Seth Godin's blog on Superheroes makes me think of my favorite commercial of all time ... the original Apple "Think Different" ad:

As I look at the faces in the commercial, Godin's words resonate in a whole new way, although, not in a way that I like:

Superheroes don't have a look, but they definitely have an attitude. They're restless and impatient, but, here's the cool paradox, they're also calm and patient. Patient because they realize that change takes a while. Patient because they understand that if it's worth doing, it's worth getting through the Dip. Impatient and restless, though, because they refuse to accept the status quo. Most of the time, of course, these can't co-exist.

I have a personality that has no issue being discontent with the status quo. It doesn't matter what it is, I'm always wanting something better, something greener, something more significant. That's why the Apple ad grabs me ... it feeds that part of who I am.

And yet, as I see the faces in the video and think about what many of those men and women went through to accomplish what they did, I realize that my natural discontent is nothing more than grumbling and ultimately bitterness if I don't learn the other side of the paradox that Godin identifies ... patience, or, and perhaps more important, perseverance.

So, when it comes to ministry, do I dare pray that I develop the other side of the coin? Do I dare pray for patience? Do I dare not?

Thanks in part to the Internet, we now live in a flat world. In other words, we live in a time and place where everybody has, in many ways, an equal voice. For example, people value the opinions of other readers over critics on Amazon, and, if you know what you're doing, anybody can develop a blog or website that can be easily found and appear as authoritative (for example, if you Google "grandpa's eulogy", my blog is the 5th entry you find).

But it's not just in the realm of the Internet where things are getting flat, the same thing is happening in the world of publishing. Be it online services where you upload and they print, or groups like Lifevest Publishing who did the elemental life, anybody can now, for the right price, publish anything and have it appear and equally authoritative to any other book.

So, the question becomes, how do we know which of these voices we should listen to? Which are actually authoritative?

In my case, I tried to do two things when writing the elemental life. First, my goal wasn't to share my own thoughts, feelings, or ideas, rather, I wanted to communicate the Bible in a way that was accessible to people and gave them an opportunity to view it from a different angle.

Second, the work was done in community. With my direct work, it was done in community with the people who gather in our home each Monday. We'd read what I'd written, talk about it, ask questions, and challenge the thoughts expressed. This played an incredible role in the formation of the book. But I also worked with another community of people indirectly, namely theologians from throughout history who have studied the same Bible and sought to communicate what it is saying to others.

What other steps can be taken to help firm up voices of authority in our world? How do you discern who you should and shouldn't listen to?

I just discovered Skitch yesterday, and I'm already loving it.

Basically, Skitch is an uber-screenshot application. So, you use Skitch to take a screenshot (or just drop a graphic into the Skitch display), then you can do all kinds of editing to it, upload it for sharing, copy it to your desktop, drop it into your IM client to share with a friend, or any other number of things.

Yesterday it came in handy when I was trying to show Bob something I wanted change on the elemental life site. I took a screenshot with Skitch, dropped it into Adium, and off it went. Then, today I've used it on both of the images I've posted. I uploaded both into my Skitch page, selected the share option, grabbed the image code that was all ready to go, and put it in my entry (I did have to tell it to right align).

Here's a video with a bit more on Skitch:

Last month when I was talking with my life coach the idea of a balanced life came up. While I blogged on this a while back, I'm thinking now that I've been working with a poor metaphor and talking about balancing things isn't the way to go.

You see, when you live a balanced life, it automatically means that you live a compartmentalized life. For most people, this means that you have work on one side of the scale and family on the other, and you're trying to make sure things equal out. But are things like work, family, community service and the such really supposed to be broken apart? I'd say the answer is no, rather, I'd say that they all blend together.

So, what's the alternative metaphor? I'm thinking, rather than seeing life as a scale to balance, we need to view it as a tapestry to weave. In this tapestry, different things that you're involved in form the different colors. Now, as you move through life, some colors will come and go while other colors will be dominant for a season and then fade during another.

Of course, whenever you're weaving something like a tapestry, you need those main threads that run through the entire piece and hold the whole thing together. It seems to me, that this is where your faith comes into play. While it's not always obvious on the surface, it's the steady foundation that holds all of life together and prevents the tapestry from becoming a frayed mess.

Yeah, it's sort of obvious that I'm seriously off my blog these days. I think it has something to do with it being Lent, assisting at Christ Lutheran in Denver, and getting the Fishbowl ready to launch this Easter. Robbie's also been sick which has things a bit off at home. Hopefully I'll get back to regular blogging soon, in the meantime, if you'd like something funny to read, check out one of my new favorite blogs, Stuff White People Like.