How’s You’re Home Page?

I’ve been really challenged lately to always strive to keep things simple.  Be it process, or technology, or relationships the best is the simplest (if that’s a word).

So I heard someone talking about the value of MSN live search, I’ve never used it, and I have a feeling that most people doing web search haven’t either.

cluter tastic
clutter-tastic

MSN’s home page is way to complicated, When I went to it, I really didn’t know where to start.  It would seem that MSN live search is trying to be too much.

Google on the other hand, is noted for it’s simplicity.

clean
clean

Look at that.  What can you do on the google home page?  Exactly one thing, search.  Google started as a search engine and in their simplicity they have created a dominant position in the search field.  Once you get into the google universe of online apps you can see the great depth of what Google offers, but they started it all with one thing that they did very well.  Search.

So How’s your homepage?  And I don’t mean the front page of your organization’s website.  What about you as a person?  Are you simple in a good way?  Do people know what you are about?  Are you accessible?

What can you do today to clear your homepage?  What do you need to eliminate?  What do you need to hold on to?

UPDATE:  I’ve never heard of it until my friend Josh pointed it out.  This is the live search home page.  The real question is why have I never heard of live.com?  I’ve never heard anyone say, “I’ll live it!”

live

The Church Is Mission

On December 28th, I will have the priveledge of preaching at Creekside.  I’ve been tending to preach this last weekend of the year for the past couple of years, so I try to look forward to the next year.  Last Year, I talked about how the Church is a community that is called to Exile.  We are called to be on a Journey.  I was trying to make the point that the Church is not a destination.

This year I want to talk about what it means to live missionally.  The title I’m leaning towards right now is the year of living missionally.

My thinking has been shaped by a lot of different voices on this, but if you want to get a good primer on what it means to be missional (because I know that I don’t have all the answers).  Then may I direct you to friendofmissional.org.  This site has all kinds of great resources and defintions that you can work with.  I can’t do it all in one sunday so I know that I need to really just get the idea in our heads so that we can begin to carry it out all year, and beyond.

Half Marathon Reflections

For the past several months I have been training to run in the Seattle Half Marathon.  I use the term training pretty loosely because in the time that I began running, and the actual date of the race, my daughter was born, and I started grad school.  So my schedule got pretty busy pretty fast, which made regular training a little bit of a challenge.

But I committed to run, to help send some girls in Kenya to a great school, and to give them a chance at a better future. So whenever I could find time for a run I would go.  3 miles here, 5 miles there, 10 miles was my longest run before race day.

I woke up on Sunday, confident that I could finish the race, but I didn’t know what kind of shape I would be in at the finish line.  When we got down to Seattle Center and ready for the race my nerves began to ease up, and I got the nervous kind of energy that I have before I preach.  I felt really loose, started trying to make jokes and goof off.

When we got in line for the race, my first mistake was starting to hard to fast.  I was passing all kinds of people and I was swept up in the momentum of the crowd.  It was an exhilirating feeling.  We ran up 5th Ave, and when we crested the hill I looked out and saw thousands of heads bobbing in unison.  It was like an ocean of people all commited to the same thing.  Every race, age, body size was present in this race.  Knowing that I was a part of something so big was an amazing feeling.

All throughout the course I knew that I wouldn’t be alone.  I was surrounded by people who were a little better prepared and a little worse.  Some walkers, some runners, some joggers, all of us were in this together.  Knowing that kept me going.  When I faced the hills I knew that there were others who were struggling, who were hurting, and together we were going to finish these hills.

There was community in the broken, the people who were struggling, were encouraged by those who were just a little stronger.

Coming down the home stretch my knee started to hurt so I was struggling to keep my pace.  My thoughts were simple walk a little, run a little, walk a little, run a little.  Take one more step, get to that light post, don’t think about the finish line, just get around that corner.  One more hill, one more right turn and I was in the stadium and headed for the finish line.

As I was running I heard Kathy and our friend Emily cheering for me from the stands, I heard my name over the Loud Speakers, and I saw some friends from Cedar Park at the finish line who cheered me in.  That last little bit of support helped me to find the strength to sprint to the finish line.

I did it.  I finished the race, and I finished it well.  There were challenges, there was pain, it took longer than I expected to finish, and some things that I didn’t expect, but I finished with a sprint.  When Paul talks about running the race and finishing well, I understand exactly what he meant.  My Half Marathon experience taugh me a lot about life and a lot about myself.

Immediately crossing the finish line I was glad it was over and felt like I would never do it again.  Today I’m begin to feel a little different.  I’m beginning to feel like I need these kinds of experiences to teach me.

So stay tuned, I’ll keep you posted if I’m going to do another Half Marathon.

The Roles of the Holy Spirit

great post from Tony on the Roles of the Holy Spirit.

I think Tony may be on to something.  Because of some fairly odd behavior from some Charismatic circles, I think many churches may have shyed away from the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps now is the time for the church to come back to talking more about all the members of the Trinity, and specifically the Holy Spirit.

9 Murderous Miles.

As I talked about here, I am running the the seattle half maratho in a couple of weeks.

Today I set out to run a 10 mile stretch.  I made it 9.  Wow.  For someone of my size, running 9 miles is impressive.  And finishing the run, made me feel like I could do the 13.1, it’s just going to be brutal.  I’m going to keep training and hopefully when I run on nov 30th I won’t die.   That would be disappointing.

But I need as much motivation as possible to keep training so help me get motivated.  I need pledges to send some girls to school in Kenya.  Help me make this happen.  Pledge some Motivation.


http://tinyurl.com/57ubq4

Is Obama Going to Take Away Your Freedoms?

In all likelyhood I doubt it.  But judging by this picture he may try to take your freedom to own a PC, in which case he is actually helping you. So you see, some freedoms may feel like freedom but they are really prison.  Kind of like sin.  It feels like freedom, but it’s not, it’s exactly the same as using a Windows PC.