-
Hi, I'm Craig...
I like to help people grow spiritually, communicate ideas in a way people can easily understand & develop leaders. I try to lead my life with purpose, on purpose. With God's help, I'm becoming a better, husband, father, and man... Everyday.
Find out more about me & what I do.- Email Me
I Don’t Know Where to Start.
If you’ve ever been at a place where you felt completely and totally lost, you understand what I’m talking about. Not knowing where to start or what to do next is one of the deepest feelings of lostness one can experience. Today, I want to dig into this idea of what do I do, when I don’t know what to do next? Where do I start when I don’t know where to start?
A couple of years ago I decided to purchase a shed from Lowe’s. I purchased one that had an extension kit to make it three feet larger which also meant more boxes. After finally getting everything back to the house, I dug through all the boxes neatly setting pieces all over my yard… floor pieces with other floor pieces, ceiling with ceiling, walls with walls, hardware with hardware. At this point, as I have already ripped apart all six boxes, I realized something - some of the walls don’t match! Frantically I started looking around, some of the ceiling pieces were off too! And some of the flooring… The realization set in, I just spent the last hour organizing this shed and Lowe’s had given me partial boxes of DIFFERENT SHEDS! How am I going to get the right pieces back to the right boxes??
If only I had looked at the boxes and started off with the instructions - I wouldn’t be in this mess!
I think we all have moments in our lives where we wish we would have thought before we spoke, looked before we leaped, tested the waters before we jumped right in, measured before we cut, read the instructions before we started…
If only life had an instruction manual!
King Solomon of Israel, to this day, is known as the wisest man who ever lived. He amassed riches beyond our wildest imaginations, built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and lead a kingdom into a period of peace and prosperity for all people.
As the book of Proverbs starts off Solomon tells us why he wrote this book:
Proverbs 1:1-7 [MSG]
These are the wise sayings of Solomon, David’s son, Israel’s king— Written down so we’ll know how to live well and right, to understand what life means and where it’s going; A manual for living, for learning what’s right and just and fair; To teach the inexperienced the ropes and give our young people a grasp on reality. There’s something here also for seasoned men and women, still a thing or two for the experienced to learn— Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate, the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women. Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.
The wisest man who ever lived tells us where we’re supposed to start.
Picture this, imagine Solomon wrote this specifically to you. He starts off telling you,
- I wrote this so you will know how to live well and live right.
- I wrote this so you can understand what life means and where it’s going.
- I wrote this as a manual for living.
- I wrote this for you to learn what is right and what is fair.
- I wrote this to teach you the ropes.
- I wrote this to give your children and grandchildren a grasp on reality.
- But don’t think you know it all, there’s still something you can learn.
- If you want to know where to start - start with God.
Solomon tells us that the “first step in learning, is bowing down to God.” What a great reminder for many of us. What’s amazing about being a part of a significant church is we’re all trying to follow God and live life in the best way possible. We’re not perfect but we’re trying to start off right, by starting with God.
If things are not right between you and Him now is as good a time as any to make it right. Who do you need to forgive? What do you need to surrender or let go of? What have you been avoiding that you know you must face? Maybe you’re reading this and thinking… I want to start with God but I don’t know how… Simply pray a prayer from your heart, tell Him how you feel, ask for forgiveness, and tell Him that you really do believe Jesus Christ is who He says He is and that you want Him to be #1 in your life. Start with God.
Want to Create a Digital Haven?
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could watch all your DVD’s or BluRay’s without ever getting off the couch? In a new world of comfort and ease, I can show you how without spending a lot of money.
Last week I posted about why I got rid of all of my DVD’s in favor of an AppleTV. This week I would like to talk about how I set it up.
What I used:
- iTunes
- Dropbox
- RipIt (purchased through MacHeist Bundle #2)
- Networked Home Computer (will work with Mac or PC)
- External Hard Drive
As I said last week I originally used a program called Handbrake to rip all of our DVD’s into a digital format. Then I came across RipIt. This program works faster than Handbrake but there is a cost. I got mine through a MacHeist Bundle with multiple other programs for next to nothing. If you don’t follow MacHeist and you own a mac, you need to they only come out with bundles once a year and they’re usually pretty awesome.
iTunes is key to this set-up. If you really want to utilize AppleTV to the max you cannot do so without iTunes.
Let’s lay a little groundwork… Apple just released iCloud which is designed to sync all of your media to all of your computers via the internet (or cloud). Dropbox utilizes the same concept only for all of your files and they’re a lot cheaper than upgrading your iCloud account. I have a 50GB account and all of my photos, documents, music and podcasts are kept within dropbox. Here’s how I set that up on my Mac for iTunes and how I then linked my TV Show and Movies files:
1…
By default iTunes sets your media folder location in your “Music” folder. I took that folder and copied it into my Dropbox folder under a new “Music” folder. To change the location within iTunes go to your menu bar, click iTunes, then Preferences. Under the Advanced tab you will find your current iTunes Media Folder location click “Change” and then locate your new location within the Dropbox folder.
2…
I then organized my digital TV and Movie files within folders on my external hard drive. Once I had it organized the way I wanted it I dragged the folder and dropped it directly into iTunes. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: You do not want your TV and Movie files to be automatically copied and organized into your iTunes Media Folder in Dropbox. Make sure that “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library” is UN-CLICKED. (You can change it back once iTunes has processed your TV and Movie files).
3…
Part of the reason I love iTunes is you can group all of your TV Shows together under the actual show. It takes a little bit to reorganize within iTunes but ultimately it will make scrolling through on the interface so much easier. I prefer to organize my TV Shows and Movies by genre as well. This is done by “right clicking” on the file you would like to organize then click “Get Info”. “Info” will allow you to change the name of your file within iTunes and add the genre.
After that tab, you will want to focus in 2 other tabs, “Video” and “Options”. Under “Video” you can put the name of the show if it’s TV and the Season Number, this will be important for your AppleTV to group your TV Shows together by show.
Under “Options” you can designate what type of file it is. By default all video files are Movies so you will have to change an TV Shows to the correct designation.
Share your library with AppleTV and you’re good to go. There is obviously a lot more to this but hopefully you get the idea of how to really utilize AppleTV to collect all of your media files into a true Digital Haven!
Do you feel strong today?
This simple thought could change the way you approach your week.
I was taught (like many of us) to work on my areas of weakness. Now, I’m not talking about character flaws, I’m talking areas where I’m really not that good. It’s almost second nature to look at areas of weakness and want to improve. After all, nobody likes to feel like a failure… Right?
Marcus Buckingham said something that changed my whole perspective on strengths and weaknesses. He said that a strength, essentially, is any area that when you’re done doing it, it makes you feel strong. (Paraphrased)
The truth is that your greatest area of improvement lies not in your greatest areas of weakness but in your greatest area of strength.
Think about this… Tom Brady (quarterback for the New England Patriots) is not a great scrambler. Now he could really work on becoming more mobile and he will probably see some improvement in his scrambling ability - but he’ll never be Michael Vick. What makes Tom Brady great is his accuracy and decision-making ability (especially under pressure). That’s why he gets paid millions upon millions of dollars. His greatest areas of strength are what make him an asset to his team.
Question for the week: What percentage of your time is spent in areas of your greatest strength? What is one thing you can do, starting this week, to make sure you spend more of your time in the areas of your greatest strengths?
"The Bible is full of creative, innovative approaches that God employs, some of which are logical, while others seem quite far-fetched… The only true safe place to be in the Christian walk is smack-dab in the middle of God’s will; when His will leads us to new methods and modes of ministry, we disobey Him by staying with old, timeworn forms. Christian obedience is a current affair, not yesterday’s headlines, and our lack of responsiveness to accept God’s new ideas results in what it has always been throughout history: sin."
How can I get more results from my efforts? There’s a simple truth that could show you what to do next.
