Technology and Christmas

I love technology... the total knowledge and skills available to any human society for discovery and creation...and I love Christmas...the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah. As we would expect as residents of the 21st century, Technology and Christmas have collided. I, for one, don't mind a bit.


I love the clever and efficient evite invitations to parties and gatherings.
I love the facebook pages and Twitter "tweets" heralding Christmas events and services. I love the little animated, electronic Christmas cards and well wishes we receive. I love the photo sharing.

(Shoot, I even love Cyber-Monday!)

At the core, I love how technology enables us to connect with people...in wonderfully innovative and relative ways...who need to know the love of Christ. Especially at Christmas.

Speaking of innovation...check out this video of the iBand at North Point Community Church. Using only iPhones and iPads...these talented folks perform an incredible rendition of "Carol of the Bells" (or...Hark How the Bells... as you may know it...). Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Feliz Navidad are also included. My favorites are the iPhone guitar, the iPad bongos, and the iPad saxophone! (At the request of those sitting around the table last night at our JCBC Wednesday Night Dinner...here you go!)

I simply had to stand up and applaud (I'm glad no one saw me clapping wildly at a computer screen) when this video enabled me to "join" a group of unsuspecting shoppers in the Food Court of a mall in Niagara Falls, Ontario where a marvelous "Handel's Messiah"...or the Hallelujah Chorus... was performed. (organized by AlphabetPotography.com) Speaking of the power of technology as a tool to share Christ...there were mere dozens in the Food Court that day...but over 15 million people have viewed this video.

For the Lord God...omnipotent...reigneth. (even over the bits and bytes)
And He shall reign forever and ever.

Being Viral Witnesses...

It used to be that the term "viral" had something to do with an ultra-microscopic (20 to 300 NM in diameter), metabolically inert, infectious agent that replicates only within the cells of living hosts, mainly bacteria, plants, and animals: composed of an RNA or DNA core, a protein coat, and, in more complex types, a surrounding envelope. (It still does by the way...)

For this post, however, "viral" refers to those web videos that are viewed by millions of people and that everyone talks about. Let's consider YouTube alone. A few interesting facts:

• Exceeds 2 Billion views per day

• 24 hours of video is uploaded every 60 seconds


• More video will be uploaded in 60 days than all 3 major networks combined created in 60 years.

So with all that video...what makes one go viral? After reading a few articles by pundits and opinion makers, it seems that all viral videos have at least 4 things in common.

First, the content is unique and memorable. Here are a couple of viral video examples that illustrate unique and memorable.

Secondly, the action is natural and not staged. My two favorite examples of natural, not staged viral videos:






Thirdly, the people involved are being themselves. Who can forget these two?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk (this is the link to Susan Boyle...she makes me stand up and applaud!)




Finally, the action looks like something you want to be a part of. This looks like fun to me (and apparently several million other folks...!)

So what's the point?

Be a viral witness to the world for the love of Christ.

The content...Jesus himself...is completely unique. Every encounter with him is memorable.

Make sure your expressions of Christ's love are natural...not staged. Nothing for show. No ulterior motives. Never self-serving.

Be yourself...be real...be who you are...be authentic. No facades. No role playing.

Live out your faith joyfully...boldly...abundantly... Others will want to be a part of that.

One last video...

It's Not Over!

At dawn one morning, Jesus was teaching in the temple courts. People gathered around him. He taught them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught in the very act of adultery. There seems to be no question about it. It was against the law. There seems to be no question about that either. The punishment for such an act was death by stoning. There doesn’t seem to be any question about that. They said to Jesus, what would you do? Jesus said nothing. He simply bent down to write in the sand.

What must have the woman thought? Caught in the act. Clearly a lawbreaker. Facing a crowd that seemed to be bent on stoning her. Maybe she had heard about Jesus. Maybe not. But in that moment, Jesus must have seemed like her only hope. Her hopes must have been dashed as Jesus simply bent down and began to write in the sand. She must have thought that she was doomed. No way out.

Lazarus was sick. His sisters, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus to let him know. They hoped, of course, that Jesus would come and make him well or at least come to be with them. He didn’t go right away. He stayed where he was for two more days. Then He decided to go.

Mary and Martha probably looked out onto the road or out their door looking for Jesus. Their brother got sicker and sicker. I’m sure that near the end, with no Jesus in sight, the hope they had of their brother’s recovery was dashed. No more time.

When Jesus got there, it really did seem hopeless. Jesus learned that Lazarus had been in the tomb for 4 days already. Martha went out to meet Him first. Then Mary went a little while later. Both of them said, “Lord if you had been here he wouldn’t have died.” They would have thought…it’s done. Finished. Over.

Danny is not in the bible. He was in North Carolina. Married, two small children. He was watching TV on a Saturday afternoon. A weather alert came across the screen. Tornadoes in the area. He didn’t pay it too much attention. He gave a casual glance out his front door. Very quickly, the sky grew very dark and he could hear the wind blowing violently outside. The weather alert let him know that the warning was for his area. In fact, his house was right in the tornadoes path. It was a new house, a one-level ranch. No basement. He thought about putting his family in a car and taking them to safety. He got them all together then he looked out the front door again. There was no time. He heard it first. Then saw it. He watched it completely destroy his closest neighbors house. It was now headed for his. He huddled his family in a back corner, bedroom closet. They cried. He prayed even though it had been years since matters of faith mattered to him at all. Certainly God would not regard his prayer. As he heard his roof being literally torn off his house, he had zero hope. It was over. They were done for.

Turn up your volume (if you have sound) and consider this...all the way through.

You know the story. The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees kept questioning Jesus. He said, “if anyone of you is without sin, throw the first stone.” He wrote in the sand again and the accusers of the adulteress started to fade away. Jesus said, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said no. Jesus said neither do I. Go and sin no more.

I don’t know what happened to the woman. But I know that what she experienced was a complete reversal. Jesus turned her circumstances upside down. At least in that moment, as her accusers walked away, hope replaced hopelessness

You know the story of Lazarus too. Jesus said, “Where have you laid him.” He wept. He said, “Lazarus, come out.” And out he came. He still had the grave clothes on. Jesus said to take them off and let him go.

A total and complete reversal of a seemingly hopeless situation. Upside down. From physical death to physical life.

Danny picked through the splinters that was once his house in an effort to salvage anything. There was nothing really. The house was completely demolished – literally splintered – the only things standing and in tact were the four walls of a back bedroom closet where Danny had gathered his family and prayed.

I don’t know for sure what happened that day – whether it was divine intervention or just the physics of house construction and the position of the closet and the direction of the tornado. That’s not important.

What is important is that Danny’s life underwent a reversal. Where there was no faith there is now great faith. Where there was no hope there is now hope eternal. Where there were years of indifference there is now powerful, willing testimony.

Now most of us have never faced a crowd bent on stoning us. Neither have we been raised from the dead. Some of you may have lived through a tornado ripping your house from around you while you were in it.

But every single one of us were once without any hope at all until Jesus turned things upside down in our lives.

We were lost.

We were blind.

Now…we’re found.

Now….we see.

Be thankful. Give testimony. Share hope.

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Shaking and Breaking

I almost never ask any of you to do anything. Today, I'm not only asking...I'm begging.

She is my friend. She has been battling cancer for so long. She battles the disease outright and she battles the wake it leaves. The awful, nasty wake. Right now...in this very moment...her battle is raging.

For her...and for everyone you know who is facing awful, nasty life circumstances that have them staring into the abyss and grasping for hope...do these things.

1. Pray that she knows...really knows...:

When her world is Shaking

Heaven Stands

When her heart is Breaking

She Never Leaves His Hands

2. Watch the video below of a song she posted early this morning by JJ Heller
3. Click the share button below and send this post to anyone you think will join the effort.

Making Room

I get behind the same school bus at least twice a week. I don't like it...but not for the reason you may think. I only get "inconvenienced" as the bus makes its very last stop. There is only one final student to pick up...and the school is only about a mile and a half away. No big deal for me.

It is...I'm afraid...a very big deal for that last student.

I'd say she is about 12 or 13. She stands alone in her driveway. She is always there...and she is always on time. She stands there...looking downward...slumped over a bit. I've never seen her smile. I've never even seen her eyes. She clearly has no childlike excitement or enthusiasm for the day...at least not this part of it. She seems to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. I can only imagine the sense of dread she must be feeling morning after morning.

From my vantage point directly behind the bus...I can see through the back windows. I can see the other students laughing and playing around. As the bus stops to pick up the young girl...as if on "automatic" and on cue...I can see the other riders begin to slide over to the aisle as if to say, "Seat taken." Or, perhaps more likely, "Don't even think of sitting here." The saddest thing to me is, those other students never stop laughing. They continue their playful joyfulness and simply shut this girl our of their world. They never break stride. It's as if she doesn't exist.

I ache for her. I can imagine that the short mile and a half must seem like an eternity to her.

It makes me wonder how often I (or we?) might do the same thing. Maybe we don't intend to...or maybe sometimes we do. Maybe sometimes we get so caught up in our on agendas and musings that we fail to see that a person...a human being...has entered our "world" and simply needs a place to sit. To be included. To be ackowledged. To be welcomed. To be accepted. To be loved.

Never in a zillion years will that young girl read this blog post. But just in case...young lady, you are a person of worth and value...no matter who you are, where you come from, or what you've done. You are wonderfully and beautifully made. You are loved without measure and without condition. Please don't grow up to hate the world because of what happens on your school bus.

And for the rest of us...let's make sure we are always making room.

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Image from www.nas.org/.../schoolbus/bus_seats_sm.jpg