Whine, Complain, Repeat

I am a huge Google supporter. And I have a bone to pick with the tech community.

The past couple months, Google has been having a outage problem for different reasons, specifically Gmail, and people have been complaining about it, calling it Gfail. The various reasons are that the Google cloud is showing signs of strain, hackers are being jerks, Google isn't using enough of its resources to keep things afloat. Here's my huge, indignant complaint: why are you complaining so much?!?!

Being a huge Google supporter (Gmail, Gdocs, Google Sites, everything else...), I use all of their services without repaying by any monetary way; I allow them to display ads on the pages I use and view. In essence, whenever I have an internet connection, I use what they provide with absolutely no loss to myself, only gain. I am incredibly thankful for what Google provides. To top that off, Google is an amazingly effective and efficient product. Knowing and realizing that, I am slightly inconvenienced but understanding if Google has a couple outages that last an hour or two every once in awhile, barring permanent loss of my data and anything in the future I might pay Google for.

This complaint reaches out to people who not only complain about Google, but anybody who complains about free things on the internet that suffer outages that aren't common. Show a little gratefulness! Fortunately a lot of things on the internet are free since online services operate on ads. And if you weren't aware, it takes a lot of work to get anything running that's free. If you want to complain about something, then support it by paying for it. It's a matter of respect.

There is a certain etiquette to interacting with people and services online, and we need to make sure that we're being fair when we complain. Now I'm not saying at all that we shouldn't voice our complaints about Google or Facebook not working for a couple hours (suppressing frustration is never a good thing), but if you're not able to connect for two hours that doesn't qualify as a fail. This is something I'm guilty of in a lot of things when it comes to technology and the internet, but it still needs to be followed, so that we all achieve a balanced ecosystem in digital reality. So let's be nice to each other and supportive to the companies that give us free things that we eventually find ourselves addicted to :)

Worship

I believe worship is a lifestyle that is cultivated out of a true, authentic surrendering to God. To no one's surprise I love to worship Him most by praising Him in music, it's my passion. Let me define to you what exactly that is.


When I worship, I push the world away from me. Before I sing or pick up my guitar to play, I pray to God to inspire me. I come Him, as transparent as I possibly can, and I begin to sing. It doesn't matter what my face or body language says, it doesn't matter what's around me, because in that moment I have surrendered fully to my God, my Redeemer, and my Savior. There is no room for pride or shame in my time of worship.

I call to my God, asking Him to hear me, to shine His face on my feeble act of worship. I call to my God, asking Him to ignore my imperfection as I give my best offering I possibly can to Him. I call to my God, wanting to please Him who made the Heavens and the Earth, not understanding how my act of worship means more than anything to my God.

I praise my God by acknowledging me before I even called His name. I praise Him for the grace that I don't comprehend even though I misuse it every day. I praise Him for every moment of my sinful life, and how He takes the outcast and broken of this world and uses it and makes it new again.

I thank my God for the world I live in, though it is saturated in sin and heading every day toward Armageddon; I thank Him because He found me in this world. thank God for the second chance, the third chance, the unlimited, ever forgiving, unbiased love He has given to me freely when I didn't even know that I needed it. I thank God for the gifts He's given me...music, freedom, my heart's desires...all things that I never could deserve, but He gives as freely as Christ's sacrifice.

I give my God silence, in reverence to His holiness, to His glory, to the mighty and powerful being that He is. I give my God silence, I still my tongue, so that I could hear His voice instead, so that He can enact His will on me, so that His love can change me, so that He can continue to guide me down the path He has prepared for me. I give my God silence, because I have no right to speak in the first place.

This is what I do when I worship, and if it were not for the Great Commission, I would leave the world behind and worship Him every moment I'm alive.

Jesus is Peanut Butter

Alright kids gather round, got a story for you...

So me and my lady Jessica were havin ice cream, I got reeces ice cream, and she got chocolate peanut butter. I looked at our ice cream and I thought, yknow kinda like this ice cream, we're both different, I'm a guy she's a girl, I got vanilla she got chocolate.. But just like the peanut butter, WE BOTH GOT JESUS!

yeah. that's my overtly cheezy inspiration for the day. i'll take my bow now.

News Fast: Update III

So, due to certain things out of my control, I have decided to put my fast...on hold. Partly because there's been a news crew on my street cause there's been a homicide (in Roseville!?!!), and because it's nearly impossible to not read the news when you're in a political science class...yeah that was pretty stupid.

I'm starting to achieve this 'balance' thing. And my time in the Word has been better. So something has been accomplished here...maybe I'll call it a partial fast...

News Fast: Update II

So this fast-from-the-news thing...it's seriously tough. I access it through Google News, YouTube, the radio, newspaper (yeah, even that...), and I've pretty much been successful in avoiding all those and focusing on what I need to. I do have to admit that a breach did occur; one of my friends sent me a video about a senator that pissed me off due to his complete lack of voter intelligence, so I've decided to spam that to get people's attention. Sorry guys with this I have to be an activist :D.

It's hard to resist this. It's a reflex, whenever I need to keep myself moving I read something with the news. It's not at all that knowing about the world was turning me into a bad person, but the fact that it consumes all my time, I know isn't good. I catch myself typing a website out, and just as I'm about to hit Enter, God pokes me and says, Hey, what about your promise...and I slap myself and say Drat God, you're right. So, I've stayed solid in avoiding any news outlet.

Anyways, just an update. If you guys need prayer let me know

Fasting from the news

It has come to my attention that I spend too much time thinking about the world, rather than thinking about God. I have an addiction to technology and the internet, this is true. While I am working on that, God has brought it to my attention that I spend way too much time and focus looking at Google News, which can consume you if you so desire :). God's shown me that I am constantly thinking about politics, *misguided* people and their *misguided* actions, and the lies of the world, instead of thinking and meditating more on who God is, the love He has for us, and the way He wants to use me as a light in the darkness.

So, I have decided to go on a fast from personally searching out any kind of news. Not that I can avoid it completely, cause hey right now I'm in a political science class :). But the time I use reading the news, I want to replace with reading God's word. So if you all could keep me in your prayers about that, I would greatly appreciate that. And if you have anything that you would want me to pray for you on, please let me know so we can be praying for each other.

-jesse