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I’m not even three pages into reading “Unfashionable by Tchividjian” and already love it.  He starts by quoting Charles Spurgeon.

“The great guide of the world is fashion and its god respectability — two phantoms at which brave men laugh!  How many of you look around on society to know what to do? You watch the general current and then float upon it!  You study the popular breeze and shift your sails to suit it.  True men and women do not so! You ask, “is it fashionable? If it is fashionable, it must be done.”  Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the consent of fools.” – Charles Spurgeon

Well that intro got my attention. Tchividjian then starts his first chapter by listing a top ten, Letterman spoof to start his book with some fun.

You May Be To Fashionable If…

10. You can look around church and notice that everybody is basically the same age as you are, and they look and dress pretty much like you do.

9. You think it’s very uncool to sing a worship song that was “in”  years ago – much less sing a hymn

8. It’s been a long time since you disagreed with Oprah

7. You’ve attended a leadership conference where you learned more about organization and props vs. proclamation and prayer.

6. Your goal in spending time with non-Christians is to demonstrate that you’re really not so different than they are.

5. You’ve concluded that pretty much everything that is new is better than that what is old or that everything old is better than everything new.

4. You think the way Jesus lived is more important than what He said. — His deeds are more important than His doctrine.

3. You believe the best way to change culture is by electing the “right” politician.

2. The church you’ve chosen is defined more by its reaction to “boring traditional” churches than its response to a needy world.

1. The one verse you most wish wasn’t in the Bible is John 14:6 where Jesus says, “No one come sto the Father except through me.” That’s way too close minded.

I realize these are somewhat funny and potentially extreme. yet, are they really that far off?  Sadly, probably not. Spurgeons quote is one I should read every morning before I have time to start floating on the “wrong” current. What do you think of the top 10? I love it when books cause me to stop and think.

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Video: 6 Mins

At the end of the day it’s all about this. I wonder if I am really doing enough. I realize its easy to feel guilty convicted, etc, etc. I think that’s good, this should convict and hopefully we listen and obey His call for our lives. On a side note Naomi and I have often discussed adoption. This video actually pushed me to finally pursue it.

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Read Time: 5 Minutes

“Human Factors research” is the analysis of of how human beings interact with complex systems.  I’m not sure about you but living life well is perhaps one of the most complex tasks we all face. Humanity is constantly in search for greater meaning, finding our our true passions, our callings, and simply what is life all about. Obviously I have a biased viewpoint in that I believe we are all created to be loved by our heavenly Father and to love Him and others in return.  It sounds simple enough, but why is it so difficult? I love analytical research I was recently grabbed by a chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers.  I love trying to find out the little things that help to answer, at least in part, the “why” things happen as they do and how that applies to life and our spiritual calling to become imitators of Christ and to live how He lived…serving people. We often learn more about living well by analyzing how we have failed. Not to impose guilt, but to learn from our mistakes so that we do not repeat them. This is obviously easier said than done, because lets face it, who really loves to analyze their shortcomings and c’mon its a lot of work.

In 1979 the Three Mile Island nuclear station came extremely close to a full nuclear meltdown. So close was it that the nuclear industry has hardly still recovered from all the negative publicity it received since then.  So how did it all happen? It was the accumulation of minor difficulties that almost led to a Nuclear Meltdown.  Now I don’t have an opinion on if we should or shouldn’t have nuclear power but the story of how this reactor almost melted down is incredibly interesting and informative to our lives. Here it is a little re-worded from Outliers:

There was a small blockage in the plants “polisher” – a kind of giant water filter. This caused moisture to leak into the air which caused to valves to close which caused the cold water to stop flowing into the plants steam generators. Of course the plant had a backup generator for situations just like this, but for some reason, that was never found out, the backup valves were also closed that day. No big deal because an indicator in the control room showed that the valves were closed. However that indicator light was blocked by a tag hanging from a switch above it noting that the switch above the light was not working. So the indicator light went in noticed do t the repair tag. This caused the special, last resort, relief valve to start working to relieve the pressure. But as luck would have it, it was also malfunctioning in that it was stuck open when it was suppose to be closed. To compound this ever growing problem the relief valve indicator light in the control room was not working as it was rarely used and no one knew that it was broken. By the time the engineers realized what was happening the plant was minutes from a meltdown.

I find that on this journey of life we seem to try and guard against the “big” things form going wrong. Avoiding the big moral failures that we see happen around us almost weekly if not daily in the news. Just as was the case on Three Mile Island, it’s the accumulation of the small that usually brings us to a meltdown, catastrophic life disaster.  I wonder if it is because we are always worrying about the “big” things we ought not to do that we don’t realize the small things that are starting to compound.

Here is the hard part. It is easier to watch out for the big things because lets face it, it doesn’t actually take that much effort.  It is living a life aware of the small habits we are cultivating that is much more demanding. Are you evaluating your habits on some sort of consistent basis? Everything might be fine and dandy, but you might also be one minor step away from catastrophe.  I’m not trying to bring doom and gloom. Far from it in fact. I am passionate about God using all people to make a difference in this world and I absolutely hate seeing people taken out by the seemingly “big thing” that they should have stayed away from.  The fact is it was the small little habits that they should have been avoiding.

How do I do this:

1. Today ask two people that you trust and will give you an honest answer to give you feedback on any habits that they see in your life that in their opinion should be evaluated. Bad habits can impact all areas of our life. The main ones to evaluate right away would be habits that affect your: Faith, Marriage, Relationships, and Passions/Dreams.

2.  Be willing to evaluate their feedback. Consider their advice. Personally I almost always discount their advice at the outset. However if I am willing to come back to it they are almost always right in their assessment.

Today be brave ask for feedback on the little things you do…

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I had the privilege to read Shawn Wood’s “Wasabi Gospel” prior to todays Amazon’s book bomb, which is today!

First off. I love to read books that are easy to read and make me think throughout the day. I don’t like a book when it has only one of those qualities. The Wasabi Gospel has both in spades.

Shawn asks a very simple question of Christ follower’s early on in his book. Are you a Christ follower who only follows 99%? And throughout his book, I absolutely love that, he shares some simple ways that he has experienced, learned and heard about on “how” to live out a Christ honoring life. So often many books and speakers tell and write a lot of the “why” but often forget the how. Shawn recognizes this and addresses it.  I enjoyed Shawn’s honest and vulnerable approach whether it be the “idiot” who cuts him off in traffic or his personal tension of living all out for God and trying to reclaim that 1%.

Early on in the beginning of his book, he talks about the “Do What?” response we sometimes get when reading Scripture. This is the response that happens when you all of a sudden stop and think, “are you really saying this God?” It’s the response that just hits you in the gut. A sucker punch to the stomach if you will.  For those that know Sushi side dish wasabi, it can “punch” you real hard and take you out.  The Wasabi Gospel is real, vulnerable and even hard hitting for some who will read it.  I believe strongly that many will be encouraged and convicted by reading it…I was.  I recommend it.

I just read Malcolm Gladwells latest editorial in “The New Yorker” titled, “How David Beats Goliath.”

I found this editorial fascinating to say the least. There could be many, many interesting thoughts and potentially conclusions that come from it and I recommend people read it. In a nutshell Malcolm points to some research by Arreguín-Toft, a political scientist.

Toft, studied epic battles and wars fought where one side was at least 10 times more powerful than the other side. (through technology, armor and just sheer number of people) What he found wasn’t too surprising. The “goliaths” won the battles 71.5% of the time. While not too surprising that they won more often than they list, what is surprising is that the underdog, a 10:1 underdog at that, won one third of the time. Incredible if you think of it. But the surprise is still to come. Toft did some further research.

Gladwell shares that the biblical story of David and Goliath made Toft re-analyze his data. David after all decided not to use the Kings armor, sword and shield. Instead he took a few stones and sling and killed the mighty giant. The underdog won that battle. When Toft went back and analyzed all the battles where the underdogs won. What happened, Arreguín-Toft wondered, when the underdogs likewise acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5% to 63.6%. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win the majority of battles. Two thirds in fact.  Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.”

People, the press, the world in general often look at these upsets as flukes, bad luck, etc, etc. Throughout the article Gladwell shares example after example of where the “David” of the story didn’t win by random chance but by meticulously thinking through the options, being creative and by not playing the game by “Goliaths rules.

Almost always i find myself assuming the rules of engagement, of how I ought to do this or that. Not that I face a ton of “goliath’s” in my life. yet again, any small obstacle is still some sort of goliath that I must face and hopefully overcome.

I have no hard and fast conclusions from this but this story and statistics have been floating around in my head constantly since I read them. What do you think could be some outcomes for the church, for Christians, for yourself, if you chose to fight the battle, to face your Goliaths on your terms/rules that you set. What would change in how we act, what we say, teach, how we program, how we teach, how we live if we chose not to play by Goliaths rules?

Perhaps nothing would change…somehow I doubt it.  Any thoughts or comments?

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