One of the things that I read and hear from gurus online is that to help with your own happiness you should try to do a random act of kindness every day. They give examples about people buying somebody else's coffee in the Starbucks drive through or buying somebody's meal in the fast food drive through and those are great! I tend to drift toward things that nobody will really notice or remember just because I don't want to brag or get some sort of return on what I'm doing. At least not from other people.
I don't do it always but I try to pick up a piece of trash every day. I see it as helping keep things nice and clean throughout the day. Of helping somebody who may have missed the garbage can when they were throwing something away. And helping make the janitor's life a little bit easier having the garbage all in one place instead of having to clean up after people.
I have to be careful about it though. I don't want to become judgmental of others but it would be easy to. My wife and I went to an amusement park recently and we enjoyed the rides and seeing all the people out and about without masks and back to normal life before coded 19 rocked our world.
Around 6:30 in the evening we started looking for the expensive food that we could eat for dinner. Terrible fast food that was way overpriced is what you get in an amusement park and this was the same. I remember looking for a table to sit at while my wife was buying the food. I found many of the tables in the covered picnic area heaped with trash. They were trash cans all around the picnic area and they were not full. But people had chosen to eat and then just leave their trash on the table instead of cleaning up after themselves. I found that very sad and at first thought of it as inconsiderate but had to back off of that judgment and leave it outside.
I watched so many people walk through garbage literally, stepping gingerly so that they don't get any of it on them and going the long way around something to get to the door so that they don't have to even get close to it. Instead of just picking it up and putting it in the garbage can.
In Scouting one of the things they teach is "leave no trace". It's a mindset when you are out and about, especially out in natural areas or the woods, to do your thing and have fun but when done try to leave no trace of ever having been there. I took that to heart and have tried to do that in my daily life. It goes along with emptying myself so that God can fill me with his presence, but that's a different subject.
I know that in the end nobody will really know what I did. I gravitate towards those sorts of activities. And I hope that I leave the world a little bit better so the next person can take it and run with it.
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Friday, August 13, 2021
Comments about me feel weird ~
A couple of years ago I did my best to dress like I was a character in Miami Vice. I wore a tank top that was cut low on my chest. I wore an open Oxford kindness shirts made out of cotton. I wore chinos. I wore shoes without socks.
My wife was driven crazy by the hair on my chest! She was so excited to see the hair on my chest and she touched and then commented on and then pointed it out to people. It was hilarious!
I even had some some of my friends commented that I was GQ and the showing of my manliness. They thought it was cool but also seem to be intimidated by my stylish manliness.
It was weird! To have people looking at my body and commenting on my sexiness good or bad was weird. It made me uncomfortable!
It reminded me of a time when I had just started wearing sandals on a regular basis. I went into an elevator in a hospital with my mother and a couple of other women that were strangers to me. One of the women commented on my bare toes. The other woman that was a stranger to me said that I had attractive toes and well-kept nails. And my mother commented that I had good-looking feet. It was all very odd!
It was one of those uncomfortable moments where I felt cool but I also felt uncomfortable. I didn't know if I should be embarrassed or if I should be proud or if I needed to push my jeans down a little bit further so they covered my toes. These older women were eyeing me is if they thought I was a piece of meat or something. It was all very odd.
I still enjoy wearing sandals and baring my toes for all to see. But I am conscious of who is looking at my feet. And I try to keep them looking good in case somebody looks at them and thinks something of them.
My wife was driven crazy by the hair on my chest! She was so excited to see the hair on my chest and she touched and then commented on and then pointed it out to people. It was hilarious!
I even had some some of my friends commented that I was GQ and the showing of my manliness. They thought it was cool but also seem to be intimidated by my stylish manliness.
It was weird! To have people looking at my body and commenting on my sexiness good or bad was weird. It made me uncomfortable!
It reminded me of a time when I had just started wearing sandals on a regular basis. I went into an elevator in a hospital with my mother and a couple of other women that were strangers to me. One of the women commented on my bare toes. The other woman that was a stranger to me said that I had attractive toes and well-kept nails. And my mother commented that I had good-looking feet. It was all very odd!
It was one of those uncomfortable moments where I felt cool but I also felt uncomfortable. I didn't know if I should be embarrassed or if I should be proud or if I needed to push my jeans down a little bit further so they covered my toes. These older women were eyeing me is if they thought I was a piece of meat or something. It was all very odd.
I still enjoy wearing sandals and baring my toes for all to see. But I am conscious of who is looking at my feet. And I try to keep them looking good in case somebody looks at them and thinks something of them.
Saturday, August 7, 2021
Good to hear him again ~
So I wrote about finding and downloading a Paul Harvey archive a while back (http://whollydavid.blogspot.com/2021/02/paul-harvey-archive.html). It was wonderful but it's been sitting on my hard drive taking up space and I haven't been able to do anything with it.
I had this vision of being able to use recordings like this in a podcast for myself so that I could listen to things that I want to fill my head with and be able to pause and resume them easily and have them automatically uploaded and updated every day. But for a while I had no solution to that dream.
Last week I looked again at podcast apps and discovered one that could help me make my dream a reality. Podcast Addict https://podcastaddict.com/app is an app for iOS and Android that will treat a folder on the device as a virtual podcast. That means that whenever you put files in that folder it will present them in a playlist is a podcast for that folder and track which ones you listen to and which ones you have not listened to. I could set it to automatically delete them after listen to them, but I'm not quite there yet. But it also allows you to drop other files in the folder and it automatically updates the podcast feed that it creates and then let you play it.
Me being the tech oriented person that I am I automatically created a folder on my device and synchronized it with dropbox. Then in the dropbox folder of set up a way to drop audio files in that folder and then it synchronizes in the middle of the night every night with my device. And voilà ! A personal podcast that I want to dwell on throughout the day is now available to me.
One of the first things that I did after figuring out how to make it all work was drop a couple of the rest of the story files from Paul Harvey's archive. When I listened to that first set of recordings as if it was random and just dropped in my folder I actually teared up a little bit! I remember listening to Paul Harvey for so long and I enjoy his storytelling technique for so much. So when I heard him telling a story about Andrew Jackson and his parents I got a little emotional.
I love it when my technology touches me. Now I have to read up on legalities and see if I can offer Paul Harvey to more than just me. Because that would just be awesome!
I had this vision of being able to use recordings like this in a podcast for myself so that I could listen to things that I want to fill my head with and be able to pause and resume them easily and have them automatically uploaded and updated every day. But for a while I had no solution to that dream.
Last week I looked again at podcast apps and discovered one that could help me make my dream a reality. Podcast Addict https://podcastaddict.com/app is an app for iOS and Android that will treat a folder on the device as a virtual podcast. That means that whenever you put files in that folder it will present them in a playlist is a podcast for that folder and track which ones you listen to and which ones you have not listened to. I could set it to automatically delete them after listen to them, but I'm not quite there yet. But it also allows you to drop other files in the folder and it automatically updates the podcast feed that it creates and then let you play it.
Me being the tech oriented person that I am I automatically created a folder on my device and synchronized it with dropbox. Then in the dropbox folder of set up a way to drop audio files in that folder and then it synchronizes in the middle of the night every night with my device. And voilà ! A personal podcast that I want to dwell on throughout the day is now available to me.
One of the first things that I did after figuring out how to make it all work was drop a couple of the rest of the story files from Paul Harvey's archive. When I listened to that first set of recordings as if it was random and just dropped in my folder I actually teared up a little bit! I remember listening to Paul Harvey for so long and I enjoy his storytelling technique for so much. So when I heard him telling a story about Andrew Jackson and his parents I got a little emotional.
I love it when my technology touches me. Now I have to read up on legalities and see if I can offer Paul Harvey to more than just me. Because that would just be awesome!
Sunday, August 1, 2021
God as a father figure ~
My wife and I had a time of talking about the Bible and what God is saying to us lately. I talked to her about God as a father figure and how that works for me.
I told her it was probably easier for her since her father died when she was 10 years old. She wants that five father figure and so she can easily transfer that feeling to God and get that out of the Scripture.
I on the other hand had a father until well into my adult life. I knew who my father was and lived with him until I was an adult and moved out to go to college and then move further out when I got married and started my career. So for me it's more of a challenge to approach God as a father figure because I am an adult male in the United States of America and I've been taught that I need to stand on my own 2 feet and make my way through the universe one way or another.
It wasn't harsh, but my father taught me many things about being a man. He taught me to be honest. To share. That it's okay to cry. To love. To stay calm when you're angry, something I still struggle with but I've gotten better. He loved John Wayne and Western movies so that sort of rugged individualism permeated what he talked about. While being a Christian he fell out of going to church after some interesting experiences in organized churches and then began to talk about how God could be seen in nature and things that were created by God. But he got back into a church toward the end of his life.
But because of the American way and the thinking of making it on our own I tend to struggle with approaching God as a father.
But when I read about Jesus going off to be alone with his father and to meditate with his father and how he pleaded with his father at the end but ended up doing his father's will I can see it and I try. It's hard to let go and let God take something when I feel like I need to drive and make it happen through force of will or eking out a finish over the goal line or whatever.
One of my takes on God as a father figure is different than I've heard from other people. When I read the book of Job I know that so many people get wrapped up in the troubles that Job had. Troubles that were caused by the devil, not by God. But I don't want to get into those.
What I see when I read Job is God bragging about his guy. The devil went to accuse God. Before he even got to that point when the devil God pointed Job out and said have you seen my man Job? God bragged about Job.
Let me say that again: God bragged about Job! I remember in a Bible study with other adults that the church that we were going to we were studying Job. And I shared that thought with the group and I pointed to one of the guys and I said can you imagine if God said have you considered my man so-and-so! And he immediately started waving his hands and said no no no I don't want God even pointinh me out or knowing who I am.
That reaction has stuck with me for many years. This idea that we all need to lay low and creep through without being noticed doesn't sit well with me. While I don't like to walk around spending money like crazy and drawing all the attention to me with flashy clothes I do like to do my thing and be comfortable doing it and not be worried about people noticing me or not. I like it when people brag about me to their friends or family. I love the idea of God bragging about me, although I would hate it if anything were to happen to my family and friends.
I share this because as a father I love to talk about my adult children. When they were growing up I loved talking about the different things that they had done, sharing pictures and videos with my parents and my wife's mother. I loved recording journal entries about them and bragging about how great they were and when I got the chance I would immediately tell people about the funniest thing that one of my children it done lately. Even as an adult with adult children I love to tell people about what my kids are doing, including my son-in-law. Once you're part of my family you are part of my family.
Next time you read Job take a little bit longer at the beginning of the book and notice what God says about his guy. You can read it at https://www.bible.com/bible/97/JOB.1.MSG
I told her it was probably easier for her since her father died when she was 10 years old. She wants that five father figure and so she can easily transfer that feeling to God and get that out of the Scripture.
I on the other hand had a father until well into my adult life. I knew who my father was and lived with him until I was an adult and moved out to go to college and then move further out when I got married and started my career. So for me it's more of a challenge to approach God as a father figure because I am an adult male in the United States of America and I've been taught that I need to stand on my own 2 feet and make my way through the universe one way or another.
It wasn't harsh, but my father taught me many things about being a man. He taught me to be honest. To share. That it's okay to cry. To love. To stay calm when you're angry, something I still struggle with but I've gotten better. He loved John Wayne and Western movies so that sort of rugged individualism permeated what he talked about. While being a Christian he fell out of going to church after some interesting experiences in organized churches and then began to talk about how God could be seen in nature and things that were created by God. But he got back into a church toward the end of his life.
But because of the American way and the thinking of making it on our own I tend to struggle with approaching God as a father.
But when I read about Jesus going off to be alone with his father and to meditate with his father and how he pleaded with his father at the end but ended up doing his father's will I can see it and I try. It's hard to let go and let God take something when I feel like I need to drive and make it happen through force of will or eking out a finish over the goal line or whatever.
One of my takes on God as a father figure is different than I've heard from other people. When I read the book of Job I know that so many people get wrapped up in the troubles that Job had. Troubles that were caused by the devil, not by God. But I don't want to get into those.
What I see when I read Job is God bragging about his guy. The devil went to accuse God. Before he even got to that point when the devil God pointed Job out and said have you seen my man Job? God bragged about Job.
Let me say that again: God bragged about Job! I remember in a Bible study with other adults that the church that we were going to we were studying Job. And I shared that thought with the group and I pointed to one of the guys and I said can you imagine if God said have you considered my man so-and-so! And he immediately started waving his hands and said no no no I don't want God even pointinh me out or knowing who I am.
That reaction has stuck with me for many years. This idea that we all need to lay low and creep through without being noticed doesn't sit well with me. While I don't like to walk around spending money like crazy and drawing all the attention to me with flashy clothes I do like to do my thing and be comfortable doing it and not be worried about people noticing me or not. I like it when people brag about me to their friends or family. I love the idea of God bragging about me, although I would hate it if anything were to happen to my family and friends.
I share this because as a father I love to talk about my adult children. When they were growing up I loved talking about the different things that they had done, sharing pictures and videos with my parents and my wife's mother. I loved recording journal entries about them and bragging about how great they were and when I got the chance I would immediately tell people about the funniest thing that one of my children it done lately. Even as an adult with adult children I love to tell people about what my kids are doing, including my son-in-law. Once you're part of my family you are part of my family.
Next time you read Job take a little bit longer at the beginning of the book and notice what God says about his guy. You can read it at https://www.bible.com/bible/97/JOB.1.MSG
Monday, July 26, 2021
Editing the Passion ~
In each of the churches that I have been involved in as an adult I've tried to be a helper in the technology area. I've done sound, I've edited recordings, have made tapes and DVDs of messages. And of edited video for services.
A few years ago when Windows was finally catching up to the Mac movie editing abilities the pastor of the church we were going to at the time asked me if I could make a video to play in the background while he and his daughter sang a duet. It was for a Sunday leading up to Easter or for Easter, I can't remember. But he wanted clips from the movie the Passion of the Christ synchronized with a song about the blood of Jesus flowing down the cross.
The movie had been a big success and had come out on DVD and people were watching it at home and crying about the amount of torture that was depicted in the movie. The brutal nature of what was done to Jesus brought to life on the screen. When I saw the movie it was extremely moving because as a Christian I could envision what had happened but to see it depicted with blood and flecks of flesh and agony and everything that that movie showed was hard. And extremely moving.
The song was about 3 1/2 minutes long. It was very touching and had a male and female voice and was a good fit for both my pastor and his daughter's voices. What he wanted was to have the different views of Jesus on the cross interspersed with the chorus of the song about the blood running down the cross. He wanted video of blood running down the cross during the chorus. But he wasn't very specific in his guidance about which scenes to use.
Because he wasn't very specific I had to spend hours watching the movie the Passion of the Christ. I had to watch over and over and try to get the right scene and try to make it fit with the words without having to distort the speed of the video too much. And this is all in Windows movie maker, which while capable as a program was not the best experience when using.
All in all I spent over 10 hours watching and editing the movie the Passion of the Christ to boil it down to a 3 1/2 minute background video for their duet. It was horrifying and satisfying all at the same time. Now when I see in the story about the movie the Passion of the Christ I quickly move along because I really don't want to read it. I have learned enough about Jesus and have a good relationship with him and I understand the pain and agony as much as I can. But after sitting there for several evenings while my kids played downstairs and went to bed I really just don't want to see that again.
I'm only an amateur but of all the videos that I've edited that was the most challenging in my life.
A few years ago when Windows was finally catching up to the Mac movie editing abilities the pastor of the church we were going to at the time asked me if I could make a video to play in the background while he and his daughter sang a duet. It was for a Sunday leading up to Easter or for Easter, I can't remember. But he wanted clips from the movie the Passion of the Christ synchronized with a song about the blood of Jesus flowing down the cross.
The movie had been a big success and had come out on DVD and people were watching it at home and crying about the amount of torture that was depicted in the movie. The brutal nature of what was done to Jesus brought to life on the screen. When I saw the movie it was extremely moving because as a Christian I could envision what had happened but to see it depicted with blood and flecks of flesh and agony and everything that that movie showed was hard. And extremely moving.
The song was about 3 1/2 minutes long. It was very touching and had a male and female voice and was a good fit for both my pastor and his daughter's voices. What he wanted was to have the different views of Jesus on the cross interspersed with the chorus of the song about the blood running down the cross. He wanted video of blood running down the cross during the chorus. But he wasn't very specific in his guidance about which scenes to use.
Because he wasn't very specific I had to spend hours watching the movie the Passion of the Christ. I had to watch over and over and try to get the right scene and try to make it fit with the words without having to distort the speed of the video too much. And this is all in Windows movie maker, which while capable as a program was not the best experience when using.
All in all I spent over 10 hours watching and editing the movie the Passion of the Christ to boil it down to a 3 1/2 minute background video for their duet. It was horrifying and satisfying all at the same time. Now when I see in the story about the movie the Passion of the Christ I quickly move along because I really don't want to read it. I have learned enough about Jesus and have a good relationship with him and I understand the pain and agony as much as I can. But after sitting there for several evenings while my kids played downstairs and went to bed I really just don't want to see that again.
I'm only an amateur but of all the videos that I've edited that was the most challenging in my life.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Through the Bible podcast ~
When I was younger entertainment options were not as varied as they are today. You had AM/FM radio, you had the 3 to 5 channels on TV and maybe more if you are near a big city. You had tape of some kind, 8-track or cassette. And AM radio was still big.
But AM radio was dying. It was more and more commercials. It was staticy and not as clear as FM. Reception was not always very good, especially between cities.
But as a Christian AM radio was the place to go because that's where the Bible teaching shows were. We had preachers and teachers going through things and talking about the Bible. You heard sermons and teaching on a theme. One of my favorites that I would listen to on AM radio was J Vernon McGee.
J Vernon McGee founded the Through the Bible ministry. Basically he would go chapter by chapter and verse by verse and talk about the Bible on a radio program. And it was all sequential. And he would stop and tell stories and interpret an explain and help apply what the Bible said no matter which part of the Bible he was in at that time. It was great when he was in the New Testament. It was still awesome but not quite the same when he was in the prophets. The Old Testament was fun because he would give insights that I had never heard. But despite his dry southern voice and humor that often sounded hokey I learned a lot from J Vernon McGee.
I remember when I ordered his commentary books via mail. The five book set of Through the Bible commentary was where they had transcribed his teachings and put them in books. My mother-in-law was so excited that she had to borrow one of him and kept it for years because she loved reading the Bible and she loved J Vernon McGee. He was one of those great big personalities from Christian radio.
Recently I was missing hearing his voice and that kind of teaching, verse by verse through the Bible. So I went to my podcast out and searched for Through the Bible and came up with multiple podcasts playing J Vernon McGee himself and the radio shows that he had put out but commercial free. So I subscribed. It's awesome! Now I get to listen to Bible teaching that I got many years ago and can refresh and renew and gain new insights from. Read along with them and read that chapter about Paul as he's going through it. I can pick which one I want to listen to and listen to that chapter or focus on specific things. And I can then reminisce about what I was doing when I first listen to those things. In my car, on my Walkman, or whatever.
I love modern technology!
You can find the through the Bible podcast with J Vernon McGee at https://ttb.org
But AM radio was dying. It was more and more commercials. It was staticy and not as clear as FM. Reception was not always very good, especially between cities.
But as a Christian AM radio was the place to go because that's where the Bible teaching shows were. We had preachers and teachers going through things and talking about the Bible. You heard sermons and teaching on a theme. One of my favorites that I would listen to on AM radio was J Vernon McGee.
J Vernon McGee founded the Through the Bible ministry. Basically he would go chapter by chapter and verse by verse and talk about the Bible on a radio program. And it was all sequential. And he would stop and tell stories and interpret an explain and help apply what the Bible said no matter which part of the Bible he was in at that time. It was great when he was in the New Testament. It was still awesome but not quite the same when he was in the prophets. The Old Testament was fun because he would give insights that I had never heard. But despite his dry southern voice and humor that often sounded hokey I learned a lot from J Vernon McGee.
I remember when I ordered his commentary books via mail. The five book set of Through the Bible commentary was where they had transcribed his teachings and put them in books. My mother-in-law was so excited that she had to borrow one of him and kept it for years because she loved reading the Bible and she loved J Vernon McGee. He was one of those great big personalities from Christian radio.
Recently I was missing hearing his voice and that kind of teaching, verse by verse through the Bible. So I went to my podcast out and searched for Through the Bible and came up with multiple podcasts playing J Vernon McGee himself and the radio shows that he had put out but commercial free. So I subscribed. It's awesome! Now I get to listen to Bible teaching that I got many years ago and can refresh and renew and gain new insights from. Read along with them and read that chapter about Paul as he's going through it. I can pick which one I want to listen to and listen to that chapter or focus on specific things. And I can then reminisce about what I was doing when I first listen to those things. In my car, on my Walkman, or whatever.
I love modern technology!
You can find the through the Bible podcast with J Vernon McGee at https://ttb.org
Friday, July 2, 2021
Book - Dream Big ~
Bob Goff's book Dream Big was a good book! It's basically a roadmap on how to corral and then chase after the dreams of your heart.
He starts out by saying that it's good to have dreams and that you should think big and go after them. Then he gives some inspirational stories on how to narrow down and then get specific about what it is it will take to achieve your dream and then some stories on how sometimes you don't and how to recover from that. It was a really good book and I enjoyed the stories a lot.
Dream Big also has a workbook that you can buy. I did not get the workbook but I'm sure that it has worksheets to fill out that he referred to and the that will help you focus your energies and actually achieve things rather than just walk around dreaming about all the things that you could've been done.
I enjoy Bob Goff's writing. I enjoyed his stories and the tone of them. Always upbeat, always pointing back to God.
I recommend Dream Big as a good book if you're looking for a way to get a little bit more focused than you are right now.
You can find it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081MYW3VT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_SMER3D1B1YEN9JMB8GYX
And you can find the Bob Goff website at https://bobgoff.com
He starts out by saying that it's good to have dreams and that you should think big and go after them. Then he gives some inspirational stories on how to narrow down and then get specific about what it is it will take to achieve your dream and then some stories on how sometimes you don't and how to recover from that. It was a really good book and I enjoyed the stories a lot.
Dream Big also has a workbook that you can buy. I did not get the workbook but I'm sure that it has worksheets to fill out that he referred to and the that will help you focus your energies and actually achieve things rather than just walk around dreaming about all the things that you could've been done.
I enjoy Bob Goff's writing. I enjoyed his stories and the tone of them. Always upbeat, always pointing back to God.
I recommend Dream Big as a good book if you're looking for a way to get a little bit more focused than you are right now.
You can find it at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081MYW3VT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_SMER3D1B1YEN9JMB8GYX
And you can find the Bob Goff website at https://bobgoff.com
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