I am far more interested in jumping that I am in arguing about whose trampoline is better.

"When we jump, we begin to see the need for springs. The springs help make sense of these deeper realities that drive how we live every day. The springs aren't God. The springs aren't Jesus. The springs are statements and beliefs about our faith that help give words to the depth that we are experiencing in our jumping. I would call these the doctrines of the Christian faith.

They aren't the point.

They help us understand the point, but they are a means and not an end. We take them seriously, and at the same time we keep them in proper perspective. . .

It hit me while I was watching that for him (a man giving a lecture on the six-day literal creation) faith isn't a trampoline; it's a wall of bricks. Each of the core doctrines for him is like an individual brick that stacks on top of the others. If you pull one out, the whole wall starts to crumble. It appears quite strong and rigid, but if you begin to rethink or discuss even one brick, the whole thing is in danger . . .

One of the thing that happens in brickworld: you spend a lot of time talking about how right you are. Which of course leads to how wrong everybody else is. Which then leads to defending the wall. It struck me . . .is that you rarely defend a trampoline. You invite people to jump on it with you.

I am far more interested in jumping that I am in arguing about whose trampoline is better. You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to enjoy them with you.

Jesus invites everybody to jump..

And saying yes to the invitation doesn't mean we have to have it all figure out. This is an important thing to remember: I can jump and still have questions and doubts. I often meet people who are waiting to follow God until they have all their questions answered. They will be waiting for a long time, because if we knew everything, we'd be . . . God. So in the invitation to jump is an invitation to follow Jesus with all of our doubts and questions right there with us. "

rob bell, velvet elvis, pgs. 22-28

Take that "statement of faith"

Google Voice, Skype, Gizmo, and getting something useful for (almost) free

I am currently trying to figure out how to take advantage of this whole google voice/VOIP/SIP revolution. Here is what i've come up with thus far, let me know if there's a better way. (cause there probably is)


(Outgoing)
I have a $3 a month skype plan that allows me to make unlimited (fair use =10,000 minutes/6hrs a day.) outgoing calls to landlines and cell phones in the US via skype application on my laptop or iPod touch within a wifi hotspot. The number shows up as "unknown caller" or something to that effect, to get caller ID, and a number that people can call me on, would cost $30/year.

(incoming)
(this is where is gets messy)
If someone calls my Google Voice number, it is set up to forward to my cell phone only during the free anytime minutes (7pm-7am), if it's not a free calling time, the call gets routed to my Gizmo number that is set up within Google Voice, from there, the call is routed to my Skype Account, so that I can receive the call on my laptop or iPod Touch via Skype (if the iPod is on and I'm in the skype app) and if I am in a Wi-Fi zone. EDIT: ok this sucks because when this happens, (through Gizmo5/OpenSky service, you only get 3 minutes of call; alternatively you can pay $20 a year with garbage limitations.

(what then?)
If any one of those things fails, (not in skype app, not in wifi, dont have lappy out etc) the caller can leave me a GV voicemail. Which is then transcribed to and sent to my cell phone via text message. (all for free with unlimited texting plan). At this point I can choose to respond to the caller with my cell phone, call my GV account from my cell and listen to the voicemail, (uses cell phone minutes), OR I can get to WiFi and listen to the voicemail and return the call via skype.

This is messy. But it works. Now here is my question. (EDIT: ok this sucks because when this happens, (through Gizmo5/OpenSky service, you only get 3 minutes of call; alternatively you can pay $20 a year with garbage limitations. )

Can this setup be made better in any obvious way? Am I paying the $3 a month skypeout fee for nothing? I am too involved in this to be able to see the whole thing all together. I need a fresh set of eyes to look at this.

Feedback appreciated.