Hello Friday.
Happy weekend to you! Here are a couple videos to give you a smile or two…
1. VIDEO: Puppy Realizes He’s at Dog Park and Goes Absolutely Bonkers.
2. VIDEO: Kids On How to Get… Read More
Posts Tagged: "Apple"
Homeless People Matter?
I have a confession to make: I don’t know much about homelessness.
The truth is, I can tell you a lot more about suburban, middle-class life – based on my own personal experience… things like where the closest Trader Joe’s is and how annoying Comcast is (did you hear the latest from Apple – how they’re going to offer web TV service this Fall?).
Do you need to know where to find an honest, reasonably-priced mechanic for your car? I can tell you about that.
Do you want an opinion on MOD Pizza? I definitely have one to share with you.
But when it comes to homelessness, I only “know” what I’ve heard… and that’s pretty much all a bunch of second-hand, questionable information. For example, I’ve heard about the guy who walked around the corner from the intersection where he’d been holding up a cardboard sign – and unlocked his Mercedes and drove off. And I’ve heard about how much money panhandlers make – “more than if they held down a real job.”
This second-hand information is sticky and makes an impression, but I wonder if it’s any more reliable than Anthony Crispino’s reporting on Saturday Night Live.
Anthony Crispino is… Read More
Blessed By The Misfits
Two years ago, I did a series at my church called “Misfit Magnet.” It was all about the kind of people Jesus attracted. And, of course, the series referenced the Island of Misfit Toys from the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer TV special.
From time to time, we need to be reminded to suspend judgement and just love people. We have a tendency to surround ourselves with a homogenized group of people who think, believe, look, act, and smell like us.
Here’s a little different take on the subject of misfits… Read More
The Science Of Why Storytelling Is So Powerful
Stories are powerful. They draw us in and they make us feel.
The experience of hearing or watching a story is processed in our brains differently than when we simply are given facts.
When we hear facts or read information, it hits our “language processing” parts of the brain where we decode words into meaning. And that’s it. Nothing special happens.
But when we hear a story, something very different happens. Not only are the language processing parts of the brain activated, but also the parts of our brain that we would use if we were actually experiencing the events of the story ourselves.
A good story can put your whole brain to work.
I remember some particularly memorable stories from my growing up years in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s… Read More
Technology Helps & Hurts
Listen in on this conversation between me and Andy Jones about the helpful ways technology benefits our lives – and some honest talk about the ways technology hurts… Read More
SPIN: Can We Just Admit It?
Several years ago, I was on a teaching team at a church. We crafted a summer sermon series together entitled, “Heroes & Bums.” The idea was to highlight various Old Testament characters and portray them as either a “hero” or “bum” based on their behavior.
I was pretty excited about this series. In fact, the idea was mine—so I was REALLY EXCITED about “Heroes & Bums.”
Looking back, I’m rather embarrassed about the whole thing. It took some serious finagling to fit these Bible characters in either the “Hero” box or the “Bum” box. The heroes weren’t all that heroic and they had quite a few shady bum tendencies. The bums weren’t all bums either—every once in a while, they had bright heroic moments.
What’s embarrassing to me is the amount of spin required make this sermon series work the way we wanted it to. We left large amounts of information out, and we emphasized the bits that reinforced our angle… Read More