Just a quick note that I am in the middle of an unexpected but much-needed vacation…. pastor’s orders… or at least strongly encouraged. This is a good thing. I think it is pulling me back from the edge of a burn-out that I didn’t see coming…or more accurately wouldn’t allow myself to see coming. Fortunately my pastor had the discernment I was lacking. Being under “pastor’s orders” has made it easier for me to give myself permission to detach and disconnect and take a vacation without feeling as much guilt as I usually would. I struggle with this.
Anyway I will post on the vacation exploits soon… but I have re-attached long enough in the last two days (and tomorrow morning) to be taking in the leadership summit. Loving it as always though for various reasons too numerous to mention that don’t always have to do with the speakers/sessions per se.
Just wondering if anyone else caught the Bono/Hybels interview today and what you thought about it?
nooc
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August 13, 2006 at 11:04 am
Jeremy Del Rio
Loved it! I posted my notes from the session here: http://jeremydelrio.com/blog/2006/08/11/willowcreek-part-3/
“Love you neighbor is not advice. It’s a commandment.”
August 15, 2006 at 9:30 am
mixedmoss
I took a miss on this conference this year, for financial reasons. However, I’m looking forward to borrowing the DVDs!
Greg, check out the comments under my “Ikea, Baby” post on my blog. There’s a note just for you.
August 20, 2006 at 12:21 am
jaydee
U2 makes good music, but Bono should stick to singing. His economic and public policy “ideas” are worthless.
I think the world is right to pan celebrities. They fly around in private jets, own a half-dozen bling-ed out SUVs, live in huge multi-million dollar mansions, then go on Oprah wearing thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes and jewelery to tell me that *I* should pay more taxes and give more money to the governments of brutal dictatorships on the other side of the world!
When the tsunami and earthquakes hit Asia people like Sandra Bullock donated their own cash to help. What did Bono do? He set up a website and encouraged his fans to donate. Oh yeah, AIDS is important alright, but not important enough for him to sacrifice in his lifestyle. He can have three houses and ten cars, but who are YOU to have two TVs?? You should be giving one to the poor!
August 29, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Nicolas Nelson
Mmm hmmm. I hear you, Jaydee. There is a subtle, tidal pull toward “lifestyle creep” when a person’s discretionary income grows. One’s definitions of “expensive” and “wise purchase” writhe inexorably skyward, until a man who once happily decorated his home office with old milk crates now honestly believes his purchase of a 6-person fully-appointed private plane is “a bargain” and “will save us money in the long run” and fends off criticism by saying “hey, it’s not a Lear Jet or anything; and I don’t have a personal pilot on my payroll, I just hire one as needed from the local charter company.”
So I agree with your criticism of Bono, and understand your emotion… and we all need to guard ourselves from the same thing happening in our hearts. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not living at the same level of simplicity that I thought would always characterize my life.
I like to think I have sabotaged the tendency of “lifestyle creep” by diverting my desires in odd directions (like having no television and valuing bicycles over automobiles). But given the disposable income of Bono, I can’t say what my lifestyle would look like. I’d like to think it would be honorably simple, surely less ostentatious than Bono’s… surely…
October 17, 2006 at 11:24 pm
jaydee
Bono and U2 have moved their company out of Ireland to avoid paying taxes: http://cesaro-summability.blogspot.com/2006/10/bono-tax-evader-extraordinaire.html
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/8/7/145346.shtml?s=lh
So while he’s chastising other countries for not giving away more taxpayer money to third world kleptocracies he’s simultaneously avoiding paying taxes himself. Nice.