Filsinger.org

I would say if you took a poll among the general populas, you would find that most people are either A) not living up to their potential, B) not where they want to be in life, or C) believe that they can’t do better.  I have various theories on why this is, but generally I think it is because most people are too afraid to jump in over their heads.  It is far too easy to stay comfortable, avoid change, and not better yourself.

I’ve had a really strange week at work.  Things generally hum along, Mondays come, Fridays go, games get tested, signed off, wash, rinse repeat.  This week was a bit different though, something is changing in the air.  Perhaps it’s just that we are itching so bad for spring to come.  At this moment I have a huge opportunity to jump in way over my head.  I am going to take it, I would regret not doing it if I let this moment pass me by.  This year I blogged about adding my diversity to my life.  This chance is one that would definitely stretch me, and change my routine in many ways.

The world would be a better place, if everyone pushed themselves a little more.  Don’t settle, get out of your routine, do something that you have never done before, stretch your brain.  Once we get out of school, our intake of knowledge decreases significantly, push yourself, take up a new hobby.  Apply for that job you always dreamed about.  Don’t let complacency, negative self image, or laziness let life slip you by.  You only get one shot at it, make it a good one.  As Nelson Mandela said it so wisely “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world”

I had been fairly immune and disconnected from all the ranting, raving, and lunacy surrounding The Shack up until a few months ago. I had heard in passing that the author was going to be speaking at my old University and thought very little of it. Even at that point all I heard was that the book “Is a whack on the side of the head.” Not putting any more thought into it, I placed the title of the book into the back shelves of my mind.

Fast forward a month and a half and I had the privilege of attending the Canadian Youth Workers Conference in Toronto where they had invited the author of the Shack W.P. Young to speak. He did a lecture/reading that I did not attend, but then heard him in one of the general sessions. He read a small portion of the book to the audience and I was intrigued. Through out the weekend I over heard several conversations surrounding the book, and had heard various ideas, rumours, nay sayings and endorsements. I appreciate Williams honesty when sharing about some of the controversy surrounding the subject, and then decided to make a decision for myself. Michael Krahn wrote a review of the book mentioning that people made judgment on the book before reading it, that issue is a soapbox issue of mine I won’t get into, but to put it bluntly those people aren’t worth wasting your time on.

So for Christmas I asked for two books, one being The Shack and other being The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne.  Two weeks later on a long plane ride from Charlottetown to Winnipeg, I finished The Shack.  I know understand why the book is so controversial on varying levels.  Young takes God out of our neat and tidy theological boxes, turns the knob to 11 and then lets everything splatter out all over the floor.

To put it mildly, this book is not one you are going to start hanging your theological hat on.  What it does do though, is challenge some of our preconceived notions of what/who God is, and how he interacts with us.  it gets us asking questions, and in my opinion that is always a good thing.  That then leads to searching, which we often do not do enough of.  Too often in my faith, I have heard people say “That’s not God”, or “God doesn’t work that way”.  It is those people who I feel are afraid of The Shack.  With careful articulation we see what it *might* look like if God did come down to meet us, face to face, and how we would be changed by such an experience.

Young’s portrayal of the relationship between the trinity, to me is one the most significant things in the book.  He did an articulate job on showing us what a perfect relationship might look like, one that is centered around love.  It challenged the very core of my relationship with my wife in a very good way.  We as a human race love with condition, even if we don’t think we do, generally it always comes down to condition, even if we don’t like to admit it.

If you haven’t read this book, you really should, Christian or non-Christian alike.  I also think you need to read it with as little preconceived notions as you can.  Try to read this book for what it is, and not for what it isn’t.  I believe it is a compelling story about redemption, love, forgiveness, challenging our view of the world, and dealing with the short comings of our humanness.  It isn’t going to take authority away from the Bible for a theological basis, it isn’t about pagan images replacing the trinity, it’s about God’s love for us, and how that can and does change people.  Read this book, be inspired, challenged, stretched and touched.

As with all my reviews, I like to review with a number.. so here it is.. I rate The Shack 9 Canoe Rides out of 10.

Watch out, this will be the next viral hit.

Growing up on the island had some downfalls, this was largely due to our small population, the stupid boat you had to use to get off it, the fact that most fashion trends were 3 years behind everyone else, and the like.  One of the major draw backs was the severe lack of any good radio.  Essentially a kid had one three choices, 720CHTN which was oldies, 630CFCN the quintessential country station good ol’ Magic 93.1 which played adult contemporary and some pop.  There was public radio then, but I was completely oblivious to its existence and didn’t fit my musical tastes as a child.

I hated most of these stations and ended up graviting to the oldies due to it being the lesser of all the evils.  This ended up shaping my musical tastes to this day.  Recently, I’ve tried to make a conscious effort to expand my musical tastes.  Since moving back to PEI, they have added two new stations which have taken up most of the listenership of the island.  That is KROCk 105.5 and Ocean 100, but broadcast of my place of work.  For the last year I’ve been listening almost exclusively to KROCK 105.5 and it hasn’t been too bad, but I’ve really grown tired of it.  If I hear one more retarded segway into a Wendy’s Commercial I’ll gag.  “Oh hey Colin what are you doing?”, “Oh I’m stacking chairs, do you know what else you can stack” “No Colin tell me”, “well you can get a wendys stacker today, its a great lunch item”.  Shoot me now.

So this week I switched my dial over to 104.7 which is CBC radio 2, and they happen to be putting together an “Obama’s Playlist” which is featuring the best music of Canada for Obama on innaguaration day.  There have been a lot of great music played, and most of it I’ve liked and has introduced me to some genres I don’t normally listen too.  Thank you CBC for breaking up my morning ride into something a little more then lame fart jokes, terrible Wendys segways and cliched Nickleback songs.

About a year ago I ran into a photoblog by some guy in Toronto through a link that was posted on digg.com when they were down for maintenance.  From there it became part of my weekly web surfing habits to check him out.  He has great pictures… check them out at www.topleftpixel.com and browse through is history.  I guarantee you will find stuff you like.  Since then I have stumbled upon a few other photoblogs that I like to check out now and then.  One being a local photographer www.focusedonlight.com .

Anyway, since then I have decided to try and take up photography as a hobby.  I purchased a Canon Rebel XS and only have a kit lens.  But I am enjoying it a lot.  I setup a flickr account and have put quite a few pictures up on facebook, but I decided to setup my photoblog, and as of right now it is live.  www.filsinger.org/photos/ The link is on the left hand side too.

Tell me what you think.  Right now I don’t have very many pics up, I’m going to be choosy, and I spent the last few days getting the right software setup and customized the way I like it.  But more photos to come as the days go by.  In the mean time, check out http://www.coolphotoblogs.com/ for more sweet photographers.

Most years I hear stories about New Years resolutions and think that they are dumb.  Why wait till the new year to make changes in your life?  Anyway, this year I decided to jump on the age old bandwagon and setup a few goals for myself.  Now I believe the problem with most resolutions is that people make them too impossible to obtain and don’t get accountability.  Like “I want to lose 25lbs”, or “I want to quit smoking”.

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about adding to my life in terms of diversity.  It is really easy to get into a routine, live the same life, day in and day out.  To truly become a well rounded person we need to have a bit of change, diversity, and other ways of thinking come into our picture.  So this year, I want to really make an attempt to try, read, go, to places that are new to me.  Hopefully, by this time next year, I will be able to cross each item on this list.  Now I might change the list as I think about this more, but for the time being this will get me started.

1. Read a book I expect to disagree with completely.

2. Go somewhere I have never been.

3. Meet someone I did not know existed before today.

4. Eat a restaurant I have never been and order something I have never had.

5. Strike up a serious conversation with a stranger.

6. Discover 3 bands/artists in 3 different genres of music that I don’t normally listen to that I like.

7. Rent a movie that I have never heard of and know nothing about.

8. Attend a concert where I do not know the style of music.

9. Attend a play that I know nothing about.

10. Make a serious attempt to get published.

I like round numbers.  10 is a nice round number, and I think this list covers most areas of my life, that I tend to neglect in a day to day basis.  We get into ruts and routines, and sometimes we just need a small kick start to change our perspective on things.  Our view point needs to constantly evolve, or the world will pass us by in flash.

Here is to 2009, my 10 year high school renion and making a small attempt at diversifying my life.