home phone

Cell phone companies own your soul. It’s true. You are unable to win when it comes to cell phone companies; they are always going to come out on top.

Let us break it down. You pay monthly for a service that requires you to have a working product in order to utilize the service you are paying for. The same company sells you the product you need at a cheaper price if you sign a two year contract with them. You are unable to do anything but sit back and hope your product does not break in those two years. If your product breaks, you can either pay four times more for the same product or you can purchase insurance in which you add to your monthly expense. If you are allowed to pay monthly for insurance then you still have a deductible of around fifty dollars. Now, I say if you are allowed to pay for insurance because even if you want insurance, it is not offered on all products. Consumers can either opt for the cheap or free product that works with the service or pay extra for a nicer product; again taking the chance that said product will break and not be insured. What other service providers do we know of that contractually holds us by the proverbial balls?

In my mind, it would seem as though a service provider should provide us with a working product. For example, I made the adult decision to sign a three year deal with a satellite company. Our deal states that I will pay them X amount of money each month and they will provide me with access to America’s top 200 channels. If service is interrupted or the equipment becomes damaged, our contract states that they will take care of me immediately preventing me from missing my favorite shows.

Now one might say, “well, satellite companies do not provide you with a television set” and to that I say, If your TV set were to break one can shop around and find the best deal at any number of stores that sell TV’s. One can even purchase a decent TV for cheaper than a cell phone proving that cell phone companies own our souls.

I don’t like to complain without providing some course of action. Well, actually I do complain without providing ideas but this time I think we can all ban together and take down cell phone companies one at a time. How you ask? Well, we could bomb them but to take a less invasive and less illegal approach we could all refuse to use cell phones. Let’s get back to the home phone idea. There you have one centralized phone, most of the time in the kitchen for some reason, where the entire family can share. This puts everyone back at home talking and not on America’s highways and byways. Ear cancer would be all but eliminated if everyone stopped holding cellular devise up to their heads. I see no down side to this plan!

Who is with me?

Bored people are boring

I read a quote the other day that said, “If you are bored then you are boring.” My life is far from boring. In fact, it has been a long time since I have even thought I could potentially become bored, even when I have time to sit around and do nothing I find something to do.

This past weekend my wife went home to Kentucky to visit her family. Though I always miss my wife and son dearly, I use my time away from them to bond with friends. Saturday night me and some good friends drove down to east Nashville to a place called The Family Wash. None of us had been before so it was a little disconcerting when we had to drive through some ruff neighborhoods. However, when we arrived we all said collectively, “this place is going to be great!” That night the five of us took in the music, culture, and great comfort which made The Family Wash the hippest place I have been in some time. I will be going back for sure. But as I sat there listening to two guy’s bang out chords on old beat up guitars I realized God has blessed me with an interesting life.

My wifeless weekend has come and gone. Hanging out with friends helps pass the time but I was not cut out to be a bachelor. Needless to say I am anxiously awaiting the return of my wife and son.

Italian Suits

“Tourist traps and public-relations stunts draw attention to themselves, but signs point to something beyond themselves- a destination or a path or something worth noticing.” Brian McLaren

John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No man comes to the father except through me.

Most churches are a lot like a tourist trap, you stop by because something big is going on or they are giving something away or they have a unique looking facility. You swing by and get drawn in by their flashy preacher, slick media, or hype based worship. After a while you realize that there is nothing more to the church than flash and you find yourself spiritually dead. Margie and I went to a church just like the one I described. Their preacher used a lot of props and interested preaching gimmicks to keep you interested. The worship was slick; they had renewed musicians playing the hottest worship tunes available. Seriously, the fiddle player traveled the world with the Dixie Chicks, Charlie Daniels, and so on. You left the timed church service feeling like you had just been to a movie or play. You felt very entertained. But is that what church is supposed to be? Better yet, is that what our faith has been lowered to? Has God become nothing more than another form of weekend entertainment?

Christianity has become the most marketed religion, in my opinion. Sure Karma had a good run but Christianity brings in the big bucks and in an effort to capture some of the money churches have stepped it up. We have made church sharper, slicker, and more user-friendly. The problem is Jesus, whom we have loosely based most of our churches after, wasn’t slick, sharp, or efficient. In fact, when He preformed miracles He would tell people to keep quiet about them. One would think that a miracle would be the greatest marketing method ever. If I healed one blind guy I could travel the globe in my person jet holding mass rallies everywhere. People would be chanting my name as I walked out on stage in my gaudy Italian suit. But Jesus didn’t use His miracle working power for his own good. He healed people as a sign, a sign that would make others wonder. Signs point to something bigger than themselves.

God has really been pushing me to make sure my life is pointing people to Jesus.