Too much like Ted

My roommate Trevor introduced me to the sitcom How I Met Your Mother last week. I watched the entire first season in three sittings. I like the show for a lot of reasons, like the fast paced humor, the lack of respect chronology, and the ridiculous character Barney. It's very similar to Scrubs in its portrayal of young, urban 20somethings, only more accessible (since I'm not a doctor.)

But the reason I get so drawn into this show is how much I identify with the main character Ted. Here are a few things I can relate to:

1. He falls too fast. The whole first season is about his relationship with Robin, which he screwed up by telling her he loved her on their first date.


2. His tendency to overthink things keeps him from acting.


3. His relationships with his closest friends are sometimes peers, and sometimes surrogate parents.


4. He has an amazing two month relationship with Victoria the Cupcake Girl, who leaves him for Europe.


5. His walls are covered with posters of ska bands and he almost dumped a girl who didn't like Star Wars.


6. Ted is looking to settle down, but can't seem to find any girls who want to.


7. Ted knows exactly what he wants (likes Otis Redding, plays bass guitar, loves dogs), and judges everyone he sees on that.

Yeah...feel a little too much like Ted.

Take a (smaller) step

I recently read a book that devoted a chapter to how to move forward on a goal. We often set BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), and are so sure they are not doable that we never do anything. The key is to break it down. For instance, let say my goal is to have food in my fridge. I could say "Well, my fridge is empty. This is totally undoable." Or I could list the steps.

1. Make a grocery list.
2. Go to the Grocery store.
3. Eat dinner.

Even that seems like a lot. But, what if we broke it down even more. Let's make ever 1 step into 5.

1. Find pencil.
2. Find paper.
3. Look in fridge to find out what's missing.
4. Sit down with pencil and paper.
5. Make a grocery list.
6. Find my keys.
7. Find my wallet.
8. Walk to my car.
9. Drive to the grocery store.
10. Walk inside the grocery store.
11. Find each item on the list.
12. Walk row by row through the store, looking for items missed.
13. Check out.
14. Drive home.
15. Cook dinner.

The idea is, having dinner tonight may be overwhelming, but, if broken down to small enough sizes, steps can be taken.

What is on your list of BHAGs?

On the Fringes

One of my favorite memories of being a kid is a Friday night in the early 90s where I happened upon a scary TV show where two FBI agents were tracking a serial killer who was a supernatural contortionist. It was one of the very first episodes of X-Files. That, along with the unrecognized classic retake of The Outer Limits made up many of my Friday nights.

So I was very excited to hear that the modern television master of supernatural suspense, J.J. Abrams, was behind a new show that mixes Rod Serling's Twilight Zone and The X-Files. Ever since shining the spotlight on Keri Russell's gorgeous curls in Felicity, Abrams has garnered cult followings with character driven serial dramas. He has even dabbled in movies, making best non-british superspy movie, Mission Impossible: III and gives us high hopes for the college age portrait of Captain Kirk in his upcoming Star Trek installment. His masterwork, Lost, continues to weave an intricate storyline whose complexity is only second to that of the characters themselves.

But after two episodes of Fringe the jury is still out. The story revolves around FBI Agent Olivia Dunham, whose boyfriend contracts a mysterious disease. Dunham goes to extreme lengths to help him, enlisting bad boy genius Peter Bishop (Dawson's Creek's Joshua Jackson) and his mad scientist father Walter Bishop (John Noble) to find a cure. The twist comes when we find out that the boyfriend was actually a traitor, trying to unleash the disease. A car wreck leaves him dying in Dunham's arms, but not before he can insinuate that Dunham is actually a pawn in a bigger scheme. Subsequent episodes have introduced The Pattern, a series strange incidents happening around the world. Someone is doing an experiment; only they are using the entire world an innocent human lives, as their lab.

Abrams succeeds in placing Fringe in our modern setting. Dunham is recruited for Homeland Security, a tip of the hat to the fears of pandemic disease and religious warfare that haunt our globalized post-911 world. Unfortunately, a mysterious overarching plot is not enough to make up for the two-dimensional the angst-ridden characters of Dunham and Bishop. The X-Files revolved around the chemistry of Mulder, who wanted to believe in everything that goes bump in the night, and the sexy archskeptic Scully, a doctor who questioned everything. Abrams is the master of creating fascinating characters, from the adorable Felicity, to the entire cast of Lost, whose first three seasons gave each character multiple episodes to tell their backstory. Fringe feels like retracing old steps. Only this time, it's not as fun.

That doesn't mean I'm going to stop watching. Despite the rehash, Abrams is tapping into a powerful zeitgeist. Fringe is based on the fear that eventually science will progress to the point it is out of our control. This belies a greater fear, that their are forces beyond our control, things we cannot see.

For Christians, this is the basis of all our beliefs. However, the modern worldview, shaped by the scientific achievements of the enlightenment, tried to make accepting anything that cannot be reproduced in a lab seem childish.
Angels, demons, miracles, and even God were pushed out of the picture, only leaving room for what we could quantify and explain. Fringe represents a change in the discussion of our culture. This same science causes us to live in fear of nuclear warfare and global warming, and has yet to produce a cure for cancer. Science has failed us, and we are starting to look beyond ourselves for help.

As Christians, Fringe represents a discussion that the church should be having with the world. Our answer is, yes, there is more out there. But you don't have to fear it. His name is Jesus Christ, he loves you, and he gave his life for you.

The Story is Here!

Yesterday, at Journey Fellowship we kicked off The Story. The Story is a massive effort to unite thousands of people at three campuses in dozens of ministries and hundreds of small groups. What will unite us? A study of the story of God's Word, from beginning to end.

Our tool in this will be The Story, an abridged version of the TNIV text, broken into 30 chronological chapters. Each week we'll read a chapter, study it in our groups, and look at it again on Sunday mornings. We'll do this for the rest of the school year.

If you want to follow along with us, check out www.thestorynow.net.

Currently Reading:

I'm always working through 3-5 books at a time. Right now they are:

True North by Bill George. George is a professor at Harvard business school, and former CEO of Medtronic. This follow up to his book Authentic Leadership is a collection of stories from over 100 modern day leaders in a variety of fields.

Simply Christian by Tom Wright. The Reverend Wright is possibly the most widely appreciated living theologian, his writings range from popular level work, including his fantastic New Testament for Everyone commentaries, to academic textbooks. This is his attempt to provide a 21st Century Mere Christianity.

Watchmen by Alan Moore. I've been picking away at the greatest Graphic Novel of all time for quite some time. I'm about half way through, and still not sure what it's about or why it is such a big deal--but I love it. The impending movie has inspired me to finish it.