So I’ve been surrounded lately with the powerful concept of story, and the now-clichéd phrase that the church possesses “the greatest story ever told”. Like all clichés, it is one because it’s true.Yet the Gospel of Jesus is not a Aesop-ian fable with a moral at the end; it is a true story with the perfect restoration of all things at the end.

This morning I watched a couple video clips of comedians telling stories, and they’re funny because the stories illustrate the ridiculousness of the truth sometimes. (In case you’re wondering, the two clips were Brian Regan’s “Me Monster” and Mark Gungor’s  “Tale of Two Brains” – ok, technically Gungor’s wasn’t a story, but it had a good narrative feel.)

Mix into that some study and reflectio on church leadership, and my brain is full thinking about how we engage people with this: telling God’s story – the Gospel of Jesus – and people’s stories, and helping people to understand how they are related.

One of the best summaries I know is a statement by my friend Matt Ziprick – a pastor in Edmonton, AB – at a youth gathering a few years ago: that Christianity is “where God’s story meets your story”. It’s the heart of faith, that a person who believes that Jesus did what He did “for you” is one who has true faith in Jesus.

And it’s a great way to use the concept of story to learn more about how Jesus really does re-write our stories.

That’s WebMD’s brilliant new tagline in their TV spots. It’s a great example of WebMD trying to position itself as a medical filter for you; a trusted place that makes sense of the overwhelming amount of medical advice you can find online. They want you to filter your medical research through them.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept of filtering lately. Not like reverse osmosis for water, but in terms of information. As I look around, I see comments everywhere about how the amount of information available to us is increasing exponentially all the time. Some even say that the amount is doubling every two years. So the primary question for us in this time of continual information overload is not, where will I find the info I’m looking for? Google will link you to alsmot anything in the world. No, the primary question is: what will I do with the information I find? How will I make sense of it? We all need help sorting through the info avalanche that’s pouring over us all the time.

photo from flickr

And thus the need for filters— trusted helpers that slow down the avalanche to a manageable snowfall. Online, RSS feeds, blogs and trusted web sites can be filters. Offline, family, friends, colleagues, “top ten” lists, and community organizations can all be filters. No one exists without some sort of filter in place, even if it’s rather subconscious.

Understanding our filters can help us understand more about the way we operate and how we think. Are our filters narrow enough that they keep things manageable for us, yet wide enough to allow us to think for ourselves? Do they give us enough information, yet not overload us? Are they diverse enough that we are challenged to form our own opinions, yet not so diverse that they lead to confusion?

For instance, when I’m doing Bible study, the kinds of study guides, commentaries, and other study tools I use are all filters. If I use them blindly, they can have an undue influence on my study. But used properly, they help me to learn and clarify.

So what (and who) are your filters? Whom do you turn to in different areas of life to help keep you informed, but not go insane from overload? Comment below, and give me specifics – trusted web sites, people in your life (I don’t need names, but more relationships to you – ie. “my dad”, or “my best friend” or whatever), tools you use. I’d love to hear, but also to help you think through your own filters, or maybe even discover them.

To summarize, Wired lists “three smart things about sleeping late”:

1. People who got 8 hours of sleep and thought they were well-rested did better with 2 hours more. Until Edison, people slept an average of 10 hours a night. I get about 6. Guess I need 4 more. Would that the little children would allow it.
2. One study (they didn’t provide details) said that ” ‘evening people’ almost universally slam-dunked a standardized creativity test” (is a standardized creativity test an oxymoron?), and “early-bird brethren struggled for passing scores.” My creativity now has scientific backing. Just what I always wanted.
3. Cortisol, the stress hormone, peaks in blood about 7am, so people who wake up then may have more tension. I know if I wake up at 7am, people around me experience tension until about 10.

Now that I’m officially sanctioned by Wired, I will continue my night owl existence and not worry about being conformed to the pattern of this world, which teaches “early to bed, early to rise…” you know the cliché. It’s wrong. Well, maybe not wrong. Just boring and unscientific.

I hope you find some fun and usefulness from this – if so, get involved by commenting and subscribing (. If not, don’t worry about it – if you’ve got better things to do, go to ‘em! You won’t hurt my feelings. There are a lot of blogs I don’t read, either.

Here we go…