9 people on a motorcycle but one is in a "bucket seat"

How much you wanna bet that bike wasn’t made in China?

 

 

Of course I’ve seen 1 person weigh as much as all 9… that’s CRAZY!

"You're not cool unless...."

So I’m potty-training my 19 month old daughter. Oh my. There are so many learnings and applications and struggles and wonderful parallels to everything I have ever and never been exposed to with regards to influencing the behavior of another. At minimum, there’s no missing the Human Action Model – unfortunately we’re not a shoe-in for the discomfort leg. I thought for sure “discomfort” would be the only natural option for her when some “human action” was running down her leg. Not the case, so I’ll have to focus on some other behavior modification techniques, but that’s not what led me to post:

 

You know how it’s cliché to imagine people in their underwear when you’re nervous (because it lowers their status). We’ll if you think about it. Every person used to pee his or her pants. That’s not so novel of a thought, but I realized it has quite the lesson when you see it in the context of experimental discovery.

 

Let’s tie it to the line in our mental model “Discovery Process and Experimentation Versus Grand Plans” which states that “…a company without some ventures that fail is a company that isn’t taking enough risks.” Most everyone will agree that failures are necessary for success, but how necessary? Simply an unavoidable side effect? Something we put up with to get to the end goal? Perhaps, but I would like to posit that it is process-critical.

 

While potty-training my daughter, I cannot anticipate every time that she would or should use the toilet instead of her clothes, for if I did, she wouldn’t learn anything but to depend on me for that task. I have to LET her make a mess, teach her why that happened, try (but fail) to explain how she can keep that from happening again, and then wait for her to make another mess. Until it clicks. Which we’re hoping will be soon.

 

You cannot become house broken until you start wearing pants and stop wearing a diaper. What we’re calling failure here is a critical step in the process. If we celebrate those failures as a path to success, we will learn and grow and profit. (literally… diapers are expensive!)

how much did that surgery cost?!

Ever felt over-charged for a simple procedure?

Check out this website that gives you a good idea of what any given procedure should cost at the doctor or hospital or dentist…

 

http://healthcarebluebook.com/

 

Cheers,

David

Somebody needs a girlfriend

 

Whomever typed in “Dear Google, I Love You.” So many times that it is on this list, probably needs a girlfriend.

LAYZING LATES!

Say this out loud and ask yourself this question:

Which does it mean!?

 

Increasing rent on the Chinese?

-or-

Enforcing tardiness with a beam of light?

 

oops

I'm thinking that I have too many files open or something. This is my start menu. :)

compared to what?

If I had been the observer of my actions and body language a minute ago, I would have drawn the following conclusion:

 

“Stay away, I think it stinks in there.”

 

I had my face turned inside out in disgust. The kind of face people make when they are forced to stay put amidst a roiling silent-but-deadly cloud of flatulence. You know, when you try to cover your nose with whatever part of your face is willing to accept the task. (of course you usually end up just looking weird and flaring your nostrils to inadvertently invite in more of the exact odor particulate that you are trying to avoid.

 

But my disgust wasn’t smell. I was pouring myself a cup of the free coffee on our floor.  This stuff is so nasty, but it does the trick. Ironically the company that could most succinctly describe this transaction is BUCKLEY’S cough syrup. Their technique is: Tastes horrible? Check. Works? Check. I wonder if this is how smokers feel about cigarettes.

 

The irony comes from the fact that the only time this coffee tasted decent is when I had just tasted Buckley’s. I bet Calvin’s Dad could have told me to expect that.

Cartoons aren't ALWAYS cool...

I just hit my head so hard that I was silent. Not that silence is incredibly difficult for me, but when you hurt yourself and scream, it’s one thing… when you smack your forehead on what I call a “triple corner” and just crouch silently in pain, it’s a different level. I don’t think I’m bleeding,

 

BUT:

 

I saw those stars like in a cartoon. That was kinda cool.

TGIF!!!!!

It’s 9:52 and I just now realized my shirt was inside out. I’m such a doofus. Thank goodness hardly anybody is in the office today.

that would just be mean:

I hope nobody ever calls me a Sinister McGinnis Turd. I would be sooo hurt.

A thought on the Human Action Model

Human action requires: Discomfort with the current state, A vision of a better state, and Belief that actions you take can take you (closer) to the better state.

 

Some of our mills manage with fear. AKA Command and Control, thinking about this during a class in which I SHOULD have been focusing on vane pass frequency of a Gould’s pump, I wrote down this thought:

 

When you drive action with a disproportionate emphasis on discomfort and the vision is thus blurry, the understanding of “why” is likely to be missing. This will also leave out an understanding of what drives real value.

 

If a person is too focused on keeping HIS job, he’s probably not focused on the customer.

 

The human action model works. Good action or bad action, it works.

Classic example of Tax Code

A colleague asked me last night if I had a copy of this, and so I just had to find it:

How Taxes Work . . .

This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men — the poorest — would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1, the sixth would pay $3, the seventh $7, the eighth $12, the ninth $18, and the tenth man — the richest — would pay $59.That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement — until one day, the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut).
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20."
So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six — the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"
The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, Then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12, leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man who pointed to the tenth. "But he got $7!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too . . . It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!".
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man, "why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!""
Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important.

They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill! Imagine that!

The trifecta in fashion

Stone Washed Jeans... Check.

Homemade Tie Died Socks... Check.

Penny Loafers... Check.

Totally Inspiring... Check.

Fill in the _____!

Imagine a world where we just abbreviate whatever we want, words like "Floating"...

Imagine seeing a kid's toy that says:

'Millions of F'ing Bubbles!!"

Would you be appalled? Would you laugh out loud? What would you do?

Incentives in the polls

Elections seem to force the candidates to manage perceptions of cause & effect at the expense of real value. For the re-elected or hard-line-to-party personnel, it is not about giving the people what they want, it is about convincing the people that what they got or are going to get is what they should want. Those who don’t find the argument convincing are written off as not knowing what’s best for themselves.

Your social judgment is affecting me

So the coffee in our building sucks.

 

Wait, let me start over, I want to be a glass-is-half-full kind of guy. ( I usually am, but my mug is ALL full right now which means I haven’t imbibed any of it yet.)

 

So the coffee in our building is free.

Yay!

Unfortunately, the purchasers of the coffee are keen to the notion that the purpose of this coffee is to keep the employees awake and alert, not for our enjoyment. However, I saw a co-worker making a fresh batch and put her mug right under the stream of stained water in order to avoid the wait. I quickly formed a hypothesis that it might be the carafe that is making the coffee taste bad. Hey, I’ll do anything to justify whatever action I’ve already decided to take. So I clamor off to grab my mug and come to be 2^nd in line for this idea. I rescue her from the need to put the pot under the basket by demanding that I go next and that I’ll take care of it. As I forcibly clink her mug to the side to minimize if not eliminate spillage, I get the sense that I’m being watched. I turn around to find the French guy on the floor staring at me with bewildered eyes of judgment. You’d think I just stuck the IV needle right into my arm to take this wonderful drug we call caffeine as efficiently as possible. He requested assurance that I wouldn’t steal the whole brew and I obliged. However, I didn’t realize that I felt so judged until I looked at just how little coffee I allowed myself to obtain. Apparently the cost of being watched weighed against the proposition of coffee not tainted by the pot tipped the scales at a measly 3 ounces or so.

 

So part of me hopes the coffee stinks. Not so that others don’t enjoy it; I just don’t want to regret leaving with too little liquid-degrumpifier™

Big spider in the dark

I guess this is why I am the designated walker of dogs once the sun goes down.

Sens-o-sketch

I drew this with my eyes closed.

I can't even tell you how proud I am.

We Have A Winner!!

In the decision arena of yay or nay, fear and value creation are set to duke it out:

 

We have true value creation weighing in well north of $1,500 and fear weighing in on a different scale all together. Emotion. And what’s the fear of? of change? of the unknown? of not being in control of everything you see? It doesn’t matter the stage is set.

 

But, what’s this?!? Before the bell even rings to start the fight, the judges have made a decision….

 

 

Perception Wins!

Where did my money go?

If Money (Dollars) is supposed to be a signal or symbol that identifies the value of thing in order to literally compare apples to oranges, (the specific number is actually arbitrary; it is all relative) AND a large force, such as a nationwide wage rate increase, or price fixing on any significant portion of the economy simply shifts said arbitrary number causing inflation. But, because the people holding currency still only have what they were already holding, their buying power simply decreased. In other words if you had 10,000 dollars and that bought 6 months worth of groceries and utilities, now that same 10,000 dollars can only buy you 4 months of groceries and utilities. Even though the supply and demand is unchanged. Nobody “took” your dollars, they just robbed from the value of each dollar. SO who now has your value?

A) The Government (it’s not a tax though)
B) Only the people that benefit from the price fix or raised wage rates
C) Nobody, we all lose

That doesn’t count, O’Rourke.

It's absolutely amazing that the left wing hippie tree-hugger types have a keen understanding that we shouldn't mess with certain parts of nature. I wouldn't have to try very hard to convince a self proclaimed environmentalist that if we take away the need for a wild animal to hunt for food, said wild animal is going to become accustomed to the new tradition, and now have trouble surviving in the wild. A lion properly raised in captivity is forced to hunt (or at minimum chase) his food if the handlers want the lion to have any sense of having to work for what they eat. A lion raised in captivity this way might survive in the wild again, but the odds aren't what they would have been. We still meddled. Survival would be despite our intervention, not because of it.

I guess it's unfair to be surprised that left wingers grasp this concept, what's more amazing is that they want to apply the opposite to humans. They push for a nanny-state and think that a family of 6 living on welfare is just being repressed or something and with the right cocktail-of-handouts they will start contributing to society. Riiight. Who would give up something for nothing? We're basically raising the bottom half of our nation (on the scale of fiscal contribution) to expect handouts and depend upon the top half for their survival. We, as a country, are raising them in captivity and expecting that they'll have enough desire to break out and live in the wild. So much for the discomfort leg of the human action model, unless of course ANY action is acceptable, then we're set because we've Robin-hooded ourselves in order to remove the discomfort of poverty. I'm happy to help the less fortunate, but I'd like it to be on my terms. It's not biblical, but a common phrase: "God helps those who help themselves" Totally not true, but the idea applies. This dude helps those who help themselves.

I must be sthpethul

My "watch" was the first to wish me happy birthday. How cool is that?

Relevant translation

Let's try this again... Note to self: s-e-n-d stands for send.

The paragraph below is the beginnig of today's daily devotion:

Jesus says, 'Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and he has been cast into the sea.' (Mark 9:42)

Here is the relevant translation in the context of jerkwads keeping or leading child-like persons away from Christ:
"OH NO YOU DI' N'T!!"

Relevent

Taxes suck

“Golly, just imagine the unemployment rate if we started throwing out government employees who can’t, in ten seconds or less, explain exactly what the heck it is they do for a living.”

 

 

It was tough to choose my favorite line from this particular post, but that’s why it’s a link. Thanks Tony.

It turns out... I'm that guy.

I'm walking up to the airplane at ~8:45 for a nearly on-time departure and try to look at myself from an outsider point of view.

I hear that my flight is boarding and I am both on the phone and on my computer trying to do a couple last minute tasks before having to shut down. I get off the phone and stride up to the gate without my ticket. There are a couple of men that seem to take pride in being the last to board, so when I stepped aside after realizing that my boarding pass was still in my pocket, they tried to wait for me, insisting that the person before them in line should stay before them in line. The gate agent reached for their tickets in order to scoot them along. So here I stand with my ticket pinched between the only pinchable fingers that aren’t claimed by other belongings, proactive assistance from the gate agent in removing my old tags (I stood there a bit awkwardly as if it were his duty in the first place and I wanted to take full advantage of my ticket fare) I thanked him kindly and strode downstairs to the outside boarding path of our little jet. as I’m heading to the valet cart to drop off my pink-tag-bag, this is when the self survey kicks in: I'm dragging my rolling bag with my right hand, wearing my backpack, and in my left hand I have my Grande Americano with non-fat milk clutched importantly, my blackberry being held easily with friction between my palm and the classic Starbucks cup, and between my index and middle finger I have expertly pinched my boarding pass so that I can verify I’m in seat 3C and prove it to the flight attendant if necessary.

This seems like a mess waiting to happen, but the presented demeanor was actually multitasking-effortlessness; which is when it hit me: I'm the guy that they make fun of in the movies. I'm the corporate yuppie.

Awesome.

Is DragonCon in town?

I should be ashamed of myself for so quickly jumping to the conclusion that these 2 individuals were headed to some kind of Nerd convention, but it was too fast to be conscious.
I was walking up to the fare gates down in the bowels of the Peachtree center station when w member of each gender sharing the same distaste for general hygiene passed excitedly in the opposite direction. My first thought, while identifying these individuals as uber-nerds as if it were a severe birth defect, was that there is likely a very tangible cause for their excitement. I know that Trogdor was in the vicinity a few years ago, so my mind jumped to a convention. Had they been dressed as vampires or Slayers, I would have been certain.

I can't decide which Larry the Cable Guy quote to use: "Lord I apologize" or "I 'on't care who ye are, tha's funny right thare"

Re: You can run but you can't hide

LlkkskekJjkjj

----- Original Message -----
From: McGinnis, David R.
To: 'michellendavid.blog@blogger.com' <michellendavid.blog@blogger.com>
Sent: Wed Apr 07 07:28:37 2010
Subject: You can run but you can't hide

It's a bad quality picture because I was afraid that the doors would close while I was composing a no-glare angle.

So I took the picture because there's a student that has brought up, multiple times, the Big Brother technique. His quote would be "hey, we noticed" He has this great idea of what to look for and how to align our metrics with the things that the people running the lines ought to care about... But when it comes to implementation suggestions, instead of grabbing a few tools out of the Vision toolbox in order to better communicate our goals (and why), and including this new metric from the Knowledge Process toolbox for something a little more tangible-like that the personnel can keep in their daily focus, he wants to look at the metric as a manager and then run down to the line and say "HEY! We noticed." I think it's just a phase, so I'm not worried. I'll try to help him out of it.

I'm thinkin' this attempt by MARTA to indimidate ne'er-do-wells with a 2D rentacop is hilarious and much like gun control would probably only work on the people we aren't exacty worried about in the first place.

You can run but you can't hide

It's a bad quality picture because I was afraid that the doors would close while I was composing a no-glare angle.

So I took the picture because there's a student that has brought up, multiple times, the Big Brother technique. His quote would be "hey, we noticed" He has this great idea of what to look for and how to align our metrics with the things that the people running the lines ought to care about... But when it comes to implementation suggestions, instead of grabbing a few tools out of the Vision toolbox in order to better communicate our goals (and why), and including this new metric from the Knowledge Process toolbox for something a little more tangible-like that the personnel can keep in their daily focus, he wants to look at the metric as a manager and then run down to the line and say "HEY! We noticed." I think it's just a phase, so I'm not worried. I'll try to help him out of it.

I'm thinkin' this attempt by MARTA to indimidate ne'er-do-wells with a 2D rentacop is hilarious and much like gun control would probably only work on the people we aren't exacty worried about in the first place.

Even the concrete jungle is lovely on a day like today

Some people are just buttholes

This guy wouldn't move his bag for a kid to sit next to his Mom on the train. I went over and said something so the picture is no longer valid, but C'MON, REALLY?

The right to waste

Apparently using water to look cool was not allowed for a couple years. I guess they were afraid it would evaporate and drift away. But I have an appreciation for the psychological value of gigantic landmarks in downtown Atlanta not just sitting there acting BROKEN just because we're afraid to use water during a drought.

I'm glad they finally turned some of them back on. It actually seems more refreshing, welcoming, and for that matter promotes walking around, which I should like to highly encourage as I seem to be responsible for the payment of many of these folk's health care.

GrammEr

I will indeed be submitting this to failblog.org

Bionic Duck

I took this electronics class a couple of weeks ago, but our charter at the end of one day was to make a DC motor from scratch (well, from Kit anyway) and we were split into groups so that no 1 person had to wind the stator AND the rotor AND wire the brushings… Anyhow, the attached picture is unfortunately not from my group, but from the Savannah Posse. Apparently this is an example of what nerds with alcohol choose to accomplish. (It does NOT float in water, btw)

 

Character actor?

The guy next to me on MARTA right now is making me wish I were an aspiring actor readying myself for an audition to play the part of a loco-genius. I'd just learn him. Much like the Jaime Foxx character and hid Cello, this guy is socially like Foster and his sports stats, but not sure of the strength in such a short parallel path.

Someone should tell this dude that talking in a high pitched baby voice to himself does not preclude us from eavesdropping. He's a pensive fellow, now rubbing his chin and staring off into top-left space as if he learned to think by looking at the cover of GQ. Except different. Very different. I'd hate to have missed this.

I actually disagree with my Pastor on something...

In Bryant’s Right From the Heart the other day, he had this line in there:

 

“A recent Gallup poll found 72% of Americans believe that Jesus was the Son of God, yet 80% felt each individual should arrive at his or her own beliefs independent of any church. Now those two stats show a huge disconnect between belief and practice, between professing faith and living it. It's called hypocrisy and it's the number one reason people outside the church say they have no interest in Christianity.”

 

I don’t agree with that conclusion. I think that they are not mutually exclusive. I Believe that Jesus [IS] the Son of God, and I also believe that each individual should arrive at his own belief independent of any church. That does not mean that any conclusion reached by an individual is correct, or a way to God. However, I understand a relationship with Christ to be at a personal level. I did not arrive at my belief dependent upon  a church. The church is not integral to my belief system. I think it is integral to the way I grow as a Christian, and corporate worship is very important to me… But the church is not part of my beliefs, but a blessing and method to connect with God on a personal basis and a means for “iron sharpening iron”.

I think the church is, however,  a much too integral part of Catholicism. It seems to be between man and God, and not first & foremost a platform for worship.  My take is that if an individual does not arrive at the personal understanding of Christ as his/her Savior independent of any church, then those beliefs fail when that church fails to live up to the name of Christ. No church can save us from our sins, no church can vouch for us in God’s holy presence. Only the Son of God.

 

I’m probably just defending the syntax because of the way I would have answered the question as it was phrased, but my thoughts are still my thoughts.

 

Fraud or lack of imagination

OK, so this lady was in a wheelchair rushing to get to an elevator, so she starts running while sitting down... Not even using the wheel ring that most paraplegics would employ... That's right. Running, as in both legs flailing against the ground in an attempt to propel the wheelchair tennant forward, though the central nervous system is obviously not yet trained, because as an outside observer I can tell that the resistance usually experienced by gravity putting a dependable force on all of her, and her legs used to supporting all of her are not getting the feedback loop. Perhaps it's as simple as the Marta station floor being too dusty for good traction... Either way, the efforts of her feet were nearly in vain, the propulsion was slight at best.

As she's riding down the hydraulic powered elevator (a.k.a. slow), I'm walking down the stairs right next to it shaking my head. Not in that "I'm so ashamed to be a human" mode that sometimes creeps up on me while I'm waiting for the train, but in that "I MUST have seen that wrong, because I can't explain it" mode.

Naturally, I'm tempted to wait at the bottom of the elevator and watch further, or ask if this is a psychology experiment, or perhaps do something to mess with her... Stand in her way, take something from her and run away with the hopes tha she'll give chase (on foot), or maybe find some way to accidentally sit in her lap to get some kind of raw reaction... I decide on the first option as it has the least amount of side effects.

She pulls up to a trashcan and starts opening mail... But the way she's tearing into a box is like a well wrapped present from a secret admirer - looking forward to more than just having something, but to peering into the mind of someone else, someone unnamed, trying to decipher who the secret giver is, because presents can tell a lot about the giver. At this point I realize I may be witnessing a federal offense. It is entirely possible that this "lady" has decided the thrill of taking a package from someone's doorstep is much more enticing than, well, not taking it.

As the train going south pulls up, (not mine) she aims for it in the same effortful zero-plegic way and faces a wall. Also odd. All I can think is: "wonder if anybody else saw that"

Marta strikes again.

Got Any Bengay?

I'll only move from my seat if the guy looks JUST like that... Does that make me racist?

Emotion in nothing?

Is there emotion that can be conveyed from a simple photograph in an airport?

If so, I propose that this one is loneliness or abandonment... Seems deserted, or I was just out of place when I took this with my cell phone.

Coincidence?

So I'm stepping on to Marta up at the train station and I had just missed the other train so the one sitting there at the top of the stairs will only be populated with those who are either still asleep from the trip North and ready-or-not going South in a few, or those riders that missed the 7:10 train with an even more frustrating proximity than I. The seats right next to the doors face sideways and a couple on each car are single (nobody's overhang can squash your leg). Just my luck the ONLY taken seat on the rail car I choose has somebody sitting in one of those single-sideriders that I love so much. In keeping with my strict loyalties I take the matching seat on the train, which as you can imagine is immediately across from this dude. As I'm "sizing him up" in my people-watching way, I notice he has a short moment of frustration. Perhaps it's like the awkward moment in an elevator when somebody else's rules of etiquette apparently differ from yours because they are invading you personal space for no reason... "Look at all that room over ther, where there's no ME!" I don't know what caused the look, but I was more interested in the sheer look of this guy. He had on a business outfit, black socks, size huge shoes, a Tony Almeida goatee and an NFL hat. I don't know which team, because the hat wasn't acing forward, only the approval seal on the back was showing. What really caught my attention was the fact that when I compared how far his knee was off the ground compared to mine, I started feeling tiny and thinking of 5'2" John stewart next to 6'5" O'Reilly. Needless to say I remembered what the guy looked like... I pull out the book I'm reading: Wild At Heart by John Eldridge, and I'm not 2 pages in when I read this paragraph:

"Witness the twin messages sported by young college-age men especially: a goatee, which says, "I'm kind of dangerous," and a baseball hat turned backward, which says, "But really I'm a little boy; don't require anything of me."

Needless to say, I was amused. 'Course this guy was well past college age, but chuckling I looked up from the pages in order to verify my memory... Yup. Good ol' William Wallace is sending mixed messages. I'm sure I'm biased in order to make myself seem like more of a man, but I thinking the internal monologue was leaning way toward "I'm a little boy"

Take up your own Cross, Mine is fine where it lies.

Yet another AHA moment.

 

Right or wrong, I’ve decided that given the choice between going through the motions of reading a daily devotion first thing in the morning, or at a time in which I can actually take it to heart, and commit my brain to what’s going on, I’d like the substance to not be lost on me simply because I couldn’t get my brain in gear.  The aha moment is not that, it’s about the phrase where Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily.

 

So we are called to take up our cross daily and follow Him. … “whoever loses his life for [Jesus] will save it.” I have understood for a while now that this means we are to be willing to die for the sake of Christ. When given the choice between living or dying, we don’t forsake God. The meaning of the phrase take up your cross and follow is referencing the tradition of a condemned man carrying his own cross to his execution site. That makes as much sense as Teller handing bank robber the gun he needs to rob the bank.

 

So I’ve always convinced myself that if I were in the same position as that girl at Columbine who was asked if she believed in Christ, I would say yes. That’s daring, that’s insane, that’s… passive. AHA. That passive readiness is not taking up the cross daily, that’s more like knowing where my cross is and only revealing its location if directly inquired.  I am not called to only be ready when asked. I’m called to tell. (here lies the old belief in the “silent witness”) I’m called to take the very implements that may be used to harm me into THE spiritual war zone every day. The same way that Jesus carried his cross and put his arms down willingly, I am to leave my comfort zone and share the gospel.  

 

May God help me, because that sure doesn’t come naturally.