Author Archive
Why is the grass always greener on the other side?
photo by: orangeacid
It’s kinda become a tradition of sorts now with a few friends of mine. After church on Wednesday nights, we all go to a local bar and get a drink. We talk about sports (well they do and I listen), theology, politics, popular figures of our day, life experiences and the sort. It is one of the highlights of my week. It’s just a great time to hang out with friends and relax.
Last night my friend Donovan made a really profound statement about life.
You know why the grass is always greener on the other side?! Because they water it.
It struck a chord with me. There are so many times in my life that I look at my friends lives and wish I had what they have. I wish that had their job. I wish that I had their car. I wish that I had their __________. You get the idea.
The reality in life is this. We could go move into our neighbor’s house and have their nice green lawn. But it will eventually turn brown. Because there was an original reason why their grass was greener than mine. They watered and cared for it. They pulled the weeds out. They mowed it on a regular basis. They put down fertilizer. They were patient and waited for the results to show.
If we want to have greener grass in our lives, the answer isn’t to move into our neighbor’s house. The answer is to start taking care of our own lawn. So take some time today to water your lawn and pull a few weeds. Cause the only way your lawn is going to get greener is if you start focusing on it and stop staring at your neighbors.
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Tech Wednesday - Blog Fathers
If you’ve been keeping track, Shannon only has 10 more days until Asa is due to enter this world (June 1st…make sure to put your guess in for the pool). With this on my mind I’ve been noticing a lot of fathers-to-be on twitter. These are guys that have either just had a kid or are in the pregnancy stage. It’s like there is baby boom in the twitterverse.
So on this Tech Wednesday, I thought I would compile a quick list of all the twitter dads that I know of to date. These are either links to their dedicated blogs or their twitter accounts…whichever one they have.
Erik Anderson - Any man that has more grills than children is ok in my books. Erik has a 2-year-old and another kid due in September.
Joe Day - Joe is a pastor at Mars Hill in Seattle and is about to have twin girls. I’m freaking out about having one…may God give you the strength Joe.
Dustin DeKoekkoek - Dustin’s kid isn’t due until August, but he already has his own twitter account.
Jack Moffitt - Jack’s son was born in January and has already started blogging.
CJ Mills - CJ’s wife just had their son Asher on the 16th….oh yeah…Asher was two month early and they were on vacation. You need to go to his site and read the story. Also pray for Asher and his parents as you can imagine all the things that go along with having a kid that premature.
That’s all the fathers-to-be and recent-fathers in the tech world that I know of right now. If I missed you on the list, make sure to let me know in the comments below. It’s cool to know that I’m not in this crazy process alone.
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I’m sorry for being lazy…
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Tech Wednesday - wethechurch.org
I’m sorry for the lack of posts here lately. I’ve been pretty swamped with work and other activities. So please forgive me. I’ll try to get back in the grove of things in the next few days.
I did however want to take a quick break and share with you a new site that twitter friend of mine came out with called WetheChuch.org. This is a really cool idea that you should go check out. It is basically a prayer wall where you can share your prayer requests/praises and pray for others that need prayer. I really love the idea and it can become addictive watching prayers go up and praying for them.
So take a few minutes out of your day and go check out WetheChurch.org.
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Love your neighbor…get to know your local strippers.
I love what this ministry is doing. They are shining the light of Jesus in the darkest of places. These women (yeah I would say this is a calling for women only…unless the guys want to go to the gay strip-club) are going into strip-clubs and giving the strippers gift baskets to show them the love of Jesus. How awesome it that?!
I say we start to change this world with the love of Jesus one strip-club at a time.
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Count Down to Baby!
photo by: laffy4k
So I realized today that I haven’t given a baby update in awhile. So here is your update. We are currently four weeks from our due date of June 1st. I have to say that there are elivated levels of excitement and fear.
It’s kind of crazy to think that we are about to be parents. In no time at all, I’m going to be losing sleep and changing diapers. But I’m also going to get to use all the cool stuff that we’ve gotten for the kid.
We have the nursery pretty much ready to go (we still have to get a few minor items) thanks to two baby showers that were thrown for us. I’ve been having fun the last few weeks/days setting things up. I even have the car seat base already in the car. I know…I’m a nerd.
It’s also been fun getting to feel Asa move. He is already in posistion (head down) and has been really active. It’s crazy to watch Shannon’s stomach rise and fall. And from what we’ve noticed of his activity, we are going to have a night baby (he takes after his daddy). So, it looks like I’ve got a lot of late nights in the near future.
Speaking of the near future. Don’t forget to put in your guess for when our bundle of joy is going to enter this world.
Well that is pretty much it in baby world. We’re just getting ready here on the home front. Preparing the nursery and taking birthing classes.
Here is one question for all the parents out there. What was one thing that you think every new parent should have that they don’t typically get beforehand?
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Tech Wednesday - The Secret Side of Google
I’m going to come right out and say it…I love Google. Yes. I’m totally sold out for Google. I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Search, Google Image Search, and Youtube (owned by Google). Now most of these are well known to people, but on this Tech Wednesday I want to share a few Google features that aren’t as well known.
These are like the red-headed-step-children of the Google world. They’re just as good as the other Google features. They’re just not as widely known. So let me introduce you to the step-kids of Google.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts automatically updates you with an email when something is added to the internet based on the search terms you give it. I mainly use this for two things. One, to see if anything is put up on the net about me (yeah it’s egotistical…but kinda helpful too). Two, to see when someone talks about beer and Christianity (I use this search term for theBeerean.com).
Goog411
I haven’t used this one that much since I got my iPhone (Google Maps on the iPhone replaced it), but before the iPhone it was a staple. It’s basically a free 411 service. I would explain it some more, but the video below explains it a lot better than I could.
Google Reader
I’ve talked about this a little bit in the past, but I felt the need to bring it up again. Google Reader is a feed reading program offered by Google. It allows you to keep up with all of your blogs in one place. Once again I’ll let Google tell you more about it (if you start using Google Reader make sure to add me as your friend glqualls [at] gmail [dot] com and to subscribe to my feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/gregquallsfeed).
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Best (local) commerical ever!
I came across this and had to share it. I’ve never seen a local commercial done so well. It nearly brought tears to my eyes (who am I kidding…I cried).
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Why I think being “organic” is stupid?
For those of you that know me, I’m a pretty cynical guy. I try my best to not be that way on this blog, but I decided that I had speak out about this one.
For awhile now I’ve noticed the concept of being “organic” has been creeping into the church. It’s become a buzz word. Whole ministries and churches are changing everything they do to be more “organic.” I even have a book on my shelf called Organic Church. But I’m coming out and saying publicly that I think being organic is stupid. I know I’m probably going to get some flack for this, but I don’t care. It’s just stupid. Let me tell you why.
Yesterday I was at a church meeting for the leaders of the small groups in our church (we call them Neighborhoods…it sound edgy and vague 
). For some reason, the word organic kept coming up.
We wanted our groups to form “organically.” We wanted to be “organic” yet intentional. It was like everyone was getting payed $5 every time they used the word organic. I was expecting someone to start marketing an Organic Pyramid Scheme at any moment.
Now I like the concept that they were trying to get across. That we shouldn’t be forcing relationship to happen in our church, but we also shouldn’t be sitting on our butts just hoping that relationships will happen.
My problem is with the fact that we were attributing so much power to “organic.” Who the hell is organic and when did he/she/it start leading the church?! The last time I check that was Jesus’ job.
We aren’t lead by some impersonal force:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:11
Life, relationships, and groups don’t come about by some impersonal force:
In him we live and move and have our being - Acts 17:28
So I’ll say it again, attributing anything to this impersonal force called “organic” is just stupid. So if you are a church leader, please stop referring to organic as the leader of anything. Give glory where glory is due and trust in the true leader of the church. His name is Jesus and He’s a much better leader than organic.
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Tech Wednesday - PicLens
Ok…I know I’m a day late. But this is worth it. My friend Dave Ortega told me about this one and I’m totally sucked in now. It’s called PicLens. You have to watch the video to understand. I can’t explain it. If you have FireFox, download it and start using it now.
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