JeffMilesSays.com | Let’s make the world a better place! | Faith, Family, Fitness, Fun, & Functions
Author:Jeff Miles
Jeff is a husband, father and computer programmer who loves to read, work out, watch movies, and spend time with his family.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in this blog are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. For book reviews, in some cases I have received a free copy of the book so that I can read it and post a review on my website. The advertisements on this site are affiliate links which means if you click on the ad and purchase the item, I will receive a commission from that sale. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I have followed the website T-Nation for years. After a while, I noticed there were articles by a specific coach that always resonated with me. For those that don’t know me personally, I am a rather large guy (I’m 6′ 4″ and currently over 300 pounds) that is banged up from playing football for 14 years. As I started noticing the pattern I realized that the coach that was writing a lot of the articles that resonated with me was Lee Boyce. He consistently puts out content like his #TallGuyTuesday posts as well as posts that are focused on former athletes that are banged up from their years of playing sports.
I appreciate guys like Lee who don’t go after the typical customer but utilize their expertise to help groups that wouldn’t normally get attention. If you are someone who likes to work out I recommend following Lee, but if you are like me and are a little larger than the normal person and are a little banged up, I recommend you follow him.
As we were driving to visit some friends yesterday in the wee hours of the morning I had some time to reflect on what is currently going on in the world, particularly the United States. Over the last several months we have grown more and more divided. What started with a “we can beat this together” attitude has digressed into a free-for-all of divisive discourse and a ridiculous “us vs. them” mentality.
I have followed The Oatmeal for a long time and have cracked up hysterically while reading his (warning: sometimes crude) cartoons. You may have heard of him because of the Exploding Kittens board game he created. A few months ago he put out a comic called You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. It is phenomenal and EVERYONE should read it and reflect on their current belief system and evaluate how they may be sabotaging themself.
Click on the image below to be taken to the “classroom friendly” version of the comic. (It is long, but extremely well worth the read.)
At one point this year, as I was noticing tensions rising within the members of my team at work, I used this comic as a way to have an open and honest dialog about what was going on. For the people leaders reading this post, I would strongly encourage you to do the same.
As we finish out 2020, we have got to do better as a country about discussing the issue at hand in a way that is respectful and constructive, but that will only happen if we’re honest with ourselves and realize we may not have all the right answers and the more we dig in and tune out views that are different than ours, the more we sabotage ourselves.
One day on my drive to work I was listening to the Unlocking Us Podcast by Brené Brown and heard one of the most eye-opening and enlightening podcast episodes I’ve ever heard. In the episode I listened to, I was privileged to be introduced to Tarana Burk. Tarana has been fighting the fight for racial and gender equality for close to 30 years and is the creator of the Me Too Movement. I can’t say enough about how this episode opened my eyes and helped me begin to understand the fight that women and people of color go through on a daily basis. Everyone should listen to this episode!
I had just finished giving a productivity presentation at Phillips 66 and as is usually the case someone walks up with a question regarding the way to use different tools available to simplify a workflow or reduce the number of steps needed to complete a task. In this particular case the guy was asking about coloring cells in Excel without having to use their mouse since they had to do it SO often in his group within Finance, and “Oh, by the way, did your wife go to ORU?” This is how my friendship with Britt started. A like-minded, thoughtful, and hilariously funny guy that as we came to find out had a lot of connections to where my wife went to school and her mom had grown up.
I’ve known Britt for several years now and got to catch up with him over lunch yesterday. What I deeply respect about Britt is how encouraging he was when I shared with him some of the frustrations I was dealing with and it just fit with how he has weathered the whole pandemic. When I apologized via text last night about being such a downer, he responded with grace and encouragement.
Instead of whining and complaining like so many people have, he has decided to use his LinkedIn profile (the only social media site he participates on as far as I am aware) as a means to encourage people by sharing and posting content that lifts people up instead of tearing them down. We need more people like Britt on social media.
Growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) were a large part of my childhood. I loved watching the TV show, had a bunch of the action figures, and went to my first concert to see them right around the time of the first live-action movie. I found Rafael Grassetti a few months ago on Instagram and have been following him ever since. His 3D artwork is amazing, but he took it to another level with the release of his TMNT series. I absolutely love it and have now used it as the background on all my devices.
Together – For King and Country featuring Kirk Franklin & Tori Kelly
As an introvert, there is something about music that has always been a retreat for me. Without a doubt though, I love collaborations more than anything. Two (or more) artists taking their unique style and blending it together into something greater than either one of them can achieve on their own has always been magical to me.
As I look around at what is happening in our world right now it breaks my heart. The dissonance and discord are deafening.
I have struggled with what to say because the last thing I want to do to my black brothers and sisters is to insult you with more ‘whitesplaining’, we don’t need any more of that. The most important thing we need right now is white people willing to listen and hope to understand because whether we want to recognize or admit it or not, we’re the ones with the privilege and with that privilege comes responsibility.
I am a large, bald, strong man with tattoos on both arms that can be very intimidating if you don’t know me. When my son was born I made a promise to myself that he would know that strength (or in this case privilege) was never to be used to your advantage. Since he was a little guy, I would ask him “why are we strong?” to which the appropriate response was always and will always be, “to protect other people.” Even with the looks that I get like the “I’m going to eat someone’s children,” looks (direct quote from someone who finally got to know me), I can’t even fathom what my black brothers deal with on a daily basis. My heart breaks for the mothers raising young black boys knowing they are raising beautiful young boys that will one day be looked at with distrust and fear.
To the people in my circle asking, “why the riots and looting? What does it accomplish?” We were warned over 50 years ago and we still didn’t listen or change.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
John F. Kennedy – March 13, 1962
“… But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense, our nation’s summer of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”
Martin Luther King Jr. – “The Other America” – April 4, 1967
And to those who would say that Dr. King protested peacefully and others should follow suit, remember, we killed him too.
To my black brothers and sisters, I know that talk is cheap, “what am I doing about it?”, you have every right to ask.
First, my children will know that hate or discrimination in any form is unacceptable. On the night the George Floyd protests were starting I shared an open letter from the mother of a black boy to his white friends’ parents so we could have the discussion that their friends of color were not growing up in the same world they experienced and it was their responsibility to stand up for and stand with them.
Second, I work for an amazing company that strongly encourages diversity & inclusion and I will continue to support and encourage the employee resource groups that represent minority populations.
Finally, I promise to listen. Forgive me for my ignorance. Please, tell me how to help and stand with you.
I’m not black, but I see you. I’m not black, but I hear you. I’m not black, but I mourn with you. I’m not black, but I will fight for you. I’m not black, and I love you!
On May 4, 2020, the following collaboration video premiered amid the COVID-19 crisis and is more relevant now than ever. We make better music together…
I didn’t quite know what to expect when I was asked to review Raising Passionate Jesus Followers by Phil & Diane Comer. The fact that the foreword was by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs of Love & Respect fame piqued my interest so I went ahead and agreed to review the book. To say that I was thoroughly impressed would be an understatement. While I was reading this book I recommended it to everyone that asked me what I was reading. The authors present a fantastic framework for raising your children. I think one of the reasons this particular book resonated with me so well is that it is in lock step with what I believe the only answer to raising kids or doing anything. As my Pastor Whit George says the only hope that people have is knowing the real Jesus. Phil and Diane to a phenomenal job of laying out a framework for raising your children that has a foundation rooted in Christ. There were several personal stories that helped me relate to the authors and see my struggles in raising my children in the scenarios they gave. There was only one part where I differed from the authors from a theological perspective. However, that one difference was in a section where the authors were relaying their personal list of the ten things you have to teach your kids. The authors share their list but encourage the reader to develop a list of their own so the theological difference is easily dismissed, not anything to throw the book away over. I do not want to spoil any of the book for you so I will end this review but strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of Raising Passionate Jesus Followers by Phil & Diane Comer.
*Note: I received a free copy of this book in order to review it and the links above may be affiliate links where I receive commissions.
In recent years I can only think of 2 books that made me seriously reevaluate my life and make significant changes because of that particular book. Those two books are Servolution by Dino Rizzo and Level Up Your Life by Steve Kamb. Both of these books made me sit up and take notice. There were significant changes I implemented in my life because of these two books. You might ask why I am talking about two other books in a book review about a third book. The reason is I now have 3 books in this category. Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald stopped me short and made me seriously evaluate where I was at in my walk with God to the point that though I only finished the book this week it has already had a profound effect on me and how I structure my days. It is not very often that I feel like a book reads me but the comment I put on the title page for chapter 3 was, “This chapter! WOW! has me pegged on #’s 1 & 3!” There are several dog-eared pages in my copy of this book. In my current phase of life I lead a couples small group for our church with my wife and I do not have the time to also lead a men’s small group. When that day comes though, I will be requesting that I can lead using this book. This book is a must for anyone who is a leader or aspires to be one. I won’t stop there, anyone who is a believer that wants to have a vibrant relationship with Christ needs to read this book. I don’t know what else to say other than to say, buy this book!
Full disclosure: I was given a review copy of this book and the links above are affiliate links.
I was very surprised at this book. I wasn’t paying attention very well apparently because the tagline for the book had me thinking this was a sci-fi/fantasy novel so when I was offered a review copy, I jumped at the chance. As I started reading, I thought I had been suckered into reading a romance novel, I was wrong again. What I found was a very compelling cautionary tale for anyone involved in full-time ministry. The character development in the story is very good and I found myself having visceral reactions to each of the three characters as I read the novel.
The book outlines the story of a family of three (including giving the background of how the husband and wife met) of a missionary family in Nepal and the struggles that full-time ministry puts on them including the sometimes drawn-out preparation process. The surprise ending really brought the author’s point home, I will not say any more because I don’t want to spoil the ending.
I’m glad I read this book, it was definitely an eye-opener. Anyone in full-time ministry should pick up of stillness and storm.
The NIV Ragamuffin Bible blends the wildly popular New International Version of the Bible with reflections of the late Brennan Manning (1934-2013), author of The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out. This bible contains 104 devotions, 250 reflections, & 150 quotes from the late Brennan Manning. For those who are unfamiliar with Brennan Manning, he is the author of what many would consider the best books on grace ever written, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out. I read this book over 10 years ago and still view it as one of the best Christian books ever written. The tagline on the back of this bible sums it up best: “Do you believe that God not only loves you, but that he also likes you?” This question is pivotal in our walk with Christ and the aim of this bible is to use the scriptures of the NIV and the reflections of a great man to draw you closer to God and help the reader understand how much God not only loves them, but also likes them! My plan, once my current Bible reading plan is finished is to use a year long Bible reading plan and read it in the NIV Ragamuffin Bible, stopping along the way to read the wonderful reflections, devotions, and quotes, I hope you’ll join me.
