The Facebook Song

Have you checked out Facebook yet? The advent of social networking sites like Facebook is bringing enormous changes in the ways we connect with people. I first heard about the site a few years ago through my work with college students. I shrugged it off for a year or two but then decided to log on to see what all the fuss was about. Since creating my facebook page about a year ago, I've reunited with several old friends from high school, some whom I haven't seen in over twenty years.

Here's a fun introduction to Facebook from internet stars Rhett and Link, singing, "The Facebook Song."

Trapped in the Estrogen Prison

Last week, I dragged...I mean persuaded, the redhead to join me in a Spin class at our local gym. She agreed, under the condition that I would attend a yoga class with her the following week. "Sure," I said. How hard could it be...a yoga class? (Y-A-W-N). No weights, no grunting, and a room full of women stretching and breathing deeply to the sounds of pretty music. In other words, not much of a workout.

Sure enough, this morning I entered a dimly lit room filled with soft music and way, way too much estrogen. I saw another guy in the back of the room and a third who arrived to class late, wearing a pink bandana on his head (no comment). With the door shut behind me, there was no escaping to the weight room.

My rude awakening hit about twenty minutes later.

There I was, stretching out along to the tune of a Nora Jones song, breathing deeply, gulping down air, sweating profusely, and desperate for mercy. The soft spoken instructor sounded like she'd popped one too many valium that morning. Thirty minutes later, I was ready to the give the "sun salutation" a salute of my own and ready to kick the "crouching dog, hidden dragon" where the sun don't shine. I collapsed an hour late, begging to be set free from the estrogen prison.

Maybe I'll go again next week.

But only if I can bring a few dumbells.

Discontent

On Sunday, the redhead and I listened to a pastor teach on the topic of joy and happiness. He talked about how our culture keeps us in a state of restlessness and dissatisfaction with our current situation.

In order to keep us consuming more and more, and thereby keeping the economy going, ad agencies work hard to keep us in a constant state of dissatisfaction with our present life. "Wants" turn into "needs" and "necessities" turn into "must haves."

The pastor then cited the following example:

A few years ago, Psychology Today magazine ran an article by Hollywood publicist Michael Levine, in which he argued that constant exposure to beautiful women has made single men less interested in dating and married men less interested in their wives. According to Levine, prior to 1950, the average man didn't have a television, and prior to the automobile and airplane, he was limited in travel. Today, the average guy is exposed to thousands of women through travel, television, movies, the internet, magazines, etc and as a result, he begins losing interest in the more "ordinary" women around him.

What is surprising about this article is his explanation for the average guy's loss of interest. It wasn't that a typical male thinks that "ordinary" women are less attractive. Instead, he thinks, "My wife looks good...but since there are so many beautiful women out there, I can do better."

The sermon led to a great conversation between the redhead and I as we talked about how the constant barrage of ads and images can really take its toll on the soul.

How do you protect yourself our consumer culture's constant pull on your life? How do you keep yourself from being dissatisfied with the good you have in your life right now?

Saturday night mind dump

• Got to blow things up at a friend's 4th of July party last night
• Saw the movie "Handcock" with the Redhead this afternoon. She liked it better than I did.
• Doing a lot of summer reading right now. Several future blog posts brewing in my head.
• My sweet wife woke up at 3am with morning with a major leg cramp/"charleyhorse." Does anybody know how to prevent these?

One Year Later

Happy Anniversary baby,

How I managed to catch a beauty like you I'll never know.

Our wedding day flew by so fast. Hard to believe it was a year ago today that I watched you walking down the aisle.

Here's to the start of another great year together.

Smart Christianity

When my wife and I were on vacation in New York City, we made sure to visit Redeemer Presbyterian, the church she attended during the three years she lived in Manhattan. Amid much skepticism, Dr. Tim Keller launched the church in 1989, hoping to reach out to Manhattan's intellectual and cultural elite. Cynical New Yorkers scoffed at his plans to plant a church committed to classic, orthodox Christianity. Those on the sidelines encouraged him to water down his committment to the reliabilty of scripture and to classic doctrines such as the deity of Christ and the resurrection, believing that educated New Yorkers would only respond to a milder version of Christianity. 


Nineteen years later, 6000 people attend five different services in Mahattan. Most are single and in their 20s.

Part of Keller's attractiveness is his smart, thoughtful, brimstone-free sermons that appeal to the mind and heart (and not the wallet). His book, "The Reason for God" is a great introduction to Christianity and a much needed challenge to the recent stream of athiest books currently in vogue. A few months ago, Keller visited Google's corporate offices for a brief lecture and Q&A session on his book (which has currently moved to number 7 on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller's list). You can watch the lecture below.

Something Other and Better

"Strangely, virtually every death, even of the very old, feels like an intrusion and more or less surprises us. Tears and lament give witness to our basic sense that this is wrong and that we don't like it one bit. Death provides the fundamental datum that something isn't working the way it was intended, accompanied by the feeling that we have every right to expect something other and better." (Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: a Conversation in Spiritual Theology)

My father-in-law passed away Wednesday night. The last 24 hours have been a jumble of motion and emotion as we scrambled to find remotely affordable airline tickets, send out emails, call family, and pack.

My wife kept saying over and over, "I can't believe he's gone." I remember saying the same thing after my own Father passed away. For months I knew that this day might come but it still surprised me. Death is so unnatural. It's as if we somehow know instinctively that this is not supposed to happen.

Death confused me as a child. I didn't grow up in a religious home so we never really talked much about the possibility of life after death. I was relieved when I attended vacation bible school with some kids in the neighborhood and learned about the concept of Heaven. That made sense to me. Death did not. It still doesn't.

I don't think its supposed to make sense. But what does resonate with me is this intuitive sense that "we have every right to expect something other and better" as Peterson describes it.

That gut feeling that "somethin' ain't right" makes no sense if the world consists only of matter in motion. It's like we know deep down inside that something is broken both in us and in world. Our souls cry out for a redeemer even if our hearts and minds will not.