New Year - Valley of Vision

"O LORD,

Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed

in thy presence, in thy service, to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains,

sanctifies, aids every hour,

that I may not be one moment apart from thee,

but may rely on thy Spirit

to supply every thought,

speak in every word,

direct every step,

prosper every work,

build up every mote of faith,

and give me a desire

to show forth thy praise,

testify thy love,

advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,

with thee, O Father, as my harbour,

thee, O Son, at my helm,

thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,

my lamp burning,

my ear open to thy calls,

my heart full of love,

my soul free.

Give me thy grace to sanctify me,

thy comforts to cheer,

thy wisdom to teach,

thy right hand to guide,

thy counsel to instruct,

thy law to judge,

thy presence to stabilize.

May thy fear be my awe,

thy triumphs my joy."

Taken from "The Valley of Vision - A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions"

Living in the Cloud

Two days ago I came home from work to find a package. I was confused because I hadn't ordered anything, but then I thought maybe my parents sent me an early Christmas present. It turns out it was Google's new Cr-48 netbook for testing out Google Chrome OS. I was actually chosen to be part of the test group.

I've now been playing with it for a couple days. In fact I'm writing this blog entry from it. The hardware is nothing to jump for joy about, but it is kind of nice having a laptop without any manufacturing labels. I also like that I now have a laptop with a webcam. It has a SSD, not that you can access it, but it does make things snappy, light, quiet, and doesn't suck a lot of power.

The operating system is basically the Chrome web browser, except you can't minimize or even shrink the window. It's always at full size. Since I actually do most of my day to day computing from my iPhone, this isn't a huge stretch to be in the cloud. And as Google Docs becomes more and more powerful, it will allow this to further be a production device and not a consumption device.

Right now, the biggest problem I see with a netbook that is solely internet based is with media. No, you can't be a power user and actually think the Chrome OS setup would work for you. I get that. But I'm thinking of your average Joe Blow. You can do photos to some extent. You can store them online and there are online photo editors out there. They aren't quite as powerful as the desktop variety, but it still exists. Video becomes a challenge as you are relegated to what already exists on the internet. You can't have anything of your own. And the bigger one is music. You can listen to Pandora or any other variety of online music stations, but iTunes is still the biggest kid on the music block. Until iTunes moves to the cloud, there is no way to access your own music and no way to sync your iPhone/iPod.

So you still need a computer at home. But this could definitely be the computer to take with you to coffee shops, or to class, or any other short trips like that. I'm not sure it's ready to become the only device you own.

Singledom grows

One of my favorite pastors, Mark Driscoll, brought my attention to this article when he tweeted it.The article is titled, “Nearly 40% say marriage is becoming obsolete.” You can read it in its entirety here. Basically, the article talks about how Americans view of marriage is declining. It doesn’t hold the same place in our lives. Some of the statistics that stood out to me was that the percentage of married adults has declined from 72% in 1960 to 57% in 2000 and now 54% in 2010. And the median age for getting married for the first time is at an all time high, 28.2 for men and 26.1 for women.

I can’t say I’m surprised by this article. In fact I see it all the time, even around Christian women, who continue to push of the idea of marriage for the need to achieve a career or some other goal. I don’t seem to see a big desire among men either. In their case, I think they just don’t see that calling. Marriage just becomes one more thing on a bucket list, but not a priority.This view of marriage by both parties only causes a further spiral down. And this makes it harder for guys like me as fewer and fewer women are looking to get married. And this in turn causes even more damage to the next generation of men with a desire for marriage. Pastors need to preach to the men their call by God to marriage and family. It’s one of the first callings from God. Men, we need to preach this to each other. I hope we can turn around this view for our futures.

The beginning

Hi. I’m just another person trying to solve this puzzle of life we’re all in. I’d like to say I’m your average 30 year old guy, but I’m not. I’m a Christian and still single. This is abnormal in the Christian world. But I didn’t exactly approach life the same way most do and that has placed me where I am. When I finished I school I joined the Navy. I spent nine years serving this great country and was stationed in the Middle East for the Global War on Terrorism. Now I live in Austin, Texas. This is one of the greatest cities in the U.S. I’m slowly working on finish my degree and then starts the transition to a career instead of a job. Life however is far greater than a career, a relationship status, or even my view of it all. This is my life. This is my puzzle.