We are reminded to pray for our leaders and those in authority in 1 Timothy 2:
Instructions concerning Prayer
2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is right and acceptable before God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For
there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself a ransom for all
—this was attested at the right time. 7 For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.
8 I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument, 9 also that the women should dress themselves in moderate clothing with reverence and self-control, not with their hair braided or with gold, pearls, or expensive clothes, 10 but with good works, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. 11 Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve, 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. 15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
1 Timothy 2, NRSVUE
It is God’s will that all people would be saved. So when we pray for our leaders to be saved, we pray God’s will.
We also need to forgive our leaders for anything we are holding against them. Remember, forgiveness is not (just) for them, it’s for us.
We need to forgive those whose actions and policies have negatively affected us and we need to bless them in the same way that we forgive and bless our enemies.
We can choose to forgive them without letting them off the hook and they still need to be held legally accountable for what they did.
We don’t do this because we like them or because we agree with them but because it is the will of God.
Instead of making fun of them and gossiping about them we need to see the as individual people with real names and real families and real problems, and real people who need salvation and need to encounter and experience God and His peace in their lives, the same way we do.
Daniel started a new consulting gig with a platform called Hopps. This is where small businesses who need help with their website, online shop, online presence, or social media etc. can have a consulting session with an expert in the field that they need help in and don’t have to hire an employee or freelancer for more than just the task at hand.
Click on the image to see Daniel’s profile
Sessions can run anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on the client’s needs… sometimes there’s a whole list of things!
Hopps describe themselves as the world’s first on-screen help platform. To get help with website troubleshooting, anything WordPress, anything Shopify, or if you need to translate something from or to German, GO TO DANIEL’s PROFILE to get started!
Today, Daniel decided to go swimming every day (or at least as many days in a row as possible) to start losing weight through High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). What’s nice is that it’s gentle on the joints. This is what some people do in Switzerland – you don’t notice the cold or “bad” weather as much if you stick to swimming every day because the temperature of the water doesn’t change that much from one day to the next, even if you’re swimming in a river or a lake.
The nice thing is that our apartment complex has a community pool and jacuzzi so the current idea is to warm up doing stretches and sit in the jacuzzi for about 5 minutes. Then jump in the pool (like ripping a band aid off!) and swim laps for 1-2 minutes. Repeat jacuzzi and laps every 1-2 minutes to get 5 repetitions then relax in the jacuzzi for another 10-15 minutes before taking a cold show to rinse off the chlorine.
While I can build a Content Management System (CMS) from scratch I choose not to because there are so many out there already. There are usually multiple solutions to a problem and it’s the same way with CMSs; there are usually several good options to choose from. I’m not a big fan of reinventing the wheel. If something is not working the way it was intended, let’s find the solutions to the problems at hand. That’s also how I see open source – someone has a great idea and the community can help turn it into something, even make it better, and collaborate on a problem to come up with the best solution. You can’t know all the answers but you can work on knowing where to find them, which people to talk to, and be humble enough to ask for help.
Excellence is the journey of striving to be the best version of myself. It’s not about finding a way to do the bare minimum by comparing to what others are doing but rather looking inward and finding the potential that’s there and working toward reaching it to its fullest. Amazingly, when everyone excels, everyone wins. There are no losers when everyone gives it their all.
To the best of my ability, I live with an attitude of gratitude for the things I have, and without complaining about the things I don’t. The same goes with circumstances; I may not be able to control them, but I control how I respond. I control whether I see myself as a victim or as an overcomer. I control whether a situation pulls me down or becomes a stepping stone in my life, whether to give up or to live a life of excellence. And excellence is not a thing I can do one time and then I have it. No. Excellence is a way of life, something to continually be with my whole being.
The Tesla company, for example, has this way of excellence that I’ve observed from the outside. Starting with the design, everything is well thought out, every detail looks like someone went out of their way to put it in the exact right spot. And even with the release of new models, from what I’ve read, releases are sometimes delayed because of an update being added to them. Delaying the release of a product so that a better version of it will go to the customer, if this is really true, is evidence of excellence. I want to be seen by those around me that way too… that I would go out of my way to make something better, better than the minimum, better than my initial goal, so that those on the receiving end have a better version. Excellence means that those around me experience the best version of myself.
Not sure if we share this before but we started using Fetch Rewards sometime last year. Fetch Rewards is basically an app where you can take snap a picture of your receipt, and depending on what you bought, you get varying amounts of points.
At the very lowest, you receive 25 points for a receipt. Well, that’s after you you sign up and snap your first few receipts. In fact, if you want to try it, we recommend starting on a day that you will likely have more receipts, like on grocery shopping day, because our experience has shown that Fetch Rewards gives more points right at the beginning.
Also, if you use our referral link here, you’ll receive somewhere around 2000-4000 (during special promotions, they increase the amount) points as a bonus when you scan your first receipt. To put that in perspective, 1000 points = $1 at least 99% of the time. And most rewards start at around $3-5 gift cards (except Walmart who’s in the < 1% that make you work more for your rewards). So you could potentially get a $3-5 Amazon Gift Card right on your first day!
So, turn your receipts into gift cards with Fetch Rewards. Just click THIS LINK and get 2,000 points when you snap your first receipt. You can also download the app first and use our promo code, HWAWGK, which will give you the 2000 points as well, once you scan your first receipt.
We have so far been able to receive over $100 in rewards from Amazon, Domino’s Pizza and Starbucks!
It is was a big step of faith for both of us, and we are requesting your prayers. While going through a season of transition and learning to trust God through various storms and trials, we have sensed His calling us into a deeper place of intimacy with Him and learning to simply “sit at the feet of Jesus” (Luke 10:38-42).
We believe that the school provides not only the guidance but also the environment for us to grow and transform into the people we are called to be, in life, in purpose, in calling, and in ministry. And we believe that this training and experience will also open up more doors for us towards full-time or part-time (paid) ministry opportunities as well as missions.
Starting with the introduction, in the first few sentences of the book it says that “the greatest challenge to the life and witness of the church in our age is widespread moral confusion and denial of moral authority” (Mitchell, location 51) And also, “that’s the burden of this book: to help readers discover how biblical theology, Christian ethics, and contemporary science and medicine intersect in the real world where people are making life-changing decisions” (Mitchell, location 107). As well as, “the issues in bioethics [are categorized] under the rubric of ‘taking life,’ ‘making life,’ and ‘remaking life.’ The order of these categories represents the order in which the ethical issues have arisen historically” (Mitchell, location 125).
Looking at these passages and also a little bit of the history of hospitals, the Red Cross and medical care explained in Chapter 1, the authors seem to be telling us that, while hospitals, the Red Cross and medical care, especially in America, were once deeply rooted in and had their origins to Judeo-Christian compassion, that today, this is no longer the case (Mitchell, location 286). In fact, that medical care, especially in America, has so much distanced itself from its original intent, that it’s even difficult for believing physicians today to make ethical and moral decisions, rooted in the Word of God.
Style of the book
“Using a dialogue format, Mitchell, an ordained minister and university professor, and Riley, an experienced physician, talk openly and thoughtfully about how they as Christians think about a range of thorny ethical issues arising in their field of bioethics. Combining their backgrounds in theology, ethics, and medicine, Mitchell and Riley engage real-life moral questions in a manner easily understood by laypersons and yet useful to clinicians, pastors, and students (Mitchell, location 70).”
The style of the dialogue here gives the book almost an interview/discussion panel feel and I’ve often found myself imagining C. Ben Mitchell (CBM) and D. Joy Riley (DJR) sitting across from each other at an angle at an informal setting or similar to a TED talk, going over the different points and giving the reader a way to learn from their dialogue. I like this style very much because it doesn’t feel like a dry textbook with lots of facts to memorize, but rather a fluid flow of information that engages and makes me think about what was said.
American Problems
One of the things I found quite interesting in this book was how the authors constantly bring up “problems” with medical care in reference to “American culture.” An example of what I mean by that can be found in regards to aging/anti-aging, discussed in Chapter 8: Aging and Life-Extension Technologies.
“Increasingly, Western culture – especially American culture – has come to loathe every facet of aging. Mushrooming interest in cosmetic surgery, obsessive consumption of antioxidants, and the technological quest for immortality are a phenomena of a relatively affluent and increasingly ageist society. We must resist both ageism and fatalism. Aging itself is not a disease to be conquered. Likewise, we do not have to accept stoically every limitation associated with aging (Mitchell, location 3503).”
While I do agree with this idea that Western culture has come to loathe every facet of aging, I don’t necessarily agree with the “especially American culture” portion. Having lived in Europe for over 20 years, I’ve found this statement to be true and just as bad (or worse!) in other Western cultures. What’s different about American culture is that it’s just more promoted by celebrities, Hollywood and the media. But even with the entertainment industry, the kind of person that is generally depicted in movies that is getting some kind of anti-aging treatment is some rich person from France or somewhere in Europe, not America.
Ironically, a lot of the technological advances in medicine also come from outside the US because the restrictions on what’s allowed and what’s not are different. There have also been many breakthroughs, especially in cancer research, that are banned in the US.
In terms of aging, as believers, we need to remember that this body is only temporary. Every single person that once lived, is alive now and will live one day in a body, already existed with God as a spirit and will continue to live as a spirit when their body passes away. Thinking of passages like Genesis 6, God limits our time here on the earth to 120 years. I heard a preacher once ask, what’s the drawback of human life? It has a 100% mortality rate. Instead of worrying so much about our bodies getting old and eventually dying, we should be concerned about what God put us on this earth to do and to do it. While maintaining good health is important, worrying about wrinkles and sagging body parts is just a distraction from what’s really important. As eternal beings, we need to be concerned about where and how we and the people we care about will be spending eternity when our bodies are gone. The book does a great job at pointing to this as well, which I was happy to see.
Ironically, it also mentions the “Russian 2045 Movement” at the beginning of Chapter 8:
“What do you get when you cross James Cameron’s idea, Robert White’s work with chimps, and the deep pockets of Russian Dmitry Itskov? Something called the Russian 2045 Movement, which is a robot that closely resembles a human from far away and close-up and contains a human brain and personality. This is not a joke. According to the company’s website, the project consists of four stages: Stage 1—called Avatar—is aimed at creating a robotic copy of the human body, controlled through a brain-computer interface. This stage is to be completed by 2020. Stage 2—Body B—to create an Avatar in which a human brain is transplanted at the end of one’s life. This stage is to be completed by 2025. Stage 3—Re-brain—to create an Avatar with an artificial brain, in which a human personality or consciousness is transferred at the end of one’s life. This stage is to start in 2030 and to be completed by 2035. Stage 4—Hologram-like body—A hologram-like avatar. To be started in 2040 and completed by 2045 (Mitchell, location 3282).”
Clearly, the Russian 2045 Movement is neither American nor purely Western. And this total obsession with youth and staying young, I would venture to say that this is a human “thing,” not a cultural one. I think this statement from CBM supports my venture: “Aging is not a disease to be cured but a reality of the human condition to be celebrated (Mitchell, location 3444).”
All in All
As the authors claimed at the beginning of the book, I do think that they “help readers discover how biblical theology, Christian ethics, and contemporary science and medicine intersect in the real world where people are making life-changing decisions (Mitchell, location 107).” Their playful discussion style explanations help a lot in absorbing the material and offer guidance and references to real-life situations that a reader can always go back to and lean on.
Last week, a coworker told me about a prank for another coworker and the idea came up to somewhat make it Batman themed. I found this Batman Voice Changing Helmet that might just do the trick.
Ironically, we looked for and tried out several apps on our phones first, each of them promised that they had a Batman Voice Changing feature – BUT THEY DIDN’T!
We figured that as a last resort, we’ll just have to order the helmet. Maybe we can gift it to the coworker as a prize at the end 🙂
This one was recommended to me and I’m planning to add this to my Mac sometime in the next month. I’ll probably write another update about how it worked out 🙂 For now, I can neither update to the newest versions of OSX, nor install certain Adobe products that require more RAM.
Apple 4GB Module PC3-8500 Mac Pro MacPro5,1 MacPro4,1 Mid 2012 Mid 2010 Early 2009 Mac Pro MB871LL/A A1289 MC250LL/A MC915LL/A MD770LL/A MD772LL/A MB535LL/A A1289 MC561LL/A Memory RAM
Designed For Mac Pro Models: Early 2009 Mid-2010 Mid-2012 MB535LL/A MB871LL/A MC250LL/A MC561LL/A MC915LL/A MD770LL/A MD772LL/A A1289 MacPro4,1 MacPro5,1
While the 2009 MacPro that I have says it can have up to 32GB of RAM (I have had 6GB for the past decade!), I’ve been told that people have already successfully used 64GB as well. That might be a little overkill for now, but it might make sense in another decade or so lol!
