Blog

Occasionally, someone asks me for a bit of advice on starting a blog. I’m always happy to share how to get started. Choosing how and where you’ll host your blog online seems like the most important thing when you’re starting out. The reality is, actually writing and consistently posting, no matter where you do it, is far and away the most critical aspect. Nevertheless, you have to put your blog somewhere, so here are your best options for where to call home on the Internet. ...

This list is more for me than it is for you. I’m a chronic checker of email and social media, and though these things can be beneficial, they can also be an absolutely ridiculous waste of time. So I came up with a list of things I can do instead of checking my email or Twitter or Facebook. I hope it’ll be helpful. It’s hard to flat out stop something, so let that checky urge be a cue for you to do something different. Also, it can’t be too hard of a thing or you won’t do it instead. ...

Time is the great equalizer. Rich or poor, man or woman, black or white–24 hours is exactly what we get each day. We all have the same amount of hours in the day, but we will all have a different number of days. In the end, however, all of our clocks will eventually strike midnight. The carriage becomes a pumpkin, the spirit leaves the body, and that’s that. For now. [footnote]Because one day, for Christians, our empty, decaying body on earth will become a glorified body–a better, fuller, more beautiful carriage than ever before.[/footnote] Day to day we are all equal, but how we spend our days is where the difference lies. A woman who dies at 60, who spent her days wisely, surely had a fuller life than a man who lives to 100 and squandered the majority of his days. In The Focus Course, Shawn Blanc reminds us of the reality that everyone is using their time somehow. Next time you go to the store, look around at everyone you see. Each one of those people has been spending all 168 hours of their week ever since they were born. I’ve been spending all 168 hours of my week, every week, since I was born. And so have you. You don’t get to not spend your time doing anything while you wait to decide what it is you want to spend your time on. Those moments will be spent, one way or another. Everyone spends all of their time–every day. That’s a simple observation, but it struck me. No human is exempt from using their time. ...

I’m always looking for faster and easier ways to do things. One of those things is searching the web for a person or term I come across but I’m not familiar with on iOS. If you want to look something up without using Siri[footnote]That is, not telling Siri, “Search the web for …”[/footnote] , which, is handy but in general quite shameful in public place, you have a couple of options. Let’s say you’re reading an article in an app that isn’t Safari–Reeder, Pocket, Instapaper, any news app–and you want to look up a person the article mentions. There are three options. And one that you’re probably not using takes the cake for fastest, but it’s a bit hidden. ...

I’ve never been a faithful journaler. For a season, I did a good job of writing down prayer requests, what I was learning, and the occasional event. That season was short lived. But for nearly the last month, I’ve written down something in the form of a journal every single day. Not bad for an unfaithful journaler. Here’s why and how I picked journaing back up. Why Should We Journal? The benefits abound, and it’s amazing how journaling can benefit us in relation to the past, present, and future. ...

I’ll never be a great woman. Fortunately I’m married to one, so my first-hand experience is enough to know what it takes. I can’t tell my wife often enough how much better (and better off) I am because of her influence on my life. Today she’s celebrating 27 years of living on this planet, and I wanted to share the significant lessons she’s helped me learn and ways she’s still helping me grow. Acting Wisely At times I have the sinful urge to give someone a piece of my mind (GSAPOMM), which, if it was a spiritual gift, I would be gladly exercising regularly. Unfortunately, GSAPOMM isn’t exactly a loving or encouraging thing to do. So instead I just tell Niki I would like to GSAPOMM and she says something wise like, “Is that a loving thing to do?” or “Do you think Jesus would give that person a piece of his mind?” Sometimes I say, “I think in this situation Jesus just might do that,” but since I can’t be sure, I default to keeping that comment to myself. Her helping me act wisely extends beyond stopping me from being an unloving jerk. She helps me make wise financial decisions, health decisions, and overall increases my wise decisions tenfold. ...

After a mere three weeks, I’m already going to the well of fatherhood for spiritual analogies. Our daughter has made the transition to parenthood incredibly easy for us–she only cries when something is wrong–90% of the time it means her diaper is dirty or she’s hungry, which are also the only times I cry. The thing is, as she’s crying and one of us is holding her and getting ready to alleviate her hunger or discomfort, she often starts sobbing uncontrollably. We’re ready to meet her needs, we know what’s wrong, but she doesn’t have the awareness yet to understand she just needs to wait a few more seconds. ...

There’s a classic 60s song by The Who called Pinball Wizard about a blind kid who “sure plays a mean pinball.” I like to think of Alfred as channeling that kid and unleashing him on your Mac instead of some movie-adapted, silver-ball bouncing, quarter eater. I’ve mentioned Alfred before in my list of tools, but I haven’t gone on to explain why it’s such an amazing app. If you’re a Mac user, perhaps you’ve used Spotlight (which you can open by clicking Command – Space). It’s a basically engine for your computer. Spotlight has some great additional features too–beyond just searching for files–like currency conversion, contact lookup, launching applications, and more. But it can’t hang with Alfred, which is a super-charged launcher that does everything from searching specific websites to saving all the things you’ve recently copied. You can try out Alfred for free, but to really get to the next level you’ll need the Powerpack for 17£ (~$27). Here are my favorite Alfred features and workflows. ...

With a newborn, our picture count is skyrocketing. A little person that looks like you is an exciting subject to photography. We want to share those picture with our friends and family, but we don’t want to go overboard on social networks and we want to have a sense of privacy as well. We’ve been using iCloud Photo Sharing, which is built into the iPhone and iPad operating system, and it feels like the perfect solution for us. ...

It’s not hard to warm up in the summer. In fact, if you’re in a part of the world where air temperatures exceed body temperatures, you do everything you can to stay cool. But in the fall and spring and you see glorious sunlight through streaming through your window, it seems to be as warm as a summer day. When you head outside, however, you quickly find yourself deceived. The air is cooler than you anticipated and the sun isn’t quite as toasty as you hoped. ...