I’ve realized that the main reason I keep Facebook, Twitter, et al. around is because they seem to increase my “Surface Area of Luck” (https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/surface-area-of-luck) Q: How do you increase your “Surface Area of Luck” without getting sucked into social media every day?
If you could change one thing about the world today, what would it be and why?
“If money were no object….” But, alas, it usually is.
I pretty much only feel patriotic anymore when watching the USWNT in the World Cup 🇺🇸
If you only had 3 adjectives to describe me, what would they be? What if you only had 3 adjectives to describe yourself? What would they be?
Weight: 241lbs. Finally a bit of movement back down from 243-245! Hoping for a “23_” on the scale sometime soon. Experimenting a bit with 16:8 intermittent fasting and a higher-protein, lower-carb diet. Trying to find that balance between sustainability and change!
What’s the hardest part about your job? I’d like to hear you complain a bit about what’s most challenging. Seriously. Go!
I’m looking for the easiest, tastiest ways to cook meats, vegetables, and beans.
If you could learn one new skill in an instant, what would it be?
Weight: 244lbs. I’ve been trying to get my weight back down under 200lbs for a few years now with no success. Instead of 185-195lbs, where I used to be for years before kids, I’m 240-250lbs. Starting to lose hope of getting results that last.
Nine social media apps for Mortal Men, doomed to poast.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Me: This should be simple! AWS and Terraform: Haha, NOPE
Be right back, gotta go check micro.blog, Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, et al. 🫠🫠🫠
Today I’m grateful for: Coffee; Books; My job as a software engineer. (That’s my list most days.) What are you grateful for?
Confession (ha!): I’ve never read more than brief excerpts of The City of God by Augustine. Which translation/edition is best? Anyone got a used copy of the New City Press edition they’d sell me? :) I’d love to get the Logos edition but will wait until it’s cheaper than $100.
Bonhoeffer on Community
I keep seeing a Bonhoeffer quote about community go around that I think is a loose paraphrase. Here’s the real quote:
Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive. Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.
Source: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible, ed. Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Albrecht Schönherr, and Geffrey B. Kelly, trans. Daniel W. Bloesch and James H. Burtness, vol. 5 of Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1996), 36.
It’s too hot
May God liberate American churches
This Independence Day, I pray that the church in the USA would reclaim her theological, cultural, and political independence.
May God liberate American churches from their bondage to the DNC and, especially, to the GOP.
May our allegiance to Jesus Christ trump all other loyalties.
Let us be known for laying down our rights, loving our enemies, and caring for the powerless.
Let us live according to the Kingdom of God, the Sermon on the Mount, and the radical love of Jesus for every tribe, tongue, and nation.
“They think I don’t know a buttload of crap about the gospel…and they might be right.”