December 12, 2014

I Gave up Sports to Read: My Favorite Books of 2014

This year, I decided to give up playing Fantasy Football and listening to sports talk radio during my commute, and was able to read/listen to the following 21 books instead. Never going back. Asterisks* note my top recommendations.

*A Farewell to Mars – Brian Zahnd
*Money – Tony Robbins
David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
Surprised by Scripture – N.T. Wright
The Signal and the Noise – Nate Silver
Sacred Roots: Why the Church Still Matters – Jon Tyson
Think Like a Freak – Steven Levitt
4-Hour Chef – Tim Ferriss
4-Hour Body – Tim Ferriss
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – Mason Currey
Reimagining Church – Frank Viola
The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human – Jonathan Gottschall
Free-Range Kids – Lenore Skenazy
The Obstacle is the Way – Ryan Holiday
Finding Organic Church – Frank Viola
Prototype – Jonathan Martin
How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big – Scott Adams
The Explicit Gospel – Matt Chandler
What We Talk About When We Talk About God – Rob Bell
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense – N.T. Wright
The Humor Code – Peter McGraw
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August 4, 2014

Are they a ‘Rebel’ or of the ‘Empire’? A False Dichotomy

Blanketing any writer/philosopher/scientist/artist/politician as “right” or wrong” is entirely unhelpful. Are they a 'Rebel' or of the 'Empire' is a false dichotomy. Like the rest of us, they are mere men and women, deeply shaded in gray. Let us judge only their ideas, and one at a time. Quick to embrace the cream that rises to the top. And equally quick to discard the folly, not as evidence of their intentional opposition to all things good, but merely of their humanity.
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August 3, 2014

The Noble and Psychotic Act of Reading a Newspaper Cover to Cover

There is beauty in the act of reading a local newspaper cover-to-cover each morning. There is psychosis as well. For while this once may have been, this habitual act no longer offers an efficient way to become informed – no matter what your intellectual interest. We continue to do ‘noble’ things, not for their nobility, but for how they comfort us.
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July 24, 2014

The “Cynical Optimist” is Not a Contradiction of Terms

The "cynical optimist" is not a contradiction of terms, but a real understanding that while the human heart is undeniably corrupt, the breakthroughs and inventions of a few will make the entire world better, all without us needing to become better people at all – a “rising tide lifts all boats” scenario. We will get richer. We will become safer. We will technologically progress. All without any moral progression required at all. Thus, we must be on guard for the illusion that we are evolving when things around us get better, when we are most certainly not.
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