The Joy of Parenting

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my son has reached that milestone of one year of life. Today he and I were hanging out in my recliner. He was just sitting in my lap while we listened to some music and I read. Eventually he became bored with just sitting in my lap (babies have such short attention spans these days). So he started climbing my torso like it he was a champion rock climber, even though my torso only passes for a champion bean bag or pillowy wall of softitude.

When he’s climbing, he likes to pull my hair or grab my glasses. And I like to tickle his ribs until he’s a a ball of squirm and laughter. It is one of the purest forms of joy I have ever experienced. It lasts about five minutes or until he cannot breathe, whichever comes first. I let him catch his breath and then we begin again.

On occasions like this, it is hard to beat being a parent. I don’t deny that it’s tough and can be one of the most challenging roles I will ever have. But what a privilege it is to be an “A-DAH” (daddy).

If you’re a parent, what stories do you have about the joy of being a parent?

What is your Top Idea?

Paul Graham, a programmer and writer, has written an article about your “top idea.” He discusses the the concept of what he calls “ambient thinking” or those thoughts you have when you’re in the shower. Graham makes an interesting point that the idea that has dominance over your mind dictates the other types of thoughts you can have.

Graham makes an observations about thoughts to avoid that are particularly poignant from a Christian perspective.

I’ve found there are two types of thoughts especially worth avoiding—thoughts like the Nile Perch in the way they push out more interesting ideas. One I’ve already mentioned: thoughts about money. Getting money is almost by definition an attention sink. The other is disputes. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the same velcro-like shape as genuinely interesting ideas, but without the substance. So avoid disputes if you want to get real work done.

It is worth noting that thoughts of money and disputes are the types of thoughts that Graham says detract from correct thinking. For the Christian, the areas of provision and forgiveness are where our thoughts and fears can dictate how we respond to the world. The article is a worthwhile read.

The Top Idea in Your Mind by Paul Graham, via Lifehacker.

OmniFocus for iPad submitted to the App Store

Yesterday, The Omni Group announced that Omnifocus for iPad had been submitted to the App Store for review. This is exciting news for any GTD nerds (like myself) out there. For those of you who are not obsessed with personal productivity, Getting Things Done (GTD) is a book by David Allen that describes a helpful methodology for personal productivity. It has since become its own internet subculture.

Omnifocus is a task manager for OS X and the iPhone that incorporates the GTD methodology for task and project management (inboxes, contexts, projects, next actions, etc.) in a clean, concise user interface. And since OS X app syncs with the iPhone app, I always have my task/project lists with me.

Hopefully in the next few days, the iPad app will be released. This will allow me to use the iPad more exclusively, and not have to carry around my laptop. Right now, I can use my iPad for about 80% of my needs (email, writing blog posts, twitter). But the iPad is limited in two key areas of my life: task management and IT related stuff. Now, I am aware that there are other task-management solutions out there, but I’ve already committed to Omnifocus on the Mac and iPhone and so have been holding out for the iPad client. Once I have it, I will be one more step closer to leaving my MacBook at home.

If you want more information about GTD, you can buy the book or check out this helpful article. And if you have a helpful application that you use, please mention it in the comments section.

Featured Album: Rain City Hymnal

In a recent post I mentioned the fact that there are efforts being made by various groups to take portions of traditional Christian hymnody and contextualize the musical arrangements in a way that is appealing to particular cultural settings (i.e. without the pipe organ). One such group is Re:Sound, the music branch of the Resurgence. One of the projects that Re:Sound has put together is the Rain City Hymnal.

This album is a collection of twelve hymns that have been arranged and performed by five different bands. The liner notes give an explanation of the goal of contextualizing hymns:

If you look at the history of hymns you see that the vast majority of them have a separate author for text and tune. Over time the best texts have risen to the surface and been put to many different tunes that made sense to specific people at particular times and places. We at Mars Hill Church in Seattle are simply another link in this chain seeking work out a very old message, the gospel of Jesus, for a specific people, place and time.

I am very excited about albums like this. I am glad to listen to Christ-centered, God-exalting music that seeks to be biblically sound and musically creative. This also presents a great opportunity for the teenagers that I lead to be exposed to Christian doctrine in a format that they welcome.

Rain City Hymnal can be purchased and downloaded from Amazon.com for $8.99. It’s worth every penny.

Recovering the Hymns

Recently, I took a team of teenagers on a mission trip to Baltimore, MD. During this week, I got to spend time with the teens from my church and get to know them. Two of them really enjoyed talking about music so I shared some of my own musical interests. I shared one song in particular, “Doxology” performed by The Northern Conspiracy, a Seattle worship band for Mars Hill Church. Both of the teens loved the song, though they had never heard it before.

Now the song “Doxology” is definitely not new. The lyrics are likely to be sung in hundreds of churches on any given Sunday.

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Two things are striking about my conversation with these teens. The first is that they had never heard the song. This was not my first encounter with teenagers who have never been exposed to some more traditional worship music. While it is not surprising, it is an unfortunate trend.

The second thing is that despite the fact that the two teens did not know the song, they were very interested in it because of the modern arrangement. The creativity of the music enhanced and did not step in the way of the words.

It is a tragedy that these teens have missed out on the deep, theologically rich hymns of previous generations. But I am encouraged that they are open to hymns. And the exciting thing is that there are many groups like those at Mars Hill in Seattle or Louisville, Kentucky’s Sojourn Music that have contextualized the great hymns of the past with more current musical styles. Hopefully, this will become another avenue by which to share biblical truth in a way that ignites a holy affection in the hearts of an upcoming generation.

Note: The song “Doxology” which was performed by The Northern Conspiracy can be bought and downloaded here.