Better late than never…
Exposing yourself on the internet
“The Internet world we live in today is awash in narcissism and vanity, with some people taking their clothes off literally, because exposure gives them a rush, and others doing it spiritually—because the addicting power of talking about yourself, where anyone in the world can read it, is overpowering.”
—John Piper, “The Pastor as Scholar,” in The Pastor as Scholar and the Scholar as Pastor: Reflections on Life and Ministry by John Piper and D.A. Carson, ed. Owen Strachan and David Mathis (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), p. 24.
H/t Justin Taylor
Filed under carson, internet, narcissism, piper, quotes
Bonhoeffer on community
Every Christian community must know that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the community.
Life Together, 96
Filed under bonhoeffer, community, quotes
Experts’ Evidence for Jesus’ Crucifixion
[fixed to fit better]
Family Tree of Herod
… just in case you were interested!
In tomorrow’s passage (Acts 26), Paul is speaking to Agrippa, who is related to some of the other Herod’s mentioned in the Bible. To help me get it straight, I found the chart above, which I pass on for your genealogical enjoyment!
Filed under family tree, Herod
Puppet Shows Easter 2011
Razza and me, talking about Jesus to kids at Pacific Hills Christian School.
the importance of assertiveness for self-care
Doing some prep for our intern (apprentices) training, came across this good insight from Peter Brain:
Assertiveness will first help me to claim my right to say ‘no’, and then willingly give up that right and respond to the request. No longer will I view the request as a demand I cannot possibly escape, but a request that I am free to respond to if I so choose. To offer a person a sacrifice of time or energy, it must first be mine to offer.
When I feel that a demand must be met because of the asker’s expectations, then I can only say ‘yes’ begrudgingly. In this case a certain amount of bitterness and anger will be present. Guilt may well be mingled with bitterness if I actually enjoyed what I did, or the recipient was particularly grateful and full of praise. When I realise that I can say ‘no’ to demands and expectations, I can then willingly give my ‘yes’ without feeling pressured. Freedom follows sacrifice that is freely given.
Peter Brain, Going the Distance, 45
Filed under assertiveness, quotes, self-care
Managing energy in the morning
Julie Morgenstern, in Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work:
Warming up your day by knocking off a bunch of quick, easy tasks is tempting, but it can provide you with a false sense of accomplishment.
The danger in this approach is that the bulk of your energy gets depleted over a bunch of insignificant tasks. First there’s email, then a couple of phone calls, then a meeting, then huddles with some direct reports and a quick sign-off on a project budget — then, guess what? It’s time for lunch!
To warm up after lunch, you start off with another round of email, then a client eats up your mid afternoon, and suddenly it’s 5 pm — and you never got around to, much less finished, the grant proposal — your day’s one-step-from-the-revenue-line priority. In fact, you can’t even remember what you did get done.
Solution: You must retrain yourself to choose the important over the quick, the tough over the easy, no matter how intimidating the project may be. Starting too far from the revenue line prevents you from producing the volume of revenue-generating work that your company actually relies on and pays you for.
Working from the bottom up puts you in a risky position — when that inevitable crisis appears, . . . how can you possibly handle it when you haven’t even gotten to your most important assignment yet!
Completely two or three tasks that directly make or save your company money far outweighs finishing twenty things that are three steps from the revenue line.
Filed under productivity
In Anticipation 