...Of course, there's a different strategy, a crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the least.
Radically overdeliver.
Turns out that this is a cheap and effective marketing technique. ~ Seth Godin
• WHY PHOENIX is in so much money TROUBLE right now ~ link
• YOU CAN LOOK UP the Daily Texts for any day of the year using the calendar at the Moravian Church in the British Province website. Click on the "Watchwords" button on the bottom.
• YOU CAN prepare and print US Customs forms online at the USPS website. ~ link
• IT'S GOT TO BE FRUSTRATING to work in a police department where everything is so politicized and the posturing is so much a part of the system. ~ link
• I TRIED TAKING THE CEO color aptitude test but I think my preference for lime green broke the system and it refused to give me any results. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to continue being what I am. I am so undisappointed. ~ link
• OKAY, SO THERE ARE actually people using Google Wave. ~ link
• TAKING THE WHOLE CHURCH COFFEE thing to the next level -- "Covenant Roasters" ~ link
• ARIZONA has just published a new free visitor's guide. ~ link
• FUN VIDEO clip highlighting the similarities between Old English and Frisian. Friesland is a region in the Netherlands, a region where many old Anglo-Saxon tribes lived. Some of these people migrated to Britain about the 5th century and brought the beginnings of Old English with them. (I once watched a movie in Frisian and by the end of it I think I was understanding 60% of what they were saying.) ~ link
• MORE INDICATORS OF ECONOMIC TURNAROUND -- We have new shopping centers in Laveen which have been sitting empty -- many never occupied. Now we're starting to see some activity. Also, I noticed today that the former Mervyn's store (which could not have been open for more than a few months before the company went under) has new banners announcing the arrival of Goodwill and Mi Pueblo Supermercado -- both of which should do well in the area. My only hope is that it's a nice, not-so-dumpy Goodwill.
• IN SPITE OF THE RECESSION we're still way better off than previous generations. We need to keep things in perspective. ~ link
• 10 PRODUCTS THAT BOOMED during the recession -- some I get -- some make no sense whatsoever. ~ link
• DOLLAR GENERAL plans to add 600 stores, hire 5,000 in next year ~ link
• THE SNOWBIRDS are back in Arizona this year -- in greater numbers. ~ link
• "KENNETH COPELAND MINISTRIES partners with United Theological Seminary to offer advanced degree" -- as crazy as it sounds this appears to be real. Such strange bedfellows. I'm still trying to figure out what I think of this. I think it's a step in the right diretion -- sort'a. ~ link
• SOMEBODY HAD TO DO IT! US border entry-card piffle set to music ~ link
• "I THINK ONE OF the most spiritually dangerous practices today is encouraging people -- in small groups or in front of the church or even in print—to talk about how God has transformed them..." ~ more from Mark Galli, who is sooooo spot on
• "DID YOU KNOW: Using the highest grade Velcro a 160 lb person will stick to a wall with only a four inch square." Thank you, Randall, for sharing that. ~ link
• PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ON THE MOVE for a long time. Last week we read of the remains of an ancient Asian man found in Italy. Now DNA studies confirm that the 2,000-year-old remains discovered in eastern Mongolia are of a Western man. ~ link
• WHAT IS THE SYNOPTIC PROBLEM? Mark Goodacre has a 40-minute-long lecture from his Intro to NT class at Duke U on his NT Pod blog. ~ link
• PROPOSED ARIZONA SOLARBULLET solar-powered train would connect Tucson and Phoenix with a 35 minute ride. ~ link (via)
• NORTH KOREA plans to free detained Tucson activist Robert Park. Smart move on so many levels. ~ link
• I'M NOT SEEING the Twitter Hovercards, yet. But I'm looking forward to them. ~ link
• AVERAGE TEMPERATURES continue to rise in Phoenix. Urbanization causes heat retention. ~ link
• THE FLOATING PLASTIC TRASH VORTEX in the northern Pacific Ocean used to be the size of Texas. Now it's covering an area twice the size of the continental US. ~ link
• 79% OF NIGERIAN COMPANIES are in a hiring mode. 71% of Chinese and Indian companies are hiring. 70% of Pakistani companies are recruiting. ~ link
• THE US ARMY is considering stationing 12 high speed vessels on Guam. I'm still trying to figure out why the Army is in the ship business. Wasn't the whole Marine Corp idea that they would be the sea-going troops? And while we're at it, why is the Navy is in the flying business. Why do all the service branches have so many duplicate units and missions? ~ link
• COGNITIVE FLUENCY isn't a totally new idea. Pastors have long complained that their congregants believe that the more simply something can be stated the more true it must be. That is, if something is complex or technical it must not be true -- or at the very least it is irrelevant. (This is why the believer's baptism approach generally wins out over the paedobaptism approach -- because the argument for baptizing infants is more complex. Likewise, the premillennial approach to eschatology is more easily reduced to a clean chart than any of the amillennial approaches.) Now psychologists are starting to take note of the phenomena. ~ link
• "TWITTER ACCESS IN MEXICOmay soon be restricted if plans by the Mexican Revolutionary Democratic Party become law. The plan, drafted by republican and PDR member Nazario Norberto hopes to restrict Twitter usage in an attempt to cut down on crime." ~ link (via)
• INEXPENSIVE PRINTING -- My brother Greg has compiled a really good collection of printing links. I've been using his site as a portal to printing deals. Somebody has always got a promo running. ~ Cheap Dog Printing
• AMERICAN TEENS are less into blogging these days -- and they never got into Twitter. Blog use among un-hip old people remains steady. ~ link
• PEPSI IS DROPPING OUT of the Superbowl this year. They'll put their ad dollars in social marketing -- community projects. This is a radical shift. ~ link
• THE ARIZONA GROUNDHOG was so busy sunning himself out by the pool that he forgot to check for his shadow -- not that he could actually see it through his Ray Bans.
• RAINBOW PANCAKES -- at least somebody gets it! ~ link (via)
• NEW TAX ON FOOD sales starting April 1st -- no foolin' ~ link
• "A CHURCH IS planning to open and run a ten-pin bowling alley to help bring jobs to its local community." ~ link
• THE REAL REASON GOD MADE TOBACCO -- "A new therapeutic made from tobacco plants has been shown to arrest West Nile virus infection, according to a new study by Arizona State University scientist Qiang Chen and his colleagues." ~ link
• THE SOCIETY FOR BIBLICAL LITERATURE publishes a monthly e-letter for those who teach Bible in high schools. ~ link
• THE NY TIMES dynamic chart of the 2011 Obama budget is incredible ~ link
• TIM STAFFORD'Sreporting from Haiti is insightful and sensitive (he's back in the US now). He has has the ability to quickly get to the heart of matters. ~ link
• "MASS GRAVES may have lasting spiritual impact in Haiti" -- the burden of Animism ~ link
• SOMEBODY ROBBED the bank down the street yesterday morning. ~ link
• IF I WERE starting a radio ministry aimed at Christians in North Korea I'd not try to keep it a secret -- but I wouldn't send out a press release, either. Low profile vehicles get less wind resistance and thus better mileage in face-sensitive cultures. ~ link
• JOB SEEKERS aren't as willing to relocate. Perhaps it has to do with the real estate market ("I'm so far under I can't afford to sell my house and go elsewhere."). Perhaps there is less sense of security in new jobs ("What if I move across the country and the new company does a round of layoffs? Then what?") ~ link
• "DNA TESTING on 2,000-year-old bones in Italy reveal East Asian ancestry" ~ link
• THE NEW MIDDLE-CLASS face of homelessness in America ~ link
• PHOENIX WILL LIKELY start taxing food sales (@ 2%). I don't mind paying taxes, and a food tax wouldn't hurt me, but I'd rather see something other than food taxed. When food gets taxed the poor are affected more than the rest of us. ~ link
• IF THE STATE continues to close down the DMVs does that mean they don't really expect people to have driver's licenses or to register their cars? At what point does the legislative mandate to do such things become unenforceable? Are cuts in highly visible state services such as parks and DMVs designed to strategically garner public support for legislative solutions to the budget problems? Just asking. I haven't figured this place out, yet. ~ link
• ANCIENT CITRUS TYPES still found in the Inland Empire of California -- Mediterranean Sweets, sour oranges, and Duncan grapefruit brought to California by the Mission fathers. ~ link
I shared Lloyd Ahlem's "A Christian Manifesto for People Who Aren’t Great Theologians" (which I have posted on my bradboydston.com server) with someone today. So I thought I'd share it again with a more general audience. In someways it reflects the cultural emphases of a few years ago when Lloyd wrote it but I always find it fresh and appreciate an unpretentious presentation by an intellectual.
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God is in charge of everything. He designed it all, made it all, and will end it all. How he goes about it is curiously captivating to consider. You can get some fancy college and seminary degrees trying to figure it all out.
God thinks he is self-evident. He is not too worried about your proving whether or not he exists. Simple people can find out a lot about him without much mental hassle. Brainy folks have to be more childlike.
God loves people. He turned himself into a man so he could be like you. He gurgled through babyhood, colic, and wet pants. He squirmed through adolescence, emerged into strong manhood, and into full divinity. He is the strangest combination of qualities you have ever heard of. He is called Jesus, and he will not fit any of your notions of what God ought to be like.
Through the years people who yearned for him and began to understand him wrote down what they learned about him. They used their own words and descriptions as best they could. They did very well for they still tell us about him today. Their thoughts are true and full of hope. Some people like to argue about the words, but their fussing is not important. The plain stuff will compel you more than you expect. If you don't think so start with the Gospel of John, then the Gospel of Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. They are easy to find in the index of your Bible.
God knows you screw up your life and make a lot of booboos. Knowing you could hardly do otherwise, he decided to forgive you before you even started being so awfully normal. That way the heat is off you and on him. No use keeping score in a game where the results don't count. You can forget about feeling guilty for all your nonsense unless you decide to be your own god and fix everything yourself. Some people try to do this and they get very tired; tired of themselves and tired of never succeeding at setting things straight. There is always somebody to apologize to, some stupid act to rationalize, or some dumb mistake that cannot be corrected. In time you will not care or your conscience will be so beaten up you won't feel either pain or joy. Fortunately, Jesus paid all our moral and spiritual bills. You don't have to contribute a thing-just accept the gift. This is true even if you have done something hideous.
Since God has no memory of your klutzy deeds and lusty motives, he likes what he sees in you. He enjoys your company. He laughs and sings and dances when you come around. He is like a father who wants to do more for his kids than they can imagine. He tries not to be too indulgent because they might get spoiled. So you may not get everything your heart desires.
God is not half as hard on you as people are. He loves you so much he will forgive stuff most religious people would like to hold you accountable for. Do not worry about these people. They can't take away the gift. In fact, a lot them haven't accepted the gift themselves. That's why they are so pious and cranky. Try copying God when it comes to forgiving yourself. You are probably tougher on yourself than he is.
God will give your life direction and meaning. Just start doing the things that show love to people and let God put all you do into a personal mission. By loving and serving you will discover your abilities and God will expand your opportunities. A lot of books have been written about special secret and mysterious ways to dig out what God has in mind for people. Most of these can be ignored. Just read the New Testament. Then do the things that are obvious to do.
Sing a lot, love even more, worship joyfully, hope strenuously, and remember God must have a sense of humor to make the likes of you. He always has a surprise when he moves you along in your life. He is never completely predictable. He loves to put quirks in your plans just for the fun of it. Accept the fact with cheer for he has final plans you can scarcely imagine.
Someday those people who decided to be their own god will get to live with themselves forever; totally alone, unloved, bitter, hopeless, remembering what might have been. The place is called hell and the door will likely be locked from the inside, for this is what they are used to doing. You, on the other hand, are invited to live in his mansion. Living with God will be so fulfilling you will be tickled you dumped all the other options. No death, no tears, no grief, no suffering. Hooray!
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Lloyd Ahlem, EdD, is a retired psychologist, professor, college and seminary president, retirement community administrator, and businessman. He is a member of Cornerstone Covenant Church, Turlock, California. An earlier version of this article originally appeared in the Covenant Companion.
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