[Video] Should a Christian Vote?

This question comes up almost every election cycle, especially ones as contentious as this one. You may not agree with everything he had to say (I didn't), but I hope that this video at least gets a conversation started. I recommend watching/listening to the video in its entirety, but if you simply have a question on a specific aspect, I have listed all his points and where to find them in the video. As always, I welcome your comments below.

1. Christians are primarily citizens of another kingdom. 6:26
2. It is not necessarily wrong to feel some patriotism. 7:22
3. The concept of voting or choosing leaders is biblical. 9:37
4. Christians should not allow political parties to divide them. 13:29
5. Voting demonstrates that we respect the authority of the political system in our nation as established by God. 18:17
6. It is one way that we can obey God's command to seek the good of those around us and our nation as a whole. 20:48
7. It demonstrates we care about who our leaders are. 35:03
8. Jesus calls us to make a difference in society and use our influence good in our nation. 36:05
9. It is a privilege that if not exercised could be lost. 39:55
10. Not voting can be a form of voting as it will influence the outcome. 42:18
11. Voting is a part of our stewardship to use all the resources we have been given in ways that honor God; it may be wasting a vote is squandering a gift. 46:12

[Video] The Dark Side of Chocolate

For those of us who want/need a reason to stay away from chocolate this Valentine's Day, the documentary "The Dark Side of Chocolate" offers one very good one (Hint: It's probably not what you think it is.)

I was on youtube watching a video on the negative health effects of sugar, and one of the related videos was one titled "The Dark Side of Chocolate". Since I had just finished watching a video on health, I naturally thought that this chocolate video would talk about how eating chocolate is bad for me. What I discovered was something completely different. Here's the trailer.



If you want to watch the video in its entirety you can do it here, and you can visit the website here. Suffice it to say that I won't be buying chocolate anymore. I also plan on writing about some of the issues presented in this video in a later post, so stay tuned.

Have a Happy (Chocolate-free?) Valentine's Day.

[Video] How to Wake up Feeling Great

Sleep is important.  Here is a short video that will help you wake up feeling refreshed.



Have you heard of this method before? Do you have any other helpful hints regarding sleep? Be sure to leave a comment in the comment section.

[SAHD] What I Learned From My Baby

Courtesy science-essentials.org

The title gives you a clue as to why I haven't posted in a while.

Not long ago in a place not far from where I live, my baby daughter was born.  As events sometimes go, I am now a stay-at-home dad (and no, I have not seen "Mr. Mom").  This prompted me to start a new element of this blog  (hence the acronym in the title).  I toyed with the idea of starting a new blog for the parenting stuff, but figured to stick with this one (although that may change in the future).

I had heard it said that parents learn as much from their children as their children learn from them.  A thought I did not fully understand until I had one of my own.  Here are a few of the lessons I have learned so far.

Realize Your Helplessness

In the Bible, God refers to Himself as our Father.  This name is not so much a means of depicting His gender, but more as a means of clarifying roles.  God takes care of us, and we get taken care of by Him. The main lesson I learned in this area is our utter helplessness without God.  My daughter is completely helpless, she cannot clothe herself, bathe herself, or feed herself.  She even occasionally has difficulty passing gas.  Such is the state of humanity without God's care.  We often deceive ourselves with delusions of self-sufficiency. We would have a much better life if we would let go of this delusion and let God be in control of our lives

Correct Communication is Crucial

Like many infants, my daughter has a very limited vocabulary, which makes understanding what she wants/needs quite challenging.  When she starts crying I often find myself playing a somewhat stressful guessing game.  If only she could tell me right away her need then everyone would be happier.  However, this is not possible given her limited skill set.  In the same way, we have to be understanding of other people if they don't communicate exactly the way we would like them to communicate.  Many people (both male and female) simply lack proper communication skills.  We need to be patient and do our best to understand what they are attempting to tell us.

Don't be Counterproductive

This one goes right along with the previous item because many times since I do not know what my daughter wants, she does not get fed exactly on her preferred time table.  Many times when this happens she will often gain such momentum with her crying that even though the food is there for the taking, she would rather cry than take it, which, of course, makes her more hungry which makes her more angry.  Too often I have to get her to calm down so that she can eat the food she so desperately wants.  How many times do we get so involved in our complaining that we waste valuable time and energy that could have been used to actually accomplish our goals?

So that's it for now.  I'm sure there will be more lessons in the future, so stay tuned.  In the mean time, what lessons have you learned from your (or other people's) children?

Anatomy of Intensity

Mother Lioness via newtechtips.org

Feeling run down?  Does life seem to pass you by?  Maybe you need to be more INTENSE!  Today we'll look at the subject of intensity.  Can we generate it by force of will, or learn it in a classroom?  What does the word even mean?  This post looks at these questions and more as we dissect this often misunderstood concept.

Being from another part of the country than where I currently reside, I occasionally check the news from my home state.  Recently, I came across a video regarding a local football team.  In the video, two reporters commented on various players.  At one point they stated that player x should be more like player y, meaning one lacked the intensity of the other.  They then hoped that y could "pass along" his intensity to x.  This sparked a thought within me.  Can intensity be learned or must one simply be born with it?  This question got me started on a deeper look into this subject.

First we must ask the question "What does the word intensity mean?"

Dictionary Definitions

The Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary (a resource for those learning English) gives the following definition for the word intensity

1 [noncount] : the quality or state of being intense : extreme strength or force
▪ the intensity of the sun's rays ▪ the intensity of the argument

2 : the degree or amount of strength or force that something has [count]
▪ hurricanes of different intensities [noncount] ▪ The noise grew in intensity. [=the noise became louder] ▪ The sun shone with great intensity.

 I chose the Learner's Dictionary definition because of its simplified language as well as its illustrations.  What about other illustrations from nature?

Natural Intensity

An example of natural intensity from my own experience comes to mind.  Some years ago I visited a zoo which had a lioness with young cubs.  Part of the enclosure had transparent walls, and zoo employees had to put additional barriers on the people side because anyone coming too close to the wall would provoke an attack.  I stood well away from the enclosure, but when the lioness' eyes met mine I received the message loud and clear.  If there were no wall between us, my name would no longer be Brent Buttler, my name would be Dead Meat.  The intensity of her look foretold of the violent effort that she would put forth to defend her offspring, but can intensity be displayed in a nonviolent way?

Yes it can.

Nonviolent Intensity

Violent intensity comes to mind first because, let's face it, we live in a violent world, and many examples of violence exist.  However, when we look at the definition of intensity we see that it has to do with the strength of an object or activity rather than its violence.  This strength can also be applied to nonviolent actions and emotions.  An example of nonviolent intensity for me comes from a scene in the film Matthew from The Visual Bible series.  In this scene (starting at 1:38 in the video) Bruce Marchiano, portraying Jesus, looked at Matthew with such intensity that when He told him to "Follow Me" Matthew did so without hesitation.  Now one can argue that Jesus didn't have to learn to be intense, but what about the rest of us?  Can those who exhibit passivity become intense?

Yes,  but not in the way you may think.

Learning Intensity

From my observation and experience I have found that you cannot learn intensity in a classroom or from a book.  You can learn how an intense person acts, but true intensity has to be more than simply going through the motions.  A passive person becomes intense only through a relationship with an intense person.  So if you find yourself feeling run down and you see life passing you by, take the time to develop a relationship with the most intense Person you will ever know, Jesus Christ.

Think I'm on the right track, or do you think I'm way off the mark?  Let me know.  I look forward to your input in this matter.

Featured Post: Clutter and Newton’s First Law of Motion

This Featured Post comes from Erin Doland's blog Unclutterer, which "is the blog about getting and staying organized. A place for everything, and everything in its place is our gospel."

Clutter and Newton’s First Law of Motion

When uncluttering your home and office, chances are you’ll come across many objects you’ve thought about getting rid of dozens (maybe hundreds) of times, but never did.

For example, I’m allergic to Neosporin, yet I found six tubes of it when we were packing up for our move. I had regularly looked at those tubes in different parts of our house over the years — the medicine chest, the emergency kit in the kitchen, the medical kit in my gym bag — yet I didn’t get rid of them whenever I saw them and thought, “I should get rid of those.” I’m also not very sure how we came to own the ointment. My best guess is that my husband brought a couple into the house, maybe one or two came with a packaged medical kit, and one could have been left here by someone else.

In the case of the Neosporin, and all clutter, I believe Newton’s First Law of Motion can explain how it lingers for years in our spaces. An object (clutter) will stay at rest until a force (motivation) of equal or greater value acts upon it. The thought, “I should get rid of that,” is not a force of equal or greater value than the clutter. As unfortunate as it is, thoughts cannot move clutter. We can’t wish away our unwanted objects. We actually have to do something about them physically.

The other case of Newton’s First Law also applies here. An object (me) will continue in motion until a force (motivation) of equal or greater value acts upon it. Usually when I would see the Neosporin, it would be because someone or myself was injured. I was on a path to take care of the injury, not stop and deal with clutter. Then later, when maybe I thought about the Neosporin again, I could have been on a path to a meeting or to make dinner or to relax and watch a movie with my family. The motivation to clear the clutter wasn’t equal or greater than whatever else it was I wanted to be doing.

The only way to deal with the clutter in our lives is to break the patterns of inertia and muster up the motivation to do something about all the stuff we don’t want or need.

Surprisingly, the best way to create force (motivation) of equal or greater value to change the course of our clutter is to simply acknowledge that we have the power (velocity) to change the situation. After we think, “I should get rid of that,” the next thought should immediately be, “and to get rid of it I have to take action, now.” Then, take the action to get rid of the object. (Unless, of course, you’re dealing with an emergency. Deal with the emergency and then come back when you’re on a path to watch television or something equally benign.) Knowing that the object will not move itself and requires a force to act upon it can go a long way in helping you to clear the clutter you encounter regularly in your life.

It can be helpful to have five boxes in your laundry room or at the base of your closet when you’re just getting started on this process. Have one box for items to be returned to other people, a second box for items you wish to sell or Freecycle, the third box for charitable donations, the fourth should be a trash can, and the fifth box a recycling bin. When you come across a piece of clutter, pick it up and carry it to the closet. Decide which of the boxes is most appropriate for the piece of clutter, and then go back to whatever you were doing. When one of the boxes is full, deal with the items in all of the boxes. Take out the trash and recycling, drop off items to charity and to friends, and list the items you wish to sell or Freecycle.

The easier your system to handle clutter, the less force (motivation) it takes to get the unwanted objects (clutter) out of your home.

Featured Post: "Why wasn't I informed?"

This featured post comes from Seth Godin who is an accomplished writer, speaker, and entrepreneur (bio here).

"Why wasn't I informed?"

 

Information is tricky. Sometimes it's delivered to you. Often, you need to go find it.
There's no blame in not being aware of something you had no idea you ought to be looking for. If you've been using the same brand of aftershave for five years, you're forgiven for not Googling it regularly to find out if it contains a carcinogen. That's information we'd like to come find us, not something we need to be on the alert for.

On the other hand, I'm stunned when someone enters new territory without doing a modicum of research. Consider the yutz who goes on vacation to a foreign land, only to discover on arrival that they're in the middle of monsoon season (happens every year around this time!) or that there's a civil war going on.

Or perhaps the small businessperson who launches an expensive marketing campaign without investing a few hours in reading up on what works and what doesn't.
 

Or the email novice who forwards an incredible email to her entire address list without checking Snopes first.

The rules are now clear: no one is going to inform you, but it's easier than ever to inform yourself. Before you spend the money, the time or the attention of your friends, look it up.

Book Review: Emotional Intelligence

The subject of this book review is Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, a good book despite its flaws when looked at from a Christian perspective.

My wife introduced me to this book.  She had read it a number of years ago (it was first published in 1995), and one day as she was perusing a collection of second-hand books she found a copy and gave it to me because 1) she knows that I like to read and 2) she loves me.  I found it quite interesting although I had to read it through a filter of sorts, but more on that later.

The basic premise of the book is the our concept of human intelligence is flawed, or at least incomplete. Goleman stressed that we put too much emphasis on the type of intelligence that can be measured with an IQ test.  He places more of an emphasis on what he likes to call emotional intelligence which incorporates certain aspects such as self-discipline and compassion.  The two types of intelligence must go together in order to have a complete picture of the individual.

This book introduced me to some new concepts, or at least gave me a name for them and told me how they happen.  The one that I remember the most is the concept of a "emotional hijacking".  An emotional hijacking is when the emotional centers of the brain override the rational/cognitive centers.  You, no doubt, have experienced this in one way or another, such as when you got so angry/sad/excited that you ended up doing and/or saying things that you know cognitively that you should not do and/or say.  A very simple way to put it is that it's like being drunk without the liver damage.

There are a lot of positive aspects to this book, but its main downfall for me is that it comes from a very humanistic approach.  Evolutionary concepts are found throughout the book, mainly connected to how the human brain formed and why it functions the way it does.  He also heavily espouses the idea that people can be changed if given the correct education.

I, obviously, do not have the same world view as Goleman does, but that did not prevent me from learning a lot on how people, myself included, function in regards to our emotions.  So if you are interested in a good read and are able to tolerate the author's perspective, search around and pick up this book.  You'll feel more intelligent when you're done.

More Intelligent

Psalm 119:97-104 

Mem

 ⁹⁷ Oh, how I love your law!
       I meditate on it all day long. 
 ⁹⁸ Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
       for they are ever with me.
 ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers,
       for I meditate on your statutes.
 ¹⁰⁰ I have more understanding than the elders,
       for I obey your precepts.
 ¹⁰¹ I have kept my feet from every evil path
       so that I might obey your word.
 ¹⁰² I have not departed from your laws,
       for you yourself have taught me.
 ¹⁰³ How sweet are your words to my taste,
       sweeter than honey to my mouth!
 ¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from your precepts;
       therefore I hate every wrong path.

Attention students, obeying God's law makes you more intelligent.

Upon reading my previous statement, you may say, "Sure, obeying God's law can make me more intelligent regarding God's law, but I'm studying _________." My reply to that is that obedience to God's law makes you more intelligent in all fields, and here's why.

I operate off the concept that obeying His law makes a person more at peace. To truly obey His law is to come into close contact with Him and His character. To come in contact with His character means to have a greater sense of His love for us, and that gives us peace. Many researchers have discovered (and many of us know from personal experience) that emotional stress often inhibits memory function. So the stress reduction that comes from a close relationship with God enables to remember what we have studied. However, this psalm deals with more than simply an increase in academic knowledge.

This psalm deals with such intangibles as wisdom, insight, and understanding, which involve how we use the knowledge that we have. So not only will obeying God's law makes us more intelligent, but we will have greater wisdom, insight, and understanding, which as many of us have found is often a greater help than simply knowing facts and figures.

Have doubts that this works, try it out for yourself. Taste and see that the Lord is good, and you will not be disappointed.

Teach Me

Psalm 119:33-40 

He

 ³³ Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees;
       then I will keep them to the end. 
 ³⁴ Give me understanding, and I will keep your law
       and obey it with all my heart.
 ³⁵ Direct me in the path of your commands,
       for there I find delight.
 ³⁶ Turn my heart toward your statutes
       and not toward selfish gain.
 ³⁷ Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
       preserve my life according to your word. 
 ³⁸ Fulfill your promise to your servant,
       so that you may be feared.
  ³⁹ Take away the disgrace I dread, 
       for your laws are good.
 ⁴⁰ How I long for your precepts!
       Preserve my life in your righteousness.

Education is essential to keeping God's law.

It is interesting the phrases the psalmist uses in this psalm and how much they coincide with an education of one sort or another; phrases such as "teach me", "Give me understanding", "Direct me", etc. The temptation when it comes to the subject of God's law is to go to extremes. The one extreme being that we do absolutely nothing and the other to do absolutely everything. The presence of the aforementioned phrases seem to strike somewhere in the middle. To educate someone else means imparting knowledge with the purpose of assisting them in doing something for themselves. Consider this:

When the Spirit of God controls mind and heart, the converted soul breaks forth into a new song; for he realizes that in his experience the promise of God has been fulfilled, that his transgression has been forgiven, his sin covered. He has exercised repentance toward God for the violation of the divine law, and faith toward Christ, who died for man's justification. "Being justified by faith," he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1.

But because this experience is his, the Christian is not therefore to fold his hands, content with that which has been accomplished for him. He who has determined to enter the spiritual kingdom will find that all the powers and passions of unregenerate nature, backed by the forces of the kingdom of darkness, are arrayed against him. Each day he must renew his consecration, each day do battle with evil. Old habits, hereditary tendencies to wrong, will strive for the mastery, and against these he is to be ever on guard, striving in Christ's strength for victory. --The Acts of the Apostles pp. 476, 477

Conversion, using your desire to take that first step, is not the end of the effort. It is the beginning. There is some work that needs to be done by us and through us. 

This education involves more than simply information. It involves changing habits. Along this line, the phrase "turn my eyes away from worthless things" stood out to me. The ancient Hebrew word shav translated into "worthless things" in the NIV is also translated into "vanity" in the KJV. It connotes emptiness and falsehood. There are many things in this life that falsely promise fulfillment, but end up giving us emptiness. We need to turn away from these things if we are to truly keep the law of God.

There is much more to be learned from this passage, and I encourage you to take the time to study it for the education you will receive is essential to continue on this journey of keeping God's law.

A Different Kind of Education

Psalm 90:12 Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. (New Living Translation)

God can give us the education of a lifetime.

First off, I chose to use a different version of the Bible because the one I usually use (NIV) was actually a bit unclear. It stated, "Teach us to number our days aright . . ." and I had really no idea what that meant so I decided to check out the NLT and here we are. 

An interesting note about this psalm is that the subtitle states that it is "a prayer of Moses the man of God". If I had heard in the past the Moses had written a psalm I had well forgotten it by now, so it was a bit of a surprise to find his name associated with a psalm. Verse twelve isn't the first time he talks about the brevity of life, verses three through six compares mankind to passing dreams and grass that withers by the end of the day. That's all well and good, but how does knowing that help us to grow in wisdom?

The best that I can can come up with is that if one realizes that they have limited resources (whether it be money, food, etc.) they will often develop wisdom as to how to make the most out of those resources. If we allow God to teach us to realize that the brevity of our days, we will make the most of them. The first thing that comes to mind in making the most of my days is to severely limit the number of them I spend worrying, and spend the majority of them with a generally positive attitude. I'm sure you can think of many more ways to properly spend your days, but you get the point. Life is short, use it wisely.