The Pronunciation Poem

I have been using StumbleUpon quite a lot recently and I usually come across a lot of neat things.  This one particular thing I had to share.  The English language is a complex enigma wrapped in a riddle concealed in a mystery.  Words don’t look or sound anything like they should.  This is kind of an illustration of that dealing pronunciation.  Check it out.

I take it you already know
of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
on hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done!  And now you wish, perhaps,
to learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
that looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead -- it's said like bed not bead --
and for goodness' sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)

A moth is not the moth in mother,
nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
just look them up -- and goose and choose,
and cork and work and card and ward,
and font and front and word and sword,
and do and go and thwart and cart --
come, come I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language?  Man alive.
I'd mastered it when I was five.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2EfRPL/www.infiltec.com/j-prono.htm/

The way things have always been

First off, I want to blame my extended hiatus since my last post on I’ve getting busy and I’d like to apologize for it. I got some inspiration today after a convergence of several things made me want to write again. First off, I have been trying to strike back up my relationship with Jesus Christ. For the longest time I feel like I have been far from Him. Through so much of my adult life, I have kind of just been putting Jesus in the acquaintance circle of my google plus life. It was like I spoke with him on occasion during major events and sometimes I would even stop long enough to try and catch up but me being kind of cold and closed off just kept Him at arms length and sort of shallow. My wife and I had been surviving through our marriage without a strong faith base. That was 100% my fault. God tasked men with being the spiritual leader in their households. If that role was part of my career, I should have been fired within the first month if not sooner. After extended late night conversations with my wife and one of my best friends/the worship leader at my church it came up that my wife had never experienced a true relationship with Jesus. Talk about my shock, surprise and guilt. I felt like the biggest failure on earth. The person I have been married to for over a year and who I am supposed to the closest and most intimate with revealed to me this close personal matter that if I had been doing my job I would have been able to discover and help her with from day 1. I felt like the biggest failure ever. That aside, a weight was lifted as I started watching my wife finally give over to Christ parts of her life that she’s been holding back for years. It was definitely an exciting and motivating experience. At that point I decided that I had to get back to Him. So I started back on a daily “quiet time” and started trying to get back that fire I once experienced. Now that my motivation behind this post is out of the way, let me start on the real idea behind this thing. I was reading in preparation for the small group bible study that I lead today and the story happened to be one I have heard so many times. I feel like I have heard sermon and talk after sermon and talk on The Samaritan Woman at the Well. Today it struck a different chord with me for some reason. Specifically the part after Jesus points out her flaws, she recognizes he’s a profit and then asks him about the ongoing issues between the Jews and the Samaritans. His response is as follows (NIV): “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:19-24 NIV) A while back, my worship leader brought up some scripture regarding the Jews and Samaritans and then explained the history behind it that I never knew. He said the real conflict behind the two people groups was Worship styles. I thought to myself, “this coming from the worship leader, I have a feeling I know where this is going.” In fact, that’s not really where he went at all. He said that the Jews worshipped God by keeping his commandments and learning the truths in the temple in Jerusalem. They were very methodical and by the book. They were wheat you would call in today’s church vernacular “traditional” in their style of worship. They would bring their sacrifices to the temple for atonement from their sins. They believed their way was the right way and the only way. The Samaritans on the other hand were a bit out there by the Jewish standards. Jesus even said “You Samaritans worship what you do not know”. They supposedly worshipped at a mountain where they thought the temple was instructed to be built for God. They were a mixed race with some strange theology and worshipped through Spirit. In today’s terms, they would have been the people who are looked at funny in the traditional churches of today for raising their hands, closing their eyes, maybe even speaking in tongues and really getting in tune with the spirit. Some people are freaked out by this. I used to be one of those people(freaked out by that). I grew up in a church where you couldn’t play loud music because Sundays were a day of rest and you didn’t want to wake God. It was a mentality resistant to change and stuck in the past. I conformed for the longest time until I left my small town upbringing for college and discovered worshipping through the spirit. It was awe inspiring the very first time. I was in a room surrounded by strangers but felt a deep connection to each and every one of them. I felt God’s presence as I belted out songs I had never heard before. Then the word was brought by the pastor and it felt like he was talking directly about my life. I was hooked. I turned away from my daily bible study and scripture memorization I grew up with and exchanged it for this Sunday morning once a week with the holy spirit. I was being fed like I never had before. Soon though, I began to lose all of that and didn’t know why. Looking back on all of that it hit me. I grew up worshipping what I did know and ventured into a land of worshipping that which I did not know. I went from the strict traditions and truth like the Jews and retreated into the land of spirit led worship of the unknown like the Samaritans. Neither is wrong but then again today I learned that neither is complete. Jesus spoke of a time when we would worship in spirit and in truth. That verse never really said anything to me until today. The feeling that the holy spirit provides on Sunday mornings comes from the overflow of the soul filled with truth throughout the week. It’s that easy and that complicated. Alone, each has it’s flaws. Together it is authentic worship with mind, body and spirit of the Creator of the Universe. It means that the hymn singing choir in full formal robes can stand on the same stage as the electric guitarist wearing a black button down, blue jeans and tennis shoes and the God of All things looks down upon both with favor. It means that not only is worship contained on Sunday mornings, but it extends into that personal relationship with His Son. It means that Worship is NOT song selection or instrumentation. It means that worship is our connection to the Lord of All and is a direct reflection of the condition of our hearts and our relationship with his son. It’s just kind of freeing to think about for me. God will use my talents to honor him regardless of if I get a chance to solo or add some fills in to sound like Hillsong as long as my heart remains in pursuit of him. Sorry for the diarrhea of the mind poured onto the page. I’ll try to be more to the point next time. Grace and Peace Out 🙂

The Anatomy Of An Ad Agency

So four years of working my tail end off to get a $30k+ piece of paper that says I have a Bachelor of Science degree from an accredited university and I still haven’t been able to use anything I learned. This economy is so sad. Anyways, all that being said, I have never had the opportunity to work for an ad agency. In school we always talked about what it would be like working with the creatives as an account manager. Then I check out Mad Men on AMC and it made me long for that sweet stress of impending deadlines surrounding the sale of ideas to clients. When trying to explain what I could do with my degree to my parents, I always get a reaction like “there are really people who do that?” BFG down here in Bluffton, SC (basically my back yard) posted this info-graphic this morning from Big Orange Slide. From what I remember in school just dealing with these specific people on projects, its the most accurate portrayal of an agency that I have seen. Check it out!

The Anatomy Of An Ad Agency