Welcome to the re-tooling...

Windows has a new name, and Dell has a new box... do YOU have a new, fitter self, and do YOU know your name (deferential reference to an important concept from Wild at Heart).

I'll still write about technology when I can , but this could be so much more than just another technical grind, so I am doing that. I re-thought the separation of the discussion of technology from the living of my life, and I decided that since technology is such an integral part of life, why can't life be an integral part of technology. That said, here are some ramblings...

[I put out a little weekly devotional, just as something to keep the writing fresh - here are the past couple of entries, chosen because they speak so much about food, which is part of life, nicht wahr? I'm not some 'thumper', so I'm not here to judge anyone (remembering, of course, that there is a difference between discernment and judging). I have spent a lot of time being so PC as to water down the messages in my heart, and to go so far not to offend as to be thoroughly ineffective and a terrible spiritual warrior. That's over, the lamb is roaring, and the heart is wild...]

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Church is like a restaurant - there are only two menus, the kids' and the adults'. The kids have to spend a twelve year period of time with the same five menu items - hot dog, pizza, mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, spaghetti, and then are turned loose into a menu they have no idea about. A really successful restaurant would be one where the kids' entrees would gradually add to their developing tastes, so that hot dogs would just be there for the under five set. At 5, they could start a little spaghetti, to get them introduced to other foods, then it could progress so that the kids were soon able to eat the same menu items as the adults, only with smaller portions.

It's been stated that the generation between 18 and 30 is the 'lost generation'. I'm left wondering if they are lost because they chose to be lost, or if they are lost because their attention spans for the excitement there is to be had in the Bible was dulled through repetition, kind of like the reaction you get from kids when you go to the restaurants and they all have the same old things to offer. This is why my son puts ketchup on parmesan-crusted chicken - when you're used to ordering hot dogs and such, you finally get a chance to eat something more substantial, but no one has let you discover HOW to eat it. We joke in the youth a lot about the holy trinity of answers to give when you're caught not paying attention - pray, read your Bible, go to church - but this thought makes me wonder if there's truth in the laughter.

What challenges do we give out? If a five-year-old knows the books of the O.T., do we make them wait a year or two to teach them the N.T.? It's easy to make learning as a church the same as the public educational system. The problem with a cookie-cutter approach can be seen at the edges. Whenever you use a cookie-cutter, you leave part of the cookie out, scrapping it on the flour board. In the process of teaching our kids about God, let's make sure we do that. Who knows, the beanie-weenie set might come to realize the qualities and desirability of a steak, and what impact would THAT have on our world?

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HI! Hope all is well. Not every week is about food, but this past week, the Atkins company - founded by the diet guru Dr. Atkins himself - filed for bankruptcy protection. Apparently, the demand for their products has hit a low point. Duh! Have you ever tasted the stuff? The things they have to do to the products to make them Atkins-approved takes the taste and the health out of them, and we're left with a gritty pseudo-food that makes a significant number of people experience some unpleasant and momentarily urgent side effects, sort of what I imagine a Metamucil-based snack bar would do. Even the diet itself has an incredibly high failure rate. For so many people, they lost 50 pounds in a few weeks, and GAINED 60 back within 6 months. How long did they expect to sell expensive mud pies to the unwitting, fad-loving public when Twinkies are on sale every week?

What has led us to this place is the same thing that can paralyze the church in our modern society - a lack of internal work. A diet plan that just addresses food is like a program that has a limited scope and duration - its effectiveness is limited by the entropy of doing the same thing all the time. The problem with the Atkins plan was that it cut out the bread without getting the blood moving. It filled the body up with a certain combination of foods that made it not be hungry for a time, but then the lack of activity and personal work made it so that it came to an end, and a disastrous end at that. Most people I've known who tried the Atkins thing ended it in one spectacular blow-out of a binge, where they ate more carbs in one day than a rational person does in a couple of weeks, and that was the end of that. As soon as they binged, they left the diet plan.

If the adherents to that plan had just taken the advice of doctors and increased their physical activity, they would have seen results that would have been encouraging and allowed them to stay on track, and they would have found that the key to changing the way you are is not changing what comes your way, but changing what you do with it, and with yourself. Of course it's not quick and easy if you go the way of exercise, and there's some pain involved (my favorite slogan currently comes from the Marines - pain is weakness leaving the body), but by building up and effort, you succeed.

As we do our work in the church, we need to also commit ourselves to exercising. We need to continually work on ourselves (as a body of believers) through the exercise of our faith. We have diligently been seeking out opportunities to reach out to others, and to involve others, and to that we need to add our diligence. As we work hard, we change ourselves for the better, and we also bring hope to other people. When someone loses a lot of weight in a seemingly short period of time, people are curious and ask, "How DID you do it?" When someone successfully keeps the weight off and continually grows healthier, people are curious and ask, "How DO you do it?" We go from 'happened, as in one time deal' to 'happening, as in I want to participate', all depending on the intent and execution. They then seek out actively to have part of that, because it works for a long term.

From here on out, let's work diligently on improving our church and community through the efforts of our hearts. We need to light the fires and then spread them throughout. If we are active and fierce, we will never be irrelevant and obsolete.