toddjohnston.org

An engadget article reveals that a group of enterprising lads have been able to crack the iphone, unlocking it for use with any GSM carrier. Looks like the only that doesn’t work is visual voicemail, which requires special server-side software to work correctly, something Apple/AT&T aren’t giving away anytime soon. Really this just opens up use of t-mobile for people here in the US. This is very good news for everyone else in the world (except Japan) as well, especially as apple starts to reveal its “exclusive” contracts with european cellular providers.

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A recent Time Magazine article discusses the unseen life of Mother Teresa as one of internal struggle. It quotes some correspondence between her and others in the faith from a book recently written–the general spirit of which is that of doubt. For much of her life it appears that she struggled to sense the comfort and peace that comes from knowing a personal God intimately, questioning at times if He was even there. All of this at the same time as she was serving God by cleaning wounds of lepers and fighting poverty one person at a time on the streets of Calcutta.

Many are pointing to such doubts about her faith as some sort of hypocrisy, when really for most REAL Christians, doubt and struggle is a normal part of the Christian life. In the book of Mark, a father who brought his child to Jesus to be healed and cleansed of an unclean spirit expressed well such doubts by exclaiming “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Thomas doubted and as extra-biblical sources claim went on to die a martyr’s death in and around India. Saint John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul” has been studied and quoted for centuries because of it’s focus on the very same struggle and was what Pope John Paul II wrote his doctoral dissertation about. David Brainerd, a missionary to American Indians who was made famous by Jonathan Edwards’ publishing of his diaries, wrote often about his melancholy demeanor and struggle to sense the peace of God on his life. Even today REAL christians who would seek to glorify God with their life seek and struggle desperately to have some sense of intimacy and joy in knowing God–something John Piper has written a great book about called “When I Don’t Desire God”.

So it’s pretty normal to struggle. Mother Teresa wasn’t the first to do so and won’t be the last. As the Catholic Church is going through the process naming her a Saint, whatever that is, this should stand as a reminder that people who are viewed by history for doing great things for the Glory of Christ are no different than you and me–at least in that they too struggle to know God. The key as Mother Teresa has shown us, is to fight through the doubts to seek the Joy that comes from knowing and serving Christ. Struggling with doubt to seek to know God intimately means that you believe there is something that you have tasted in knowing God that is well worth fighting for–even if it takes you a lifetime.

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Thursday evening I spent a few minutes (several really, yes I’m a nerd) reading up on and watching some videos demonstrating the new iMac. I was impressed with the slick new design with the glossy screen and brand new slimline keyboard design.

Then friday I get a call from Darryl, one of my bosses/owners of the company I work for asking if I could setup an iMac for a new employee that is starting in September. So he shows up and asks me for a hand carrying them, yes THEM in. He snagged one for me while he was at it. It was a big surprise to me. I’ve been using my own macbook pro since about January. It’ll be quite nice not having to haul it back and forth. It will also be nice to go blind staring at the incredibly bright 20″ screen on my new 2.4ghz iMac. Thanks again Rearview.

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My wife and I have been addicted to 24 and for the past several months we have been watching season after season. As of late, with my wife’s knee injury, we’ve been watching even more.

Seasons 1 and 2 were certainly the best. The plot lines from season 5 and 6 were connected, and together they come close to seasons 1 and 2. Season 3 was pretty good. Season 4 was, well . . . let’s just say it could have been a lot better.

Last night we watched the last episode of season 6. I really don’t know what I’m going to do now. I have grown far too accustomed to the “Power of Bower”. I’m already hearing bad things about the coming season 7. Supposedly 24 is going “green”. I’ll probably still watch it anyways.

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As you probably noticed the

tagline on the blog header was definitely an example of meandering. Basically it was just too long. So it’s now fixed.

I’ll probably change it, because I’m still not really happy with it. I guess no one really likes to be put in a box. More than likely it will change simply because I change. I’m not the same person I was a year ago or even a day ago.

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Well after last weeks catastrophic meeting between my macbook pro and coffee, I now have my computer back from apple. They fixed it free of charge (only because they didn’t know about the coffee). Wasn’t that nice of them?I spent about 6 hours pulling files and installing programs back onto my machine last night. Its quite the exciting task. You basically have to sit and watch and wait, but at least it’s done. At least now I am back up and running.—–

yep . . . thought i would be cool like everyone else and try out the whole blogging thing. see, now I am cool.

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