Five things I learned this week. 5.27.12
Posted: May 27, 2012 | Author: Stewart | Filed under: What I learned this week | Tags: christian, christianity, Dogs, exercise, Facebook, God, humility, learning, pride, running, substance, twitter, weather | Leave a comment »Here are five thing that I learned or was reminded of this week:
1. Social networking is like drinking from a fire hose. It can often be too much.
2. I need to vacuum my dog. She sheds. A lot.
3. Running in the heat is tough.
4. God honors humility, not pride.
5. Styles change. Substance lasts forever.
What did you learn this week?
How I quit social networking for a week and survived.
Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: Stewart | Filed under: life | Tags: conversations with god, Facebook, faith, freedom, friends, God, instagram, learning, life, social networking, social networking sites, twitter, writing | 5 Comments »My name is Stewart and I’ve been social network free for seven days. Seven days without Twitter. Seven days without Facebook and Seven days without blogging. I missed all of you but at the same time I needed some space.
My decision to quit social networking for one calendar week was an easy one. It began to be to much. I found myself checking it too many times a day. Unfortunately, I became obsessed and I didn’t even realize it. So the decision to quit was less of a decision and more of a necessity.
When I gave it up, I found freedom. I was reminded that there is life out there. The world doesn’t reside on a website.
Here a few other things I realized:
* An Instagram sunrise doesn’t come close to the real thing.
* Life exists outside the confines of a desktop/laptop/smartphone.
* Face to face interaction with people is gold.
* When I turned it all off, I found the silence to be invigorating and refreshing.
* There is a lot of good advice given on Twitter but good advice is like wine. It’s healthy in moderation but it can be overdone.
* It’s nice to wonder what you are doing sometimes. It’s not nice to know everything you’re doing… all the time.
* There are these things called books and they’re fun.
* I had some good conversations with God. Sometimes the social networks get in the way of that.
Overall, my time away was good. My head and my heart needed it.
Do you need to turn it off for a while? Is it time to disconnect?
Clear the Mechanism
Posted: February 17, 2012 | Author: Stewart | Filed under: faith, life | Tags: athletes, christianity, dedication, doubt, Facebook, faith, fear, focus, God, kevin costner, movies, social networking sites, writing | 4 Comments »I’m not a fan of romantic dramas and I’m not a big fan of Kevin Costner movies either. Waterworld ruined it for me and since Tin Cup, his movies have kind of gone down hill. However, I am a sucker for sports movies.
In the late 90′s, Kevin Costner starred as an aging baseball pitcher named Billy Chapel in a romance/baseball movie called “For love of the game”. There is a great clip in this movie that illustrates how he handles distraction and fear:
There are times, at our jobs and in our lives, that there are a hundred things going on at once. Our lives are full of distractions. It’s hard to concentrate on one singular task.
Maybe it’s not the distractions that inhibit us. It could be the voices of doubt that yell at us. They tell us that we aren’t good enough. They try to convince us that it can’t be done.
It’s during these times that we need to take a deep breath and focus. We need to block out the negative voices that tell us those lies. We need to ignore them. We need to clear the mechanism.
If only it where that easy. Wouldn’t it be nice to utter these words and have everything go blurry around us except for the task at hand? To instantly shut out the voices of doubt?
Twitter, Facebook and e-mail are taking up all my time.
Clear the mechanism.
You’ll never be able to run that far. You don’t have it in you.
Clear the mechanism.
You don’t need to hear what God is telling you today.
Clear the mechanism.
In the movie, Billy Chapel goes on to pitch a perfect game, quits baseball and lives happily ever after. Only in the movies, right? As silly as it seems, it goes to show what we are capable of if we keep fear and distraction at bay.
What’s distracting you? What is the voice of doubt trying to prevent you from doing today?
Socially Awkward Networking
Posted: January 30, 2012 | Author: Stewart | Filed under: life | Tags: Facebook, Facebook friends, friends, internet soap opera, media, reposts, social networking, social networking sites, twitter | 2 Comments »I love all of my Facebook friends. All 334 of them.
That’s a lie. I only love some of them.
Let’s be honest. Many of our Facebook friends are acquaintances, not friends. In fact, I think it would be best if Facebook didn’t promote the phrase “Facebook Friend”. Friend is a serious word. A friend is someone very close to you. Someone you hold near and dear. Perhaps “buddy” would be a better word.
I know or have known almost everyone on my Facebook buddy list. I enjoy reading about their lives. I like to be in the loop. You might say that I’m a social network stalker. My buddies often make it easy for me to stalk them. They lure me in with their drama. It’s like a made for internet soap opera and they’re the characters.
I’m all about expressing yourself and sharing your feelings but in some cases you need to keep things to yourself. Here are three Facebook characters that you don’t want to be:
Debbie Downer - We hate that your having a bad day. But it seems you have a bad day everyday. Thanks for letting us know your Monday sucks and that the weekend is so far away. Cheer up!
That couple that tells all - We’re so happy that you’re in love. It’s endearing. It’s best that you keep your detailed affection for one another off the Facebook feed. There are kid’s on here. The sweet nothings that you are whispering in each others ears should be just that, whispering. They didn’t invent the phrase “TMI” for nothing.
The reposter - Surely an angel isn’t going to lose their wings if we fail to repost that picture of God’s face that we can barely make out in the cloud. Life will go on if the post stops here, I promise.
Social networking is fun. It’s a good way to stay in touch. We should keep it positive and informative. There’s no need to add virtual drama. We have enough real drama in our lives already.
