The Sixth Sense

Flight of the Conchords - Business Time

Saw this today and laughed the whole way through!

Rhythmic or Repetitious?

I came across this quote today:

“Repetitiousness is the enemy of rhythm”

It was one of those sentences that for some reason set off an explosion of thoughts in my head.

Now, as some of you know, I lead a movement in Sheffield called Mosaic. Within that movement is a core of followers of Jesus Christ. One of the things we have grappled with perhaps more than anything has been finding the right sense of rhythm.

We want to be a community of Christ-followers who engage with God and each other through scripture, prayer, and worship, but we want do that in ways that are natural and integrated with life; not separated from it.

All to often, following Christ becomes nothing more than attending the weekly service on Sunday (and, if you’re super great, a ’small group’ mid-week too).

Sadly, this ends up becoming something very repetitious. It’s the same thing week after week. So the question I’m grappling with is when does something shift from being rhythmic to repetitious? How should any organisation find a healthy sense of rhythm whilst protecting itself from becoming repetitious?

What do you think?

Hope: What are you looking forward to?

How important is looking forward to staying fresh, energised, and generally enthusiastic about life?

I am someone who loves life. Sure things could be better. (I really wish we weren’t having to renew our mortgage in this current financial climate.) But, like I say, I love life. There’s too much good stuff going on and coming up for me to get too down about the things that aren’t great.

This got me thinking. Do I love life because I am someone who definitely veers towards optimism? And, if so, am I optimistic because I have lots of good things to look forward to? Or is it solely something I am predisposed to?

My take is that having things in our life to look forward to is essential. It breeds both optimism and a love of life. I guess what I’m talking about really is hope. I think hope is what keeps our souls alive the same way oxygen does our bodies.

Having things to look forward to doesn’t just happen either. We get to choose. Not everything of course. Some things happen that are beyond our control. But we have control of enough of our lives to be able to shape what our future is going to look like.

What do you think? What are you looking forward to at the moment?

How ordinary people become monsters … or heroes

Another fascinating talk from TED.com.

Here’s the description: Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.

What do you think?

Inspiration

Some days I feel like I could write three or four different blog posts. Other days it seems as if I don’t have a single ounce of inspiration.

I guess that probably means that when I have multi-blog-post-inspiration I should write them all down and store them for later. I’m just pretty rubbish at that.

The question that all of this is triggering in my mind is actually about how we get our inspiration. Why is it that some days we are more inspired than others? Are there things that we do that trigger inspiration?

I know for me that reading from many varied and diverse sources is crucial. Reading has a kind of popcorn effect in my brain. I triggers one thought which then triggers another one, and another one. I love it.

I love reading a fascinating article or a book about something new. They stimulate my brain and prompt fresh, creative, and more inspired thinking. I love movies too that stretch my imagination and kick start fresh thoughts in my mind.

Now, like it says in the image, inspiration isn’t everything. In fact, turning inspiration into something meaningful is mostly hard work. The idea comes in a moment; the implementation can take hours, days, weeks, or even years. But, without inspiration, we would never have the motivation to persevere. So inspiration is vital if we are going to create anything worthwhile.

What are the things that keep you fresh and inspired?

Death and Conflict

(Smile…it won’t be that bad!)

I want to start this post with two more quotes from ‘Story’ by Robert McKee:

“Story is a metaphor for life, and to be alive is to be in seemingly perpetual conflict.”

“Death is like a freight train in the future, heading toward us, closing the hours, second by second, between now and then. If we’re to live with any sense of satisfaction, we must engage life’s forces of antagonism before the train arrives.”

Can you imagine a good book or movie that doesn’t have some significant conflict at the heart of it? Conflict is what keeps us engaged in a story. It isn’t always in the form of an enemy of course. Inner conflict can be just as engaging as the villain in a James Bond movie.

Why do we get bored of any story that doesn’t have a sense of conflict at the heart of it? I suggest it’s because it isn’t real. Conflict is core to our lives. We might not see it in such stark language, but somehow we know this deep within our souls.

The people we admire didn’t get there by accident. Richard Branson’s conflict with BA in establishing Virgin Airways is legendary. Mother Teresa didn’t live her heroic life without conflict. And, whether we recognise it or not, we all face conflict on various levels every day of our lives.

So, here’s a conversation starter. What does conflict look like in your life? What are the things holding you back from realising your potential? What/who is opposing you making the most of your life?

What do you think?

A.J. Jacobs: My year of living biblically

Thought this talk by AJ Jacobs was quite fun and interesting from TED.

Here’s the description: Speaking at the most recent EG conference, author, philosopher, prankster and journalist A.J. Jacobs talks about the year he spent living biblically — following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible.

Resting from and for work

Over time I have heard lots of varying thoughts on rest. Most of these have been helpful in one way or another, though I had being told that this is how I must rest.

It was apparent from the conversation the other day that we all find different things restful. The key is not to identify rest as what others say is restful for them but to find the things that are restful for you.

Using broad strokes, it seems there are however two ways in which people rest. Some people are ‘doing resters‘ and others are ‘being resters‘.

Again, I don’t think there is a right or wrong here. It about identifying the things that reenergise us. For me personally, I need do nothing time to feel rested and refreshed. I need space to just be. I might right. I might listen to music. I might, literally, do nothing.

For others - like my wife Rachel - this is as close to hell as she can get this side of eternity. She likes to be doing something. Needs some kind of agenda or focus. And, typically, wants to be around others. This is how she recharges.

As a quick throw-in here, knowing how each other rests in a marriage or partnerships is going to help a lot!

Anyway, none of this links with the title so far. It’s one thing to know how we rest, it is another thing to understand why we rest. Like anything, if we don’t understand the why, we won’t value it.

I have seen two categories of people when it comes to the why of work. There are those who work, work, work and then pretty much collapse in exhaustion. They find themselves resting from work (not always by choice!).

Then there are those who see that our design as human beings is such that we are wired for work. Things start to go wrong when we’re not working. And so we rest in order to be able to do work.

My suspicion is that most people’s approach to rest is that of resting from work. Our approach to work is that it is something that we quite like to not have to do. We live for our rest (weekends, holidays, etc).

I actually think we need to understand rest in both senses. We work hard, give everything, and then take a deserved break. But we also need to understand that work is part of our make up as human beings. We need to find ways to connect purpose to our work that goes deeper than a pay check.

When we connect our work to a larger sense of purpose and meaning it makes sense that we rest in order to be able to give our all to that. We take time to get recharged so we can give our work our best.

What do you think?

The real difference between liberals and conservatives

I watched this TED video on my iPhone coming back from work today and found it really interesting. It was eye opening and provocative. Definitely worth 18 minutes and 42 seconds of your time.

Have a watch, and share your thoughts!

In search of truth

Enjoyed this on Paulo Coelho’s blog today:

The devil was talking to his friends when they noticed a man walking along a road. They watched him pass and saw that he bent down to pick something up.

- What did he find? - asked one of the friends.

- A piece of Truth - answered the devil.

The friends were very concerned. After all, a piece of Truth might save that man’s soul - one less in Hell. But the devil remained unmoved, gazing at the view.

- Aren’t you worried? - said one of his companions.

- He found a piece of Truth!

- I’m not worried - answered the devil.

- Do you know what he’ll do with the piece?

As usual, he’ll create a new religion. And he’ll succeed in distancing even more people from the whole Truth.

Any thoughts?