Five things I learned this week. 9.3.12

Posted: September 3, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: What I learned this week | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Here are five things that I learned or was reminded of this week:

1.  Common sense is not faith. Faith is not common sense.

2.  When football season starts, all other sports (temporarily) fade into obscurity.

3.  Running out of coffee makes me anxious.

4.  Instagram doesn’t make me a pro photographer.

5.  I love three day weekends.

What did you learn this week?

How I quit social networking for a week and survived.

Posted: May 22, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: life | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 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?

Five things I learned this week. 4.15.12

Posted: April 15, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: What I learned this week | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Here are five things that I learned or was reminded of this week:

1.  Running is a catalyst for deep thoughts and ideas.

2.  We should celebrate God’s goodness everyday.

3.  When we pray, we are in God’s presence.

4.  I wish I invented Instagram.

5.  It’s good to promote the positive things that people are doing.

What did you learn this week?

Things I think about while running.

Posted: April 11, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: life, running | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Every now and then you have these deep thought moments.  Those moments when a great idea or a solution to a problem reveals itself.  For some people, this happens while in the shower or when mowing the lawn or doing anything that doesn’t require a lot of concentration.

For me, most of my deep thought moments happen while I’m running.  Since running requires minimal thinking or problem solving, my mind is clear and receptive.

Here are ten random thoughts I had while I ran yesterday:

1.   I wish I could take pictures while I ran – without stopping.

2.   Why do these kamikaze squirrels jump out in front of me?

3.   I hope I don’t encounter a snake…

4.   Those flying snakes that I dreamt about last week.

5.   The sky is a deep shade of blue… God is amazing.

6.   Africa.

7.   I’m going to vomit… wait… no I’m not.

8.   Philippians 4:13.

9.   I wish I had one of those mini helicopters with a camera on it.

10. What if I invented Instagram?  Cha-Ching!

Do you ever have these deep thought moments?