Daniel Ott

Sharing is Caring About Code

2012-01-20T00:00:00-08:00

Sharing buttons for Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are becoming a frequent request when doing web work. It's a good ask most of the time — but often it comes at the cost of readable or maintainable code.

Things used to be worse. I recall the first time I tried to use a copy/pastable JavaScript snippet from Flickr, and it prevented my entire page from loading. That particular script was a blocking script, using JavaScript's document.write() profusely. If Flickr was down, my site was down.

Today's scripts are a lot smarter, They're placed at the bottom of a document, and dynamically insert new scripts into the document head to load them asynchronously. This means they don't block the rendering of your webpage, and your site will work independent of the other service.

That's an improvement, but I still hate the huge chunks of copy/pasted code. It can be particularly bad when inheriting a project where scripts were pasted haphazardly with little knowledge of what they're actually doing.

For the major three, I have an improvement that I cooked up while building the new marshill.com using Modernizr's load function.

The old copy/pasted scripts:

<!-- Twitter's copy/paste script -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

<!-- Google+'s copy/paste script -->
<script type="text/javascript">
  (function() {
    var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;
    po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
  })();
</script>

<!-- Facebook's copy/paste script -->
<script type="text/javascript">(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

Are replaced with one finely crafted Modernizr.load() call:

<script>
Modernizr.load(
[ '//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js'
, '//apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'
, { test: document.getElementById('facebook-jssdk')
  , nope: '//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1'
  }
]);
</script>

And if you're not the Modernizn' type, you can always use the smaller underlying library, yepnope.js.

Rowsdower!

2011-11-25T00:00:00-08:00

Rowsdower!

You can drag this bookmarklet into your bookmarks bar to Rowsdower! any page on the internets.

I made a thing this weekend. I'll preface by saying I enjoy Mystery Science Theater 3000 a great deal. For those who want to bring the crew of the Satellite of Love to to any webpage on the internet, I present to you Rowsdower!.

For website authors, you can Rowsdowerize your website by including the script tag in your HTML:

<script src="https://raw.github.com/danott/rowsdower/master/min/rowsdower.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

For everyone, you can use the JavaScript bookmarklet above to Rowsdowerize any webpage.

Give it a click to see what it does!

For the technically inclined, you can contribute to Rowsdower on GitHub.

Happy Turkey Weekend.

See You Later

2011-08-30T00:00:00-07:00

In short, Wifepart and I are moving to Seattle on September 10.

What some may not know is that I was born and raised to the age of nine in Kent, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. At that time my family moved to Northern Kentucky for my dad's work, and subsequently at the age of 18 I moved to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky. It was during my junior year at UK that a desire to return to the pacific northwest began brewing within me, and recent events have provided an opportunity to do exactly that.

The opportunity I have accepted is employment as a web developer at Mars Hill Church. I've been following the ministry of Mars Hill with great interest since Duke introduced me to their sermons online in 2005. Since then, the free resources provided through marshill.com and theresurgence.com have been immeasurably helpful in my life. Because of the benefit I've witnessed and received first-hand, I can think of nothing better than to employ my skills as a web developer to extend that blessing to even more people.

Recently I've joked that my life is split up into nine-year segments: 0–9 in Washington, 9–18 in Northern Kentucky, 18–27 in Lexington, and that a move is inevitable this year. Looks like it was no joke. “Excited” is a close, but insufficient word to describe the anticipation I have to unfold the upcoming (nine?) years in Seattle side-by-side with Wifepart.

There are many things to be done in the next week and ½. We're packing possessions, and attempting to sell off even more. It would be hugely helpful if you could spread the word that we are having a moving sale Friday, September 2 and Saturday, September 3 from 8AM–2PM on Hartland Woods Way in Lexington. Below I've listed some of the bigger price items we're trying to sell, and there will be an entire driveway full of other quality stuff at the moving sale. If you'd like to buy anything below, just message me on Twitter or Facebook.

More important than possessions in Kentucky, it's the people we will deeply miss. We want to see you before we go. We'll be having some kind of get together in Lexington, and plan to make a trip up to Northern Kentucky before the move. We'll coordinate all that through the Facebook and Twitters, and hope you can make it.

And remember, If we don't see you before the move, this isn't a “goodbye”, it's a “see you later”.

Venting

2011-06-03T00:00:00-07:00

Proverbs 29:11
A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

In the scenarios I can think of, vents are used to do one of two things:

Push out hot, uncomfortable air.
Push in cool, refreshing air.

A fool giving vent to his spirit points to the former. People venting is generally filled with angry and/or hurtful words that are uncomfortable. At least that's how it has been for me. These venting words usually don't refresh anyone.

Perhaps it is not that I need the hot air to be vented out of my spirit. Maybe I need to reverse the direction of the vent, and quietly let the cool refreshing words of life in.

Air can't flow two ways at once. When it tries to, the fronts produce a storm. While storms can bring a refreshing rain, they can also bring destruction such as that seen in Joplin last week.

Maybe that's why it says a fool gives full vent to his spirit. It is commonly held that holding everything in and never venting frustration isn't healthy either. There seems to be a middle ground for sharing frustration in a healthy way.

Perhaps a small warm front should he emitted to meet with God's cold front, and bring the small storm. The storm of being adjusted rather than adjusting the situation may seem dark for a bit, but the rain will bring refreshment and fruitfulness eventually.

In this same thought - what if the spirit actively opposes God's cold front with a full force of vented hot air? Maybe it's this disregard for words of life that results in larger storms. It's just what happens when what God has to say is ignored. It's not punishment: it's simply the result of two opposed fronts crossing paths. The destructive and devastating storm is the natural outcome. The infrastructure of an angry and selfish life is so malformed, that it needs to be torn down completely to be rebuilt on a new foundation.

I hope my assumptions about how weather works are accurate.

Words, Heard and Spoken

2011-06-01T00:00:00-07:00

There is a direct connection between the words you listen to and the life you live.

This became apparent to me while reading Proverbs chapter two. Reading long enough, there is a juxtaposition between the words a holy God speaks, and the words an adulterer speaks. His words lead to life, knowledge, wisdom and security. Her words lead to forgetfulness, death and ultimately destruction.

The word used to describe the fate of forgetfulness is “uprooted.” The root is meant to be in the ground, receiving sustenance. Uprooting is not death for the plant. It is merely a temporary period before promptly being replanted in a place it wasn't meant to be. Physical life may still be present, but the quality of the soil may be lacking. Life goes on, but the quality goes down. As a function of time, the limit approaches zero.

What you choose to hear is who you choose to be. It's the center of what you'll walk in response to. It determines the words that will come out of your mouth that others will choose to hear or disregard. You can speak truth or deception. Those are the options. You can listen to truth or deception. Those are the options. The two will probably be the same. Or you'll be a hypocrite with a seared conscious and failing relationships.

Pitch

2011-02-08T00:00:00-08:00

Did you know I wrote sitcoms? Me neither, but these two ideas came to me in a stroke of genius. I'd say they're pitted for a 9-10pm time slot on any major network.

Volleyball Captain

It's pretty obvious what the objective is here, to party on the beach in-between shifts on a cruise liner. The volleyball captain has the appearance of a social juggernaut. Thousands of friends, endless bumping parties, babes are always setting him up with their friends and he is always spiking the punch. Around episode three VC takes a turn to be more dramatical in a hope to boost ratings, and we explore the depths of a volleyball who has thousands of acquaintances, but no true friends. Also, Tom Cruise makes a cameo like Top Gun, but now he's all out of shape and has a handlebar mustache.

Head of State

Imagine Parks and Recreation and MacGyver had a baby. Now imagine that baby was born with a head of lettuce as his human head. And that baby grew up to be President of the United States of America on a sitcom that was a mix between Parks and Recreation and MacGyver. This is Head of State. There are all these global economic crises and terrorist problems going on, and the times seem dismal. But things always end up being fixed by his knowledge of stuff he learned on the farm about roots and seeds and germination and stuff. (Note: write a pun into the pilot about German-Nation and germination.) And he does it with hilarity like that Lindsey Knope. In episode eight he uses a tactic his mom used to keep rabbits out of the garden to disarm the middle east.

And the big reveal… The Volleyball Captain and Head of State are twin brothers.

And oh yeah, don't cast Wilson as VC. That's too predictable and tasteless.

It Meets Our Wants

2011-02-07T00:00:00-08:00

Wifepart bought me an Apple TV for my birthday. The reasoning was two-fold.

My HD-snobbery of streaming content in SD on the Wii was rewarded for it's patience.
We wanted a way to easily access video Podcasts on the TV.

Some will argue that the Apple TV is limited in codecs, content, etc - and their arguments would be right. For us, it meets our wants in a streaming device sufficiently.

There is one thing I'd like to see improve in the Apple TV experience. When completing an episode in a series on Netflix, the Apple TV doesn't automatically select the next episode. This is extremely petty, but every other Netflix interface I've used has this convenience built in. It's a behavior you become accustomed to. It's not a life-threatening inconvenience to go up a menu, press down, and select the next episode. I just find it odd that the company that usually pays the most attention to such small details in user experience made this oversight.

A New Home

2011-01-31T00:00:00-08:00

Working on a remote server is a typical part of the developer's workflow. Also typical of this workflow is having a /home/username/ home folder that isn't where you end up doing 99% of the work. I think it is unnecessarily tedious to manually change to the httpdocs directory every time I log into one of my websites. So instead, I add this to the bottom of my user account's .bash_profile.

export HOME=/path/to/mycleverurl.com/httpdocs/
cd $HOME

This solution is easy and effortless. It automatically happens every time I log in, and redefines my home directory as the place where I spend 99% of my time on the server. On the rare occasion I need to actually do something in my default home folder, the Linux default of cd /home/username/ gets me right where I need to be.

One thing to note: Redefining your home with your place of work does not result in the same benefits in real life.

A Challenge for the Skeptics

2011-01-26T00:00:00-08:00

Recently I began reading G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy. If that sounds familiar, it is probably because I've said it before. I have started this book and abandoned it at least two other times. It wasn't abandoned due to lack of interestingness or content, I simply got busy and it fell by the wayside.

In reading Chesterton's work it quickly becomes apparent that there is a common thread between his time and where we find ourselves today. One similarity being the considerable amount of energy spent by skeptics and Christians thinking and talking about the existence of God and the practicality of the Christian faith. While reading through the Gospel of John the other day, I came across a statement of Jesus that sparked in me a simple solution to this seemingly complex debate.

You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me. – Jesus

My challenge for anyone who is fed up with Christianity and Christians is this – prove that this Jesus we worship is not who he says he is by showing he is a liar. If Jesus is a liar, he is not God incarnate and cannot be trusted to forgive sin and make good on his promise of eternal life.

Jesus' statement above provides a fine opportunity to challenge his divinity. Simply end global poverty. Ending poverty on earth will show that Jesus is a liar and should not be worshipped as God.

A funny aside about this – Christians are already involved in this work of caring for the poor out of obedience to God. The skeptics' knowledge of this Christian teaching and conviction could be used to exploit the intellectual adversaries into helping this pursuit of proving Jesus a liar.

A sad aside about this – we Christians have been given this task of caring for the poor with the knowledge that we can never fulfill it completely. Perhaps we can make a bigger dent by working side-by-side with the skeptics. We may even become great friends along the way. Once financial poverty is abolished the healing of emotional poverty can be addressed. That might prove a difficult task for those who believe we come from nothing, our lives mean nothing and we are headed nowhere. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

A hopeful aside about this – this work will be completed when Jesus returns, sets all things right and reigns as eternal king.

A huge task lies ahead. I suggest getting started.

Sweeping the Shop

2011-01-25T00:00:00-08:00

Every time we close up shop for the evening at Main & Maple we do a thorough sweeping of the floors. It's a simple routine task that is incredibly important. It puts a full stop on today's work. It insures tomorrow is setup to start smoothly. It is in accordance with code for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

The clear distinction between this work day and the next is what I'm most interested in presently. I've been trying to establish a similar practice of daily closure in my design & development work. What I've come up with so far is this –

This is how I want my Mac's Desktop to look at the end of the workday. I'm beginning to treat my Desktop like a workbench. The things I'm actively working on take up residence there, but at the end of the day it gets swept clean. If a document is important, it gets filed away into a place that makes sense for it. If it's not important enough to find a place for it, it gets swept into the trash like the crumbs on the kitchen floor at the end of a shift.

You wouldn't pile up scraps and trash in your workspace or store-front of your brick-and-mortar. Treat your Desktop likewise. It brings closure to the end of the workday, and allows for clarity in planning your work come the next day.

On Tweeting Prayers

2011-01-18T00:00:00-08:00

God's ability to hear and answer prayers does not hinge on how frequently or articulately we tweet about them.

I've been mulling over what to think about people tweeting their prayers. Prayer is such a personal action, and Twitter is such a public venue. On the one hand, Jesus told us to go into our room and close the door when we pray - to pray in secret as God is in secret. On the other hand, he told us to let our light shine before others - resulting in the observer giving glory to God when they see the good works.

A natural question - is prayer a good work that serves as light shining before men? I'm inclined to say no, based on the specific instructions of the former verse, and the concept of good works in the latter. Additionally, most of what comes to mind in Jesus' ministry regarding prayer is him going to lonely places to pray. He does publicly give instructions on prayer, and offers the High Priestly Prayer with bystanders - so obviously public prayer is not the question.

Most of the tweets that launch this thought are from people I respect and admire. I'm inclined to assume that those who share them are well intentioned and not trying to bring glory to themselves. I don't have any strong convictions on the matter. Twitter usage is inclined toward flippancy - I may have tweeted a prayer at some point for all I know. I just know something about it makes me stop and question what exactly is going on here. And where I land is where I began. Regardless of motives or intent - God's ability to hear and answer prayers does not hinge on how frequently or articulately we tweet about them.

The Ultimate Hang Zone

2010-11-23T00:00:00-08:00

Wifepart and I got married on October 24 2009. Early in our marriage we started dreaming about some of the things we'd like to do in the course of our life together. These dreams included leading mission trips, traveling and running a coffee shop. These dreams were long-sighted, but by God's grace we've been able to live all these dreams in just shy of thirteen months of marriage.

God equipped us and gave us the opportunity to lead not one, but two mission trips to Northern Ireland this Spring and Summer. Working with high school and college students from both sides of the Atlantic, we've been blessed to witness abundant fruit coming out of God's ministry in Newcastle and the surrounding areas of Northern Ireland.

For our one year anniversary Wifepart and I traveled to Seattle for $10 thanks to Delta SkyMiles. While there, some hospitable folks from Mars Hill Church showed us around town and made us feel welcome like family. We were able to do a lot of fun touristy stuff along the way, and eat plenty of great local food. Also, we got to briefly meet @PastorMark, which was special because his preaching has greatly impacted both of us in the time we've been listening to the podcast.

Before we went to Seattle an opportunity was presented to us. The opportunity to take over the operation of Main & Maple Coffee House in Nicholasville, KY, with a friend as a partner. Note: one of my top priorities is to redesign the website. Wifepart had been working at Main & Maple since April of this year. The original intent in her working there was to gain all the experience we'd need to open up our own shop some day. It was never in our plan to do this in Nicholasville - but it was definitely an opportunity worth considering. Wifepart and I spent about a month and a half processing this decision. We knew this would change everything about our life. What our weekly schedules look like. What our holidays look like. When we would vacation. When we would rest. When we would have DateNight™. When we would have children. Long process short - after tons of prayer and conversations we decided to move forward along with our friend.

On Sunday, November 14 the transition took place, and life has been pretty busy since then. For Wifepart, life has been busy even longer because she did all the ground work and paperwork leading up to the transition. Yeah, she's awesome. The other night I sat in the store after closing, and just stopped to catch my breath and think about all the gifts God has given. In 2000 he gave me Jesus at Ichthus Farm in Wilmore, Kentucky. In 2002-2006 he gave me an education in Lexington, Kentucky. In 2006 he gave me relationships with mentors that would influence and change the direction of my life forever. In 2007 he gave me my first experience in missions, a road trip across the US and my first real job. In 2009 he gave me my dream job of web development. in 2009 he also gave me my greatest prize, my bride, my Wifepart. And in our marriage he's given us some of our largest dreams in the short course of 13 months.

There is so much more to this story that has God's fingerprints all over it. God redeeming lost friendships. God providing wonderful relationships through his church. God providing in ways we thought we could only dream of.

Typing this doesn't articulate how grateful I am for all the friendships, opportunities and gifts I've been the unworthy recipient of. There's a phrase I picked up while at Mars Hill, and it's the only way I know how to say it - my life is completely “by God's grace.” If you want to talk about it sometime, I'll buy you a cup of coffee.

Why I Like OSX A Lot

2010-11-04T00:00:00-07:00

I almost said "why I love OSX", but using the same word for an operating system as I use for my wife and the LORD seems to take away some of it's value. I put the LORD in all caps because that's how my Bible does it in the Old Testament sometimes. I think it does that for instances where the name Yahweh is used. Only the Hebrews didn't have vowels, so it'd be like YHWH. Maybe there's an Ovaltine packet that has the decoder to get from YHWH to LORD. It'd be a pretty crazy decoder, since the H decodes to both O and D.

So anyways, I downloaded a file in Safari, which I ended up moving to another folder. Days later, while in Safari, I realized I needed to reference this file again. I opened up the Downloads window, and used the fancy "Show in Finder" functionality without thinking about the fact that I had moved this file from the Downloads folder. It didn't matter though, because Finder revealed this file in it's new location with no problems. Little usability extras like this are what make the OSX experience so enjoyable. Sure, programmers could have just made a reference to where the file was originally downloaded. But instead, tracking the file no matter where it moves is the behavior. I like this.

However, in writing this I do have a small gripe about OSX. It doesn't like the word Ovaltine, and instead gives it a red underline and suggests I change it to "Ovulating". I don't want an Ovulating decoder.

Command + Q

2010-11-03T00:00:00-07:00

I switch between a lot of similar tasks across multiple projects during my day. Most of these projects utilize the same tools, so it is a pretty easy transition to make. However, I noticed today that I have a habit in place for mentally transitioning between tasks. I quit every running application on my computer, only to re-open the majority of them 10 seconds later. When I think about it, it seems ridiculous. It's like a carpenter who completely sweeps his workshop and puts all his tools away between projects, then gets them back out of the cabinet immediately. Then again, I don't know many active carpenters, so maybe they use this system as a mental transition as well. I made a pretty big assumption there that a carpenter stores his tools in a cabinet. It might be a giant bucket. Or a modified gun rack.

Local DB

2010-09-27T00:00:00-07:00

I used to rely heavily on phpMyAdmin during web development. It was particularly useful before I began using frameworks like Rails and ExpressionEngine, which 99% of the time automatically generate my database needs and allow me to manipulate them by other means. For a time phpMyAdmin was an indispensable tool for interacting with the database. I still herald it as a great tool for any web developer, and being prepackaged with MAMP makes it an obvious solution for managing local databases while developing on a Mac.

That useless backstory being said, my workflow has been changing lately, and I'm growing to really like using Sequel Pro. This is petty, but when you are working in multiple environments, keeping track of phpMyAdmin deployments through various bookmarks becomes a minor annoyance. Using a desktop application like Sequel Pro allows me to connect to production, local development and test environments all from one central location. It's also done really well.

It took me a bit of tinkering to figure out how to connect to my MAMP MySQL through Sequel Pro, so I figured I'd share the tip. The trick is to use a socket connection, and connect to /Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock.

If these settings don't work for you, note that I am using Sequel Pro 0.9.8.1 and MAMP 1.7.2. Also, note that the default MAMP root password for MySql is also root

What We Will Be

2010-09-13T00:00:00-07:00

1 John 3:2-3
Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

John's confident assertion that we are God's children now catches my attention. According to John, adoption into God's family is not a future promise, it is a present reality. I point this out because in the past I have thought the former, waiting for the promise of heaven to be welcomed into God's family. I haven't thought this intentionally - it was simply my default way of processing this promise - assuming it was for the future beyond what can be attained in this life.

Knowing that we are in God's family now is important. It assures us that we have somewhere to belong. It assures us that we are loved. It assures us that we are not forgotten. It assures us that we are accepted. It assures us that we are forgiven. And it also assures us that these things are not for someday - they are for today. This truth changes the course of our lives today.

It also changes how we hope. No one hopes for what they've already attained. Knowing we're presently in God's family allows us to hope for what has really not yet appeared. And John says that it is this kind of hope that will purify us.

Purity is something we've all set aside. Purity is also something most of us want to get back. If we trust John's words, we must put our hope in God to appear and radically change us to be like Jesus is. It is in the process of hoping for that day that our purity will be restored.

But before any of that can take place, we have to know who we are in relationship to God. We are not strangers. We are children. We are not on his board of trustees, that he should seek advice from us. We are dependents. We are not share-holders in his publicly traded kingdom, that he should work to please us. We are kids in our dad's kingdom now.

And what we will be has not yet appeared.

Stock Footage

2010-09-05T00:00:00-07:00

The latest Ratatat video provides equal parts of hilarity and discomfort. It also educates us that stock photography does not directly translate to stock video.

The song isn't bad either. Ratatat's ever-evolving sound never leaves me dissatisfied. I'm curious if this video makes it's way into live performances. The Ratatat show I attended a few years back made heavy use of video. Taking in this song with this video in the context of a live venue could have very enjoyable results.

(Via Kyle)

Layer Tennis Observation

2010-08-19T00:00:00-07:00

Caravaggio's The Calling of Saint Matthew) has been my favorite painting ever since I first saw it in sophomore year of high school. Matthew's inability to understand that Jesus is calling him of all people is a sentiment that resides within me as well.

It's funny to me how instantaneously I turned to Kyle and said "That's The Calling of Saint Matthew on Layer Tennis". The human memory is a deep and powerful thing.

Back in the Saddle, and by Saddle I Mean United States

2010-08-17T00:00:00-07:00

Back in the Saddle. And By Saddle I mean United States. My wife, our team and I have been home from Northern Ireland for a week today. The two and a half weeks spent there serving within and beside the local churches of various denominations was a huge honor. I was able to spend some time sitting with and listening to seasoned pastors share their heart and love for the local church. I also got to dream with them and N. Irish friends about the future of youth work in their city, county and country. This was all amidst the craziness of running a two week youth program divided into five sections. It couldn't have run without the 45(ish) volunteer leaders who sacrificed their time, holiday and even finances to share Jesus with some kids and teenagers.

There's much to say about this trip, not to mention the previous trips I always intend to write about, but one of the things that always stands out about all these trips is the instantaneous family. We have different cultures, different customs, different backgrounds, different accents, different preferences, different habits, different values, different affections - but when we gather because of Jesus none of that is a hindrance. The walls that typically separate people from one another are torn down. The boundaries that keep people from approaching one another cease to exist. We can talk deep-to-deep nearly instantaneously because we are simply doing the work Jesus asked us to do.

It always makes me think of what Peter wrote (emphasis mine) -

You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
– 1 Peter 2:5 ESV

Many times we as Christians focus on the fellowship and the meeting together, what has sometimes been called the Acts 2:42 church. If you read 2:42-47 you'll see that all these things are true, good and signs of a healthy church. But I think sometimes in pursuing this kind of community we forget the context of Acts, and that the apostles and disciples were bound together and pursuing truth so closely because they were constantly praying for things such as boldness in telling people about Jesus. They didn't just foster community for the sake of community. The community was born out of love for Jesus and doing what he asked us to do.

Every trip to Northern Ireland I learn this truth more and more - we're not being built together just for the sake of being built together. We're being built together so that we can offer service and sacrifice together. And this is pleasing to Jesus.

Exceptions to the Rule

2010-06-23T00:00:00-07:00

What Apple could do, in theory, is add a section to the Settings app where you could hide unwanted system apps from the home screen. But that’s un-iPhone-like. You’d then wind up with two ways to remove apps from the home screen — one for App Store apps and another for system apps. It’s simpler and more obvious for there to be one and only one way to do it, and simply leave the system apps as unremovable.
– John Gruber

I’m curious if John knows that the functionality he suggests for hiding unwanted default iOS apps is exactly what is currently done for the Nike+ iPod app, which comes packaged with iOS on capable devices. I’m guessing that the Nike+ app gets special treatment because it is the only packaged app that requires external hardware.

Finding and toggling this app in Settings worked flawlessly for me when I got my first pair of Nike+ shoes earlier this year. It seems like a pretty strait forward solution for other apps as well. The question is: does this solution add an unnecessary layer of complexity once it moves from a single-case exception to a behavior for all built-in apps?

For the time being, this neatnik has dropped all his unwanted default apps into a folder.

Notanapp

2010-05-03T00:00:00-07:00

Discussion and tangent thoughts on Scott Robbin’s Should You Develop an App or Mobile Website?.

Perfectly stated, easy to answer, direct questions that drive to the core of what is really necessary to get your application/service up and running on the iPhone. Targeting Android is included too, but at this point all I’m concerning myself with is developing for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The biggest hurdle I foresee is that the average user is conditioned to look to the App Store for anything that goes on their iPhone’s Home Screen. The “Add to Homescreen” functionality can be very well executed from a few examples I've seen, but I’d be willing to bet that most average users just don’t get it. Not yet, at least - because the examples of well done Mobile Safari web apps are few and far between, and adding them to your home screen is not something the average user thinks to do.

Facebook could be an interesting case study if numbers are available - They have <touch.facebook.com> as well as an App Store app. I wonder which source produces the larger amount of traffic?

Despite the potential and even the web apps listings on Apple’s own site, I wouldn’t be surprised if building apps wins over mobile sites simply because people can find them easier.

An aside – Does anyone else remember how excited people were about Widgets when OSX Tiger was going to be released? The potential and excitement about what you could do, especially since all that made up a Widget was the open standards and available tools of HTML, CSS, and JS? In essence, anyone could develop a small app that would run right on the desktop. Despite Apple’s Widget listings, the problem, for me at least, became finding well-done, useful Widgets within the sea of crap. Optimized Mobile Safari websites could very well go the way of the Widget - huge potential, but no good execution of ideas.

Forcing Accountability

2010-04-14T00:00:00-07:00

Donald Miller came to speak at our church a few weeks ago. One thing he mentioned has been resonating in my brain: if you write an idea down, you’re now accountable to it.

His idea was starting an organization to help fatherless boys in America. He talked about how it started in his head, and the resistance he had to simply writing that idea down. If he wrote it down it would be in the light of day where someone might see it, ask him about it and even ask why it isn’t happening yet.

I’ve had 100s of ideas, but few make it to the public or even private conversations. Like Don, I’m hesitant because I fear I might not make the idea a reality. I need to kick fear in the crotch, and start turning ideas into reality. I need to start investing some time and shedding some sweat to make things happen.

But before that, I need to start putting ideas down on paper. Or in our paperless society, a blog entry or a tweet.

2009 In Review

2010-03-11T00:00:00-08:00

It may be two months late, but I saved this idea as a draft in December to do a review of my life in 2009. A lot happened last year:

Went to Ireland
Quit my job
Got a girlfriend
Went to Ireland
Girlfriend starts a new job
I start a new job
Girlfriend becomes Fiancé
Went to Italy and France
Fiancé gets put in a cast while planning wedding because the steps attacked her
Got a new apartment
Fiancé becomes Wifepart
Wifepart moves into aforementioned new apartment
Went to Jamaica
Survived first set of holidays with in-laws
Wifepart survived first set of holidays with in-laws

I highlighted travel, relationship, and work because those are the things that stick out in my mind. A lot more happened, but that’s what comes to memory when I try to recall it quickly.

I am a blessed man.

(There was no risk of death with our in-laws. It’s just a stereotype, duh.)

Requesting Nicely

2010-03-10T00:00:00-08:00

As I dig myself deeper into the trenches of ExpressionEngine (EE) development, I've been looking for solutions to optimize performance. Though the project that gets most of my attention is not a blog, I've been taking a blogazine approach to development, having many areas and entries with custom style and custom scripting that is built on a solid style and script base.

Managing all this was becoming a convoluted mess of folders and files. My first approach was to try storing all my assets in a folder structure that reflected my EE weblogs, templates, and entries' url_titles. Think:

assets/
  -weblogs/
    -weblog_name/
      -url-title.css
      -url-title.js
      -another-url-title.css
      -another-url-title.js
  -templates/
    -template_group/
      -template-name.css
      -template-name.js
      -another-template-name.css
      -another-template-name.js
  -globals/
    -grid.css
    -jquery.js
    -base.css
    -base.js

It all makes sense structurally, but to get a typical single page loading we're calling upwards of four stylesheets and four javascript files. YSlow was not happy about this, and neither was I.

Around this time of investigating performance, I came across this great piece about managing CSS and JS in EE by Adam Spooner. I thought his approach was brilliant, and decided to expand upon it.

The basic thing I wanted to expand upon was dynamically including other CSS and JS assets, and all in one request for performance. Taking the blogazine approach, I want to have a base set of CSS and JS always loading, as well as per-template, per-entry, or per-completely arbitrary reasons specific CSS and JS. Using EE's URL segments, this was a pretty easy thing to do.

This is my styles/index template:

{if embed:prevent_infinite_loop != "y"}

    {!-- Default scripts that should be included everywhere --}
    {embed="styles/reset.css"}
    {embed="styles/grid.css"}
    {embed="styles/clearfix.css"}
    {embed="styles/base.css"}

    {!-- Additional scripts to be added are recognized using url segments
       - OR segment_3 just in case we hit styles/index/+/... for some odd reason
       --}
    {if segment_2 == "+" OR segment_3 == "+"}

        {!-- It's okay to still include segment_3 here, because including a 
           - non-existent file doesn't have any negative effects other than
           - extra whitespace  (styles/+ is non-existent)
           --}
        {if segment_3}
            {embed="styles/{segment_3}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
        {if segment_4}
            {embed="styles/{segment_4}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
        {if segment_5}
            {embed="styles/{segment_5}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
        {if segment_6}
            {embed="styles/{segment_6}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
        {if segment_7}
            {embed="styles/{segment_7}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
        {if segment_8}
            {embed="styles/{segment_8}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
        {if segment_9}
            {embed="styles/{segment_9}" prevent_infinite_loop="y"}
        {/if}
    {/if}{!-- End if segment_2 == "+" OR segment_3 == "+" --}
{/if}

The comments make most everything self explanatory. If EE receives a URL in the fashion of

mysite.com/styles/+/template-name/url-title/

it will translate all the URL segments after the ‘+' into a corresponding template. Using this method, we can include up to seven additional stylesheets dynamically.

You may notice the prevent_infinite_loop parameter being passed on all the embed tags. In theory, someone could call

mysite.com/styles/+/index/

which could create an infinite loop on your server and bring things to a halt. This prevent_infinite_loop parameter working with the initial if-statement in the template prevents this attack from happening.

We can also create a pseudo-dependency structure by having a template embed other templates that it builds atop of. Just be careful you don't make them embed one another and create a server crashing infinite loop.

For us OCD types who want the URL to include a pretty .css or .js extension, we can use some .htaccess rules to serve up pretty urls.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(styles|scripts)[/.a-zA-Z0-9-]*?.(css|js)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(styles|scripts)([/.a-zA-Z0-9-]*?).(css|js)$ /index.php/$1/+$2/ [L]

This way we can request

mysite.com/styles/template-url/entry-url/special-include.css

which would be tranlsated to

mysite.com/styles/+/template-url/entry-url/special-include/

and everything will be served up properly.

The one downside to this approach is that caching won't happen when you're requesting all these unique-to-entry URLs.

But there you go - all the CSS or JS you need for a given page in one request.

Writing Words About Code

2010-02-15T00:00:00-08:00

The hiccup with wanting to write more is that the things that peak my interest find little value among those who aren’t me, which is roughly 50% of the world last I checked. It may be higher than that, but the amount of attention given in my thought life would lead me to believe it’s possibly even lower. More research might be required for this stat.

So while 50% of people won’t even care, I’m going to write about code, design and life. Why? Because code, design and life are important. So much of what we interact with today is driven by code, but all that is seen or cared for are the designed usable interfaces. And rightfully so. Code that isn’t usable by everyone is like volumes of theology that sit on a shelf and are heralded as too advanced for the common man to connect to God. If it isn’t usable in real life it is a theory, and we live in a world where ideas are cheap.

Code seeks understanding for why things work the way they do, and in most instances how they can be improved. Design meets code to make it’s power understandable and useful in our daily lives. Code is the unsung hero. Design is the bridge. Life is what matters.

I may write about panda bears too, because they’re cuddly, and cuddling is part of a good life.

Spurgeon On Stuff

2010-02-14T00:00:00-08:00

Sufficient for the day is all that we can enjoy. We cannot eat or drink or wear more than the day’s supply of food and clothing; the surplus gives us the care of storing it, and the anxiety of watching against a thief. One staff aids a traveler, but a bundle of staves is a heavy burden.
— Charles Haddon Spurgeon

I need to quit owning so much crap.

Mahaney on Worship

2010-02-10T00:00:00-08:00

Not all worship songs are created equal. Many today are man centered, not cross centered. They focus more on what we need, or what we want God to do, than on what Jesus has already done.
— C. J. Mahaney

I would agree with Mr. Mahaney.

Note on Javascript String.replace()

2009-08-13T00:00:00-07:00

string.replace("", replacement, "g"));
string.replace(//g, replacement));

According to the Javascript String Reference these two statements should be equivalent. In Safari 4 the non RegExp version does not replace the matched string globally.

Takeaway: use the RegExp version.

I Will be Married Four Months from Today

2009-06-24T00:00:00-07:00

It’s very surreal when looking back on the years of journals, prayers, attempts, disappointments, realizations and growth. Praise God.

The Test of Time

2009-06-16T00:00:00-07:00

My new idea is really exciting.

Would I still be excited if I had to wait a year until launch?

Rethink it.

Back in the USA

2009-06-01T00:00:00-07:00

Not that you’d have known I was gone by reading here, but I am back from the Jet Set Tour to Rome, Italy and Marseille, France with The Upstream Collective. I’ve also been to Northern Ireland twice this year, changed jobs three weeks ago, and got engaged to a beautiful woman two weeks ago. I had some insightful words spoken into my life last night by said beautiful woman, who also changed jobs just four weeks ago, that we’ve been running really hard this year, that our lives have had multiple dramatic, statistically stress-inducing, changes, and that it may be time for me to slow down a bit.

Why do I mention all this on a blog? I don’t know right now. Possibly to set up a very low level framework of what you’re getting into by reading here. I think it’s time to quit neglecting this space, and have a regular outlet into a public place that doesn’t demand attention, but is available for those who may find themselves interested.

More to come*

Why I'm Going To Vote

2008-10-30T00:00:00-07:00

I am not an expert on politics, nor do I aspire to be.

I was overseas during the last presidential election, watching the votes being tallied on television with some intelligent non-Americans. As it became clear that Bush was re-elected, I got railed with criticism. Not for Bush being re-elected, but for Americans’ apathy surrounding the election. “You [Americans] get to pick the next leader of the world, and most of you don’t even care”. This is a true statement.

I’ll admit that I don’t concern myself too much politics. I don’t think the “right” president is going to fix all the world’s problems. But that experience did leave an impression on me, a call to at least cast my ballot from this election forward. The president elect doesn’t just effect me, it effects the entire world.

The problem with electing a president is this: American people are lovers of self. The overwhelming consensus I’ve come to is that everyone is looking for the candidate that will meet their needs, adhere to their policies, and align 100% with their ideals and morals.

This can be even worse within the circle of Christians (And I use that term loosely in this context). Some want a perfect man to run, so they can cast their vote for the messiah-elect who will usher in God’s Kingdom on earth. And if no such candidate exists - they’ll retreat to apathy and simply not cast a vote, using the excuse that their opinion is clearly God’s opinion. (This is all very funny since a political leader is exactly what was expected of Jesus, and one of the reasons they killed him was because he didn’t bring God’s Kingdom the way they wanted, but that’s a topic for another discussion…)

The refusal to vote based on no candidate living up perfectly to our personal standards is a thinly vailed overflow of pride. The foundation of this logic is basically this — “My standard is the standard, I’m the authority, and the candidates need to respect me. If the candidate can’t please me, there is no reason to give him my vote.” You can disagree, but I believe this is pride in action.

So my challenge to you is to take an honest look at the candidates. Who would better serve all the people of America, not just you? Who would better serve the entire world through foreign relations, not just you? I don’t care who you vote for, but I challenge you to take a step outside of yourself, and lay down your vote for what would benefit others, and not just you personally.

If you vote, you’re a great American. If you’re too proud to vote… I guess you’re still a great American since pride is a virtue instead of a sin in our culture.

Recursive Programming

2008-10-27T00:00:00-07:00

/* Recursive church model pseudo-code */

Church.plantAnotherChurch() {
  new Church localChurch;

  while (true) {
    localChurch.plantAnotherChurch();
  }
}

Under Construction

2008-10-16T00:00:00-07:00

1 Peter 2:5
you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Though my experience with construction is limited to building rails, ramps, and funboxes for skateboarding in the late 90’s, I absolutely love the scriptures’ use of building houses to communicate truths about life connected to God. Take time out to read Matthew 7:24-27 for starters - you could draw parallels out of it for hours, if not days and years.

The idea of being “living stones” above really got a hold of me yesterday. I imagine a fresh pallette of bricks arriving at a construction site. The foundation is laid, and it’s time to begin putting the bricks into position. The question is, how are they going to be arranged?

One option is to just toss all the bricks on top of the foundation and call it a day. All the bricks are present, but there really is no rhyme or reason to what they are doing. There is just a big, jagged pile of bricks sitting atop the foundation. People come to the site of this house seeking shelter, but all they find are scraped hands and banged shins as they stumble trying to navigate through this pile of bricks.

The other option is that the bricks entrust themselves to an architect, and allow themselves to be put in a specific place. The result is a finely constructed house that offers comfort, shelter, and protection to those who approach it.

I think many times in the name of “community” we approach our spirituality like the first option. We have the right foundation in Jesus, but we’re just a bunch of living stones, or should I say “living bricks”, piling together with no purpose. God’s goal for the church isn’t to just have a big pile of bricks, he wants to build a spirtual house! He doesn’t want a big collection of people that is useless in form and function - He wants to build us together so that more people can come into the “house”, hear about Jesus, have their sin forgiven and cleansed, live a new life with new purpose that’s free from guilt and shame, and spend joyful eternity together!

The key part of the analogy is that we are living bricks - we actively participate in the matter! God is building His kingdom, and the materials for the project are our lives. So the question is this - how and where does God want to use your life in this construction? Is there someone you need to forgive? Is there a group of people you need to befriend? Is there sin in your life you need to repent of? Is there somewhere you need to go? Since we are living bricks we have a choice in whether or not we’ll let him take control and place us where he wants us in this construction? The alternatives are being a useless brick in a disorganized pile, or being a solitary brick out in the woods somewhere - neither of which ever provided comfort or shelter for anyone.

Where does Jesus want to place you today? Ask and listen - I’d bet he will answer!

Modest Mouse on Mortality

2008-09-30T00:00:00-07:00

Some day you will die somehow and something’s gonna steal your carbon.
– Modest Mouse’s Parting of the Sensory

This lyric and the thoughts of mortality it conjures up have been stuck in my head. In the best way, of course. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Solitude in Lexington, KY - The Map

2008-09-26T00:00:00-07:00

I decided to make a map with the responses I received from my previous post across Twitter, Facebook and danott.us. Thanks to everyone who replied - I shouldn't run out of places to go anytime soon!

View full map

Now I just have to decide which place I will go to tomorrow.

Consistency

2008-09-26T00:00:00-07:00

Judges 5:31
Let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might

Those who love Jesus have a calling to consistency. Just as the sun rises and sets uniformly day to day, the Christ follower must do the same. Consistency here does not mean routines such as the daily alarm / shower / breakfast / work / lunch / dinner / evening news / bed routine. All men through much discipline and caffeine can achieve this result. No, consistency here speaks to the continual devotions of the heart, mind and strength towards the God for whom they were created.

How can the sun’s rising be described? Daily may be the first thing we notice. There is a lie prevalent in the church today that Jesus is only interested in those that are his following him on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings. This may not be prescribed or promoted by the church, but the symptom of hypocrisy can almost be described as epidemic in peoples’ encounters with those who claim to be Christian. Men stumble in the dark for lack of light. And how much more so if the sun only peeked its head two days a week? Even further, what if the sun spent those two days within an enclosure where it’s rays did not even shine light upon the earth’s surface? Life would be impossible at worst, and unbearable at best. Jesus has called the believer to be spiritual light analogous to the sun’s. If this light does not shine daily, how will navigation of all life’s obstacles even be possible? If the individual with the ability to shed light is stumbling in darkness, how many more will trip over him as they wander without the ability to see? In a life spent together, stumbling through the darkness never effects just an individual.

The second thing we may notice is that the sun’s shining is inherently devoid of darkness. It emits a constant light, and this light cannot share the same space with darkness. But considering the physical world and it’s analogy, in the presence of light many shadows can be cast. Imagine your life, Christ follower, as an endless mirror stretching in all directions, set upon the ground for reflecting the light. What things stand tall in your life that cast a shadow upon the mirror’s surface when the light is applied? Are you hiding from the light in the shadows of addiction? Are others missing the light because all they can focus on is your tower of pride blocking its view? What darkness exists in your life because all things are not being laid bare before the light?

Thirdly, the sun can have beautiful sunrises and sunsets. But is this because of any extra effort by the sun in it’s work of shining? Of course not! The sun rises and sets with effortless consistency day after day since the earth was set in motion. Many days this hello and goodbye is quite normal, but when the conditions are right the sun shines forth in a new brilliance that grabs many men’s attention. In the same way, the life of the Christ follower consists of many normal days - But sometimes, when the conditions of persecution, pain, or hardship are just right, the light shines through in a previously unseen and captivating way. The work or effort of shining is not any different than a normal day, only it’s appearance to the onlookers is seen anew. Understanding this consistency of Christ’s light shining off us, that from time to time looks different through the circumstances, will free us from the burden of having to live from event to event or one “spiritual high” to the next. You are free to simply seek Christ and reflect the light naturally, rather than putting on a laser-light show as (false?) evidence.

Fully and continually understanding that we’re simply called to live a life in consistent communication, listening and responding, with our Jesus would be quite good for us. It works for most every other relationship, why not the most important one?

Solitude in Lexington, KY

2008-09-22T00:00:00-07:00

I was just making my calendar for the week in iCal when I noticed that I have an all-day event scheduled for Saturday - solitude. One of the goals I set for myself in January this year was to take a day of solitude every month. I have been mostly successful at doing it so far. (A few of the earlier months were travel-crazy!)

These days of study, prayer, reflection, and planning have so far been fruitful and I never leave feeling like it was a waste of my time. The only problem I’m foreseeing is the days of solitude becoming too routine, which is not what I envision for a day that is intended to stretch and focus me. Most of this is rooted in the location of solitude - though I love it, I have exhausted hiking to the Eagle’s Nest at Red River Gorge. So my question is this:

Do you know of any good places to take a day of solitude in or near Lexington?

Coffee shops? Places in nature? Anywhere quiet really. As you may have gathered from the Gorge comment - I’m willing to drive 45 minutes or so for a good quiet spot to slow down and reflect. What places have worked for you?

Multiple Paths to God?

2008-09-06T00:00:00-07:00

user@localhost$PATH=/usr/bin/buddha:
/usr/bin/islam:
/usr/bin/mormon:
/usr/bin/jesus
user@localhost$export PATH
user@localhost$which God
/usr/bin/jesus
user@localhost$

Chesterton on Decisions

2008-08-29T00:00:00-07:00

Every act of will is an act of self-limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation. In that sense every act is an act of self-sacrifice. When you choose anything, you reject everything else. – G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy

G.K. nailed it. I can't do everything there is to do under the sun. There just isn't enough time or me.

Midlife Crisis

2008-08-23T00:00:00-07:00

A simple bash program for when you turn 40 and want to buy a Miata.

#!/bin/bash
whois localhost

Chicago

2008-06-27T00:00:00-07:00

Random shot in Chicago. Pulled in around 7am.

Pit stop at the anchor grill for the Irish and Lexingtonians.

Watching Ireland play rugby live. Its a beautiful thing.

Northern Ireland Spring 2008

2008-04-16T00:00:00-07:00

A roundup of photos taken during the trip.

This is the fount the worship song is about. The fount of St Patricks Cathedral!

Kabab on chips with taco sauce. It is a beautiful thing to be alive.

Check out the road, for realzies.

Right outside St Mary's where we had the drop-in.

The family group at Maud's.

Poor bear ice cream. Aka honeycomb ice cream. I could, and should eat it for every meal.

Not pictured - every one on our trip raising our fists for take off and landing. CONWAYS!

The “Crotch Satchel”

The collection of bags grew very large.

Ethical Dilemma

2008-02-13T00:00:00-08:00

I had to laugh today as I was reminded of a video Justin, Pete and I brought into existence a couple years ago - Ethical Dilemma. This video in the style of SNL’s “Lazy Sunday” was for the promotion of Young Life camp in Northern Kentucky. The beat is made from samples of the Final Fantasy IX soundtrack.

Everybody sing along

Party at the lake!
party at the pool!
party all night cause there’s no school!
SUMMER CAMP! We are going.
SUMMER CAMP! You should too.

Rethinking Heaven

2008-02-11T00:00:00-08:00

TIME recently conducted an interview with N.T. Wright concerning our understanding of heaven. I found it to be a very good read, talking frankly of heaven involving both Jesus’ and our literal physical resurrection - not just transcendence to some spiritual state. From the interview, Wright says:

If people think “my physical body doesn’t matter very much,” then who cares what I do with it? And if people think that our world, our cosmos, doesn’t matter much, who cares what we do with that? Much of “traditional” Christianity gives the impression that God has these rather arbitrary rules about how you have to behave, and if you disobey them you go to hell, rather than to heaven. What the New Testament really says is God wants you to be a renewed human being helping him to renew his creation, and his resurrection was the opening bell. And when he returns to fulfil the plan, you won’t be going up there to him, he’ll be coming down here.

Proverbs

2008-01-29T00:00:00-08:00

Blue Letter Bible is a terrific Bible study tool that I was recently introduced to. I haven’t dug too deep into it yet, but I did find this list which confirms/debunks a few commonly used proverbs of our day in regards to their Biblical validity. I would very much be interested to see a much more exhaustive list.

On a complete tangent thought - I can seldom mention proverbs without thinking of this video from the hilarious video blog Jake and Amir.

Both of these guys crack me up. I should start checking their RSS feed more often.

Regularly Expressing Humor

2008-01-11T00:00:00-08:00

I was researching regular expressions for work and came across this gem. Programmers can provide some of the most clever humor.

$italiano =~ s/butter/olive oil/    # a healthy substitution

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-01-10T00:00:00-08:00

This is the view from the 25th floor as I make bucks on my birthday. Lexington needs some sun soon.

Relevant

2007-12-24T00:00:00-08:00

In 1 Samuel 8 the people of Israel ask to have a king rule over them. God does not impose a king on them, they ask for a king. Their reason for wanting a king described in verses 4 and 19-20 is to be like all the other nations of the world. God tells Samuel that by asking for a king the people are rejecting God Himself as king. God also says that Samuel should give them what they ask for.

Before a king is appointed several warnings are given about what exactly it will be like to be ruled by a king. This list includes the king receiving the people’s best possessions for his personal use and also a tenth of most (if not all) of their important resources. The final warning is that the people of Israel will eventually wish they had never asked for a king.

All that being said, Saul is soon-after appointed as king.

I’ve been curious about Israel’s reason for wanting a king - To be like all the other nations. To put this in other words: they wanted to be exactly like the world around them.

Have Christians committed this same error today? What kingdom are we trying to look like? What “kings” have we asked (and been granted) to have rule over us?

MySQL on Suffering

2007-10-03T00:00:00-07:00

SELECT COUNT(ALL)
    AS joy
    FROM life
    WHERE trials > 0;

It’s So Much Easier in Unix

2007-07-24T00:00:00-07:00

ln -s Jesus my_entire_life

Coding Missionally

2007-07-23T00:00:00-07:00

s/hunger/full bellies/g
s/thirst/fresh water/g
s/orphans/loving families/g
s/"religion"/Jesus/g

If only it were that easy. If you don’t understand this, don’t worry, it only means you’re not nerdy enough.

My Old Kentucky Home

2007-04-29T00:00:00-07:00

After miles upon miles of driving west/east/north/south across these United States I have arrived back home in Lexington, Kentucky. The last week was spent in Houston visiting with my sister and her husband. My time in Houston was book-ended with drives lasting seventeen and eighteen hours. The latter had my sister with me, but still no stereo which I count as a blessing. Hanging out with my sister is awesome because we usually only get to hang out with our voices through a telephone.

I have been undeservingly blessed with a job at Perot Systems here in Lexington. It was really awesome how this job came about. I don’t recall ever applying for it. The day I returned from Northern Ireland I had an email sitting in my inbox expressing their interest in my resume. I followed up with them, did the interviews, and just shy of three weeks later I have accepted an offer to start my employment with them a week from today. This entire job search since graduating in December was a really awesome thing. I was beginning to get frustrated after having no success for the first four months of interviews and searching. I wondered why I hadn’t accepted a very generous offer I had received from a company in Florida prior to graduation. In the weeks leading up to our team’s trip to Northern Ireland I resolved not to think about the job hunt at all until I returned. Then the day we got back this job just fell into my lap, and the offer was nearly identical to that of the one in Florida, plus I don’t have to move. Amazing.

Another big part of my life is that tonight some friends and I viewed the movie film for theaters titled “Hot Fuzz”. I haven’t been so satisfied with a movie in a really, reallly (notice the extra ‘L’) long time. It was brilliant. Anytime a movie’s hero rides in on a white horse to wage war in the name of truth and righteousness, like Jesus in Revelation 19, you know you have a good movie. Also, the references to Point Break and Bad Boys II were fantastic. I can’t say enough good things about this film.

Go see it. (This country and the film Hot Fuzz)

One More Day In Colorado

2007-04-20T00:00:00-07:00

Go to durangojoes.com and you will be at the website of the coffee shop I am at right now. Last evening was spent once again in a Wal-Mart parking lot, this time in Durango, Colorado. Upon waking from my slumber I saw an “open” sign on a distant building, so I ventured over to find a full fledged coffee shop. I am now drinking a double vanilla latte in honor of Bradley Bramer. I signed onto teh internets and was greeted joyfully by Travis Whalen. It is amazing how a couple hours before I stumbled upon Durango last night I was in the middle of no where in the mountains, disconnected from everything. And now this morning I sit in a coffee shop on teh internets connected to everything from back home, even friends halfway around the globe. It reiterates to me how massive the world is, but how small it is at the same time.

A big thought I had yesterday while going through the back roads of Colorado was questioning what my foundation is. What is the solid ground I build my life upon? My big aim in my driving was getting back to civilization, to a Wal-Mart and a Qdoba. Thankfully I didn’t break down or anything, but in those 7 hours on the road my mind played out scenarios of “what if…” What if had broken down? Would I be able to trust God even in the middle of nowhere with no security net of fast food for my stomach and faucets for water? It really makes me appreciate urban life in a whole new way. The closest I’ve ever come to wondering if my physical needs of food and water were going to be met was imagining a scenario of my car breaking down, and even that would be on a road which I could follow until I found the next town.

For those of us at Southland we believe it to be true that “life happens best in community”. Naturally wanting to be near other people is another big reason I wanted to get back to civilization. Although the mountains, rivers, and lakes are beautiful, they will never have a pulse. They point to the glory of God, but they will never sit down with me and share a cup of coffee. A rock will never say “I love you”. The closest they come is that their beauty shows us how magnificent our creator is, and is one of His ways of saying “I love you”. When He created us He said that it is not good for man to be alone, and that truth holds today. I could be really cheesy right here and throw in the Ecclesiastes verse that is always used at weddings about two being better than one, but you get the idea. Even all the accommodations I was talking about before are driven by multitudes of people working together, doing their part. That thought kick-starts a whole slue of thoughts about the church being one body of many parts, but I won’t get into that today.

The truth in all this is that God is still God in both urban centers and the wilderness. Wilderness is not better than civilization, and civilization is not better than wilderness. He says He will provide, and no matter where we are He will provide whatever we need. I imagine His provisions would probably be more appreciated out there… but I’m learning to appreciate every meal, every relationship, every experience with more gratitude to Him, even if He chooses to provide them through what is commonly taken for granted as the typical American life.

I’m going to the Grand Canyon now.

Mountains are Way Sweet

2007-04-18T00:00:00-07:00

Today I remained completely in the state of Colorado. I thought the mountains were a glorious creation from afar, but driving through them on twisty roads at high speeds made my appreciation grow at least three thousand times. I covered only two hundred miles today over the course of seven hours. It was by far the cheapest day so far, with only fifteen dollars spent on gasoline.

I am writing this from Frontier Ranch, a Young Life camp where my friend Bryan Dorsey is interning for a year. He and his roommates were gracious enough to allow me into their log cabin and share a delicious feast of a dinner with me. Dudes are dudes anywhere you go, no doubt about it. We also played some frisbee golf which was a fun chance to catch up with all that has been going on in Dorsey’s life for the past half of a year that I haven’t seen him.

That about wraps up today. I had a lot of thoughts while driving, but they are mostly undeveloped and not worth mentioning at this point. My finger is healing up really well.

I think it’s neat that two weeks ago I was looking at mountains in Newcastle, Northern Ireland and today I’m looking at them in Colorado, USA. The world is so big yet so small at the same time.

Colorado

2007-04-17T00:00:00-07:00

I’ll try to do this thing chronologically and talk about the events since last night. As soon as I got into the Wal-Mart parking lot I was ready to get some much needed rest. Wanting a clean mouth before sleep, I reached into my backpack to grab my toothbrush. Unfortunately instead of my toothbrush my middle finger found the sharp edge of my razor. My finger lost a good chunk of itself, and blood started pouring out uncontrollably. I grabbed the one napkin I had lying around, applied tons (literally 2000+ pounds) of pressure, and ran into the Wal-Mart bathroom. I cleaned my wound out with antibacterial soap, but it would not stop bleeding. As I kept going over to the paper towel dispenser blood kept dripping on the tile floor (which was freshly mopped by the way). I bought plenty of gauze and medical tape, and dressed my war wound like a champ.

After that whole ordeal I finally went to sleep in the back of the GTI. I got a solid 5 hours of sleep and began driving away from Topeka, Kansas at 6AM exactly. I stopped in a town that was actually called “Plainville” for breakfast. For some reason Psalm 36 had been on my mind all day yesterday. I didn’t know what Psalm 36 said at all, so I figured it would be a good idea to read it over breakfast.

Again, there were no real hang ups during my travels. I almost ran out of gas at the end of my trip. I was on E-470 North which goes around Denver to Boulder, Colorado and, to use a cliche, I was running on empty. I rolled into a gas station and put 12.4 gallons of gas in my 12 gallon take. After that crisis was averted I pulled into a Starbucks. Through a series of calls and more driving I was able to meet up with a great American, Scott Nickel. He told me tons of encouraging stories about what is going on at his church, Flatirons Community Church, and then invited me into his home, which is where I write this blog now.

The landscape here is amazing. The sky looks so never-endingly giant. The mountains are massive and beautiful. Also, there were tons of birds singing together. I took a walk and then watched the sunset over the mountains while rereading Psalm 36. Check out how awesomely timely this scripture is:

Psalm 36:5-6
Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep
O LORD, You preserve man and beast.

Incredible prompting.

I was also thinking today about when Jesus said if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can tell a mountain to move and it will. I didn’t ask Jesus to move any of the rockies, but I did have an awesome moment. There were clouds completely in the way of the sun, and I said “I wish those clouds would move so I could see the sunset”. I walked back to my car to grab my binoculars and when I turned back around the cloud was slowly “dissolving” upward. I don’t know how to really describe the way it was moving, but it opened up the sky for an astonishing view of the sun and mountains. It was amazing.

There were so many awesome things today, but the last thing I’ll mention is that I got a hold of Bryan Dorsey and get to go visit him at Frontier Ranch tomorrow! To say the least: I am really freakin’ super excited!

2 days down, 13 to unfold!

Vision Quest: First Impressions

2007-04-16T00:00:00-07:00

Northern Ireland was fantastic, but I’ll write about that later. Today I decided to get in my car and embark on a good ol’ fashioned Native American “vision quest”. It’s not really a vision quest, but that sounds so much cooler than anything else I could call my driving across the country. I started at my friend’s apartment in Independence, KY this morning at 7:30AM. It is now 12PM and I am 20 miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri. It is really 1PM, but I changed time zones in the process. I think I will make it to Kansas City today, and onto Denver, Colorado tomorrow.

So far it is going really well. I pulled through Louisville right around 9AM, so I hit morning traffic and got slowed down for about 30 minutes. Other than that, it’s been about 75MPH the entire way. Indiana and Illinois are both extremely flat, but I enjoyed the scenery. The wide open fields brought to mind Hebrews 4:13 which talks about all things being laid bare before God. Nothing is out of his sight or control. Visibility is really good today, and that strikes up even more reverence for the fact that He is sovereign over everything I can see.

I’m almost done with my greek salad here at the Panera. Time to get back on the road. Until the next time I find free Wi-Fi…

Kansas

2007-04-16T00:00:00-07:00

I made it all the way to Topeka, Kansas today. I am mooching internet from the Holiday Inn Express and am about to go sleep in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I drove around 730 miles today, leaving a little less than 500 to arrive somewhere in Denver tomorrow.

Not too much to report. Watching the sunset in Kansas was very beautiful. Kansas farmers were burning their fields, so the roads had trails of fire next to them. It looked like the tire echoes when the Deloreon switches time periods in Back to the Future.

I drove by the waterfront of Saint Louis and by the giant arch. It’s pretty much just a giant arch. Very cool nonetheless. I took a power nap at a rest stop shortly after Saint Louis, and then headed for Kansas City.

Kansas City is one giant construction zone. I actually drove around in the city for a while trying to find something or someone cool. All I could find were orange cones and boarded off buildings. It still seemed like a cool city.

A giant rock flew off a semi truck and cracked my windshield. I don’t think it’s too bad. Today was Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas. And tomorrow is Colorado! I’m going to go sleep now.

Dromaeosaurs

2007-02-22T00:00:00-08:00

The following is a paper I wrote for GLY 130 – “Dinosaurs and Disasters” in April 2005 while attending UK. I found it on my hard drive and thought it was worth sharing. I actually turned this in.

Before 1993, it is probably safe to assume that the most widely popular dinosaur was the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Often referred to by the slang name “T-rex,” the Tyrannosaurus Rex had a monopoly of popularity in the category of prehistoric creatures. Appearing on everything from T-shirts to lunch boxes, the T-Rex had it all. This would all change in a heartbeat with the release of a little film called “Jurassic Park”. Released on September 2nd, 1993, Jurassic Park introduced not only America but also the entire world to the Velociraptor. No one could predict the popularity the raptor would receive after her co-starring role in the box office hit. The instant success even landed the raptor a role as the mascot for the newly formed professional basketball team the Toronto Raptors. With the popularity of the raptor riding on the coat tails of the 705 million dollars grossed by her introducing film, it may be safe to say that the raptor is here to stay.

History does not hold a good track record for the raptor being here to stay. Such as the fate of many other dinosaurs, the raptor became extinct millions of years ago. Though she lies buried without a hint of life left in her fossilized bones, it is still possible to understand this interesting creature, and why she stole our hearts in what may be argued is director Steven Spielberg’s most daring work to date. The raptor’s proper name is Dromaeosauridae. Dromaeosauridae comprises a small group of Theropods (Beast Feet). Beast feet enjoy the luxury of a bi-pedal stance and a mouth. That is not all there is to the Dromaeosaur; she is also characterized by a modified forelimb, which enabled beast feet to have a flexible seizing function. Beast feet also had a balance stabilizing tail, which may or may not have been used for a prehistoric version of arm-wrestling, or dare say, tail-wrestling. Though there is no conclusive scientific evidence that such rituals ever took place, scholars hold that such a ritual would only be done justice by being described as “righteously kick-ass”.

Probably the most kick-ass characteristic of the Dromaeosuar is the “killing claw”. This name is not meant to over-exaggerate; the claw was actually used for the murder of prey. The claw is believed to have been kept off the ground during movement then whipped out quickly when the muscles of the toe were contracted. Such a strong movement would disembowel prey very quickly, making a delicious meal for the meat-eating Dromaeosaur. Beast feet would need such a quick killing mechanism, because she was not the fastest dinosaur due to her fairly large thighbone. Speed wasn’t a huge issue since Beast feet hunted in packs, being intelligent enough to take down dinosaurs as big as Sauropods. This is a very impressive task, considering that Dromaeosaur was only 10 meters long at its peak size. The smallest of the Dromaeosaurs were merely the size of a wolf. That is quite a range!

Another notable range is the locations where Dromaeosaurs lived. Fossils have been found in North America, South America, and Asia. Even more interesting is that a recent fossil find in China revealed possible feathers on a Dromaeosaur. This adds more weight to the theory that Dromaeosaur is related to birds. Dromaeosaur had already been termed the sister group of the clade Aves which is a clade that includes all birds. It is possible that the ancestry of birds lies within Dromaeosaur, but so far there is no proof suggesting such a connection.

Though there is no definite connection in science, there is definitely a connection between the uniqueness of this dinosaur and pop-culture’s love for her. Whether a scholar, a movie buff, or just a child, all can agree on one thing, that Dromaeosauridae are really great. Love for beast feet may very well be the unifying object that leads to a world peace that is necessary before apocalyptic events described in Holy books.

All You Need Is Love

2007-02-20T00:00:00-08:00

As a young dude trying to figure out what to do with my life, I took it upon myself at the suggestion of Trevor to study the the New Testament letters from the Apostle Paul to the young dude Timothy. I only got through a couple paragraphs before having to stop and process some things.

1 Timothy 1:3-7
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

At the center of this instruction from Paul is verse 5 which gives a clear and concise statement of why we do what we do (or should be doing). The goal is love. Having a mathematical mind, I like to visualize this verse’s instruction on living a life of love in the following way.

Pure heart + Good conscience + Sincere faith = Love

It is interesting to note that in the 4 verses surrounding verse 5 Paul is sharing this truth with Timothy in response to a bunch of hot shot young punks that want to talk from the pulpit about hot button issues that, at a glance, have the appearance of spirituality and maturity. These ambitious guys venture off into useless discussion on topics that they do not understand, are profitable for nobody, and do not further the administration of God which is by faith. Paul’s instruction to Timothy is a great reminder of not only what we are to focus on, but also of what we are to not waste our time on.

Back to the focus; a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. If these are three necessary components of living a life that observes the two greatest commands of loving God and loving others (Matt 22:36-40, Luke 10:25-28), how can there be assurance that they are taking place. Can there be love in our lives if we only have one or two of the three? Take for example having a pure heart and a good conscience, but not having a sincere faith. In my mathematical mind, the following occurs:

Pure heart + Good conscience - Sincere faith = Morality

Being morally upright sounds like a win, but that is not the picture that is painted in scripture. The most moral guys we see in the Gospels are the scribes and pharisees. These guys were so obedient to the Law that they even observed a tithe out of their spice rack (Matt 23:23). Although Jesus acknowledges their obedience to the Law, He also points out their problem of not faithfully accepting Him as the Son of God which keeps them from knowing God the Father (John 8:39-47, 13:20). Since they do not know God the Father, it is impossible for them to truly love, because love is from God, and whoever loves knows God (1 John 4:7-8). So it is true that love cannot exist without a sincere faith.

So what about neglecting the other two? Not having a good conscience may look something like this:

Pure heart + Sincere faith - Good conscience = Flesh

This scenario may best be exemplified in Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Romans 7:15-20
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

I’ll start off by saying that every believer will probably be in this mindset at least a couple of times during their life. So if ever someone is in this place, it is important to not “throw in the towel”, because even Christ’s first disciples who were counted worthy of being in charge of continuing Jesus’ ministry fought this same battle. Knowing God’s definition of purity, and trusting in Jesus, when people find themselves in this situation they are either not doing what they should be doing, or doing something they should not be doing. This disobedience to what Jesus commands is what brings about a bad conscience. It is a hard truth, but it is truth that a bad conscience resulting from disobedience to Jesus’ commands is an indicator that love for him is not present (John 15:10-12, 1 John 5:2). As already noted above, not loving Jesus means love is not in us, thus making the pursuit of love a failure.

I want to be careful here to not promote legalism, as if being in a right relationship with God were a result of a good conscience. By asserting that love requires a good conscience I do not mean that people pursuing love never sin. The Bible is clear that if anyone claims to be without sin, he is a liar, and makes God out to be a liar. It also says that if we confess our sin He is faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9-10). What I am saying is that a bad conscience that is the result of continually doing things we shouldn’t or not doing the things we should is something that definitely needs to be addressed and dealt with, because neglecting it will destroy faith, leaving a person in the first scenario (1 Timothy 1:19). With our failures at living justly, we must always be aware of and responsive to the godly grief that leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:9-11).

Lastly, what happens if a pure heart isn’t pursued?

Good conscience + Sincere faith - Pure heart = Ignorance

I say ignorance here, because I think the only way there could be a pure heart lacking in the life of a person who has a good conscience and a sincere faith in Jesus is ignorance to Jesus’ instructions for life. This person would have a good conscience about situations in their life, because they would be living by their standard of purity rather than God’s. In Matthew 5:8 Jesus says “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”, implying that those without a pure heart will not see God. Once again, knowing God is the requirement for love, so love cannot be present where a pure heart is not present. Interesting to me is Proverbs 20:9 which asks the rhetorical question “who can say ‘I have made my heart pure, I am clean from my sin’?”

A common theme is emerging in studying these three requirements of love, and that is that Jesus is necessary for all of them. Jesus is the object of our sincere faith which in turn purifies our hearts and cleans our consciences by taking away sin through his substitutionary death (Romans 3:21-26, Colossians 2:13-15). He connects us back to the Father, which enables us to live a life that loves Him and loves other people. When you break it down, the only requirement is to deny self, take up the cross daily, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Self denial is the pivot of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, John 15:12-14). If we will honestly and actively love God and love other people, everything else will fall into place (Matthew 6:33).

Goetta Omelets, Gold Bond, and Circles of Influence

2006-12-17T00:00:00-08:00

Like many nights in Northern Kentucky, I spent this past Friday night/Saturday morning at one of my favorite places on earth, The Anchor Grill. If you are unfamiliar, this 24 hour establishment is amazing because as the motto on their menu says, “[They] may doze, but [they] never close,” and also they have (the best tasting) goetta omelets. It is always a fresh, renewing experience to sit in The Anchor late into the AM hours, drink pitchers of black coffee, and talk with fellow young men about both the practical and spiritual aspects of life. That is not to mean that spirituality is unpractical, in fact I believe the exact opposite (though it depends on what spirit you're dealing with, but that is a whole other topic). I am simply saying that our conversation covers a broad range of topics and is always encouraging.

This particular Friday at The Anchor I had the privilege of meeting and talking with 5 young men who are currently seniors at my alma mater Dixie Heights High School. I overheard them talking about Jesus, so naturally I went over to their table and grabbed a seat next to the one guy I knew because I wanted to be a part of their conversation. I humbly introduced myself as Daniel Ott, and felt like royalty as they welcomed me because my “OTT” bottle of Gold Bond is still being passed down in Dixie Heights' Young Life today. We exchanged stories about camp experiences, discussed the nature of fluids coming out of our bodies, then began talking about their current book of study, Revelation. I don't know if there were any theological breakthroughs for any of us in that 30 or so minutes, but the experience in itself has got my mind exploring.

First off, how amazing is it that a thin piece of green plastic containing foot powder can bring together young men who have never before spoken a word to each other. It was as if there was instant trust between all of us on the basis that we had held this container and attended programs through Young Life. If not trust, there was at least some level of influence established on the basis of a common appreciation for a simple manufactured object.

Building off that influence, I begin to wonder how large our areas of influence really are. When I talk about how large they are, I mean both quantitatively and qualitatively. How much impact did sharing life with those guys for a half hour have. Was it temporary? Was it eternal? Will it influence only them, or will my actions and attitudes toward them be reflected to the people they will come in contact with? I like to hope that at the very least these young guys were encouraged as they continue to figure out more about how big both their God and the calling He has put on their lives is; that they might be able to see in me a passion and love for God and His Word, and that they in response would find themselves craving these things.

The next thing I think about is how not only do I (hopefully) encourage them, but how these young men encourage me. I am encouraged simply by their openness to talking about the real stuff of life. It encourages me that through them I get to see God continuing the mighty work he was doing at Dixie. As we discussed the seemingly contradiction of God being Jealous (Exodus 34:14), God being love (1 John 4:8), and love not being jealous (1 Corinthians 13:4), Will said of me something along the lines of “I told you he is really smart”. These kind words of his encourage me to keep digging in the Word and sharing what Jesus reveals to me more than he will probably ever realize.

Not the last thought I have, but the last I will comment on is the thought of “what if?” What if this influence wasn't used for the building up and encouraging of the young men. What if Daniel Ott had been a legend (and I use the word legend extremely loosely) that took root, but then grew up only to be choked to death by the thorns of this life (see Matthew 13). What effects would that testimony have on these guys following in a path very similar to mine. Since Jesus has given me areas of influence, am I responsible for the outcomes of what I do with them even in ignorance (Matthew 18:6, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2)? There was a season when I would not speak so openly and gladly about what I did with the influence I was given. I was more concerned about the idea of doing what satisfied me, not God's plan of me loving the people He wants me to love as His ambassador. I'm sure there are still areas of my life where there are shortcomings in using all of my influence for His glory. What if God wasn't faithful to (continually) pull me out of those false ways of thinking? There are so many what ifs, but I will stop there and sum up what I am learning from this simple experience.

First, God is reaffirming to me how faithful He is. John 10:25-30 reminds me that none of this is coincidence. God is holding all my situations, my whole life, me in the palm of His hands. That is where I am, and no one can take what is His out of His hands. The knowledge that I am not simply off in the distance trying to follow God, but that I belong to God is inexpressibly comforting. He acts, and who can reverse it?

Secondly, God is showing me how to practically live out some verses that have been steeping in my mind for a few months now. I will end with the verses themselves because they are quickly becoming a crucial part of my life. My prayer is that these following words of God can be as encouraging to you in your personal relationships as they have been to me and mine.

Colossians 2:2
My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ
Philippians 1:22-26
If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.

The Living Dead

2006-10-15T00:00:00-07:00

Zombies are a taboo subject in America today. Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when zombies are mentioned are movies portraying zombies in a negative light, survival-horror videogames, or mutilated flesh. Zombies generally produce only the most basic of motor functions, all of which are used haphazardly toward the single end goal of eating the flesh of living. A zombie’s body returns to life in a state of decay, it’s mind in a state of stupor. Where did this idea of the resurrected being stupid, thoughtless, decaying cannibals come from?

The one man in history who has been widely accepted as risen from the dead is Jesus Christ. If you’re not familiar, Jesus is the man who impacted human history so profoundly that our calendar is divided into the two periods before and after his birth. Roughly 2,100,000,000 people on earth today worship him as God with the core credential meriting this worship being his death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. It is so crucial that even Protestants and Catholics agree on the importance of Jesus’ resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Paul says that if Christians believe in Christ’s resurrection, and Christ is not in fact resurrected from the dead, they are to be the most pitied of all men (author’s paraphrase). The resurrection of the dead is a big deal.nnWhen reading the Bible, Jesus’ resurrected body is never like that of the stereotypical zombie. Unlike a decaying zombie’s raised body, Christ’s body was raised imperishable as the first fruits of the resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:20, 42). It is important to consider that Christ was not raised only as a spirit, but had a physical body. Christ’s physical appearance resembled that of before his crucifixion, so much so that his disciples recognized that it was he, and worshipped him as God (Matt 28:9, 17). So shocking was seeing the body of the Lord risen, that the disciples in Luke 24:36 were frightened to see him. To display the true nature of the resurrection, Jesus goes on in Luke 24:37-43 to show them the wounds in his physical body, and then to meet the body’s needs he requests and eats some food.

Comparing the resurrection of zombies and Christ may be silly, but it does stir up some interesting thoughts. One of the promises to a Christ follower is that we will be raised on the last day and will receive resurrection bodies like Jesus’(Romans 6:5, Philippians 3:21, 1 John 3:2). This hope would be no hope at all if we are to be raised decayed, stupid, and inclined towards cannibalism. There is not much to worry about, of the 500+ individuals that encountered Jesus post-resurrection and pre-ascension there is not one report of him devouring human flesh.

One could possibly make a biblical case for the devouring of human flesh with Revelation 3:16 where Jesus says “because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth”, or in John 6:25-58 when Jesus says “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man(Jesus) and drink his blood, you have no life in you”. However, Jesus isn’t talking about the literal consumption of his flesh, but rather trusting in His work on the cross for the forgiveness of sin; trusting so much that it is as much a necessity to our daily life as food is to the physical body (Deuteronomy 8:3).

So back to my original question. Why is it that the resurrected are stereotyped as being stupid, thoughtless, decaying cannibals when the only man to actually resurrect modeled nothing of the sort? The comparison between zombies and Jesus is not perfect. Zombies are fictional and raised only to be “the living dead”. On the contrary, Christ has been raised to eternal life, and so will those who eat his flesh.