October 2007

Now, you may not be as big of a dork as I am, or subscribe to Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day (yeah, so!?), but you too can improve your vocabulary — and help the world at the same time!

Enjoy!

Free Rice
www.freerice.com

For a long time I thought that I should probably be a follower, a disciple. I wanted to move to Maryland and become a full-fledged functioning McLarenite, or take a sabbatical in Grand Rapids and stalk Rob Bell for awhile, hopefully stopping somewhere shy of a restraining order (which is always very embarrassing). Or I could go to Portland and hang out with Donald Miller, maybe drive around in an old beater VW van, or something. Even visit Philly and get my fill of something a little more Simple, with the help of a certain Mr. Claiborne.

But I’m starting to wonder if it’s time for me to strike out on my own. To blaze my own trail, paddle my own canoe, kill my own food, or something else that makes me sound much more manly than I really am.

I feel like I’ve been on a road of re-self-discovery for the past five years or so, if that makes any sense. Somewhere around the convergence of me “departing” the Chapel Director role at CCU and my strange semester on Martha’s Vineyard I was dismantled, taken apart. I lost my self-assurance, my ability to believe that I was born for more.

Not many people would have noticed, I don’t think, because I’m a pretty good faker. But I’ve known. My thoughts have been covered by a blanket of doubt, of instability, uncertainty. I’ve questioned everything, and now, perhaps, I am emerging on the other side, some kind of (extremely masculine) butterfly blooming from the cocoon.

I think it’s time for me to start acting like the leader that I want to be. It’s time for me to “go my own way,” as master theologians Fleetwood Mac once aptly recommended. It’s time for me to complain by contribution. To criticize with creation.

Because if we’re always following, we will never lead.

Love it! Good work, boys!

MAC@WORK PROFILE: INVISIBLE CHILDREN
http://www.apple.com/business/profiles/invisiblechildren/index.html

Anyone else see the irony in Britney saying, “Gimme More“?

That’s great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane…

Lenny Bruce is not afraid.

Bangkok Sinking
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/bangkok-sinking-under-rising-seas/20071020153809990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001

(Seriously, though, this is kinda creepy.)

One in five working families has a tough time affording basics like shelter and health care while earning too much to qualify for food stamps or Medicaid, according to a new report.

Study: 41 million in U.S. can’t afford basics
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Advice/StudySaysWorkingPoorCannotAffordBasics.aspx

I’m pretty sure my sister & bro-in-law are in this category, and I’ll bet you know someone, too. What is going on??

So, I posted a blog entitled “Die, Wal-Mart, Die” about a month ago, and today came across this article:

The End of the Wal-Mart Era
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/TheEndOfTheWalMartEra.aspx

Ah-men.

On my continuing search for an opinion to call my own concerning immigration, I just read an interview with Colin Powell in this month’s (October 2007) issue of GQ. The last question of the interview went like this:

GQ: How can we restore America’s image?

COLIN POWELL: We should remember what that image was, back after World War II. It was the image of a generous country that sought not to impose its will on other countries or even to impose its values. But it showed the way and it helped outher countries, and it opened its doors to people — visitors and refugees and immigrants.

America could not survive without immigration. Even the undocumented immigrants are contributing to our economy. That’s the country my parents came to. That’s the image we have to portray to the rest of the world: kind, generous, a nation of nations, touched by every nation, and we touch every nation in return. That’s what people still want to believe about us. They still want to come here.

We’ve lost a bit of the image, but we haven’t lost the reality yet. And we can fix the image by reflecting a welcoming attitude — and by not taking counsel of our fears and scaring ourselves to death that everybody coming in is going to blow up something. It ain’t the case.

Mission accomplished!

My very first book, entitled blur: finding jesus in a fuzzy world has finally been released to the world, like an endangered snowy tiger cub… pushed out of the nest… or something.

In reality, it’s nothing like that, but having finally birthed this book out of my computerwomb, I think I can almost relate to that fictional mother tiger-bird, at least on some proverbial, nonsensical level.

For now, my book will be available for FREE in eBook (PDF) format, easily (and enjoyably!) readable on all computers that were born after 1990 or so.

My giddy ridiculousness is reaching an all time high, so in the interest of sanity, head over to joshAllan.com and download your copy today!

Click HERE or the book cover above to get your blur!

Thanks so much for reading and supporting my artistry!

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P.S. If you or someone you know could help me get this book into good ol’ paper-and-ink form (there’s just something about a real book…), please email me!

P.P.S. If you’re on Facebook, please come join my blur group HERE!

There’s a candle on my desk that I light when the air gets stale in my office. I’ve had it for awhile, and I’ve used it fairly regularly (what can I say, I love the flicker!).

Today the wax is gone. My candle started strong, with a tall, crystal-orange flame reaching for the ceiling, but in about thirty seconds dwindled to a small bluish-red ball surrounding what’s left of the stumpy Glade wick. The glass ball container is clouded over with residue from past lights. It’s all used up, done.

Sometimes there’s nothing left to burn.

I realized this morning while on my short drive to the office that communication is actually a big part of how I feel alive.

Back in the day, even at the height of my singer/songwriter music performer career, I would have never called myself a prolific songwriter. And now, I write a LOT, and do a ton of graphic design, but I wouldn’t call myself a prolific writer or designer.

But today, it suddenly became clear to me that I am a rather prolific communicator. In some fashion, I am always producing some form of communication.

The reason for that, at least in part, is probably because when I feel/hear/think/realize something, in a strange sense it doesn’t become REAL for me until I’ve shared it. I may do that through a song, a piece of visual art/graphic design, a website, a book, or this blog, but until I’ve passed it along, I’m not actually sure it happened.

To a large degree, I seem to absorb reality by communicating it.

Strange, I know, but it probably has something to do with my StrengthsFinder Communication Theme… can anybody else relate?

My friend and coworker Kevin said today that he knows that we (meaning the “staff” of Journey, where I work) all want to help change lives.

But I’m not sure I do.

For me, to “change lives” means to develop, to bring about incremental growth, to help someone off drugs, or to stop drinking, or to be nicer to their wife, or to otherwise clean up their life. And while I recognize the obvious value and necessity of all of those things, for some reason his statement helped me realize that I want to be much more about maximizing the potential of humanity. I want to instigate ideas, to catayze thought and action, to be a leadership firestarter, igniting flames of passion in others so they can go out and use their lives to change the world.

Maybe it’s semantics, a small distinction. But for me, it was a light bulb.