Kid President’s State Of The Union

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kpcaptureThe future is scary.

Sure there are a lot of great things to look forward to in 2015. A new Avengers movie. Stephen Colbert taking over The Late Show. Hoverboards.

But for the most part, thinking about the future freaks me out.

Because I know along with all the exciting stuff, the future brings with it the possibility of more terror attacks. More infectious disease outbreaks. More depressing news.

That is, unless we do something about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j393lNECNGw Continue reading →

How Boyhood Found Beauty In The Ordinary

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MV5BMTYzNDc2MDc0N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTcwMDQ5MTE@._V1_SX640_SY720_Imagine a Hollywood director obtaining the raw footage of your childhood. Pretend everything you did between age 6 and 18 was caught on film and someone wanted to piece together a 3 hour movie of your story.

What do you think the director would find? What do you think would be the story of your youth?

That’s the question director Richard Linklater tries to answer in his fascinating film experiment “Boyhood”, the front-runner in this year’s Academy Awards race.

You’ve probably heard by now the way Linklater gathered the same cast together for a week every year for 12 years to shoot the story about an ordinary boy growing up. It’s a well-deserving Best Picture candidate, and not just for the incredibly creative gimmick.

What’s truly beautiful about “Boyhood” is the way it captures just how important the ordinary moments in our life are. Continue reading →

God Of Customer Service

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CaptureOne of the pleasures of moving to a new city is the always wonderful experience of dealing with the cable company. (Specifically Comcast, in case you were wondering. Or is it Xfinity now? I have no idea.)

Wanting to trim my budget in my new apartment, I made the decision to drop cable television and only purchase internet service.

After 6 months of getting by just fine with Apple TV and a digital antenna, I got a call from Comcast saying my promotional price on internet service was about to expire. If I did not update my plan, than my rate would more than double.

The customer service rep explained to me that basically it would be cheaper to upgrade my internet service and add on a basic cable package than it would be to remain at my current plan.

After going around in a circles with the sales rep on the phone I finally agreed. Of course once I received my new cable box in the mail it was not as easy to setup as the salesperson made it out to be.

So I was forced to do my least favorite thing in the world: contact customer service on the phone. Continue reading →

POP GOD POPcast: Episode 26 – Left Behind With Kate Doriot

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Welcome to Episode 26 of the POP GOD POPcast – a podcast interview series exploring the presence of God in the present tense.

Left Behind: It’s one of the most bizarre movies of the year. Nicolas Cage starring in a remake of a Kirk Cameron movie based on a Christian book series based on the Rapture? My wife Kate Doriot and I watched all 105 minutes of it and had to talk about on this very special edition of the Popcast. We cover everything from the crazy casting of Jordin Sparks and Chad Michael Murray to the importance of “investigative journalism” to no one in the movie understanding how the Rapture works. Plus we break down how Nicolas Cage might be the best part of this movie and what we think would really happen if 2/3 of the world got Left Behind. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, listen to find out what really goes down in this controversial “Christian” film.

Listen to the podcast here:

Or Download on iTunes Or Listen on Podbean

Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, rate it, leave a comment, listen to all the other episodes, share it on Twitter and Facebook and anywhere else. I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

I love sharing stories of people seeking God in the present tense. Let me hear your feedback. Leave me a comment and let me know how to improve things, what you’d like to hear discussed, and give me your ideas as to who you’d like to see on the next episode of the POPcast.

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How To Win 2015

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january1_2015_250Be honest: have you already abandoned your resolutions for 2015?

On January 1st All things are possible in the new year. Just like every football team on the first day of the season has a chance of winning it all, every resolution seems possible on New Year’s Day.

Then reality hits like a linebacker coming across the middle. Your resolutions get sacked to the ground. And instead of jumping back into the huddle, most of your goals get carted off the field never to return again.

There seems to be more and more anti-resolution blog posts being written every year. Resolutions are out of style with this generation.

But I don’t think the problem is in our resolutions themselves. I think it’s our attitude towards them. Continue reading →

4 Words Of Advice From My Honeymoon

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IMG_8250As we drove through the hills of North Carolina we saw a scenic overlook coming up on our right – a place to pull off and enjoy the mountain view for a moment.

Despite having a plan for the day, we could not pass up pulling over to take a peek.

The pictures don’t quite do the view justice. You can’t help but pause quietly as you take it all in. There are no words to accurately describe the beauty of what you are seeing.

As we continued our drive down the mountain road we came upon 3 more scenic overlooks. We stopped at each one of them.

We laughed as we noticed another older couple who pulled up a few minutes behind us at each view. This couple already knew a lesson my wife and I were just learning:

Stop at every overlook. Continue reading →

God With Us

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Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, “God with us”). – Matthew 1:23

IMG_4601The mission of this blog is to explore the presence of God in the present. I believe we are able to do that because He is still present in our present. He is still Immanuel. He is still with us.

The meaning of Immanuel is exactly the reminder I need by the time December 24th rolls around. At this point I’m just about always running empty on the Christmas spirit, especially this year. It’s been a wild 12 months. I’ve turned in my notice to 3 different jobs this year (I’ll be starting a new one in January). I’ve moved away from the only place I’ve ever truly called home. I’ve married my best friend and begun the wonderful and challenging journey of being a husband. As excited and thankful as I am for where I’ve come over the past year I’m just as exhausted and confused about how to handle where I’m going. When I’m burnt out and ready to kick the Christmas tree over, I keep reminding myself of His promise that has remained true year after year. God with me. 

I know the same is true for many of you reading this. When we spend our days looking down only at our phones and what our own hands are working on we all lose sight of what’s going on around us. So look around. Look at the way He reveals himself in music and movies. In Lexus commercials and in lumps of coal. In socks and underwear. In all of the chaos and confusion and commercialization He’s there, with each of you, if you are willing to look. God with you.

The presence of Immanuel was never meant to be a short term present. It’s not like the stop-motion cartoons we love which come around once a year or the 24/7 Christmas music stations which temporarily takeover the radio dial. Just because His physical manifestation went away, that doesn’t mean He’s actually gone anywhere. His spirit is like Christmas lights hung year round, ready to be turned back on at a moment’s notice. When the stockings come down and the ornaments go back in the attic, remember His name. Open up the book and read it out loud: Immanuel. God with us. 

Immanuel. In the present, as in the past, and so in the future. God with me. God with you. God with us. 

Thanks for joining me on this journey through the 12 Blogs Of Christmas. Follow along for the next part of the POP GOD journey in 2015. Merry Christmas. 

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The Most Sacred Gift You Can Give At Christmas

/ Alex Doriot / 4 Comments

FullSizeRender-10If you want to get that special someone in your life something really sacred for Christmas this year, buy them socks and underwear.

Hear me out on this.

I used to hate getting socks and underwear for Christmas. Each year my mom buys me a few fresh pairs of each.

It’s not a glamorous or exciting gift. It’s not a gift that is ever on my wish list.

But I desperately need them. Continue reading →

What Exactly Is The Spirit Of Christmas?

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GUEST POST: Today’s contributor to The 12 Blogs Of Christmas is my friend Savannah Jane Duncan. Savannah is a High School Senior and a former student in the youth group I led who’s taken up blogging as her Senior Project. She writes about her journey growing up on her site One Girl Without A Plan. You’ll want to follow along with her blog and her Facebook Page because she’s got a bright future ahead of her. Enjoy her contribution to POP GOD:

How-the-grinch-stole-christmas-2000-03The spirit of Christmas is a thing, right? Well, I’m here to tell you that it is! I am a seventeen year old senior in high school and I can attest to the spirit of Christmas playing a HUGE role in my life.

Well, what exactly IS the Christmas spirit?

To me, it’s the Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola feeling that you get in your belly when you know that a jolly, fat man with presents is coming to your house. The sugar plums that fill your head as you dream of what will be under the tree when you awake. The excitement that comes when you peek out your window to see Rudolph’s nose (or the red light of a near by cell tower) blinking in the distance. That feeling is genuinely one of a kind.

I asked some adults if that feeling ever comes back and they said, “No.”

WHAT?! AM I EVER GOING TO ENJOY THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS AGAIN?!?? Continue reading →