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Year: 2010

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Oct82010

Information Overload

Kester Brewin has posted an interesting blog about ‘The Problem with Digital Culture [1]: Too Much, Too Fast’.  This is an issue I have been pondering over the last few weeks.  The internet has revolutionised the way in which we process information as it comes flying at us in faster ways with increasing clickability.  As I type this blog I have already included a link to another that links to some more in a never-ending cascade of information.

Imagine a conveyor-belt of various items coming towards you, some important, some not so. It’s going at a pace which allows you to take each object, think about it and then classify it, categorise it in your own taxonomy, and store it. It’s not the fastest process, but things do get put away tidily.

Now speed up the belt. Why? Because it means you get more stuff. LOTS more stuff. So much stuff is now coming at you that you just don’t have the time to think about it or categorise it. You just throw it over your shoulder into your store and hope it comes in useful one day when you’ve got more time and aren’t so anxious about missing something really important which might be coming down the line.

The increased availability of information and the free flow of information isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  The internet connects ideas together and provides the joined up thinking.  The TED talk I blogged earlier in the week shows the amazing possibilities of the free flow of information.  I know that I wouldn’t be as good a guitarist, photographer, theologian…. cook…. without these principles.

Like many train journeys, life seems to pass at increasing speed whilst we sit in the carriage trying to catch a glimpse of something we have passed.  It seems that we often give ourselves whiplash as we spin to look for the moments we have missed.  This also has an impact upon our creativity.  Jonny Baker blogged this video this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb0ssmoXG1I

The means to networking our creativity are pushing us to greater achievements than ever before as we are inspired by those people who live the other side of the world.  However, those networks create information onslaught which may actually be blocking our creativity by preventing our contemplation? 

On Sunday Dr Ruth led a meditation based on a CBT technique she uses at work.  We took five minutes to contemplate a raisin using all of our different senses.  I had no idea that raisins made noise!  I wonder what else I would notice if I took time out to contemplate it. 

And so I head out for lunch with Dr Ruth, perhaps a coffee and then a birthday bash this evening with friends.

Oct72010

Desmond Tutu on Forgiveness

Last year I had the privilege of meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu when he came to bless the foundation stone of the new monastery at The Community of the Resurrection.  I followed him around for the day taking photo’s of the occasion for both the community and college.  It is rare to meet a person who can captivate everyone’s attention for a whole day.  People hung on his every word as he explained how his relationship with God and his call to the priesthood led him to a position where he was able to push for restorative justice in South Africa.  That unshakable belief that God created us all equal and the faith to work towards a society that values all is truly inspirational.

Happy birthday Desmond.  Have a happy and fulfilling retirement from public life.

Sep222010

Why Would Jesus Do What He Would Do?

Some days I have moments of clarity.  Unfortunately they are few and far between.  Since I became a regular part of the congregations here in the outskirts of Leeds I have been trying to explain the complexity of Christian ethics.  We live in a world that is quite different to the ancient world.  The ethical dilemmas we face today are undoubtedly inconcievable to the gospel writers.  And what would Moses make of the internet?  What would he say about my sitting here and typing this?  The question in itself makes my mind boggle as I contemplate my own inability to make sense of the implications of immediate communication and instant gratification in a world where our friends become status updates.  Let alone contemplate something like the production of electricity by splitting atoms.

As Christians we are often led to believe that there are two options open to us.  Certainly, the common caricatures we are presented with are such.  One option is that the world is a cut and dried black and white place and that the bible will give us clear answers to all our questions.  ‘What would Jesus do?  Let’s have a look in the instruction manual’.  The other is to assert that much of our heritage is outdated and outmoded and must be jettisoned as we forge our own way.

And this is where I have found myself for the last year struggling to articulate that there is something much more radical at the heart of our scriptures.  As Steve Chalke said earlier in the year at Spring Harvest, neither of these positions take the scriptures seriously.  How does our story connect with God’s story?

And then I clicked on a link to Jonathan Brink’s Blog entitled “Why would Jesus do what he would do?”.  He has crystallised this into two very thought provoking paragraphs.

…story really matters.  At the heart of our action is a story that informs that action.  To take up our cross is an act.  But to know why we take up our cross is a story.  The opposite is true.  If we don’t know why we should take up the cross, we’re not likely to do so.The brilliance of this question is the understanding that story informs our actions at the subconscious level.  Our bodies learn a story about why and then agree to that story.  This contract creates the basis for action at the subconscious level so we don’t have to continually think about it all the time.  We can act from an informed position at a very fast pace.

It is through connecting our stories with God’s story that we can understand what His character is like.  When we understand the more fundamental aspects of God’s character and discover more of what he shared with us as he walk the earth, the more we will be able to act in that manner. 

Janathan’s thoughts are based upon a quotation from a book by Willard.  Check it out via Jonathan’s blog.

Jul212010

Redemption | Alternative Hymnal

Skin are one of our favourite bands and this is from their new album, breaking the silence. Appologies for the live version – skip the first 30 seconds.