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Sometimes a normal, seemingly every day encounter can teach you an important life lesson. The other day Brea (my wife) had asked me go by Taco Bell for dinner and, since she’s over six months pregnant, she gets what she wants. She couldn’t remember if she liked the Gordita or Chalupa better, so she described what it was like then I went straight to the Taco Bell Drive-Thru.

As I pulled up to order, I asked the guy on the other side of the speaker if he could describe to me what a gordita is. His reply: “It’s a Gordita.” You may be shocked, but that didn’t really help me on my quest to get my preggers wife the exact item of food she desired, so I pressed further. “Ok, what kind of shell does it have?” “A gordita shell” was his response. At this point I started to wonder if I was really just dumb, since apparently everyone else in the world knows exactly what a gordita is. I attempted once more to get a little more information about this elusive delicacy by asking, “Could you describe it some for me?” His reply, “It’s a taco inside a gordita shell.” So I just said, “Ok, I’ll take one” and hoped that this would satisfy the woman carrying my second child in her womb.

I worked the drive-through at Chick-Fil-A in high school and college, so I know how hard it is to communicate over the intercom, but I left there feeling like the cashier could have done a little better in his explanations of the gordita. I probably could have asked better questions, too. Thankfully, Brea was happy with the gordita, so I didn’t have to make another Run for the Border.

This encounter reminded me of one of the concepts that really stuck out when I read the book Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath called “The Curse of Knowledge.” Here’s an excerpt of what Chip & Dan wrote about it:

“Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. Our knowledge has ‘cursed’ us. And it becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can’t readily re-create our listeners’ state of mind.”

An example they gave in the book was a test that was done where people would tap out a popular song for another person to guess what the song was. The songs were common ones like “The Star Spangled Banner” or “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.” It would seem like that would be really easy to guess one of those songs if you heard it being tapped out, but it’s really not. If you don’t believe me, try it out with someone.

This encounter did make me wonder about how preachers and teachers in the church do the same thing. How often do we talk about things like grace, fellowship, mercy, forgiveness, and repentance assuming that everyone knows exactly what we mean by each of these terms? Once you know what these terms mean it’s really hard to refer to them as anything else, but if you don’t know what they are you’ll probably be lost.

Thank you, Mr. Taco Bell Drive-Thru Dude, for an important reminder to communicate with people in a way that they will understand.

Where have you seen or heard the curse of knowledge in your everyday life?

Gordita image courtesy of flickr user The Canyon Guru.

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I tend to read mostly non-fiction, leadership, or personal development books in my personal reading. So when Brea (my wife) and about half a dozen other people suggested that I read Same Kind of Different as Me, I hesitated. While the book is non-fiction, it’s more of a biography than anything else. I wasn’t sure if I’d really enjoy the book that much.

Let me tell you this: If you have not yet read this book, do yourself a favor and add it to you reading list. I got through it in about three sessions (albeit LONG ones). It captured my attention, my mind, and my emotions. The authors draw you into their lives and tug at your heart. It’s a story of transformation, compassion, and forgiveness. The main characters’ lives are extremely different, but they are drawn together through what can best be considered God’s will.

The main thing I took away from this book is that I need to step out of my comfortable bubble and start loving people who are different than me with the tangible love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also, when I do this, I need to do it not because I’m better than anyone else (I’m not) or because others need it (they do), but because people matter. All people. People who may seem different than me, but really are the same.

Have you read this book? What were your thoughts?

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It really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why, but I really love watching curling during the Winter Olympics. So much so that I like to set the TiVo to record it so I can watch whenever I want to.

You wouldn’t think that a guy who has spent almost all of his life living in the heat of Texas would have any interest in the sport, but I do. I can’t really explain it. Maybe it’s the allure of the bizarre nature of the sport, but I just get drawn into the sweeping, throwing, and all that comes with the event.

Which events do you like best about the Winter Olympics?

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Having a little one around the house is awesome. But there are times that she’s not as entertained as normal by the same toys/videos/games she plays with every day. When these moments come we, as parents, sometime are stuck trying to come up with new ways to keep our little ones’ minds entertained. It can be tough to find new (and free) ideas, so why not just go back to an old classic: the fort.

This week I rediscovered how much little kids (at least my twenty month old daughter) love to play in pretend forts (or “house” as my daughter calls it). I remembered this idea when I was flipping through the book Cheap Ways To … the other day. All I had to do was rearrange our four dining room chairs a little and toss a comforter over them. She has absolutely LOVED it. I bet she could play in it for over an hour before getting bored. Best of all, it’s FREE!!!

Here’s a couple pictures of the fort:

This probably should have been a no-brainer, but I really had just forgotten about it.

Got any other ideas on keeping little ones entertained?

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Talk about making a comeback. I remember watching The Muppets over twenty years ago, but they seemed to disappear sometime around 1990. That seems to be changing as they are quickly refreshing their image through social networking sites--YouTube in particular. A few months ago they posted their version of Bohemian Rhapsody which has had close to 13 million views.

Their latest video to hit YouTube is Beaker’s Ballad. It pokes fun at itself and Digg/YouTube/forum flamers. Here’s the video:

This makes me wonder how churches can do a better job at doing the same thing. Churches have notoriously been behind the times and are considered by many to be irrelevant with what’s going on in the surrounding culture (when did we stop using felt boards for teaching?). I hope we can change that.

While face-to-face and in person conversations are the most important things we can do, the church should be involved where people are. Thankfully the cost of doing things like this, in terms of both dollars and time, has come way, way down in the past few years.

Greg Simmons posted some thoughts along these same lines today over at Church Tech Matters. He wrote:

I’m trying to let go of the worry about the “How to…” and focus on the “Why to…”  God has still been able to use the tech/media and the operators – with all their imperfections – to reach people in need.

That kind of reminds me of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23:

“I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

The task of the church is reach people with the Gospel using whatever means necessary. We live in such exciting times with the tools and resources available that allow us to connect in new and compelling ways. Let’s not squander the opportunity God has given us.

[Thanks to Mashable for posting the link to the video.]

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Google announced today that they’re going to start experimenting with delivering extremely fast internet directly to people’s homes. As in, 1 Gbps. That’s blazing fast no matter who you are. To put the speed in perspective compare it to my current ISP. I currently have 15 Mbps from Verizon Fios, so Google’s planned service would be 67 times faster than what I have now. That would be incredible. I really, really hope Flower Mound, TX gets early access to this, but I won’t hold my breath.

In their blog announcement, Google said that one of the reasons they’re doing this was to help developers create cool new web services and apps. They wrote:

Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.

Check out the video announcement below:

Your thoughts?

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I got in a discussion the other night with a friend while we were watching the Super Bowl. She was curious about how I became a Chicago Bears fan while living in Dallas. I had mentioned the cities I had lived in a previous conversation but forget to say that I spent part of my childhood living an hour west of Chicago.

My family lived there until the fall of 1986, which just happened to be a few months after the 1985 Chicago Bears destroyed the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. That Bears team had big personalities like Jim McMahon, memorable nicknames like Refrigerator Perry, a larger than life coach in Mike Ditka, and a dominant running back in Walter Payton. How could you not be a Bears fan living so close to the action of that team?

That conversation also made me think that our allegiances to our sports teams have very little to do with who we choose to root for. We mostly end up being fans of the teams we’re close to or our families follow. It’s rare that we actually just choose a team to root for, but I do know at least one person who did that very thing.

I’ll stay true to my Bears, though. The team was greatness and they’re still living large. Did you see the Boost Mobile commercial they were in during the Super Bowl on Sunday? If not, here it below:

I’d like to hear from you. What team(s) are you a fan of and why?

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