I wonder often–what would happen if we’d just get out of the way? – Tim Stevens

I’ve been asking this question for days, weeks, months, years. Honestly, what could/would happen? It has been a topic I’ve prayed about, studied, written and spoken about. It has rooted itself very deep in my life. So much so that my testimony is wrapped completely around this philosophy.

So, without lengthening this post with my entire life story, I’ll just state that it has mostly to do with my realization that Christianity is (read: should be) simple. If we truly believe what the Bible says, and surrender wholly to the Holy Spirit, then everything else becomes secondary. We don’t really have to work that hard. I get it, that’s an idealist view. As I’ve written here before, I’m an idealist through and through. Every time I’m challenged on this, I convince myself that I’m just being naive and stray towards cynical. Until I read God’s word and am reminded about having a child-like faith. And then, the world seems right again. For me, at least.

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 18:1-4

Last week, I ran across a link to a TED Talk by Adora Svitak, a child prodigy who shares my thinking (how comfortable am I in using a child as a reference? See above). Here’s part of her bio from the TED site.

Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs “childish” thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids’ big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups’ willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

Then, this morning, I see Tim Stevens, one of my ministry muses right now, ask the following in a post on his blog:

I wonder often–what would happen if we’d just get out of the way?

There is so much I can relate this to right now: My role on the Leadership Team at our church; My role as husband and father; My desire to attend seminary; My feeling that God is calling me something so much bigger than I could ever dream and having no clue what it looks like; Something God has placed on my heart for this Fall. What has my answer looked like recently? Plan the heck out of it. Make it comfortable for me and those around me. Take God’s vision and implement it myself. Let me speak from experience when I say – THIS DOESN’T WORK!

We do so much to protect ourselves from ourselves (does this sound familiar to the 2 or 3 that read this blog?) that we try to box God in, understand Him and make His plan “work” in our small view of the world.

Stay tuned for my continued ramblings on this from the standpoint of love, unity, faith and culture. Hopefully we can learn from each other how God has really made things relatively simple for us.

As Tim asks, what would happen if we just got out of the way?

We have little power over people’s desire to succeed.

The above quote is from an article I read recently on the topic of usability/interaction design. It rebuked us as designers for “dumbing down” interfaces to the lowest common denominator. And I think there are so many areas of life that need this same rebuke.

Recently, President Obama referred to the struggles over the Healthcare Reform Bill as a failure on his part and that he “didn’t explain it well enough.” Without taking sides, that’s a pretty condescending thing to say. Early in his campaign, he suggested we should “spread the wealth around a little” with the intent to provide more opportunities. We’ll come back to this statement in a moment.

Churches are guilty, too. We encourage surface-level programs and events to appeal to people hoping to draw them to Christ or to serve the Church. We wonder why our giving isn’t up to expand our facilities, when we don’t have the growth to warrant it. We schedule prayer time. We script our worship services. We just do things that way because that’s the way we’ve always done it.

In the business world, we implement process upon process to prevent failure. We trust no one. Management belittles the staff while the staff, well, we’ll just not talk about what the staff thinks of management.

We have dumbed everything down so much that personal responsibility just doesn’t exist. This is exactly from where entitlement comes. You need to explain it better, it’s not my problem that I don’t understand. You could single handedly wipe out my debt, or even the debt of a small country, so you should give. You need to help me understand Jesus. You need to train my children. If we just did things my way, this company would be thriving.

Every bit of this is done with success in mind. Is it working? Quite obviously, it is not.

Mr. Obama, I agree that healthcare needs to be reformed. I agree that the poor need assistance (it’s Biblical). Church, I agree that prayer and spiritual growth are key. Business owner, I agree that predictable results are extremely important. What I don’t agree with is controlling the paths via which these things are achieved. That’s whether it’s via taxing the rich, scheduling prayer time or firing people that don’t turn in their TPS reports on time.

In the book of Acts, no one had need because the people voluntarily sold their possessions and gave. They had a passion and heart (led by the Holy Spirit) to give. Prayer was a way of life, not a scheduled event (not counting Old Testament Jewish custom). Today, the most successful businesses are a result of a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Teach them, train them, and let them succeed. And in the process, if you let them, they’ll teach you a thing or two as well.

The answer is not to obligate people to give, pray or work. That’s only a little arrogant and condescending. As quoted above from the same article, the answer is to teach and train others. Empower them to take responsibility for their own actions. Lead by example. You can’t change the heart via brute force. That can only come from within.

²⁸And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, Which commandment is the most important of all? ²⁹Jesus answered, The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ³¹The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

A week or so ago, I posted the video below to Twitter and Facebook. DC Curry, from Granger Community Church, brings the heat with a goosebump-inducing analysis of the most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16. As he so eloquently states, it ALL boils down to love. For God LOVED!

And so, in the same way, the single greatest commandments also boil down to love. Love God. Love others. It’s as simple as that. Nothing else pleases God more, or is more important than, love. Of course, we all have different definitions of love (as does the Bible), but we’ll review those some other time.

For now, simply ask yourself. Are you putting anything else in front of loving God? After Him, loving others? I am. I love myself. I love money. I love gadgets and toys. It is my prayer that together, we can learn to love in the order we’ve been commanded.

You can find The Model Congress on Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, and Twitter. Their EP is available via Amazon or iTunes.

Want something even better? They even have their own iPhone app!

• Music Monday – New/Old Music recommendations, reviews
• Tantrum Tuesday – My opportunity to get out my aggression
• Wisdom Wednesday – What I’m reading/learning from the Bible
• ? Thursday – Needs work
• Foto Friday – Not necessarily one I took

I need recommendations for Thursday. Maybe Theremin Thursday?

Yes, someone, somewhere, sometime said that you should repeat your product, company name and/or contact information three times in an advertisement on television or radio for it to stick. Can’t we be a little more creative with that “rule”?

On my way to grab a bite for lunch today, I was assaulted with cheery female voice excitedly telling me about “Menopause… Away… dot com. Menopause… Away… dot com. That’s Menopause… Away… dot com”. Now, I’m sure there was more to the commercial, but that’s all I remember, just like that, repeated 3 times in a row. (I know some of you are saying, ‘see? it worked! you remember it!”) Sure, I remember it, but even if I was a menopausal female, I’d be so annoyed by the commercial I’d do everything in my power to steer clear of it, even possibly blocking all internet traffic to the site from my home.

When will marketers learn that we’re not idiots nor sheep to be led to slaughter? Take internet advertising as a perfect companion to these annoying radio and television ads. Browsers now implement pop-up blockers to eradicate annoying ads, add-ons are available to block ads that flash, blink, play music automatically, etc. In the same vein, raise your hand if you know delay the start of watching a show on television by some amount of time so you can fast-forward the commercials on your DVR? <raises hand/>

I get it. Repetition is the key to memorization. I get it, you think you have a great product we should know about. Times, they have changed, my friend. Make a product worth talking about and let us evangelize it for you.

And, oh, don’t even get me started on this “trend” of “viral video” and commercializing social media. Social media is about being social, not as a medium for advertising. (I actually saw a ‘social media specialist’ say ‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll follow [twitter account]‘ – can’t I decide for myself Sir Arrogant of Arrogance-land?) If you can figure out how to make “social” media work, do so without annoying the every living daylights out of me. Please. And stop “producing” viral videos that are supposed to look “home-made”. There’s always a giveaway. Just tell us up front what message you’re sending and let us decide if we want to make it viral or not. That’s our job as consumers, ya know?

I was checking my Youtube subscription late last week to see if anything interesting had shown up and lo and behold, these guys were the first thing in the list. Now stuck on repeat, the intricacies and dynamics of Just Wait and October’s Storm (both available as in-studio videos on Youtube) drive me insane. Rarely does a band impress me as much as The Reign of Kindo has.

However, all that said, I want some input from the community on this one. Regardless of topic (I have mine grouped by things like “photography”, “web”, “church”, “news”, etc), what are your top 5 blogs/feeds you read on a daily basis and provide real value. If you include Digg or some other massive feed, do you filter it by category prior to subscribing (such as only Tech, etc)?

Help me, please.