Tomorrow I am taking 2 crash courses, CSS Mastery with Andy Budd and Understanding AJAX with Jeremy Keith. Andy’s book on CSS Mastery is one of the best books I have read on CSS. I am looking forward to hearing from him and practicing more of what I read in the book but have not had time to go back and do.

I am hoping to blog about my experiences at the conference this week. A friend recently cited an article on How to blog a Conference. It is written more for someone who organizes the conference but there are some good tips that even an attendee can use.

For many people, simplifying means nothing more than “doing less.” But simplifying is not so much about doing fewer things as it is about doing the right things.

…For even the “ideal” simple spiritual life (whatever that is) will still be a busy one. Like Jesus and the apostle Paul, anyone devoted to loving God and people will lead a full and active life. But such a life will also be more focused, fruitful, and satisfying because it emphasizes the right priorities.

– Donald Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life, NavPress, p. 13

I shared this idea with a friend last week and I am brought back to it tonight as I think about my life. I have experienced a lot of frustration and emptiness recently. Life has been full.

• My family welcomed our third child two months ago. Adjusting to being parents of 3 has been a full experience.
• My office is completely different both physically and philosophically. And all of that is still being shaped. And I was away for the first month on baby leave so when I reentered the work environment at the beginning of this month, I felt like I was coming in mid-stream and have gotten swept up in the current.

Over and over again, this concept of simplicity has been ringing in my head as my life has felt full and my spirit has felt empty. I need to be doing the right things. It means that I need to come back and practice priorities.
One reason I like Donald Whitney’s perspective is that when life gets full, I am tempted to want to do less. But that is not how God would have me to respond. He wants me to do the right things. And not in my power but in the power of the Holy Spirit.

[Sidenote: When I think about the book title, I think about becoming a CSS Master which makes me think of Star Wars and Jedi Masters. At this time I am still an apprentice.]

Last week, I started working on changing GodSquad.com from using tables for layout to CSS. I have been wanting to move in this direction for quite awhile now and thought I would do it as part of a redesign of the site. But I continue to be stumped in that creative process so I finally decided to move the current design into CSS.

As I was working on a CSS design last week, I ran into some trouble where the site rendered correctly in Firefox but not in IE6. Reality is that most people are still using IE6 so I have to come up with a design that works well in it. I was really frustrated. I had some inkling that the problem was caused by the way IE renders “padding” but I was not sure I am far enough along in my CSS skills to diagnose the specific problem.

I started thumbing through Andy’s book and reviewed what I had read. I have not been able to use the knowledge I had gained in reading the book in May. I had to turn my attention to working on support for our ministry at the end of May and beginning of June. Then at the end of June, I took a month of classes through Campus Crusade’s Institute for Biblical Studies. It was good to review the book because I realized that I could do a lot cleaner coding with the GodSquad design I was working on. I came up with a plan to do the structure a little bit differently. And I learned some tricks that would allow me to change the layout of a page using the body property.

But I still did not have a solution for my main problem. But I did some tinkering and got it to work. I think it might have been Spirit inspired as I had prayed about my problem and asked God to help me with a solution.

All this is to say that it just brought me back to the fact that Andy’s book is one of the best that I have seen on CSS.

And I have not been disappointed. I have only read a couple of chapters of the book, but it has already been very helpful. The first chapter alone was worth it for me. I went back and rewrote the code for a site that I have been working on. Because I had a better grasp of some foundational principles, I was able to implement better coding which cut down on the amount of code and needless div tags. I appreciated all the tips that Andy gave on structuring, planning, organizing and maintaining stylesheets. I learned so much from only 25 pages. And I was able to immediately implement what I learned.

This morning I read the second chapter on the visual formatting model (box model and positioning) while waiting for new tires to be installed on my car. I was restless with ideas as I gained a better grasp on these foundational concepts. I can’t wait to start using this knowledge to build better layouts and implement better solutions. I just barely got into the next chapter on background images and image replacement. My mouth is watering with anticipation of what I am going to learn next. I can’t wait to learn more and using it in practice.

This is the most practical book on CSS that I have read or looked at. I have tried to work through some others books that are mostly exercises. I gain some insights here and there. But this book has taught me so much and really filled in my foundational knowledge so that I can take my CSS to the next level. This is going to be one of the books that stays on my shelf for quick reference.

Here is a challenging passage from the book:

“The acid test of biblical God-centeredness — and faithfulness to the gospel — is this:

• Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever?
• Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross of Christ as a witness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God’s worth forever?
• Is God’s glory in Christ the foundation of your gladness?”

From God is the Gospel by John Piper, pages 11–12

As I begin this book, my heart’s cry is that I would make much of Him, make much of Jesus. I think about the song,Much of You, from Steven Curtis Chapman’s last album. Piper’s writings inspired this song and it is the desire of my heart that I would live my life to make much of Jesus not look to be made much of myself. The challenge the book has brought forth in my mind is, in what ways do I desire to be made much of by God and how do I desire lesser things above the all-satisfying gift of God Himself?

Reading this book is one more step in the journey I have been making in considering God’s glory and what is means to live for His glory. John Piper has been a big part of that journey and another book, Revolution Within, has been very helpful in understanding on a very practical level what it means to live for God’s glory (see earlier blog entry for more about this).

This week, I was reading in chapter 3. He talked about focusing on God’s glory as the main motivation in our lives. It was a very practical chapter. Dwight says that there are 2 ways to approach our spiritual lives. The first is to live for God so we can fully exploit His blessings. The second approach is to live for God so we can fully reveal His name. I liked the way Edwards describes the differences in these approaches. The first asks, “what must I do to gain God’s blessing?” The second asks, “what can I do to better reflect God’s glory?”

I pray that God changes me so that I approach my spiritual life with a focus on His glory. I am just beginning to see how this approach would bring a different perspective in response to things like suffering.

I am currently reading books by two of the speakers that will be at the October conference. I am a little bummed that I have to choose between hearing one of them for an all-day seminar. But I think because I registered early I will get the conference proceedings so I won’t miss out. I also am getting an iPod mini by registering early.

The two books I am currently reading are Web ReDesign 2.0 by Kelly Goto and Content Criticalby Gerry McGovern. I think I am going to go to Gerry’s seminar on information architecture.

• Content Critical by Gerry McGovern — I am reading this book for my job. I develop websites for Campus Crusade for Christ. One of the reasons I am doing a blog is because of this book. I thought it would be good to check it out. I have found this book very helpful in thinking about Web design.>

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien — The Lord of the Ring is by far my favorite story. I get so much from it each time I read it. I am currently reading it for the fourth time along with my wife, Anne. I think there is a lot of deep spiritual truth that has helped me in my own journey.

• Questioning Evangelism by Randy Newman — I am enjoying this book that gives some new strategies to sharing the gospel with today’s audience. The author talks about answering questions with questions much like Jesus did in His encounters with people in His time. I have found it helpful in thinking about how to cause people to question the assumptions behind what they believe. I look forward to trying some of the author’ s suggestions as I have opportunities to talk to people about Jesus.

• The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player by John Maxwell — I bought this book because of my new job. I am going to have to be working more with others on Web projects. I have worked primarily as a one man team for the past 5 years. I feel like I need to grow in this area and so far this book has been helpful and challenging.

• Your Money Counts by Howard Dayton — I recently read this book for a Bible study that my wife and I are going through. It is a great book that gives an overview of God’s principles for money. We have been challenged by the study and really enjoyed the fellowship of our group. The study is by Crown Financial Ministries.