Sleep and Neural Trash

Do you ever think about sleep? I do. I was diagnosed with sever sleep apnea several years ago. I sleep with a piece of technology that frankly has changed my life.

I remember the night I went to the hospital to be tested. I was all wired up and was asked to go to sleep. Seriously? With 100 wires and connections all over me, go to sleep. I finally dosed off and remember being awakened by the tech.  Mr. Henry, Mr. Henry, I need to come in and add the sleep machine.

What! I was already tired and ready to continue my good nights rest, or so I thought.

The tech very kindly put this machine on my face and turned it on. I couldn't breath! Take it off! It felt like when you stick your head out the window of a fast moving vehicle (not recommended) and the rushing air is literally taking your breath a way.

It took me some time but I finally fell asleep. And, you know what? I still remember that dream. I was back in college, sitting in chapel, listening to the preacher. The dream ended and I woke up. Wow! I couldn't believe how I felt. In that short hour or two I had gone through my first neural trash emptying in probably a decade! Now, not that my sitting in chapel 30+ years ago was trash, it was my body doing exactly what it was designed to do. Something that the apnea had prevented it from doing for many years.

This NYT article on Goodnight, Sleep Clean gives some great insight into studies around sleep. God has designed our bodies, specifically our brains, to use sleep to do daily cleaning. When, as was in my case, we weren't getting that cleaning, my body was wearing down and destroying itself.

You may ask, how does this have to do with faith and tech? Remember the technology I was using, the CPAP machine? Pretty simple, this relatively simple technology enabled my body to return to a daily sleep state. My faith was directly affected by my sleep. How so?

You see, if you've ever had sleep deprivation, you start having panic attacks, higher levels of anger and frustration, and the list goes on. Interesting to think about the fruits of the spirit being manifested through a body with not enough sleep to a body with sleep. What a joy to live in a day when God grants His grace to doctors and technicians to provide technology that speaks directly to our faith. These bits of technology, or can I call them manifestations of His grace, enabling our body to work as designed directly by the Creator.

The "Church"?

Do you dare imagine a time when there were no church buildings, no Sunday morning worship and in the biggest cities you knew, all the believers in that city could fit in a large room? When you heard the word "church" it simply meant "get together". And "life" was synonymous with the six to six and a half days you worked. Oh, and the only Bible you had were the books of Moses, Poets and Prophets (what we call today, the Old Testament).

Now, the guy who told you about Christ sent you an email, oh, he was in prison, and it sounded like this...

Therefore I, a prisoner for working for Christ, beg you to work your work week worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all.

However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why David said,

“When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.”

Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to us as we get together: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build us up, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, which is us. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

After reading this, when you got together with other believers from your city, what would you do? 

• Would you decide to build buildings to continue to facilitate your get togethers?
• Would you decide to split up into many little get togethers, each set deciding that somehow your set gave you more options or was better than the other get togethers?
• What would you do at your get togethers?
• What would you do differently in your six and a half days of work?

What happened to us?

Are You a Trader?

Great video: http://vimeo.com/43607378

Our work is our worship. We use our God giving skills with excellence. Will you be a Kingdom-Focused rather than Self-Focused employee?

How does this happen?

• Are you focused on that next position in the corporate ladder?
• Does your salary mean everything to you?
• Do you put in the minimum time you can get by with, knowing for example, when your boss comes and goes to lunch, so Facebook, YouTube comes up, because you know exactly when you won't get caught?
• Do you leave for lunch after your boss leaves, and come back later knowing your boss doesn't know when you left, even though you are given an hour for lunch?
• Even though it _looks_ like you are working on that company spreadsheet, are you really thinking of that amazing lake getaway that will happen on the weekend? Are you giving your thought CPU cycles to the skills and work you are called to?
• Is your attitude one of derogatory comments and snide remarks against your company or the leadership?
• Do you call in sick? ( http://www.thehighcalling.org/work/calling-sick)
• What else?

Artificial Maturity

As parents and educators, our faith impacts how we teach. Does our tech keep us from the real world? Is an authentic adult one that doesn't use tech?

Great new book from noted leader, speaker and author, Tim Elmore.

https://growingleaders.com/artificialmaturity/

Great insight on areas to measure and wonderful practical advice:



1. Biological—the physical growth of the young person
2. Cognitive—the intellectual growth of the young person
3. Social—the interactive growth of the young person
4. Emotional—the intrapersonal growth of the young person


I really like his quote on giving as much 3d “face time” as 2d “screen time” 

Come To Me, Especially in the Workplace!

A friend of mine sent me this song today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY0Vz8fvIhE&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Our faith in our workplace requires us to depend on God for everything! Every project, every program, every relationship, every assignment, every meeting, every thought, every strategy, every leadership principle, every web site, every email, every Powerpoint, every flowchart, every line of code, every breath, every heart beat, He is all we need!

I am the Lord your God, 
I go before you now. 
I stand beside you 
I'm all around you 
And though you feel I'm far away 
I'm closer than your breath 
I am with you 
More than you know 


I am the Lord your peace 
No evil will conquer you 
Steady now your heart and mind 
Come into my rest 
And oh, let your faith arise 
And lift up your weary head 
I am with you 
Wherever you go 


Come to me, I'm all you need 
Come to me, I'm everything 
Come to me, I'm all you need 
Come to me, I'm your everything 


I am your anchor, in the wind and the waves 
And I am your steadfast, so don't be afraid 
Though your heart and flesh may fail you 
I'm your faithful strength 
And I am with you 
Wherever you go 


Come to me, I'm all you need 
Come to me, I'm your everything 
Come to me, I'm all you need 
Come to me, I'm your everything 


Don't look to the right or to the left, keep your eyes on me 
You will not be shaken, you will not be moved 
Ohhhh 


I am the hand to hold, I am the truth, I am the way 
Heyyyy 
Just come to me, come to me 
Cause I'm all that you need


©℗ 2012 Bethel Music / Distributed in the USA by EMI Christian Music Group / Marketed by Kingsway

Cyberattacks and Our Faith

(I haven't blogged in several months, and three in two days, not good marketing technique :) )

SANS is the most trusted information security training organization in the world. I get a weekly newsletter from them. This Flash (highlights below), showed up in my Inbox today. 

Wow, we've all watched it on movies, theorized about the effect on the US if we were attacked, but hadn't thought of us already doing the attacking. 

What role does our faith play in warfare that for the most part seems "not real" but in reality is more real than those bullets and UAVs of the past? 

Source: http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/newsbites.php?vol=14&issue=44

FLASH: The New York Times reported this morning that President Obama (and his predecessor) ordered a sophisticated campaign of cyberattacks against Iran's nuclear program, and has either attacked or considered attacking networks in China, Syria, and North Korea as well.  Because the publication of this story is likely to herald substantive and far-ranging changes in the way cybersecurity is managed in the US and in many other countries, we have included an analysis by Gautham Nagesh.

Under normal circumstances, his thoughtful, in-depth analyses are available only to paid subscribers to CQ Roll Call "Executive Briefing on Technology."  This is an abnormal circumstance.  There is great value in the security community understanding that the game has changed, and what it means.

                                          Alan

PS Another very valuable piece of cybersecurity reporting will appear on the front page of the Washington Post on Sunday or Monday and then be discussed on National Public Radio (the Diane Rehm show) on Monday morning.

TOP OF THE NEWS

--President Obama Ordered Stuxnet and More Attacks on Iran (June 1, 2012) (By Gautham Nagesh, CQ Executive Briefing on Technology) The New York Times has a bombshell this morning: President Obama began ordering cyberattacks on Iran within days of taking office. The story, which is a must-read, finally confirms what many cybersecurity experts have suspected: the Stuxnet worm, which disabled industrial equipment in Iran and Europe, was originally designed by Israel and the U.S. to slow down Iran's nuclear enrichment plant. The virus' escape from Iran's Natanz plant and subsequent discovery in Germany in 2010 was a mistake that U.S. authorities blamed on Israel. Former CIA chief Michael Hayden also acknowledged to the Times that Stuxnet is the first major cyberattack intended to cause physical destruction (to Iranian centrifuges). "Somebody crossed the Rubicon," he said.

The article includes a history of the classified cyberweapons program, dubbed "Olympic Games," which began under President Bush, and includes details of how President Obama decided that digital attacks were preferable to a potential military conflict between Iran and Israel. But the bottom line is that President Obama (and his predecessor) ordered a sophisticated campaign of cyberattacks against Iran's nuclear program, and has either attacked or considered attacking networks in China, Syria, and North Korea as well. The Obama administration previously acknowledged that it might respond to cyberattacks with physical force, but the report makes it clear that even as the U.S. was making those threats, it was perpetrating cyberattacks on the very nations it accuses of targeting its networks.

In doing so, the White House has seemingly opened a Pandora's box.

Administration officials have placed a greater emphasis on cybersecurity and the threat to our nation's networks that any previous administration, doubtless because they had first-hand knowledge of just how much damage sophisticated cyberattacks are capable of causing. Those officials might have also feared reprisals from nations that were targeted by Stuxnet and other digital attacks from the U.S. The revelation also sheds some light on the Pentagon's reluctance to outline its cyberwarfare policies in detail, since doing so might have involved disclosing to Congress that the U.S. already was fully engaged in online battle.

Having taken such an aggressive stance on deploying Stuxnet, it will be very difficult for the U.S. to keep casting itself as the innocent victim of unprovoked attacks by countries looking to steal our economic and military secrets. Today's report makes it clear that the White House long ago decided to embrace digital warfare, and puts the onus squarely back on the administration to clearly explain its rules of engagement online. But the greatest impact may be internationally, where hostile nations now have confirmation the U.S. could be targeting their networks. If hackers in those countries weren't already attempting to take down U.S. critical infrastructure, they probably are now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/world/middleeast/obama-ordered-wave-of-cyberattacks-against-iran.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

--Pentagon's Plan X Aims to Develop Robust Cyberwarfare Capabilities (May 30, 2012) The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)  is launching a five-year, US $110 million research program dubbed Plan X.

DARPA is seeking input from private sector organizations, universities, and computer game companies in its effort to develop improved cyberwarfare capabilities. Goals include creating a comprehensive map of cyberspace that is updated continuously, developing an operating system strong enough to launch cyber attacks and withstand counterattacks, and creating systems that allow commanders to launch speed-of-light attacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-plan-x-pentagon-seeks-to-spread-us-military-might-to-cyberspace/2012/05/30/gJQAEca71U_story.html

Lyrics and Faith at Work?

Wow, this has been going through my head for years, I just can't work, read or concentrate when music with lyrics or even music without lyrics where I know the lyrics well is playing. It's overloading my brain. Jonathan Spira gives a great overview on his blog:


http://www.overloadstories.com/2012/06/music/


Now, here's the question, as a believer, now that you know listening to music impacts your productivity, do you continue to do it in your workplace? Do we worship God by being as productive as we can?


(great follow up to this, it's about context: http://www.overloadstories.com/2012/06/music-productivity/)