Nerd Fitness and the Angry Bird Workout

It's been a while since I'd posted an update blog.

The semester is finished, and summer has started. I managed to pass all of my classes, although Greek II almost got me. I'll have to be reviewing that material this summer, otherwise Greek III will destroy me. :(

My part-time job at the school registrar's office has ended, and I wasn't able to land another position yet, so a lot of my time this summer is free. I'm valeting part-time again to help counter that monetary lapse in my income, and I'm still working part-time at church, so I should be doing okay financially.

Recently I've been reading a bunch of blogs (what else is new), and the standout of the bunch is called Nerd Fitness. If you know me at all, I'm a pretty nerdy kinda guy. I mean, I balance it out fairly well with my enjoyment of sports and guitar, but I'm a nerd. Video games fascinate me, and I thoroughly enjoy the books I read (when I read). I'm even writing short reviews on the different books I read (or listen to as the case may be).

Don't Kill Desire, pt. 3

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get this last post out. I needed to make sure that my schoolwork and stuff was under control. Now that I've finished with that, I finally have time to sit down and finish up my thoughts on desire. This is part 3 of my mini-series on desire. In part 1, we established that desire is at the root of various habits and problems in our lives, and that killing those unwanted desires isn't enough to help us to overcome those habits and problems. In part 2 we further clarified why attempting to kill desire isn't enough with the examples of overeating and pornography. Now we're going to dive into what to do about it.

One last caveat before we jump in: Attempting to kill negative (or unwanted) desires completely is nearly impossible by itself, or so I've found. Willpower isn't constant, and when it wanes, I have found that negative desires spring up.

Don't Kill Desire, pt. 2

A few days ago, I wrote about the concept of killing desire in relation to overcoming habitual sin. If you haven't read part 1 head on over and take a look. This post will make a lot more sense. Or maybe not.

You all caught up? Good. Allow me to try to clarify why I don't think trying to kill desire is adequate for having us overcome habitual sin. Let's pretend that I struggle with being overweight. (If you know me, you know this isn't a problem, but for the sake of the analogy, let's pretend.) I understand that some people are obese due to medical or other perfectly legitimate issues, but let's say that I'm overweight simply because I love food. I love the way it smells, the way it tastes, the textures as I chew, the feeling of satisfaction that comes after eating. I love everything about food. Now let's say that I have decided that I need to lose weight, so I start a diet that removes unhealthy, processed foods from my normal eating cycle. After four weeks on said diet, I've lost 42 pounds and feel much better about myself, so I finish up that special diet and everything goes back to normal.

Don't Kill Desire, pt. 1

Hey guys, so this post could be a lot less structured than my typical posts. As I was walking to school the other day, I was praying and found myself wrestling with the concept of desire. Basically, what I’m planning on doing here, is revisiting those thoughts, beginning with the concept of desire and expanding outward from there as my thoughts lead.

edit: As I was writing, I found that this post is stemming from the idea of overcoming habitual sin. One teaching that I run up against often is to kill off bad desire. I don't think that's adequate, and this series of posts will, hopefully, explain why it's not and what I think we need to do about it. Although it's directly applicable to overcoming habitual sin, in a broader sense, it's applicable to enacting any major change in your life.

Updates and Thoughts on Prayer

It's been ages since I've written a blog. (Okay, okay, so it's been a month and a half). I've been busy, and writing and maintaining this blog has fallen on my priority list, unfortunately. I still have thoughts, but I always feel like I don't have the time to express them. I fear that I am too easily swept up in the meaningless and the mundane. I seek purpose in things that can't give me purpose. I ignore chances for excitement or even productivity for the dull and repetitive.

I have fallen behind in my 12 in 12 project, unfortunately. I will finish at least 12 books this year, but it won't be monthly, anymore. I feel like I've got more reading than I can keep up with because of school. Right now I'm about 2/3 done with  The Holiness of God by RC Sproul, and I'm slowly working through it. On to some other thoughts.

Misguided Efforts

Have you ever gotten so excited about something that you lose track of what you're supposed to be doing? Let me rephrase that. Have you ever been so passionate about something that - in your effort to develop that passion, streamline it, increase its range of impact - you step back and realize that you've forgotten to continue doing what you're passionate about? It's the difference of working your passion and working on the thing you're passionate about. Can you see the difference? It's subtle. I think the concept is best encapsulated in Voltaire's moral poem La Bégueule - "...the best is the enemy of the good."

Tebow, Rodgers, and the Gospel

I know this blog is kinda late, considering the Broncos are out of the playoffs and have been for a while, but I was reading this blog post a while ago and it made me think about Tim Tebow and Aaron Rodgers. Now, for those of you who don't know, both Tebow and Rodgers are professing Christians, but how they profess their faith is noticeably different. While Tebow is exceedingly vocal about his faith and is known for "tebowing" during games after a touchdown, Rodgers said here,

Hipsters, Trends, and Friends

Isn't the trend of "hipster" rather strange? I mean, my understanding of "hipster" is wrapped up in four words: Before It Was Cool. That might just be the joke, but I feel like that's where it started out. Glancing around the Internet, it sounds like "hipsterism" as we know it started in the '90s as a reaction against... something. Hipsters created their own look by not looking the way everyone else did. They popularized hobbies that no one else did. They listened to certain types of music that weren't popular. So... hipsters did stuff before it was cool.

Celebrity Jealousy

With all of the hype surrounding Jefferson Bethke's video on Jesus and Religion, I had some feelings stirring up in my heart that made me stop and reflect. Maybe it's something that you can relate to, but when sometimes I get jealous. By the post title, you may gather that I'm not talking about jealousy of other people of my so-called social status. I'm talking about "Celebrities". Do you know what I'm talking about? You see someone who gets a lot of attention for one reason or another and you want what they have.

One thing that I've noticed is that I don't struggle with jealousy of long-time famous people. I couldn't care less about what the Kardashians have and do. I have no desire to be like them and, frankly, I don't really understand why there is such a fascination with them. They're famous because their dad was a good lawyer. I don't understand why his fame should be inherited. But I digress.

Talking About My Faith

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last few days. I went with my church youth group to winter camp at Pondo. It was a great time to get to know the youth better, as well as learn and grow myself. Personally, the biggest take-home was my experience of freedom and forgiveness on Saturday night. It helped me to know and understand God's love for me even more, and I couldn't help but feel grateful. Now, on to today's post!

A recent post for a blog that I try to read regularly touched on a subject that I'm growing to love more and more: talking to people about Jesus. Now, if you've been reading my posts regularly, you might have noticed that I tend to mention my faith and talk about different things from the Christian perspective in a lot of them. That's not what I'm talking about.

News and the Lord's Prayer

First off, you may have noticed that the blog has a couple new features, namely, the links at the top. As I mentioned in my New Year's Resolutions blog, this year I'm going to be reading a book a month (at least) and writing down a short review or response to it. I'm planning on continuing to read beyond this year, and I'll be writing about the books that I read in the future as well. Hope you enjoy it!

On to the topic of today's post: the Lord's Prayer. I've grown up reciting this in church (using some fairly archaic language, I might add), but until now I had never stopped and really broken down what Jesus was praying.

Passions: Lust and Anger?

There's a verse in the Bible where an older man tells a younger man to "flee youthful passions." When I was growing up in church, I always assumed that he was talking about lust. I mean, I'm a young guy, and the most powerful "youthful passion" that I experience is, arguably, my attraction to girls. But recently, I was challenged in my thought on this.

Thoughts on Growth and Evaluation

With the new year freshly upon us and those New Year's Resolutions still intact, one thing that I've come across is the concept of growth. Most resolutions, New Year's or otherwise, have some sort of measure of growth. A year-long fast from chocolate measures growth by the ability to avoid eating chocolate. For my personal resolution, growth is measured by getting a book, reading through it, and writing a review. Each step of this cycle that is completed is demonstrative of a little bit of growth. It's easy and measurable. But what about things that aren't so easily measured? How do we measure growth in, for example, becoming a better mother? Or breaking an addiction?

Friends and Technology

I've noticed, especially over this past semester, that I really don't have as many close friends as I once thought. That's not necessarily due to my being antisocial, although that may be part of it. Part of the problem is distance. All of the friends that I grew up with live far away from me. All of them attended different schools from me, so we've grown apart over these last four years. And now that we've graduated, they've all moved back home, but I'm still 6.5 hours away attending grad school.

New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year, everyone!

As one year changes to another, many people want to take this time to make changes in their own lives. I've seen friends swear off of things (chocolate, pizza, soda, etc.). I've also seen people resolve that they'll start something new, like working out or a new diet. Perhaps you've also made a commitment for the new year. Personally, I've committed to reading a book per month outside of school-assigned reading, and doing a little write-up that I'll post here.

Free Blogs

Why do I like blogs? They’re free, and I like free things. Free things are super convenient. And, honestly, if you’re paying for a blog, someone’s getting ripped off and it’s probably you. Unfortunately, sometimes that can work against me.


1. Free blogs are typically short.
Now this can go either way. Most blogs are short. Some of them feel like they’re endless, but they’re still shorter than books, right? In a blog you get a short, concentrated burst of thought that’s put down on a website for people like me who like to learn but have an attention span of next to zero.