Being Fleshed Out – Emergent Design

Posted on November 23, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

In our latest adventure at work, we’re racing headlong and headfirst down the road of “emergent design” in Agile software development. We’re learning how to “fail fast and fail often” the hard way, and it’s been a challenge to determine whether we’re failing “correctly” — if there really is such a thing!

Traditionally, software was developed in some form of “waterfall process” in which a relatively firm set of requirements were defined by sales or marketing, which then flowed down to engineering who then designed, developed, and tested the product. The product was usually well-defined, designed, developed, waterfalland tested with long-term considerations in mind, and wasn’t released (usually) until sales/marketing had received the product or feature they wanted. Then the entire process would start over with the next set of marketing requirements flowing down from on “high” again.

Unfortunately, the problem with the waterfall process is that it’s often slow, cumbersome, filled with latency/bottlenecks, and the products can become quickly outdated and often difficult to maintain over time. Sometimes the market is simply changing faster than the company can keep up with, and the product has become irrelevant before it’s even released. In certain markets, the product has become outdated even before the requirements are finished being written! Most software products are like any other perishable product: they have a certain shelf-life of a few years (or months!) and then they’ve lost their usefulness. In the worst cases, it’s like trying to bake a batch of cookies in which the ingredients expire before they’re done being mixed!

One of the more popular alternatives to the waterfall process is emergent design, in which the software development life-cycle is greatly shortened but sped up, and the product rapidly “emerges” in a series of small steps instead of one big release. In the end, the same product may be made available, but the user-base sees the product or feature evolve in a series of frequent steps with more functionality being added every few weeks instead of several months — or longer.

From Wikipedia (the final authority of all that is known on the Internet), “With emergent design, a development organization starts delivering functionality and lets the design emerge. Development will take a piece of functionality A and implement it using best practices and proper test coverage and then move on to delivering functionality B. Once B is built, or while it is being built, the organization will look at what A and B have in common and refactor out the commonality, allowing the design to emerge. This process continues as the organization continually delivers functionality. At the end of an agile release cycle, development is left with the smallest set of the design needed, as opposed to the design that could have been anticipated in advance. The end result is a simpler design with a smaller code base, which is more easily understood and maintained and naturally has less room for defects.”

While I’m still getting used to working in the emergent design world, I can see its benefits — and it’s drawbacks. The product/features receive frequent feedback from the user-base and the software changes to meet their needs and/or demands accordingly. Emergent design gets a larger user-base involved in shaping the product earlier and more often rather than at the beginning and end of the process. However, while emergent design does solve some problems, it also causes some that could be avoided with the moreRaw-cookie-dough traditional waterfall process, namely in the design phase. Going back to the cookies example, sometimes emergent design feels like you’re trying to bake a batch of cookies in which there’s no written recipe (just general guidelines) and the batter is being mixed by trial and error! Not only that, but the recipe is being continually refined based upon your kids’ taste-buds at any given moment!

I hate having to do a job twice – especially jobs that I’ve put a lot of time and effort and heart into. I was taught that if you have to do something twice, then you didn’t do it right the first time. I dislike writing “disposable” code, functionality that I know will likely be thrown away in a few months or even weeks! It’s one thing to write code in such a way as to prepare for new features you know will be coming soon, but quite another to write code that you know will be deleted or never even seen by the users!

Needless to say, that’s become a big part of my job over the last year or so – continually reworking and refactoring roughly the same code over and over again. A tweak here, a tweak there, with sometimes an ugly gutting of all the innards and practically starting over. While I understand and mostly agree with the new process, sometimes emergent design goes against every common-sense software-development bone in my body! Before we code up something, how about we slow down for a minute and make a good design that will last longer? Instead of swinging from one extreme (waterfall) to the other (emergent), can’t we come up with a happy medium somewhere in between?

In both worlds, the user-stories/requirements change and the software has to be modified accordingly. Customer A likes this feature but Customer B doesn’t, so we try to find a way to make both happy. In emergent design, the process is sped up and both customers end up getting a portion of what they really want. They may want a Cadillac, but they have to settle for a 10-speed, then a Kia, and then a Lexus (if they’re lucky). The software doesn’t necessarily become better and better as much as different and more inline with what the customers want (or can somewhat agree to), though that often changes over time too. I’ve been working on this project from Line 1 on Day One and while it’s continually changing, it’s not always evolving in a certain defined direction as much as being more “fleshed out” as time goes on.

Maybe that’s the way it is with us – maybe we’re not always improving in any tangible, particular ways as much as being stretched, deepened, thickened, and being more fleshed out. Circumstances outside our control change and we have to respond accordingly. People are constantly coming and going, feeling, responding, changing, and affecting us (for good or bad). Maybe we who are being molded and shaped by the Divine Potter don’t always become better and better in the way we think we should be as much as different and more inline with what He requires of us at that particular point in time, though that often changes too.

Maybe it’s more important to be walking with God along this long, winding, and bumpy road — wherever He may be leading us — than it is to get to what we think should be our position or destination as quickly and directly as we can. We like all those shortcuts to make things faster and easier on ourselves more than how the long, difficult journey will prove our character and faith — but He doesn’t. I think He is much more concerned with how we’re responding to Him and those around us at any given moment and seeing us draw closer to Him with every step along the way. I think He’s more concerned with how we emerge from our circumstances and how we conform to Him than anything else.

windingpath

Maybe God is more concerned with our character and how it’s being shaped day-in and day-out than how quickly and easily we get Home, because that’s already been assured once we become part of His Family. He expects us to get battered, bruised, and calloused along the way, doesn’t He? After all, those blisters prove we’ve been walking a long way for a long time, don’t they? He expects us to live fully and take risks just like the men the shrewd master entrusted his talents to (Matthew 25:14-30). He’s already promised to bring us Home and be with us all along the way on this Journey, but He hasn’t said much about the ardors of the Journey itself!

Though our lives and our walk may indeed resemble software being written by “emergent design”, we can trust that the Potter knows exactly what He’s doing and that He’s shaping all of us precisely how He wants us to be not only at any given moment, but the final product of our lives.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. — Jude 24-25

Posted in Character, Personal, Refactoring, Software, transitions, Trust, Work | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Becoming Unpolitical (and Happily So!)

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

Politics. It’s that other dirty little eight-letter word that never goes away. This day next year, we’ll be going to the polls and voting for the next president. The media will be falling all over themselves trying to predict — and possibly influence — the outcome. Meanwhile, politics in modern America really is just show-business for the ugly (as one radio-host frequently puts it).

As the next election season gets rolling, I’ve already had several people ask me who I’m favoring. Seriously? The election is twelve months away, and the primaries are still several months away! They were asking me as far back as June! Just like Christmas seems to come earlier every year, so do election seasons. At this point, I’m happily ignorant and apathetic with regards to the 2016 election: “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

Needless to say, they’re not satisfied with my answer (which is probably why they keep asking me), and I’m perfectly fine with not having much of an opinion for a  change. There’s so many other more important things to spend my attention and time on, such as God, my kids, friends, writing, and new relationships.

I used to be much, MUCH more interested in politics, as several of my books can attest. I was very opinionated and impassioned with the American political system. While I tend to lean conservative on most issues, I’ve been trending more towards the Libertarians lately, particularly with regards to the size and scope of government. However, I’m not nearly as Libertarian as P&R’s Ron Swanson (but I’m getting close). “Mind your own business” seems to be my political motto lately!

In my very humble opinion, we have three political parties in the United States at this time in history: the Dangerous (Democrats), the Stupid (Republicans), and the Unelectable (Libertarian, Green, Constitutional, etc). The Dangerous Party has a fundamental misunderstanding of human-nature, international politics, and liberty. The Stupid Party is somewhat better in that they usually have policies that are more inline with middle American values (and common sense), but they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The Stupid Party refuses to listen to their base, rarely keeps their promises, and surrenders when they’re winning. Both the Dangerous Party and the Stupid Party cannot stop spending money we don’t have and all-too-often get decent people killed. The Unelectable Party in their different flavors and colors is just that — unelectable — and for a multitude of reasons. They make a little noise every few years but are insignificant to most elections.

After the last general election (2012) and especially the last congressional election (2014), I have come to realize the utter futility of modern American politics. Neither party keeps their word and should not be trusted with anything more important than a bake-sale. Without term-limits, Congress will only continue focusing on how to get re-elected rather than keeping their promises and doing their constitutional duties. The Presidency (pick your party) will only continue to overreach and grow the bureaucracy. I can’t recover any of that time, energy, and peace of mind I expended on politics in the past, and I’m loathed to repeat that in 2016 or any other upcoming election year.

Curiously, my oldest daughter is now interested in politics, and while I’m happy to discuss them with her, I don’t get as emotionally involved (ie, upset) as I used to, which sometimes bothers her. She’s a natural debater and actually enjoys arguing (it makes her giddy), and it frustrates her a little to know that I won’t be baited or lured into pointless debates anymore. I’d rather discuss God, grace, and good government with her, but not politics.

Part of the reason for this change was recognizing what politics does to people and relationships (finally!). Politics does little more than falsely unite but more often than not divide and stereotype. Discussing politics seldom builds up and usually tears down. Does discussing politics ever really bring encouragement, contentment, unity, or joy? Hardly! Does focusing on politics make me a better person or a worse person? Does it bring me peace or agitation? Does discussing politics draw me closer to Jesus or make me more like Him? Rarely — and usually just the opposite!

Religious discussions tend to have the same effect as political ones — nothing good typically ever comes from them. In the past, when people would say that it’s not polite to bring up politics or religion, my instinctive response was, “What else is there to talk about:  sports, the weather, Hollywood?” Boooring. With that said, I’ll still discuss God and grace with anyone, anywhere, and anytime, but religion or politics? No thanks.

The other reason for this change was the grim reality of America’s current situation — we have become the primary exporter of everything that God abhors. We glorify adultery, violence, perversity, bloodshed, victimhood, greed, and lawlessness. We are quick to shed innocent blood and refuse to defend our borders, sovereignty, natural rights, and private property. We are governed by debased, immoral leaders because we elect them over and over and over again and expect different results every election. That’s the very definition of insanity. We elect cowards, swindlers, and liars and expect them to govern honestly. If we’re brutally honest with ourselves, we elect the leaders who look a lot like us…

Real solutions to America’s problems will NEVER come from the ballot-boxes or the protest-marches but from our prayer-closets and pulpits.forefathers-monument The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Notice is that the verse says IF not when, and in America today, that’s a very big IF. The responsibility is up to us. Will WE (the Church) repent — will WE seek His face and not someone else? Will we stand in the gap for the aborted, the innocent, and the neglected? Will we keep our commitments and turn from OUR wicked ways?

To make that shoe pinch even tighter, try putting “I” in place of “we” in that verse. Will I humble myself? Will I pray and seek His face? Will I turn from MY wicked ways? Ouch! Maybe we should all focus much more on our personal walk with God and our integrity — something we actually have some measure of control over — instead of petty politics and the pop-culture that we don’t. What if we paid more attention to our own sins instead of those of our politicians and celebrities on the national stage?

Who am I supporting in this election? How about a “Trump-Hillary” ticket so everyone’s equally happy and unhappy for the next four years? Maybe ask me on Nov 1, 2016, but even then I probably won’t tell you! Until then, anything can (and probably will) happen. Dirt will be dug up, mud will be slung, scandals will erupt, and very little of it will really matter except to those in politics and in the media. An October Surprise next year should be no surprise at all! For 99.9% of the time until then, it’s just noise or entertainment — and for entertainment, Netflix is much, much better!

Though we choose our leaders democratically in America, never forget Who rules and reigns over all the earth and all Creation — the Lord God Almighty. We may cast ballots for our leaders a year from now, but He lifts them up and puts them down according to His good pleasure, and we can draw an enormous amount of comfort and peace from that! With just a thought, He could fix Trump’s hair, make Hillary quack like a duck, or make the Obamas eat grass on the White House South Lawn like Nebuchadnezzar — and that would be really something to see!

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.” — Daniel 2:20-22

Posted in Christian-life, New Beginnings, Personal | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Life is Short… Walk with God

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

ashley-madisonAshley Madison — the scandal that just won’t go away. Though the Ashley Madison hack/scandal is already a few months old, the repercussions continue to be felt throughout the corporate and religious world. The most recent update is that Gawker has released the photos that Josh Duggar used in his profile. The hackers have even published a site to allow anyone to search the database; evidently 30+ million users is rather tedious to dig through.

The latest Christian leader to be affected is R.C. Sproul, Jr, who has been suspended for the next year for accessing (though not joining) the site. I can’t help but observe that the media-hounds continue to be rather gleeful about digging up dirt on corporate, conservative, and Christian leaders (the three big “C”s) on their hit-list. Notice that the same media doesn’t seem very interested in exposing nonprofits, liberals, or atheist leaders, but that’s another story. Their objective, diligent search for the truth is rather biased just given who they’re choosing to focus on: their political adversaries (i.e., enemies).

Have you ever noticed how the truth always manages to come out? It doesn’t matter how carefully something is hidden, the truth is always, always, ALWAYS eventually uncovered? Somehow the truth always manages to wiggle, squirm, or erupt to the surface sooner or later. There’s always that one witness that comes forward years after the fact, those secret papers are found, or those lost tapes are recovered that reveal the truth about what really happened. There’s even those infamous death-bed confessions at the last possible moment.

Why, it’s almost as if there’s a spiritual-law at work with regards to exposing the truth, along with the law of “sowing and reaping” (whatever you sow, you will reap more of later). Perhaps it’s because there is such a law as Jesus mentions in Luke 12:2-3:

“But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. “Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.”

The Bible says that whatever is hidden will be revealed. Now, the truth may take awhile and might come out in an entirely unexpected way, imagesbut the God of the universe reigns and exposes secrets, lies, and cover-ups for what they usually are: sin. He hears everything, sees everything, and knows everything — even the tiniest thoughts of your heart. Recall David’s sin with Bathsheba and the subsequent cover-up in which her husband was murdered; he would’ve gotten away with it if God hadn’t told Nathan the Prophet who marched into the throne-room and stuck his finger in the king’s face!

Like most Christian parents, I regularly pray for my children — for their character, their health and well-being, and their relationship with God. Something I also pray for is that their sins will be uncovered and brought to light, so  we can work through them. Now, I could snoop, harass, or interrogate them, but kids are clever and are just as good as hiding things as we are. It’s much better just to simply pray and leave it up to God to bring them to light in His own way and in His own timing.

Mistakes and sins that are buried, ignored, or glossed over are rarely learned from, but they never really go away, do they? Sometimes it may take years for them to be brought to the surface, but be assured that sooner or later sin must be dealt with, either in this life or the next! When we fall into sin and royally screw up, we have a choice: we can bring our sins to light ourselves, confess them to God — and those we’ve wronged — and finally put them to rest, or we can let the Master do it for us in His own time and in His own way. However, the problem with delaying those inevitable consequences often becomes much, much worse!

You cannot hide your sin and you cannot hide from its consequences and repercussions, which often have a way of compounding themselves over time. Make no mistake — God is not mocked (Galatians 6:7). Compounded consequences are much, much worse than compounded interest and often accumulate at faster rates! Because of David’s sin, the “sword” never left his house (2 Samuel 12:10), and his children, grandchildren, and subsequent generations felt the consequences of his tryst and the attempted cover-up.

Not only can we be assured that our sins will someday be revealed in all their filth and shamefulness, but we won’t know how, when, or with who that will happen if we don’t deal with them speedily (and preferably on our own terms!). Whatever you did may be scandalous, but it doesn’t have to turn into a scandal unless you try to bury it. Some people think they can somehow bury the truth deep, deep down and escape the consequences — which they may succeed in for awhile — but it won’t lie buried forever. The truth never really dies; it just patiently waits there in the dirt. Meanwhile, it’s also always there inside you, festering and gnawing at the back of your mind like the raven from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem.

winding

What would the impact of the Ashley Madison scandal had been on R.C. Sproul, Jr. have been if he had confessed his sin a year ago when he had visited the site — before the scandal broke? Would he still have been suspended? Perhaps, but maybe not for a year because the incident would not have been made public. Whatever is hidden will be revealed, and the truth always comes out one way or another.

Ashley Madison’s tagline is “Life is short…Have an affair.” How about we each have our own personal tagline that’s infinitely better (and with infinitely fewer repercussions!):

“Life is short…Walk with God.”

Confess your sins early — even those humiliating, shameful ones. Take your lumps before they become mountains that will crush you. Keep short accounts between you and God, and you and those you love. Settle those accounts before the interest has compounded into an unfathomable sum. Though our sins have been forgiven, we often cannot escape their consequences in this life.

Walk with God. Be strong and courageous. Live with integrity. Do your best to live without regrets. Take the narrow, difficult road. Pursue God and the stuff that lasts such as peace, joy, and love. Sow to the Spirit instead of the flesh and always guard your heart.

You’ll never be sorry.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23

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Bootstrap and Psalm 42

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

Several of the current buzzwords in web development today are Bootstrap, mobile-first, and responsive design, along with Angular, Ruby, Jasmine, Karma, and many, many others! A hallmark of open-source projects and collaborative frameworks is to use goofy names that are usually common and easy to remember, such as “broccoli”, “cucumber”, and “apache” (which is completely unrelated to the Native American tribe).

In the new project we’re developing at work, we’re relying heavily on Bootstrap and several others. Bootstrap is a framework for building responsive websites in which the styling, navigation, and layout of the pages “responds” to the size of device or the width of the browser on which you’re viewing advantages-of-using-bootstrapthe website to provide the most optimal web experience. For example, newer websites may look and respond much differently when you browse them on your phone instead of your laptop or tablet. Before responsive design, developers had to create completely separate pages, code, and graphics for different devices which multiplied efforts, costs, and time. With responsive design and mobile-first (in which the site is first designed for a small mobile size and then expanded for larger devices), the pages and code are written once but automagically change their layout and styling to optimally fit any device.

Bootstrap is the undisputed leader of responsive web frameworks because of its ease of use, resources, themes, clean styles, documentation, extensions, and popularity. The majority of responsive websites are probably using Bootstrap in one form or another. Bootstrap was named as such because developers could easily plug it into their own websites and quickly “pull it up by its own bootstraps” — i.e., get a responsive website functioning quickly without a lot of effort and hassle. Rather than scouring the Internet for various CSS (styling/layout) components that may break one another, you just plug in Bootstrap and you get most of the common components, layouts, and styles for free — and it looks great on most devices since it’s responsive, especially if you’re using the mobile-first pattern.

Though it took some time to learn, using Bootstrap has saved us a ton of time, effort, and headaches because of its consistent, responsive behavior. Instead of having to test our pages on dozens of different devices with different screen-sizes, browsers, and all their various quirks, we only have to test a handful of different sizes. Unfortunately, at work we were a little late to the party and released our first mobile website a few months after Bootstrap’s 12-grid system for responsive design was introduced several years ago. We blew literally weeks working out the bugs on the site due to different device and browser quirks that could’ve been avoided by using Bootstrap. Just when we would fix a bug for one browser, it would break something else on another — it was one curve-ball after another! Sometimes we would just flip a phone sideways or upside-down, the page wouldn’t render properly, and it was back to debugging!

How do we respond when life throws us curve-balls? What about when we’re thrown not only curve-balls, NCAA_Bryant_Arkansas__Jone2_r600x400but breaking-balls? And don’t get me started on knucklers! How “responsive” are we when our “dimensions” suddenly change without warning, when we’re flipped on our side, upside down, or suddenly stretched (or squished)?

Do we respond to change like we should, like others expect, or even how we think we should? Do we respond to change like how we know God would have us to?

When the rug is pulled out from under us and we go flying on backs, are we able to pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps? What about when we’re down-and-out and stuck in the mire of depression? What about when we feel much more like Eeyore instead of Pooh, Tigger, Kanga, or Roo? How do we dig out of that dark pit we may find ourselves in? How are we to pick ourselves back up if our bootstraps are broken?

I’ve always loved the Psalms, but they never meant nearly as much to me as they have over the past few years. The Psalms are where we get to know God’s immeasurable heart and love for us, our own heart and soul, and how we can better relate to Him. Doesn’t it stand to reason that the Creator and Author of our souls knows precisely all our different moods, feelings, thoughts, and struggles, and would provide a book to guide us through them?

There are two Psalms in particular that I go to when I feel downcast and my soul needs to be picked up “by the bootstraps”: Psalm 42 and Psalm 73. I’ll never forget those two psalms because I went to them regularly during my 42nd year and because I was born in 1973. In fact, I went to them yesterday when I was feeling worn down after a rough couple days at work. While both psalms deal with being down and out, Psalm 42 is about depression and being terribly downcast, while Psalm 73 is more about injustice.

I’ve never really suffered from depression, but I’ve come very close a few times — I think many of us have (even if we may never admit or show it). My father has had bouts of it, while my grandfather suffered greatly under the weight of depression. After he passed away, we found stacks of yellow legal-pads full of his notes, prayers, and struggles with depression. But the thing is, I doubt most people ever really knew about his depression. He was always friendly and had a smile on his face, and had a gentle, quiet voice — except when he got really, REALLY upset. Regardless of how low he felt, he faithfully went to work and wore that old blue-green mechanics uniform to the shop/factory everyday.

For me, Psalm 42 is the “downcast soul” psalm, the passage I almost always go to when I lose sight of Him and turn inward, which inevitably then turns downward into being downcast and hopeless.

Psalm 42
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    a multitude keeping festival.

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation 6 and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
    have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

When I analyze this psalm (especially when I’m not downcast), I notice several things. First, there’s no “There, there, it’ll be alright” language or “Cheer up, it could be worse!”, much less any words of vanity like Job’s friends spouted off for several chapters. Second, there’s no psycho-babble, advice, or even wisdom given except to turn to the Lord and to continue to hope in Him.

The psalmist give free rein to his dark feelings as he pours out his heart, his grief, and his misery. Often when we do likewise, it makes others rather uncomfortable, even stormthose closest to us. We really aren’t very good at dealing with somber, dark moods and depression in others or ourselves most times. When the darkness really sets in and hope seems completely lost, we tend to start analyzing and advising instead of just listening quietly. We have this notion that such dark feelings are always bad and should be avoided or brought to an end quickly, and that we should be happy or relatively content most of the time.

But that’s not what is written in this psalm. There’s no quaint advice nor “Buck up, little camper!” words given, nor are such emotions spoken of as being evil or bad. There’s no heartless talk of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and snapping out of it.

God understands our moods and knows how we feel — after all, He created us. Jesus Himself was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering (Isaiah 53:3), and many of the Psalms came straight from His own heart. We can only speculate how many times He went to them during His times of loneliness, weariness, and sorrow.

We’ll have good times and bad times, times of rejoicing and times of sorrow — even very rough times of darkness and emotional suffering. There will be times when we can’t eat or sleep or do much of anything, those times when it seems like our tears are our only food day and night. Sometimes it feels like we’re in this bottomless pit, and that isn’t minimized or discounted in the least in Psalm 42. God knows what we’re feeling. God understands that pit of darkness we sometimes feel trapped in. And God can — and often does — use our depression and our dark feelings to draw us closer to Him. When everyone else has given up on us and has abandoned us, He does not — He cannot. His love for us is simply too great!

So what does God have to say when we’re going through those dark times, those dark seasons in our lives that may last for years? At the very beginning of the psalm, He puts His Finger on our true need: our thirst for the sunbeamLiving God. Like a deer pants for flowing streams of water, so our soul pants after God, and in Him and Him ONLY can our souls be satisfied. When we’re crawling through that desert of our souls or trapped in that dark pit, He is there with us and offers hope and comfort in Him (Psalm 139). Through pouring out our hearts in prayer and clinging to His Word, He draws near to us, even if we may not feel it. God is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34).

But how do we draw close to Him when we’re in the middle of that dark season? What exactly do we do when our bootstraps are broken and we have no strength left? What are we supposed to do when we’re dying inside our very souls?

Twice in Psalm 42, He answers those questions (vv 5, 11): “Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” What are we supposed to do when we aren’t capable of doing anything at all? Simply HOPE.

We are to continue to place our hope in God, to cling to Him, to know that He is right there with us, that He is still our salvation in the middle of the deepest, darkest pit. Sometimes there may be a genuine medical condition with our brains/hormones that needs to be remedied with therapy or medicine, but most times what we need most is soul medicine — we need to be refreshed by God’s Living Spirit.

No matter what you’re going through, have gone through, or will go through, God is right there with you. He understands and has unfathomable compassion towards you. He has felt all that you feel and much, much more! Remember His love for you and the peace that He and He alone offers you. He loves you no matter what you’ve done or how far you’ve strayed from Him. He is there and offers you hope, salvation, compassion, peace and love.

“Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.“

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Iteration Retros – The Airing of Grievances

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

One of the better team practices in software development is to hold retrospectives after every development cycle (iteration, sprint, release, etc.). Iteration retros give the team an opportunity to review the user-stories (requirements) that were completed and discuss ways of improving the next development cycle so the same mistakes aren’t repeated.

The usual format is to review the iteration and then have the team discuss what went right, what went wrong, and what we could do better. When iterations go well, the meetings are relatively low-key, complimentary, and productive. However, when iterations go poorly — or are downright disastrous — the retros turn into more like Frank Costanza’s infamous “Airing of Grievances” on Festivus: “I’ve got a LOT of problems with you people, and now you’re gonna hear about it!!”

frank-costanzaAt first, we used to just chime in whenever we wanted during the retro, but that often got out of hand because the more outspoken members of the team would drown the quieter ones out (like me). Now we pass around the microphone — a magic-marker — so that everyone gets a chance to give their perspective and opinion with minimal interruption. While the retros have improved, it might help for some of our team members to take the cap off the marker before their grievances are aired (including myself)!

Some of the typical questions in these retros are: “What went well?” “What didn’t?” “What absolutely sucked?” “How did it blow up and why?” “What can we do better?” “How can we work better as a team?” The purpose of these questions isn’t to criticize or lay blame, but to learn from our mistakes and make the next iteration better — and improve the team.

Along with improving communication, another change to the retros over the last year was a dramatic reduction in the length of the meeting. Our iterations used to last 5-6 weeks and the retro took between 6-8 hours, since we would also plan the next iteration after the retro. While it was nice to get a break from the normal routine, meetings that last that long don’t make for a very fun (or productive) day. A year ago, we changed over to two-week iterations and now the retros have been chopped down to 3-hours, including planning the next one.

In several of those meetings (particularly when they lasted 6-8 hours), it made me consider about how rarely I’ve had similar meetings with my own family, the most important “team” in my life! If retros are good practice for iterations, releases, and other big projects at work, shouldn’t they be just as important for our marriages and families (if not more so)?

In an Agile development environment, we are trained to embrace change and adapt rapidly to changing variables and requirements. Everything is always shifting, changing, and being reprioritized — just like in our families. For whatever reason, we tend to be slower to embrace change in our personal lives than in our professional ones, even though the various demands of marriage and parenting are constantly shifting and changing too, and stress-levels are often running just as high as they do at work — or higher!

How often do we take a timeout to check-in with everyone on our “home team” and let them really speak their minds (even the toddlers)? Sure, there’s weekends and vacations and fun times togther, but there was rarely a time specifically set aside for reflection as a family for the sole purpose of improving the team and growing together. How often do we admit to blowing it in front of our loved ones and really ask for forgiveness? How many families and marriages could be saved by holding such retros on a regular basis? Who knows? Maybe mine could have been…

While family devotions can be awkward and difficult (if not downright impossible), maybe having regular family “retros” every two weeks wouldn’t be as tough, though they may need to be dressed up a bit or repackaged to mitigate the “wailing and gnashing of teeth” from the teenagers. Such family retros would give everyone an opportunity to confess their screw-ups and really foster communication with one another in a productive way, in a time that’s been specifically set aside for doing so instead of the typical spur-of-the-moment ones.

James 5:16 says, “Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Confessing our sins to others is never easy, particularly parents to their kids, but it’s a great opportunity to model asking for forgiveness and forgiving those who are closest to us. Kids remember just about everything (except the dishes, trash, etc.), especially when we fathers confess that we blew it and need their forgiveness. Forgiveness must be modeled, not simply assumed or taken for granted. Grace, faith, and love must be modeled over and over to cultivate a home based upon those three fundamental elements.

Maybe hold a family night-out a local pizza-joint that you don’t usually go to and make that the retro “meeting” place. Maybe every two weeks, the entire family takes time out from the crazy schedule, gathers around a table, and gets to constructively air their grievances for a little while, and then discusses how to make things better.

Maybe reviewing the highs and lows of the last two weeks would work wonders in our homes. Maybe asking those tough-but-necessary questions would really help us grow closer, questions such as: “What bugs you?” “How can we improve living together?” “How can we respond better in a particular situation?” “How can we do better with money?” “How can we do better with chores, errands, and other stuff?” “How can we become better parents, friends, and partners?” “What is one way we can make our family stronger, closer, more forgiving, and more loving?” “What is our plan for improvement over the next two weeks?”

serenitynow

Frank Costanza would’ve loved those bi-weekly family retros. (George and his mother, probably not so much!) Maybe if he had been able to speak his mind more than once a year right before Christmas, he wouldn’t have lost it and screamed “Serenity NOW!!” so often! And we ALL know where “Serenity Now!” leads to: “Insanity Later!”

“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” — Colossians 4:6

Posted in Family, Refactoring, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Another Big Decision Made

Posted on October 1, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

This year has been full of big decisions. Really big decisions. Some I’ve had a direct say in, while other have been completely out of my control.

A couple weeks ago, I made the big decision to stay put here in Colorado, to not start a new life in another place. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to make, and I find myself still waffling a little bit about it from time to time, but I know I really don’t have much of a choice — at least not at this time.

To make a long story short, I had been intending to move to the East Coast early next summer right before the July Fourth holiday. After our first daughter was born fifteen years ago, we moved from Silicon Valley to Denver to be closer to my wife’s family, while most of my family is scattered back east. So when my marriage ended earlier this year, I realized that there wasn’t really anything keeping me here — except my youngest daughter who is just entering her teenage years. She would be staying with her mother while my other daughter (who’s graduating later this year) would be coming with me.

For several months, I’ve been very enticed by the prospect of a brand new life, somewhere to practically start over from scratch. After all, I’ve done it before — three times in as many years after graduating high school, as a matter of fact! A new state, new climate, new sights, new home, new job, new friends, new cwhoteleverything. My career as a software developer is highly portable/mobile, and a wide variety of options are available to me. Since I love the ocean, I had first planned to move somewhere in Florida, then settled on southeastern Virginia in the Virginia Beach area — right where the hurricane is headed this weekend. However, after looking at the job market and looking at the cost of living, my prospects shifted slightly south to Raleigh.

Since Colorado is about as far away from an ocean as you can get in the United States, anywhere within an hour or two of the beach was fine with me! Also, I love to
sight-see and travel, particularly to historic locations, and the East Coast is full of rich American/colonial history, whereas much of the West is decidedly not. Instead
of having to fly everywhere to see friends, family, and new places, I could simply pack a bag and drive several hours.

I’m the type of guy who doesn’t like to have much clutter or even many possessions lying around. I like to live simply, debt-free, and unencumbered by stuff, and that means not being attached to many possessions. I’m a firm believer that we should own our possessions rather than letting our possessions own us! I usually couldn’t really care less about what type of car, gadgets, clothes, electronics, tools, etc. I have as long as they’re working well and are in decent condition. Since my marriage went south, I’ve been in this mode of wanting to get rid of just about everything I have so I can get back to a much simpler time when I could throw literally all of my worldly possessions in the car and drive off into the sunset (or rather, the sunrise!).

But then something changed my mind about the entire move: what would happen to my youngest daughter if I left without being able to be a regular, physical presence in her life?  What type of woman would she become without her father being around? What would our relationship be like years from now if I moved away? Of course, we had made plans to Skype/Hangout every day or two and visit several times a year, but that still cannot make up for being closeby. Though I wasn’t thrilled about how I came to that conclusion, I’ve come to see it as God giving me a glimpse of what would likely happen if I did move away, and I didn’t like what I saw at all. Alas, that blissful drive eastward to greet the dawn would have to wait for a long time.

At first, I sulked about it for awhile and even tried to convince myself a few times that she would be fine if I moved across the country. She would still be surrounded by great family and living in a loving home with her mother. She would still have everything she needs and be close to her friends and we could still talk all the time, probably even more than we do now! But none of that can replace the physical presence of her father — ME and only ME — in her life. I may have two daughters, but I’m the only father they’ll ever have.

I grew up in a relatively stable home out in the country and both my parents were around all the time. The five of us had dinner together every night (until I began working in high school) and they were always there for us. There was never any question nor even thought of what life would be like if one of them wasn’t around, much less living in another house — or another state!

I cannot imagine what my relationship with my parents would be like if our home had been broken while we were still growing up. I cannot imagine what my daughter’s relationship with me or her sister would be like if we moved away next year, and now I don’t have to. Though I may have regrets about not moving east sooner someday, those will be nothing in comparison to the regrets I would have about moving away from my daughter, particularly as she just starting to become a young woman and needs male role-models the most!

Needless to say, my irritation over having to put my own life on hold for several more years didn’t last nearly as long as I thought it would, and several hours later I saw how staying could actually become an ultimate good. Besides, that’s a big part of what being a parent is all about sometimes: putting our own lives, hopes, and dreams on hold for awhile so our kids can have theirs — so we can give them every opportunity to have better lives.

Colorado has a fantastic climate, beautiful rocky-mountains-national-parkmountains, a great job market (at least for technology), lots of open spaces, and is still pretty affordable, at least compared to the coasts! I’ve only seen a fraction of Colorado, and then there’s the great places nearby like Utah, New Mexico, and other states in the big West. And to top it all off, my youngest daughter is here and I’ll be able to spend oodles of time with her and help her keep growing up into a great young woman.

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” — Proverbs 16:9

So many of our attitudes about life and our relationships are determined by our focus. When we let ourselves focus on what we’ve lost, what we think we’re missing out on, or what we want that is just out of our grasp, we can easily make ourselves downright miserable! When we focus on what we don’t have or can’t do, literally nothing will lift us out of that place. We pout, sulk, or even lash out with our very own grownup temper-tantrums that not only embitter ourselves, but also pollute the moods/attitudes of everyone around us — and usually those we love the most!

But when we choose to be thankful for our many blessings and shift our focus away from ourselves and what we want, it’s much easier to accept our circumstances and see the good in them. Sometimes (or even many times!) it feels like we’re in the world’s “waiting room” of sorts. Sometimes we find ourselves stuck in a place we’re not particularly thrilled with or even loathe, waiting for something to break us out of it, waiting for something to improve, or just waiting for something — even anything —  to change!

This last year has been one of the worst in my life — if not THE worst so far. But I know that God will use all of this for good, even the really bad stuff — even the really painful stuff that no one should ever have to go through.

A big part of the past year has been about making big life decisions while trying to minimize future regrets. Often I’ve thought about what people regret or wish for when they come to the end of their lives, and it always involves other people and relationships — and never places, things, or the like. In the end, it’s all about God and other people.

When we choose people 20150709_194032over things, places, or even experiences, our regrets will be small, if we even remember them at all! But when we choose what we want over people — stuff that we’re really just being selfish about or impatient for — those decisions cause the biggest regrets that can haunt us for the rest of our lives. At the end of the day, at the end of our lives, it’s all about how we loved God and how we loved those around us.

At the end of my life, having to wait a few more years to start a new life will be incomparable to being with my daughter as she finishes growing up. Moving east and starting over will be nothing compared to knowing that I invested in those who were nearest and dearest to me.

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” — Jeremiah 29:11

Posted in Character, Family, New Beginnings, Personal, transitions | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Being Thankful for Unanswered Prayers??

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

Something that’s been on my mind quite a bit lately is the matter of unanswered prayers. Most of us spend so much time and energy on how badly we want our prayers to be answered that we don’t think about all those prayers He chooses to leave “unanswered” — which are all-too-often forgotten over the course of our lives.

I suppose it all began a few weeks ago when I stumbled upon a couple songs that my old roommate in college used to play in our apartment. Much of it was the 70’s/80’s rock music like from Queen and such, but there was one song in particular in his playlist called “Unanswered Prayers” by Garth Brooks that I remember rather vividly. I think what made it really stand out to me was that my roommate didn’t seem to be particularly religious  at the time, and he certainly wasn’t much into Country music, especially in the early 90’s!

Anyway, there’s a surprising amount of depth to that old Garth Brooks’ song, particularly the central verse of the chorus which says, “That just because He may not answer doesn’t mean He don’t care… Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

If you haven’t heard the song in awhile or have never heard it before, it’s worth a listen to (live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il4qOQGUGbo — full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKqZjgIfxe0). The lyrics are:

Just the other night at a hometown football game011-_XL
My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
And as I introduced them, the past came back to me
And I couldn’t help but think of the way things used to be

She was the one that I’d wanted for all times
And each night I’d spend prayin’
That God would make her mine
And if He’d only grant me this wish I wished back then
I’d never ask for anything again

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because He doesn’t answer doesn’t mean He don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

She wasn’t quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
And I could tell that time had changed me
In her eyes too it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn’t much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what He’s doin’ after all

And as she walked away and I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life

Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because He may not answer doesn’t mean He don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers

It probably won’t be until we’re in Heaven that we find out just how many of our prayers God purposely didn’t answer — and often for our own benefit! Over the last few years, it’s been rather comical about how the prayers that He HAS answered for me haven’t turned out nearly the way I had hoped or expected they would. Though I’ve been a Christian for more than twenty years, in many ways my “real” prayer life didn’t begin until a few years ago. I have a list of my most important prayers, and I’ve been keeping track oprayer2-620x499f how He answers (and doesn’t answer) them for awhile now. And He has indeed answered many of them…

Usually my reaction when He does choose to answer those prayers in His own way is, “Thank you, Lord, but that really wasn’t what I meant!” or “Really, God? Is this really the best plan? Say, what about this other one?” Another gem that comes to mind is: “Oh, Lord — I just gotta see how You’re going to use THIS one for good, because I really don’t think it can happen!”

While some of us keep a prayer-journal concerning our answered prayers, what happens to all those “unanswered” ones? We seem to usually forget about those, don’t we? What about when He chooses NOT to answer certain prayers, even the really important prayers that might redirect the entire course of our lives? It’s one thing to be thankful for God choosing not to answer a prayer about a high school crush/flame (or an adult crush, for that matter) as in the song above, but what about those really big important prayers?

What about when you’ve been praying your heart out and fasting until you can’t remember what food tastes like and God still doesn’t answer you? What about when God chooses not to heal your marriage or your spouse in the hospital? What about when He chooses to not heal one of your parents, or even your child who is suffering terribly? What about when He allows a precious life to be taken long before it should be? What about when He allows someone innocent and helpless to be horribly, cruelly hurt? How are we supposed to react when not only the cheese falls off our crackers, but the entire train of our lives completely derails and careens down that mountain?

To be honest, I don’t really know how to answer those very difficult questions, except that God is good and that He has His reasons for answering — and not answering — those prayers. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, omniscient, omnipresent, and completely sovereign. There is nothing He doesn’t know and nothing He doesn’t see, hear, and feel.

He knows our innermost thoughts, our hearts, and even the innermost thoughts of our hearts — and those of everyone around us. He knows how certain people will react in certain situations and allows things to occur that we often won’t understand — but He does. He knows the future because He has ordained and determined it. He is everywhere at every moment for all time — He was, is, and always will be. He is the All-in-All.

There is nothing too difficult for Him. There is nothing He cannot fix, change, or even undo, despite how impossible it may seem to us. It would be nothing for Him to heal our broken marriages, screwed-up families, dysfunctional homes, our broken nation, this suffering world, or even this entire fallen universe! He is the God who parted the seas and then rained manna and quail down on millions of people in the desert day after day for forty years! He could simply think it and that is what it would instantly be!

How are we supposed to respond when God falls silent? How are we supposed to hold onto that tiny mustard seed of faith when He seems nowhere to be found? How do we continue to trust Him though He doesn’t seem to be meeting our needs? Indeed, how now shall we live when He chooses not to answer our prayers even though we desperately want Him to?

I’ve come to believe that 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 holds much of those answers: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

images

Wait a minute — “always” and “in everything”?! Lord, do You really expect us to give thanks in literally everything? Even when You’re silent and the Prayer Store seems to be closed for the summer? Give thanks even in the bad times? Even in the heart-wrenching, curled-up-on-the-floor, sobbing-into-the-carpet times? Are You sure we’re supposed to give thanks in literally EVERYTHING?

I’m afraid so. He really does mean, “In everything, give thanks — everything!” Not just the good stuff, but the bad stuff as well — even the really, really bad stuff (no examples needed!). We are to give thanks for not only all the answered prayers (quirks and all), but all those unanswered prayers too. I may have my little prayer-journal, but He has the entire archive of my life from the instant I became a living soul until the moment I die and then beyond into Eternity — and everyone else’s too!

In everything, we should give thanks — though we may not even remotely be able to see why, and though we think there is NO possible way He can ever use this thing for good. But He can. And He will. Through His Word, we know that He — and only He — can somehow use everything for good all the time.

Thank you, Lord. I trust You. I will worship You for these — and many, many other — unanswered prayers. I will love You though it really, really hurts sometimes. I will love You though I’ve been terribly disappointed in so many ways recently. 

Posted in Character, Christian-life, New Beginnings, Personal, Prayer, Refactoring, Trust | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

My God, It’s Full of Stars!

Posted on September 21, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

One of the most memorable movie lines from my childhood that I’ll never forget is: “My God, it’s full of stars!” These were Dave Bowman’s finalmygod words as he entered the monolith in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”; what made them especially memorable is probably because most of the movie was silent. The other movie line that’s permanently stuck in my head is: “1.21 gigawatts!??!” from “Back to the Future”.

I couldn’t help but have that same reaction when I saw the crystal-clear night sky from the middle of the Badlands back in September. Though I frequently walk the dogs and see the stars most evenings, it’s a completely different experience seeing the night sky in the middle of nowhere than in the suburbs. In fact, it was my first time seeing the Milky Way, though I have seen numerous pictures of it. On even a clear night in the suburbs or city, you’re lucky to see a quarter of the stars that are visible to the naked eye. But out in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution, you can see many, many more — and the Milky Way is the center-piece of the entire scene!

Several years ago during one of my Bible studies, I stumbled upon the “Gospel in the Stars” theory from Joseph Seiss, which provides a good explanation as to how astrology likely originated at Babel and why the zodiac is so similar between many disparate cultures (Chinese, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Druids, Hebrews, etc.). Astrology appears to be even older than writing itself in the ancient world, at least how most historians date man’s history.

The basic idea behind the “Gospel in the Stars” is that God revealed the names of the visible stars, constellations, and their meanings to Adam, Seth, or Enoch (or someone other ancient patriarch). From there, they devised a zodiacmodsystem of word-pictures to help them remember the names of the stars. The names of the stars in the constellations tell the story of God’s plan throughout all history: that mankind had been corrupted by sin, that man’s sin could only be atoned for by sacrifice, that God Himself would provide a Redeemer to restore the broken relationship between God and mankind, that this Redeemer would then destroy the wicked Serpent, and then He would finally restore peace and harmony to all Creation.

In the Bible, the zodiac is known as the Mazzaroth and is mentioned several places, one of the foremost being in the Book of Job where God Himself mentions some of the details of the stars and constellations that could not have been known at the time. Genesis tells us that God created the stars and placed them in motion to serve as instruments for keeping time and also for revealing signs and wonders (such as the Bethlehem star). One of the brighter constellations visible only from the Southern Hemisphere today is the Southern Cross, which hasn’t been visible from our hemisphere for the last two thousand years. Before that, it could clearly be seen close to the horizon. A curious coincidence? Not in God’s creation! Why, it’s almost as if the Southern Cross was visible until the time of the Crucifixion, and when that event was completed and His work on the Cross was finished, the Southern Cross vanished below the horizon. Before then, it could be seen as far north as Jerusalem.

One observation from the Bible is that Satan and his angels can only corrupt — they cannot create no matter how hard they want to. They can only corrupt, kill, and destroy; they cannot create. The ability to create only belong God and those He grants it to, namely mankind. With that general principle in mind, it’s likely that the original meaning of the Mazzaroth was corrupted by Nimrod at Babel, who built a tower unto — or for the worship of — the heavens). The builders at ancient Babel didn’t build a great tower to escape another flood as much as a profane center of worship that corrupted God’s “message” in the stars. When the 70 tribes/clans were scattered from Shinar, they each took the corrupted story of the stars with them, though many of the concepts, symbols, and structures remained similar. Notice what Psalm 19 says:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

It’s been said that of all the creatures on earth, man is the only one who is able to both look up to the heavens and down at the earth. Most creatures only look up if there’s danger above from birds of prey, but  most spend the vast majority of their time looking down at the earth. But man is different — we’re made to look at both the ground and the sky with the same ease, along with everything around us. It’s almost as if we were designed to observe all that surrounds us, whether it be in the heavens above or the earth below.

ArcMW

Have you ever considered why there are even stars in the first place? Really, stop and think about it for a moment. Unlike the sun, moon, and even a few of the planets, the trillions upon trillions of stars that exist all around us have very little influence upon this earth. They’re so far away and yet God painstakingly created — and went to the trouble of naming — every single one of them!

All the planets, stars, galaxies, and everything else in this great big universe exist all for the glory of God. When we look up at the stars, He wants us to know Him and see how infinitely great He is. He wants us to ponder Him, to know Him, to give Him glory for His incredible handiwork which He spoke into existence. He wants to tell others His story, and what better place to start than in the stars? While no one can claim that the “Gospel in the Stars” is definitively true, from the best evidence we have (from the ancient names, pictures, and legends) that appears to be the case. If anything, it’s an interesting theory that should cause us to give God glory and draw us closer to that which we KNOW is His revealed truth: the Bible.

So sometime when you’re feeling adventurous or maybe just want to get a bigger glimpse of God’s glory and His handiwork, take a long drive out to the middle of nowhere on a dark moonless night. Get away from the city, suburbs, and all those man-made lights until you can only see the lights that God created long ago. Pull off to the side of the road or hunker down at a makeshift campsite and then just look up and behold His awesome handiwork!

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. — Exodus 20:11a

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The Pumpkin Spice of Life

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

It’s baaaa-aaack!! That’s right — Pumpkin Spice lattes are back in the stores! Along with pumpkin spice lattes, there’s pumpkin spice muffins, pumpkin spice Oreos, pumpkin spice Pop-tarts, pumpkin spice Twinkies, pumpkin spice Peeps, forrest-gump-pumpkin-spicepumpkin spice beer, pumpkin spice pancakes, pumpkin spice burgers, and even pumpkin spice hummus. (Pumpkin spice hummus?? Something just isn’t right about that one…pumpkins and squash aren’t native to the Middle East, or even that hemisphere!)

Have you ever wondered when, where, and how Pumpkin Spice became popular and morphed into the semi-official symbol of Fall? We can all thank Starbucks for practically single-handedly inventing the Pumpkin Spice craze back in 2003 with the introduction of their Pumpkin Spice Latte and pumpkin cream-cheese muffins (drooool). Every other pumpkin spice product on the market has Starbucks to thank for for their new extremely popular seasonal product lines (though the pumpkin spice hummus and burger still remains questionable). Personally, I’m surprised they didn’t patent the flavor AND the name!

Fall has been my favorite time of year for as long as I can remember. There’s the ending of summer, harvest-time, the changing leaves, the cooler nights but still-warm/sunny days, sweatshirts, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and of course, football! Back home in the country, the coming of Fall meant the long, hot days of summer were over and we didn’t have to work nearly as hard, though we still had to chop, throw, and stack heaps of wood for the winter months. Since we had a very long driveway (1/4 mile), we also had to put up snowfence every year just so we could get onto the main road after a snowstorm. And since I’m from Ohio, “Go Bucks! (Michigan sux)”

Back when I was a kid, people used to burn leaves (an environmental catastrophe today!) and I’ll never forget the smell of that in the cool air as we would march down to the high school football games. I don’t remember much of last Fall because of what happened in my personal life, so this year, I’m doing my best to embrace it and enjoy every minute of my favorite season. This year, I hope to leave the smoke of last year’s upheavals in the past and make this one especially memorable — particularly as the holiday season approaches. (Hey, Walmart’s already selling Christmas lights!!)

Just like there are the different seasons in the year, there are different seasons in life, not that I consider divorce to be a ‘season’. There are the nice, wonderful Spring-times when everything is fresh, new, and bursting with new life. There are the carefree, fun summers full of vacation-days, sunshine, water-fun, and baseball.fall-leaves-hd-wallpapers-fall-leaves-hd-wallpaper-rainbow-wallpapers-1080p-for-mac-ipad-free-iphone-water-rain

Then there are those Fall-times, where summer has ended and
winter starts to creep in. I never really thought about how depressing winter would be without Christmas until watching “The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe”. Without Christmas to look forward to, winter can be very long, cold, and bleak — especially in the Midwest where the sun can vanish for weeks at a time!

The good news is that every season ends sooner or later — even in Arizona and Florida where only the temperature really changes. Every season has a beginning, a waning, and an ending. One thing I’ve noticed is that when I stop and look back at those long, difficult seasons of the year or in life (those mid-Januaries to late-Februaries), I find that I end up remembering them mostly for good, though usually not until the summer. Sure, there are the dark, depressing, or even traumatic moments I can recall, but all-in-all the memories of those times don’t seem quite as bad as they were at the time. I consider that a gift that those rough times are eventually smoothed over and we can remember the good in them, though it may have been very challenging at the time.

Solomon (the Preacher) writes in Ecclesiastes 3 that everything in life has a season — EVERYTHING — the good, the bad, the ugly, and even the tragic. No dark period ever lasts forever, unless you let it — unless you dwell on it and keep dredging it up. Unless you can’t (or won’t) let it go…

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:

2 A time to be born,
    And a time to die;
A time to plant,
    And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill,
    And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
    And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep,
    And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
    And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones,
    And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
    And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain,
    And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
    And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear,
    And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
    And a time to speak;
8 A time to love,
    And a time to hate;
A time of war,
    And a time of peace.

So whatever you’re going through right now, whether it be a death in the family, an ailment, a divorce, kids that drive you up one wall and down the other, prolonged unemployment, a challenging time at work, or anything else, know that it won’t last forever and that there’s a purpose in those dark times.

From Romans 8:28, we know — not we believe — we know that ALL things work together for good for those who love God. There’s a reason for every season we go through in life, even the dark seasons. Especially the dark seasons. We grow the most when it’s dark, not when it’s light…

So as we enter this Fall season of the year, let’s pumpkin-spice-latte-with-pumpkins-600regularly take time to enjoy it as much as we can. even if it’s one of those dark seasons in our lives. Go out and have that extra Pumpkin Spike Latte and those pumpkin donuts (or even that nasty pumpkin hummus). Take a long drive and look at the leaves changing colors in all their glory, pile ’em up high and jump into them with the kids, and sip hot cider at a cold football game. Pick out a big fat pumpkin and carve it up just for the sheer joy of it.

As the year starts to wane, let’s give thanks for our many blessings and remember the reasons for these seasons!

Posted in Christian-life, Family, New Beginnings, Personal, transitions | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Cell – Refactored!

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Chris Hambleton

TheCell_bookNow available on the Kindle!

In keeping with the theme of “Being Refactored”, my latest novel is available for download at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014XN066M!

“The Cell – Into the Underground” is a heavy revision of my third novel, “The Cell – Twilight’s Last Gleaming”, which was published in 2010 during the height of the Great Recession. In 2014-2015, “The Sons of Liberty Trilogy” was released, which was based upon many of the basic settings and details introduced in the original edition of “The Cell”.

Since the political aspects of the original story were detailed in the trilogy (particularly the independence of Alaska), those plotlines have been removed so this edition of the “The Cell” is cleaner and far less political. 

The synopsis for the book is:

Years after the financial crash of 2008, America stumbles from crisis to crisis and continues to slog through the mire of the Second Great Recession.

National healthcare is finally a reality, but has brought with it unintended consequences for the sick, the unwanted, and the growing ranks of the elderly. Political assassinations and bombings have become all too common in the nation’s capital. Elected officials rarely leave the safety of the Green Zone that surrounds the Capitol Complex.

With the passage of the Tolerance in Religion and Media Acts (TIRMA), churches have been forced to register and submit to content monitors, surrendering their rights to assemble and speak freely. The tea-parties and talk-radio — the last voices of opposition to the ever-expanding powers of Washington D.C. — have been all but silenced from the political process.

The Spirit of America has been broken. For the first time in history, people are leaving her fair shores for better opportunities in other lands. And though the candles of many churches in America have been extinguished, tiny flames of faith flicker and begin to grow.

The book is also available on the Nook and in paperback format.

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