When I was young, I sometimes thought about how God could have made me to live as a seagull, or a blade of grass.

a well-lived life (the hopeful version!)

"...but could we but live a million of years, then how delightful to spend in perfect contentment so many thousand years in quiet study in college, as many amid the grateful din of machines, as many among human pain, so many thousand in the sweet study of Nature among the dingles and dells of Scotland, and all the other less important parts of our world! Then perhaps might we, with at least a show of reason, 'shuffle off this mortal coil' and look back upon our star with something of satisfaction...

Eternity, with perhaps the whole unlimited creation of God as our field, should satisfy us, and make us patient and trustful, while we pray with the Psalmist, 'Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.'..."

- John Muir in a letter to Mrs. Jeanne Carr, 1866

A celebrity
is who we choose to celebrate
and what we celebrate
is what we value

what do we value?

What we value
is what we give our time and money to
...is it worth it,
what we value?

What's worth it
is what gives beyond itself.

worth/comes from/value
value//valiant
valiant//strong, powerful...

Is what you value strong and powerful?
Do you want it to be?

Who do you wish had the attention?
How can you give it to them?

"It is always the same Christ who says:

I was thirsty - not only for food, but for the peace that comes from a pure heart. 

I was thirsty - not for water, but for peace that satiates the passionate thirst of passion for war.

I was naked - not for clothes, but for that beautiful dignity of men and women for their bodies. 

I was homeless - not for a shelter made of bricks, but for a heart that understands, that covers, that loves."

- Mother Teresa

Information, Technology, and Spirituality

While waiting at the toaster this morning, a song from my choral years at Worthington Kilbourne streamed through my mind,

 "OoooOoooOohhh, Ohhh-o homeland......Thaaaa deeearest and thaaa best!" 

was all I could remember, and I thought surely I could Googlesearch those lyrics alone and find who wrote the song, when, and even where I could purchase copies and listen to the piece performed.  Sometimes I forget how unlimited and astounding technology is these days, then I stop to think about it for two seconds and am blown away afresh.  We have come to an age in which nearly any bit of common information - anything we might need or want to know - is beyond accessible, in fractions of a second, no less! 

We have all the answers.  It's incredible and astounding and a real achievement, a great gift.

But having the information is just a good step.  In order for it to have any greater value we must learn to assimilate it, otherwise it's just information for information's sake.  Nifty or profound as some facts prove themselves, the information is completely useless unless we allow it to inform our living in real ways.

At some point this thought shifted me to the Bible.  God has given us "everything we need for life and godliness" by His word and its revelation of Jesus for who He is, how he restores our hearts and gives us lasting, fullest life.  Everything we need.  We can choose to ignore it, appreciate it, or sincerely seek to apply that information, to steer our lives by it.

Hopefully, information gives way to wisdom and fuller life for everyone.  Otherwise it's trivia, at best.  Great to win a game of Trivial Pursuit, but where does that get you, really?