Category: Outside the Box

Luxury: a condition of abundance or great ease and comfort : sumptuous environment: something adding to pleasure or comfort but not absolutely necessary: an indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease

Merriam-Webster

Have you ever heard the phrase “Affordable Luxury”? The biggest rage nowadays is “affordable luxury” items. This is a marketing exec’s dream come true. But by definition, a “luxury” is something you don’t need: it’s something you want.

There are entire industries built around this tactic. Billions upon billions of dollars of stuff that people don’t need. Sometimes, you didn’t even know you wanted it until some salesman shows you. But all of a sudden “now you have to have it.”

What a crock of baloney.

The truth is, comfort is overrated. Convenience is overrated. Sometimes it’s better to work through something than just have an “Easy Button” (there you go, marketing in action…) Because when you do more, you learn more, and you make mistakes and grow. If everything is easy, then you never learn how to struggle through difficult things.

Sometimes people say “I’ve worked hard for this” as justification for buying something expensive or luxurious. But you didn’t earn anything that God didn’t give you the ability for in the first place. We don’t deserve it, we don’t need it, and almost every time, it ends up being all about us- and nothing to do with God.

Continue reading “How Luxury Makes You Lazy”

I was recently having a discussion with a friend about certain churches teaching very poor doctrine. We talked about Word of Faith teachers, faith healers, and the root of why the modern church is so enamored by it.

If you’re here reading this, and you’re involved in a church (or listen to a preacher) who teaches that it’s God’s will that everyone be healed, and that you just have to receive it- please understand that I desperately want this to be true, but it’s not biblical.

There will always be people who defend these preachers, mostly because they accept their word over the Bible and sound doctrine. (People who do this, by definition, belong to a cult.) People want insta-faith healing and prosperity to be true. But God’s will isn’t a toy that we can manipulate.

There are plenty of websites out there that can rip apart the Prosperity Gospel with scripture all day long. Just do a search. One of my favorite teachers who calls out these charlatans is Mike Winger. You can check out his Youtube channel here.

But really, if we expose Prosperity (aka “Health and Wealth”) preachers, there will be a dozen more that pop up in their place. To fix the problem, you need to expose the root of the sickness- because it’s obvious people who want to believe it will flock to it.

Continue reading “Cardboard Boxes”

One of the things I’ve noticed recently is how myopic and narrow-minded people have become about everything. I mean, if you have an opinion about anything, someone out there wants to rake you over the coals for it. Don’t like animals? Someone hates you for that. Love animals? Someone else hates you for that. Doesn’t matter what you think, somebody is ready and willing to vehemently disagree.

But where did this come from? I’m old enough that I can remember things weren’t always this way. Why is everyone suddenly enraged about the stupidest little things? Why aren’t people’s well-established opinions respected at all any more? Why does anyone else even care what I eat, or wear, or think?

Simply put, I think it’s because people have been trained to hyperfocus their anger. The current generation is the product of decades of targeted marketing, social media, and manufactured outrage. They think small. Their focus is small.

I think what’s happened is that when people realized that the World’s problems were bigger than they could handle, they hyper-focused on one thing they would become champions for. And they will defend it to the death. Continue reading “Small Thinking, Small Focus”

Sometimes I  grow weary of writing about the same things over and over. But that’s what I know.

I don’t really want to spend all my time writing about current events or politics, because honestly, I don’t care. I only watch enough to prepare myself. No amount of shouting from the rooftops will prevent the coming societal breakdown, if there is one in my lifetime.

I mostly write about creative pursuits, because I’m a creative kind of guy. So where does that leave me when I’m not really working on any specific creative projects?

Well, I’ve had some really good discussions lately with a younger friend and aspiring writer. We’ve spent some time going through plot structure, motivations, story mechanics, and all sorts of interesting things. And it’s kind of gotten me interested in writing fiction again. And there’s no end of half-completed stories I could work on.

I’ve also been inspired to make ambient guitar music by Bill of Chords of Orion (I highly recommend his Youtube channel, he’s the Bob Ross of guitar). He issued a challenge to make a simple, 5-song EP using whatever you have laying around. I’ve really been intrigued by this, and I want to give it a shot.

Both of these projects would require a dedication of time, which I am perilously short on. And there’s so many other things I want to do- which is always the case- and so I have to choose what gets done and what doesn’t. An exercise routine also needs to go in that mix.

I think for starters, making a 5-song ambient guitar EP would be the fastest and easiest. I could complete this in a couple of weeks. It wouldn’t be spectacular of course, but would be enough of a challenge to get my feet wet.

The book ideas, though, will require much more time. World-building, character and plot development, and actually writing it should take several months, at best.

Do I want to dedicate an entire year of free time to writing, editing, and publishing another book? I guess that depends on what I hope to get out of it. For me to make any money at it would require immediately writing another one- and then another one after that. Almost nobody makes a career out of writing a single book. So if I were doing it for any other reason than “I just want to” it would mean years of dedicating myself to writing. And as much of a challenge as that would be, I’m not sure I’d be up for it.

Of course, if I spent that same amount of time making an album instead, who knows what it would be like? Probably decent, but what would the creative process look like?

The Process of Finding Joy

Ultimately, I could do either one. I’m perfectly capable of writing another book or making an album. But which one would bring me more joy and life?

I think for me, making music is something that I’m not only good at, but I’m also passionate about. And as I’ve written about recently, instead of submerging myself in Contemporary worship music, I should be singing my own song to God. Which means I need to start writing down some of the many song ideas I’ve had over the last 20 years.

Can I shape them into some kind of music that satisfies me? Would anyone else like it? I don’t know, but I have an itch I need to scratch.