As you may know LWA has a book coming out in a little under 24 hours. We wanted to release this last 2 page section on how this book is going to be different with it’s technology and content. We think it’s going to be game changer.
Check out the last pre-release “About this Book”
“Since we are in the idea spreading business and not the book selling business—we have decided not to pursue a traditional publisher. While we have friends in the industry and value their hard work, we feel that our admittedly ‘unorthodox’ methods of distribution and creating of content would have put us at constant odds with a traditional publisher.
New ways of doing things has some admitted benefits:
We can give the book away for free We can write and speak unmuffled
It also creates some serious issues:
Distribution depends on you LWA may die due to lack of funds
But, despite the obvious risks, we are confident we have to take the consumer exchange out of this process. It is the right thing to do for such an important message. We risked Read more...
Here is the 2nd excerpt from Love Without Agenda: My Journey Our of Consumer Christianity. It’s a transitional section called “The Lawnmower and the Lemonade”.
I sat there for a while and drank that lemonade. I finished the whole pitcher.
I went back in and filled the pitcher with sweet tea.
I drank enough that I wasn’t thirsty anymore. I kept sippin on that tea.
Biding my time and stalling. I sat out there drinking and stalling for almost an hour or so.
I swear—I probably would have sat there forever and let that grass grow up around my waist.
Today I will be releasing a short excerpt from our book Love Without Agenda: The Art of Being Christian. A few words on the section:
A few words on Truth is in an independent section of the book we call FYI’s. They are little side discussions that I think are relative the whole picture of the book—but dont necessarily fit into the flow of the story.
I actually think my Non-Christian friends will stand up and cheer at this book—and this little section. Hopefully the title of the book doesn’t pigeon hole our efforts
Here is a little taste…
“This use of truth has historically warped Christian’s ability to see other humans thru the compassionate eyes of their Creator.
It sets the stage for a low theological and practical view of people. Because our truths trump other people’s value.
Others’ value becomes tied to their accepting of our truth. This blinds us to the inherent value God gives them
It gives Read more...
Sometimes to “Love Without Agenda” is long suffering and hard.
Sometimes it short and simple.
Each day has a mix I would say.
Some of us are great at the longer suffering love’s, and while doing so, sometimes miss the small daily opportunities that occur between the “big- important-heavier” loves’s we carry, easy to forgive ourselves since we do other ‘great’ things.
I do think that greater personal wholeness and maturity is seen in our ability to just always be in a place of love.
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This morning our toilet in our new apartment was squirting water out of the tank. No longer a home owner, I joyfully called Fred to come fix it. Task #1. done. On to bigger things!
*Kids all going to college, stuff to get, classes to discuss, forms to fill out, service projects to do, dentist visit.
*Book to edit, support to give, illustrations to create.
*Bills to pay, car to sell, home to sell, money business.
*Some exercise and dinner to cook.
*Some tougher family Read more...
We at LWA have been in “moving mode” for a month or so now.
oh there’s a lot that we want to write about on our “moving from the suburbs to the city experience”:
change-growth-home-challenge-creativity-people-diversity-needs-letting go-working hard…….
but for today I just wanted to share some of our “thrifty fun” ideas.
Whether rich or poor, we are committed to using monies wisely, trying to recycle, repurpose, DIY, work hard with our own hands and live on less. This takes us a wonderful world of creative and collaborative people, which is super inspiring. For me it feels “healthy” and somehow “right”. I even discover more creativity inside of my own self when in this space.
In the past month we have:
-taken our old poker table..and made it into Spencer’s desk, using only a saw, screwdriver, strong arms and our secret tool: industrial velcro !
-took an old piece of barnwood that we found and made it into a table with: sandpaper, wipe on polyurethane, random pieces of .25 cent Read more...
Almost every comedian that you or I have ever seen on TV or heard in a comedy club lists Bill Hicks as one of the most influential comedians ever. Bill sadly died of cancer in 1994, but is still widely known as a special funnyman and human being in general. Bill Hick’s signature bit was called, “It’s Just a Ride” where he talks about life and seeing people and the world with either fear or love. It’s a poignant, almost non-comedic end to his 1993 HBO Special “Revelations.”
Bill was a man who struggled and fought many demons throughout his life, but in this bit he shows a way to see the world and how to cure some of the Read more...
If anyone out there still hasn’t at least skimmed Seth Godin’s landmark book “Tribes” please run out and do so immediately. Seth Godin has become one of the leading people in the world at seeing how the present is shaping the future—and in his book Tribes, he talks about how small, medium or even gigantic Tribes, are shaping the future. Apple fanboys are a tribe, tv.WineLibrary.com is a tribe, TED is a tribe, the Church is a tribe, shoot even Al Qaeda is a tribe. Tribes happen because “people” (read leaders) see something that can be better, something that is incomplete or something that your passionate about and those leaders (plus a small cadre of friends and like-minded cohorts) laud, sweat, work for, beg, borrow, and or steal to make that change or progress happen.
One prerequisite for being a leader of a tribe seems to be being a heretic on at least one level or another. Now I know that the overwhelming majority of people that just read the word heretic, their minds just ran to their favorite Church leader they like to bash or someone who’s theology they Read more...
Lucky for me i make my decisions based on my dreamer parts and get there using my engineer parts. First why, then how. Otherwise we lock dreams in reality and only read about them as stories.
When we adults opt out of important moments in the lives of kids, we rob them, their kids, and ourselves; we are fools to think anything is unseen.
So, the fun began with Jessie in our home.
My oldest son shared his solo bedroom. He no longer sat in the front seat of the car, Jessie did. He had someone older to watch older kid movies with. Sometimes they shared friends and play sports at a more mature level. He moved his role in the family as first born, to some extent. I dont think it was so easy for him. He listened to a LOT more talking than his brothers did. He listened to talking about bad hair days and feeling fat days. He helped her with math. She tells him he is smart, she is very expressive. He learns how to empathize and relate with well chosen words.
I observe kids “loving without agenda” better than adults. These kids did not chose their life thus far, Read more...
My friend Brad, who works here in the LWA offices, told me a saying that goes “1/3 of all things our parents believed when they were growing up…we will eventually find very silly”
Put this in that category.
Today marked the passing of the judge, Sylvia Pressler, who forced Little League to allow girls the opportunity to play baseball with boys. Apparently in 1973, little girls were not seen fit to play baseball, with or without little boys.
I’m reminded that this seemingly common sense thing—that we assume has always been—had to be fought hard for…and it (like all changes) was seen as both radical and deeply subversive at the time. I love the quote from the Little League on the court’s ruling (yes…Little league fought this tooth and nail…even appealing the ruling)
The ruling was decried by Little League as “conceived in vindictive and prejudicial fashion of the worst kind”
Amazing.
The story really puts change in perfect perspective. Change is never easy—even for something as innocent as letting Read more...
Quite often i see life as a sport where love is the action, every moment like a ball thrown our way for us to practice the art of loving without agenda.
Jessie is in my life one of those wonderful moments, lived on.
I was total “koolaid mom”, lived on a block in suburbia in a 1920′s bungalow with charm all its own, its wooden red door always open for the neighborhood kids to become family with my 3 boys. We had tons of fun: made those tents from blankets and chairs on rainy days, ran around outside with sticks on all days, played baseball in the neighbors yard on nicer days and made stuff from playdough on special days. I made lots and lots of plates of grilled cheese sandwiches and swept lots and lots of crumbs.
Jessie is the only girl on the block, a couple years older than the crowd of elementary school boys; mostly happy that her super high energy and, in her teen girl mind, menacing little brother, was always at my place. She lived at first with both parents, then mom, then grandma, then dad. Troubles in her home the same as many folks encounter, her Read more...
Here is a little taste…
