The Most Important Things

From a biblical standpoint the use of words is extremely important. God created the world, animals and mankind through His words. Jesus used words to stop storms, cast out devils, heal the sick and raise the dead. However, as a christian community I think we have overlooked the use of words and specifically words of praise. Here’s a great example of words of praise, it’s a video from the iPad announcement. It’s 3 minutes long and has been spliced to include all the adjectives Steve Jobs and Co. heaped upon their new product.

Are you done watching the video? Good. Notice how Steve Jobs got his staff, and every presenter in the announcement, to be as equally enraptured as he was? That would make a great church service if all those adjectives were used about God. Imagine if, after our services, people came out heaping praises on God like that. He is phenomenal, amazing, beautiful, super-responsive, extraordinary, unbelievably great, way better than a laptop! If that was our confession, I can assure you that churches would be as full and filled with expectancy as the media was for a technology announcement. (Full disclosure: I would like an iPad. I think it’s a great 3rd device.) How are you using your words today? Are you more expressive and adjective-laden about technology and possessions? Or are you more expressive about God?

My God is awesome, incredible, phenomenal, wonderful, huge, amazing, terrific, etc. And I am more excited about Him than any ol’ piece of technology.

Here’s a link to a blog I read every now and again. It deals with a classic question, for the church, or workplace or wherever. The question is: which is better, attitude or execution? If you go with attitude only, the extreme position is that you have like-minded people with little or no skill. If you go with execution, then the extreme position is to have hired-hands who get the job done but have no true DNA.

This question comes up time and again, it’s can be a major source of contention and strife. When you lean to execution, in your business or non-profit or church, you bump up against people who minor on details that can be endless. You also run the risk of disloyalty and rebellion. The hired-hand comes to a place where they deem that they can do it better and leave, often taking many people with them. If you stick with attitude only a lot of times you run into the problem that they know nothing different. There can be mental barriers to achieving new levels. There can also be a lack of initiative within the attitude only camp. Only being able to respond to orders rather than creating new ideas or taking initiative.

So, what’s best? The blog I referenced above put a very useful and insightful hierarchy together. It looks like this:

1. Attitude
2. Approach
3. Goals
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Execution

This is only an opinion but I think it’s a valid one. Placing an emphasis on attitude first will help the execution-ists remember their “why”. And using a hierarchy of approach, goals, etc helps the attitud-ers focus and advance their “hows”. I have found when people love their job their workflow increases and the result is a better product. (Be it a disciple, a widget or a program)

I like twitter, theoretically. I like it’s short format and soundbite-esque quality. But I am continually on the fence, in regards to it’s usefulness. I follow a number of people. Some are consistently interesting and some are consistently lame (I usually drop those people). Here are a couple of my pet peeves about tweets: (don’t get mad at me, this is just my personal opinion)

1) Trying to create a christian movement on twitter. (Everyone hash tag WWJD!) Nobody’s gonna get saved by that.

2) Telling me about how your life is better than everyone elses. I am so happy for you. Are you asking me to be jealous about your life? I don’t really agree with that theology, neither does the bible coincidentally. If it’s a praise report I will be the first to celebrate with you. If it’s you just sounding off of your undying love to someone or something or idolizing your life… that’s just not very interesting.

3) Constant re-tweeting or quoting. I like quotes as much as the next guy, in fact, you’re probably just re-tweeting a quote I just posted.

4) Always talking about where you are going to eat. We get it you eat a lot. Maybe that’s why America is obese!

5) Christian cussers. Seriously, get some self-control over your mouth. No more “freaking”, “dang” or “crap”. Idle words are still going to be judged according to Jesus.

Those are just my top 5. And at one point or another I have been guilty of those as well. So, why would anyone use twitter at all? Well, I like things that actually ADD VALUE TO OTHERS. It’s not just a “this is what I am doing now” outlet. Is it something hilarious? Is it something really deep? Is it an image that is one of a kind? To me that adds value or at least a laugh. Now, I understand that some of the previous peeves may actually fall into the “add value” category. But always tweeting the same thing is boring. Who watches the same rerun all day long? That’s why I added the “to others” clause. Will this tweet really add value to others?

Of course, that brings up another question. How do YOU define “value”?

The best part about this blog, is that I can edit it from anywhere at anytime. I have an app on my iPhone that lets me update at anytime. Gotta love that!

Caleb says, that’s easy!

This is it! The first official blog on my new site. I hope you’ll check back often. I plan to update it as often as possible. And there will be lots of amazing content. Some of it will be of a spiritual nature, some tech, some media, some political…basically anything that I think is really worth saying to the rest of the internet. Leave me a comment, add me to your favorites, make this your home page, etc. Talk to you soon!