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REM, Apples and Fun

Well, this could be my last post.  Of course, if this guy is right, then I won’t have any readers on Monday anyway.  Oh, you haven’t heard?  Some guy has predicted the world to end sometime Saturday evening. I   I guess it’s time to break out some R.E.M.  Personally, I subscribe to this theory:

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (Mark 13:32, New International Version)

Anyway, what would you do differently today if that guy was correct. If you knew tomorrow was the end with 100 percent certainty, would you approach to day any differently?  And if you would, why are we living that way anyway?  Yes, there is the money aspect of work, and the aspects of planning for the future that are good and right.  But what about other life choices?  Other things that seem important and stressful?  Would you let them go?

I wonder how many of us would change our words and the way we treat others.  This video was set to me earlier this week by a fellow DB reader.  I tried to embed it, but was unable to in the ‘short time’ that I had with it. ( I didn’t want to waste my last days on video embedded 🙂 ).  Anyway, please take the 2 minutes to watch this video, it’s pretty good, and then consider the words that you are using with those around you and the impact that they have on people’s lives.

11A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. (Proverbs 25:11, King James Version)

Oh and one last thought for some Friday ramblings  When Amy pulled off the day on her calendar this morning the quote for today was “The purpose of Fun is to have it!”  Have a great and funtastic day!

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Where’s the Fun

Way back in December of 2009 I posted about the Volkswagen fun theory. This has been something I have been thinking about a lot lately, and it was brought back to my mind with earnest first by this interesting quote that appeared on Amy’s daily calendar last week

Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. -George Scialabba

and then by two very innovative Volkswagen commercials that have made the scene in recent weeks, The Force and the Black Beetle.  Both of these commercials are fill of innovation and fun.

I have often thought about this whole concept of the fun theory over the last 14 months.  Trying to see how to apply it to my home life, my church life, and my work life.  Hey 2 out of 3 aint bad – is it?  Well, that would probably be ok if it wasn’t that the 1/3 that is sans fun accounts for oh 2/3 of my waking hours. It seems sometimes that we I forget that enjoyment of our days is all that we I have.  There is so much to this fun theory, yet it is so incredibly easy to assume that there is something else that we are striving for.   I am all for getting the job done, working hard, and producing a product that brings glory to our Lord,  however, it has to so much better when there is an element of fun involved.

But unfortunately some time the creative is eaten up by the mundane, and the imagination is stymied in process and procedures.  Yesterday was one of those days where I wanted to reach through the telephone and produce untold damage on some of the people of the other end.  Fun.. well not really.  It was actually the farthest thing from fun. I guess that could be viewed as extreme, but is was not fun and as produces a very unpleasant working experience.  It shouldn’t have to be that way.

I have posted about the whole concept of work and my reliance on the writer of Ecclesiastics for a sign of hope before ( here, here and well here.  Or here for the whole list), and once again I go back to the well for some direction on having fun and enjoying the days.  The old man of wisdom says this

24 So I decided there is nothing better than to enjoy food and drink and to find satisfaction in work. Then I realized that these pleasures are from the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 2:24 (New Living Translation)

and in the even more contemporary Message paraphrase

24-26 The best you can do with your life is have a good time and get by the best you can. The way I see it, that’s it—divine fate. Whether we feast or fast, it’s up to God. God may give wisdom and knowledge and joy to his favorites, but sinners are assigned a life of hard labor, and end up turning their wages over to God’s favorites. Nothing but smoke—and spitting into the wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:24, The Message)

Let’s not let our God given intelligence go unused. Let us use let that intelligence have fun and let our imaginations take over. I strongly believe it will make the toil of work so different and that it will produce the satisfaction that many of us ( er me) long for each day when we head off the exchange our time for money.

Be creative, have fun , let your imagination run wild and bring glory to God.

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Fun Theory

A few days ago I was sent a video of a piano staircase that Volkswagen built as part of a project they call The Fun Theory.   The tag line from the site says this:

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

This has really started my mind going.  Fun imagine that- it can change behaviour or behavior?  I showed this to Amy The First Grade Teacher, and she said “That’s why we don’t sit in desks anymore”.  Hm.  Then I think about our churches and for the most part the word “fun” never comes to mind.  I wonder if there is something we can learn from this.  After all, one of the biggest messages of the Bible is about changing your behavior from someone full of evil and selfishness to someone full of love and mercy and grace and concern for others.   This is a half baked thought at the moment, and I am sure this space will be used to elaborate on these thoughts in more detail after the “GREATEST DAY OF THE YEAR” – which is quickly coming upon us.

Oh a quick aside, after missing a day in the countdown yesterday – my count downer was ill – here is BonJovi’s I Wish Everyday Could be Like Christmas to get you through the third day before Christmas!

And back to our thought’s for today-behavior change .  As you have great fun this week, celebrated your blessings with your family, and remembering the gift of the savior.  Let this fun which is transforming you into a gift giving machine continue to change your behavior.  Take a look at those first shepherds.  you know it was fun to see that baby, to bow before the king – awe inspiring –  but fun.  And they walked away changed.  Walk away from this Christmas changed by the newborn babe!

Luke 2:20 (New International Version)

20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told