A few years ago I went bungee jumping. It was pretty awesome.
Before I made the jump, I sat on the sidelines listening to a friend, Amy, have a conversation with a bungee employee. She said, “is this really safe?”
He replied, “Of course! In 20 years we haven’t had any deaths or serious injuries.”
Meanwhile, I was busy scoffing on the sidelines. “Of course it is safe! How else could they run a successful business if it wasn’t safe?”
It was easy to trust in the bungee from the sidelines. I had nothing to lose! But then it was my turn…
I walked to the edge of the bridge. The river suddenly seemed way too far away. My head began to spin, and maybe it was just my legs shaking, but I’m pretty sure the canyon started shifting. Amy’s question suddenly made a lot of sense! Continue Reading…
The Dark Knight Rises, one of the biggest movies of the year, opens today in the US. Since I live in New Zealand, however, where we’re 16 hours ahead, I already saw the movie!
First things first: The film is great and will certainly be talked about by audiences around the world. The great thing about this Batman franchise is the depth of plot and theme. These movies are not merely popcorn flicks. They have great action, but are rich in story.
If you plan on seeing the movie, you may not want to read on until afterwards. I’ll try not to spoil anything that wasn’t already in the actual movie preview, but sometimes it is better to go in without any hints. If you decide to wait, just make sure to come back after seeing it and share your thoughts. I’ll leave it up to you if you want to continue reading…
Last year I read a simple, interesting book called “How Full is Your Bucket.”
I didn’t realize it at the time, but the book was extremely influential on me. Even now, rarely does a week go by where I do not think of the book’s simple message and see how helpful it is in living the full life.
The Argument:
Despite being based in decades of scientific research, the concept is so simple it could be in a kid’s book (actually, it is in a kid’s book). Everybody has an imaginary “bucket” and “ladle.” When you say something encouraging or positive to another person, you fill their bucket. Most of us realize this, but we fail to notice that filling another person’s bucket also fills our own bucket.
Conversely, when we say something degrading or negative to another person, we dip out of their bucket. Again, when we dip out of someone’s bucket, we also dip out of our own bucket. It’s ironic, because most people who say condescending things are trying to feel better about themselves, but ultimately it makes them feel worse.
Negativity breeds negativity, and positivity creates positivity. The book had several fascinating case studies. Businesses around the country with negative work environments or negative employees lose billions of dollars every year compared to those in positive environments. They also predicted marriage success rates incredibly accurately after observing couples positive and negative interactions for merely 15 minutes. Continue Reading…
Love is an extremely popular word. We find it all throughout Scripture and Culture. God commands us to love Him, love people, and even love our enemies. Culture writes songs about how important love is, makes millions of dollars from love stories in movies and books, and social movements are created because people want more love in the world.
Photo Credit: Creative Commons – doug8888
But in all seriousness, how many of us actually know what love is? We know it is good, we know we want it, but what the heck is it?
Today we answer this question, once and for all. I’ve got a guest blog post today on The Daily Retort, and the entire post is devoted to giving a simple, but clear and applicable, definition of love. Read the full post HERE.
“The Daily Retort” is written by Tor Constantino, an excellent writer/ex-journalist who has published a great book and written for all sorts of important people. After checking out the guest post, I highly recommend you check out some of his other work.
If you are here visiting from Tor’s blog, welcome to #LiveFully! I hope you’ll look around and find some content that is beneficial to you. Our vision is to unite a global community that believes following Jesus is the most full life AND to positively change how followers of Jesus are perceived in mainstream cultures of the world. If you’re into that, we’d love for you to join our community by subscribing to the blog, following us on twitter, or liking us on facebook.
I studied Philosophy often while in college. I enjoyed the critical thinking I learned, but something always drove me crazy about the subject. I remember walking up to my classes, and there were often students hanging outside the building chatting about the latest ideas and solutions to world problems.
It seemed like everyone had resolved everything. “Well, I know why we exist…” or “If we want to fix America…” or “There really isn’t evil in the world, we just need to understand…”
There were dozens of different explanations for each of these issues. The problem, however, is that no one ever moved past the steps of Peabody Hall to actually pursue any solutions! All they wanted to do was sit there and discuss issues. They wanted to prove that they were smart, but they never actually did anything. Continue Reading…
Depending on what study you check, humans see between 300-3,000 advertisements. That is crazy. Anytime you hear a certain message 300 times a day, you are going to start believing it, no matter how ridiculous it is.
But with 300-3000 different ads, surely we aren’t hearing the same message over and over again, right?
Actually, no. Almost all advertisements say the exact same thing: “Buy this product, and you will have the full life!” I say this for two reasons. First, it demonstrates that our entire culture craves the full life. We all want it, but few people know how to get it. If we knew how to get it, we wouldn’t need advertisement companies to tell us hundreds of times a day how to get it. Continue Reading…
Movies have a tremendous impact on our culture. Stories can touch us in deeper ways than we realize, and the messages of those stories are often implanted into our hearts and minds. While many Hollywood Films do not contain messages that will add to the full life, there are many others that do.
One incredible way to engage with culture is identify the movies that we all love and identify strong spiritual messages in the film. If you keep your eyes open, you might be surprised at what you start to notice. The themes of God’s Word have tremendous appeal, and so they are frequently found in stories.
Here are 3 great examples from some timeless classics:
1) “Remember Who You Are” – The Lion King
Many of our insecurities in life would be taken care of if we remembered who we are. We are sons and daughters of the one true King! He lives in us, and therefore, we have tremendous value. We should never feel insignificant, incapable, or restricted because of our guilt. No matter what has happened in our past, God loves us for who we are and still desires to call us His children. We can go to Him no matter what.
2) “There’s Some Good in This World” – The Two Towers
This is my favorite speech in movie history. All of us know the feeling Frodo has in the beginning of this clip. “I can’t do this! It has gotten to hard!” The world can be a dark and difficult place sometimes, but Sam reminds us that there is always hope. We can persevere through anything, because we have something to hold on to and in the end, a new day will dawn. I love that he is willing to fight for the good in the world, but as believers in Christ we have something even greater. Jesus is the author of all good things, and he offers full life to those who persevere.
3) “You Already Have” – Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
Star Wars is full of spiritual themes from different religions. The ones that resonate the most with us, however, are the ones we find in Scripture. Hope, redemption, victory of the unlikely hero, and more. In this scene, we see the final moment of the series’ main character. In the 6 films, we see the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of Anakin Skywalker. This scene is an important reminder that no matter how much you have sinned, you can still be saved. Christ’s death covers all of our sins, and therefore we never have to say, “I’ve done too many bad things to be accepted by him.” King David, Jacob, Nebuchadnezzer, Saul/Paul, and many other Biblical figures demonstrate this truth.
What’s missing? There are countless other movie scenes that illustrate key ideas from the Word. What are they?
I am not a huge video game player, but every once in a while a game comes along that costs me a considerable amount of time. Zelda is a consistent favorite of mine, I vividly remember skipping class in college one day because I knew the Lylat system was in danger and I had to help Star Fox save the day, and who knows how many hours I spent on Star Wars games.
Ok, so maybe I can be a bit of a video game nerd, but I am not the only one!
In 2009, video games brought in $10.5 Billion dollars. That’s a lot of people spending a lot of money on something most people consider a waste of time.Continue Reading…
The Dark Knight Rises, one of the biggest movies of the year, opens today in the US. Since I live in New Zealand, however, where we’re 16 hours ahead, I already saw the movie!
). Everybody has an imaginary “bucket” and “ladle.” When you say something encouraging or positive to another person, you fill their bucket. Most of us realize this, but we fail to notice that filling another person’s bucket also fills our own bucket.
