Another round-up… I just got tired of using the same old title (especially as they have become less “weekly” over the past couple months…
My pal (and Ben’s good friend), Casey has a big heart. (via friends Jeff and Bridget). On the other end, another good friend, Diane, tells of a profound lack of compassion she experienced while shopping recently.
Donald Miller: Why Scripture Includes So Much Poetry. Love the line about how “becoming a Christian looks more like falling in love than baking cookies.”
Anne Jackson (via Donald Miller’s blog): From a Rainy Day to a Starry Night.
Dan Dick: Simplicity Itself – from a Call to Action to a Call to Integrity. And the follow-up posts: Simple Isn’t Easy and Diss-cipleship.
101 Ways to “Level Up” Your Life. Semi-related: Burn-out Is Real.
Jay Voorhees developed a great series of posts over the past couple weeks on A Letter to an Incoming D.S. – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6. Don’t know how many of the District Superintendents in my conference have stumbled upon this blog (my guess is not many), but it’s definitely worth the read for everyone in the Methodist connection.
This made the rounds on Facebook, but it’s worth sharing again for anyone who missed it: Nadia Bolz-Weber – I Love Jesus, But I Swear a Little.
Speaking of swearing a little – another funny post via McSweeney’s – I’ll Be Knocking Out Poetry This Whole… Flight.
David Carr: My Dinner with Clay Shirky and What I Learned About Friendship; great reminder that now matter how important social media is, those face-to-face encounters are essential. (The importance of bread in that story should especially speak to the church).
Jim Palmer: 18 Mistakes I Made As A Senior Pastor.
Paul Stewart: The Celebrity Pastor.
From Wired Magazine: High School Debate at 350 Words a Minute. I had just been thinking about my times in high school debate, sneaking into college libraries (getting kicked out of the Drake Law Library on account of my friend “looking too young to be here”), and all the cutting, pasting and photocopying for our files, and wondered how all that might change with smart-phones, laptops and tablets; this article totally answered my questions. (If you follow the link and view the video just know that I could never speak quite as fast as those in the video, but I did speak in that same fashion).
Any chance I could get a job here? Or anyone up for redecorating my office to match this? I need LEGOS… and a slide.
Michael Hyatt: The Secret to Happiness as You Get Older – I remember in my Pastoral Care class we were studying Erikson who (basically) said at the last stage of life you can “get better or get bitter”.
Music from David Byrne (covering Whitney Houston):