Ben Lemery | Church & Culture

Technology I Want

If you are ever up late at night, you know the infomercials that come on tv telling you that if you buy this one item, your life will be complete and you will never need to buy another item in your life.  While the item may fix some problems, it most likely will not solve all of them. 

When I look at new items to purchase, I think of a few things:
1.  How will this item make my life easier?
2.  How will it compact many things into one centralized item?
3.  Does the cost equal the value?

When I bought my HTC Mogul from Sprint, it became a mini-computer.  I could access email, websites, take pictures, video, contacts and keep appointments.  It also was a wireless modem for my laptop when I was in a jam.  Clearly, the $200 that I spent on the device equaled a good value.  But then Sprint changed their terms and cut me off from using the wireless modem feature (they said I could still use it but had to pay $15 a month), the phone is getting slow and the upgraded program has been more problematic than helpful.  After a year of use, the phone has stood of to multiple drops and has the war wounds to prove it.  So that added another question to my list:
4.  Does the product have long term value?

Clearly the product does ok but Sprint is on the edge of losing a customer due to their own policies.  Below, I wanted to share some of the big ticket items that I am looking at purchasing this year:

Amazon Kindle 2

 
As you can see I have a lot of books.  I love books, I love reading and have about ten books that I am going through right now.  However, taking all ten books to The Verve in Santa Cruz can be pretty cumbersome or try taking them on a plane with you, almost knocking out another passenger when you swing your bag over your shoulder.  The Kindle is a device that holds up to 1,500 books and is as easy to carry as an oversized Ipod.  Many of the books on my shelf are available for the Kindle and a good amount cost $9.99, which creates a cost savings of 2-6 dollars per book. Right now the Kindle 2 costs $299, plus a stylish little carrying case.

Iphone vs. Blackberry Tour

The Iphone is considered the coolest phone ever but it is on an inferior phone carrier, AT&T.  The Blackberry is considered the standard bearer for all Smartphones out there.  They were pretty much the first and it is hard to deny that they have kept up a consistent product over the years. 

My contract with Sprint is up in January and then I have to decide whether to switch to AT&T and get an IPhone for at least $300, plus pay at least $120 a month or stick with Sprint, pay the same and have a phone that is pretty cool but not as cool as the Iphone.  Verizon is here too but they are pretty expensive for a Blackberry plan. 

In this case I have to put personal annoyance in the category because there is nothing worse than dropped calls.  Sprint has excellent coverage whereas AT&T does not.  So this is a toss up and will probably come down to personal preference. 

If you have thoughts, share away. I won't even get started on the need for a new laptop at some point, haha.

Vision

Habbakuk 2:2: "Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run.""

Vision is the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be. 

Something I used to do was map out a vision and then spend however long it took to execute it.  I did this in 2001 when I had the vision for Campus Cry and for the following seven years, I was able to see the puzzle pieces come together to hold multiple events and impact many others.

Some visions don't come to pass when you are apart of them, even if you helped initiate them.  As vision catches fire, more people take up the cause and sometimes more equipped people are able to take it further than you would have ever been able to. 

If you let pride steer you, the vision will crash.

My biggest fault was attempting to always run a ministry and never delegate it.  Eventually, I felt the Lord had to let the whole thing die so He could work on me solely.  My pride created an opportunity for the vision to faulter.

However, we serve a God that desires us to succeed but also will put us on "timeouts" to deal with our attitudes.  I have been on a good and long timeout but now I feel that vision bubbling up in me.  This might be a good weekend to map out the vision and begin to pray into it even more.

Do you have vision for your life?  Have you asked the Lord to expand your own visual perspectives to see even further?  I believe everyone is put on earth for greatness, but we have to develop vision for our life first.  Are you willing to take the risk and see what you could really do in life?  It's worth a little thought.

Are High School Class Reunions Necessary Anymore?

My ten year high school class reunion will happen in a couple of months and I do not plan on going.  Not due to the lack of friendships that I had in high school but more because Facebook already afforded me the benefit of reuniting with former classmates for free.

In order for me to attend my reunion I would pay no less than $300 for airfare, $150 for car rental, and $30 for the party and football game.  For people who live nearby, this isn't much of an expense but for anyone living outside of the Green Bay area, it really doesn't make sense.  Also, I don't drink alcohol, so do I get at least half of my registration fee back?  Just kidding.

Facebook could possibly be blamed for ruining such occasions because if I want to know how someone is doing, I can simply message them, look at their pictures and read their info.  In a moment, all of the questions that you would have cordially asked them in person are now answered. 

I figured, in my own cynical way, that the people who wanted to hang out and continue talking have already done that.  In fact, you can see in the pictures who still drinks together and hangs out.  Beyond that, reunions are simply an obligation that is offered every five or ten years. 

MAYBE, I would attend the 20 years reunion but only to see if all the people who made fun of me being fat are now also fat and bald.  But that is only a strong maybe.  ;-) To those who like gatherings, all the more power to you, I am sure you will have fun.

What's With All These Dreams?

The last two nights, I have had the weirdest dreams.  Two nights ago, I dreamed that a blanket was going to protect me from impending doom.  I had to fight off different people, was in an attic for awhile and in the end I think I lost it so I probably died. 

Thankfully before anything bad happened to me, I ended up in a contest with two other guys for some great honor.  I remember singing stuff from "The Phantom of the Opera" and encouraging one of the contestants that I felt should win.  I don't know who won because then I transitioned into the 1920's where a friend was secretly stealing away with a girl.  But as she was waiting for him in a bathroom, she got killed.

Last night, I was trying to get a spider into a canister, then the spider turned into an ant and fell on me.  This caused me to thrash about, trying to get it off me....funny part was, I was awake when I started thrashing about.  There is nothing like waking up in a state like that.  However, I was happy to see that the killer ant was not on me.

I don't get dreams.  I have a couple of books on the subject and I even attempted to figure out if any of them were from God.  None of the symbols showed up in the books though, so it might be the strawberries I ate before bed....at this point I don't know.

My hope is, that I won't wake up to killer ants one day cause that would be a nightmare.  Have you had any odd dreams lately?  Care to share?

Story | October 28-29, 2009 in Chicago

I have been intrigued by the many creative conferences that are coming to light.  To be honest, many Christian conferences have become stale with recycled messages that hold little weight in our life.  Then Ben Arment, a complete genius, in my opinion, has a vision to gather people to learn about how to communicate the story of Jesus. 

Story will be held in Chicago October 28-29, 2009 and if you are able to attend, I would highly encourage you to do so.  Telling a story can be something that lasts beyond our own lives.  Jesus spent so much time teaching parables, C.S. Lewis wrote some of the top novels of the past century and his friend J.R.R. Tolkien wasn't to far behind. 

A good story can give people new vision, draw on emotions that they thought were never there and sometimes connect you into a story so intimately that it gives you freedom from that same situation you are hearing or reading about. 

I am not good at telling a story but I know how important it is to communicate your own personal story and the story of Christ and how they marry together.  While I will not be able to attend this conference, though I was completely jealous of the promo boxes, I am praying that God will give new vision to the attendees.

Please visit the site at http://www.storychicago.com and check it out.  Also, watch this interview with Donald Miller and Michael Hyatt on Story. 

Donald Miller and Michael Hyatt - Exclusive Interview on Story from Story Chicago on Vimeo.