jay – Page 2 – Jay Lynn

03May 2016 by jay No Comments

All The World Is a Stage

Uncategorized

Not really. In this case, my whole world was a stage for about 3 months. Particularly, Gulfport Little Theatre's stage and its production of Mel Brook's The Producers. An awesome opportunity for me in my community theater life, I got to play Max Bialystock, one of the title roles. I even went so far as to shave my face, grow my hair out into a combover, and dye it black. I'm glad to be starting to look like myself again.

21Aug 2015 by jay No Comments

Latest Crackpot Scheme – Learn By Going

Uncategorized

I've had the idea for immersive learning experiences for a while now, birthed mainly from my frustration that all of the cool internships, alternative spring breaks, and similar learning experiences seem to go to college students. There's some faulty logic out there where people think that you should stop learning or trying new things after a certain age. Poppycock, I say. Luckily, I'm at a place where I can give this a try, and my church is willing to give me enough rope to hang myself.

30Jun 2015 by jay No Comments

Because There Aren’t Enough Opinions Out There Already

Essays

So, from Friday on, I was pretty much "off the grid" and all the headlines blew up. It's been interesting catching up. Usually, I like flying under the radar and being inconspicuous. I don't do bumper stickers, yard signs, tattoos, or green / blue / red / rainbow Facebook profile pics. Now that I am once again serving in professional ministry, I sometimes feel pressure (from myself) to have an "official opinion" about stuff. So, here's mine: I decided a long time ago that God does not call me to be the morality police to this world. I think we are specifically called to (1) love God, (2) Love our neighbor as ourselves, (3) make disciples, and (4) announce the presence of God with those who need to hear it.…

24Jun 2015 by jay 1 Comment

About The Mississippi Flag

Essays

Today, I added my name to the following letter regarding the Mississippi state flag. To: The Clarion-Ledger Editorial Board Date: June 24, 2015 We are each Baptist pastors in Mississippi. We recognize all forms of racism as sin, and we acknowledge the sin of racism in our own hearts, in our Baptist churches, and in the people of this good but wounded state. We lament the violence and the bloodshed and also the everyday dehumanization that are the result of this vicious sin, and as the prophet Jeremiah said of Rachel, we “refuse to be consoled” so long as our brothers and sisters face any degradation. As we seek the peace and the well-being of this good, but fractured state, we call upon Governor Phil Bryant and the Mississippi…

09May 2015 by jay No Comments

Are You Ready for a Change?

Essays, Musings

What would it take to…? Whenever I started a sentence like that, my business partner at our small marketing firm would just roll his eyes and laugh. He knew that I was nurturing the seed of some new idea – something probably odd and impractical that could easily make money or flame out in spectacular glory. It was a regular enough occurrence that it ceased to be a surprise. We would just move to the conference room where he would graciously hear me out. We would walk through the pros and cons of the idea and then map out what it would take to become a reality. It was a simple but effective exercise and it started with a simple question – “What would it take to…?” The world is…

09May 2015 by jay No Comments

Blowing off the dust

Personal, Uncategorized

It’s been nearly a year and a half since I wrote anything here. I feel like I owe some kind of apology, but why? One of the best things I have ever done for myself is to give myself permission to do what I need to do when the time is right. I have enough guilt out there for the things I “should” do that I don’t need to create more over nothing. Life happens and sometimes I find that I don’t have the emotional energy to write things that I think are worth reading. Since my last post, I took a half-time job, left that job, got another full-time job, moved 800 miles away, sold a house, bought a house, and had similar changes for the rest of the…

09Jan 2014 by jay 2 Comments

Rare and Valuable

Essays, Observations, Personal

In my never-ending quest to figure out my own future, I stumbled across the work of Cal Newport, and particularly his recent book So Good They Can’t Ignore You. I’ve made it known on several occasions that I hold many “follow your dreams” bloggers in low esteem, especially those that seem to have no measurable skills or life experience. This particular book caught my eye by echoing many similar sentiments. In it, Newport takes on the “follow your dreams” philosophy and turns it on its head; recommending that we stop trying to be useful by following our passion and instead seek to find our passions by being useful. It’s an interesting concept, and one I hadn’t given much conscious thought to over the years, but it rang with a note…

13Dec 2013 by jay No Comments

Metamediocrity Relaunch (sort of)

Writing

Back in my days as a podcaster, I started a project called Metamediocrity. It consisted of series of stories following the lives of B-List metahumans in a world where classic superheroes and villains actually existed. I viewed it as something like an audio comic book, with ongoing stories releases as episodic "issues." In the end, I gave up on the project for several reasons. Mostly, I felt like B-List superhero stories were being overdone at the time. Serialized audiofiction was also going great guns, with new wannabe author / podcasters cropping up daily. In the end, I just didn't want to add to the noise with one more "Hey! Listen to my show and love me!" podcast. Now that I'm writing a little more seriously these days, I thought it…

11Dec 2013 by jay No Comments

Where You Been?

Personal, Uncategorized

Back in my podcasting days, podfading was the term used when a show began posting fewer and fewer episodes and eventually quit publishing altogether. Usually, it meant that the show’s creators might have moved on to some shiny new project. Perhaps they had not reaped the fame and rewards they expected from the difficult work of putting together a show. Maybe they just became bored. I don’t know if there is a similar term for blogging (blogfading?), but I keep thinking about this space and wondering if it just looks like another blog gone by the wayside. I think I may be a victim of my own standards. I wanted my writing here to reflect a search for authenticity; to communicate my own efforts to move towards a more authentic…

27Nov 2013 by jay No Comments

Men’s Quartet

General Info

I was doing some audio work and came across this snippet of music from our men's quartet at church. I'm the baritone, or second from the bottom singer. It's not studio quality, but I think it reflects how much we like to sing together. Honestly, it's one of my favorite things. How Can I Keep From Singing?