“Do work that matters!” That’s the call of many productivity books written in the past two decades. To aid our pursuit of efficiency, books like Deep Work (still my favorite) and How to Have a Good Day suggest writing a life mission statement, single-tasking, blocking space on your calendar for focused work, task-batching, and much more. I admit, I was hooked. And I benefited from many of their methods. Due to the influence of productivity literature, I’ve been able to take on increased responsibilities at work, finish my master of divinity, earn a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu, join a nonprofit board, complete a pastoral internship, and serve as a bivocational pastor in two different churches. Without making progress in my personal efficiency, I likely wouldn’t have been able to do all that. And I still practice daily the disciplines I’ve learned. Yet, despite all the benefits, I’ve begun to see the dangers of productivity obsession in my life and in some Christian circles. Warning Signs I’ll never forget confidently declaring to a pastor friend, “Time is the most precious resource I have. I need to make the most of it.” He looked at me like I had two heads. “No it’s not,” he replied. “What about your health? Your family? Your faith and knowledge of the Scriptures?” Oh, right. That stuff. After our brief exchange, I realized I’d taken the good goal of productivity and made it my highest value. Such an obsession is a warning sign you’re taking efficiency too seriously. Another sign is spending more time optimizing life than appreciating it. I was frequently more excited about planning projects for the year than considering how to lead my family spiritually. That’s a problem. The amount of mental energy we spend on efficiency shouldn’t be greater than what we give toward loving the Lord, our families, and our churches. Then I noticed my inability to be still. When I had free time, I thought, Now I can sit down and read that book or work on that sermon. Or maybe I’ll simply rest. Then, five minutes later, my mind would race to a new task. My desire for efficiency limited my ability to do deep, focused work—or even to enjoy life. Learning to be still is surprisingly hard in our hurried age, but resting from our labors and trusting in Christ’s finished work on the cross is essential to the Christian life. Learning to be still is surprisingly hard in our hurried age. Controlling Time The well-known poem about time from Ecclesiastes 3:2–8 (thanks, Byrds) showcases life’s various seasons One of the thrusts of that passage is that human beings are at the mercy of time. We can’t control birth or death, planting or reaping, wars or peace. But God isn’t at the mercy of time. He made it and controls it. This can be frustrating for us as humans. We want to know the meaning and purpose of our days. We desperately desire to conquer and control time. We strive to be captains of our own ships. But when you realize you can’t control life—much less your time—it can lead to questions like the one in Ecclesiastes 3:9: “What gain has the worker from his toil?” In our quest to find meaning in life, productivity can become a go-to source for purpose. A cottage industry promises satisfaction if we maximize efficiency and work. We must beware of this cultural solution. Efficiency and excellence are good aims, but they can’t provide ultimate meaning. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can. More practically, human beings can’t be perfectly efficient. No matter how much we optimize. No matter how early we go to bed and how early we rise. No matter how many cups of coffee we drink. Ultimately, we have no control over the times we live in. No control over traffic jams, job changes, or illnesses. You and I will never be ultraefficient machines. We weren’t meant to be. Efficiency Redeemed Once I acknowledge the potential dangers of pursuing efficiency as an ultimate end, the sluggard in me can say, Nice, let’s just do nothing. This isn’t the solution. Scripture repeatedly warns against our lazy instincts (e.g., Prov. 6:6–9). In a world filled with distractions, laziness is a real temptation. Screens and social media give us countless opportunities to waste time. But there’s nothing Christ-honoring in mindless scrolling. The answer to productivity obsession isn’t inefficiency or inactivity; it’s efficiency redeemed. In our quest to find meaning in life, productivity can become a go-to source for purpose. In Ephesians 5:15–17, Paul writes, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” In context, Paul’s instruction to make the best use of our time isn’t about productivity but about living wisely. We’re to live according to the Lord’s will: pursuing holiness, building up the church, worshiping God, and loving one another. Redeeming efficiency requires us to understand our human limitations. We can’t optimize our lives to do it all. We should do what’s of highest value and work our way down God’s priority list. As a result, tasks on our lists will occasionally be left undone. Yes, we can plan days and prioritize tasks. But our greater goal should be to live wisely within our limitations. My worry for Christians like me who love efficiency and productivity is that we’ll labor under the delusion that if we maximize a bit more, we can control our lives and complete all our work. But this is a rejection of our status as creatures. We aren’t meant to be perfectly efficient. Sleep isn’t efficient, but God made us in such a way that we require it. I’ll still try to steward my time and talents as best I can and I’ll still read productivity articles and books to help me do that. I want my work to glorify the Lord. But I hope to do that with humility. We’re not the planners of the universe, and that’s a good thing. So let’s rest in the One who holds time in his hands and submit our plans—even our efficiency—to his good will.

The following article, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene To Fauci: “You Should Be Prosecuted For Crimes Against Humanity” (Video), was first published on Conservative Firing Line. (Natural News) During a recent congressional hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) put career criminal Tony Fauci on blast for his involvement in committing mass genocide during the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “pandemic.” After Fauci admitted that he knew all along about COVID “vaccines” not being “100 percent effective,” offering only “limited protections,” Greene grilled Fauci about various … Continue reading Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene To Fauci: “You Should Be Prosecuted For Crimes Against Humanity” (Video) ...

It rained on their parade. The post Which band literally made it rain at Glastonbury Festival? first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

If she gets close and your pulse quickens, you’re head over heels in love. It’s normal. It’s spring. The sun’s shining. Everyone’s in love. We men overdose on vitamin D and hundreds of beautiful women emerge from the cave where they’ve been hibernating with groundhog Phil. They leave in their wake, with the graceful swaying of their hips as they walk, fatal road accidents, collisions between pedestrians, guys falling down sewers, and skulls fractured against lampposts. One of the great challenges of modern medicine is figuring out how to reconstruct the vertebrae of a male who has crossed paths with an especially attractive woman. Whilst all of this happens among suddenly love-struck men, girls just get butterflies in their stomachs. (READ MORE: The Human Disappearing Act: Why Are We Not Reproducing?) We are different. The only time a guy ever felt something similar in his stomach, it wasn’t butterflies, but the consequences of ingesting an effervescent aspirin without dissolving it in water after a huge hangover. It is dangerous and easy to fall in love. Especially with a man. If you have the chance, never fall in love with a guy, with the sole exception of columnists. A Spanish group, Dinamita pa los pollos (Dynamite for chickens), said it in their own way: “Never marry a country singer/ if you don’t like to lose.” Every guy has a country singer in him, hidden behind the remote idea of going to a karaoke bar in the wee hours of the morning and getting on stage in his underwear. Science has been investigating this too, but has only found echoes and a lot of empty whiskey bottles. Women in love appear to be absent and radiate a strange light that scares other men away. If you ever want to get rid of a suitor, try falling in love with another guy. That glow is like inviting a gremlin to a spa. For their part, guys who fall into the clutches of infatuation hardly experience any symptoms. They’re often the last to know. Some men find out they are in love up to 40 years after they get married. Fortunately, Facebook now allows you to announce to the whole world that you have started a relationship, which is great because this way guys can also be sure that they have started dating a girl and it seems reasonably serious. Honestly, I don’t know what we did before Facebook. Maybe work. (READ MORE: The Case for Marrying Young — From Someone Who Did) Spring and summer are times of short love affairs, which are usually used to try to forget the long ones. Conquering is a much more complicated task for men than for women. However, if the price of flowers continues to rise, it will also be appropriate to say that it is a much more expensive task. As a result of this spring passion, thousands of people are currently undertaking the so-called “operation bikini.” It consists of sweating, eating fruit, looking in the mirror, and taking selfies daily. The goal is to have a perfect body as if that could do away with the super-perfect bodies around the globe. All this obsesses women in particular. I suppose there will be obscure reasons that escape me, but I’ll stick to statistics. I don’t have any female friends who need to lose weight. Instead, I have several who urgently need to put on weight. As for the guys, it’s all the same: Now and then a new study is published claiming that a beer belly is incredibly attractive to women, and that gives us an excuse to ask for another kebab and beer. We were going to order them anyway. A terrible effect of love is lovelessness. But without lovelessness, there would be no Emily Dickinson, no Rainer Maria Rilke, no The Smiths. So it can’t be such a bad thing either. Besides, the world is full of impossible love. Ninety percent of the population is too much in love with the remaining 10 percent. The remaining 10 percent are in love with each other. Spring makes everything prettier and balances the scales a bit, but not enough to make everyone happy. (READ MORE by Itxu Díaz: The Polite European Right Missed the Point) Don’t get me wrong though. I’m all for love. I’m fine with all the girls having their husbands, although I think Irina Shayk and Maria Sharapova could do without them. As for guys in love, I am overcome with jaded indifference, which turns into mild repulsion when they start posting Neruda’s verses on social networks. Some people believe that love was invented by Neruda. Others believe that love exists despite Neruda. It’s best to keep verses away from relationships, lest you have too many rhymes to regret when your girl runs off before you can give her the complete works of that pain, Alejandro Jodorowsky. If it does happen and she ditches you, take comfort in the knowledge that she was going to gift you with a Paulo Coelho anthology for Valentine’s Day. No one seems to hate each other as much as two people in love. The post Spring Is the Season of Love appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

CNN reports that a “left-wing activist” released secret recordings of Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, and Justice Samuel Alito and his wife. Though incredibly sleazy, the stunt was also a colossal swing and miss. What did we learn? Justice Alito’s wife has no use for those who believe her husband “should control” her. Anyone paying attention to the ridiculous flag controversy of the past few weeks cannot be surprised by this apparent bombshell. To put a finer point on things, Mrs. Alito is heard saying, “He never controls me.” Duh! (READ MORE: Sen. Durbin Calls on Justice Alito to Recuse Himself, Again.) Next, our intrepid reporter, pretending to be a conservative Catholic (on her website she describes herself as an “Agnostic. Bisexual. Fashionista.”) reveals that Mrs. Alito (a real-life Catholic) wants to fly a “Sacred Heart of Jesus” flag during the month of June, but isn’t going to out of deference to her husband during this time of “foolishness.” All this intrigue about Mrs. Alito adds up to STRIKE ONE! (Even so, look for another inane letter out of Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse’s senate offices after this revelation.) (READ MORE: The Curious Trump Tie: Alito’s Flag and Merchan’s Trial) As for Justice Alito, we learned that he prefers a godly society to a godless society. I guess that’s controversial. But we also learned that he thinks that it is up to the country to sort that out: One side or the other is going to win. I don’t know. I mean, there can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised . . . so, it’s not like you are going to split the difference. You know what he didn’t say? He didn’t say he would use his position to put his thumb on the scale. It’s not going to happen. Alito is a true conservative — a man of principle and a man of the law. STRIKE TWO. Finally, we read of a silly attempt to out Roberts as a Christian nationalist. But he didn’t take the bait when prompted to agree that the Supreme Court should guide the U.S. as a Christian nation. Instead, he responded “I don’t know that we live in a Christian nation. I know a lot of Jewish and Muslim friends who would say maybe not.” (READ MORE: Biden’s Bogus Executive Privilege Claim) And then the kicker of this whole thing. Roberts ends with “And it’s not our job to do that,” i.e., guide the nation as a Christian nation. “It’s our job to decide the cases as best we can.” STRIKE THREE, YOU’RE OUT! The truth is that the dirty trick backfired. She exposed that Martha-Ann Alito is her own woman with the kind of fortitude that made Ruth Bader Ginsburg an icon of the Left. We also discovered she doesn’t care what the woke crowd thinks of her. And the recordings confirm what conservatives have long known — that Alito and Roberts decide cases based on the rule of law and not on their personal preferences. Pete Hutchison is the president of Landmark Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm in Leesburg, VA, and Kansas City, MO The post Sleazy Recording of Alito and Roberts Totally Backfired appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.

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