Review: Tech-wise Family

As a parent, I'm concerned about what my kids are exposed to and how they learn to interact with the world around them. As someone who is quite tech-savvy and worked in the tech sector, I am also very familiar with what is out there and what my kids could get into. How technology is shaping our culture needs to shape our parenting. 

This book is very easy to read and filled with wonderful wisdom. Crouch does a good job at laying out the issues technology creates in our lives and provides easy to remember (though at times hard to implement) guidelines for keeping technology in its place. I very much appreciated the intro and way Crouch differentiates between tools and technology. He also makes a great distinction between leisure and rest. I think the book is worth reading, just for understanding those distinctions.

After the introduction, the book is broken up into short chapters, each unpacking one of their family's tech-wise commitments. Now each family will be different and some of these will be harder than others. What I really appreciated about these was the reality check at the end of each chapter where Crouch admits where their family falls short of this. This admission of not quite being there but wanting to be, adds a dimension of genuineness and encouragement. 

This is a book that I will most definately be recommending widely and will be a part of our family's toolkit as we walk through life.

(I received a copy of this book from Baker Publishing for review purposes)

Leadership and Success according to Lightning McQueen

We recently took our kids to see the latest installment of Disney/Pixar's Cars franchise, Cars 3. We don't usually splurge on a new release at the theater but if you know our little guy, you'd understand why we made an exception for this one. Overall I have to say this was a great movie and hats off to Disney/Pixar for telling a great story. This is one that we'll pick up for our family when its available, and I'm sure it will be played many times.
As we walked away from the theater I was really struck by how much one can learn about leadership and true success from this kids movie. Now if you haven't seen Cars 3 yet, I'd encourage you stop right here, go see it, and come back because I'm going to roll out some major spoilers here. If you've seen it, or you're OK with knowing the plot line of a kids movie read on.

If you don't change, you have a shelf life

The movie begins with montage of Lightning McQueen still dominating the Piston Cup circuit. He's at the top of his game, everyone is cheering him on, everyone wants to be with him. He's made it to the top and he's going to stay there. That is until one day, a new racer suddenly comes flying up from behind and wins the race. Lighting can't believe it but he keeps racing. It turns out their is a new batch of rookies coming up who are younger, stronger and... cooler. The fans begin to switch allegiance to these cool young winners and one by one Lightning's peers are pushed into retirement, with Lightening sure to follow. Lightning had just kept doing what he had always done and as long as it was working he didn't need to evaluate or improve himself.

Don't let the past keep you from adapting to present realities

The trouble was he kept doing things the way he had always done them. Then one day, the unthinkable happens, a rookies beats him. It is but the first of a string of losses to the newer, younger cars. Lightning keeps pushing himself, insistent that he'll get back on top. He won't change his ways, even as his peers are retired one by one. It isn't until he crashes and burns does he even inquire as to what's new. The young racers it turns out, train hard and make use of the latest technology and methods. These new racers are such a disruption to the status quo that no matter how skilled or experienced the older racers are they just can't keep up.

Even when he is given the chance to train like the young racers he messes up. He lacks the discipline and humility to try things a new way. He refuses to put in the work and to adapt, he continues to live off of his past successes. Out of frustration he tries to keep doing things his own way, ignoring the advice of those trying to help him and he ends up in a pretty mucky mess.

Don't chase after the new and forgo the wisdom of the past

Finally, Lightning comes to his senses after a very eventful race, and realizes that the only way he made it as a race was learning from his old and wise mentor, Doc. With Doc no longer around, Lightning sets off to find Doc's old mentor, Smokey. He figures that if he learned as much as he did from Doc, he should seek out the wisdom of the one Doc learned from.

Sure enough, in a backwoods town he finds Doc's old pit chief, Smokey, and the old racers that Doc ran with. Smokey tells Lightning, he will never be faster, but he can be smarter. It takes hard work and discipline and some techniques that both Lightning and his new trainer question, but he sticks with it. He trains hard and gets to his last race and in an interesting twist its one of the moves learned from these old guys that wins the day.

Your greatest moments aren't when you're winning but when you're helping others win

I believe one of the greatest parts of this movie is when Smokey is telling Lightning about the letters Doc used to write him. Smokey tells Lightning that in spite of all of the success Doc had in his own career, his best days were the ones when Lightning was winning. He had come to understand that his greatest joy was not in his own success but in helping someone else be their best. Lightning comes to realize this himself when he puts Cruz into the race with the line "It's my last chance to give you your first chance!" Lightning sets aside his own chance at victory and glory to watch someone else, who he saw the potential in, step up and show what they could do.
There is a great lesson to be had here, one of humility and recognizing that the time comes when we have to step aside. The choice to use one's "last chance to give you a first chance" is hard to make. The choice to step out of the spotlight so someone else can step in is risky. They might make a mistake, they might fail but most of all, you have to give up control. An amazing thing happens in the movie, that often happens in life, when one stops being the star and starts becoming the coach and cheerleader, when the mission and the team comes before personal glory, both win.

So look around you and see who you can give a chance, who you can cheer on and don't forget to be adapting in light of both nee development and past wisdom.

Review: The 25 Biblical Laws of Success

I have to admit I'm inherently suspicious of any think that claims to show how the Bible can bring about success in your career and business. I feel there are far too many books with such titles that attempt to lay down a set of steps to an end that simply attach proof texts to each step to be biblical. I do not feel this book falls into this category and in particular, appreciated the author's introduction and conclusion where they clearly point to Christ and reinforce that being successful in business is only temporary.

The 25 Laws are broken up into 5 parts; Wisdom, Work, Values, Relationships and Personal Growth. Each part contains 5 short chapters covering one of the laws. Each chapter contains both a scriptural backing as well as examples from the world around the authors. There is then a final section containing 7 sins against success which outline things that can derail one's success. Each chapter is short and easy to read with most chapters being about 5 pages. This makes it a book that is easily digested in small bites, which I would actually recommend. As each chapter addresses a single issue, most are worth a time of reflection, depending on where the reader is at in their own lives. The drawback to these short chapters is that they can at times, feel pithy and simply a collection of sayings and Bible verses, but it does make for an easier read.

If you have read a range of leadership books, particularly of "laws" of leadership books, much of this may sound familiar. If that is the case, one thing I did appreciate about this book is that the authors are not American and thus do approach the topics from a different perspective, which is often refreshing. If you haven't read much in the way of Christian leadership books, this could be a great place to start. This book could also be a good one to work through with a small group of people seeking live their lives in a more biblical manner and to build up their character. Overall, I'd say this is a good book in that it is clear and concise but at the same time is another take on good principles that have been covered by many others.


*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Riding the rails

Have you ever had something you've wanted to do for a long time but never had the time, or the money. Something that really could only been seen as an indulgence. Well for me, one of those things has been a train trip through the Rockies. We've all seen the ads for these trips but they are freaking expensive! Beyond the cost, its not a quick trip and with a family the costs can add up pretty quick. 

Well, as I was looking over my travel schedule for this past spring, it included a trip to Edmonton and so on a whim I checked the Via Rail schedule and costs. Turned out an economy ticket was actually $20 less than flying home at the end of my business trip and I only had to stay in town one extra day. So I cashed in some points for the extra hotel stay and booked a train ticket instead of a plane ticket. Once I had my plans in place I let my sister know as I had promised my nephew I would take him a road trip one day if the timing was right and his parents were cool with it. They gave him the green light, I found a screaming deal on a flight and got it all booked.

Our adventure began on Friday night, after my conference was done, I grabbed a cab to the airport, picked up a rental car and found my nephew at baggage claim and headed to our hotel. Saturday was a day on the town and he & I covered a lot of ground. We started with breakfast at the Highlevel Diner where we each downed a massive Cinnamon bun. Then it was on to the Strathcona Farmers market and then the Conservatory to see what was left of the giant corpse flower. We then scoped out our route to the train station and grabbed lunch at the Burger's Priest. A stop at the Lego Store, MEC and finally the Bulk Barn for snacks for the train ride and we headed back to the hotel.

Sunday Morning we were up early, early, to get a cab to the train station for 6am. Of course we got there only to find the train was actually nearly 4 hours late. It was all good though, we waited an chatted and snacked. When the train rolled in we were ready to go!

We got on board, found some seats and headed to the dome car pretty much right away. The journey out of Edmonton and toward the foothills was wonderful. One of the things I like about rail travel is that you go through different parts of town, usually the older and more industrial parts. The tracks also don't usually follow the highway so you see a different view than you would from the car. 

The journey up to and through the foothills was a nice easy ride through fields, past lakes and over rivers. Soon enough, the mountains came into view, and we were wowed until dark. We were so blessed to have a perfectly clear day for this trip and the delay in departure actually worked out well. We were scheduled to have a longer stop in Jasper around lunch time but with the delay we ended up just having a short station stop with enough time to hit tourist shop row and grab a snack. We ended up getting something dinner-ish from the snack bar when we got going again and just enjoyed the views. We stayed up in the dome car until dark which was somewhere before Blue River which meant we went through the entire Rockies portion of trip in daylight.

Sleep was a little difficult but better than an airplane. As we had economy tickets we just had reclining seats but the train wasn't full so we were able to each take two and spread out. My nephew is small enough he could curl up on two seat, I awkwardly shifted around through the night. At the first hints of daylight I was ready to get up and out of that seat. Here the delay worked in our favour because we hit daylight around Spence's Bridge, which meant we saw much of the lower Thompson and the Fraser Canyon, which we would have missed had we been on time. 

Now the one thing about being an economy ticket holder, is that you are confined to the economy cars and you are only able to go to the dining car if there are any reservations left after the non-economy passengers have had their pick. When the breakfast call came however, there was room in the first time slot so I roused the boy from his slumber and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast watching the world go by.

The final hours, brought us closer and closer to home and more familiar sites. It was interesting however to wind through the Fraser Valley and into Vancouver on the train, again seeing things from an angle not seen from a car. We finally pulled into Pacific Central Station just after noon. A quick bite to eat while waiting for the bags to be unloaded and we hopped on the SkyTrain and then the bus to make our way home.

It was a wonderful trip, that I highly recommend doing at least once. The economy fare is pretty reasonable, though it comes at the cost of a good night's sleep. It is also important to make sure you pack snacks so you aren't completely dependent on the snack bar. It is also key to be flexible as schedules are more of a suggestion due to the priority of freight trains. This is certainly a trip I will be doing again given the chance.

Here are are a few pictures for your enjoyment!

This was our view for most of the trip as we spent the majority of our time in the dome car.

Lot's of wildlife, including at least 3 bears.

This view....

and this view...

and this view...

Mount Robson is a sight to behold. The railway runs higher up the side of the valley than the highway so you get a good view.

Many a waterfall along the tracks as well.

Review: Greek for Everyone

Greek classes are not my best memories. In fact, next to Hebrew, they were the hardest classes I took in seminary. I can honestly say that the 6 semesters I spent learning Greek and Hebrew and the exegesis classes that followed were down right painful. Like many things that are hard and painful however, I became a much better person for them. I found a much deeper appreciation for the work of translators and I came to view scripture in new ways. As such, I am continually looking for good resources to help me engage in the original languages as best I can. "Greek for Everyone" was one of two greek books I got about the same time and I must say I found this one to be of great value.

"Greek for Everyone" was not what I was expecting, as I was expecting something to help me brush up on my greek. I was expecting lots of exercises to help one memorize the various forms and key words but that's not what it was. Instead, I found it to be a great refresher of the key grammatical concepts and the language as a whole. Chapter 2 "The Big Picture of Language" is an excellent summary of how to approach language and difficulties in translating from one to another. The next several chapters deal with the various forms of nouns, verbs, cases, moods and other details of the Greek language. I'm not going to tell you these are easy concepts to wrap one's head around but Thornhill does a great job at presenting them succinctly and clearly. 

After dealing with the various elements of Greek Grammar, the book returns in Chapter 14 to the big picture of language and how the various pieces we've looked at over the preceding chapters fit together. The remaining chapters provide a good discussion on the various English translations, word studies and how to apply what you've learned here to on-going study and discussion.

I think what is most important take away from this book is that you will not be able to pick up a Greek NT and read away after finishing this book, that is not its purpose. What you will walk away with is the ability to engage in a much deeper level of Bible study and be able to understand how to use the tools so widely available now. In an age where, particularly the electronic tools are so readily available, I believe it is so important to know what those tools are doing for you, this book will certainly give you those tools and with less blood, sweat and tears, than most seminary greek classes.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review and was under no obligation to write a favorable review*

Sermon: Matthew's True Story - Family Redefined

I had the privilege of preaching at my home church the weekend of April 30/May 1. I was wrapping our spring series through part of Matthew. You can listen to it here

Well that went by fast...

Wow! Its April this weekend. January, February and March seemed kinda like a blur! The seasonal cold/flu moved through our family. There was a trip to visit the grandparents, a few work trips and of course SNOW!!!! More snow than we've had in a long time.

If you read my previous post on the book "Growing Young" I had the privilege of spending two evenings walking through it with a church staff. Great time of discussion and working through some, at times, tough questions. 

Anyway, I've got some quality airplane time coming up over the next little while and, even more exciting for me, I'm taking a train trip through the Rockies! Its something I've wanted to do for a long time and the train schedule and my work/travel schedule just happened to line up later this spring. As an added bonus, I'll be bringing my 13 year old nephew with me. We're going to have a good boys weekend riding the rails.

Until then, I've got some books to get reviews up for including one on a great resource for learning/keeping up your Greek. Bottom line, Greek is hard (at least for me) but some simple tips can make it a little easier. 

Anyways more to come!