day 1350: Implied Free?

"Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy."

It used to be that if you wanted to access the internet in an airport that you had to pay for it through services like Boingo, or T-Mobile, AT&T, etc.  You can still pay for that internet access if you want, or you can access it through what I call, "Implied Free".  Implied free is telling the consumer that something is free, but it isn't really.  In the case of airport internet access, you watch an ad and then you get a half-hour or so, and then you can watch the same ad again, and get another half hour or so. And on and on it goes. It seems free, but it's not because we have taken our time to look at the ad and distract ourselves from doing something else. What is the cost to us? It's the cost of what we could/would be doing otherwise.  "Implied free" is not new.  Broadcast media was built this way and we now see the same for the "implied free" of ad supported streaming entertainment services.  We are just a moment away from walking into a coffee shop and receiving what appears to be an "implied free" cup of coffee, but we will have to show that we watched the ad, tweeted or create a Facebook status about being in the store and trying the coffee.  I personally don't mind "implied free". It feels active and full of choices.  If we can find the goodness in the approach, there is much we can do and have our consumers and customers join in to help.

Believing in Jesus is free.  Following Him is not.  Jesus never implied otherwise. To follow Jesus, as He asks us to do, comes with a cost. That cost is giving up ourselves and the ways of the world for Him. It means that if we are going to receive the full abundance of what He has to offer, that we have to empty out those things in our lives that are filling us up and getting in the way.  As we know, it's all worth it and more!

Reference: John 16:24 (New Living Translation)

day 1343: Time

"I love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me."


This week we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the internet.  The world wide web as it was called early on did more than open up our ability to tap and consume any type of data, information or knowledge.  The internet also recreated how we think of time.  For the past 25 years, we have sped up. We search and find immediately. We consider what is slow and fast differently now than we did before the internet.  And, I suspect that won't change and that what we consider fast now, will look very slow 25 years from now. What does that mean for us as we think about our businesses?  It means that we need to do our very best to look over the horizon and imagine what it might look and feel like to have to be right about our consumers choices and needs, before they even know they have them.  Chew on that and see what it means for the future? But, chew fast!

God's timing is hard to understand.  We live in fast and faster and yet, He can move slowly in our lives, when we expect the answer "now".  A friend has been for month trying to hear God's will, search for a job and be ready for an open career door that has not swung open yet.  His blessing to me is that he can state confidently that with every day of waiting he draws closer to the dependence and grace of God, and for him, that is the gift of the slowing the time of his search.

Reference: Proverbs 8:17 (New Living Translation)

day 830: 800 Million

"And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come."

In a few weeks Facebook will become a publicly traded company. When they do so they will being used by over 800 million people. There is no other social network that has gotten this many users. Are there any other companies who have this many customers? It's amazing that they have been able to amass this many users in less than 10 years of business. At 800 million people they are close to reaching 1/7th of the world's population. As they go on their road show with investors, you can imagine that their growth story has them reaching a much higher percentage of the population than where they are now. How big can Facebook be? I think as big as people are looking to be connected with each other to share experiences. A friend, and well-known technology thinker and I were having coffee last week and we were discussing the legitimacy of the communication of the online world versus the spoken word, we landed on, while different and maybe more superficial, it is a now important form of communication and relating that is not likely to go away any time soon.

At my church in San Francisco, http://cornerstone-sf.org , we recently updated our website to better position our church in our community and tell our unique story. This is an important activity for a church. I know so, because this past weekend while we were in Tahoe I wanted to go to church and the way I found the church that I ended up attending was by searching on the internet and browsing through the different websites until I found the one that "felt" most like the one that I wanted to attend. As I walked into the church (a high school auditorium) on Sunday, I already had a sense and feel for what the church would be like. While not perfect, it did live up to what they marketed online. In Matthew Jesus talks about when we will see His Kingdom come, letting us know that this will happen when everyone on the earth has been given His message. Before the internet, before Facebook, that seemed so far off and dependent upon missionaries carrying the Word to the farthest flung parts of the world. But what if Facebook hits two, three, four, or almost seven billion people. Could it be one of our messages that post or we forward to a friend that ends up being the one? Let's let that thought sink in and consider how important our words can be.

Reference: Matthew 24:14 (New Living Testament)