Nothing beats face to face...

Cute pic right? Well, I'm using it to represent my sentiment concerning face to face interaction...it's just too precious and so necessary for developing into a normal, healthy human being. Hands down, face to face is still the best way to communicate with new friends, old friends, family, colleagues... people in general. Yes, sometimes it can be a bit awkward, especially when you are clumsy like me and tend so how manage to spill food on yourself every time your in public. At other times, it can be frustrating, especially when you just can't spit out the right words at the right time to express the exact thought you have in your head. However, the joy of making a friend, meeting up with someone for the first time or in a long team and just really connecting just can't be beat. Even with all the technology in the world and all the continuous buzz around social media, nothing can replace the face to face.

No social media is not a fad. (Watch the video if you're still not convinced.) And I am not a social media hater. However, it will never replace the joy, or the necessity of meeting people face to face.



Yes, this video is totally crazy, a little bit scary and kinda makes me want to hide out for a while and unplug myself from all the chaos. Even for me, a Gen X/Yer, (I'm not sure really where I fit in..the end of Gen X or the beginning of Gen. Y), who is expected to be a tech savvy, up to date, early adopter of all this stuff, it's all just a bit, a huge bit, overwhelming. I can't imagine what it's like for the older...well you know... the more mature generation of folks like my mom, who still has difficulty figuring out how to get all her mother's day photos off her digital camera. It's no wonder since for most, including myself, by the time we figure out how to use the technology of today, it's obsolete. This whole change in the world of media, communication, technology is happening way too fast at an impossible rate to follow.

So what can we do? We can either hide from it all and hope it goes away, taking the ostrich mentality. (But let's face it. It's not going away anytime soon.) Or we can embrace it to enhance our face to face interactions and our care for others in our "network". Social networking is just a tool to enhance our real personal relationships, rather than a time-sucking virtual leech that replaces our real life relationships and interactions. You decide.

P.S. In my real life network, I made two new friends, who are not yet my Facebook friends. :) This may not sound so significant, but think about it. Unless you are in school, starting a new job, moving to a new city, when was the last time you made a friend? That's supposed to be the refreshing part.

Existing for Existence.

Do I live to exist or exist to live? I would say most people live to exist. We work, we eat, we drink, we breathe for the sake our existence. Without these things we simply couldn't exist. But then what? More work, more eating, more drinking...? What is the purpose of our existence? Is it just to exist or is there something more?

That's a lot of questions that I won't attempt to answer in completion, but am thinking about. It's this paragraph from the Life Study of Exodus, written by Witness Lee...

For us to live for Christ, we need to exist. Without our human existence we cannot live Christ. But today those in the fallen world care for nothing but their existence; they do not care for the purpose of their existence. To exist is one thing, but to exist for the divine purpose is another thing. The purpose ordained by God for our existence is to live Christ, to live God out, and to have God's testimony. But the people of this world have only their existence; they have no purpose. Eventually they make their existence itself the purpose of their existence. They know nothing but existence. Satan picks up the existence of human beings or of human living and uses this existence to usurp people so that today the whole world cares only for existence, not for God's purpose in existence.

Wow! To say that we exist for our existence is quite enlightening, rather deep and pretty bold. Not sure how to respond, except that I would like to declare that I don't want to exist just for existence sake, but to exist for the divine purpose. How about you?

When is a good thing, simply TOO much? (continued)

After a weekend of dwelling on this post, off and on, I haven't really come up with anything particularly brilliant to add, except that knowledge (in the form of information in this case) really belongs to, well... the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It really doesn't have anything to do with the other tree, the tree of life. 


Interesting contrast right?
The tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil vs. the tree of LIFE.


Despite the common concept and understanding, I myself often times included in this, it's not about good vs. evil. It is about knowledge vs. life. Are you interested in knowledge or life? Knowledge can never satisfy, but life can because He is the life (John 11:25). Actually, the more knowledge we have the more dissatisfied we are. Think about it? Either you keep pursuing it to the point that the need for knowledge consumes you and you are enslaved to it. Or, as you are pursing it, you realize that it is a hopeless cause because can never know the purpose of everything until we know Life, the person that is life.

When is too much of a good thing, simply TOO much?

The paradox of information and technology is that in an attempt to make our lives easier it is in fact making it more and more difficult to find exactly what we are looking for. Today, human beings are creating more information faster that we can organize and consume it. You'd think a plethora of information would in fact be a good thing. However, what is the point of all this? What is the motivation for human beings to seek so much information. It is just the desire to know? Is it the need to create? What is it?

As I've been considering these things and in my frustration of not finding information I need, and not being found when I have information to share. In the end, I have the realization of the following concerning man (in the plural sense, in the way it is used to capture mankind):

1. Man has a vacuum that can never be filled with information or knowledge. Otherwise all of us would be already exploding.
2. Man desires to create, communicate, share. (I like to believe that this is because we were created in God's image and according to His likeness" Gen 1:26.)
3. Man is limited. We simply are incapable of knowing and understanding everything.

well... let's dwell on that for a bit.

to be continued...

Phenomenon:groundswell

After hunting local bookstores on and off for a couple weeks, I finally got my hands on a copy of this bright green book. Although, I know I'm a couple years late in the game, it was published 2 years ago, I thought it might be nice to reflect on some of my considerations concerning the social phenomenon, known as the groundswell, that is affecting pretty much the core of how we communicate, connect with others, share information, and define our relationships.
I've read half of it so far and it has been quite intriguing, of course not in the same way as the chapter 9 of Life-Study of Exodus, (you really can't beat Zipporah calling Moses a "bloody husband". You pretty much can't find anything out there that comes close), but none the less pretty compelling.

So what exactly is the groundswell?
It's a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institution like corporations.

So why is it relevant? Well for you, for me, and for most of the population out there, it is affecting the way we connect with people, what we do online, how we find information and how we share information with those we care about, (or those we don't even know). Just think Facebook... how many pieces of useless information can you gather from your "friends" at any particular moment you sign in, and yet despite not sharing information of great intrinsic value...on any given day, somehow I find myself spending at least sometime everyday to check on what's going on in my "network" because I value the relationships.


Isn't it ironic that at the end of the day, after all is said and done, it is the innate human need to connect with others (God put that in us) and to share and speak our thoughts, considerations and findings (also God created) that is the driving factor in the groundswell. So does that mean God indirectly created the groundswell? Think about it...

Anyway, for me, it's especially relevant as I continue to consider how to pick up technology by the tail (referenced from chapter 8 of LS Exodus) in the midst of this social phenomenon and use it for the advance of God's purpose. How can we tap into the groundswell, listen to it, talk to it, energize it and embrace it for the spread of the Word and the ministry? Also, I just find this stuff kind of fascinating because I am just a big nerd who loves reading about what exactly makes people tick. It's the psychology and business major in me that screams "yay!", "wow!", "fascinating!" as I am reading through the case studies and market research that are presented in this book.

However, as I'm reading more and more, I can't help but think how much the principles presented in this book align with so many principles revealed in the Bible concerning how to build up the Body of Christ. It is through the operation of each one part that the Body builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:15-16). It is through the functioning of many members that the Body can move and act according to God's desire. It is the fellowship (connections) and flow (of information) through the speaking that keeps the Body supplied, healthy and active.

It pretty amazing in the age of the groundswell to see the impact individual human beings cooperating together can have on large corporations. How much more can we who share the same divine life as our Father and with one another cooperate with the Lord and coordinate with one another as the Body of Christ to defeat the enemy?