Daily Links 10-18-13

Introverts, tinkering, stay-at-home moms, traits of wildly successful people,

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This is hilarious (and true)::

Hat tip: Stephen Mansfield

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When you don't know where to start, just tinker.

[A] funny thing often happens when you “just” start setting up and tinkering: you forget about the big, intimidating picture, and start taking small actions that will actually more the project forward. You begin by tweaking and tinkering, and before long, your imagination sparks into life and you’re happily absorbed in the work. You’ve started in earnest without even noticing it.

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It's time to stop denigrating mothers who stay at home to raise their children:

The people who completely immerse themselves in the tiring, thankless, profoundly important job of raising children ought to be put on a pedestal. We ought to revere them and admire them like we admire rocket scientists and war heroes. These women are doing something beautiful and complicated and challenging and terrifying and painful and joyous and essential. Whatever they are doing, they ARE doing something, and our civilization DEPENDS on them doing it well. Who else can say such a thing? What other job carries with it such consequences?

It’s true — being a mom isn’t a “job.” A job is something you do for part of the day and then stop doing. You get a paycheck. You have unions and benefits and break rooms. I’ve had many jobs; it’s nothing spectacular or mystical. I don’t quite understand why we’ve elevated “the workforce” to this hallowed status. Where do we get our idea of it? The Communist Manifesto? Having a job is necessary for some — it is for me — but it isn’t liberating or empowering. Whatever your job is — you are expendable. You are a number. You are a calculation. You are a servant. You can be replaced, and you will be replaced eventually. Am I being harsh? No, I’m being someone who has a job. I’m being real.

If your mother quit her role as mother, entire lives would be turned upside down; society would suffer greatly. The ripples of that tragedy would be felt for generations. If she quit her job as a computer analyst, she’d be replaced in four days and nobody would care. Same goes for you and me. We have freedom and power in the home, not the office. But we are zombies, so we can not see that.

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Five traits of wildly successful people:

I have a crazy idea: success isn’t just about hard work. We hear about hard work all the time—it’s what Olympic champions talk about when they get to the top of the podium and it’s what the media credits as the sole force behind entrepreneurs. But there has to be something else in the equation of obtaining unimaginable success. What other traits tipped the odds in favor of the world’s most successful people?

The actual traits will surprise you.

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25 reasons regular church attendance is important.

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Mike Rowe has been preaching the value of hard work. Now he's funding a new scholarship program to help students develop skills for jobs currently available in the United States:

Mike Rowe, formerly of Dirty Jobs, appeared on TheBlaze TV’s “Wilkow!” Thursday night to discuss his exciting new scholarship program, the mikeroweWORKS Scholarship Fund. The goal is to get high school seniors ready to enter the workforce with the skills they need to land the jobs that are available in the U.S. — the key word being available.

“The jobs right now that we have available, people don’t seem to want — and it makes no sense because we’re lending money we don’t have to kids who can’t pay it back to train them for jobs that no longer exist,” Rowe told TheBlaze TV’s Andrew Wilkow.

Each mikeroweWORKS scholarship is worth $15,000 on average — a nice chunk of change. However, any high school senior interested in the program must first take the “S.W.E.A.T. Pledge” (Skills and Work Ethic Aren’t Taboo) and make a case as to why they are deserving of the scholarship in the form of a video.

“If your not willing to sign it, this particular pile of free money is probably not for you,” Rowe said.

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A fun list of 11 book sequels you probably didn't even know existed.

Daily Links 10-7-13

Learn less and work more, the importance of sound theology, value of the mundane, reflecting on the career of Mariano Rivera, and more in today's roundup of links. 

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An Australian tycoon has some simple advice: learn less and work more. (Hat tip Mike Rowe)

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What we believe matters:

Ideas are powerful, something we tend to forget in this postmodern age. They can be the fertile seedbed for love and relationship, or they can be a toxic, suffocating brew. For instance, if you believe that a friendly overture is a ploy to use you sexually or financially, this relationship will not bloom. Instead, if you believe that this overture is sincere and caring, there is a much better chance that something will blossom out of it.

The same is true regarding our beliefs about God. Mega-church pastor, Carlton Pierson, had believed that God was eager to throw people into hell, and the best protection against this was going to church. Pierson had placed his faith in an unbiblical, unloving god. Consequently, he rejected this unappealing god in favor of the other extreme – an utterly non-just god who will bring everyone to heaven, without any consideration of their lifestyle.

What we believe about God determines our relationship with Him. There are certain beliefs that undermine this relationship. Paul mentioned one of them – self trust:

·        Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision [to become a Jew and to keep the law, partially trusting in your good deeds to get you into heaven], Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

Paul warned that if Christ is just one of several objects of our trust, we are not trusting in Him at all! Why such harsh words? Why is it so wrong for the one who trusts in Christ to also trust that his good deeds have secured him a place in heaven? Isn’t God overly picky and demanding?

If relationship and love depend upon right ideas/beliefs, then our Lord has every reason in the world to insist that we understand certain realities.

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Romans 8:38 means everything works together for good. Even the mundane.

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10 really cool Etsy stores for book lovers.

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This baseball season marked the end of the storied career of Mariano Rivera. Here are some reflections from one fan about what he meant to them. (Hat tip: Challies)

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Three questions to wrestle with while choosing worship songs.

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There's now scientific evidence of the effects of addiction to pornography:

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once famously wrote that while “hard-core pornography” is hard to define, “I know it when I see it.” Most of us would agree.

But what about addiction to pornography? Can we know this when we see it? For years people have debated whether we can actually become addicted to pornography. Yet the effects of sexual addiction—defined as “obsessive sexual behavior regardless of the growing negative consequences for the person or their relationships”— are hard to miss.

According to Patrick Carnes of the Gratitude Program at Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services in Mississippi, perhaps eight percent of adult men and three percent of adult women become sexually addicted at some point in their lives, and many of them become addicted through pornography.

For those who demand detailed, scientific evidence of a malady we see every day, well, now we have it. Cambridge University scientists say that compulsive porn users show the same kind of changes to the structure of their brains as those addicted to alcohol or drugs.

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Here's a recipe for book envy: Libraries of the rich and famous. What's striking to me is the wealth of books that these folks own. Also the libraries are just plain cool.

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Recently, three blind swimmers accomplished an unusual feat: they escaped from Alcatraz.

A trio of visually impaired swimmers from Phoenix, Ariz., made history this morning when they dove into the chilly San Francisco Bay and braved the waters to successfully escape Alcatraz.

Nineteen-year-old Katie Cuppy, 17-year-old Max Ashton and 25-year-old Tanner Robinson finished the 1.5-mile open-water swim from Alcatraz Island to the foot of the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco today, according to the Foundation for Blind Children’s Twitter account.

This was the first time blind and visually impaired teammates competed in the 2013 Alcatraz Invitational Swim, a Foundation for Blind Children news release said.

The swimmers have been outspoken that their decision to swim at the 18th Annual Alcatraz Invitational was to tackle the idea that vision loss is just a diagnosis, not a disability.

“I kind of want to prove that blindness isn’t a barrier,” Cuppy told the Arizona Daily Sun. “Blindness isn’t the end of the world.”

Hat tip: Right Field

Daily Links 9-6-13

Some reflections on hard work, Ronald Reagan's near-death encounter with a chimpanzee, theological labels, a double no-hittter, and more in today's links.

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Reevaluating the value of hard work:

For more than a generation, we have encouraged our children to aspire to careers that would enable them to work with their minds and not their hands. So, it should come as no surprise that we have an estimated three million job vacancies in the skilled labor force today that are going unfilled because many people erroneously consider these positions to be beneath their potential or otherwise undesirable.

We are now dealing with a problem of our own making. In our attempt to spare our children from the drudgery of physical labor, we have become a society that no longer respects or celebrates hard work. We have become a nation of consumers rather than producers and we are beginning to experience the unintended consequences of this transition in more painful ways. But just as the national narrative seems to be hopelessly unswayable, an unlikely voice of reason has emerged in guest appearances on the national talk show circuit.

Mike Rowe, who is best known as the host of the Discovery Channel's popular show Dirty Jobs, has decided to lend his fame and notoriety to a larger cause. He is encouraging a broader conversation about our nation's relationship with skilled labor. He feels it is important to "make a case for the trades," and I applaud him for bringing recognition to this issue through his many appearances.

Hat tip: Mike Rowe

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Ronald Reagan once famously acted with a chimpanzee. An unfortunate incident with the chimp nearly cost him his life.

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Are you a Calvinist?

The organ was playing. The choir was in the loft. Church members were seated and still. My Bible was in hand and I was prepared to take the platform. In moments the worship service would begin. It was at this instant an elderly gentleman introduced himself to me by stating, “I am so glad you are here to preach for us today. I have looked forward to meeting you. Before you preach, though, I have one question for you. Are you a Calvinist?”

That question is not an uncommon one, but it’s a question that might be more difficult to answer than first thought. To this gentleman, I reflexively replied, “To be honest, sir, I have no idea what you mean by that question.” He smiled and responded, “I have no have idea what I meant by the question either.”

We both chuckled, then I retorted, “I’ll be happy to discuss this as much as you’d like after the service, but know that I believe in preaching the gospel to all people and that anyone who repents of their sins and embraces Christ as Lord and Savior can be saved.” Reassured, he smiled and said “that is all I wanted to hear.”

That conversation, like so many others, reminded me of the challenge of theological labels. This seems especially so when discussing the often controversial topic of Calvinism.

Hat tip: Challies

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A challenge to read books outside of your comfort zone:

We who live in this peculiar world of the “Young-restless-reformed/gospel-centered/whozamafaceit” have a nasty habit: we tend to be pretty insular in our reading.

While there’s much to like (even love) about writers from this particular group—we are right to appreciate writing that makes the gospel great, to be sure. But there’s a danger, too: if you’re not careful you can wind up only reading and listening to people you agree with.

Your arguments become second- (even third-) hand. Your discernment dulls. You risk becoming, well, kinda boring (and not in a good way).

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How well do you know your grammar? You can put it to the test by trying out this quiz: You Can't Write Proper English Under Pressure. And it is harder than you might think.  (hat tip Neatorama)

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Going to the hospital can be unnerving for just about anyone but especially for kids. One Connecticut children's hospital came up with a unique solution: a pirate themed CT scanner room.

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Only once in baseball history has there ever been a double no-hitter for nine innings. Of course, the Cubs were on the losing end of this unique game.

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Some great advice to young writers: get lost.

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God Doesn't Hand Out Hypotheticals

Last weekend Matt and I had a young, engaged couple from our church over. It was so encouraging to talk to them about our faith. Although they are barely in their twenties, Greg and Mim are very mature in their thoughts about God. 

As the men were showing off their corn hole skills (maybe this is just a WV game??) in an intense match against our children, Mim and I were talking on the deck about the recent loss of her baby niece. As Mim was processing her thoughts from her experience over the last couple of dramatic weeks, she recalled something very wise her father told her. She said something to the fact that God doesn’t give us hypothetical grace, he gives us grace for today.

Hat tip: Blogging Theologically