Filed under: Environmentalism
From Popular Science
The study: “Do green products make us better people?” Psychological Science, March 2010
The findings: Sure, getting organic bok choy and phosphate-free toilet-bowl cleaner can make you feel good about yourself, but how good? And does buying green translate into more redeeming behaviour overall? Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto conducted three experiments on 305 subjects to find out. It turns out that just being exposed to green products – seeing a TV commercial or walking by an organic store – creates a “halo effect” that makes people more charitable and trusting. But actually buying green products was like getting a license for hypocrisy: After a purchase, the green consumers were more likely to lie and steal.
Why bother? Mazar points out that more and more consumers are buying green and socially responsible products, which gives them “moral capital” (aka a superiority complex). But, she says, she wants to learn how to get beyond the smug factor: “How do we educate kids to get to the stage of being more thoughtful about using resources without thinking ‘I’m so great’? This is ultimately the goal of our research.”
From Moreland’s blog:
My fundamental life-commitment, the very reality that drives me on a daily basis, is increasingly to fall in love with the Triune God, to bring honor to Jesus Christ and make him famous among the nations, and to become like him in attitude and action. Under the power of the Spirit, I want to lead a victorious Christian life and experience a Christ-honoring, vibrant death.
The fundamental means by which these life goals are achieved revolve around making progress in what I have summarized as the “Kingdom Triangle,” and to do so in community with other friends, brothers and sisters: This involves:
Cultivating the life of the mind: It is important to know what one believes and why one believes that way. It is crucial to learn how to think as a Christian throughout the whole of life in a Christ-honoring way. While the Bible is not a philosophy text, still, it embodies a worldview, including implications for metaphysics, epistemology, value theory, and other areas, and my goal as a disciple is to honor Jesus Christ in my worldview thinking in which there is no distinction between secular and sacred.
Flourishing the life of a tender, non-judgmental, loving and joy-filled heart, centered in biblically-informed spiritual formation, the practice of spiritual disciplines, and a constant invitation from God to co-labor with Him in accessing my heart and its current state. I want to be a winsome, non-defensive, courageous witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to do so with a heart of agape love.
Attending to the supernatural life of a disciple of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God, in which I learn to grow in seeing answers to prayer, the sick healed, the demonic addressed appropriately, and words of knowledge, prophecy, and wisdom flowing through me for the edification of others.
All three values are to be done in the context of a priority on developing close friends in the body of Christ and serving alongside brothers and sisters in a local church.
The “Kingdom Triangle” is not the Gospel, but it does offer good news for those whose identity and way of life are defined and nurtured by the Gospel of God’s Kingdom, the proclamation of saving life, redemption, power, forgiveness and grace in Jesus Christ.
From Moreland’s blog: Five values have informed my own sense of vocation:
1. The value of love and devotion to the triune God, with special focus on Jesus Christ, along with an intentional plan to make progress in spiritual formation.
2. The value of the mind and a developed intellectual life in which truth and reason are central.
3. The importance of being a Christian activist, one who seeks to penetrate the world with a Christian worldview, with special emphasis on the Great Commission.
4. The value of friendship and community in the body of Christ, in which one learns to give honor to others and to be genuinely enthusiastic about their successes and concerned about their hardships.
5. The importance of learning how to live a supernatural Christian life, in which the miraculous power of God’s kingdom breaks through in such a way that I become “naturally supernatural.”
Filed under: Success
From the book It: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It
Don’t internalize failure. Remember that failure is an event, not a person. When you do fail, allow yourself to feel the disappointment. That’s reality, and an important part of it. But don’t internalize disapproval. Just because you failed at something doesn’t mean your a failure. Shake it off. And try something again.
The Brooks 