  Above shows how we spend our hours, but if we start with minutes they add up.  Here are some tips

·         Always think about your priorities and roles.  These focus all other things.  I am a Christian, I am and Husband, I am a Dad, etc.

·       -  Krish Dhanam says 15 minutes early to work, 15 minutes not gossiping and wasting time, 15 early from lunch and 15 after quitting time is an hour gained each day.  That is 260 hours a year or the equivalent of 32 work days.

·        -  Plan!  Write your goals, tasks, desires and dreams down on paper, they are more likely to be accomplished when they are in writing.

·        -  Think relationships.  It is difficult to quantify an RIO on relationships.  To be brief, they are valuable, find time each day to cultivate them.  Like a little seed, they grow into big things.

·        -  Use your strengths.  Some people use too much time refining their weaknesses and neglecting their strengths.  Refine your strengths into superpowers and no one will care about your kryptonite.

·       -  Start small.  10 minutes a day can make a huge difference in things like exercise, praying or reading, you can reclaim over an hour a week.  How many chapters can you read in an hour?

Above all,  do it!  Just do it.

Here are some links that helped support this writing, they are fun and silly but worth a look at.Time wasters - http://blog.tempoplugin.com/2012/how-do-people-spend-their-time-at-work-infographic/

Average times - http://www.bls.gov/tus/charts/chart1.pdf

Time doing - http://akorra.com/2010/03/04/top-10-things-we-spend-our-lifetime-doing/

Online time - http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/online-time_b22186

* A military term that stands for Absent With Out Leave.  I’ve changed it to Absent With Out Leaving or being present but not being engaged.  For example being at lunch with your child but being on the phone while they are on the iPad.

Top 5 listens for 2012

Top 5 listens for 2012

(the album above has nothing to do with anything except horrible album covers)

2012 was a different year for my musically   I found myself listening more to the records and artists below than new stuff.  There were several releases i looked forward to in 2012 but were not able to keep my attention like the following.

Mumford and Sons - Babel.  I probably had "I Will Wait" stuck in my head for a month, only to be replaced by "Ghosts That We Knew".  All other songs are just as incredible.  Banjo, acoustic guitar and tons of guts is how I would describe this release.  When I first got it I wondered if I needed any more UK hillbilly music in my life, but in retrospect I did!  Shows you more people can make good music with banjos besides Taylor Swift (haha).  I was trying to think of a good category to put this into thinking it too unique to just be labeled indie but it hit me that really these guys are the remade 1980's band Dexy's Midnight Runners.  Sheesh.

Flyleaf - New Horizons. Since is was not a fan of Memento Mori I wasn't sure I'd immediately like NH, but I fell in love with this back to (Flyleaf) basics recording.  Lacey's vocals were as refined as ever (I'm thinking shouting angelic whisper) and lyrics were stepped up a notch too.  Saving Grace could be a worship anthem at any church and Broken Wings.....Love Song to Jesus.  Bummer Lacey is leaving the band, dont know if they will be the same.

Rush - Clockwork Angels.  Didn't know what to expect and honestly probably wouldn't have given this record much respect if I hadn't seen them live to a sold out crowd.  The experience and excellence was awesome after 19 previous studio recordings was really evident.  This band is not tired, nor boring.  CA is a concept record that no one can do like Rush.  Its a tale of an old man looking back at his journey against the machine, against the odds and against the villainous watchmaker (doesn't really put fear in your heart does it) but hey, its a record (and a book, but thats another story).  5 of the 12 songs are in the 7 minute range and none of the boys lets up musically.  Geddys voice is on point, Alex's rifs are tight and Neal, oh Neal  you never cease to impress, musically or lyrically.  CA is a must listen to any classic music lover, any former Rush fan and anyone interested in a sci-fi steam-punk story (btw, the CA concert was younger than the Owl City concert I went to a couple months earlier, but there were thousands of teenagers in attendance playing air-drums).

Muse - The 2nd Law.  Musical excellence and innovation.  Yes, there are songs on this release but there is rock opera, aria and  experimantal euphony.  Its heavy, its light, its passionate, its more.  It starts off with in your face rock and roll (loud, gutar solos and 4:4) and takes you through sonnet and ends with ethereal.

Jack White - Blunderbuss.  Long awaited, much anticipated and over delivered.  I'll take Jack however he comes (White Stripes, Raconteurs, (barely) Dead Weather) but the solo Jack was like peanut butter proving once and for all that jelly is optional.  With more instruments than I could define and songs styles all over the place and stellar JW penning, this recording is diverse, tight, eclectic and phenom.

bonus...

U2 - U22.  This was a U2.com release of the best songs from the 360 tour.  What made it better was that it was fan voted.  Cool recording.  Had some flash back moments from the actual concert.  The songs didnt flow like a studio record would have but to have new material from a legend was great.  Songs of note; Magnificent, Stay (faraway so close). All I Want Is You/Love Rescue Me and Moment of Surrender played INCREDIBLY well live (more than just a band playing their usual songs), and MLK/Walk On was a treat.  Plus little known songs like Out of Control and One Tree Hill, wow.

Honorable Mention

Toby Mac - Eye On It

P.O.D. - Murdered Love

Matisyahu - Spark Seeker

Owl City - The Midsummer Station

----------Bonus vids from above bands-------

This one from Flyleaf, watch the first 20 secs.  Wow.  Listen and you will know why D Crowder recorded it as a worship song.
JW - upside truth
This one from Jack White has no words to describe, although I'll leave it at a math problem.  JW+U2=Awesomeness (its also the music for the trailer of The Great Gatsby)
U2 extras 1  2  3 4

Gratitude Gone Viral

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.  Luke 12:48

We have so many blessings it is difficult to talk about being thankful without being trite.   In fact, it is a huge understatement to say we are blessed.  We talk about it, we see it, we live in it, we mean it, we have a four day weekend off work to celebrate it. Bottom line, we are totally, completely and inextricably blessed and therefore must be thankful.

Gratitude should be our response to a multitude of blessing. Our attitude of gratitude should lead us to helping each other; not just an emotional though or pause or prayer of placation we annually offer.  We need to share our blessings with others.  It is easy to share with friends, but there are others who need blessing as well.  Often it is tempting to concentrate on what we don’t have instead of what we do have, but in Christ, we have everything we need even though we may not have everything we want.  Generosity is easier when we remember the source of our blessing…Christ.

For this reason, we need to respond from our abundance with generosity toward others.  We are blessed to be a blessing.  Since this is true, we need to see every blessing we receive as not only something to be thankful for but as an opportunity to bless someone else.  God blesses us so we may pass that blessing along.  We need to be a river of blessing that flows in and out, and not a dam that blocks it up.

There are many opportunities for is to reach out with our thankful generosity and help others.  We often look to programs or other people to take the lead in responding but there are lots of additional and probably little known opportunity for rogue responses of thanksgiving. You can do something now, today.  Why wait?

Its time to give! Look around and count 10 things you are thankful for today and how you can use simply one of them as an opportunity to bless one person within two hours of reading this.  I bet you can.  I bet a message to a friend or a random act of kindness to a stranger or a gift of generosity can be easier than you think.  Remember, it all begins with thanksgiving.

If you would rather drink your feast this year, here is an idea (no, its not an alcoholic beverage add) -----> Jones Soda 

The price of chivalry $329.42

Thats the exact price. How do i know?  Read on. But i do have to say everyones price is different. 

I thought id pay a high price for chilvery but it turns out it wasnt a high dollar amount.  The more expensive price for me was not paying the dollar amount earlier. 

The door lock on the passengers side of my vehicle broke and that was the beginning of my chilvary challenges. All of a sudden i was unable to open the door for my wife and daughter.  No big I thought, that part is probably expensive and the Jones family can live without it; my girls are independent AND...we have a keyless remote; I click, they enter.

Things were fine, we were living by the rules of the remote and I tried to tell myself it was all good because the money I saved was offset by a small inconvenience.


But then, it got worse. 

The keyless remote stopped working on the passengers side too.  Now, the only way to open the locked passenger door was to enter the drivers side and reach over to open the passengers side from the inside (when did they stop putting key locks on the passenger side).  Still, i couple of seconds was all that it took and I was still saving money.  But deep inside I knew I was vicariously teaching my daughter bad chivalry (and probably how to be a cheapskate instead of frugal....but thats another story).  Even in the rain this problem was overcome by a 5 second delay, I go first, passengers later, no prob.

The plot thickens

We went out to eat with several couples.  After the meal, we all in the parking lot after a late departure and several couples were parked near us.  Since we dinned late, the parking lot was virtually empty.  Everyone went to their cars, and in my heart of hearts I heard a collision; it was my cheap-ness running smack into the middle of my chivalry (and probably pride). Ya, deep in my heart I knew this accident was inevitable, I knew I was not being frugal but cheap but more so lazy (who wants to take the care to the repair shop). The crash occured and I thought everyone would see and hear it.  So (I thought) Everyone was looking at us...to see if I was going to let my wife in first and be chivalrous man or be that "fend for yourself, because your are strong and its 2012, I dont treat women like princesses guy".  So I did the only thing I could do....I walked my wife to the passenger side of the car, grabbed her and kissed her like I meant it..  Yep, I covered by chivalry sins with faux flirtation.

Time for a fix.  Time to come clean.  Time to fess up and drop the cash and do what is really right.  No more bad modeling or fake justification or excuses to keep away from the repair shop.  Time to man up and fix this problem.

I still dont know why I finally fixed the door for them or me...probably the principle.

I dropped the cash; best 300 bucks I spent in a while.  It felt good.  Good to do what is right.  Good to open the door for my girls.  Good to feel like a (chivalrous) man.  Good to model for my family.  But mostly good to show my daughter that only good and Godly men open doors for ladies and treat them like princesses.