The Best Part of iTunes Store

On June 2, 2009
By James
In Etc.
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Right now, everyone is talking about all the cool and fun iPhone apps that are available, but no one is talking about arguably the best thing you can do on iTunes: reading song reviews.

Where else can you get hours worth of entertainment from people bashing popular music, while having a live preview of the junk? I don’t know. I spent about 20 minutes reading the great reviews for the Black Eyed Peas’ single “Boom Boom Pow.”

Here is probably my favorite review to date:

Flash's Story

This morning, we watched the final segment of The Truth Project in Sunday School. The highlight of the lesson was hearing the story of a tatoo artist named Flash.

His story was defined by a terrible childhood with a monster of a mom and an absent father. As a child, Flash went to church and recounts of one woman who really made a difference in his life. She was a Christian who really loved other people and would check up on Flash when he was younger. Flash says that religions are crap, but what that woman had was true Christianity.

I really wish I could post the video of that interview (darn copyright laws) for everyone to see. The video really reminded me of the power loving people around us, no matter what they are like. It made a huge impact on Flash. Everyone who experiences that kinda love couldn’t deny that our faith was something special.

I need to live more like that. Are you aware of the people around you who need to be loved?

Responsible To People, Not For People

Reading Less Clutter, Less Noise, I came across a great sub-point about responsibility. Too often we feel like we are responsible for other people’s spiritual growth. The reality is that Jesus has called us to be responsible to people regarding their spiritual lives. It’s our responsibility to help others and give them opportunities to go, but we are not responsible for their growth. That’s between them and God.

Here are two quotes from Mark Waltz (as quoted in Less Clutter, Less Noise about the freedom we have when we are responsible to people, not for people:

“When I’m responsible to people, I know they must figure out their next step. When I’m responsible for people, I try to tell them what their next step is….

When I’m responsible to people, I talk to God on their behalf. When I’m responsible for people, I talk to people a lot on God’s behalf.”

Let me ask you: Do you feel like you are responsible to people or for people?

Book: The Facebook Era

I wouldn’t say I am an adict, but I am on Facebook at least twice a day. Catching up on the lives of my friends is a fun way of wasting fifteen minutes. And with it’s Facebook’s user numbering more than 150 million people, I’d say a lot of people feel the same way.

Recently, I was given the book The Facebook Era by Clara Shih. The book brings to light the power of using Facebook as a business tool, not just a personal social network platform. It’s pretty impressive the ways business are using Facebook. I had no idea.

I Love Oregon!

In the past two days, I’ve spent several hours driving back and forth between Tigard and McMinnville. I think it was about 5 hours total. Some people hate driving, but there is something therapeutic (or maybe even spiritual) about long drives for me.

With the sun shining and music pumping, life seems like a moving picture show. And I enjoy ever moment of it. Today, it made me reflect on God. The beauty of the Oregon countryside had me in awe of the greatness of God.

Here is my question for you: What things sorts of things make you stop and reflect on God?