As soon as I finished watching this movie, I immediately wanted to go home and start to dream.

What is one dream you have had lately that you can share?

*kyle

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In fact, some believe that as a country we have no hope.
This might not be a new piece of information for you, and you could even be one of those people who sees the country as hopeless. I mean I read Drudge Report ever single day. I watch 60 minutes every Sunday. I even listen to conservative radio in the car (well only when the local ESPN radio station is on commercial). I have heard all about our collapsing economy, out of control spending, endless war in Iraq, oil spill, and rising jobless rate.

It does not take an expert to figure out that we have problems. But it does take an expert to fix the problems.

I want to let you know that I think I have the solution to all the problems that present themselves today….

We are SINNERS

Ya, I said it, you and me, we are sinners.
That is it, that is the answer…we are sinners.
It amazes me to see people complain and even voice their frustrations with all the things that are wrong in this country and never give a thought to the idea that there will always be things wrong with this country and world.

For a long time, corruption and deceit really would get to me. It would enrage me enough to make sure that everyone knew of the problem. The way I voiced my frustration was through complaining. This complaining would lend itself to things as small as not having milk in the house so that I could eat golden grahams to the corruption of political leaders. It seemed that I had an opinion on everything and a complaint that followed each thought. And to be honest, I did have an opinion and a couple of complaints. But the reason I complained was because I wanted others to see the problems. There was something wrong and I needed to make sure everyone knew about the wrongs that were taking place.

It took me a long time to realize that things will never be okay.
It took me a long time to understand that we will always have problems.
It took me a long time to figure out that as much as I complained it never brought results.

It is taking me a long time to understand that we are all sinners.

The problems of this country, the problems of this world, come down to one thing…sin. This is no excuse to continue in our problems, but it brings a whole new context to each and every situation. The need for redemption is huge. Not the redemption of a country or world, but for the redemption of souls.

For a long time I focused with what was wrong with the world, now I focus with what is right with this world.

We are all sinners…and I am the chief sinner.

We have a Savior…There is Hope

*kyle

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I am the guy that can run through a situation from start to end in less time then it takes for you to read this. It could be a simple idea, response to an inquiry, or even a non verbal communication that someone has given me, I just seem to turn expectations into a session of daydreaming about the future.

What I am learning is that my expectations get me in real trouble. Not only are they always ridiculous, they never come true. There have been several times when I have gotten upset with people because they did not meet my unfair expectation of them.

There have been several times where I have been frustrated with myself because I set high expectations on my life and ideas and they have not been met.

The interesting thing about expectations is that if you have none you are set up for success. Thats right, if you can have no expectations then you will always succeed. Which is crazy, because we all have expectations, but I think if we can start to be realistic instead of expecting, things might be different.

Case in point. Musicians that seem to have great success do no start out with the hopes that they will be huge. My favorite example, the guy from Owl City, he set out to make music, not a million fans. Bloggers that set out to have thousands of followers usually quit after 2 months because they only have 10. It just seems that we let expectations of what others have done dictate what we deem as being successful.

As for me, I am dropping my expectations.

*kyle

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It’s reported that the image above is photoshopped.

To the naked eye this image looks to be a typical command center style photo. But behind every photo is a story, and this photo is screaming with unseen details.

This photo was “taken” in the BP command center for the oil spill.

Upon further investigation you start to see just how photoshopped this image really is:

Thanks to Gizmodo (haven’t we seen them catch other things out in the wild before?) and their investigative work, BP has been busted, again.

As I read this story I couldn’t help but wonder how BP could make such a terrible mistake, till I  realized that I photoshop my own life all the time.

Photoshop is a great tool, but sometimes we can get a little carried away in the “retouching” department. The temptation to make things appear better than they are one button at a time is often the method of choice, and the vehicle we use is often twitter, blogs, or Facebook. Yet, Under the surface our problems still exist, no matter how much we photoshop our appearance, response, or profiles… we will still be the same person.

Can I make a confession?

I “photoshop” myself to give off the appearance that I have things figured out. This is usually masked in my speech. It’s not that I try to be someone else, it’s that I try to stand on the same level as everyone else. I have this idea that if I can be like (insert famous blogger here) or be like (insert well-known twitterer here) then I will be someone and something.

Have you photoshopped yourself?

*kyle

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You?

*kyle

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See at first I started to say, “ya me too, I am tired of mediocrity and its mediocrityness” but then I realized

I love mediocrity

Mediocrity calls me to settle
Mediocrity calls me to play it safe
Mediocrity calls me to be content with little
Mediocrity calls me to do nothing

Mediocrity is not sexy or even something to be desired, but it is easy and doesn’t call for much.

For someone who is afraid of failure, mediocrity might just be the best thing to be.

How do you reject mediocrity?

*kyle

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Perfection has lost its perfection.

The word perfection is one of those words that has lost its meaning. Things like:

This is perfect…Find the perfect fit…The perfect way to lose weight

It seems the word perfect can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In a society that wants to test and measure everything, perfection has to be obtainable. This could be why it always seems that we are judged on perfection. Because truly, we have not done something well unless we have done it perfect.

In chapter 5 Greg Boyd dives into what it means to live a life of love perfectly.

Read more at bibledude.net

*kyle

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A couple of months ago I followed the trend and created a formspring account. Now if you have never heard of formspring let me give you the short version of what it in-details. Formspring is an online service that allows you to ask questions to friends, give answers to questions that have been asked to you, and a great place to learn more about your friends on Twitter and Facebook. By setting up an account you broadcast to the world that your open for questions. I was about 6 questions in when I got this:

A little back story behind this question first. Earlier in the day I got a question from an anonymous person on formspring asking me if I struggle with pornography? My first reaction was, “seriously, you are asking me this on formspring?” I was a little surprised/annoyed with the question because it came from an anonymous person, and is the type of question that deserves a better answer then just a yes or no. You do not go on a first date with someone and ask why they are not married yet? Those type of discussions come after a couple of drinks (I am kidding). Naturally, I did not answer the question. About fifteen minutes after I received the first porn question I received the question above. Feeling that it could be taken that I was hiding something, I gave my reason for not answer the original question and then said that I would like to move that discussion to a different place. Today, I would like to have that discussion.

What struck me as odd was the opportunity for this question to be asked anonymously. How ironic is it that anonymous ask a question about a very anonymous issue. Watching pornography is one of the biggest activities that anyone can partake in without having to have an identity. It is a faceless problem that has thousands of statistics and numbers to back up its popularity. When I was in college, a student decided they wanted to do a research project around how many students were regularly viewing pornography on campus. When the idea was first presented in class, many said that the numbers would be low because the study would be done at a Christian College. But the numbers were shocking. The question was asked “Yes or No: in the last year you have viewed pornography by choice on the internet, movie, or magazine?” 92% answered with a yes. I remember listening in class as the student presented his findings and the discussion that took place after. One girl remarked “my boyfriend would never do that.” I remember chuckling in my head because I knew who her boyfriend was and the conversation that we had at the beginning of the year about accountability.

Its not that people don’t believe pornography is an issue, its that people see the face of pornography as anonymous.

I would like to believe that I am a normal male. But to be a normal male means that I have to like porn, beer, and sports. For most, that would describe the perfect night, and for me it use to be what consumed my nights (well minus the alcohol). Not always at once, but I was a part of the anonymous millions that viewed pornography. Mainly out of curiosity but also out of a deep desire and feeling inside, I googled pornography and searched the web to my hearts desire. After I was done I was able to leave that part of me behind, the shame and disgrace of what my eyes had just witness was deleted by one simple click of my internet history and I returned back to who everyone knew me as. Part of the addiction was that I was able to be someone else. An anonymous spectator consuming a product that seemed innocent and harmless. The only way it could stop was if my real life was confronted with my anonymous life. Those two crashed into each other way sooner then I expected.

I was confronted with my internet search history by my dad after he did some “investigating” of my web history. I remember the shame and embarrassment of being caught. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of looking at porn, it was that I had to put a face on my problem. I had to own up to what I had been doing and partaking in. I remember the next couple of months working to earn my dads trust back. I think that is what happens when our anonymous life and real life collide, we are forced to confront the ultimate problem, sin.

The ugliest thing about pornography is that it is not real.
As a teenager I didn’t understand fantasy from reality. So what I saw on the screen was what I thought reality was. As I continued to grow and understand love, emotion, relationships and even sex, I quickly started to realize what I was watching was fake. The feelings that I had as I consumed were not real, but a creation of the people on the screen and the creation of my mind. Porn stars stopped being anonymous and I started to realize that they were real people, no different then the my friends and even myself. At that moment, when anonymous collided with reality I knew that pornography was gross.
The perversion that overtakes sex can only be done anonymously. Why? Because its not reality, its not real. I realized that as someone who professes Christ and takes on the identity of His love, I was being confronted with my perversion daily. The rubber hit the road for me when my own sin was in front of me and I was challenged to develop a character, an identity of integrity not obscurity. I was not allowed to be an anonymous man, I had to chose an identity.

I do believe there is a redeeming quality of pornography.
The redeeming quality of pornography is that it forces us to confront the identity of sin in our life and forces us to choose to live anonymously or as a man or women of God.

*kyle

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For a long time I described myself as a Connector.Blogger.Dreamer

But after some thought and some conversation, I realized that I was doing a lot more dreaming then doing.

I do not want to be described as someone who dreamed up a lot of ideas, but as someone who did a lot ideas.

Be a doer not a dreamer.

*kyle

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Not what you expect to read first line in on a review of a book, but it was that character trait that made this book most relatable to me, as I was also very much so, “that kid.” I was a know it all Christian that was more concerned about making sure that my favorite baseball player was a Christian and that I could fill up my memory verse sheet at church with stars,then to actually understand what it means to love your neighbors and to pray for those that persecute you.

Evolving in Monkey Town, Held Evans takes you on a personal adventure in her evolving process-from being a know it all Christian who had everything figured out, to one that had more questions then answers. I love the way she describes it:

I went from the security of crawling around on all fours in the muck and mire of my inherited beliefs to the vulnerability of standing, my head and heart exposed, in the truth of my own spiritual experience.

Evolving in Monkey Town is more about asking questions and being okay with not always having the answer.

Held Evans great up in the town that held the famous Scopes Monkey Trial that brought Christian fundamentalism to the forefront. Not only was Christian fundamentalism up on trial, 80 years later Rachel’s faith was on trial. After calling herself an “evolutionist”, not in Darwinian sense, but as someone who has let faith evolve over time, Held Evans leads the reader through the trials of her faith and how she is navigating the world of uncertainty.

The thing that grabbed my attention as I read through this book was that I have been and am on the same journey of faith. From the very beginning I realized that we had a lot in common. I love how she describes the faith journey over the last 2000 years:

We haven’t spent the last two thousand years simply defending the fundamentals; we’ve spent the last two thousand years deciding on many of them.

I’m an evolutionist because I believe that the best way to reclaim the gospel in times of change is not to cling more tightly to our convictions but to hold them with an open hand.

If you have not had a chance to read Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans you need to remedy this problem right now. Click here to get your hands on a book that will make you laugh, think, and evolve.

And if you need more convincing check out this video

Buy Evolving In Monkey Town on Amazon
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FTC: It was my pleasure to receive this book and review it. By no means am I benefiting from the sale of this book. Instead it was my pleasure to read and review this book and then encourage you to go out and buy it because it is good, not because I get money for it. I did receive this book from the author and you should go and buy it so you can receive this book from the store.

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