I took a short trip to a creek close to my house and decided to snap some photos. There’s beauty in the details of God’s creation, don’t ya think?
Sun shining through a piece of worn glass.
Colors.
The butterfly effect.
Can you see the antenna-like extensions on the top left of this leaf?
-Out of the Wilderness
I was recently hanging out with a friend of mine and asked how long she and I have been friends. She looked at her phone and said, “…since 1999.” I was speechless. Did that just happen?
It makes me laugh and also brings to light 2 points I’d like to share:
I know we call our devices “smart phones” but wow. Is there an app for something like that? Like ancestry.com but for friendships? Anyway, I thought that experience was odd, and awesome, and hilarious.
-Out of the Wilderness
From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is satisfied; he is filled with the product of his lips.
Proverbs 18:20
I read this verse recently and to be honest, I didn’t think it made sense. A mouth doesn’t make fruit. Lips don’t produce food. So what is this verse saying? What’s the meaning, assuming there is one. Well, from a biological standpoint, the way to the stomach is through the mouth. And what is the stomach? It’s our appetite. How do we satisfy our appetite? With food, of course. Food that we put in our mouth. So then, the mouth is the conduit we use to satisfy our appetite.
If we have a piece of fruit, we don’t put it on our foot. We don’t rub it on our back. We don’t pick a tomato and squish it in our armpits. That’s silly. Of course, that might confirm what your neighbors already think of you, “Our neighbor, the weirdo,” but it’s just not what we do with fruit, with food. We bite into it, passing it along to our stomach to satisfy our appetite.
Could the verse be helping us to discover and define what we have an appetite for? Not biologically, but spiritually, emotionally, professionally, relationally? Chapter 18 compares the fool and the wise man. The fool does this, the wise man does that. Foolishness is this, wisdom is that. So maybe this verse is advising us to be wise, not foolish, about a few things:
Let’s say you have an appetite, a hunger, for helping people. One way to satisfy that is to do volunteer work. You sign up with Habitat For Humanity. Do you like being in your car, out on the road? Maybe you sign up to be a driver for Uber or Lyft. What if you have a hunger for wealth? There are many ways to go about that, so you try online trading, flipping a house, or fly to Vegas for a weekend.
In these examples, Habitat for Humanity, driving your car, online trading/Vegas is the fruit. The conduit is volunteering, signing up for Uber or Lyft, and buying stock or going to Vegas.
Clearly there are good and bad ways to go about satisfying your appetite. Just like food, there’s fruit, veggies, healthy things you can eat, but there’s also junk food. The junk food might satisfy you for a second but in the end it does more harm than good. There can be ways to become wealthy, like Vegas for instance. But gambling in general is junk food. Being a getaway driver… not the best way to satisfy your craving for being on the road! Some might say handing out money to panhandlers holding up signs off a highway exit would be the junk food of volunteering.
So what do you have an appetite for? How are you feeding it? Are you looking for healthy, Biblical ways to satisfy your hunger? If so, I’d say you’re being wise…good job! If you’re like me, you’ve found a lot of ways that don’t work and that, my friend, makes us foolish!
Here’s to making wise choices, and eating fruit!
-Out of the Wilderness
Macklemore’s video for “Good Old Days” was made public this morning, and this off the heals of his other video for “Glorious.” You can check out his latest video below but I wanted to say rather quickly and to the point: At the time of this post, the video is getting 1,000 hits per minutes. That’s crazy! I can’t imaging having anything get so many views so fast. I guess that’s why the internet breaks sometimes. 😉
Here’s the view count at 12:09 (80,266 views)
Then here’s 12:10 (81,496 views)
Over a thousand a minute… wild stuff! If my math is correct, the video will be at a million by 3AM EST. That’ll be less than 24 hours since it was released.
UPDATE: It’s 8am CST and it’s over 1.8 million!
There’s a lot to like about this video. For starters, it’s so thoughtful. Macklemore tugs at all of our sentimental heart strings when he flies to Modesto, California to surprise his grandma on her 100th birthday. He takes her around for an entire day to do whatever she wants. They shop, sing karaoke, egg a house, and what might be the best part– ride around in a ’76 Cadillac Eldorado with the top down. The land yacht is a beastly 2.5 tons (5,000 lbs) and it’s a real beaut! Perfect for a sunny California day.
One of the first locations in Modesto is Hy-Step Shoes. Grandma Helen ends up with a pair of Yeezy Boost 350s which, in a surprise plot twist, are not even available at Hy-Step. But Macklemore’s got a “shoe guy” so one Craigslist-like-parking-lot deal later, the shoes are hers.
Their next stop is Runaround Sue’s, a karaoke bar with only a 3-star Yelp rating! Reviews refer to fights, bad service, and while one person gave it 5 stars for an “excellent mixture of crowd,” another gave it 2 stars for “lots of thugs & bar flies.” I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
They have fun though, singing karaoke with Elvis Presley’s “I’m All Shook Up” to the delight of the thugs and bar flies there. “…Well, she touched my hand what a chill I got / Her lips are like a volcano, that’s hot / I’m proud to say that she’s my buttercup / I’m in love, I’m all shook up…”
After that they hit up the arcade, classic birthday party location. Skee-ball, duh! They play a few other games then it’s on to… drum roll, please… GROCERY SHOPPPIIIINNGGG! Wait, grocery shopping? Well, it’s her party. Can’t pass up a BOGO deal, I get it.
They hop back in the Caddy and cruise around, Macklemore gets a tattoo of his g-ma’s name, then it’s off to the ladies consignment store called Second Chance Consignment and Costume Store. After that they head back home for a surprise party including her friends and a male stripper. And no, unfortunately it’s not Officer Goodbody, for all you Friends fans out there.
As the day winds down they take the Cadillac to a lake. If I had to take an educated guess, I’d say it’s Woodward Reservoir Park based on the looks of the lake, the background, and it’s proximity to Modesto.
A great video that will surely keep making people cry happy tears all over the world.
-Out of the Wilderness
Who decided that a day is 24 hours? And who decided a would end and begin in the middle of the night? Why do 60 seconds make up a minute? Why not 100 or 63? What would happen if 48 hours made up one day? Would it still be recommended to brush our teeth twice a day? Now would it be 4 times a day? I’m trying to figure out which hygienist determined that, yes, your teeth will be happy and healthy if you brush them twice every 24 hours. Who knows that?
What if the world were spinning at half the speed it is now (500 mph vs. 1,000 mph)? It would get dark outside every 48 hours. What would the added daily meals be called? Would military time go all the way up to 4800 hours? 4759 then ticks over to the new midnight? Noon would still be noon, though, right? Would there only be 3.5 days in a week? Would college football be on Wednesday now? Or the middle of the night between Wednesday and Thursday (what used to be Saturday)? A 40-hour work week becomes an 80-hour work week?
Sundials are used to measure time, avail. on Amazon*
Gravity is only slightly affected by the earth’s daily rotation. So if the earth is spinning half as fast, does it have even less affect on gravity? How would our weight change when we stand on a scale? Would our electric bill be affected? I guess not since, while there is more daylight, there is also an equal amount of more darkness, right? Would it be more like living in Alaska, as they are known for having long days of sunlight and barely any darkness or mostly darkness with a couple hours of sunlight?
If we aren’t using military time, would there be four 12 O’Clocks each day?
Guy 1: Hey, I’ll meet you at the coffee shop at 12 O’Clock.
Guy 2: Which one?Â
Guy 1: The one over on 5th Avenue.
Guy 2: No, which 12 O’Clock?
See what I mean? Guy 1 could’ve said 12 P.M. but what would P.M. even mean in that scenario? There would have to be A.M., P.M., and another set of x.M.s, right?
But what I really want to know is why I have to brush my teeth twice a day.
-Out of the Wilderness
*I am an Amazon Affiliate member, which means I’ll receive a percentage of any transactions made through the sundial Amazon link above.
I remember a few years ago when I first heard REO Speedwagon’s “Roll With the Changes,” I thought to myself, “Are they still coming out with new songs? I love this one.” I was completely wrong. It’s not that they aren’t touring together, because they are, but the song is from 1978! I couldn’t believe it’s as old as me, since I’m from 1978, too. In fact, the album featuring the song was released 9 months before I was born… wait a second… ew gross, never mind.
I recently had Spotify on and this song played. You think people in 1978 ever thought in about 30 years you’d be able to listen to music in your car, through your phone, on your way to…say, vote for a woman President? They would’ve said you’re crazy! Oh, what, then you got in your time machine and hoverboarded over to the drive-in? Delusional is how they’d classify you.
I totally went down a rabbit hole there, sorry. This is about clever song lyrics! I didn’t catch this line till the other day…
If you’re tired of the same old story, turn some pages.
–REO Speedwagon, “Roll With the Changes”
I love the sentiment of taking action. The line is simple and yet, so clever. Here are a few other favorites of mine.
You’re gonna catch a cold from the ice inside your soul. So don’t come back for me. Who do you think you are?
–Christina Perri, “Jar of Hearts”All of these people I meet, it seems like they’re fine. Yeah, in some ways I hope that they’re not and their hearts are like mine.
–NeedtoBreathe, “Wasteland”The bride walks down just to start the wedding, and there’s one more girl you won’t be getting.
–Young MC, “Bust A Move”Ain’t it funny how some people pop into your head so easily. I haven’t seen you in there for so long.
–Dawes, “All Your Favorite Bands”Or tell your Aunt Louise, tell anything you please. Myself already knows I’m not okay. Or you can tell my eyes to watch out for my mind, it might be walking out on me today.
–Billy Ray Cyrus, “Achy Breaky Heart”
If you have some favorite clever lyrics, feel free to share them in the comments!
-Out of the Wilderness
