Offertory

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
(Psalm 51:10-12)

Aslan Is On The Move

Changing Media

I use Google Reader to keep up with all the blogs I like to read on a regular basis. I love how easy it is even to catch up even when miss a few days. One of the things I've noticed is that it has drastically cut down on the number of comments I leave for my fellow bloggers. The extra click-throughs pull me away from my main reading page, and I always mean to get back to leaving the comments, I just never do. Obviously, I've yet to find a solution to this problem other than to stop being so lazy.
On another note, I recently heard that a few more Christian magazines are set to cease publication. Periodicals are fast disappearing from the market. They just can't compete with the Internet in terms of cost effectiveness and accessibility. I just can't help but think of the value that I'm losing though. I reference magazines all the time and reread material all the time. Even if articles are archived online, I'm hardly going to get out of bed to look it up when my evening devotional or book triggers an association. Disappointing.
As if I wasn't feeling old enough, this weekend I've been trying to decipher applications for Twitter and all the features of GIMP. I was part of the original computer generation, but I feel like I'm falling further and further behind.

Significance

I had a great philosophical conversation today. We were discussing the topic of significance vs. insignificance. As an aside, one of my favorite things about this discussion is that it sprang from a question about the distinction between "nerd" and "geek." Look it up, if you don't know. But I digress.
One person commented that he felt like a nerd in school when he raised his hand to answer questions. Actually, the term "nerd" refers to an "insignificant" person. Wisely, another member of our group commented that supplying answers and contributing to the class knowledge and discussion is quite the opposite of insignificant.
This led to further analysis of how significance is determined. Society may believe you need to have an "other" to be significant. I think I am significant in and of myself. Is it what you do that makes you significant? Is it what you are good at? Or is it who you are? Or is it something else? Can you believe you are significant even if others do not? How? Why?
These are the things we discuss over lunch.

Cultivate

Something about this time of year leads my thoughts in the direction of growth and change. Call it a spring cleaning kind of thing. It happens to be a convenient time to look back on the goals I set at the beginning of the year and evaluate how I'm doing. This year, the word I picked to focus on happens to be cultivate.
So rather than emphasize how many pounds I have or haven't lost or how many words I have or haven't written, I'm reflecting more on theme. It's pleasant how God pointed me towards a word that holds such deep significance throughout the seasons and especially at this time of year. How am I doing at cultivating peace, hope, and other positive attributes in my life?
What do you wish to cultivate in your life? What do the seeds look like? What soil does it grow best in? How do you feed and care for it?

Share Joy

This week vocation has been a hot topic among the clients I work with. Many are not employed and given the current economy they are experiencing even less hope of finding any job, let alone one that they would enjoy. So we talked about what the ideal job would look like. After the initial fantasies about six figure paychecks, expense accounts, and 3 hour lunch breaks, one person hit on something. He said he wished he could sing because so many songs have deep meaning to a lot of people and he longs to bring joy to that many people.
So we brainstormed some viable ways to accomplish the goal of sharing joy without having to be discovered and sign a record deal. What about delivering flowers? Or being a porter at the airport? Or volunteering at a nursing home?
We spend a lot of time thinking about how happy we are in our jobs. Perhaps sometimes this is because we are in a job that truly is not a good fit. My dad is a paramedic. It's fulfilling for him to be able to help people. It would give me a panic attack to have to stick a needle in some one's arm. But what about the less dramatic examples? Maybe retail or custodial or secretarial work isn't your ideal job, but it's where you are at now. How can you use where you are to bring joy to others? Try it and I bet you might just bring some joy to yourself as well.

More Quotes

I found these quotes from friends and other sources over the last few days. I always love a good quote to ponder.

The willow knows what the storm does not; that the power to endure harm outlives the power to inflict it. Anonymous

Why must conversions always come so late? Why do people always apologize to corpses? David Brin

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees it will spend the rest of its life believing it is stupid. Anonymous.

The 300

This is my 300th post. What to talk about today? There probably wouldn't be much point in complaining about the fluish thing that has me feeling yucky. While it may or may not be entertaining to read a list of things that irritate me when I don't feel well (like walkie talkie phones and other sources of noise pollution) I just don't think focusing on that sort of thing would help me feel any better.
Reaching a milestone like 300 posts kind of makes me want to wax philosophical about what I've accomplished since I started this blog as well as how things have changed and how things have stayed the same. I'm just not sure I could put words to that in a way that would give it justice right now.
So inevitably I turn to thinking about the next 300 posts. I've been fairly consistent in posting, but there's always room for improvement. I'd like to share some more art on my blog in the future. I'm thinking about changing the look of the blog, maybe going with a custom design. I'd also like to more intentional about connecting with other bloggers and leaving comments about what they write. What would you like to see in future posts?

A New Quote

"What is to give light must endure burning."
Viktor Frankl