Finding Purpose in Work and Play
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. This year at our church I am encouraging some of the teens to share poetry, songs, or other creative works during the lighting of the candles.
This is a poem my youngest daughter wrote that corresponds to the theme of the first week: hope.
Continue reading “The Anticipation”You’ve probably seen the Tweets or read the articles. They describe the latest victim of over-zealous fans harrassing a celebrity.
It’s unfortunate when this happens. Many people are passionate about many things and sometimes that passion leads to anger and resentment.
Social media, then, becomes an outlet for that anger. People may go from generally sharing their frustration to tagging an individual in their posts.
From there it may escalate to commenting directly on a celebrity’s posts. The posts become more and more spiteful as their attacks are ignored.
Finally, the person being harrasssed can take it no longer and leaves social media. The price of celebrity has finally taken its toll.
Social media gives fans and foes access to the people of our affection and anger like never before. It’s a tool that has enabled people to say and do unspeakable things.
It’s also given celebrities a platform to share vile comments with thousands of people instantly.
We all have a desire to feel wanted. We all want to share how we feel. Unfortunately, the 5-inch screens we use to communicate are impersonal.
Things we type on our smartphone would never be shared in “polite conversation”.
At the same time, our culture has to re-learn how to disagree. It is possible to disagree about something and still be polite. But that doesn’t get a reaction, does it?
Only the most extreme statments garner attention these days. Headlines and status updates have to grab viewers by the throat and drag them in.
The only possible solutions for some people are to either become just as gross and toxic as others or abandon social media completely.
People feel like the social media platforms are responsible for enabling this kind of behavior. While they may share a sliver of responsibility most of it lies with the individuals using it.
The toxicity that pervades social media is affecting the lives of our friends and family. What are we going to do about it?
Quit?
Fight back?
Stick our heads in the sand?
Maybe we could become more purposeful in our use of social media.
Social media is a powerful tool. It is misused by many.
How do you use it?
Hank Hanegraaff’s recent conversion to Orthodoxy (specifically, Greek Orthodox) has been written about on many popular Christian blogs.
Much of what has been written by Evangelicals is frighteningly Pharisaical.
Ultimately, it’s just a distraction from the goal of all Christians: to glorify God and point people to Christ. Instead, people are pointing to doctrine, tradition, and misconceptions.
This year I’m taking the VEDA challenge: Vlog Every Day in April.
Besides actually releasing a vlog daily, I have two other goals:
I’ve had a YouTube channel since April 2006. That’s 11 years this month. I’m an old-timer that’s had a few videos get over 100K views but it took years for them get to those numbers.
So this challenge is just a way for me to try something new and see if I can hit on some topic or topics to consistently vlog about.
Below is the playlist for VEDA 2017. Enjoy!
It’s amazing what happens when you point a camera at something and start recording.
From Beauty of Science:
We dropped m&m’s chocolate in water and discovered something really wonderful!
This 4K time-lapse video was shot with a Sony A7R M2 camera to capture the beautiful details of m&m’s dissolving.
![m&m’s Dissolving in Water in 4K [Video]](https://www.strugglingforpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/m-m-s-in-water.jpg)