Jon Acuff's Blog, page 164

Being wildly inflexible with quiet times.

Last night, when I came home from work, I sat down at our family computer. When I opened up Firefox, the page it was resting on had a very unexpected title. Here is what my wife had been looking at:

"Jalapeno Burn Treatment Tips"

I love my wife's cooking, but I want to be honest, that scared me a little about dinner. That was not the most awesome advertisement for what was about to go down on our dinner table. So I asked my wife what happened. Her response?

"I got jalapenos in my nose and it burned for a few hours. So I had to snort milk to make it feel better."

Oh, when you say it that way, that makes perfect sense. Snorting milk, sure, sure, who hasn't done a bump or a line of some 2% before? Of course! Silly me.

What I love about that whole situation is that we were having company over last night. Not old friends, new friends from work, and yet here was my wife, getting all fusion and experimental with hot peppers. I love it!

She's not afraid to mix it up and try something new, but I am. Especially when it comes to my quiet times.

I think we've retired that phrase, like the phrase "Sunday School," which is apparently reminiscent of some kind of Southern Baptist Torture Chamber. But I still say, "quiet time." I'm old school like that. And when I do a quiet time, I am wildly inflexible.

Here are the conditions that have to occur perfectly for me to feel like I've had a good quiet time:

1. Time of Day

As we've said before, God is a morning person and satan is a night owl. I can't do quiet times at night. I have to do them before work and before the rest of the world wakes up. 6:30AM? That's perfect. 7:05AM? Horrible, the day is almost over. I can't do a quiet time that late.

2. Materials

My quiet time regiment is pretty elaborate. I like to read the Bible. Then I journal a little. Then I read a book. Then I journal some more. Then I pray. Then I might listen to some music. There are approximately 27 steps in my plan and it's as complicated as disarming a bomb. If one step goes awry, if I cut the red wire instead of the blue write, it's over. I leave the book at home, goodbye quiet time.

3. Location

I used to do my quiet times in my car at work. I would sit in our old Camry for an hour while smokers at work stared at me as if I was some weird guy reading his Bible in the parking lot. Eventually I moved inside to my office. Now that we've moved to Nashville, I'm still looking for a good place to do my quiet times. Like a dog turning around in circles over and over again before it sits down, I'm slowly circling Nashville looking for a perfect spot.

4. No disruptions.

When I'm doing a quiet time, my family knows that I am like Superman in his fortress of solitude. Though my kids believe that the perfect time to ask 19 questions of their mother is when she is trying to take a nap, they generally leave me alone when I am doing a devotional.

5. Coffee

Remember in the Bible, when Peter and the gang were sitting on the shores of the Galilee around a campfire? They were all enjoying a cup of warm Judean Joe, just talking about life. Living it! Sipping some coffee and discussing about how to take something "from your head to your heart." What, that didn't happen? In my mind it did and that's why I have a hard time doing a quiet time without a coffee. I'm not even sure I could journal and drink diet Coke at the same time. Journals need coffee and so do quiet times. (Here's the SCL entry about coffee.)

If even one of these five factors is not perfectly executed, the quality of my quiet time goes down dramatically. The weird thing is that I'm pretty flexible in every other area of my life. I'll watch an entire movie on my iPhone, turning up the puny volume, squinting to see all the details on that tiny screen. I'll read other stuff anywhere. I'll read the back of a shampoo bottle in the middle of a shower just because I want something to look at. I'd sit in a garbage can if it meant I could get tickets to the Vanderbilt U2 show.

But quiet times? I'm wildly inflexible about those.

How about you? How do you do your devotional time?

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These 7 words.

I'm not completely sure why there are killer whales in San Antonio. When you think about Orcas, and where you should be able to find them, chances are your first thought isn't, "Texas. We definitely have access to some killer whales in Texas." But when I visited recently, I realized that not only did they have a Sea World, they also had one of the most terrifying elevators ever.

Look at that thing, it's like stepping into the belly of the beast. (Please insert your own Jonah joke here.) Killer whales can travel 58mph. They can weigh 17,000 pounds and be 30 feet long. Scientists call them the most perfect killing machine ever created and they often eat great white sharks. For snacks. Let's put one on an elevator with a wry whale smile.

I saw that whale because I was in San Antonio to speak at a church. I've been traveling a lot lately and to tell you the truth, these have been some wonderfully weird three months. I've had some crazy opportunities throw at me out of nowhere. We wrote a new book. We've planned out the next three books. We've talked about a new blog. I've been in 6 states in 36 hours, bouncing about the country like a newly gifted with two separate eyebrows young man.

And in the midst of that, I find myself stretched. I'm out of my comfort zone. A sure sign of critical growth, I find myself in new territories, doing new things. And if there's one thing I don't want to say in the midst of all of this is, "I can't."

I want to crush each new opportunity that comes my way. I want to rise to the occasion. I want to always find the silver lining of any challenge. And I think that's how culture is wired these days.

Bosses tell us, "Don't bring me problems. Bring me solutions."

Coworkers tell us, "They're not challenges, they're opportunities."

Parents tell us, "Buck up, you made this mess, you can get out of it. Bootstrap it!"

Friends tell us, "Don't be so negative, you just need to pray more. You can do it."

We are a generation of "we can." We believe anything is possible. The sky is the limit. The phrase, "I can't," is weak. It's pessimistic. It's negative.

We must be positive! We look down on doubt. We challenge people who feel challenged. We question the faith of Christians who feel stuck or limited or maybe even lost in situations.

But some things are bigger than we have the ability to "positive think away."

I don't know if you can instantly silver lining away the pain of a divorce.

I don't know if you can turn a frown upside down when a teenage daughter emotionally or physically runs away from you.

I don't know if you can "the sun will come out tomorrow," a job loss that cost you not only your stature, but how you'll pay the rent next month.

And into those situations we add the idea of being "better." We start to hear a soundtrack that says, "If I were a better Christian, I wouldn't feel this way. If I were a better mom, I wouldn't have these issues with my kids. If I were a better accountant, I would get promoted and never have to worry about money."

There are a million ways to mad lib that idea, the "If I were a better ___________, I would _________."

We hear those statements and we don't want to admit we can't. We want a can do attitude. Something positive. But that's not really what we see in the Bible. That's not what we see exhibited by someone who had an impossibly difficult road.

Joseph, of fruit stripe gum colored coat fame, had a pretty difficult road. His brothers debated killing him. They sold him into slavery. He worked as a servant. He was wrongly accused of a crime he didn't commit and was thrown in jail. He stood on the precipice of escape after helping a fellow inmate only to have that person forget him. For years.

And when he returned to the edge of redemption, when he was brought from the depths of jail into Pharaoh's palace, we find 7 crazy words. We find 7 words we ourselves might not have said, given the circumstances.

Pharaoh has had a bad dream. (This is very different from singer Daniel Powter's "Bad Day.") No one can interpret it, but Pharaoh has heard great things about Joseph. In Genesis 41:15 he says to Joseph:

"I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it."

This is a "yes we can!" situation if ever there was one. In a single sentence, Pharaoh said "you" three times. This is Joseph's moment! "I can do it! I can!" That's what Joseph should say. Essentially Pharaoh is asking him, "You've been in jail for years. Would you like to be free? Can you interpret this dream for me?"

And what is the first thing out of Joseph's mouth? What does he possibly say:

"I cannot do it,"

Oh no! Epic fail! Wrong answer. That's like saying that you still want to be in jail. But wait, he's not done. The full verse reads like this:

"I cannot do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires."

I love that! "I cannot do it, but God will …"

I love that Joseph realized he was way outside of his abilities. I love that even if it cost him additional jail time, he was going to be honest and say those two words we think make us look so weak, "I can't."

We sometimes think we must be superheros for God. We sometimes drop the second half of Philippians 4:13 and instead just say, "I can do all things …" We sometimes want our Goliath moments without ever wrestling bears first. But that's not what we see in the Bible.

Joseph told Pharaoh, I can't but God can.

Moses told God flat out, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here."

David didn't show up to fight Goliath, he brought lunch. He didn't say, "I can," he said, "The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."

We might not like to say it, but I think that as believers, we are the "people of I can't." But that's OK, because we serve the God who "can."

There will be challenges ahead. Dreams that are bigger than your talents. Giants taller than your abilities. Cliffs higher than your hopes. And as you survey them, don't worry. Don't fear. Don't tremble. But also, don't lose sight of the 7 words of Joseph:

"I cannot do it, but God will …"

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50 things you might win.

I never thought I'd see this bobble head.

But what can I say, the big box of awesome is getting, well, awesome. If you put together a shoebox with Operation Christmas Child and email a photo of it to this address OCCcontests@samaritan.org by November 21, you might win the big box of awesome. (Click here for more info) [image error]

There are a few things you need to know about the box. Actually 50 things.

Here's a list of the items I've already received for whoever creates the most creative shoebox for Operation Christmas Child (If you have something you want in the box, email me!)

1. Autographed copy of Stuff Christians Like

2. Autographed copy of my new book, "Gazelles, Baby Steps And 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Debt"

3. Autographed copy of Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

4. Autographed copy of Financial Peace by Dave Ramsey

5. John Calvin Bobblehead from Calvin College.

6. Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick

7. Radical by David Platt

8. 3 copies of Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo

9. 2 Columbia Fleece Pullovers from Winshape and Chick-fil-A

10. 10 copies of the Radical mini book.

11. The Medicine CD by John Mark McMillan

12. Real Life CD by Lincoln Brewster

13. Love God. Love People CD by Israel Houghton

14. Ragamuffin Soul CD by Carlos Whittaker

15. We Still Believe CD by Kathryn Scott

16. 2 Amelia's Gift CDs by Madeline Robison

17. 2 Complicated CDs by Dane and Taylor

18. Churched by Matthew Paul Turner

19. Primal book and DVD by Mark Batterson

20. Holy Bible: Mosaic NLT Bible from Tyndale

21. Soul Print by Mark Batterson

22. Under the Overpass by Mike Yankoski

23. The Walk by Shaun Alexander

24. 2 copies of Mustard Seed Thoughtsby Ron Edmonson

25. Eat Mor Chikin by Truett Cathy

26. Holy Vocabulary by Michael Kelley

27. Living in the Overlap by Steve Schaeffer

28. Autographed copy of It's better to build boys than mend men by Truett Cathy

29. Winshape Camps, a History in the Making book

30. Samaritan's Race T-shirt

31. 2 Arena Nalgene bottles

32. Avant Ministries t-shirt

33. Casual Christian Wear t-shirt

34. 2 Chick-fil-A stuffed cows

35. Fighter Verses CD

36. The Princess and the Pigs by Kade Grayson

37. Unraveled CD by Erin Woods

38. Launching Missional Communities by Mike Breen & Alex Absalom

39. Chick-fil-A Pez dispenser

40. Winshape Notebook

41. There is No Time book by J. Paul Nyquist

42. Get the Prize book by Larry Hehn

43. Arena Notebook

44. Beta Version T-shirt

45. An award winning photo from Michelle Palmer

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The Jesus Juke.

Weird things happen to me when I fly. If you followed me on Twitter you would know this because I tend to have "tweet explosions," when I'm at airports.

Last Sunday morning, as our plane lifted off the ground, the person behind me started to play what sounded like a pan flute. Just as we began to soar above the clouds, we were greeted with a Zamfir melody from what I can only assume was some sort of satyr. In his defense, the flight attendant did not say, "Please return your seats to their upright position, carefully stow your carry on luggage and put your pan flute back in its elk skin satchel." He had every right to play that beautiful wooden instrument and play he did.

At another airport I went to, a humongous bodybuilder spent his time in the terminal doing ferocious push ups right beside me. I tweeted about it and folks told me to prove it with a photo. Not likely. One of my rules for twitter is never snap photos of people who can snap you. And this guy could have broken me in half like a thin blogger branch.

But in all the responses from people asking me questions about the terminal B2 bodybuilder, one stuck out. It was different than the rest, but is something I am growing familiar with.

I call it the "Jesus Juke."

Like a football player juking you at the last second and going a different direction, the Jesus Juke is when someone takes what is clearly a joke filled conversation and completely reverses direction into something serious and holy.

In this particular case, when I tweeted a joke about the guy doing pushups, someone tweeted me back, "Imagine If we were that dedicated in our faith, family, and finances?"

I was fine with that idea, I was, but it was a Jesus Juke. We went from, "Whoa, there's a mountain of a man doing pushups next to the Starbucks at the airport," to a serious statement about the lack of discipline we have in our faith and our family and our finances.

I don't know how to spell it, but in my head I heard that sad trumpet sound of "whaaaa, waaaa."

And that wasn't even a bad Jesus Juke. I didn't mind that statement at all. That guy seemed fine. I've heard much worse. I once tweeted about going to see Conan O'Brien live and how big the crowd was. Someone wrote back, "If we held a concert for Jesus and gave away free tickets, no one would come." Whaaa, waaaa.

Chances are you've experienced this. Someone pulled the Christian version of the Debbie Downer, they threw out a bit of Jesus Juke on you. If you have, or even if you haven't, there are three things we all need to know about this particular move.

1. It generates shame.

The Jesus Juke is a great way to tell a friend, "I wish you possessed the uber holiness I do and were instead talking about sweet baby Jesus in this conversation." It's like a tiny little "shame grenade," you throw it into an otherwise harmless conversation and then watch it splatter everyone in guilt and condemnation.

2. It never leads to good conversation.

I've been Jesus Juked dozens of times in my life and I've never once seen it lead to a productive, healthy conversation. You might think it will before you juke, but what usually happens is just raw amounts of awkwardness, similar to how I felt sitting in a theater watching the Last Airbender.

3. I've never met someone who was "juked to Jesus."

I once tweeted, "No one's ever said: 'The way you bitterly mock other Christians helped me begin a life-changing love of Jesus' (Be kind)." I wrote that because I wanted to remind us that our jerkiness never led folks to Christ. I don't think our jukes do either. I don't really see it as a conversion technique. It's more of a conversation killer technique.

I hope we all keep talking about Jesus. I hope we talk about him lots and lots. I hope he defines our life and conversations. But if I tell you that when it comes to My Little Pony, I tend to prefer Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie and that Toola Roola has been riding their coattails for years, please don't respond, "You know who created ponies? Our Lord God did, that's who."

Has anyone ever pulled a "Jesus Juke" on you?

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Free audio book free & free e-book when you buy my new book!

This is like a hat trick of awesomeness! For $10, right now you can pre-order my new book, "Gazelles, Baby Steps And 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Debt," and get the audio book and e-book versions FREE.

Let's repeat that, for $10 you get all three versions of the book.

I read the audio book and we added a bunch of funny stuff, including some exclusive chapters that aren't in the book. It's going to be a blast.

The book releases November 30 and makes a really fun Christmas gift.

Click here to get this limited time offer!

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Not knowing what to do about good friends who are raising punk kids.

A few months ago, I wrote an article on Stuff Christians Like about sex. CNN.com picked it up and it got a lot of attention on the homepage of their site. Out of nowhere my wife got emails from folks she hadn't heard from in a while that essentially said, "Hey Jenny! Saw your sex life on the homepage of CNN."

You're not going to believe this, but my wife was embarrassed by that. Who knew?

So let me come right out of the gate and say this:

"This post is not about anyone in particular."

This post isn't about anyone specific. I'm not secretly calling out anyone. There's no incident or family I'm thinking about right now.

There, I feel better already, but can we talk about one thing? Can we all discus one idea?

What do you do when you have good friends who are raising punk kids?

Maybe this has never happened to you. Maybe you've never had close friends make some crazy parenting decisions. Maybe you've never had good friends laugh casually as their kid punches yours in the face or knocks over a vase or teaches your kid how to swear. Maybe you don't have anyone in your circle of friends who has a teenager sized blind spot right now. If that's the case, well that's awesome. You are living a charmed life my friend.

But if you haven't escaped life so easily, if you've ever had to wrestle with what to do when close friends raise punks, let's look at a few questions:

1. We should pray, right?

I mean ultimately, we don't get a free pass on love your neighbor. If your friend is raising a punk, we need to give them grace. Loads and loads of grace. We need to love them and not end our relationships over stuff like this, but at the same time, we need to love our own kids. I'm not going to use my 5 year old as an unwilling missionary to change other kids. I'm not going to "voluntold" her into doing things that will be harmful for her. The Bible is jam packed with verses about the need to be careful about who we let influence us and your kids are little sponges. So where's the line?

2. We should bite our tongues, right?

A dad once told us, "I'm stuck. My two year old refuses to leave the playground." He was trapped in a two foot tall, goldfish eating prison. And in that moment, watching the little boy take his tantrum to terror level red status, I wanted to say, "Anything that only weighs 27 pounds is always movable. You're never really physically trapped by someone who can be carried in one arm." But I didn't say anything because I tend to be such a jerk in situations like that. We're supposed to bite our tongues, right?

3. We can still hang out, right?

When we run into this situation, the temptation is to just break up with your friends. You and your wife will talk and decide, "We're done. That last thing with the mongoose was the final straw. Where does a six year old even get a mongoose? That thing had inconceivable ferocity." And so, you decide to break up with your friends. But here's the thing, maybe your friends are having a hard time right now and this is the absolute worst time to stop hanging out with them. Just because you don't want your kids being influenced by theirs doesn't mean you can't hang out as a couple and go to dinner. Leave your kids with a sitter.

4. What if we're the parents with the punk kids?

We've all got blind spots, areas in our lives where we just don't see what's really going on. For instance, I thought I was street until I made a joke about NWA on Twitter and a rap fan with a pit bull in his twitter profile swore at me 19 times and told me I "looked like I grew up on a farm." Hip hop street cred is apparently a blind spot for me. I just don't have it. But maybe the blind spot is our own kids. Maybe we don't see that we're making some bad decisions with our kids. We all need people who love us enough to tell us the things we don't want to hear. Without "mirror friends," folks who will reflect the truth back to us, we all end up making decisions we might regret.

There's not an easy answer to this one. We've got to give grace. But sometimes, you might need to love your friend but also say, "Hey, I'm not OK with you guys all singing along to Katy Perry songs when you car pool my 4 year old home from pre-school. The other day she asked me if her Osk Kosh were 'skin tight jeans,' and started singing 'Teenage Dream.'" You might have to say that. That might happen. And that's OK. Life is messy. Friends are messy. And parenting? That's probably the messiest thing of all.

Has this ever happened to you?

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What should we talk about this Christmas?

Christmas is right around the corner. (If you live at the Acuff house, it's already here as we enjoy the Mariah Carey Christmas album starting in November.)

I thought it might be fun to do a huge Christmas month at Stuff Christians Like. But what should we write about? What Christmas related ideas do we need to cover?

Carols? Fantastical church musicals? The donkey in the live manger that always tries to bite everyone? The reason for the season?

What should we talk about on Stuff Christians Like this Christmas?

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Creating a Christian Version of _________

(Yesterday, the server at Stuff Christians Like just quit. Monday's post about the new book I wrote was the largest traffic day in SCL's 2 year history and the server cried like an NFL player dumped by a Kardashian. We're upgrading the server as we speak and posting a comment takes about 7 seconds to load right now but it should work. In the meantime, below is the post we didn't get to see. And if it ever happens again, you can get updates by following me on Twitter .)

Last night on Twitter, I felt like the Stuff Christians Like bat signal lit up.

Out of nowhere, about 10 different people linked me to a new site and essentially said, Prodigaljohn has to talk about this. When I went to the site, I realized that other bloggers had already talked about it. Months ago.

So on second thought, it wasn't like the bat signal was lit. It was more like the Nightwing signal was lit, the superhero Robin became after he broke up with Batman. (Why didn't I date much in high school? Girls like comic book knowledge right? Ladies?)

The site my friends linked me to was billed as offering a Christian version of Twitter. Being somewhat of an expert on Christians taking popular secular ideas and putting a God spin on them, four thoughts instantly jumped into my head:

1. Don't do a Christian alternative of a medium.

Doing a different, holy version of Twitter is like creating a Christian version of the telephone. Twitter and facebook are mediums. They're technologies used for communication. If the communication is about Christianity, then they're being used as a Christian medium. If the communication is about goat herding in Pineapple, Alabama, then they're being used as a goat herding medium. Twitter is not inherently evil or inherently Christian. Mediums are often like mannequins, the clothes you put on them define them. (It feels almost impossible not to make a Mannequin movie joke right here.)

2. Don't do a Christian alternative to an empty box.

Twitter is a pull medium not a push medium. If I want you to read my tweets and you don't want to, I can't do anything about that if you refuse to follow me. The only way to see my content is to follow me or pull what I write toward you. So I could never say, "I'm so sick of all the filth in my twitter stream," because if there's filth, it means I decided to follow those people. You are your own Twitter Editor. If you've got a problem on Twitter, write an angry letter to the Editor, who is you. (That sentence read like it was written by artist MC Escher)

3. The public announcement of an unfollow is the biggest jerk move on Twitter.

That doesn't even have anything to do with this article, but I wanted to make sure we're all clear about that. It's like putting a break up notice in the engagement/wedding section of the newspaper to let everyone know you dumped someone. Don't be that guy.

4. Don't do a Christian alternative that can't be better than the original.

Someone sent me a link once to a Christian version of Google. I like that concept. As a dad with young daughters, the Internet can be a pretty scary place. I've also personally used and loved services like Safe Eyes that filter the Internet. I dig that idea, but there's no way a Christian Google can work better and smarter than Google. Be careful about creating a Christian version that offers a lot less functionality than the original. I feel good about putting a filter on my computer, tweaking my settings on Google and knowing that a team of 300 of the best engineers and programmers are hammering away at making Google great each day. I don't mean this in regards to the Christian Google, but in general, I'm not sure that when we create cheap, broken knockoffs of originals, we shine a lot of glory onto the creator.

I do have a hope for any Christian that decides to do an alternative version of something. I hope it grows into something wild and big and fun. I created Stuff Christians Like because I wanted to talk specifically about our penchant for putting God flavor on popular secular ideas and then making them our own. It's the first post on this site, a blog that clearly rips off the original Stuff White People Like blog. I didn't think there would be a book down the road. I didn't think we'd build two kindergartens in Vietnam or raise over $30,000 for mosquito nets in Uganda. This Christian Alternative grew into something different than I anticipated. And that's my hope for the Christian Twitter and other projects that might be in the works right now.

What do you think?

Do we need Christian alternatives to things?

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Creating a Christian Version of ________________

Last night on Twitter, I felt like the Stuff Christians Like bat signal lit up.

Out of nowhere, about 10 different people linked me to a new site and essentially said, ìProdigaljohn has to talk about this.î When I went to the site, I realized that other bloggers had already talked about it. Months ago.

So on second thought, it wasnít like the bat signal was lit. It was more like the ìNightwingî signal was lit, the superhero Robin became after he broke up with Batman. (Why didnít I date much in high school? Girls like comic book knowledge right? Ladies?)

The site my friends linked me to was billed as offering a Christian version of Twitter. Being somewhat of an expert on Christians taking popular secular ideas and putting a God spin on them, four thoughts instantly jumped into my head:

1. Donít do a Christian alternative of a medium.

Doing a different, holy version of Twitter is like creating a Christian version of the telephone. Twitter and facebook are mediums. Theyíre technologies used for communication. If the communication is about Christianity, then theyíre being used as a Christian medium. If the communication is about goat herding in Pineapple, Alabama, then theyíre being used as a goat herding medium. Twitter is not inherently evil or inherently Christian. Mediums are often like mannequins, the clothes you put on them define them. (It feels almost impossible not to make a ìMannequinî movie joke right here.)

2. Donít do a Christian alternative to an empty box.

Twitter is a pull medium not a push medium. If I want you to read my tweets and you donít want to, I canít do anything about that if you refuse to follow me. The only way to see my content is to follow me or pull what I write toward you. So I could never say, ìIím so sick of all the filth in my twitter stream,î because if thereís filth, it means I decided to follow those people. You are your own Twitter Editor. If youíve got a problem on Twitter, write an angry letter to the Editor, who is you. (That sentence read like it was written by artist MC Escher)

3. The public announcement of an unfollow is the biggest jerk move on Twitter.

That doesnít even have anything to do with this article, but I wanted to make sure weíre all clear about that. Itís like putting a break up notice in the engagement/wedding section of the newspaper to let everyone know you dumped someone. Donít be that guy.

4. Donít do a Christian alternative that canít be better than the original.

Someone sent me a link once to a Christian version of Google. I like that concept. As a dad with young daughters, the Internet can be a pretty scary place. Iíve also personally used and loved services like Safe Eyes that filter the Internet. I dig that idea, but thereís no way a Christian Google can work better and smarter than Google. Be careful about creating a Christian version that offers a lot less functionality than the original. I feel good about putting a filter on my computer, tweaking my settings on Google and knowing that a team of 300 of the best engineers and programmers are hammering away at making Google great each day. I donít mean this in regards to the Christian Google, but in general, Iím not sure that when we create cheap, broken knockoffs of originals, we shine a lot of glory onto the creator.

I do have a hope for any Christian that decides to do an alternative version of something. I hope it grows into something wild and big and fun. I created Stuff Christians Like because I wanted to talk specifically about our penchant for putting God flavor on popular secular ideas and then making them our own. Itís the first post on this site, a blog that clearly rips off the original Stuff White People Like blog. I didnít think there would be a book down the road. I didnít think weíd build two kindergartens in Vietnam or raise over $30,000 for mosquito nets in Uganda. This ìChristian Alternativeî grew into something different than I anticipated. And thatís my hope for the Christian Twitter and other projects that might be in the works right now.

What do you think?

Do we need Christian alternatives to things?

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