In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, I’ve decided to navigate the topic of illegal downloads (see what I did there?).
As I asked over on my facebook page (where it’s impossible to be anonymous), I am wondering how many of you currently or have ever “stolen” music. This could be downloading illegal bit torrent files, making “reference copies” of your cds for your friends to “share”, or just swapping your ipods with each other and using iPod-ripping software to basically trade music libraries.
I’m not passing judgment. I just want to provide a little bit of an open forum to see how many of my friends have actually done it, if you think there’s anything wrong with it, or if you have a good rationale as to why you do it. So, please, fire away in the comments and let me know – anonymously, please!
Do you “steal” music?
Filed under: Devotional, Random thoughts, Theology, worship | Tags: hunger, practical Christianity
My beautiful wife has been very sick the past few days. (She’d kill me if she knew I were blogging it.) This pregnancy has been harder than the first (not for me, but for her – yes, ladies, I know, I am the scum of the earth.) However, this sickness is a head cold on top of the other “normal” stuff.
Well, despite my feeble attempts to fend for myself, meal-wise, I’ve been eating very poorly. Ramen noodles and the occasional coffee do not a balanced diet make.
So, I was extremely grateful for the plate of food that Lisa Sylvia had her husband Dan bring over to me in the office when they saw I was working late tonight. There is nothing like a good home-cooked meal when you haven’t been eating properly for a while. And man, tonight hit the spot.
As I was shoveling down my food, I felt empathy with the homeless man who doesn’t know where his next meal will come from. I thank God for clean water and healthy meals. And I’m reminded of the verse that says,
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat…”
this plate was full a matter of seconds before. 
Filed under: Random thoughts, Technology, Theology | Tags: church, communication, connecting, facebook, Random thoughts, the real church
So, there are two “things” (for lack of a better word) running around in my thoughts right now.
- I’d like to spend a whole 30 days without the internet or cell phone. No email, no facebook, no wordpress. No texting, no calling or receiving calls. No checking on news stories or sports stories. I would intentionally only talk to people with whom I came into direct contact. I would love to carry out this little experiment and then journal about it and see what I begin to feel or experience, how I might grow as a person or what I might learn. (Unfortunately, I think it may be a while before I’m able to find 30 consecutive days where people aren’t counting on me to get back to them via email/phone/facebook/etc.)
- Who is “the real” church? I’m wondering if we really look like what the Lord intended us to look like. I feel anti-establishment at times. People “hate God” because of what they perceive the Church to be. How much of this is our fault? Some how, something inside of me tells me the whole “organized religion” think isn’t real enough. (I don’t even know what that means… it’s just what I feel, so it mightn’t be valid.) Is there any solution to the current conundrum?
Ok, so there you have it. 2 random thoughts for tuesday.
