Why Names Mean Everything | Newsletter #46

Why and How Thinking Out Loud was Born

Introduction

Names. Powerful things.

A name is not merely a soundbite associated with a certain thing in life.

It is what something is.

Think of God’s name.

I Am what I Am (YHWH).

God’s name expresses the very being of God—His self-existence.

God is not tied to anything or anyone. He just is.

Names are so important that God uses their changing to symbolize His transforming power in their lives.

Think of Abram/Abraham, Jacob/Israel, and even Simon/Peter.

Names are no mere accidents.

Thus, when I decided to name this Substack, I wanted to put some serious thought into it.

Thinking

The more and more I thought of it, the more one central idea kept coming to mind.

Thinking. Pondering. Considering.

My entire purpose here is to think and encourage others to think along with me.

To think of how we are living our lives, and how we could live better.

To think of our place in the world, and how well we are fulfilling it.

To think of what our God has done for us, and praise Him for it.

I want you to think.

I want myself to think.

To think about all of these things.

But, to start this, I must not think alone.

Mere solitary unapplied thought is useless.

We cannot become ones who rack up knowledge just to keep it there.

No.

We must use our thoughts.

We must Think Out Loud.

Small Update

Before I close this, I’d like to briefly share what I’ve been working on this week.

Final Project for Codecademy

My last assignment for Codecademy is to build a fully functional web app that I can and will use in my own life.

I had several ideas for this.

One was a simple finance tracker to help me keep track of my expenses.

Another idea was a prayer request app to help manage and remind you of various requests.

But the one I landed on in the end was a simple goal tracker. The purpose of this app is to help me better keep track of the various tasks I want to get done every month.

The app will have a simple interface focusing on showing what you have done, what you still have to do, and how much time you have left to do them.

My hope is to build this app for release on Android (IOS is a possibility too, although it will cost me quite a bit of money).

Progress is steady. I hope to finish it in the next coming weeks.

Japanese Bed

I have a horrible back.

Most of the blame goes to myself for doing far too much computer work.

However, I’ve always been interested in looking at different ways to sleep to improve this as well.

The most intriguing to me has been the Japanese Tatami mat and Shikibuton.

A Tatami mat is a thin bamboo mat that most Japanese floors are covered with.

A Shikibuton is a 3-inch cotton mattress that you can put on a Tatami mat to give it more comfort.

The extra support given by both of these supposedly helps your back tremendously.

So, I bought one.

Or, to be more specific, I bought a Tatami mat.

My goal is to eventually get a Shikibuton as well. But, as funds are a little tight right now, just the Tatami will do.

My goal in switching from a Western mattress to this is to live a more natural lifestyle and help give my body the support it desperately needs.

Conclusion

I hope you like the new branding and that you enjoyed this less traditional article.

As life gets into a routine, it is a lot harder to find stuff to write about.

So, you may see some more untraditional newsletters from me in the future.

As always, I will write to you again next week.

God bless,

-Luke