In and From and To and Through

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Fri, 19 Apr 2013 15:30:00 -0400

Is Social Media Killing Our Focus?

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 16:34:00 -0400

Like most other mornings, I wake up early to the sound of a digital wind chime. I roll over and unconsciously slide the unlock bar on my phone, briefly checking my e-mail and scrolling through last night’s Tweets and Facebook statuses. Moments later, I’m at my desk with a cup of coffee, ready to meditate on scripture and pray before rushing off to work.

Father, I ask for grace to walk in Your peace and presence today.

An Instagram image of my friend’s birthday party flashes through my mind. Was my ex-girlfriend there?

Teach me Your wisdom and help me share it with others.

I wonder how I should respond to my brother’s Facebook message. I need to do a better job of staying in touch.

Help me to honor Your name and remember Your ways in all that I do.

My next thought is replaced by college jocks doing the Harlem Shake underwater on YouTube… How do they hold their breath for so long?!

As I integrate more and more social media into my daily routine, I find it increasingly difficult to clear my thoughts and focus on one subject, and I doubt I’m the only one who struggles with this. Twitter feeds and Tumblr dashboards condition us to engage in multiple conversations at once. Instagram trains our minds to rapidly jump from one subject to the next in less than a few seconds. Our brains effectively adapt to process the most common forms of sensory perception they receive, so this begs the question: Is social media killing our focus?

More than half of the world is now on some form of social media. Today, one out of every seven minutes spent online is on Facebook. Twitter receives about 300,000 new visitors daily. Not coincidently, a study by Lloyds TSB Insurance showed that attention spans have fallen to an average of five minutes, down from 12 minutes in the late 90’s.

Culturally, this loss of patience is seen clearly in the growing popularity of speed dating. A friend once invited me to go with him to a quick round downtown, saying, “You’ll meet 20 girls in an hour.” Since I had no other plans for the night, I lackadaisically agreed. Later that night, I found myself zipping down a line of tables, making fast-paced comments like, “I love dogs, too!” and “I thought about studying anthropology.” It seemed like a conveyer belt of conversations, and although I had never speed dated before, it felt oddly familiar to my online interactions. Sadly, I made no genuine connections and walked away with nothing other than the knowledge that most girls like dogs and anthropology.

Of course, this is a goofy example, but a serious problem arises when our relationships with our friends, family and God parallel our interactions on social media.

Throughout scripture, we see examples of God leading His people to listen with patience and focused attention. When God calls Ezekiel to wait for His presence on a mountain in 1 Kings 19, for example, Ezekiel must resist the distractions of the wind, earthquake and fire before he hears the Lord’s voice in a “gentle whisper.” Had he let his mind wander, he may have missed the God of the universe speaking to him. Today, if we allow social media to deeply influence the way we think outside of digital space, we run the same risk of overlooking the most important voices in our lives.

Inherently, social media platforms are neither good nor bad. They are tools that allow us to globally share our thoughts, ideas and creative works with others. When used wisely, they have enormous social benefits (think Arab Spring, NGO fundraising and breaking news coverage).

The key therefore is not unplugging altogether, but rather examining how each platform affects our minds, and then creating balanced approaches to minimize damage on our focus. Because really, Harlem Shake videos should never take the place of deep conversations.

Pride Is Like A Knock-Off Ed Hardy Shirt

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 23:19:34 -0500

Pride is a funny thing.

We often carry it like a six-foot golden trophy, waving it in other people’s faces to show them we’ve successfully one-up’ed them on the social ladder with some accomplishment, skill or possession. The odd thing is social status always comes down to perspective.

I saw this clearly in a putrid slum in East Africa. While partnering with a youth ministry seeking to help homeless teenagers overcome their addictions, I walked through a dust-covered alley overflowing with rotting garbage. I noticed a group of boys who looked like they hadn’t eaten in days and may have gone months without changing clothes. They were the face of poverty. As I talked with a few of them, a golden object caught my attention as it reflected light into the corner my eye. I turned and saw the face of pride.

An ox-like man approached with a fancy pep in his step that caused his fat gold chain to bounce against his sleeveless knock-off Ed Hardy shirt. He looked like a scrawny Mr. T with a dose of Swahili swag.

“What’s up brothah? What are you doing in ma town?” he asked me.

I instantly understood. As the local drug dealer, this guy profited the equivalent of a couple American coins by selling dank marijuana and cheap glue bottles to the teenage addicts. By the world’s standards, he is the lowest of the low on the social ladder, but in this East African slum, he is king of the trash heap.

From an impoverished vantage point, this man has authority, control, power, wealth and prestige. From a first-world perspective, he stands somewhere between a pithy criminal and prime example of African poverty. In other words, he reveals the fact that social status is subjective, and that from the right perspective anyone can be a beggar or a king.

When I apply this to my life, I realize how absurd it is to compare myself to the social ladder of my surroundings. In Washington D.C., power and prestige come down to political savvy and popular sway. People advance in this city by leveraging connections to garner political advancement. This works differently in other places.

In New York, status equals money.

In Los Angeles, status equals looks and fame.

In Nashville, status equals musical/creative ability.

These are certainly over-generalizations, but the point remains that different places and social circles deem status in different ways, and if we live and die by these subjective standards, we will never find fulfillment or inner-peace.

Great freedom comes in letting go of social status and accepting the fact that our lives will always be both enviable and pitiful to different people.

Humility isn’t having a low view of yourself; it’s having a true view of yourself.

Therefore, if we stop measuring ourselves against our immediate social contexts and start viewing ourselves through the love and grace of God, we’ll begin to walk in peace and truth.

Because really, in the eyes of God, our pride probably looks as dumb as the African drug dealer’s knock-off Ed Hardy shirt.

Conversation With A Modern Abolitionist

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:55:00 -0500

Tom Davis worked as a well-paid youth pastor in a comfortable church, but everything changed after one experience. He led a short-term missions trip to a Russian orphanage and learned the shocking truth about child poverty, neglect and human trafficking. Now, he runs the innovative orphan ministry Children’s Hope Chest as CEO and attacks human trafficking on multiple levels. I interviewed him about his experience and perspective on this horrific injustice.

How easy is it to purchase a child in the developing world?

It depends on the country, but pretty easy. We’ve gone undercover in places like Moldova and Russia to find underage girls for sale. At hotels, normally the concierge or the front-desk worker is in on it. The taxi drivers are in on it. They take you to the place and they get a cut. It’s unbelievable how these networks have infiltrated every aspect of life. You go to main cities, you tell them what you want, and they’ll take you where you can get it. In a Russian hotel where we were staying, a night guard told us the elevators were broken and that we would have to wait for them to be fixed. He said, “I know some young girls who would like to meet you.” He took us into a bar area, and there they were. The elevators had nothing wrong with them, but he deceived us. He wanted to divert our attention to these underage girls—they were clearly trafficked. This kind of thing happens all the time. It’s a network. The average price of a child is about $90 now.

Children’s Hope Chest uniquely fights human trafficking by connecting churches and businesses in America with safe houses abroad. Can you talk to me about this process?

It’s as close as you can come to adopting without adopting. We are trying to do a community-to-community model, meaning we help churches, businesses and online-blogging communities to sponsor families and orphanages overseas. To prevent human trafficking, we provide homes and ministry centers as a place for girls to go. In Russia for example, kids come out of orphanages at age 15 or 16 and 60 percent of the girls are trafficked. But in the regions where we work, that number is less than a quarter of a percent. Why? Because we get to know all the kids, provide housing, tell them the dangers and get them into universities. Much of this happens through the community sponsorships.

Do you feel in over your head trying to confront this issue?

Absolutely. Because it’s evil, it’s dangerous, it’s everywhere. But the success stories keep me going. It’s the 11-year-old girl who we recently rescued out of a brothel in India. That’s why we exist. If we keep a handful of kids out of trafficking every year, then it’s worth it. And the more people that get involved, the more we can make a serious dent in this injustice.

How has your faith influenced your role in the anti-slavery movement?

My faith tells me that people have value, that we are all created in the image of God. That includes you, me and the little girl who is trafficked and forced to serve 20 people a day. She has value and worth, and God created her for something much better. Additionally, my faith tells me that as Christ-followers, we are called to be the hope of the world. God has given us a mandate to go into places of dark injustice and overturn the cycle of events that occur. God isn’t left wondering why there are so many justice issues in the world that aren’t being taken care of. He has given the ideas and strategies into the hearts of his people on how to bring justice, but we must step out in faith. When we do that, the wrongs can be made right. (This interview and others like it were featured in a longer article I did for Prism Magazine titled– On The Front Lines of Abolition. Check it on pg. 8 )

Life Is Not A Costume Party.

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 19:02:00 -0500

Lately I’ve been playing a game called Go To Parties and Pretend To Be Someone Else.

It’s quite fun.

Since I still feel somewhat fresh in Washington D.C. and want to get to know more people, I routinely go to parties and happy-hour get-togethers to strike up conversations with socialites and political intellectuals.

Sometimes I like to play the impoverished writer. Other times I prefer the missional social-justice crusader, or if I have had too much caffeine, I choose the over-ambitious thrill-seeker.

I usually just exaggerate one aspect of my personality to see how people respond, but on occasion I cannot resist mixing it up. Once in a room full of ultra-conservatives, I pretended to be a communist striving to leverage the Internet for Marxist revolution. That one didn’t go over well.

In all seriousness, I only play this game in quick conversations with people I assume I will never see again. Although this makes for a quick laugh, it reminds me of the larger temptation many of us feel to continually shift our personalities to conform to our immediate social circles.

In other words, we put on masks for the sake of approval.

Because of insecurities and desires for constant acceptance, we tailor our images and lifestyles to match those around us in order to succeed in our current circumstances. At work, we become highly organized, ultra-driven professionals with spotless suits and impressive resumes. At parties, we become witty jokesters with exciting stories and cultural expertise.

Sadly, I think this plays out the worst in church. Many of us wake up on Sunday morning and magically become modern St. Augustines with two-pound Bibles, leather journals and a strange vocabulary that consists mostly of seven-syllable theological terms. I know I personally quote scripture like a seminary student within church circles, then struggle to live it (or even believe it) once I leave.

This type of of shape-shifting eventually grows exhausting, and although we do this for selfish reasons, we only hurt ourselves by creating distance between others and our true identities.

Life is not a costume party. If we continually walk around wearing masks, we never form real relationships and ultimately starve our souls of genuine nourishment.

Whether you’re in work, class, church or a rowdy nightclub, your life exterior should align with your interior. So take off your mask and embrace the weird, unique, eccentric individual you are.

The paradox is that as you become more like Jesus, you actually become a more unique form of yourself.

How to Survive a Quarter-Life Crisis

Sat, 05 Jan 2013 09:24:59 -0500

Turning 25 feels a bit like going to the doctor for a check-up.

It’s a normal part of life and every one has to do it, but there are no real benefits other than an uncomfortable reality-check.

Let’s see how I score.

High-paying or highly fulfilling job? Nope.

Married or in a serious relationship? Definitely not.

Impressive accomplishments? Ummm… I once rode a camel, and there was another time I ran a marathon and almost died.

For the past few months, I’ve dreaded my 25th birthday thinking I should have officially transitioned to stable adulthood with the next 40 years of my life mapped out. I let this looming-age change keep me awake at night, as if I quickly needed to find a way to check off a few of life’s imaginary accomplishment boxes.

As I step back and look at the bigger picture, I realize 25 is the perfect age not to have everything figured out and to embrace a wide open future. Regardless of whether you answered a capital YES to all three questions above or have never moved out of your parents’ basement, you should view the quarter-century mark as a giant opportunity, not a crisis.

Rather than letting stress define this transition, ask yourself what changes you want to make and which goals you should pursue this next year.

Have you always wanted to go to grad school? Go.

Do you want to move abroad and learn a foreign language? Do it.

Have you fantasized about quitting your job to start your own business? Stop waiting.

Of course, many of us already have serious commitments and should not simply pack up and move. But if you find yourself buried in a hole of discontentment, ask yourself what some of your favorite memories and hobbies have been in the last two and a half decades, then make sacrifices to include those in your daily schedule.

More and more however, I realize age should not dictate lifestyle. My friend Mike proves this. Although he is in his mid-30’s, single and does not have the financial support of a fancy organization, Mike is moving to Thailand to work with street children for the next few years. Some may see this as reckless or irrational, but his love and sense of adventure have led him to take a step of faith, regardless of his age.

That to say, life has no formula. Some people become best-selling authors at age 21 and others work as Starbucks baristas in their 50’s. Although one may seem better than the other, success and failure should not be defined by money and accomplishment. Instead, success should be seen as the opportunity to do something you enjoy while loving God and those around you.

So as you circle the sun for the 25th time, define the lifestyle you want to live today and start living it.

Otherwise, you might procrastinate till your midlife crisis and settle for buying an over-priced car or an awful weekend in Vegas. We should all avoid that.

Ships are safest when they’re in port, but that’s...

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:50:22 -0500

Ships are safest when they’re in port, but that’s not what ships were built for.

Increase.

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:53:25 -0500

Boredom increases with comfort. Compassion increases with adventure.

Why People Believe the Mayan Apocalypse.

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:09:00 -0500

Thousands of families in Russia have stockpiled candles and canned goods.

Others have in America have invested in titanium alien-proof helmets and state-of-the-art fallout shelters.

One Chinese farmer even built seven spherical pods complete with seat belts and oxygen tanks so that he can roll around in style when asteroids and hobgoblins burst through the Earth’s atmosphere.

If prophetic predictions based on the Mayan calendar prove true, most of us will disintegrate into dust particles at some point today. Yet I’m willing to bet today’s apocalypse will turn out just like every other in the past century– a waste of candles and canned goods.

From Y2K to Harold Camping’s phony 2011 rapture, new Armageddon predictions pop up every few years. Although I have always dismissed people who believe these prophecies as naive radicals who probably watch too much BattleStar Galactica, I’m beginning to think a deeper heart issue causes this fanaticism.

All of us want significance. We want to believe we live at the center of the universe. We want to think our lives coincide with the most important moment in history.

The fact is, we don’t.

To quote Hemingway who quoted Solomon who quoted God, “One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the Earth abideth forever.”

That to say, hundreds of generations have come before us and hundreds of similar generations will probably follow us. Although we have iPads and electric shavers, we more or less have the same desires and the same problems as every other generation in history. We are not the exception.

Through a lens of pride, this is incredibly discouraging. Yet as we look above and recognize that God sits at the center of the universe and holds eternity in his hands,we can take joy knowing that every generation can equally find meaning and purpose in His presence.

Despite the fact that today will probably come and go like billions of other days, there is still infinite significance to be had. But this has to start by laying aside pride and humbly accepting that we all play a part in God’s unfolding story.

Or maybe I’ll be wrong and this guy will have the last laugh on his $160,000 modernized Noah’s ark…

But probably not.

Lions.

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 19:06:10 -0500

“Until the lions have their own history, tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter.” -African Proverb

Feast.

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:29:37 -0500

If stories are the soul’s food, heaven will be a feast.

The Most Offensive Word to Americans

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 14:56:00 -0500

I once stayed at a Catholic convent full of strict, wrinkled nuns in Hyderabad, India.

My American friends and I decided to go out one night for some fun, food and drinks, but as we approached the compound’s main gate, we ran into the mother superior.

As the oldest, coldest, most intimidating of the nuns, she gave us strict orders: “Be back by 9 o’clock or we will lock the gates and release the guard dogs before you return.”

Of course, this made us eager to defy her authority. We scoffed at her orders and ran off to eat spicy tandoori without a care in the world.

Naturally, we returned past curfew and assumed we were ‘in-the-right’ because the nun had encroached on our right to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted to do it.

Although the guard dogs turned out to be 10-pound puppies, we forever stained our relationship with the convent and called our missions organization into question.

More than a random incident of youthful rebellion, I see this as a reflection of a wider ideology that pervades American culture. We are the land of the free, the home of the brave, a nation founded on revolution and individual autonomy, which brings me to my main point.

The most offensive word to Americans is a simple, two-syllable word that insults our beliefs and violates our value-system.

Submit.

We inherently believe no one has the right to tell us how to live, where to go or what to do. Even when getting speeding tickets for flying down the freeway at 90 mph, most of us feel violated by police officers’ outrageous obstructions to our daily routines.

The problem is this hostility to submission often leaves us waring for our own selfish gain without considering how our actions affect others. More importantly, this hardens our hearts to the will of God.

Speaking to an atheist who asked about the difference between heaven and hell, Tim Keller said something pretty interesting. “Nobody ever goes to hell unless they want to. People go to hell because they want to be away from a god who will tell them what to do. People in hell would say, ‘It’s pretty miserable here, but I would never want to be in heaven with God where He is telling people what to do.’”

The commandments of God are not rigid rules. Rather, they are signposts pointing toward the path of true joy, peace and meaning.

If we ever hope to experience these things, we have to do the most counter-cultural, rebellious thing imaginable within America: Submit to a truth deeper than ourselves.

If Love Is A Crutch.

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 01:24:00 -0500

If love is a crutch, make me a paralyzed, epileptic leper with a crooked knee.

I’d rather never walk again than walk another step down the winding road of selfish feats.

People ask me why I like the Walking Dead. I tell them it’s the closest thing to reality TV.

Evil isn’t the opposite of good. It’s a sad photoshopped Kinko’s copy of the Sistine Chapel. It’s a pebble a the base of Mt. Everest. It’s a drop of oil in an ocean of ambrosia.

Yet we can’t stop mixing the Sacred with the profane, the pure with the prurient, like using the Holy Grail to drink quarter gallons of gasoline.

I used to think America was a merry-go-round in the middle of the desert, but now I realize we’re one short chapter in a library of empires.

There’s an odd rhythm to the rise and fall, like the sound of gnashing teeth tweeting a 140 beats per minute, but underneath I still hear the echo of a deeper story.

Funny how I’ve traveled Africa but had to walk the streets of D.C. to go on a real safari, brushing shoulders with Lockheed martians and homeless hustlers rushing nowhere quickly.

I want to hold it against them, but then I remember Mother Theresa had her doubts and Neitzsche had his charity, so I have to conclude we all need grace like withering roots thirsty for the same monsoon.

Most of us won’t find our dreams. Yet at the end of time the Father of Lights will gather our flickering pixels and spark the greatest supernova the universe has ever seen.

In that moment, regret will fade and the only memories left will be the sacrifices we poured out.

So if love is a crutch, make me a paralyzed, epileptic leper with a crooked knee.

Black Friday Lied to You.

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:15:34 -0500

Nothing numbs boredom like a fancy new purchase.

Today, about 225 million people will swarm malls and retail stores to spend close to $12 billion dollars on iPhones, designer clothes, TV’s and industrial blenders with 15 different settings.

(To put this in perspective, this amount of money would be enough to build about 1.5 million wells to fix water shortages worldwide).

Black Friday has become synonymous with American culture. While I do not believe it is inherently bad to spend lots of money to take advantage of annual sales, I believe this pseudo-holiday has deceived us into thinking more stuff will satisfy us in impossible ways. And each product whispers a different lie.

New technology promises to make life easier.

New clothes promise to boost self-esteem.

New cars promise to give us more adventure.

Yet ultimately, the more we feed our souls with sales racks and shopping bags, the more we starve ourselves of genuine contentment.

I once heard about a young woman who won the lottery and bought everything she had ever wanted. She ordered clothes from French fashion houses, traveled on Caribbean vacations and threw parties of Biblical proportions. She even reinvented her body with breast enhancements and a couple rounds of liposuction. After a few years however, this rampant spending spiraled into a heap of debt, a violent cocaine addiction and two suicide attempts.

This girl survived and later got a job as a maid, but when asked if she would spend the money differently if she could do it over, she replied, “I’d rip the ticket up and flush it down the toilet.”

No fancy purchase can change your heart. If you feel anxious, stressed, unvalued and bored before you buy a bunch of new stuff, you can certainly put a band-aid on those struggles by spending a couple hundred dollars, but the feelings will creep back within a couple weeks.

We were all meant to desire newness. Yet this is only found in the new life given from God above. We just have to have faith to receive it and thankfulness to sustain it.

So whether or not you decide to fight the crowds today to save 25 percent on a new espresso machine, you don’t have to buy into the lies.

More than likely, you already have more than you could ever desire– you just have to open your eyes to see it.

"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 09:14:00 -0500

““The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.””

- St. Augustine

Check out my new article on RELEVANT Magazine today: The...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:00:00 -0500

Check out my new article on RELEVANT Magazine today:

The Problem with Political Profiling

Everything I Know in 9 Sentences

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:36:00 -0500

Only when you let go of expectations do you start to feel thankful for surprises.

Joy comes down to perspective. If you focus on what you don’t have, you’ll never find it.

Character is way more important than success.

Hell is unrestrained addiction to anything that isn’t God.

More communication = Less violence, bitterness, anger, hostility.

Humility comes when you forget about yourself.

Everyone who hates Justin Bieber is insecure.

You can’t legislate an issue of the heart.

God is truth; truth is love.

The Dangerous Business of Trust

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:26:00 -0400

I once got lost in a dark alley in Kampala, Uganda.

Having recently arrived at a hostel with my friends after traveling for 26-hours, I could not sit still. I decided to do what I always do– run without any sense of time or direction.

I slipped on my shoes and left in a flash without telling anyone. This normally makes me feel whimsical and free, but on this night, my runner’s high quickly faded to a sense of childish panic.

Somewhere between Sigur Ros and the greatest hits of Ottis Redding (don’t judge the playlist), darkness replaced daylight, blurring the narrow streets that would guide me back to the hostel.

It took five minutes for my macho adrenaline to subside before I could admit the truth: I was lost.

I looked around the narrow alley where I stood. Roaring motorcycles zipped by. Caustic smoke filled the air. I could hear passersby whispering mysterious sounds in Swahili, like,“Mzungu, Je, wewe waliopotea?”

After searching for 30 minutes to no avail, I had to humble myself and find help. I eavesdropped on the conversations of people in the streets, waiting to hear some English words as a sign I could ask for directions.

Finally, I heard it in the distance. “Yes, I agree…” A middle-aged Ugandan man with a big stomach and a bigger gold chain was speaking English. I walked over and asked if he knew how to get to the local backpackers’ hostel.

“Yes, but you will not find it in the dark. Get on my motorcycle. I will take you there,” he said.

Can I really take the risk? This guy looked like an African drug lord, but without any other options, I hopped on the back of his moto and hoped for the best.

We treaded down unfamiliar roads beneath dim orange streetlights. The ride seemed to take too long. Soon, we pulled up to a shady house where six jacked guys sat in the dark on the front porch.

This is the end. They will demand I give them money. Why did I get on the motorcycle?!

As these worried thoughts raced through my mind, my motorcycle friend interrupted and asked the men, “Jambo, Do you know how to get the the backpackers hostel?” The men answered in Swahili and we sped off again.

Within five minutes, we reached the hostel– I couldn’t believe it. I tried to pay my friend gas money but he would not accept it. He said he simply wanted to help.

“If you are in my country, you are my guest,” he insisted. I couldn’t fully express my gratitude.

Trust is a dangerous business. If you open up, someone could reject you. If you start a relationship, it could end. If you hop on a stranger’s motorcycle in Kampala, Uganda… well, you get the point. But cynicism and doubt only lead to loneliness and fear.

On the other hand, trust opens the door to peace, joy and a genuine relationship. If you take a step of faith and accept the risk, you might just find the life you were meant to live.

Just listened to this gem again. One of the best spoken-word...

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 22:42:16 -0400

Just listened to this gem again. One of the best spoken-word pieces on worship I’ve ever heard. By my man Michael Perez.

Be inspired.

Love.

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:06:00 -0400

If you only love when it’s comfortable, romantic, gratifying and noticed, you don’t really love.