Sunday, November 30, 2008

Thoughts from Arizona

  • I love how old ladies wink when you smile at them (is that weird?)
  • I get excited when I get into airports
  • I love flying
  • I sat next to an 89 year old woman today at the airport in Phoenix. She had never been married. She said that she hadn't found "the one", and if you don't love 'em, why marry 'em?
  • Hiking in mountains is amazing.
  • I love mountains.
  • Say the hard thing. It's worth it.

Also, there should be an up and coming post about what the Lord has been teaching me about singleness/marriage/the like.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A Season of Static

I just did laundry.

Monday, November 24, 2008

He: Psalm 119:33-40

He

33 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes;
and I will keep it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep your law
and observe it with my whole heart.
35 Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.
36 Incline my heart to your testimonies,
and not to selfish gain!
37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
and give me life in your ways.
38 Confirm to your servant your promise,
that you may be feared.
39 Turn away the reproach that I dread,
for your rules are good.
40 Behold, I long for your precepts;
in your righteousness give me life!


How this expresses the cry of my heart today!

I love naps

Nap without guilt

Things to Get

  • Swimsuit (for triathlon training)
  • jigsaw puzzles (for house bonding)
  • toothpaste (for teeth)
  • deodorant (for ...um...)
  • plastic (for covering windows during the winter)
  • Suitcase (for carry on luggage)
  • an avalanche transceiver and shovel (for skiing the Ridge at Bridger Bowl)

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Jigsaw Puzzles

So I was a sub in 6th Grade Sunday School this morning and part of the lesson involved doing jigsaw puzzles. This reminded me of the time that Taylor had a puzzle sitting on our living room table, which was really fun! When ever anyone had some time, they'd sit down and try to find a few pieces (half of the puzzle was a blue sky, not making that mistake again). This was just a great way to spend those inbetween moments, mainly because there was often another roommate working on it too, so as you'd be piecing this thing together you would generally have some sort of communication, just chatting about life and stuff.

So my idea is to constantly have jigsaw puzzles around to encourage house bonding! I think it's a great idea, and it wasn't immediately shot down by the few roommates that I suggested it to (though Taylor forbid puzzles with skies), so I'm gonna do it! Now I just need to actually make it to a Target or like store sometime in my life...


p.s. I hope the Lord is with me on this decision, but I am also going to stop subbing for Sunday School and join full on. I'll have my guys from last year, I'm excited :-)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Entertainment and Retirement Could Kill You

This was incredibly convicting.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

DG blog: How I Approach God When Feeling Rotten

This article is incredible. A very real and helpful approach to getting right with God.

How I Approach God When Feeling Rotten by John Piper

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Fake John Piper

http://twitter.com/fakejohnpiper

It's funny, but I'm not sure what else to think about it.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Chinese

I'm taking a community learning class for Chinese. I love this language so much. I get excited when I hear someone speaking it in the grocery store or at work. I get even more excited when I understand some words (even when it's only "I" or "you")!

I went to a Chinese-American afternoon at BBC this weekend where they talked about the meaning of Thanksgiving (in English) and someone else gave their testimony (in Chinese). I didn't understand the testimony, but it was so fun to be able to get the gist of what he was saying.

Some folks at my work are going to start up a Chinese lunch group, so we can get together over lunch and speak in Chinese!! I am definitely going to participate. I also am going to start learning the language using Rosetta Stone, which is a program that is used to help people learn languages.

As far as what I'm going to do with this knowledge...

The Lord knows.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Engagements

One of my roommates got engaged this weekend.

One down.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Saturday Night Service

I'm really glad that I've started going to church on Saturday nights. I enjoy the special fellowship that I've been able to enjoy after the service. Specifically I'm thinking about how I could stay in the church for an hour after we are dismissed just talking with folks. Then I went to a house where a bunch of people were getting together and hung out some more. I love the BBC community!

Somethings that I liked about the service this weekend were
  1. My mom came. I really hope that she and my dad get plugged into a solid church that will lead them both more toward Christ. I think their current church is somewhat lacking in this department.
  2. Pastor John preached the Gospel! One of the things which makes me so joyful is how he is continually going back to the Gospel at the end of all of these sermons on John. It's probably my favorite part; I find myself looking forward to it every week.
  3. Singing hymns. They are so rich in truth and hopefully stir the hearts of those who sing them (mine most certainly is stirred).

Phil (22 words)

I think if I hang out with Phil any more, I'll end up going to China.

Not that that's a bad thing.

Alone

I don't get it.

I've been up since 8:30 am. It's 4:50 now. I have not seen or heard from any of the 5 other people living in my house all day. It's been a quiet, lonely day.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Public Speaking

I really enjoy speaking. I'm not talking about what you do in conversation, I'm talking public speaking. I have a lot of fun getting up in front of a group of people and talking about something important. And not only the talking, but the preparation! It is one of my greatest joys to tweak something to perfection (of course my speaking abilities leave much to be lacking in the delivery of such perfect content). I enjoy the reasoning, the study, the thought that goes into preparing a talk.

Subject Material
I can think of nothing more important than Jesus Christ. Maybe you could say that God is more important, but Jesus is God so that's a silly thing to say. I am firmly convinced that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for our sins, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Apart from Christ we will face the just wrath of God as the consequence of our sins. Any talk not about God isn't worth it. I'll probably need to give a few of those if I continue as an engineer, but Jesus is who I'm living for. Sorry for the aside, I just thought it was important.

The Nonverbal
While a significant part of a talk is the subject material, over half of communication happens outside of the words that are spoken. That means I'm telling you more with my posture, tone of voice, eye contact, etc. than I am with the words that are coming out of my mouth. How crazy is that! One of the memories that sticks with me from college is meeting with Adam to learn about giving a talk. He had me read a Psalm (I think it was Psalm 23) trying to be as expressive as possible. I had so much trouble varying the intensity of my voice (I'm often a soft spoken guy) that I had to do it over and over. It was a great lesson about intentionally conveying thoughts and feelings in a way that both compliments and facilitates the message behind the words.

Spring Retreat
It's funny to think back to when I did speak at Spring Retreat. I was so freaked out about being completely prepared (thank you Lee for your incredible input) and was almost physically sick with worry. But when I walked onto the stage, all that worry and anxiety went away. I just talked. I had something to say, I said it, and I loved doing it! Probably the most meaningful thing anyone said afterward was "you should do that again". I hope and pray that I will get the chance.


p.s. I noticed how I referred to public speaking as giving a "talk". I originally titled this post "Preaching" but then thought better of it. I wonder what it all means...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Selfishness

I am one of the most selfish people I know.

I've found that my outlook on life barely considers what is good for others. How then am I supposed to "do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves" (phil 2:3) and "look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others"(phil 2:4)? It's impossible! Please Lord, change my heart!

p.s. notice how this post was all about me?

Saturday, November 8, 2008

My Little Notebook

I've recently started carrying around a little notebook. I had a gift card for Barnes & Noble and there were these perfectly sized notebooks with nice binding (decently sized wire rings) on sale, so I bought two. It took a bit to catch on (I tried journaling but it didn't take. Also, "journaling" not being in many spell checkers=annoying) but now I use bring it with me in my China bag when I go to church or small group or where ever.

I discovered that I have subconsciously developed a system for keeping track of things in my notebook. There are a few big rules:
  • New events get a new underlined title.
  • Every title gets todays date on the left side in the format MM/DD/YY
  • All the stuff that I find interesting gets a bullet point followed by words
  • Verses are listed by reference with a brief summary of what it says/application points to the right
  • Random thoughts/really important stuff goes on the top of the page
So far it's worked really really well! The organization is rather fluid (maybe numbers instead of bullets) but for the most part I can look back and find things that I want to.

One other thing that I've started doing is writing down the names of people I meet, along with some memorable facts about them. Like yesterday I met Jonathan. He's from South Carolina and has a little girl named Elizabeth. Just little things like that which help me remember someone. The thing that I've noticed is that I will pray for the people whose names I write down too. I don't often go back and look at the names, but just writing it down prompts my memory.

Why Blog?

I was thinking about this question as I was in the TBI Seminar this morning and came up with some good stuff (I think). I also found a great way to keep track of everything in my little notebook. That'll be the next post?

My primary motivation is two-fold.
  1. I've been reading a lot of blogs lately and have begun to appreciate this method of communicating with others.
  2. My friend Josh Mathews has started writing monthly update emails to anyone and everyone who want to stay connected with him as life moves on. I think this is one of the best things ever because I love hearing about what he's doing and things he's learning.
I hope that I will be able to create cohesive posts that accurately convey what I am thinking/feeling/experiencing. I worry that I will go on tangents (like the notebook thing) and it will detract from the quality of what I have to say. I also worry (much more so) that I will write too much and what I say will be diluted. On that note, I'll be done :-)

p.s. should I use tagging?

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

A Heads Up

So I've decided that blogging is a great way to express myself and hold myself accountable. As a result of said decision, I will be writing an entry every Saturday (at minimum).

When I say "hold myself accountable", I mean accountable to my personal goals. There was a time this past summer when if someone would have asked me how my week was, I wouldn't have been able to say much of anything. That is a wasted life. I will not live like that. So with this blog, I will have to be thinking about what I can share with the blogosphere about life or whatever.

You'll be hearing from me soon...!

Monday, November 3, 2008

BBC Small Group

I am in love with my church.

I just recently joined a small group with Bethlehem Baptist Church and have been loving every bit of it. I went to Saturday service a few weeks ago (almost a month now) and ran into EY (who I'm going to do triathlons with). He had given Jordan a ride and they invited me to sit next to them. They sat next to Matt. Matt invited us to a small group that was starting (though I learned about 3 weeks and much confusion later that it was actually the second group to split from a different small group led by Jason (who I had met 2 years ago at a summer gathering after church at some pastors house). A rather ridiculous story with some incredible results!

I went to the small group and loved it! Dieudonne, Matt and Stephanie are leading it. Dieudonne taught the first week on Colossians 1:1,2. I was blown away. He laid out how Paul had never even met the Colossians, yet he calls them brothers (1:2), and "
from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you" (1:9). How much love does Paul have for these believers who he has never even met! And how much more love would Paul have toward the Colossians after regularly praying for them! That is the vision for this group: that we would be praying for eachother regularly and growing in love for one another. Dieudonne talked about the grace and peace that Paul prayed for the Colossians as well, why Paul would pray those things and what it really means. I don't remember that as clearly, but it was very Christ glorifying.

Saturday and Sunday evenings are becoming my favorite times of the week. I am really enjoying this fellowship that is leading me to the Cross. I am in love with the Gospel. The good news that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, and those who believe on Jesus will be saved from the just wrath of God. Amen! If you don't, please trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And if you do, bury yourself even deeper in that trust, that belief, that faith in Christ.