I received an email today from someone with the following info:
William,Hey I was wondering what are the costs, and all that is involved in setting up a website. I’m looking for a site that we can post pics, newsletters, and videos. I also am interested in a blog. I’m not sure if we should do a blog somewhere else and feed it also to the website. I would like to have a site that if any body is interested in this ministry, they can find everything out right on there. Thanks bro.
Then that’s all there was. No email I could respond to or anything. I’d love to help you get up and rolling, and even share with you my pricing for this, but I don’t know where to send it. If this is you, call me at (740) 281-1351 and we can chat about it.
Change is hard. We all know it. We get tied into a persona, a name, an idea and we one day find that it’s not us anymore. A friend of mine is contemplating changing his domain name. His old domain is edgy and raises eyebrows. The new one is really just his name. For awhile it works to be edgy and new and that guy with the edgy domain, but he has grown beyond that “edgy” name. He is broader, deeper and more alive than the name itself allows for. As a Christian, there’s a place in scripture where it says we will be given new names in Heaven. Our true selves will be revealed to us. That for me is exciting. I am not tied into my identity as a person anymore, but I am tied into my identity in Christ. It’s a whole different way of thinking. If we count our own identities as loss, then we are free to be more ourselves than ever.
CS Lewis makes the statement (I think it’s in Mere Christianity and please pardon the bad paraphrase) that we don’t lose ourselves in Christ to become a bland shell of who we once were. The miracle of our faith is that when we are made more ourselves by the Creator.
My advice to my friend about his domain name was to be authentic. Be yourself and quit trying to fit the mold you created for yourself. You may lose readers, you may gain readers, but ultimately it comes down to you being yourself. If the old name doesn’t fit who you are anymore, then surprise your readers with a more authentic version of yourself.
I can’t resist sharing this. I’ve been watching this show for awhile now. If you have never heard of it, enjoy (and now you have).
My wife made an interesting observation today. I write like I am working on some kind of cumulative research project meticulously gathering data and facts ultimately working toward the encyclopedia entry for who I am as a person. She didn’t quite say it in so many words but that’s the way I heard it. I think I initially wanted to argue otherwise and defend it. I have come to the conclusion that she was correct in her assessment. The whole conversation revolved around my frustration that so many other people that I have helped blog and coached somewhere along the way were succeeding where I was failing. I can write day in and out, but actually saying something that is particular to me has become a chore. I felt over the last year or two that I’ve been having some kind of extended out of body experience objectively qualifying everything I write with the filter of bland factual analysis.
I am trying a different tack. Yes, the sharp pointy things that you used to put on your teacher’s chair but now you would probably get expelled from school for doing because in our culture you were trying to kill the teacher with tetanus instead of a mere tack. Tact. Yeah that word too.
A simple journal. This is a deliberate effort to be more real. Be more myself. Something like that. I think the other voice was me too, but it was a critical, self-absorbed version of myself trying to shoot myself with the same gun I was trying to aim. Maybe it’s all a bad analogy… maybe I should just shut up my critical self and write more?
image credit to one of the most unflattering images I’ve ever taken of myself
I thought this was an amazing short film about hope and struggle. Thanks David for sharing it with me. I would also encourage you to check out the story of Nick Vujicic on his website, Life Without Limbs
Okay, I neglected to write on here for the last week. So I am going to just list what’s been going on lately… and cause I don’t update my twitter enough to just post recent tweets (besides that’s really annoying sometimes).
- Rogin turns out to really be great with Aidan. He loves him (as you can see in the pic above). Apparently, it’s pretty much mutual.
- I did a bit of artwork for the church (Narrow Road Community Church) and I’m putting together their new website together now.
- I am in talks with a few people about forming a group of “wordpress engineers and designers” to start building premium wordpress themes together.
- I have started using the iphone app “Water your Body” to make sure I drink adequate water throughout the day as I have realized that I was suffering from chronic dehydration levels.
- Aidan is One as of a few weeks ago, but I think I posted about that already.
- I am still looking for a position with a church, but I am also enjoying just being a contributing member as of late.
- I’ve been playing around with the epub book format after the ipad debut earlier this week. Hoping to find a way to integrate it on the site. But right now, I think I am going to start writing something larger than just small posts….
- Been playing and writing some book ideas down (both nonfiction and fiction) and looking at doing some historical research on a few different ancient time periods.
- I’ve doing more artwork as of late (both digitally and with real paper)… maybe integrate artwork into the book process above.
- I am now reading around 6 books every day. Usually one or two chapters each. I added Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” to my list earlier this week in epub format viewable on my ipod touch.
- Praying for my friend Mark and his family. They found out that they need to move this coming week. He still doesn’t have a new job and they have two kids. He’s a great guy and I’d really like to see something good happen for them soon. They are in a bit of more desperate situation than we are right now in terms of the scramble to move quickly.
- I’ve been wanting to go running this month, but dang! Just as it gets semi-warm to think about doing some running, it gets frigid again. I may go ahead and get a Y membership this coming week. At least then I can leave Aidan at their little childcare facility and go for a run without having to do it so early in the day and not in the extreme cold. I may be more enticed to get out of the house then too.
- My wife and I will be celebrating our five year anniversary this coming month and we are excited.
I think that’s about it. Each one of those could probably be a post by itself, but
Sorry for the lack of good updates to the blog as of late. It isn’t because I haven’t been busy. I’ve been working on a new website for my church and doing some more artistic type graphic work. We have a men’s retreat that will be taking place next month that is entitled “MANdate: 2010″ The little subtitle/tease for the retreat is “Are you ready for battle?” The graphic above is what I helped put together for the event. It is a collaborative effort between Pastor Erick and myself.
I took a half hour today and just took some black and white images of my dogs. After a few minutes, they warmed to the idea of being posed for pictures. Rogin especially seemed to actually enjoy being posed. Aidan was taking a nap, but maybe I’ll get him in here soon. So for the time being, I used a portrait of Aidan on the end table to get him in the shot. ;)
…or Aidan’s first Birthday. Aidan turned one yesterday and we threw a big party. We had some friends up from Kentucky. A few other friends over. A few people called to wish him a happy birthday. It was a good day. For him and for us. I even think everyone gave our dogs a little something too because Dugal was a little sick this morning. He’s okay now though.
I thought I’d share the picture above of Aidan getting ready to completely obliterate his birthday cake.
