Gleanings of Wheat

I'm cheating today and going to work through chapter 9 and the epilogue of Tim Challies' book,  The Next Story . Chapter 9 deals with the subjects of privacy and visibility. Digital Footprints It is commonly known that everything you do on your computer will typically leave traces behind. Between cookies and caches and system event logs one can glean a lot of information about a person's computer usage. This is often why people addicted to online pornography are so habitual about clearing their browser history, they try to remove traces of their addiction - of their sin. But even if you successfully clear all evidences of your browsing history and computer usage from your computer, are you aware that those evidences are often likely still out there? Every time I search for something on Google that search is logged into a database. Somewhere out there, perhaps in multiple backups, there is info about my search history. Tim points out, quite rightly, that on some...

I know I'm running behind schedule with these posts on The Next Story , but this time the delay was Blogger's fault. Anyway, this chapter deals with authority and truth - specifically how the technologies that exist are reshaping the way we define truth and downplaying the importance of authority. Truth according to Wikipedia Wikipedia is huge, with over 15 million articles (3 million of them in English) to say that there is a wide variety of information available - for free - is the understatement of the year. One of the amazing things about Wikipedia is the fact that anyone can update an article. If my son knew about it he'd likely be on there reading everything that has to do with Star Wars and could probably fix a few errors he might find. This is great news in that an article can quickly be fixed if something false is found in it; no need to wait until the next edition like magazines, newspapers, or an encyclopedia. The downside? Not everything that gets publis...

In chapter 7 of The Next Story Tim addresses the idea of "more is better" in regards to information and argues that "[amid] all of our information, we have little time for wisdom" (pg 139). The question is - what is wisdom? My church is currently going through a bible study on the book of Proverbs in our small groups and a couple weeks ago we defined wisdom as "rightly applying the truths of God to our lives," in other words, wisdom is walking out what we know is true. Wisdom in action is James 2:17 personified. But how do we gain wisdom? Our starting point as Christians must be God. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10) But what of the world? What of the technologies and trends permeating our culture? Is there a desire for wisdom or merely for the collection of data, of the sorting of that data into information? Tim notes a trend present, that we hear little of the application...

Earlier today I was working on the Chapter 6 walk through of The Next Story and I typed up a nice little section of content based on one quote that really didn't fit with the rest of the post. I got sidetracked and followed a rabbit trail. I know, a chapter on distraction and I'm all over the place. It's awesomely funny. Anyway, I really wanted to share those thoughts but didn't want to clutter up the original post. Here you go: Following a rabbit trail What if our consumption and use of these devices has trained us to assume that greater speed and greater capacity are universal virtues? What if we have transferred the virtues of digital devices to our own lives? (pg 122) This isn't where Tim goes with the rest of the chapter, but this last quote really got me thinking about my kids. I'm so used to doing things efficiently that I'm (to my shame) often impatient with them because they don't approach things as I would, or get things done as quickly a...

The sixth chapter of The Next Story deals with distraction, which is fantastic because I feel like I'm always distracted! In fact this post was interrupted by Twitter notifications via TweetDeck and I'm not gonna lie, I clicked over a few times before finally exiting the program. Have you ever noticed how much beeps and notification lights fill our lives? The alarm clock that wakes you up, the dryer going off, the cell phone in your pocket, the list could go on and on. We're called, from the moment we awaken, from one task to another by notifications and beeps. Is it, then, any wonder that we find it so difficult to focus on one thing? Eventually the problem of distraction becomes more than something that just happens to us; it defines our identity...We become so shaped by our devices that we lose our ability to focus. We are transformed from people who respond to the beep to people of the beep. (pg 116) Tim argues, and I would tend to agree, that as we have allowed ...

In the fifth chapter of The Next Story Tim addresses the concepts of mediation and identity. His illustration for how digital revolution has shaped our cultures and lives is by comparing and contrasting the two greatest military tragedies of the US - Pearl Harbor and September 11th. Because we are so surrounded by technology, news travels faster, we're able to hear more about an event as it unfolds. Where the people that lived during the Pearl Harbor attacks waited days and even weeks for more detail about the events of that day; the generation that lived in the US during September 11th were not only able to find out something had happened, but were even able to tune in and watch the tragedy unfold. Tim points out that unless you were near Pearl Harbor on December 7th, you're not likely to remember exactly where you were or what you were doing when the attacks happened. Conversely, because of television millions of people watched as the towers fell and can tell you with amaz...

Make has a great compelation of kitchen tutorials you all should check out. In completely unrelated news, I'll be posting tonight from The Next Story. I ended up having a pretty full weekend, so expect a few posts to happen more closely together.

In Part One of The Next Story Tim guides us through the history and way our digital revolution has come about and shaped our culture. In chapter 4 he begins to probe the implications of the digital revolution specifically for the Christian. The theme - communication. Tim begins the chapter talking about the straits of Gibraltar and what the implications of this were on society during the slave trade. He discusses how as men traveled and they got past Gibraltar they felt free from the moral, familial, and religious constraints of their home. "[E]very man became a bachelor once he was beyond Gibraltar" (pg 67). This anonymity lent itself well to indulging in sin - after all, nobody would ever know! You know, except for God. The problem? This new found freedom was just a different type of constraint, a different type of bondage. Without law and without oversight, there was great freedom, and yet, as Newton would testify, there was also great captivity. In all the freedom ...

So, my game plan tonight was to make this version of sesame chicken . I asked J if she wanted to help, she said no, so I started making dinner. I went to check on her brother and I came back just in time to see her tip the bottle of sesame seeds upside down. You know how in the movies something is falling and they shoot it at half speed to make it dramatic? You know how the inevitable "No!" really sounds like "NNNNNoooooooooooo!"? Totally what happened. I thanked her for her help and sent her off to finish her movie while I finished dinner. This is what she left me with: This is the end result: Considering there was way too much sesame, it was pretty good! I'll remake it without her help and let you know my final verdict. Recipe 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds, divided 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional) 5 (6 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast ...

Chapter 3 of The Next Story is a great history lesson. Tim walks us through what he calls "Digital Prehistory" - think pony express - right on through our current place in history as far as technology goes. It's a lot of ground to cover, 200+ years, but you certainly come away with a feel for how fast the digital revolution happened. I feel silly rehashing this chapter, so just go get the audio book and listen to it for yourself. I will, however, leave you with a few really interesting quotes. Quotes Though they [Americans in the early 1800s] lived eighteen hundred years after Jesus, they could make their way across America no faster than Jesus made his way across ancient Palestine. (pg 48) Until the telegraph, information was valued for its ability to assist in understanding and solving particular problems...But in the age of telegraphy, information became an end in itself and was increasingly disengaged from context or local....Its value was not in its usefulnes...

Yesterday's post was pretty long, but necessary to touch on most of the chapter. Thankfully chapter two doesn't go to so many different topics; rather the aim of chapter two is to understand technology and how it shapes cultures. Tim opens the chapter by discussing how new technologies always involve risk and opportunity. As a society we tend to focus more on the opportunity of new technologies while the risks may not become apparent for years down the road, "[we] find ourselves naturally drawn to the benefits and opportunities...but rarely pause to consider the risks" (pg 36). Example: I remember when we first got cell phones we were excited to not have to worry about missing a call from a customer or if the car broke down we could call for help. That's the opportunity. The risk? Never missing a call. Once people know you have a cell phone there becomes this expectation that you're going to answer it 24/7. You go long enough like that and you end up feel...

I'm a big fan of writing in books - I know some people are completely horrified by that, but for me it is a huge indication of how much a book is making me think. If a book is really picking at my brain/heart there's marks all over the place - this is precisely why I hate the library. Don't get me wrong, the cheapskate in me loves not having to pay for books, but then I have to constantly write down interesting quotes on a paper. It's such a hassle. Recently I've taken to Facebook messaging myself the quotes, that way I don't have to risk losing them or having my kids color all over them. What does this have to do with The Next Story ? As I was reading the first chapter I was especially glad that Zondervan gave me this book...lines and notes galore. Chips Off the Ol' Block & Mythic Proportions Tim starts of the chapter with a story about how his son paces through the house when he is on the phone and how Tim realized that it is because he also paces...

On Friday I babysat my nephew for a few hours, and while I was babysitting I decided to do some laundry while I played with him. At the time I was wearing a sweatshirt and Sammy got it pretty dirty so I tossed it in with the load in the washer... Fifteen minutes later I realized I didn't have my phone. It came out of the spin cycle looking quite clean, and effectively a brick. My 8 month old smartphone was now less useful than the dumbphone I'd had for 2 years before this one. Try not to envy me guys. I know it's hard. All of my contacts were in that phone. With the exception of five phone numbers I couldn't get hold of anyone because I don't actually know most people's numbers. My schedule and important dates, my apps, my mp3s, my pictures...basically every thing that I use on a daily basis, gone. You know something? It was pretty scary. As I drove the 45 minutes back to my apartment I felt exposed - what if the van broke down? How would I call for help? H...