At my sister’s graduation. #instagram #graduation #jjc #sister #joliet #illinois (Taken with Instagram at Lewis University)
I just read a great article on engaging the culture, specifically as it relates to homosexuality but the implications are larger than that. Here’s some quotes:
This is such an epidemic in evangelicalism; we aim to justify the church and sanctify the world. The world isnot going to keep the Ten Commandments, walk in the Spirit, or glorify Christ…they can’t! They are unbelievers and they will act like it. This should not surprise us. We can recall our own unbelieving lives and we have read passages like Romans 3. The transformation into Christ likeness comes out of being declared not guilty and righteous in God’s eyes (Rom. 5.1). This comes by the merit of Christ in his doing and dying for sinners like us. We cannot expect unbelievers to look and act like believers.
Far too many times I have heard evangelicals talk about homosexuality like our job was to get them to become heterosexual. If we can just get them to be straight then our work is done. The Christian objective in missions is to see people become Christians! This means that we want to see all sexual sinners become worshipers of Jesus. This includes fornicators, adulterers, porn-addicts, homosexuals, or whatever other category you can think up. The goal is to become a believer who turns from the worship of self to the worship of God. It is to turn from rebellion that is characterized by the suppression of truth to the submission that is characterized by obedience to the truth (Rom. 1.18-25; 3.19-27). The central issue is worship, or idolatry. The central answer is always the gospel.
…preaching against issues that flow out of a rejection of the gospel (sexual sin, abortion, etc) are peripheral and must be addressed by means of the core gospel, that which is of first importance.
Be sure to check out the full article.
Incredible view. #instagram #wheaton (Taken with Instagram at Blackwell - DuPage County Forest Preserve)
One thing I’ve learned about myself in 26 years of life is that I’m incredibly lazy. I enjoy ease. I don’t like to do hard things very much. I’ve also learned that I’m incredibly prideful. I tend to think I’m far more capable/intelligent/talented/useful/needed than I really am. Those two traits tend to leave me in a consistent state of anxiety and stress. I say yes to far too many things and fret over actually doing the hard work. I make my schedule busy for virtually no reason and for little actual payoff. The work I end up producing is rarely my best work.
A relatively recent development in my life, thought I think this was always there to some degree, is an increasing awareness of the value and benefit of minimalism. I’m seeing how minimalism can really touch all of life and not just physical possession count. This is largely thanks to Leo Babauta and his blogs. So what does this have to do with my laziness and my pride and what does this have to do with the title of this post? I’m glad you asked.
I feel like I need to make some adjustments in my day to day routines. I’m really just coasting in a lot of ways. I find it ironic that the tagline of my website is “christian. minimalist. hacker. creative.” and yet I’m not very minimal in my schedule, I’m not really hacking on anything new and I’m not really creating anything. I don’t want to be a liar, now do I?
So, what does this practically look like? Well, thanks again to Leo Babauta, I see the value in taking things slow, evaluating the situation, working on one thing at a time and paring things down. I think it would be wise to begin to develop some new habits in my life while freeing myself up to do more of what I love doing. Since I believe accountability is a good thing I figured I’d post this publicly as a sort of resolve that I’m shooting for something here. So, here’s the list:
Now, to be fair, that’s a lot of stuff. Creating habits around those items will take quite a while, I would imagine. I’m ok with that. My hope here is that I’ll take this slow, take one item at a time, and work on making it a habit for as long as it takes before moving on. Some of this I’m already doing in some fashion. I read scripture most weekdays on my lunch break. I pray on my walk into work. Some of these I haven’t done in a very long time. I don’t remember the last time I recording a song. I’ve drawn one picture since college.
Part of this is obviously making time in my life. I fill up my days for the sake of feeling busy. That doesn’t accomplish anything other than stress me out, really. I hope to discipline myself to say no to commitments I can’t or shouldn’t make. I’m not doing anyone any favors by producing sub-par work. I hope that through some dedication and patience I can start to be creative again. I can start to relax again and get back to the things that I enjoy. So there’s my resolve. I resolve to make some habits.
[video]
“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” — Albert Einstein
“
Here’s are two key lessons — both really the same lesson — I’ve learned about learning, in all my years of study and in trying to teach people:
1. Almost everything I’ve learned, I didn’t learn in school; and
2. Almost everything my students (and kids) have learned, they learned on their own.
” — Leo Babauta(Source: zenhabits.net)
A nice stroll in the rain through the park. #instagram #wheaton #rain (Taken with instagram)
gitignore-boilerplates - Shell script for cloning GitHub .gitignore templates -
GitHub’s
.gitignoretemplates are awesome, but mashing them up into a new project can be a pain. Simon Whitaker has created a handy shell script to make that easier:gibo Python vim >> .gitignoreThis will copy the contents of GitHub’s Python and vim templates to your
.gitignore. Brilliant.The script also lets you list all the templates in the GitHub project:
gibo -lCheck out the source on GitHub to check out implementation, usage, or how to contribute.
“
Pause for just 10 seconds, and notice where you are, what you’re doing, who you are, at this very moment. Notice that you are breathing, and how lovely that is. Notice that you can smile, and feel the joy in that. Notice the good things around you. Give thanks for the people you’ve seen today. Celebrate the perhaps not altogether insignificant fact that you are alive.
…
You can breathe, and let go of all that fear of missing out, and be happy with what you have. Be grateful, and each moment think not about what you’re missing, but what you’ve been given.
” — Leo Babauta