Interview w/ Shane Hipps

I had no idea who Shane Hipps was. (First thought: That would be an AWESOME 70's Cop Show Character) But when I ran across my man Rob Bell interviewing him, I had to check it out. Shane is the author of a new book Flickering Pixels, about how technology is shaping our faith. Really insightful. I'm definitely going to run this one down...


Rob Bell Interviews Shane Hipps About Technology from Deadly Viper on Vimeo.

Blue Like Jazz - The Movie

It's time for the old "but will it be better than the book" debate to begin. Donald Miller's masterpiece Blue Like Jazz is set to be made into a major motion picture with filming to begin next month in Portland and Nashville (!).

So...how will it stand up on the big screen. Early returns are pretty solid. Here's a write up from Gabe Lyons. (Of course, this was posted on Don Miller's blog, so grain of salt)

Blue Like Jazz portrays a vivid tension between Christianity and the world. I thought it was fantastic. It was hard to swallow some the direct obligations towards Christianity - they are so true though. The times of hope and resolve allowed me to emotionally connect to the character of Don. I laughed out loud and swallowed hard at times when reading through the script. The story touched on every single issue that outsiders have with Christianity (Judgmental, Hypocritical, Antihomosexual, Sheltered, Too Political, and Proselytizing based on the research of unChristian). It’s an emotional ride that brought me to an ending that gave me much hope and confidence in (1) Being Christian (2) The story I am developing with God on a personal level and (3) Jesus.

The Evangelical viewer is going to come face to face with some tough criticisms. However, the honest Christian is going to come away feeling refreshed. The cultural elite are going to laugh at the cynicism and debate that takes place during the Reed College scenes and they will appreciate the genuine tension that Don has with God. Your Juno fans are going to love the the witty dialogue, emotional connection to each character and who they represent. They will also love the scenes dealing with rabbits, the Pope, condoms, college parties, and the journey Don is on. The dialogue comes off as very genuine, even when reading it as opposed to seeing it on screen. Homosexuals who believe in God will love the relationship between Don and Laura. Conservative Christians are going to have the hardest time with it - but it is a necessary affliction they need to feel. The postmodern crowd of Christianity is going to rave about it. Since the story is about a guy who is in college your college students will love it on so many different levels, especially, the character development of Don. I think majority of criticisms will come from your extreme conservative and your extreme liberal - However, majority of the world rides the fence.

I can’t wait to see the motion picture.

Me either. And if it's successful, the inevitable Blue Like Jazz Broadway Musical in Summer of 2011.

No Txt 4 Lent

A teenager giving up texting for lent? R U Serious!?

It's truly a news-worthy event. Here's the article from today's KNS about my friends Marc and Darla's awesome daughter Hannah giving up texting (on her own) for 40 days....2 Cool!

Are You Afraid to Admit You're A Christian?

Wow. I gotta read this guy's book...

"Issumagijoujunainermik"

I was reading about a preacher who went on a missionary trip in an Eskimo village. (This sounds like the start of a joke...) When he got there, he soon discovered that the Eskimos had no word in their language for "forgiveness." Since the concept of forgiveness is such a cornerstone in Christianity, they created an Eskimo word to describe it by linking several words together. The word is "issumagijoujunainermik" and it means "spelling bee nightmare." Actually, it literally means "not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore."

What a wonderful description! This has been a theme for me this week. As I posted earlier about my friend Jan's wonderful thought: "God is much more interested in your future than your past." It seems to me that we spend way too much time beating ourselves (and worse, others) up for mistakes that are in the past. Our TV shows remind us that our waist used to be thinner and our hair fuller. Our sports media remind us that our team didn't win the championship. (I mean, in Boston they're STILL talking about an error that Bill Buckner made over 20 YEARS AGO!) Our inner demons remind us about that time we gave in or that regret for the thing we did years ago. We kill ourselves over the things we didn't say...and the things we did. It goes on and on.

It's not that God can't remember. He knows what we did and the mistakes we're going to make in the future. But he loves us still. As the psalmist puts it "As far as the east is from the west, so far He removes our transgressions from us." (Psalm 103:12)

Or as the Eskimo says: "Issumagijoujunainermik!"

Quote o' the day

"God is more interested in your future than your past."

Thanks to the always awesome Jan W. for this bit of wisdom. So true.

Modern Day David

Who knew that the new NBC show Kings was a modern day take on the story of David in the Old Testament? Well, apparently the person that wrote this overview of the show on relevant.com. I'll reserve judgment until I see it, but I gotta wonder if this will be the classic story of the book being better than the movie.

Anyone seen it? Discuss.

Wyomians Cant Dunk.

Sure, Wyoming beating UT in football was painful, but not half as painful as this "dunk." I'm not sure about the Big Orange's chances in the tournament, but I am sure no member of the team would ever do this on a court. Well, at least not Tyler Smith.

The One Thing I Hope Obama Gets Wrong...

You won't find a bigger Obama honk than myself. Recently, when my daughter drew him for her report/poster project for Black History Month, I celebrated as if she'd aced her ACTs. (that's coming up next week...)

So far, I've been behind Mr. Prez on everything. Until I saw Obama's NCAA brackets.

Where's the love for Big Orange Nation, Mr. President!? We're going to shock the world and make it past Pitt and into the Sweet Sixteen. Oh yes we can!

(full disclosure: Like the President, I too, have my beloved Vols winning the first game and losing to Pitt in the 2nd round. See, I told you I agree with him on just about everything. Great minds. :)

Quote o' the day - Hans Selye

Its not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.
--Hans Selye

I thought this was a great quote to start your Monday...or if you're about to start filling out your brackets.

No worries.
LMc

Quote o' the day - Shelby Lynne

It wasn't a $499.00 cup of coffee, but a recent cup o' joe from Starbucks had a priceless quote from Shelby Lynne. Check it:

"Be exceptional. Make tremendous efforts to be extraordinary. What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. Just make sure you do so."

-Quote on a Starbuck coffee cup by musician Shelby Lynne

Amen to that, sister.

Rob Bell interview, info on Drops Like Stars tour

"MANY of the most significant moments in our lives come not because things went as planned, but because it all fell apart. It’s following these moments of difficulty — or sometimes tragedy — that we are freed to see life in a whole new way. ... And there's something divine in that.”

Rob Bell about his upcoming “Drops Like the Stars” tour and book

ReadtheSpirit.com posted a great interview with Rob Bell. Rob talks about the details of his new book/tour Drops Like Stars that kicks off in the Fall '09. Can't wait.

Get in the Pool, Fool!

[any product] + Mr. T as your spokesperson = awesome.

Five Reasons NOT to give up something for Lent

Nathan over at Think Christian had this awesome post about not giving up something for Lent. I agree with the premise: Lent should be about growing closer to Christ in your faith walk, not if you can abstain from X for 40 days. There's definitely some good reasons to give up something during this time. But, as the article points out, there's also valid points to give up on giving stuff up. Such as:


1. It’s not the Self-Denial Olympics.
If the point of giving up something for Lent is nothing more than self-congratulation for feats of abstinence, I’m not interested. Fasting, in centuries of monastic practice, is only worthwhile as far as it increases your spiritual focus, your meditation, your awareness of utter dependence on God. In our diet-happy culture, simply avoiding something is itself is an accomplishment, a triumph of willpower and demonstration of self-control that, ironically, gives you a higher, not a lower, view of yourself. “The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself,” said C.S. Lewis in his timeless sermon “The Weight of Glory.” “We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ.” Which brings me to #2.

2. Chocolate Ain’t a Cross.
I have friends giving up chocolate, or alcohol, or TV, or ice cream, for Lent. I admire their sacrifices. But those are still pretty trivial sacrifices. I’d be more impressed if people gave up not a minor indulgence but a supposed non-negotiable of modern life. Driving. E-mail. Mirrors. Consumer goods produced more than 100 miles from your house.

That would impress me. But I still don’t think it would impress God. “Take up your cross and follow me.” It’s a call to complete self-emptying.

3. We’re not trying to beat Christ at his own game.
Sometimes I wonder if giving up something for Lent comes out of a twinge of guilt about Jesus’ suffering—”Jesus went through so much pain for me, the least I can do in return is keep my hand out of the cookie jar for a month.” First, Christ endured hell precisely so that we don’t have to (not that a lack of cookies is hell; see #2 above). He emptied himself in order to invite us to a life of abundance. Not self-indulgence. Not indifference. Not hoarding. But abundance. A life of fasting and feasting.

4. Fuzzy Math, Part 1: 40 does not equal 46.
A pastor pointed out in passing last year that Lent is not actually 40 days, but 46. To get to 40, you have to subtract the six Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Why? Because Sunday is always a day of Resurrection, a “mini-Easter.” Our jubilance about Jesus’ defeat of death interrupts even our somberness in a season dedicated to his suffering.

That was brand new to me. But I love it; I love Easter’s persistence in piercing our gloom. Do Lenten self-deniers know this quirk of the church calendar, and do they, accordingly, let the chocolate flow on those six Sundays?

5. Fuzzy Math, Part 2: One does not equal 40.
In his stirring new book Surprised By Hope, N.T. Wright says, “I regard it as absurd and unjustifiable that we should spend forty days keeping Lent, pondering what it means, preaching about self-denial, being at least a little gloomy … and then, after [Holy Week], we have a single day of celebration.”

Easter, Wright points out, is a whole season, 40 whole days of its own before Ascension Day, not “simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom,” as he puts it. So after fasting for 40 days (give or take; see #4 above), how will we feast for 40 days? Chocolate cake for dessert every night? 40 bottles of wine? Or would that would be as trivial as giving them up? No matter what, we have to let Easter be a whole season—a whole year, really—a feast that’s as good as the fast.

So do you agree with this premise or disagree? Discuss.

Please Hold

I forgive Vanilla Ice. Do You?

And I Thought Starbucks Was Too Expensive...

This week, my wife and I went out to celebrate the 15 year (!!) anniversary of our first date. The fact that a woman as smart and beautiful as T would go out with me a single time, much less hang around for 15 years is mind boggling to me. But I came across something else on our date that boggled my mind even more.

We had just finished up dinner at one of our favorite spots (much love to Tomato Head) and decided to grab some coffee at a new shop on the square. So we make our order, and as the guy is whipping up our latte mocha whatever, T points out a small bag of coffee beans for sale at the front cash register. Now this bag of coffee beans looks like any other to my untrained eye. The label however informs me that this is a "Special Indonesian Blend." The beans are in small hermetically sealed plastic bag that's about a foot long and a foot wide. There MIGHT BE 100 coffee beans in this bag, y'all.

So how much, dear blog reader, would you pay for this bag of hermetically-sealed Indonesian coffee beans? $8.99? $16.24? Hey, they're from Indonesia, so how bout $21.94? (plus tax)

The correct answer would be: $199!!!!!! (plus tax)

I said to my wife, "I think they put the decimal in the wrong place." I asked the Bistro if this was a joke. Part of me thought he was going to rip off his wig and reveal himself to be Howie Mandell.

It was not a joke. I was informed that pound of this special Indonesian Java runs for a cool $499.00

Forget about stimulus packages people! We just need to sell a few pounds of this stuff and the US Economy will be partying like it's 1999.

But here's the best part: In the write up about what makes this coffee so unique, it talked about the fact the the beans grow wild in these Indonesian rice patty fields. Then animals come by and eat the beans. And then poop them out. And then Indonesian farmers come by and pick the beans. Out of the poop. And somebody puts them in a small hermetically sealed plastic bag and sells them for $499 a pound at a coffee shop in Knoxville.

I am not making any of this up. I WISH I could make up stuff this good.

Fill that to the brim.

U2 on Letterman - nights 2 & 3

More awesomeness from u2 on Letterman the past two nights. Magnificent!

U2 on Letterman

I picked up No Line On The Horizon yesterday and it rules the school. U2 is playing Letterman EVERY NIGHT this week, you know, because they can. Here they are doing my favorite song on the cd (so far) "Breathe". Rad!



UPDATE: You know you've made it when you're playing Letterman all week AND NYC is naming streets after you.

The Come to Jesus Meeting

Recently I've been noticing some really glaring examples of how our culture misses the mark on what Jesus, and being a Christian, is all about. (I'm talking to you, Ned Flanders). Guess that's to be expected. It's only been that way for 2,000+ years. But I digress.

The thing that's annoyed me lately is the (mis)use of the phrase "...it's time for a come to Jesus meeting." This has popped up several times for me in conversation over the past few weeks. Granted, always in a business setting, but revealing, nonetheless.

When someone calls for "a come to Jesus" meeting, it usually means one of a few things:

• A vendor has dropped the ball and we are going to rip them a new one and demand that justice is served (i.e. we get our way).

• An fellow employee has dropped the ball and we are going to point out the error(s) of their way, tell them to get their stuff together and make sure everyone in the office knows they are now on a short leash.

• Some random person that I don't really know has in some way offended me and I'm going to let them have it, consequences be damned.

Now, I'm not sure what Gospel some of these people were reading, but it doesn't describe the Jesus I'm familiar with. Jesus had infinite love and compassion for those who came up short. Can you imagine the modern day, business room reaction to the woman at the well? The leper? The tax collector? Prostitutes? Adulters? Murders? Or (gasp!) children!? Yet Jesus had time for them all, no matter how poor, sick, or broken they were. Sure, Jesus had his moments of stinging rebukes (or tables to knock over). But the majority of those outbursts were aimed towards religious hypocrites that were in the business of oppressing others. Which to me sounds more like the modern approach of calling a "come to Jesus meeting."

Those who came to him found forgiveness and hope, despite of their personal failures. Now who wouldn't want to go to a meeting like that?