What's in a Name?

Coming home from work today I passed an old, decrepit bus. It looked like an old school bus that had been painted grey and pushed into service by a company named “Elite Transportation.” Yup, Elite Transportation… An old, beat up school bus… The occupants looked crowded, uncomfortable and hot as they bounced down the freeway. I’m not quite sure what was so elite about that.

Make sure the name of your company matches the product or service you provide. It’s common sense and a courtesy to your customers. You do want those customers to come back, don't you?

What’s Tripping You Up?

I’ve been getting up (or trying to get up) early in the morning and go walking. I clearly need the exercise. But sometimes it’s really hard to get up long before sunrise and exercise. My deepest desire at 4 am is NOT walking! If I don’t give into the temptation for a bit more sleep, I get up, get dressed and don my MP3 player and then hit the road. I have a loop I can do around the local neighborhood that’s 1.5 miles. It’s early, so I don’t have to worry too much about cars - other than the paper delivery guy.

I’ve noticed then when I walk I have a tendency to devote too much attention to the ground right in front of me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to watch where you are going. But I sometimes find all my focus just a few feet in front of me. When I am doing that, I notice every crack in the asphalt, every weed that’s growing, every piece of trash, every fallen leaf and every oil stain left by a parked car. And guess what, there are lots of them. The road takes a lot of abuse between the cars, the weather and the ground shifting. The road looks like it’s quite a mess.

I’ve also noticed that when I lift my eyes and look down the road, to where I’m going – all that mess – all those cracks – all those oil stains, they all disappear. I can’t even see them anymore. The road now looks just fine. It’s smooth, flat and perfectly adequate for the task. My goal is now the next corner, not the next crack or oil stain.

What an enormous difference a change of perspective makes!

Are the cracks and oil stains of life tripping you up? Is that all you can see? Does everything look broken and messed up? If so, may I suggest a change of perspective? Lift up your head. Look to the goal. Don’t let the little cracks and stains of this life trip you up.

I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV)

The Perfect Man Hug

Do you know how to do the perfect man hug?



Now you do.

[ht:RagmuffinSoul]

Now for something completely different

I ran across this and found out my two sons have no idea who Cheech and Chong are! What's the world coming to? The crazy part, is they have some Mexican blood in them. I guess it's time for them to learn a bit of their culture.

Brilliant or ......

I couldn't stop watching this. It's brilliant and strange at the same time. Very creative.



This is the Austrian brass ensemble "Mnozil Brass" performing in Austria.

Does anyone else miss Freddie Mercury?

New Music

Are you the kind who likes to find new music? To discover the new artist before all your friends do? If so, you should check out Amie St. The community rates the music of new artists wanting to be discovered. The higher a song is rated, the more it costs. All the way up to 99 cents. The new undiscovered music can be had for free or very cheaply. No DRM either. Whoo Hooo.

Definately worth checking out - Amie St.

NBA Finals

I'm a huge basketball junkie. I live for this time of year and all the hype and excitment. The only problem is -- this year there is little to no excitment.

Tonight's game between the Cleveland Cavs and the San Antonio Spurs was close. But it tied for the lowest scoring game EVER during the finals. Not exactly exciting. The series is now 3-0 in favor of the Spurs. Are we looking at a sweep? Probably...

It's going to be a long a summer while I wait for football to start.

Cool Words

I have a pen in front of me that says “Liquid Gel Ink” on the side. Liquid Gel? What is that? Gel is kind of half way between liquid and solid. So is Liquid Gel half way between liquid and gel? I have this urge to cut the pen open and see what this mystery ink is, but I’m afraid of the mess I’ll have to clean up. Maybe after I use more of the ink out of the pen. Plus it’s kind of a good pen.

I think marketers reuse existing words to describe new inventions, when in reality they should get a new word. Take for instance gel pens. What is the difference between gel ink and regular ink? I supposed a quick internet search will reveal that answer, but it’s more fun to think about it bit first. When I think of gel, I think of something that is too thick to be used as ink, it wouldn’t flow out of the pen properly. So gel ink must be a very liquidy (there’s a new word for you) gel. Maybe a better description would be a thick liquid.

But there’s the problem. Thick liquid is not cool. In fact when I think of thick liquids most of them are gross. More like gunk than gel. Who wants gunk in their pen? On the other hand, gel is cool. Hair gel makes you look better. The gel in the wrist rest at your keyboard is helpful. Gel is good, maybe even cool. Gunk is decidedly uncool. So the marketer uses the term “liquid gel” – even though it’s probably not an accurate description – it’s a description we understand that might even be cool.

So where does this leave the person who is trying to communicate the truths of a loving God? Are we so busy trying to find cool descriptions that we miscommunicate? Do we use words that are technically accurate, but fail to make a connection or an impact? Maybe that’s why Jesus told so many stories. Stories capture our attention and make an impact. Stories definitely communicate in a way that a technical description never could.

How do you communicate the good news? Do you have great stories about God that you can tell? Not something that happened way back when, but current stories. It’s definitely worth pondering about…