• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Stuff Christians Like

  • Home
  • About
  • Speaking
  • Contact
  • Acuff.me

serious wednesday

The god in our heads.

July 13, 2011 by Jon

I don’t threaten God often. I know that’s surprising to you given how muscular I’ve been getting lately with all the working out and my increased acai berry consumption. (It really is a miracle berry and made me taller and balanced my checkbook while I slept.)

But despite the fast and slow twitch muscle increases I’ve been making lately, I don’t make it a habit to tell God what he should do. I very rarely scribble down a plan, throw it in a prayer and threaten him if it doesn’t come true. Buy shoes for mama cause she’s about to meet Jesus? I do that ALL DAY. Threaten God? Not so much.

Recently though, I caught myself doing that and it all came to a head at our neighborhood pool.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday, Serious Wednesdays

The chase.

July 6, 2011 by Jon

A friend and I once ate a 9 pound lobster on Martha’s Vineyard. It was the size of a small dog and had claws the size of my head. Later that day, a group of us toured the island on scooters named “Cobras,” which immediately inspired us to pretend we were the Cobra Kai from The Karate Kid. We zipped around that island like 12 year olds, waving at guys on Harleys as if, despite the candy apple red paint and insanely small mopeds we were all on, we were part of a larger brotherhood of bikers. They did not wave back.

I was reminded of this moment a few weeks ago while going through some photos.

The design firm putting together the visual story for the Quitter Conference asked me to find some personal photos they could include in the presentation. I’ve never included visuals with any talks I’ve given so this is uncharted/awesome territory.

But as I flipped through photo albums representing the years 2000-2005, I kind of got sick to my stomach.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday, Serious Wednesdays

The problem with punctuation.

June 29, 2011 by Jon

Sometimes, when I speak about social media at conferences, I talk about the Most Interesting Man in the World commercials. Dos Equis put them together, and they are hilarious. In them, a parade of over-the-top statements are thrown out about a bearded James Bond-type guy.

They say things like:

His words carry weight that would break a less interesting man’s jaw.
He bowls … overhand.
His blood smells like cologne.
Sharks have a week dedicated to him.
He never says anything tastes like chicken. Not even chicken.

On and on these statements go. And as funny as they are, that’s not what I talk about when I speak on social media. The sentence in the commercial I find so interesting is the one The Most Interesting Man in the World says. Here’s what he proclaims when he looks at the camera and ends the commercial:

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday, Serious Wednesdays

Thinking God will run out of welcome home banners.

June 15, 2011 by Jon

It’s summer and that always reminds me of the story of me and Michael Jordan. No, it’s not that time I dunked on him. I had to sign a whole lot of confidentiality agreements about that. This story is different.

I met Jordan one summer while he was golfing at a country club in Pinehurst, North Carolina. My uncle and his family lived on the golf course, and I was spending a few weeks there before I started the eighth grade.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday, Serious Wednesdays

Having no clue how God will use your story.

June 1, 2011 by Jon

I recently received an email that knocked me over.

I decided to post it for two reasons:

1. Somebody has a story like this and needs to know they’re not alone.

2. A lot of us have gifts we’re supposed to use that we can’t ever imagine God doing something with and this is a testament to what happens when we try. When we do something as silly and insignificant feeling as starting a blog.

After she emailed this to me, I asked Beth if I could share her story and she graciously agreed. I changed some of the details to protect her privacy for reasons that will become crystal clear as you read it. It’s time for me to just get out of the way and introduce you to the amazingly awesome Beth.

Hello!

My name is Beth and I’m from Texas. I am painfully shy. I didn’t always used to be. I used to be the crazy, silly gal that everyone laughed with. But now, I am shy. I used to be NUTS! I distinctly remember going to a pool hall and crawling around under the tables pretending like I was an alligator to cheer up a friend who had just broken up with her boyfriend. I was the only one who was SOBER.

My mother was a practicing (sorta) Catholic & my father was a Buddist. Since they could not see eye-to-eye on religion, I was not baptized. My younger sister, on-the-other-hand, was born 4 months premature & in 1977, there was no surviving that. She was baptized right away. She did survive though and in our Catholic upbringing, what that meant was that all my family went through the Christian education and rituals while I constantly sat in a pew. Because I was never baptized, I wasn’t able to go through church school or learn about the bible. My mom did the best she could to teach me, but she was hurt by being disowned by her family when she became divorced. It was difficult for her to teach me about Christ’s love when she was having a hard time experiencing it herself.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday, Serious Wednesdays

Grace Spots.

April 13, 2011 by Jon

A few weeks ago, my family and I went out to dinner together on a Friday night. The goal was to have a family meal, hang out, and possibly even enter into the Q realm. Quality Time.

Apparently every person in the greater Nashville are also had the same idea.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday, Serious Wednesdays

Trying to figure out who we are.

March 30, 2011 by Jon

I used to think I could quickly grow a mustache.

My beard is always patchy and hole laden and bad. (Not bad meaning good like Run DMC intoned but bad meaning bad.)

But mustaches? The Acuff family mustache is too fast and too furious. I always thought that was the one bit of facial hair I could hang my hat on or at least a mustache comb. Until I met my friend Daniel.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday

The problem with a platform.

March 23, 2011 by Jon

It only takes about three followers on twitter to become a punk. I know this, because I did.

When Stuff Christians Like took off three years ago I went off the deep end a bit with my ego. I got cocky. I got arrogant. I got extra handsome.

See? That just slipped out. Even in describing my narcissism I proved my narcissism. It’s a problem. I’m working on it.

But when you get a few followers on Twitter or start a blog or open a facebook account, something weird happens – you get a platform.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday

The secret about ideas.

March 2, 2011 by Jon

I like to judge the Israelites.

I like to read Genesis and Exodus and feel pretty smug about myself when I hear them complain.

“In Egypt we had meat! We’re sick of manna! Remember the good old days when we were slaves?”

They say and do some pretty incredible thing. It’s like watching a desert reality show. I keep waiting for the host of Survivor, Jeff Probst to step out and say, “Today’s reward challenge is that God heard your constant grumbling and has decided to make it rain poisonous snakes. We’re calling it ‘Pitted against pit vipers.’ On your mark, get set, go!”

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday

Building benches instead of frisbees.

August 11, 2010 by Jon

My dad uses his feet like hands, much like a gorilla opening a banana, when he loses frisbees in the pond at the disc golf course.

He’s not above stripping down to his shorts and diving in to recover discs. The pond is dark brown and is populated with turtles, snakes and frogs. If his disc lands in it, he walks around with his bare feet feeling in calf deep mud for it. Just typing that last sentence made me squirm a little.

…

Read More

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: serious wednesday

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5

Primary Sidebar

Get Jon’s Updates via Email

Get a free chapter of Jon's latest book, DO OVER, and get all his new blog posts from ACUFF.ME sent to your inbox!

Archives

Follow Jon

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Topics

Join Jon on Facebook

Footer

About Jon

Jon Acuff is the New York Times Bestselling author of four books including his most recent, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average & Do Work that Matters. Read More…

Connect with Jon

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 Jon Acuff