Why a better Question? I liked the one I already had.

I think we all ask ourselves questions everyday, every moment. I would suggest that the questions that we ask ourselves lead to the kind of life we will live every day.
Whenever life seems empty and shallow I start to become aware of the questions I'm asking myself. When life seems empty, I usually realize that I have been asking the question, "What do I need to do to feel better?" The good thing about this question is that the answer is mostly instinctual and unconscious. No effort needed at all to answer this. I feel bored, I should watch a movie. I feel sad, I should do something to make me happy. I feel hungry, I should eat. I feel angry, I should take it out on the people closest to me. The downside of this question is that you will just be reacting to everything, and your life will never really become about something deeper. The answer to this question is really uncreative and leaves an empty feeling when the answer has been excecuted.
What do I need to feel better, isn't the kind of life I want to live. It's totally self centered. When I realize that, that is the question I'm asking, I insert the "Why" Question. "Why do I feel empty? Why do I feel sad? Why do I feel happy? Why do I feel like I should feel better?" Why why why why? I just let out a barrage of why questions. Why? because why gets at my motivations, Why isn't knee jerk reaction, Why isn't unconscious and instinctual. Why, jerks you into reality with a whiplash. You will start to see how empty your motivations for living have been, the selfishness that permeates most of your relationships, and the jealousy you have for others who live with the why question and tackle it everyday intentionally. Why gets us to a deeper mode of living.
At first it's hard to ask why. You'll find yourself not even know what to ask why about. But the more you do it, the better you will get at uncovering the motivations you've had in the past few days and figure out a new set of motivations to live from. When I first started asking "why" it would take me 10 minutes of laborious thinking to get to a decision about something. Now it just takes a minute or two. This is a great trade off, I find myself doing more and more things that matter to me, and less things that just "get me through the day." I feel more alive. More like the person I'm supposed to be.

Another Reason to love this food

Link

My leg is on You tube!!!

Hey my leg is on you tube!!!
Found this video of Peter Rollins speaking at a conference that I went to this summer.
My leg is the one on the lower left hand corner of the screen. I totally didn't even know whoever was sitting next to me was recording (illegal people). So yeah check out my leg and whatever Pete has to say is pretty cool to.

blogs roundup

Hey just thought I would share the top three blogs that I have a habit of checking at least 2 times daily.

1st off is Donald millers blog. I just found this one this past November. It's hard to believe how many years have gone by since I read Blue Like Jazz. That book was one of the few big reasons I'm still involved in the Christian Journey today. It opened me up to an awareness that God is in so many places that I was never expecting Him to be in. Reading his blog is creating that same kind of awareness all over again, but in a new way.

2nd one is (I'm almost scared to say it) Brian McLaren's blog. This blog is dangerous. especially if (like me) you come from a more conservative background. He says things sometimes that will make you have a knee jerk reaction of anger. But I think it's important to read somebody who you know you aren't always going to agree with. In fact I've discovered over the years of reading his stuff, that we have way more in common than I originally thought. He's asking the questions that religion doesn't want to have asked and, go figure, they are the questions that the spiritually seeking tend to ask all the time, and the questions I tend to want to ask but never seem to.

3rd one is a fun one if you are a nerd (i am one, if there was a pledge to the nerd flag that you could say before basketball games and stuff I would proudly say it.) Jeff Vogel is an independent RPG developer. He makes some of the coolest old school feeling Mac and PC games. He has Huge game demos on his Spiderweb software website. And believe it or not, there is quite a bit of crossover between RPG developing and youth ministry. unfortunately he doesn't post very often. But I still check it a couple times a day.

enjoy

What are your top 3 Blogs?