cameron avenue

30

I’ve heard it said that “thirty is the new twenty”.

I certainly hope so.

John Piper:

We need to live in this hope again and again: fearsome enemies can become precious friends. Adversaries can become advocates. Critics can become comrades. For most of us its pretty easy to believe that an intimate disciple can become a deadly betrayer, like Judas. Thats the way the world is. But we need to remember that a deadly persecutor can also become a great ally and partner in the cause of Christ. Thats the way God is. Thats the kind of power he has.

Look on your adversaries with the eyes of faith—that someday, by the power of God they could experience a turn-around as amazing and unexpected as Sauls.

Psalm 13

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
    lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Don’t Suffer the Little Children

Tony Woodlief for The Wall Street Journal Online:

The constrained vision indicates that world harmony and universal satisfaction are mirages. People are innately selfish, and they’ll always desire more goodies. This means that tradeoffs between competing wants are inevitable. My wife and I therefore forbid our children to use the word “fair.” Parents still in the thrall of the unconstrained worldview are prone to manipulation by their kids, who like little human-rights lawyers insist on fairness as an imperative. And don’t get me started on the damage that an exaggerated sense of fairness and entitlement has done to public schools. In our house things are much simpler: That last piece of cake had to be divided somehow, and in this imperfect world your brother got the extra frosting. Deal with it.

My mom forwarded this to me and I think it’s excellent. As someone who spent many years being one of those kids that played the “that’s not fair” card with ample success throughout my childhood and as the father of one son that plays it nearly as often, albeit with a bit less success, I can completely relate.

Five Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Minutes

About a year ago, I announced to the the world that I was leaving Toolhouse after 5 years to begin a new chapter here at AudienceCentral / PIER Systems. Looking back through my email archives, I think I actually accepted the position on May 10th, but I didn’t actually start until June 12th, so it hasn’t been quite a year.

What a difference a year makes.

As I look back over the reasons I originally had (and gave others) for leaving Toolhouse, I’m struck by the degree to which I got exactly what I had asked for. When I made the jump, I said I was doing it because the new job would provide me new opportunities to learn and grow. It has certainly done that, and to a greater degree than I had anticipated — just not quite in the ways I had imagined ;).

It has definitely been an adventure so far.