• The Cycle Can Stop

    For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

    Romans 6:14

    broken-cycleThe Apostle Paul and the Holy Spirit smashed some guys in my small group last night. It took my breath away.

    My co-leader and I spent an hour pushing through Romans 6 phrase-by-phrase, defining all the words and concepts, drawing out what that meant to first century readers, making principled comparisons to today. It was exhausting… and while the guys participated and were inquisitive I was concerned that it wasn’t sinking in. It felt more like an English class than a small group.

    I asked…

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  • The Fokken Twins: A Saturday Night Live Skit in Real Life

    The Fokken Twins of Amsterdam
    An interview with the Fokken twins, the oldest prostitutes in Amsterdam, goes horribly wrong in the most awesome way.

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  • Do the hustle

    hustle

    From 1995 until 2002 I worked at BlueCross Blue Shield of Illinois.

    First, I ran a machine that printed ID cards for their 6 million members. Then, in 1997 at the age of 21, I was put in charge of managing 15 or so machine operators who ran the machines.

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  • What is Good News for Teenage Guys?

    desert-trip

    “Knowing Jesus isn’t just about when things go good. He helps you know you’re not alone when it hits the fan.”

    “I’ve never heard that phrase, ‘hit the fan.’ What does that mean?”

    “You’ve never heard someone say, when the **** hits the fan?”

    “Oh yeah, for sure. That’s my life right now. Just never heard that phrase without the word ****. And yeah, I need this stuff to be true. My life is a mess.”

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  • Making Sense of Social Media for People Who Don’t Get It

    Is everything in the social space just wasting time?

    To some people it is.

    I know a lot of people for whom the whole thing doesn’t make any sense at all.

    Their only justification is that social media is ultimately just a new form of marketing. Marketing a company. Marketing a product. Marketing a brand. Marketing yourself. Marketing marketing.

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  • St. Patrick’s Day Prayer for Church Leaders

    St. Patrick's Day Prayer for Church LeadersWith St. Patrick’s Day this Sunday, I’ve been reflecting on Patrick’s life and deeds.

    While all manner of silliness is now done in Patrick’s name as Americans pretends to be Irish enough to live out a drunken stereotype and wear colors they’ve not thought about for a second– Patrick really did live an incredible life of faithfulness.

    Enslaved as a child, he escaped Ireland only to be called back to the land of his captivity where he spent a lifetime building the Christian church. Legend has it that Patrick planted 1,000 churches. Take that church plant gurus! 

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  • Questions About the Slow Life

    It’s interesting. I’m often told I’m busy. “I know you’re a busy guy… but.” “Would you have time to…”

    On and on.

    What’s interesting to me about that is that people think of me as a busy person when I think of my life as hard-working & efficient between intentional, gratuitous periods of slowness.

    Perhaps the reason I look so busy is that I’m pretty good at saying no and you aren’t?

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  • 10 Minor Changes to Make 10 Sports More Fun to Watch

    1. College basketball – Line changes like in hockey, fewer timeouts, extend the halo by 2 feet.
    2. Soccer – Go two goals ahead, lose a player. No more of this kicking the ball around in circles to kill time. If you go up by two that means you’re too much better. Even it out by losing a player.
    3. Baseball – Install a shot clock. Pitcher has 10 seconds to throw or its a balk. Cut the regular season in half. Too many games, games last too long. Too much scratching.
    4. Football – Eliminate booth reviews, coaches challenges, and TV timeouts. Make timeouts 1 minute. Games are far too long and all of that stoppage in play kills the mojo at the game. Those things are all for and because of TV.
    5. Swimming – No more lanes for the finals. More reason to qualify more than one player from a team… you’ll need a blocker for that last lap.
    6. Golf – There’s no hope. Super fun to play, super boring to watch.
    7. Hunting & Fishing – Let the other team know they are playing. Seriously, hunting is not a sport, it’s an activity.
    8. Bowling – Defense. It’s too quiet. Noise makers, speed, tackling. Bring on the boom.
    9. Skiing – Just like swimming. Make the finals, we all go down together. Winner takes all. I’d line up for days to see the downhill final.
    10. Ski jumping / Diving / Gymnastics – Meet skeet shooting. Sure, it looks hard and scary. But if your opponents had paintball guns and could take 2-3 shots at you while you did your thing? That’d be some must see TV. Monster would sponsor that for sure.

  • Everyday Protests

    This video was featured in a piece on KPBS yesterday, “What Happens if You Don’t Cooperate at Border Checkpoints?”

    The answer is… nothing. Without probable cause Border Patrol has no right to detain you.

    At first I watched this video and was annoyed. Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. But as it went on I think I got the point. It’s a form of protest against a violation of our rights as citizens. 

    Wait, What’s Going On?

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  • We Are Winning

    hillary-we-are-winning

    I’ve got a guest post over at the 30 Hour Famine blog. Go check it out.