Leave It Behind > Brian Bailey

24-Second Clock

In professional basketball, there is 24-second clock that forces you to shoot the ball within 24-seconds or lose possession. There's always a great moment at the end of a close game when a team has the ball with less than 24 seconds left. The announcer will inevitably mention that "the 24-second clock has been turned off" as its now irrelevant to what's happening on the court.

I realized today that I have arrived at that point with the book. For the past nine months, I have had one goal in mind: write 50,000 words. Months into the process, it became clear that there was more material than I thought and the goal was increased to 60,000 words. In the past week, I've passed 55,000 words with a few chapters left to finalize, which brings me to today.

It occurred to me for the first time that my goal is no longer a number, but simply finishing. I honestly don't need to write any more words, except for the minor fact that it's not done yet. I can cut paragraphs at will and settle for a short chapter or two. It's a totally different way to look at writing. My 24-second clock has been turned off!

With the deadline just a week away, I've started to get a few more questions about the writing process. I'm starting to put together a list of the lessons I've learned over these months. It's truly been a fascinating experience, filled with many emotional highs and lows. I hope to have that post ready in a couple of weeks.

Three questions

1. When did blog become a noun describing a single blog post? More and more, I've heard people refer to a "blog they wrote" or ask "did you see that blog of Scoble's yesterday?" They're not referring to the blog itself, but to a single post. Interesting.

Of course, I still think blogs should be called weblogs - I loved that word (may it rest in peace).

2. If you're making scrambled eggs and toast, and you have in front of you a bowl of scrambled eggs, 2-3 slices of bread, and a skillet, is there any good reason not to turn that combination into french toast? Besides the fact that syrup would now be involved, I certainly couldn't think of one. In fact, why would someone consume eggs any other way?

3. Do you realize that the phrase upper deck has been removed from the world of baseball? I was shopping for some baseball tickets to coincide with our summer vacation and discovered that in the modern world, there is the upper terrace and the upper box, but no upper deck.

Wouldn't that be a great home run call? Wow! Bonds just hit one deep into the upper terrace!

God put a smile upon my face

I already told you how much I love God's sense of humor. I wasn't being sarcastic. If you don't think God is hilarious, you've missed something. God is love and joy. Have you ever experienced love and joy without smiling and laughing? We've all seen people try, though, haven't we?

The first time I realized that if God was omni-everything else, He was probably omni-funny too, was in college. When I was growing up, one of my favorite shows was Family Ties. I wanted to be Alex P. Keaton - if he was being mocked, it was completely lost on me. Alex was my hero.

In one of the later episodes, Alex's friend Greg dies in car crash and Alex takes a long look at this life. He talks to a therapist about a lot of deep questions and eventually the subject turns to God. The show knew he had to believe in God, based on all the other stereotypes he embodied, but they just couldn't swallow true Christianity. Alex concedes that he does believe in God, but it's not a biblical God. Alex's God is a more malleable version.

"I think God is gentle and forgiving and not one special form, you know? One day He's a dolphin, the next day He's trading shares on Wall Street."

I never forgot the line about the dolphin. It always struck me as funny, partly because Alex was essentially making up his own God, like we all want to do, picking and choosing the parts we like and don't like. But mostly because it's such a dramatic episode and then there's a line about God being a dolphin right at the climax.

Flash forward a few years to college. I'm alone in my dorm room praying. It was very rare that I would just sit and pray, but for some reason on this night I had the lights out, the lava lamp going (oh, like you never had one), and Mozart playing. That night was the first time I ever felt like Jesus was in the room. He wasn't just part of me, He was hanging out. It was an unbelievable feeling.

So, I'm praying and just struggling to express all that He is to me. "You're my everything. You are the stars above and the earth below. You're the sun and the moon. You're my every breath." I tend to pray in an odd mixture of 18th century poetry and R.E.M. songs.

And then Jesus said, "I'm like a dolphin, swimming in the ocean."

I laughed so hard until I finally started to cry. You don't think the God of the universe cares about you? He loves me so much, so intimately, that He left His place at the right-hand of the Father to sit on the corner of my bed in a dorm room in Indiana for just one purpose: to deliver the greatest punch line I've ever heard. You had me at dolphin.

This weekend, I'm doing something I've never done before. I'm staying in a hotel by myself. The book is due in 2 weeks and my incredibly supportive family pushed me out the door and told me to go finish it already :)

Lori helped pick a hotel in the area and when I reserved the room online, I made note of the free breakfast, the indoor pool, and the complimentary copy of USA Today. I checked-in on Friday and as I was gathering my things and heading toward the elevator, I saw the stack of newspapers on the counter, but noticed one that didn't look like all the others.

A single complimentary copy of the Friday Wall Street Journal.

You don't think the God of the universe cares about you?

A quote in the Journal

Today is a dream come true: I get to see my name in the Wall Street Journal. I was interviewed for article on how churches are using blogs, podcasts, and other web technologies to reach people. I spoke with the author, Andrew LaVallee, a couple of weeks ago for about an hour after he came across the Blogging Church book site. Andrew was great to work with and was kind enough to let me know with the article went live.

Holy Sites: Churches Embrace the Web in Bid to Attract Members

My quote is found at the end (really, the very end). I'm pretty sure that's where they put the best quotes to reward people who read the whole thing :)

The article is currently free and doesn't require a subscription to read. After today, you will have to have an account. I believe the article is for the online edition only, but I'll be checking the print edition just to make sure.

Funny story...remember when I wrote about Jacob's Well - the future of church websites? I mentioned them to Andrew as a great example of what he was talking about and next thing you know they've got two paragraphs in the WSJ! Very cool. Life Church and National Community Church are also mentioned, amongst others.

Since I was about 14 years old, my favorite newspaper has been the Wall Street Journal. For most of my life, I have been unable to justify the hefty subscription fee, so I've made do with numerous 4-Week Free Trials! to get my fix. In fact, one of my favorite treats has always been a copy of the Friday Journal (the best edition due to the extra political coverage, and now movies, television, and other weekend items). Yes, I would choose a $1 paper over a $5 venti...I'm strange that way.

I'll even throw this story in, mostly for Ben (stories like this come in handy when you have a child approaching the teen years). When I was in college, money was so tight that I would regularly collect empty soda cans from the dorm to collect the recycling deposit ($0.10 each in Michigan!). If I was feeling especially rich, I would use that to by the Friday Journal. I think all of us have something that will forever seem like an incredible extravagance - for me, it's the Journal.

Of course, the irony is that I finally decided to treat myself to an entire year of the journal in December. The subscription has been on hold since January, pending the completion of the book. I love God's sense of humor!

Estimated Profit

Today I had the privilege of meeting with Josh Williams, the talented guy who started Firewheel Design. Firewheel is a cool web design and development shop located just 15 minutes from Fellowship. In addition to client work, the team is responsible for iconbuffet, the definitive source for first-class icons, and Blinksale, a fantastic online invoicing solution for design shops, freelancers, and small businesses.

Josh is contributing a piece to The Blogging Church, which started our latest back and forth. Today's conversation was focused on web development, though. It was immensely helpful to hear how the Firewheel team is structured and learn more about their development approach. I admire Josh and Firewheel a lot - they are passionate and principled in what they do, but also have a healthy perspective on the big picture.

Oh yeah, and the guy can write, too. In addition to answering my questions and taking a look at some of our work in progress, he also managed to provide nearly 300 words of book goodness. Thanks, Josh!

Update: Check out this interview with Josh on Godbit.

One of my favorite parts of blogging is choosing the title of a post. I take what I call the Dennis Miller approach - a man who loves the obscure connections between arcane pieces of information. I'm particularly proud of this one as there are two cryptic things buried in those two words. As Dennis says, "Stop me before I sub-reference again!"

If you can guess them both, I will be extremely impressed and you will receive a gold star for the day. No, seriously, I have gold stars in my drawer. Ask around.

O Blogger, Where Art Thou?

Thanks for your patience while my posts have been rather sporadic lately (occurring at irregular intervals according to the Oxford American Dictionary). I posted an update on the book project that's been consuming (absorbing all of someone's attention and energy - aren't words cool?) my evenings and weekends on the Blogging Church blog. I'm down to the final month, so hopefully I will soon be able to return to a more consistent blogging rhythm.

Well, at least after the inevitable writing and technology-free vacation that is sure to follow the completion of the book :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

Watch and smile

Apple's latest television ads are absolutely hilarious. You can watch them all online. You don't have to be an Apple fan to enjoy them, but it doesn't hurt.

Some very smart people came up with these - people who refused to settle for anything easy and typical. These ads take what is in reality complex, technical information about machines and simplify and humanize it so anyone can follow along and be entertained. The visual representation of networking is just fantastic. I bet Kathy Sierra loves these.

Watch and smile.