Remember life before the smartphone? With the apps, e-mail access and web access I can easily forget it’s also a phone. Problem is, so did the makers of my Blackberry. Not a day goes by without someone saying, “Can you say that again? I can’t hear you?” Turns out the crummy mic on my phone makes me sound like a robot gargling mouthwash.

All this technology and I can’t have a simple phone conversation. Did Paul have smartphones in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians, “Unless you speak intelligible words, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air?”

It’s a great reminder of how many ministry organizations operate. Lots of fancy ringtones to captivate but the core message is getting distorted. Jack Welch said, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” I would add that poor leaders create a vision but can’t articulate it, get distracted, splinter their energies and resources in a hundred noble affairs and end up with a shell of what could have been...

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By writing a book, Sarah Palin wants us to see a different side.

We've seen a different side of David Letterman and it's not funny.

And a VERY different side of Tiger Woods.

Magazine covers, late night TV appearances and countless media interviews all serve to show a more personable side of President Obama – at the risk of overexposure.

We all have many sides to us. Sometimes the ugly sides creep out (like at an airport terminal line). And don't we all wish our lesser-known good sides would be more apparent? Some sides are neither good nor bad. Remember the class clown? A few of my friends are like that. But privately I also know they can be deep and serious and this contradiction is why I relate to them.

Recently we have had the pleasure of producing two fun projects for author John Eldredge ...

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[Continued from Tuesday's post]

I think about pop fashion a lot when it comes to music and the arts in general. While it is true there is “nothing new under the sun”, it is also true we are the ones with the Creator living within us, yet often we hand our creativity over to the popular, instead of leading the charge. Let me put it this way. Look at three original American icons: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Each emerged unique and boldly so. But if they would have appeared on American Idol, they’d have been laughed off the stage. Here’s how it would go down:

“Jimi – you’re insane, you mumble and that is NOT how to play guitar. And it’s too loud! No-one will ever come to hear you! Terrible.”

“Bobby – no-on can understand your lyrics, and …well…you’re a horrid singer anyway. Go home!”

“Willie – whatever made you think you could be here? You are not attractive, your voice is awful, no-one would ever pay to listen to it! Don’t quit your day job. Loser!”

Or how about a different plane entirely? ...

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