How the actions of this poor widow challenges a slightly irreverant, Linux-using, business school educated Christian. And his money.
Some towns may call them “Food Banks” — charities that give away groceries to those in need. But in my fair city, where the SF Food Bank is a government-funded entity, us little guys are known as “Food Pantries”.
My food pantry is known as the Excelsior Community Food Pantry or ECFP for short. When I [...]
Posted on October 21st, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, charitable, chasing happiness, church, diary worthy | No Comments »
This Sunday, I saw something quite surprising at church. In the middle of church service during communion, a bunch of the grade-school children from Sunday school bounded into the sanctuary. They cheerfully danced up to the communion table. The church elder offered them the bread. The children grabbed a piece, drenched it grape juice, and [...]
Posted on May 4th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, chasing happiness, church, diary worthy | 1 Comment »
It seems like everybody, myself included, is worrying about job security today. A number of my friends have lost their jobs. Yours and mine may very well be in jeopardy. Sure, there are some glimmers of hope on Wall Street. But the stock market is what they call a “leading indicator”. Jobs recovery will surely [...]
Posted on April 14th, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: chasing happiness, diary worthy, economic theory | No Comments »
I have a time-honored tradition* of responding to some of Hayley’s blog posts. Our friend Rahul calls it “competing blogs”. I like to think of it as complementary blogs. But I digress…
Hayley’s recent post expressed some of the busyness that we’ve experienced recently. Like Hayley, I’m a bit tired, stressed, [...]
Posted on March 21st, 2009 by Ryan
Filed under: charitable, chasing happiness, church, diary worthy | 1 Comment »
Over the years it seems like Christmas has had a lot of critics. I must admit that I have my complaints. Many of us do. What’s yours? Complete this sentence:
Christmas is too…
Divisive and Religious
Secular
Commercial and Materialistic
Stressful
Much Trouble
Cheery
Sad
Much time with family
Much time away from family
Traditional
Anything else to add to the list? I’m probably missing a [...]
Posted on December 26th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, chasing happiness, diary worthy | 1 Comment »
Last week, Hayley went to visit her aunt in South Carolina. Once left to my own devices, I descended into a lifestyle of boyish immaturity. Beer, football, greasy foods, and video games dominated my free time.
Did you know that iGoogle offers throwback games like Frogger and PacMan for free? And did you [...]
Posted on September 27th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: chasing happiness, diary worthy, relationships (and money) | 2 Comments »
Yes, apparently it can. Strange, isn’t it? I’m not talking about employees grumbling about smaller-than-expected annual raises. Nor am I talking about those who get a sizable raise but still feel shafted. I’m talking about an honest-to-goodness raise.
Unhappiness from a pay raise is rare. It only applies to specific work situations. A pay raise might [...]
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: brazen, charitable, chasing happiness, diary worthy, societal concerns | 1 Comment »
My boss’ boss is a successful Silicon Valley start-up technologist, a self-described old-school hippie, and an outspoken derider of the free market. He often complains about large corporations and capitalistic pigs. We affectionately call him Dr. Hickey.
Last week, it was the football-weekend pricing of a South Bend hotel that prompted Dr. Hickey’s oft-used “greedy corporation” [...]
Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: chasing happiness, diary worthy, economic theory | 7 Comments »
When I teach Sunday school, I often encourage the children to pray. I would explain that praying is just talking to God. I tell kids that you can pray to God about anything.
Grown-ups seem to have taken this childhood message to heart, especially Rocky Twyman, a community organizer from Maryland. This community organizer [...]
Posted on August 1st, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, chasing happiness, relationships (and money), societal concerns | 3 Comments »
I have a very important question. Of all the sins in the world, which is the worst? There are so many delightful ones to choose from. Murder, adultery, thievery — those are the common Biblical ones. But why stick to one flavor? We have corporate sins (sexual harassment, corporate malfeasance), [...]
Posted on July 25th, 2008 by Ryan
Filed under: Christian tradition, brazen, chasing happiness, societal concerns | 5 Comments »