1. Stop ironing your clothes.

   If you’re like me, buying “wrinkle-free” pants and shirts doesn’t really do any good when you let them sit in the dryer or in a basket for a week before you wear them. And going to work looking like a slob unfortunately doesn’t do much good for your career (which really sucks when you’re lazy).

   So what’s the trick?

   Hang them on the side of the shower, put the shower on full blast (and as hot as possible), close the bathroom door, and give it five minutes. The wrinkles can’t stand the steam and disappear pretty quickly. Sure beats ironing.

   Obviously, environmental buffs will cringe at the thought of this, but if you really want to be environmentally friendly then stop being lazy (or you can just do it while you take your shower, either way).

2. Never pay a bill again.

   Paying bills sucks, not only because it’s a responsible thing to do, but also because it forces you to come to the realization that all of your money is going away. This makes me cringe, so I used to tend to just not pay my bills.

   Problem is, this causes other issues, and you generally end up having more problems on your hands. Not good for laziness, or your credit.

   So what is a lazy man to do?

   Automate your bills, obviously. Most companies will let you pay your bills online, and many will let you schedule your payments so you don’t actually have to do anything to pay the bill. Typically, they’ll just send you an email when you’ve made the payment at the right time every month. This way you never have to actually do anything. Sound good?

   Unfortunately, though, there always seems to be a company on your list that’s stuck in 1984 and can’t seem to get their act together in collecting their money. Well, amuse them and get a bank account that will automatically send them an old-fashioned check in the mail at the same time every month. It’s called “automatic bill pay” and any bank worthy of this decade will do this for you in their Internet banking interface. If your bank still won’t do this, get a different bank. I recommend these guys:

   

3. Take your office with you wherever you go.

   A huge part of being able to be productive and lazy is not having to physically move to get your work done. You’re not likely to get stuff done if you’re not at home and you have no way of remotely getting anything done. I often find myself with free time in the oddest situations, and if I have everything I need with me, I can make something of it. Otherwise, I’m stuck being bored.

   But I can’t take my whole office with me…

   Yes, you can. If it’s all digital, anyway. If you’re still dealing with a briefcase and papers, then you’re really wasting your time. I use a combination of Dropbox (for sharing my entire file collection between computers), PortableApps.com (for sharing applications between computers), Google Docs (for easy online access to all my documents), and Gmail (for email).

   
   

   The best part is that I can access all of my data through all of the aforementioned services (sans PortableApps.com applications) on my Android phone. This means full access everywhere I go, and I can take advantage of waiting times throughout the day to get stuff done that I don’t want to have to do while relaxing in the evening.

4. Stop having to remember/fill in passwords online.

   These days, you probably have logins online for dozens of different websites, and they’re probably all set to the same password (sic) or just a few different passwords (not much better). The security issues of this are a real problem, but lazy is as lazy does.

   Still, though, how do you remember which of those few passwords you’re using for each site? You’ll probably end up trying all three, and if you’re lucky you’ll get in before the site locks you out for your negligence.

   So fix it. Now.

   Use a password manager like LastPass to automatically log you in to all of your websites. LastPass is my favorite because it works with all major web browsers, it’s free, and it’s really easy and convenient to use.

   

   Not only does LastPass allow you to be lazy, but it also secures your online presence. It generates secure passwords for you (if you let it), so your passwords can all be different and even be crazy complicated (because you never have to type them out). Did I mention it will automatically sync between all your computers and browsers? This is one rare product that lets you be lazy and more secure at the same time. Use it.

5. Never listen to another voicemail ever again.

   Voicemails suck because it takes forever to listen to them, especially when they’re from people who don’t know how to be concise. Not to mention horrible voicemail systems that take three years to navigate.

   If you’re like me, your impatience for voicemails and voicemail systems leads to an overflowing voicemail box of three-year-old messages. And they don’t do a whole lot of good three years later. Especially when your voicemail provider automatically deletes them after a month or two.

   But is there really a way around it?

   Yes, there is. It’s called Google Voice and it will automatically translate voicemail messages into emails and/or text messages. This is hyper-productive because all it takes is a quick glance at the email or text message and you’ll get the point, unlike having to dial in, use the prompts, and then listen to the message.

   

   Unfortunately Google Voice is still invitation-only (meaning you have to get an invitation from Google in order to use it), but that will change very soon. There are invitations floating around on various forums (I got mine by simply asking someone for one). To start, though, request an invitation here (directly from Google) and then do some web searches to see if you can find one more quickly. Not having to listen to voicemail messages is far worth the trouble of getting an invite, so don’t let that stop you.

If any of these tips were new to you, let us know how they’ve made you more productive (and/or lazy). Share your own tips, too; we’re all looking for ways to work less, get more done, and have more fun.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6905543.ece

The laws are changing to remove parental ability to opt their children out of sex education in public schools. This means that every kid in public schools, regardless of religious background or the parents’ wishes, will be taught the school’s version of sex education at 15 years old. This goes into effect in September of 2011. Thankfully, this is in Britain, not here in the US. Still, it’s a big deal.

What’s so wrong with that? Perhaps little, assuming that children will be taught responsibly. My childhood sex education experience, however, was anything but responsible. I was lucky enough to have to go through sex education at three different public schools across junior high and high school. Looking back, all three of these experiences were damaging to my health.

My first experience in junior high was perhaps the most damaging. I was taught how to masturbate from a cartoon video. I won’t get into the moral or spiritual issues or non-issues with masturbation, but personally, I very much wish I had not been taught this at that point in my life.

Obviously, sex education is important, and I do believe it is necessary from a very young age. But the way I will choose to educate my children will be vastly different from the haphazard approaches used in public schools. Public school teachers cannot be trusted with such a delicate and dangerous subject; the potential for damage is tremendous, and assuming parents are doing their job, the potential for any kind of a benefit is extremely minimal.

What are your thoughts on mandatory sex education in public schools? Have you chosen to opt-out your children in the past? Why or why not? Are you concerned with this new decision?

The infographic does a very good job at demonstrating the beliefs, focuses, goals, and views of the left vs. the right. It is fair and non-biased, and though it certainly portrays political stereotypes, it does the best job possible at focusing on the core thoughts and values of both sides. I am sharing all of this because of the apparent lack of knowledge as to what conservative vs. liberal politics actually represent; far too often I find that people are glued to one side or the other not because of their personal beliefs, but instead because of a series of less important outside influences. In the past I have been guilty of this as well, but I’ve since learned how rewarding it is to define your own political stance from your true core beliefs, instead of following the crowd.

Political Pride Yields Ignorance

Political awareness and discovery does not necessarily require you to always keep up on current events, nor always be aware of the laws currently running through congress. A knowledge of these things can often be a big help, but one does not need to know the current state of the system in order to decide for himself or herself what he or she believes to be the right way to approach different political topics. What is mandatory, however, is simply to be able to set your past reservations regarding the political parties aside and instead evaluate them based on their true core views, rather than your upbringing or your surroundings.

I will define political pride as a blind appreciation, following, and upholding of either conservative or liberal politics based on the sense of “belonging” to one of the respective political parties. One cannot gain a true understanding of the core beliefs of either party without being able to set this “political pride” aside. This is harder for some than it might seem, as we are often taught to embed this political pride, ironically, deep into our core beliefs. But one cannot even begin to grasp the personally perceived advantages or disadvantages of either side without a politically open mind.

Call for a Spiritual Awakening

One of the biggest influences on this “political pride” discussed above is the church, most often pushing towards conservatism. This influence sometimes comes from the leaders of the church, but more often comes from the church’s members and the perceived need for them to choose and encourage particular political views, while frowning on others. Somewhere along the line it became popular among church members to lean heavily to the conservative side, perhaps influenced by conservative leaders who claim to be spiritually focused.

The misconception here, though, is that typical spiritual core beliefs (particularly Christian views) fit significantly better with conservatism than liberalism. In fact, there is little to no correlation between conservatism and Christian core beliefs; it often even appears to be the opposite. One of the prime examples is the theme of self-sacrifice that Christ consistently demonstrates in the Bible and that Christianity not only encourages but requires; conservatism preaches a heavy focus on “helping those who help themselves” (a quote from the above referenced infographic), while liberalism leans more towards “helping those who cannot help themselves.” Furthermore, conservatism focuses on exclusivity and nationalism, both of which do not play well with Christ’s humility-based and “least of these” teachings.

The list of conflicts between conservatism and Christianity go on and on, from conservatism’s focus on judgement (which Christ clearly preaches against) to conservatism’s resistance to change (while Christ set forth to change most of the laws of his time). In all of these topics (as well as many additional topics), liberalism, though flawed in respect to Christ’s teachings, comes significantly closer to the concepts that Christ taught than conservatism. In fact, it is easy to argue that liberalism in general follows Christian views significantly better than conservatism does. It is odd, then, that we find that conservatism seems to be more popular within the church than liberalism, which I believe is a sign of mass ignorance on the subject.

I would present some arguments in the opposite direction as well, but it is surprisingly difficult to come up with an honest argument supporting the concept that conservatism is closer to Christianity than liberalism. The topics that seem to consistently come up are Christians’ views on abortion and homosexuality, which, traditionally conservatism does support better than liberalism. These matches, however, are almost certainly outweighed by conservatism’s traditional views on capital punishment and war, neither of which fit with Christ’s core teachings.

Neither Perfect Nor Evil

Obviously, neither party is likely to ever perfectly represent our personal views. In fact, if we find that our views align perfectly with either party, perhaps we should step back and observe the situation to see if our views are simply the result of belonging to a political party, or if they’re truly a core belief that we’ve come to ourselves. At the same time, neither party is inherently evil, as often seems to be argued both inside and outside of the church. Both parties will have positive and negative qualities to the educated mind (though clearly one party will be more prevalent than the other). It is important to be able to see past the blind hatred that we often have for the opposite political party, simply so that we are able to improve ourselves and our beliefs.

There are most definitely absolute truths in this world, but to package a random set of believed truths and values into a box for people to adopt, believe, and be proud of is at least a little bit disconcerting. Perhaps even more disconcerting, however, is that many people will take this package, accept it as truth, preach it, and refuse to believe anything else for their entire lives, without examining it and truly grasping any of the concepts as their own. There’s nothing wrong with avoiding politics, but if one chooses to argue political concepts, it is important for them to have examined their political stances deeper than to examine a particular political party. I believe that our current political parties, as well as many adopters, often push for this blind style of following, which is more damaging both to our country and to individuals themselves than is immediately prevalent.

Call To Action

I would like to propose that we step back and re-evaluate our political stances not based on our currently affiliated political party, but rather based on our core beliefs. Truly, they cannot be completely separated, but we may find that our current political beliefs and/or the politics that we support do not match our internal core views. We may also find that we are judging a particular political party for the wrong reasons, or we might find that we are unnecessarily passionate or impartial to a particular political subject, simply because of our surroundings. We must always keep an open mind to the other side, and refrain from eliminating a possibly intelligent perspective simply because of the label that comes with it.

Further Discussion

I am very interested in your responses both to support or oppose arguments for similarities and/or conflicts between Christianity and liberalism and/or conservatism, and your observations as to how the public interprets, applies, and argues politics both inside and outside of the church. I see this as a crucial discussion, because typically it seems people are either too scared to bring it up or tend to address it in a judgmental or condescending light. Please let me know your thoughts.

As I’ve been regularly corrected that “jail” is not “prison”, I will state that this applies to our “jail” systems as well.

I’ve come by this perspective through first hand experience. Not by going to prison or jail myself, but by watching a close friend make steady progress only to throw it all away because of the jail time he was required to serve. This particular friend of mine struggles with alcohol abuse, and unfortunately seems to get in petty trouble with the law every time he gets intoxicated. He’s been in and out of jail at least four times for various alcohol-related crimes, and can’t seem to ever get back on track before being set right back at square one after coming out of a long and destructive jail term.

This friend of mine has tried and tried HARD to stop drinking. In fact, he’s been clean for months at a time, only to take up drinking again after being released from jail. The typical cycle that I’ve seen goes something like this:

1. After serving a month’s time, he’s finally released from jail.
2. It may be several days; it may be several weeks; but eventually, he gets drunk. He’s been sheltered for so long that he simply doesn’t know how to behave himself, and he’s still ticked off at the world from his jail time.
3. In his drunken state he does something stupid and gets arrested.
4. He gets scared, can’t believe how stupid he was (again), and vows to never drink again. He doesn’t, for the time being.
5. The judge sentences him something like one or two months of jail time for his actions, to be served two months in the future.
6. He gets help, doesn’t drink, and lives life as a responsible and sober human being for the next two months.
7. He humbly turns himself in for his jail time (literally walking to the jail).
8. Slowly but surely his anger builds and his opinion of himself lowers. When he gets out, all of his previous progress is ruined, and the whole process starts all over again.

I’ve seen this whole damned process happen, in full, at least three times. Pieces of it have happened many more times. He’s stuck in a society that refuses to allow him to improve. It’s been extremely frustrating for my wife and I because we have been largely responsible for his past progress (he’s lived with us twice). And yet, by the end we knew full well what the next jail term would do. And sure enough, it never fails to destroy any progress that was made.

Think for a second what the reasons behind this behavior might be. How would you respond to being locked in a cage for the vast majority of your days? Without any respectful human interaction? Without any decent amenities? I know I would turn into a bitter, angry, and troubled human being. Would this really do any good for anyone?

I realize that there are occasional “I turned my life around” stories that we hear about from time to time, but they are few and far between. For most people, confinement and a lack of love have a very negative affect. They generate hatred, not humility and respect for others. Hating on criminals only makes them haters. It’s no secret that hate breeds hate. The few positive outcomes are the result of some sort of external positive influence (be it a particularly caring officer, volunteer, personal faith, or even possibly another inmate); these outcomes are never simply the result of the system.

I’ve had these views for a long while, but until now did not have what I believed to be a true or even a partial “fix” for the system. However, I read an article recently about Norway’s “open prison system” that opened my eyes:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/europe/091017/norway-open-prison

I would encourage you to read the above article, but in a nutshell, prisoners are sent to an island community where they work normal hours and live a normal (though humble) lifestyle. They can enjoy the community, pride themselves in their work, and enjoy enough freedom to at least keep themselves sane. I imagine there’s still plenty of discipline, and I’m sure I wouldn’t exactly enjoy my time there, but it’s a step toward encouraging growth, instead of labeling the down and out as permanent losers and never allowing them to improve.

Granted, the system isn’t perfect (no system would be), but it is certainly closer to a humane correctional system. I believe it’s our responsibility to speak up about our failed correctional system and do everything we can to improve it. This is the direction we need to take.

There’s lots of room for further discussion (from scare tactics to the cost of implementing such a system to the possible politics), but I’ll leave that wide open for the comments. Please share your thoughts. :)

The worldly freedoms that we are given by our country are beautiful things, yes, and I appreciate them every day. However, they will fail us. Happiness does not come from the ability to make decisions and choose for ourselves what we want to do. We will fail ourselves, and eventually seek out something more. Hopefully, we will seek out Christ instead of some other worldly endeavor.

I do believe that God would want us to live in and create countries that promote worldly freedom, but I do not believe that He would have us glorify it to the extent that we currently do. The glorification of worldly freedom that many Americans live by is dangerous; it leads to American pride and a “worship America” mindset that can blind us from accepting other countries and hinder our relationship with God.

War is murder on a massive scale. There are things that are worth fighting for, but I do not believe that worldly freedoms are always worth the murdering of thousands of people. I refuse to believe that anything other than eternal and spiritual matters are worth any kind of a death toll. And most often, I believe that there are better ways to resolve these matters than violence.

I am often presented with the argument that war is not murder. This is a sad justification that results from attempts to remove the natural guilt behind ending the lives of others. If one has the intention to kill, and proceeds to do so, it is murder, regardless of the reasons behind the decision they’ve made. Opposite arguments betray all forms of logic; the end result is the same whether the situation is war or domestic assault; the end result is death.

I do realize that there are worldly differences between murder on the battlefield and any form of government-penalized murder, but they are only worldly differences, and they are both murder. It seems much more brutal to murder someone’s mommy or daddy at home for hateful reasons than to murder them on the battlefield for some sort of governmental purpose (however pointless that purpose may be). It seems that we should not be guilty of murder for doing what we believe to be right. However, in God’s eyes, all sins are equal; all sins are the same. Murder is sin. And I believe that though we can train ourselves to ignore the guilt we have from murder on the battlefield, we cannot completely remove the God-given sense all of us have that killing others is wrong.

Venturing back to freedom, I am reminded of the false hope that justice often brings us. Many Americans (often those who believe worldly freedom is worth killing and dying for) believe that justice is the best way to handle all situations, and can sometimes end up worshiping justice in the same way some Americans tend to worship freedom. Justice fails us all in much the same way that freedom fails us; none of us are responsible or righteous enough to not make the mistakes that constitute us as guilty. We are all guilty, and we are all the same. Thus, none of us has the right to condemn others for their sins.

Jesus came to forgive us for this guilt that we have, so that we don’t have to live by justice. I am already guilty of murder; I murder Christ on the cross for every sin I commit. But it is through God’s gift of His son that we are free from the burden of our sins, and free from spiritual justice. God will judge us in the end, but we need only a relationship with His son to be pleasing to God.

It is by Christ that I am free, and I am free in a deeper way than my country can ever provide or take away. This is freedom that cannot be purchased through justice or soldiers’ lives, because it was already given through Christ’s death on the cross.

• I can’t invest my savings because the markets can’t be trusted to not go under.
• I can’t let the money just sit because inflation will rapidly decrease its value.
• I can’t simply spend the money because then I’ll have no savings, and since it’s an IRA account, I’d be severely penalized for withdrawing it.

This dilemma makes me hesitant to try and save much at all. If the value of the dollar decreases exponentially in the next couple of years, where will I be when my savings are worth less than they were when I started “saving”? Why am I working so hard to put away money when it could all be disintegrated at the drop of a hat?

These thoughts have once again shown me that my worldly efforts are most often worthy of nothing. I need to take my finances to Christ, and have faith that He will provide for me whether I’m financially well-off or hurting for money. I’m reminded of these famous verses in Matthew 6:

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

I praise God that I have faith and do not have to worry about my future. Otherwise, I think I might worry myself to death. If my pride were in my finances or my material possessions, I would likely be too depressed and burdened to keep pushing forward. Likewise with any other worldly area of my life.

Of course, this is not to say that financial planning and responsibility is a bad thing (it is important, in fact), but it is something that should be prayed about and spiritually considered, rather than observed from the typical hoarding perspective. Those who hoard live in constant risk and will eventually lose everything; those who share will gain life and salvation.

So here are my questions for you:

• What are some of the ways you are able to seek financial guidance from God?
• Does anyone have a real-life story that drives this point home?
• Does anyone disagree with any of the points that I’ve made?
• What has God taught you in managing your finances or dealing with our current economic state?

I’ll look forward to your responses. :)

The passage that sparked the discussion was James 4:13-17:

¹³Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

Specifically, verse 17 was the verse that sparked the discussion: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.”

Personally, I’ve pretty much always believed that Christ calls us to give up everything we have and give it to the poor, which ultimately means to give it to Him. This then, combined with the above verse, leads to the conclusion that not giving up everything we have is a sin in itself, which I do believe. This is what my Bible study friends seemed to struggle with; they did not believe that it was necessarily a sin to keep any material possessions for themselves. They didn’t necessarily see anything wrong with storing up or consuming more than they truly need. And they seemed to believe that it was possible to be “entirely sanctified” (without sin for a period of time) while still owning more than the bare necessities, and not giving up everything to the poor.

Granted, as humans we do have needs, but God wants us to come to Him for our needs, and tells us that He will provide for us. Matthew 4:1-4 reads:

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus’ response does not mean that we should refuse to eat; it simply means that food is not the most important thing in our lives. Instead, God is the most important, and bringing our needs to Him will always ensure that they are met, whatever they are. I believe that we are closest to God when we are self-sacrificing, and I believe that giving everything we have to the poor is likely the best way to remove the distractions that we have in our lives that keep us from spending time with Him. It is obvious that we are closer to God in times of need; why is it so difficult to grasp the concept of God asking us to give everything away to remove our obvious distractions?

I realize that this is a pretty unrealistic requirement, but what does Christ call us to do that isn’t unrealistic by the world’s standards? Christ calls us to be perfect, as He is perfect. In the words of Jesus, Matthew 5:43-48 reads:

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The end of this passage reads “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” If we have any “luxuries” in our life (meaning anything that we don’t truly need or has the potential to distract us from God), I believe we are called to give these away, so that we may strive to be perfect as Christ was perfect. Christ had nothing more than He needed, and calls us to do the same.

So why don’t I get up myself and give away everything I have? Because I lack the faith. Because I’ll never be perfect, like Jesus. Although, the more I think about this topic, the more I want to give away myself, and the less interest I have in any material possessions. I truly believe Jesus has called me to give away everything I have.

So then, here are my questions for you:

• Do you believe that you would be closer to God if you had less material possessions? Why or why not?
• Do you believe that Jesus has called you to give away all material possessions?
• Do you believe that Jesus calls all Christians to give away all material possessions?
• Do you believe that it is possible to be “entirely sanctified” (without sin) without giving away everything you own?

Feel free to answer any or none of these questions, but I am very interested in your thoughts on the topic. Please let me know in the comments!

And so you go back to your great alma mater
And end up replacing your favorite professor
You teach the same concepts and accept them as truth
Never bother to question the truths they taught you

Regurgitate knowledge and reward inhibition
For logic and change come up short of tradition
And anything learned is worth pushing on forward
To the young and the stupid to push it on forward

And oh how productive to society you are
With your head in your books and your IQ above par
I’m sure you’ll be useful when we find we need
A scholar with knowledge but nothing to heed