Snapchat, Nonsense & Important Questions You Should Be Asking

As kids, we like to be silly. Somewhere this must be ingrained into us as humans because it slips out even in adulthood; we just get more guarded. What’s alarming though, is that – I’ve been learning – adolescence is creeping into adulthood.

This is crazy –> In 1904 when the term “adolescence” was coined by a guy named G. Stanley Hall, adolescence began at age 14.5 and ended at 16 (just 1.5 years). Today, it begins at about age 10 and ENDS AT AGE 30-ish (a period of 20 years…WHAT!?!?!?). Read more about it from this guy.

This means that kids are taking longer to grow up. I had the thought that social media could be partly to blame.  Here’s why:

I shall not want…your phone

Every time a new phone comes out, I start to drool. I call my friends and we talk about the specs. I imagine scenarios of getting out of my ridiculous contract from the now outdated phone that I just picked up less than 6 months ago.

But then I come back to reality, and it hits me: we’ve all been duped. We’ve been trained to think we need the latest and greatest, that somehow what I currently have isn’t good enough. Are you in this category too?

It’s sad, really. That we’ve succumbed to this mindset. I think the reason why it’s sad is because it robs us of joy. Have you ever gotten upset that somebody has something better than you? Or maybe you’re more mature than that. Well then, have you ever gotten frustrated that something you have doesn’t work like it should or somehow isn’t good enough? Robbed. And we willingly let it happen to us. So not only have we been stolen from, but we’re foolish too.

What if instead we learned to say, I want to see how long I can hold on to what I currently have? I know a guy who has a minivan, and last time I talked to him it had 288,000 miles. He was almost proud of that fact.

Can we really find joy in that mindset? I bet you could come up with a bunch of reasons why, if we weren’t too busy being duped by TV commercials.

Never have these words been truer: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” Or in another translation, “I don’t need a thing.”

Psalm 23 (NKJV; MSG)

Others First, or Me First?

As I said in my last post, I’ve been writing a lot more lately. I’m still doing that and its been extremely helpful.

This morning I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the message prep I have going on right now, so I was planning to write about my struggles with not wanting to put in the effort. I was thinking, “I just don’t want to.”

But something unexpected happened, of course.

How I Drastically Increased My Writing Overnight

I want to be a writer. I think. Probably partly because I’m influenced by those types of people but also because there’s a lot in my heart that I’m pretty sure is worth sharing. However, I’ve always struggled with this task of writing; it’s a lot of work.

Recently I read an article that said if you want to be more productive, wake up every morning and hand write three pages. So the next day, I did that. Except it was one page. Then the next day I did it again. I struggled with what to write and it didn’t feel like I was becoming any more productive, but I kept writing for just a few more days and then something really cool happened.

A Christian’s Role in Culture

There are a lot of great things about our culture – pop tarts, In n’ Out burgers, etc. What’s your favorite thing about our culture?

But, some things in our culture that we just accept as normal are so unhealthy. I’m not talking about hamburger grease or sugar, I’m talking about attitudes or thoughts that go unnoticed but are actually even more dangerous than obvious things.

Let me help you understand: Stealing, lying, cheating – those are bad things. Another level, murder – REALLY bad. Those are obvious.

But what I’m talking about are things that may be bad for us that we don’t realize.