How the world distracts us from God / Dealing with everyday and global issues

Most of the time when I am faced with challenges or issues in my life, at work or in relationships I try to relate to them in the context of God. I might speculate whether an issue is a challenge from God, or something new he wants me to learn or experience. Even global issues like the economy or climate change, many people I think would ponder what part it plays in God's plan.

It occurred to me recently that all the issues and problems that go on in our lives, regardless of what higher purpose they serve, are all distractions. We usually consider our issues urgent so we give into the distractions. It's so easy to give ourselves over entirely to the latest and greatest emergency, and in the process move our attention away from God.

When new distractions are thrown into our lives, community or world, we have a choice. Give ourselves over to the distraction, or give ourselves over to God.

If you're not sure what I'm meaning by issues or distractions, really anything in your life or the global life of us all counts. Maybe you lost your job, run out of money, crashed your car, have to move, had a baby, or maybe it's global like fuel costs, the economy crashing or climate change. Regardless of their higher purpose, they all serve as distractions from God.

I wish politicians didn't argue their case by complaining about the opposition.

For a long time I've been peeved at politicians who run their campaign by focusing on how you shouldn't vote for the other guy. Recently my local council had an election and I had to choose between two parties to vote for. I had promotional material for both parties to help me decide which to vote for.

One lot of the material was very constructive. It was promoting to re-elect the councilors who were in council previously and discussed things they had done to help the area, it explicitly addressed issues that hadn't worked out well, but showed what they had attempted to do to lesson the blow to us local residents, and it spoke constructively on what they as leaders would bring to this local council.

The next lot of material was promoting a new team of councilors who had plenty of experience it seemed. This material however was very different. 80% of the material was bagging out or trashing the opposition.

Now it's no hint of which one I voted for, but unfortunately the ones that did all the complaining got in. I am always dumb founded by how that tactic of self promotion works, by talking so much about your opposition and not yourself. This morning a news post over on the Least I Could Do RSS feed talked about this in the context of the US Presidential elections, and I totally agree with what the author has to say.

"I don’t want to hear why your opponent should not be president. I don’t want to hear how past associations makes the other guy dangerous.

I want to hear why you should be prime minister. I want to know how you’ll address the economy. I want to know how you’ll make the world a little bit safer for our children. I want to see your track record in keeping your word. I want to know what change entails. I want to know who you’ll bring with you to run our nation. I want to see your plans for getting us off our oil dependence and moving towards clean energy. I want to know what you’ll do, why you should lead. I want you to speak clearly, concisely and intelligently. I want you to speak to the smartest of us, not the most ignorant."
-- sohmer (ref: Least I Could Do News - Not So Great Debates)

iPhone vs Stone

A friend sent me this image, I've attempted to locate any ownership of the image, although at this point I can only accredit it to the distributor of the image who sent it to me, Morteza Manouchehrzadh. Thanks mate this one made me smile.

A Stupid Attempt at Advertising

This morning as I walked past my local train station, there was a man standing handing out flyers. It's a common occurrence at the station, so I took one.

The flyer I was handed is laughable if not ROFL (rolling on floor laughing) hilarious. It promotes a local "boot camp", an exercise program that will make you "fitter, leaner, stronger and meaner." The back of the flyer is below, but out of respect of the company I decided not to upload the front of the flyer which contained the companies name and contact details.


Click for Full Size ImageYou can see there are two "before and after" cases shown. The first is Joe and is pretty impressive. Joe goes from being overweight with extremely poor posture and grey hair to being a well built hunk with no grey hair. I'm not sure why the change in hair color happened, but maybe they dye your hair for you as part of the boot camp? Seriously though, while it may be possible, I doubt the two guys are the same person.

The second is Penny and is even more impressive. Not only does Penny go from being overweight to having a skinny bod, she seems to have changed skin color rather dramatically, has a change of hair and hair color, and even has different eyes if you look closely. There is no way that the before Penny is the same person as the after Penny.

Underneath the "before and after" cases it says "REAL RESULTS... AND NO B#LL SH#T". Which is just laughable with the amount of "B#LL SH#T" that went into the flyer.

Edit: Okay so my wife pointed out to me it's humor, tongue in cheek. :P I'm really bad at detecting intentional humor sometimes. :) Thanks Bub.

Movember 08 - Raising money for Prostate Cancer research!

November, ahm, I mean Movember is fast approaching and it's time to start taking a focus to Men's Health. Starting the 1st November many of the worlds men will be starting clean shaven and growing a mustache with the common goal of raising awareness and money for prostate cancer research and depression that affects many of us.

If you'd be kind enough to be involved, there are two ways you can be:

1. Make a Donation / Sponsor us Mo-Growers
   If you'd be kind enough to make a donation to the cause please following the following link:
   movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?type=team&team_rego=32646&country=au


2. Gro-A-Mo / Rally Sponsorship
   If you're a guy or a girl, and want to join the mission for the month of Movember head over to movember.com and register, all the instructions are there and it's easy to receive donations using their website.
   
   If you'd like to come join my team, The Furries, please go the following link and use my details below to join:
   Link: au.movember.com/register/register-team.php?join=1
   Captain's Reg #: 1358431
   Captain's Email Address:

I'll be uploading photos at some key moments during the month of Movember, so stay tuned. Thanks in advance for anything you do to further the awareness or financial aspects of this cause!