The retail world is made or broken based on what happens the 6 weeks surrounding Christmas. The entire world may not bow at the throne of Jesus, but a made-up celebration of his birthday is the biggest fiscal holiday on the planet. Jesus declares his glory even through the mundane giving and receiving of presents at Christmas. You simply cannot deny it.
But what if the world’s people started giving and receiving gifts that reflected the heart of the Gospel? Just like The Passion of the Christ radically transformed the movie industry… what if God’s people radically transformed the Christmas retail space by how they spent money?
Here are five gift ideas that would change things if masses of people did them.
Hire a socially progressive speaker, author, or organization to come to your town
You want to change the world? Let’s start with at least recognizing the connection between what we spend/support and where that money actually goes. Be good stewards. Be responsible. And the world will change to meet the needs of the worlds people.
I woke up thinking about this song. Flashback to the 90s, right?
In so many ways life has felt like it was on pause since September when I went to LA for convention. I’ve just been consumed by work. It swallowed me.
And yesterday brought so much release. (Er, if the illustration of “swallowed by work” holds true, I guess that means work vomited or pooped me out? Let’s just not take the illustration there.) When I got home yesterday, I just felt like life could return to normal. I went to Target to Christmas shop. I took a little nap. I took Kristen out to a very nice restaurant and a movie. And this morning… it’s time to grab the leash and take Stoney to the beach.
Back to life, back to reality…
I’ll spare you the video of me dancing. But just so you know, I’m dancing.
Wanna sleep at night? Chase after wisdom with all you’ve got. But don’t just chase wisdom, put it into action.
For the past couple of months I’ve been living in Proverbs. Sure, I do a lot of tweeting and Facebooking on my iPhone. But I’ve also been giving the Bible app (and my snail Bible) a workout. And almost all of my reading has been in Proverbs. On the trolley. At the office. At the dining room table. At football games. Backstage during sessions at NYWC. On planes. Over coffee. You get the idea.
Again and again, I find myself blown away by this stuff. This was recorded a few thousand years back and it is just as relevant today as it was back then.
Here’s a sampling of the verses I’ve bookmarked in the last 3-4 days:
Proverbs 14:15 “A simple man believes anything,
but a prudent man gives thought to his steps.“
Proverbs 14:23 “All hard work brings a profit,
but mere talk leads only to poverty.“
Proverbs 15:18 “A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension,
but a patient man calms a quarrel.”
Proverbs 15:23 “A man finds joy in giving an apt reply—
and how good is a timely word!“
Proverbs 16:19 “Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed
than to share plunder with the proud.“
Proverbs 17:5 “He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.”
Proverbs 18:6 “A fool’s lips bring him strife,
and his mouth invites a beating.“
Proverbs 18:12 “Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud,
but humility comes before honor.“
Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.“
Proverbs 20:19 “”A gossip betrays a confidence;
so avoid a man who talks too much.“
Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit
as surely as haste leads to poverty.“
Proverbs 21:21 “He who pursues righteousness and love
finds life, prosperity and honor.“
What one thing you do you when you are faced with tough times and hard decisions?
I love this song. And I love how Bono performed it on this tour. He kicked it off and let the audience do the first verse and chorus. An amazing moment in the show.
One reason I think this song is so powerful, particularly performed live, is that as the audience sing along loudly, each voice represents the cry of every heart there. Collectively, 60,000 people shouting their cry out during this song, each imagining what they are still looking for. Tears, joys, sorrow, pride, and dreams all mashed together and pushed towards the stage.
I wanted to take this moment of pause to reflect, and ask you to join me in singing this chorus.
I don’t know what you are looking for today. Each of us cries a slightly different cry. But I thank you for walking with me, reading along, and together we will continue to walk together until we find what we are looking for.
Start investing in entrepreneurs around the world, just $25 to get started.
I’m not going to pretend to be the biggest Kiva supporter in the world. But I made my first loan with them in May 2007 and watched that $25 get repaid, then made another loan with that same $25 and watched that get repaid. And I just made my third loan with that same $25.
If you are looking for a unique gift this Christmas, give the gift of financial investment to a Kiva partner!
Image by hiddedevries via Flickr (creative commons)
Here’s the deal.
Dirty little secret time.
I think a lot of youth pastors, youth ministers, youth directors don’t believe in the power of adolescents to flip their world on its head.
Adults think they can do it all. And they backfill that belief with anecdotal information to make themselves feel better.
They think kids are too busy. They think kids are distracted by education. They think kids care more about sports. They think that you have to be spiritually mature to reach your friends for Christ. They think parents just get in the way. They think lack of resources get in the way. They think ordinary kids can’t do extraordinary stuff.
When they see inspirational stories of teenagers who have made a huge difference, they don’t think their kids could do that. And they wonder why the adults who “really lead that” aren’t in the spotlight. The aspire to see stuff like that happen in their midst but refuse to believe the style of leadership that leads up to it.
A lot of youth leaders think its their job to do those things themselves. They think that because they are “the leader” they should be the ones leading the charge. Kids are just the pawns who attract the cameras, so they think. Ultimately, they think they are the ones who are responsible for making something big happen.
They have it upside down.
Adults just get in the way with their ego, agendas, and desires to be famous. “Maybe Disney will make a movie of my awesome leadership?”
Reality check– Adults who “lead” big movements of God are typically on the sidelines. They coach. They inspire quietly. They parent. They mentor. They encourage. Most importantly, they know that the best thing they can do is equip them to lead and get the heck out of the way. And then they stand by and watch. (And then coach some more, mentor some more, parent some more, encourage some more, develop some more.)
If there is a microphone, they are reluctant to step up to it. But they are quick to put a student in front of it.
The big fancy adult leadership Christians are infatuated with rarely, if ever, results in movements of teens. (Whether as movements of religion or otherwise.) We chase after it but it’s a myth. You get there only to discover you’ve wasted a lot of time, energy, and investment in the wrong stuff.
The style of leadership that seems to result in the most world change involves handing the reigns over to kids and believing in them. It’s the most organic, natural, and effective style of leadership. It’s so easy a football coach can do it. Or a high school basketball coach. Or a Little League coach.
Those leaders do their leading on practice days and give the kids the spotlight on game day. Kids step up because that coach believes in them enough to put their reputation behind them.
And that’s the problem. Most adult leaders in youth ministry don’t seem to believe in kids.
I’ve got three quick apps for the Mac to share. All of them are free , freemium, or stinking cheap. Maybe they will be useful for you, too?
If you are anything like me– your work computer is a bit of a mess. I’ve got all sorts of work files mixed in with personal files, mixed in with stuff that I just used for a blog post or something like that. Keeping it all orderly and seperate is a big problem. But I think I’ve found something to help!
Dropbox basically installs a remote drive on your computer for storing files online instead of on your computer. There are other things, namely MobileMe, Mozy, or even a webdisk installed through your hosting service that can do the same thing. But I’ve found them to be either too expensive for what I need or cumbersome. (i.e. Not friendly to the Mac) But I like Dropbox because of its apps. Once you install the free software on your computer (mac or pc) and link your account it basically just runs in the background as a folder on your computer. When I put a file in the folder, it copies it up to the secure server, and copies it down to other linked computers. This all happens automatically, no tech skills required. If you are sharing an internet connection with people you can even throttle it. Once set up, I can access the file on another linked computer (like my home computer) or even my iPhone. I can even share files through the app… I just select the file or folder I want to share and it emails the person with a link. It’s a pretty rad little tool. Up to 2 GB of storage is free. (Plently for me.)
I need to show people screenshots all the time. Whether I’m updating someone on the progress of a design, or putting together a tutorial, or if I just want to show someone something from the internet… I’m doing screenshots all day long. Command-shift-3 has long been both my friend and enemy. I could screen grab easily, but I’d always have to open up PhotoShop to clip out stuff I didn’t want/need the recipient seeing.
I picked up TinyGrab as part of a recent MacHeist. This little beauty basically allows me to screen grab only what I want, and in the same action automatically uploads it to a server and gives me the link. By doing a command-shift-4 shortcut I get a little cursor that allows me to highlight what I want to grab. When I’m done it snaps the picture and uploads it. An instant time saver!
You may have noticed my recent fascination with time lapse movies. I think it’s a profound and fun way to capture the worlds movements. (more coming!) I’ve wanted to get software to do this with my Nikon for quite a while. But it was tough to justify spending $180 for Nikon Camera Control 2. It’s not like I had a real reason to do this… I just thought it’d be fun!
That’s why I was so stoked to discover Sofortbild. It’s essentially the same thing– and it’s free! (Sorry Canon freaks, this is just for Nikon right now. And it’s just for Mac.) Basically, I can set up my camera where I want to shoot, connect the USB cable, and then completely control the camera with my computer. When the pictures are taken (either remotely or manually on the camera) the images are transfered directly to a folder on my computer. You can shoot directly with your computer, manually, do a timed picture (like for a family portrait) or set-up intervals (time lapse). It’ll even import right to iPhoto! Now if it had an iPhone app where I could start or stop interval shooting remotely, that’d be crazy cool.
So, there you go. Three quick new apps for you Mac users to try out. They are all free, freemium, or cost just a couple bucks.
What are some new apps for the Mac you are discovering?
Less than two weeks until Christmas and I don’t think a single gift has been purchased. Not a little one, not a big one.
It’s not that the kids don’t have lists… it’s that Kristen and I are avoiding their lists.
A couple years ago we decided we wanted Christmas to be about Jesus and not gift giving so we toned the whole thing down. So now we have told the kids they will get 1 big gift and a couple small gifts. But somehow that always mushrooms at the end and they end up getting a lot of little things.
In the past I’ve had an issue with Christmas. Consumerism. Santa Claus. Baby Jesus. You know, the normal.
This year I just don’t feel like it. Maybe its the weather here in San Diego and maybe it’s life circumstances? But the thought of heading to the mall and buying things my kids really don’t need with money I really don’t want to spend… it’s just not as appealing as it was last year.
I know that is anti-American consumerism of me to say. But I really just want to skip gift giving in 2009.
And yet, we will do it for the children.
Where are my car keys? The mall opens in 15 minutes.
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul;
Dropbox
