Echoes and Stars

1. I don’t understand why people say they are humbled when they get an award. I’m always the opposite when I am complimented or recognized.

2. If you’re job description (self imposed or not) is to find something wrong, you will find something wrong.

3. You will be told you need to go see the movie Selma. The subject is important and so you will be encouraged to go for that reason. And you will be told by pastors and other Christian writers to do so. But here is the thing. Read about it before you go. Because if the historians are right, Selma got it wrong and has made LBJ the bad guy when it would have really been a Kennedy. The question that needs to be answered is, “Are truth and kindness important in telling history through film?” For the follower of Jesus, they are paramount.

4. Jesus prayed for those who shamed him in public. This is the difference between Christianity and other belief systems. He would not have us fight for his honor. We honor him when we love those who shame us and deride him and his way.

5. There is no one I’d rather be going through the fires of #diet2015 with than my wife.

6. A question to #the15 who are angry about the books being sold at Lifeway: Are you OK with C.S. Lewis?

7. I think there are two great problems in the Christian book publishing industry. The first is everyone wants to be on the NYT best seller list. So they (publisher, author, ghostwriter) will do whatever they can to get there. This is why ResultSource exists – to game the system and make it look like the book is selling well based on the quality of the book, itself. The second problem is the justification of bad writing and ghostwriting because the content is necessary and good. The ends justify the means. this strips the written of it’s inherent beauty and makes it merely a conduit of information. It’s like looking at a beautiful tree and only seeing baseball bats.

8. It is hard to live in the here and now when you pine for baseball season like I do.

9. This past Sunday I had a terrible scare with my truck. Thanks to God, I sustained no injuries and the truck was easily fixed. But it scared me in the moment. And then it scared me afterward the more I thought about what it would have been like if it had happened a moments earlier or later. That fear turned into something like worship.

10. I have not had pizza in at least a week because of #diet2015.