The Ballad of Colton Harris-Moore
Outside magazine tells the tragic, fascinating story of Colton Harris-Moore.
In the Northwest’s San Juan Islands, best known for killer whales and Microsoft retirees, a teen fugitive has made a mockery of local authorities, allegedly stealing cars, taking planes for joyrides, and breaking into vacation homes. His ability to elude the police and survive in the woods has earned him folk-hero status. But some wonder if the 18-year-old will make it out of the hunt alive.
Completing 2009; Beginning 2010
Last year, on the first day of 2009, my wife and I made a “What Happened in 2008″ list. We wrote down every significant event in our lives that we could think of from 2008 (birth of our second child, trips we took, major lessons God taught us, that hilarious night we’ll never forget, etc.). After making that list, we then began to talk, pray, and dream about 2009 and set some goals for 2009.
This year, we did the same thing. Today we wrote a 3 page “What Happened in 2009″ list. We then asked ourselves some questions and did some praying and dreaming for 2010. We’re finding that this new tradition gives a great sense of cohesiveness, history, and focus to our life together. In the future I imagine it will be helpful to look back at these “what happened” lists and remind ourselves of how God was at work in our lives in the past.
I got this idea from productivity guru David Allen. If you’re wanting to do something like this, below is an excerpt from Allen’s latest newsletter that can help jump start your listing and thinking. We don’t use all of Allen’s prompts and questions, and we have added questions of our own, but we’ve found that many of Allen’s prompts and questions generate great discussion in bringing closure to the old year and focus to the new year.
…here are some questions that can guide you in your 2009 review and 2010 goal setting. When I go through these kinds of questions I like to consider my answers in several areas:
Physical
Emotional
Mental
Spiritual
Financial
Family
Community Service
Fun / creativity / recreationCOMPLETING AND REMEMBERING 2009
Review the list of all completed projects
What was your biggest triumph in 2009?
What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?
What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?
What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?
What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?
What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2009?
What are you most happy about completing in 2009?
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2009?
What was the biggest risk you took in 2009?
What was the biggest surprise in 2009?
What important relationship improved the most in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have received in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have given in 2009?
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2009?CREATING THE NEW YEAR
What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010?
Genesis Cover?
My friend Jon Wong is working on potential covers for the study guide I’ve written on Genesis. Here are his first few designs. Which one do you like?
How Gentle God’s Commands
Last week my friend Claire sent me this email/song:
No. 17 How Gentle God’s Commands
How gentle God’s commands!
How kind His precepts are!
Come, cast thy burdens on the Lord,
And trust His constant care.
Beneath His watchful eye
His saints securely dwell;
The hand which bears creation up
Shall guard his children well.
Why should this anxious load
Press down the weary mind?
Come, seek your heavenly Father
And peace and comfort find.
His goodness stands approved,
Unchanged from day to day;
I’ll drop my burdens at His feet
And bear a song away.
Clyde Kilby’s 10 Resolutions
Today I re-read Clyde Kilby’s 10 Resolutions, especially appreciating resolutions 1, 5, 6, and 7.
1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and
remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet
traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about
me.
2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless
evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall
suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said
of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think
this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell
before his death when he said: “There is darkness without, and when I
die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness
anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.”
3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is
merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a
unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall
not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil
parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed
toward moral and spiritual manhood.
4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers
abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract,
which of course I shall often have to do.
5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall
stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social
categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself
and do my work.
6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply
stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be
concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are.
I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their
“divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.
7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in
childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of
Lewis Carroll, the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes
of wonder.”
8. I shall follow Darwin’s advice and turn frequently to imaginative
things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis
suggests, an old book and timeless music.
9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp
all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested,
“fulfill the moment as the moment.” I shall try to live well just now
because the only time that exists is now.
10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the
assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee
landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to
the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a
stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.
The 52 Best Workout Songs
The Art of Manliness Blog lists the 52 best workout songs:
…the 52 best workout songs were
selected in an epic exploration of the foot-tapping, guitar-screaming
and beat-boxing tracks that have found a welcome home in gyms across
America. Most of them famous, some very obscure, but all great songs
for running, lifting, spinning and any other workout you can think of.As for selection criteria one key element stood out from all the rest: tempo.
Why? According to experts it is the most important factor in enhancing
workout performance because it provides timing and coordination for
your movements. Music in the 120-140 beats-per-minute (bpm)
range is best for most aerobic exercise because it most closely matches
the average person’s heart rate.
Go here to see the list. I’m not sure about some of the songs that made the list. I’d workout to about half of these songs.
12 Ways to Super-Charge Your Brain
I found helpful and interesting a few of the "12 Ways to Super-Charge Your Brain" articles from this month’s Wired magazine.
Motorcycle License
I passed my motorcycle safety class this weekend and now have my motorcycle license!
