As a true freeskiing pioneer, Sarah Burke's competition and lobbying has affected the lives of countless skiers, spectators, and athletes.  Over the course of her lifetime, Sarah Burke became a 
six-time X Game gold medalist, a prominent professional ski athlete, a beloved wife, and a world-wide ambassador of professional and non-professional female athletes.  Sarah Burke was quite possibly the most influential and outstanding female skier that has ever lived.




After lobbying for and earning the rights to compete in events such as the X Games and other skiing events on an equal level with men, Sarah Burke and other women gained the opportunity to compete in the 2014 Olympic Winter Games that are scheduled to take place in Sochi, Russia.  Burke was a shoe-in for Canadian representation in the new super-pipe freeskiing events and was likely already starting to prepare for the coming Winter Games.  Not only was she an automatic qualifier, Sarah Burke was favored to win the entire competition and expected to receive gold-medal Olympic standing.  

The following video contains a creative and interesting illustration about evangelism for modern Christians.  I definitely believe that it's worth viewing and thinking about as a follower of Christ integrated as a member of society and that it does speak a lot of truth in regard to the current state of the Church and how the Christian community (in general) views evangelism and sharing their faith.  I hope that you find it equally as thought provoking, creative, and entertaining.



 

A psychiatrist working at Yale University, George Mahl, counted and examined ten speech disfluencies (including the infamous "uh" and "um") with the purpose of measuring a person's anxiety level.  He calculated that, on average, during every 4.4 seconds of spontaneous speech, one disfluency occurs in a person's speaking.   (Source)

Social Media: it's everywhere today. With over 750 million people on Facebook, Google Plus on the rise, and Twitter a force to be reckoned with, it's hard to escape it.

I wrote the following to clarify a recent status update I posted about social media, and to clarify my philosophical position on social media in general:

Image from Urbandictionary.com

Normally when we hear the phrase "he is such a tool," it is used in a very derogatory sense.

The Urban Dictionary defines a "tool" as: "One who lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used. A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-steem."

Today I want to redeem this term and encourage every one of you to be a "tool."

Be used.

Be used by God.

For what greater goal could we have in life than to become an instrument in God's grand purpose as he furthers his kingdom?

Photo Credit

I heard a short spot as I was listening to the radio this morning that was encouraging everyone to visit the Obesity Action Coalition website and sign the petition to help make obesity a disease. The first question that came to my mind is, "how can you sign a petition to make obesity a disease?" It either is or is not a disease... signing a petition can't change that either way.

Also, could obesity even qualify? Let's look at the pertinent definition of the word "disease" from Dictionary.com:

Photo Credit

Knowing truth--discovering truth--is a much more complicated concept/process than it appears to be at first glance. Different authors have different views on exactly how one should go about "knowing truth." These views influence what the authors write and publish, and from their works we can discern their individual views on the discovery and comprehension of truth.

"Don't Waste Your Life" Music Video By Lecrae:

 This is a commentary contributed by a good friend of mine, Bryce Zeigle, that was originally written and published in June of 2009.  Bryce has spent the latest years of his life in central Wisconsin and is now attending Wheaton College, Illinois for his second consecutive year.  The grammar, format, and other aspects of this article have been revised, and now posted here with his expressed permission.

"Open fields of wild flowers,
she breathes the air and flies away
She thanks her Jesus for the daises and the roses"