While in the past, I would kick off December 1 to consider the year that lies ahead as I verbalize New Year Resolutions, the beginning of October is an apt time to consider the impact of the current year's focus and the shape of things to come.

Focus is a good thing. There are times I regret my tendency to bounce around, as I conceptualize and categorize in order to retain and discard as I consider different angles and approaches to all the bits-and-pieces of the junk drawer of life. The approach is not without merit: if a single subject cannot be exhausted, can we ever say we know it? And if it can't be known, then we know nothing. However, an interdisciplinary approach gives us the knowledge of just a slight arc of content, so that we have this collage of...something. But without an overarching vision, I fear it makes me an asset for trivia night. It's the basis of my 2020's Blade Runner, Entrepreneur and Fitness Guru construct, though it has ultimately become hyperopic, or at the very least a bit unwieldy!

And of COURSE, I want MORE SIGNAL and less noise; I examine where I am at and where I want to go. If you're out on I-40 somewhere in New Mexico, taking a couple laps around the Flying J truck stop, won't get you any closer to Flagstaff. Even if they dethrone your PRs!

In recent days, I have focused a LOT on music service. The thing is, it's NOT about music service. It's about control: what do I do to enhance my existence and what do I allow for others to shape that existence?

Sin steals, kills and destroys. This timeless wisdom is as relevant as it has ever been. On a personal level, all the great regrets of my life were after the sweet fruit of sin and the indigestion that followed; I didn't trust the two greatest commandments: love God and love my neighbor as the BEST way to live. Rather, in rebellion, did I ask, is this wise? No, I took the stage to be a god.

Thus, when I see FAANG promote sin, I recoil. They no longer speak to my heart. The thing is, I ABSOLUTELY expect their behavior—what else could the unregenerate do? They are blind to God. And while I wish Spotify did not promote podcasts, playlists and people that celebrate sin, thereby advocating for a system that leads to despair, decay and death, I'd be on board with just having the option to filter it out or let me build it to my reqs. But seemingly, it's not about my parameters for the system. Instead and tragically, they are on par with what's out there, one big Russian reversal joke:

• In America, you watch media on phone. In Soviet Russia, phone watches YOU!
• In America, you mask your face at store if you want. In Soviet Russia, store masks YOU!
• In America, you control your music. In Soviet Russia, music controls YOU!

The thing about sin is that I think it's going to feel good, that I'll be better off with it. Only later do I lament how sin is just a corrupted knockoff of something God invented and retains the rights. And like any bad knockoff, WELL OF COURSE the imitation causes harm!

And yet, there is a war within me, "For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate" (Romans 7:15, HCSB).

Yes, I've been through justification—there's no fear there; I'll be spending all of Eternity with God to enjoy the entire Universe! And because He has opened my eyes to see His goodness, He now leads me through sanctification, this path through life that can be so challenging. Good news: if I go the way of my parents, my download just has 33% remaining before glorification!

All of this comes to this point: I neither desire to celebrate past missteps nor do I even want any reminders of them; Spotify and Big Tech intends for me to have joy about sin—I do not: celebrities, the wealthy and power brokers rot in miserable lives. Heaven forbid I'll ever covet that wretched existence! I want something infinitely better. One way leads to life; the other leads to destruction.

I don't know if Big Tech and general music streaming services are a reflection of today's culture in context to virtual dimensions (and all the photo filters and associated ramifications thereof) or if there are those who are using their outsized power to shape society (think Facebook). But frankly, the macro is immaterial to me because I cannot change it. I can, however, like fitness, control my intake.

Thus, as I look to what lies ahead and the shape of things to come, I'd like to pivot from the successes of 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 to turn my attention to the infinite. While it took until 2020 until I could create lasting results with fitness, now that I'm on the descent of this long flight as I reach my weight destination, I recognize that there were only a handful of waypoints when I actively recognized my chief purpose.