A Brief Lesson From Your Phone

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment
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@HistoryInPics on Twitter

Your phone wants to teach you something.

Go ahead and pull your phone out of your pocket. Have a look at it.

Remember what your phone used to look like 10 or 15 years ago. Remember what it used to do.

The word Phone used to mean “the device you use to talk with someone in a different area.”

Now the word Phone means “the device you use to check social media, get directions, take pictures, write email, play games, listen to music, watch movies, read my Bible and occasionally talk to someone via text or video chat.”

The name of the device in our pockets is still a Phone. But the definition of Phone has completely changed.

The times have changed. There’s no going back to the old definition of Phone.

The same could be said for my definition. Continue reading →

Monday Morning Music: Tennessee

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

It’s hard to think about rest on a Monday.

Let me rephrase that:

It’s hard put rest into practice on a Monday.

Resting sounds good in theory. When God commands us to take a sabbath, we love the idea of it.

But the work comes calling.

I am terribly guilty of not putting sabbath principles into practice.

Instead of taking a full day to rest, I spend the weekend working and worrying about all manner of little things that need to get done. I think if I rest I won’t have the time to get everything done.

You may do the same thing.

Even worse, you may not have even had a day off this weekend. You may have worked double shifts. Or you may have been up all night taking care of a couple of screaming babies.

If you missed your chance at rest this weekend, maybe you could use some Monday Morning Music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkK5eHkY46o Continue reading →

When Was The Last Time You TGIF’d?

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

I want to wish you a Happy Friday today.

After all, I think Fridays are something to celebrate.

Why should you celebrate this Friday? Because the worst fears about this week you had back on Monday did not come true.

Fridays are like the sunrise of the the week. Just as the sun rises on each dark night, the pain of every rough week is interrupted by the hope a Friday brings.

If we can stand strong, Friday will always come.

But as much as we mire in the morosity of Monday, we don’t always celebrate on Friday.

meme Continue reading →

Kicking The Tommy Boy Mentality

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

It’s never our fault. 

From a young age we’re trained to pass the blame onto others – no matter how big the mistakes.

The natural instinct is to find someone else who can take the fault for our fumbles. From pointing fingers in grade school to passing the buck onto a coworker, the blame game is ingrained in us.

How many times have we looked like Tommy Boy, trying to fix things up and then asking others, “What’d you do?!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3xWOriHqwU Continue reading →

X-Men: Overcoming The Days Of Failure Past

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What sets the X-Men apart from a lot of other superheroes is their origin story.

Unlike many other comic book characters, the X-Men are born with their powers.

There are no spider bites, no dramatic deaths of family members, no gamma radiation.

The X-Men are mutants. Their superpowers are part of who they are and always have been.

With that, each mutant has a choice to make when they discover their power: will they use it for good or for evil? Continue reading →

3 Words Mad Men Taught Me About Success

/ Alex Doriot / 3 Comments

6351651If there has been one overarching theme of this final season of Mad Men, it’s been the reestablishment of Don Draper against a rapidly changing business climate.

As the world he once dominated quickly evolves past him, Don must work his way up from the bottom to reclaim his identity and to identify exactly what his identity is.

Mad Men often parallels the work of the creative team at the ad agency with the internal struggle of all writers and creative thinkers. One scene from the penultimate episode of this half season with Don and Peggy brilliantly breaks down the conflict a writer goes through when their work is good, but not quite good enough.

Ultimately though, the biggest struggle Don faces is not against his creativity but against his willingness to do the work at all.  Continue reading →

POP GOD POPcast: Episode 21 – Mayor Bob Young

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

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Welcome to the POP GOD POPcast – an exploration into the lives of people seeking God in the present tense.

This week’s guest is Former Mayor of Augusta Bob Young. Mayor Young has an incredible story of confident faith which has led him all across the world. From working as a janitor in a movie theater to broadcasting for the Armed Forces to anchoring the 6 o’clock news to serving as Mayor to working for the President, Bob shares how his faith anchored him along the way. Plus we talk about his friendship with James Brown, helping clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and so much more. Enjoy this deeper look inside the life of a leader truly seeking God in the present tense.

Listen to the podcast here:

[audio http://adoriot.podbean.com/mf/web/h4bcgj/Popcast21.m4a]

Or Download on iTunes Or Listen on Podbean

Check out Bob’s book The Treasure Train on Amazon and follow him on Twitter

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.

Tips For The Beginning Time Traveler Part Three

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

I downloaded a new app for my iPhone a few weeks ago called Timehop. Timehop presents your day in Social Media History, allowing you to travel back to your posts across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and just about every other outlet (except for Myspace).

photo-3It also has an adorable dinosaur named Abe for a mascot. He’s at least 10% of why I downloaded the app.

Timehop is pretty neat. Looking back at all your old status updates and tweets is more fun than you might think. Our old social media posts exist in a weird realm of the internet. They seem so important at first – important enough for us to stop what we’re doing and let the world know exactly what we are doing.

Then, moments later, they disappear, slowly scrolling down our news feeds until they’re simply yesterday’s news.

As fun as it is to look back in history, it’s also a little depressing.  Continue reading →

POP GOD POPcast: Episode 20 – Cameron Brewer

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

slide.001Welcome to Episode 20 of the POP GOD POPcast – an exploration into the lives of people seeking God in the present tense.

This week’s guest is Cameron Brewer. Cameron is a great friend and a former Young Life team member of mine with an incredible story. Cameron’s shares how his Young Life leader helped guide him from atheism to salvation to discipling a new generation of students to seek the Lord. We talk about the struggles of leading students to Christ, the perils of moving away from the comforts of home, and trusting God in the midst of the unknown. Plus we chat about pyromania, G.I. Joes, JROTC, Eminem, and much more. Enjoy this deeper look inside the life of a leader truly seeking God in the present tense.

Listen to the podcast here:

[audio http://adoriot.podbean.com/mf/web/6acybd/Popcast20.m4a]

Or Download on iTunes Or Listen on Podbean

Follow Cameron on Twitter and check out my article on College Students Confidential in Faith Magazine

Find out about how you can get involved with Young Life Augusta and go hang out with Cameron at Buona Caffe

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.

Is God Funny?

/ Alex Doriot / Leave a comment

It’s funny the things you remember.

I have this vivid memory of playing at a park with a friend in elementary school. His father sat on a bench reading and keeping an eye on us as we pretended to be Power Rangers.

At one point I looked over and saw him laughing. As I walked by him later I asked him what he had read that had been so funny.

He told me it was The Bible. The Bible had made him laugh.

This startled me. How could someone laugh at The Bible?  Continue reading →