Podcasts (#26)

Life just keeps going at breakneck speed. It is just over two weeks until my birthday, and I have 4 more blogs to write! This week has been a pretty typical week:

•  Teaching at the girls school (their annual school fair is this weekend, which I'm looking forward to)
• English bible study (a small but sweet group of low level students in the small town of Zhuang-Wei outside of Yilan) 
• Small group (meeting in my home since October, we're in James chapter 4 now) 
• Writing tests (never ending) 
• Doing homework (ironically, my project due Monday is to create an achievement test) 
• Teaching in Hualian (funny story - the school has been asking me to do more classes, even offered to pay me directly. I really do like the school, so I emailed our office and recommended that we could add a couple more classes this semester. I got back a proposed schedule of 8 more classes in the next two months which would have me going to Hualian almost every week... inch - meet mile. I don't think they're going to get them all) 
• Going for walks now that the weather has gotten nice

And that is the topic of  my post today. I've discovered podcasts! They're typically the perfect length for a nice walk, and give you some food for thought on the way!
Some of the fun ones I enjoy (all free on iTunes BTW) are: Freakonomics (for when I want to feel smarter), The Fringe Podcast (I really like the show, ok?), Jillian Michaels (Though she kind of gets rambly and new agey sometimes), Relevant (info about new music, yes please!), The Vinyl Cafe (go Canada, eh!), and my new favourite, Mosaic.

Let me tell you a little about the sermon series I've been listening to, it's called Artisan, and it talks about the fact that as humans we are uniquely both the created and creators. I really encourage you to listen. It discusses the creation narrative and other bible passages, and each  message has been full of inspiration and challenge, sometimes I find to be rare in sermons these days.
One great example of this was the Good Friday service I mentioned last week. It was great to work as a team with the other people in church, and I realized that one of my gifts is seeing the big picture, coming up with a theme, imagining how it will all flow together, and creating a plan. But even though I was involved in leadership, I also helped stack chairs, and run the powerpoint and sound, and make a list of things we would need to get. The next day I listened to the 5th message in the Artisan series: Craft, which reminded me that talent needs to be honed into skill, and art into craft. We can't expect everything to simply fall into place just because we happen to have a natural knack for it. There are no shortcuts. We have to be willing to put in the hard work. Just like an athlete must train. We also need to acknowledge that our greatest accomplishments shouldn't be a one time thing. Our greatest accomplishment should be our life. That's why one of my favorite verses is Philippians 1:6: