The silence of contentment

“… and that’s the sound – of silence…”

I haven’t blogged in a long time. Between honetstly not having time and just being happier and more content in general, I guess I’ve just been too busy not whining and enjoying life to think enough about blogging to exceed the blog-thought threshold¹. I really don’t mind.

Off I go to enjoy life more!

¹The point at which I think about blogging frequently enough that my thoughts spill from “I wonder about” to “I should blog about” and fully saturate the “I’m going to blog about” sensor – resulting in a blog post. Not unlike an avalanche diode (in series with another of the same).

Another reason I need to be a product tester

Republic Wireless is possibly the best mobile phone company to come along in a while, even if their phone doesn’t always get the best reviews.

Having made the switch from iPhone to Android with their LG Optimus handset, I’m making a conscious effort to learn the Android OS and get used to the switch. Realizing it will probably take a little while, I’ve decided to give it 3-4 months. With that in mind (and the $99 handset offer I capitalized on), I bought the OtterBox Commuter case for the handset, and it even came before Christmas!! So when I went to put it on today, I was appalled to find marring on the screen of the phone!

Now, I understand that the iPhone may just be superior to every other handset ever made – and in some ways it is, not to mention the Apple die-hard fans that will never part with their iPhone. There are a lot of things I like about the iPhone, but I had no idea that other handset companies still use the faces that are so easy to scratch. I guess I’m just spoiled by the gorilla glass? I’ve even been babying the thing until I got my case.

This is why I need to be a product tester – forget labs that will subject your devices/products to “severe, real-world conditions.” Just give it to me and I’ll actually use it – and my daily usage alone will trump the most severe conditions most people’s usage will ever come close to.

I take copious and detailed notes. Let me know if you want me to test any of your products

8 Things … by someone else

Catalystspace.com has a kick’n article for 20-somethings, check it out.

I thought I got it from Gartley, but now I can’t find the post, so I have no idea…

Forever the Faithful

I had a thought today: What if nothing changes?

I have a lot of hopes and dreams. But what if nothing changes? I have various wants and desires – but what if nothing happens? There are lots of crazy (and I really mean crazy) things on my list to accomplish in life … but what if my life keeps going as it is now? It stemmed from this song, but grew to have its own rabbit hole … what if nothing really did change?

There are a few things I’m directly working on changing right now in my life – and what if one of the big ones didn’t change. Not only did it not change in the way I’m trying to change it now, but what if it never changed. What if all the things I want to do in that vein of my life never came to pass? Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I’m very driven – very rewards-focussed. So what if nothing changed?

I had a chance to change things in the past. In fact, I was banking on them changing. I was sure they would be changing. But then they weren’t. Through no choice of my own, my life didn’t take the change for the better that I was expecting. It was life changing. I remember hearing that song during my time of non-change … which was in itself a time of change.

“[Forever] God is faithful” it says. I didn’t think God was faithful. Or if he was, he wasn’t faithful to me. Or if he was faithful to me then he was faithful in his own way. It wasn’t really a happy time. It took a lot of real searching … really evaluating my own spirit/soul/mind/heart. I wanted what I wanted. Not what God wanted. I was pissed.

Do you ever have to step back and look at things from 10,000 feet instead of right up close to realize something? I think this is more true of most of us modern-day Christians than we realize. The lyrics to that song don’t say “God is faithful to do what we think he’s doing.” It doesn’t say “God will make you happy, if you say you love him.” … and it doesn’t say that he doesn’t care about me… Instead it says “Forever God is faithful.” That “Forever he is strong.” – and the last line in the refrain: “Forever God is with us.”

Listening to that last lyric is what really struck me. Life sucked. I mean, it sucked more than I think it had ever sucked for me to that point in the rest of my existence. I was angry at God. I was hurt, and I was broken. I wasn’t going to kill myself or do something permanent – because that isn’t what strong people did, and I wanted to be strong – but I didn’t know what I was going to do. I yelled at God, questioned him, and really, really wanted to know why this had all happened.

I have to tell you: I didn’t get an answer. I don’t know why it happened – I don’t know what the point was. But I heard the line that God was with me, and I broke down. If he is with us, if he is for us, if he does love us … then it’s all a different lens. Forever God is Faithful? Okay. Forever God is strong? Cool. But “Forever God is with us?” Well, that’s a game-changer.

Because the bible tells me that he loves me. That he works all things for the good of those who love him. That he is strong, a conqueror, and has fought for me. It tells me that he is good, that he is strong, and that he really, actually loves me. Not loves me like someone who’s going to leave – not loves me like someone whose love depends on how well I do at work, in school, or even how much I serve, love, and sacrifice. He.Loves.Me – and is with me forever. A God that is all that, and he is with me? … That blew me away to really believe and let it settle in.

And so it settled in with me that: even if nothing changed from how it is now, that would be okay. Not complacently roll-over-and-not-care okay, but I-really-believe-that-God-loves-me okay.

Have you considered letting it settle into you? Because he loves you too.

30 Days of praying.

I heard the story of The Pittsburgh Experiment today.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in Pittsburgh, but I’m trying the method. For the next 30 days I’ll be praying every day, at least once, for this specific person and the situation.

At the end of your own rope? Frustrated and ready to give up? Shoot me a line – I’ll pray with you if you pray with me, for 30 days, every day, at least once a day. It can’t hurt, right? Let’s try it, and see what happens. :~D

Books and Covers (part 3)

Picking up where we left off yesterday…

Now that I get to be ‘picky’ I start to look at things like intelligence, tastes, attitudes and dreams. You might say those are overkill to evaluate, and again – you’re welcome to your opinions. I find it important that someone be able to keep up with me mentally – and she doesn’t have to be a genius or have the same intellect as me to pace with me here. I also value tastes similar enough that we’ll be able to enjoy a number of activities together. Same thing with attitude (I appreciate someone smiley and positive) and dreams (I have big dreams) – because I want to continue to grow closer over time, not further apart.

So there’s at least the top five, if not top seven things I look for in women. I haven’t said anything at all about physical looks. Why? Because all of those things I’ve already discussed are more important to me than outward appearance… But the exterior is still part of the package, and I don’t consider it unimportant. The reason I talk more about the exterior to other people I trust is that it’s the hardest thing for me to reconcile with all the other things I find really important. And since it’s the hardest thing for me to understand, it’s the thing I look for the most advice on. I’ve already thought through the difference in looks and behavior; that’s why I look for behavior as more important than looks.

So after all of my consideration and quandaries, the thing I talk about the most is outward looks. Not because I’ve ignored the other things – nor is it even close to outward elements superseding interior attributes. I’ve already investigated those things. If a girl has gotten to the level of me wondering about her exterior and how she looks on the outside, she’s already passed a battery of tests more pertinent to the content of the heart than I could describe in a blog post – or several blog posts.

Books and Covers (part 2)

Picking up from yesterday…

Secondly, I gather as much information I can about a person’s faith – particularly how it interfaces with their day-to-day routine actions. This step is probably the most challenging, as it’s certainly a faux pax in America to just walk up to someone and say “Do you actually believe in anything or just attend some sort of service, or even just believe nothing at all?” Yeah, that question is extreme; what do you expect from me? If you know me in person, you know I rarely dally. I’ll either do something I enjoy (which might be relaxed and chill), or I attempt to accomplish something – or both at the same time. So if I want to find out about your faith and how it functions in your life, that’s going to involve questions.

Usually discovering things about a person’s faith requires questions because people are so hesitant to share. Honestly, if someone is tactful and forthright about sharing, that’s – to me – more attractive, because it denotes someone who isn’t afraid to stand for who they are… but I digress. So I might ask a variety of questions, mostly open-ended, and simply give the person an opportunity to share bits about their faith life. From a handful of questions and conversation, usually a person reveals their bent towards or away from their convictions. Only once have I actually had to ask a person flat out if they believed in the same things as me or not.

After seeing how a person interacts with the world, and addressing their beliefs, I can start to get picky. Maybe you think I’ve already been picky by wanting a quality individual who believes the way I do. And I have to say: I might be ‘picky’ by some standards. I’m okay with that. My life goals involve doing things with my wife that correlate strongly with good-hearted people and our (wife’s and my) shared faith. If you just want a trophy wife to show off on weekends and social occasions, that’s your call. I want a trophy wife to show off all the time and do stuff with and really live the rest of my life with and to grow old with, doing fun and silly things together.

To be continued…