Blogocentric Formulations

Prompt Potpourri

"Take up Your Cross"  | What is your favorite topic to hear sermons about?

I really enjoy sermons that challenge me to think about my own life in a different way, that find a way to apply Biblical lessons and concepts to the modern world. The history lessons about the life and times in the Bible are fine, as are the times when a sermon does a really deep-dive on the nuanced meaning of a particular passage of Scripture, but those feel a little more "academic" to me and I prefer the "practical" sermons where there's some wisdom imparted and some tips or advice on how to follow Jesus a little more closely.

As far as specific sermons (or sermon series), the one I enjoyed the most recently was a two-year series going through the entire Book of Acts, where we read each chapter and verse together and our pastors analyzed each piece of it and talked about what it would look like in our modern context to be like the church in Acts. It was one of my favorites because each week was a little bit of context/background on what happened in the Book of Acts, and then an application component where we talked about lessons we could take from them and apply to us today. I think it fundamentally shaped us as a church and, for me personally, it resulted in a major leap forward in my faith.

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"Blogging Circle of Friends "  | Write about the idea of self-care and what it means to you.

To me, self-care doesn't mean anything specific beyond spending time doing the things that recharge you. I think the list of things that accomplish that differ for each person. Some people might like more traditional self-care routines like massages, baths, manicures/pedicures, haircuts/styling, etc., while others might just prefer alone time to read, go for a walk, relax in a jacuzzi, etc.

Now that I have kids, I define self-care as pretty much any time that I have to myself where I don't have to be a parent. Date-night with my wife, personal time to go see a movie that isn't of the animated Disney variety, or even a lunch out with a friend are things that I do to take care of myself. I also read a lot in my spare time, like after the kids have gone to bed. I should probably add exercise to my self-care regimen at some point so that I can actually get back into shape again...

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"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  | Time and Thoughts "In one hour, A person thinks about 3000 thoughts." --Tad James. I'm guessing some of those thoughts are the ones that pop up on their own into our minds. What do you think about Tad James's claim and which kinds of thoughts pop up in your mind? Also, is your mind so active that it tires you?

Based on the number of times I think to myself, "Am I hungry?" and "I wonder what so-and-so is doing?" and "Is it break time yet?" that number might actually be an undercount. But seriously, I think 3,000 thoughts an hour is probably pretty accurate, depending on what you count as a "thought." Three thousand thoughts an hour is 50 thoughts per minute, or one thought every 1.2 seconds. That feels about right, especially if you count "different thoughts on the same topic" as individual thoughts. For example, if I'm planning my day, I'll probably go through a hundred thoughts in a minute about what if I did this first, or that... if I waited to do that, could I do this other thing at the same time... things like that. And those moments of rapid-fire thought processes probably more than offset any moments where my mind is more relaxed and not thinking about too much.

Although, who am I kidding... even if I'm not doing much, my brain is still thinking about dozens of different things. On a day off I'm still thinking about stuff on my to-do list, something I want to write, ideas for things to accomplish at work, side projects, etc. My mind is definitely active enough that it tires me out sometimes. I really don't know how to just turn my mind off and exist in the moment without thinking a dozen other things at the same time.

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"Invalid Item"  | Daylight Saving Day - You have an extra hour for this one.

I used to think that the people who advocated for the abolition of Daylight Savings Time were a little crazy ... it's not that big a deal to turn your clocks forward or back twice a year, right? Well, then I had kids and I realized how wrong I was. Changing clocks throws kids (and therefore the entire household) out of whack for the better part of a week. And for what gain? In our modern age where we don't have very many people working by literal daylight anymore, it seems crazy to have an entire society still following a practice that was first developed almost 250 years ago.

Lately I've been really questioning a lot of stuff like this ... and time zones. It's so frustrating to try and figure out what time it is in a specific area in the world. Why not just have one universal constant for what time it is, and then adapt accordingly? "Business hours" don't have to be 9am-5pm in 24 different time zones ... we could just have one global time (it's 11am everywhere at the same time), and then each region can state the hours that are "business hours" for them. So what if "daytime work hours" are 11pm to 11am? Would it be confusing at first? Sure. But is it inherently any more confusing than needing to make a call to another country and having to go, "Hmm, it's 10am here. I wonder what time it is where they are?" Then proceeding to have to do math.

Maybe I'm becoming more curmudgeonly in my old age (okay, there's no maybe about it, LOL), but I'm getting more in favor of global constants that - after an adjustment period - would make it simpler and require less translation from one place to another. Heck, while we're at it, let's all get on the metric system too!

Everyone: "Wait, did he just say to get rid of daylight savings time, time zones, and the imperial system of measurements?"