Let Your Yes Be Yes

A friend of mine said something yesterday that I thought was so quotable. He said, "I don't want to say yes just because it's hard to say no."

What a great rule of thumb.

Don't say yes to something because it's hard to say no :)

That's a great reminder for a "people pleaser" like me!

Jesus said, "Let your yes be yes."

I like the NLT translation: "Just say a simple, 'Yes, I will,' or 'No, I won't'."

What have you been saying "yes" to because it's hard to say "no" to?

Google Fight

Wanna fight? This is fun. That is, until you realize that you aren't nearly as popular as you thought. :) It's called Google Fight. You type in two search queries and GF will tell you which query is most popular. Here are a few that I tried:






Keith Hollaway VS. Juan Valdez = WINNER: Juan Valdez (but barely...)

Keith Hollaway VS. Howard Schultz (CEO, Starbucks) = WINNER: Keith Hollaway (can you say FREE COFFEE?!)

Keith HollawayVS. Bill Hybels = WINNER: Keith Hollaway (by a LONG shot mind you.)

Keith Hollaway VS. Rob Bell = WINNER: Rob Bell (ooooh....look at me! I know Hebrew!)

Keith HollawayVS. Tammy Faye Bakker = WINNER: Keith Hollaway (should this make me feel good?)

Here's the link:

http://www.googlefight.com/

Go ahead...try it...tell me how you did.

Had to pass this along

One of THOSE days...

This is the scene on my desk as of 9:59am.

Those are 3 empty caramel apple ciders.

Not good...

Circadian Rhythm

I don't know if anyone really cares about when I get up and go to sleep :-) But I thought I'd post about it anyway.

I've always been fascinated by circadian ryhthym. We all have an internal clock that determines how we tick throughout the day. For what it's worth, I believe in siesta legislation :-) I think the world would be a better place if everybody took a nap mat to work with them and took a ten minute cat nap each day :-) And eat some nilla wafers while we're at it :-)

Anywho...

Last January I started getting up at 6:00 AM. My most productive hours are before 9 AM. That's when I do my best thinking, writing, and praying.

I have a father who gets up before the roosters :-) And I see the way it helps him keep his spiritual edge. So I wanted to emulate that. I also see references to Jesus getting up while it was still dark. I think it was a pattern in his life.

Having said that let me say this. I think there are larks and owls. There are "morning people" and "nocturnal types." I think we've all got to find a ryhthym that works for us.

I've also discovered that I need to mix it up every once in a while. That's what I'm doing right now. I've felt really exhausted at the end of the day lately. And I have almost no creative energy in the afternoons :-) So I've switched things up from Thanksgiving till the New Year. It's hard to get up super early when the days are shorter and the weather is colder. So I'm sleeping in a little later these days. I'll go back to 6:00 AM in January, but my work day doesn't get started until 7 or 8 AM these days.

So why post about sleep patterns?

Because rythym is huge! One of the ten commandments is about resting on the seventh day. We've got to find a ryhthym between work and play. We've got to make sure we're re-creating. In fact, re-creation is the key to creation. I don't know that I've ever thought about sleep stewardship :-) But we've got to live somewhere in between sleep deprivation and laziness :-) We've got to push ourselves and take care of ourselves.

I'm not sure whether you're a lark or an owl, but here's a thought. If you're pursuing your God-given passions you'll have down days like everybody else. But most days that God-given passion will get you up early and keep you up late :-)

Nothing is as de-energizing as sin--living outside the will of God. And nothing is as energizing as pursuing a God-given passion--living inside the will of God.

Isn't that what Jesus said in John 4? His "food" was doing the will of the Father. Pursuing a God-given passion has caloric value!

Snow!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Ok, it's officially winter. Now lets plan the ski trip!

Truck Ads

I did a post on sidewalk art a few months ago. These 3D truck ads are a-mazing! I love creative adversiting!

I'm always thinking and praying about new ways to communicate the gospel. Luke 14:23 tells us to "compel" them to come in. It means to demand attention. If we're really "about the Father's business" we've got to be compelling. I know there is a fine line where a sacred message can be turned into a gimmick that does more harm than good. But the greatest message deserves the most compelling marketing!

Narnia on it's way

I am fascinated by the etymology of ideas.

I'm getting fired up about The Chronicles of Narnia movie coming out and I'm prepping myself to see it, so I'm doing some research and reading. Just thought I'd share some Narnia etymology.

C.S. Lewis traced the idea for Narnia back to a picture he saw when he was sixteen years old. He once wrote an essay titled "It All Began with a Picture." He explained "the lion all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture has been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: 'Let's try to make a story about it'."

It started with a paragraph on a scrap of paper in September of 1939. It wasn't till almost a decade later that the first book: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, was written.

All the ideas and characters in the book have an etymology. Lewis said he made Aslan a lion because Jesus was called the Lion of Judah. And he had been dreaming about lions when he started writing the story.

For what it's worth, Lewis sent a draft of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe to Owen Barfield and his wife Maud read it. She was concerned that kids would read the book, walk into the closet, and accidentally lock themselves in. Lewis added five warnings in the book about not closing and locking a wardrobe door. One little boy in Oxford did take a hatchet and chop a hole in the back of the family wardrobe hoping to find Narnia :)

One more idea etymology. Lewis got the name Aslan from The Thousand and One Nights. Aslan is turkish for lion. He saw the word in a footnote of Edward William Lane's classic 1840 translation.

It took Lewis more than four decades to turn an idea from a picture into a series of books that have sold 85 million copies!

The etymology of ideas is an amazing thing!