Monday, June 4, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1JBSQMkQEo&ob=av2e
Kutless- What Faith Can Do
Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes
And make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it's more than you can take
But you're stronger
Stronger than you know
Don't you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining
I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
It doesn't matter what you've heard
Impossible is not a word
It's just a reason
For someone not to try
Everybody's scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It'll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing
I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
Overcome the odds
You don't have a chance
(That's what faith can do)
When the world says you can't
It'll tell you that you can
I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
That's what faith can do
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise
Kutless- What Faith Can Do
Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes
And make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it's more than you can take
But you're stronger
Stronger than you know
Don't you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining
I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
It doesn't matter what you've heard
Impossible is not a word
It's just a reason
For someone not to try
Everybody's scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It'll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing
I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
Overcome the odds
You don't have a chance
(That's what faith can do)
When the world says you can't
It'll tell you that you can
I've seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn't ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I've seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That's what faith can do
That's what faith can do
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise
Hey Jesus, I love You.
Thank You for today, another day to spend in Your word and knowing You. Sometimes I wonder about those big carpenter arms, I long to be hugged by them. I long to stop by Your shop and smell the wood shavings, laugh and joke, and embrace you my dearest friend. I think sometimes I get so caught up in my own life I forget that deep love You have for me. Thank You Jesus, I think I need You more now than ever, to be real in my life and my heart. To whisk me away in the delight of love and honesty. To be healed by Your majestic hands, to be bound up, to have my pain erased. I wonder what You were like with animals, did the butterfly rest on Your finger? Did plants rejoice when You walked past them? Did trees clap there hands and stones cry out? I guess we are all looking for something, be it miracles, hope, or change. I am so blessed to know You today, I am so blessed to have this filthy heart slowly cleansed. Blows that wound cleanse the heart, and I am now in so need of cleansing. Take me, break me, make me like You. Make me a good man. I love You Christ, I know that tomorrow seems shakier than yesterday, but You are ever beside me. I love You.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Egypt
An old man held my hand tonight. I was walking and he grabbed me, took my hand and kissed it while weeping. I could smell the stale Taiwanese beer on his breath. I saw the cigarette in his hand as he stood outside, eyes watery from too much alcohol and not enough hope. All I could do was listen, hear his story. Eventually I would pray for him, and part ways as he wept and said thank you.
Strange, this man was not Taiwanese. He was Indian, yet had lived in Brazil. I cannot say whether or not the years had been kind to him, yet the wrinkled and weathered lines upon his brow told me that he had not been pleasant to the years. I could see that he had regrets, he had moments of sorrow, and with bottle in his hand he took to white-washing away iniquity the only way some people know how too.
Here he was, an alien, a foreigner. A stranger on the streets of Taiwan. As I spoke to him he told me no one helps him. That there is no help. Then he told me something strange to hear that night, "Nobody blesses me."
It was a strange thought, my words froze as I thought about how I've got it in with God. A direct line to the King. I am no cupbearer but I have a profound link to the throne of Grace. So I told him simply, I would bless him.
Tears streamed down his face. I could only hug him, pray for him, and tell him there is hope.
I envy not the path that Old man Sam has walked these years. Here he was, a broken, old, foreigner. A stranger in a land not his own.
I left sad because Sam, well he was probably too liquid up to remember or have a real conversation. He was too broken in that moment for me to win him over with my words. In all my humanity only an act of God could shake away the death on him. It was here that I thought about how the only thing I can do is pray that the Lord would redeem Sam. That the Pharaoh in the life of sam, that great wicked one, Abbadon, would be rebuked and relinquish his grip upon this man.
Exodus always grabs my heart in a way that few passages of scripture do.
Perhaps that is not fair to say. The whole bible is beautiful, meticulously crafted and genuinely powerful.
Yet the last few weeks, Exodus has been prominent in my soul.
A story of strangers, foreigners in the land of Egypt. A people and culture not their own was imposed upon them. I couldn't understand it like I do now.
Other than the song "Walk like an Egyptian" and too many sand-filled Brendan Frasier movies, Egypt is a distant thought to me. Yet it is on the forefront of my mind tonight. I am not old enough to know what it is like to be a slave, a lost denizen of an oppressive culture, or freedomless and restricted. Some would say we have no freedom, some would champion heroes like Ron Paul. I know not what freedom I have and do not have, but I do know I have never been whipped. I have never been beaten until I worked hard. I mean I really do not know the concept of "Want."
I have wanted an Xbox, I have wanted relationships, I have wanted the new Anberlin CD. I have though, not encountered true physical "Want." And sadly, I am probably worse for it. Although not to play down my life, I have felt a want that has left me thirstier than the dusty tombs of Egypt ever would. Spiritual thirst.
The Hebrews of old were in a land that was different from what they had known. A different language, style of living, and sadly view on the value of human life. Even now I can understand spiritual thirst. There is this suffocating longing for hope, for something different in life. Only in the tension and the craze of serving God do I feel that thirst lesson. Only after spending time in the bible and with other believers does this deep dry part of my heart feel the fresh renewing waves of water. All humans want.
Both the rich American and the poor villager. It's just a part of life, a part of this world. We've all felt that feeling, that strange sickening darkness of the soul where we are unhappy. What is strange is that feeling happens in the midst of squalor or at the height of having all we've ever wanted. It is a symbol, a sign, that there is something deeper. Something spiritual and thirsty in the heart of every human that longs for more than these mortal coils can offer.
So this story of the Exodus, God redeeming His people from the land of Egypt, His thirsty, tired, oppressed people. It resonates with me.
Pyramids, Gold, Kings, mummies. It's so easy to neglect the reality of the Egyptian culture. It worshipped death. It was a culture that memorialized eternity in the ever-shifting yet never changing landscape of sand and wind. The 2D drawings of hieroglyph and mosaic were not carved due to an elementary level craftsmanship. It is a fatal error to believe a people as powerful and wise as to build the pyramids could not draw in the right artistic perspective. No, our western mind likes to draw truth and realism, yet the Egyptians loved the eternal. The 2D picture that showed a specific side, direction, and a flat endless top view. It pointed toward the unending. It pointed toward the flat Egyptian sands were ancient things lay even in the time of Moses. Where 2000 years ago a man approaching the pyramids was not seeing something new, but something alien and unfathomable ancient. To an Egyptian, death was life. Death was everything.
It is here in the culture of death that God came to separate out His people.
Amidst that God sent Moses, a man to go and speak out against the injustice. To set his people free. Many have seen an episode of Simpsons, Rugrats, or whatnot mimicking the very Jewish tale of the ten plagues. It is in this familiar well known story I am learning and seeing the redemptive themes of Christ spread upon the pages of history.
The king of the land was Pharaoh, and he ruled this land. He was the king of death. In Egypt death was supreme. Where eternity was an unending chain of embalming and escaping, an eternal attempt to escape to a better life. A better after-life.
We all long for that, be it in our Egypt or in our daily walk. We all long to escape the "rat race" the daily grind. For a purpose deeper than flipping burgers or programming computers. A purpose deeper than what we do but rather something intrinsically different. We long for a purpose rooted in who we are. A people who worship, a chosen creation of God. The Christian knows that this land is not his own. A stranger, an ambassador. What is so strange is the severe hatred and vile hate of Pharaoh. He longs to crush the people of God. To keep them caged up and locked in. Moses was promised that God would set the Hebrews free and yet when Moses first confronted Pharaoh the work got harder for them!
How disheartening is that? To know that he was told "It'll be aight."
Yet it wasn't. It is here the powerful words of God just have caught my heart. Here were I've meditated these last few weeks.
God said that He will bring the Israelites out with a strong hand with a strong hand He will redeem them that they may know He is the Lord God. The God of Israel.
Think about that for a moment. I've often thought about Jericho. What would happen if the people of Jericho stopped on the sixth day? Or what would have happened if God worked on the city of Jericho on the first day? If He worked too soon someone could have said "Why you fool! It was an earthquake and the Israelites made the story up as they marched."
Yet the second thought, what if the sixth they called it quits?
God is working. Yet sometimes it is at the crux of his working that we falter and walk away. It is in the most painful moments when we lower our heads to pray and things get worse that we forget God is still working even when the results are not what we expected.
I've often shared my favorite moment in the Psalms where it says "Your way lead through the sea, your footprints were in the water."
That's beautiful. So this week I was reminded once again that it's so easy to forget God is working. To be like the Israelites and cry out toward our redeemer "Why have YOU made my life harder?"
I thought about this, I thought about people in my life I long to tell about Christ. People I watch like Old man Sam, who are hurting, they are a foreigner in a land that they do not know. They long for freedom and find the slavery of vice. They live in a culture of death that worships the decaying rot of this world. I thought about how in the lives of many people we are Moses. We are the proclaimer of Christ, telling the mighty evil one, let my people go. We are vessels of righteousness praying against strongholds and destroying them through the power of prayer. I thought really, about how sometimes I stop praying because it's not working. Or it is even getting worse!
Yet, it is working. I am just on the 4th day or the 5th and impatient. It is cool when we pray for God to rescue someone and the day we pray it happens yet sometimes that is not the best time. God redeems with a strong hand. How often has someone been through the most shocking events and said "I needed that, or else I would be a different person."
So this week I'm thinking a lot about Exodus. I have so many things to share and say, so many things I've learned. I love the word of God.
And tonight I am praying, that God will save His people. That the prince of this world will let that broken man on the streets of Taichung go. And tonight, I believe, God will.
Strange, this man was not Taiwanese. He was Indian, yet had lived in Brazil. I cannot say whether or not the years had been kind to him, yet the wrinkled and weathered lines upon his brow told me that he had not been pleasant to the years. I could see that he had regrets, he had moments of sorrow, and with bottle in his hand he took to white-washing away iniquity the only way some people know how too.
Here he was, an alien, a foreigner. A stranger on the streets of Taiwan. As I spoke to him he told me no one helps him. That there is no help. Then he told me something strange to hear that night, "Nobody blesses me."
It was a strange thought, my words froze as I thought about how I've got it in with God. A direct line to the King. I am no cupbearer but I have a profound link to the throne of Grace. So I told him simply, I would bless him.
Tears streamed down his face. I could only hug him, pray for him, and tell him there is hope.
I envy not the path that Old man Sam has walked these years. Here he was, a broken, old, foreigner. A stranger in a land not his own.
I left sad because Sam, well he was probably too liquid up to remember or have a real conversation. He was too broken in that moment for me to win him over with my words. In all my humanity only an act of God could shake away the death on him. It was here that I thought about how the only thing I can do is pray that the Lord would redeem Sam. That the Pharaoh in the life of sam, that great wicked one, Abbadon, would be rebuked and relinquish his grip upon this man.
Exodus always grabs my heart in a way that few passages of scripture do.
Perhaps that is not fair to say. The whole bible is beautiful, meticulously crafted and genuinely powerful.
Yet the last few weeks, Exodus has been prominent in my soul.
A story of strangers, foreigners in the land of Egypt. A people and culture not their own was imposed upon them. I couldn't understand it like I do now.
Other than the song "Walk like an Egyptian" and too many sand-filled Brendan Frasier movies, Egypt is a distant thought to me. Yet it is on the forefront of my mind tonight. I am not old enough to know what it is like to be a slave, a lost denizen of an oppressive culture, or freedomless and restricted. Some would say we have no freedom, some would champion heroes like Ron Paul. I know not what freedom I have and do not have, but I do know I have never been whipped. I have never been beaten until I worked hard. I mean I really do not know the concept of "Want."
I have wanted an Xbox, I have wanted relationships, I have wanted the new Anberlin CD. I have though, not encountered true physical "Want." And sadly, I am probably worse for it. Although not to play down my life, I have felt a want that has left me thirstier than the dusty tombs of Egypt ever would. Spiritual thirst.
The Hebrews of old were in a land that was different from what they had known. A different language, style of living, and sadly view on the value of human life. Even now I can understand spiritual thirst. There is this suffocating longing for hope, for something different in life. Only in the tension and the craze of serving God do I feel that thirst lesson. Only after spending time in the bible and with other believers does this deep dry part of my heart feel the fresh renewing waves of water. All humans want.
Both the rich American and the poor villager. It's just a part of life, a part of this world. We've all felt that feeling, that strange sickening darkness of the soul where we are unhappy. What is strange is that feeling happens in the midst of squalor or at the height of having all we've ever wanted. It is a symbol, a sign, that there is something deeper. Something spiritual and thirsty in the heart of every human that longs for more than these mortal coils can offer.
So this story of the Exodus, God redeeming His people from the land of Egypt, His thirsty, tired, oppressed people. It resonates with me.
Pyramids, Gold, Kings, mummies. It's so easy to neglect the reality of the Egyptian culture. It worshipped death. It was a culture that memorialized eternity in the ever-shifting yet never changing landscape of sand and wind. The 2D drawings of hieroglyph and mosaic were not carved due to an elementary level craftsmanship. It is a fatal error to believe a people as powerful and wise as to build the pyramids could not draw in the right artistic perspective. No, our western mind likes to draw truth and realism, yet the Egyptians loved the eternal. The 2D picture that showed a specific side, direction, and a flat endless top view. It pointed toward the unending. It pointed toward the flat Egyptian sands were ancient things lay even in the time of Moses. Where 2000 years ago a man approaching the pyramids was not seeing something new, but something alien and unfathomable ancient. To an Egyptian, death was life. Death was everything.
It is here in the culture of death that God came to separate out His people.
Amidst that God sent Moses, a man to go and speak out against the injustice. To set his people free. Many have seen an episode of Simpsons, Rugrats, or whatnot mimicking the very Jewish tale of the ten plagues. It is in this familiar well known story I am learning and seeing the redemptive themes of Christ spread upon the pages of history.
The king of the land was Pharaoh, and he ruled this land. He was the king of death. In Egypt death was supreme. Where eternity was an unending chain of embalming and escaping, an eternal attempt to escape to a better life. A better after-life.
We all long for that, be it in our Egypt or in our daily walk. We all long to escape the "rat race" the daily grind. For a purpose deeper than flipping burgers or programming computers. A purpose deeper than what we do but rather something intrinsically different. We long for a purpose rooted in who we are. A people who worship, a chosen creation of God. The Christian knows that this land is not his own. A stranger, an ambassador. What is so strange is the severe hatred and vile hate of Pharaoh. He longs to crush the people of God. To keep them caged up and locked in. Moses was promised that God would set the Hebrews free and yet when Moses first confronted Pharaoh the work got harder for them!
How disheartening is that? To know that he was told "It'll be aight."
Yet it wasn't. It is here the powerful words of God just have caught my heart. Here were I've meditated these last few weeks.
God said that He will bring the Israelites out with a strong hand with a strong hand He will redeem them that they may know He is the Lord God. The God of Israel.
Think about that for a moment. I've often thought about Jericho. What would happen if the people of Jericho stopped on the sixth day? Or what would have happened if God worked on the city of Jericho on the first day? If He worked too soon someone could have said "Why you fool! It was an earthquake and the Israelites made the story up as they marched."
Yet the second thought, what if the sixth they called it quits?
God is working. Yet sometimes it is at the crux of his working that we falter and walk away. It is in the most painful moments when we lower our heads to pray and things get worse that we forget God is still working even when the results are not what we expected.
I've often shared my favorite moment in the Psalms where it says "Your way lead through the sea, your footprints were in the water."
That's beautiful. So this week I was reminded once again that it's so easy to forget God is working. To be like the Israelites and cry out toward our redeemer "Why have YOU made my life harder?"
I thought about this, I thought about people in my life I long to tell about Christ. People I watch like Old man Sam, who are hurting, they are a foreigner in a land that they do not know. They long for freedom and find the slavery of vice. They live in a culture of death that worships the decaying rot of this world. I thought about how in the lives of many people we are Moses. We are the proclaimer of Christ, telling the mighty evil one, let my people go. We are vessels of righteousness praying against strongholds and destroying them through the power of prayer. I thought really, about how sometimes I stop praying because it's not working. Or it is even getting worse!
Yet, it is working. I am just on the 4th day or the 5th and impatient. It is cool when we pray for God to rescue someone and the day we pray it happens yet sometimes that is not the best time. God redeems with a strong hand. How often has someone been through the most shocking events and said "I needed that, or else I would be a different person."
So this week I'm thinking a lot about Exodus. I have so many things to share and say, so many things I've learned. I love the word of God.
And tonight I am praying, that God will save His people. That the prince of this world will let that broken man on the streets of Taichung go. And tonight, I believe, God will.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Christmas Timeeee
So Christmas is over,
Sad. Yet only like… 360 some odd days until the next one!
It's starting to get cold in Taiwan, that cold that isn't about the temperature, but about the humidity. The cold that goes straight to the bones. I love it. It reminds me of the crisp Seattle mornings where mist rolls over the hills and for some reason even the suburbs.
Anyways, Christmas.
Christmas to me smells like Apple Cinnamon, Pine, Snow (Does snow smell? I swear it does), tape, presents, and various spicy sugar things like cake and tea. Apple Cinnamon also smells like Harry Potter to me but that's an entirely different thread and topic, also one of controversy not to be delved into. Alas, Christmas morning Dale and I arose like lofty sparrows in the morn. Or possibly noon, I can neither confirm or deny our sleep habits. We had prepared all the ingredients the night before, but I'll say fortnight because it just sounds more poetic. A fortnight ago we prepared all the ingredients to a wonderful Christmas feast. The luxury item being Krusteaz pancake mix, hailing from the native local region of Seattle. It was purchased at Costco and then used as the basis for our meal.
The plan was thus, (Nix the spoke Zathustra)
1 Plate of pancakes
2.Some foreign Syrup for said pancakes (In this country, syrup counts as an individual item)
3. Homemade, nonalcoholic, Egg Nog
4. Hot cocoa
So around noonish we set off for the kitchen and began to work like the little Christmas elves that we were. I put the pan on the gas-burner and began to let it simmer, at which point Dale said "Hey Jake, we need butter or something." So he poured milk into the pan. We also did not have measuring instruments and had to convert from American measurements to metric. So we used a water bottle. Regardless some sort of moist pancake mix began to grow. Then the pan caught fire. The milk also began to burn. Smoke poured forth like the gates of the great abyss had opened and I stood crying and making pancakes from the intense burning sensation in my eye spheres…
Mmm Pancakes. While I was busy having a pyrotechnic display in the kitchen, Dale decided that he would make the eggnog. Only he read the recipe wrong and put far too much milk in. No buggy, we just there more eggs in, and sugar. And Nutmeg. When all was said and done though we didn't have what one would call a "Whisk"
So the eggnog was very egg like. More egg than nog as they say. It was like the protein shake Rocky drinks, and dribbled about like it was a somewhat sentient life form. Regardless it didn't taste too bad.
So with that I set the table. The Cocoa was a little watery but chocolate water never hurt anyone. Then we poured the cold syrup from the fridge over the moist pancake thingy. You see I never had actually managed to make a pancake, I just made some sort of gooey lump dough. After a moment of reflection, in a house too hazy to see in from all the smoke, Dale and I bit into our pancakes.
They tasted like brick and charcoal. I gagged and dry heaved while Dale tried to eat his. After the first bite we knew defeat had found us and ushered us under her wing. With that, Dale and I decided to eat cereal.
Presents:
Fruit flavored mentos
Silly String
2 different 30 NTD Airsoft guns
Panda Cookies with a plastic flavor
Christmas!!!!!!!
I love Christmas lights.
Anyways In the end it was a wonderful time. We even had out fits! And Christmas Moustaches!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Christmas
Today was a day of reflection and while I had fun, I thought a lot about just life. It's strange to know that life is so out of our control and yet something we still have to claim and conquer. I am thankful today, as I sit in the SYME office, we have pizza.
This is a rarity. Wonderful rarity as it is.
I am thinking about life and am so grateful. I have so much.
This week we start making phone calls to our alumni students. It's incredible to see what students have caught and managed to keep spiritually, and which ones are still coming around before they get it.
Taiwan is cold this time of year, well, actually its like 63 degrees, and everyone has scarves on, winter coats and jackets, and gloves. Dale and I have t-shirts.
Dales mom sent us a christmas tree with some lights, there is something about having a christmas tree that just makes me happy.
This will be my first Christmas away from America, although not away from home. What's strange is the thought that Christ came in the form of a child. I know it's the status quo to hear about three or four sermons a December on that but it's something to engage. To really engage. God could have joined our world in so many different ways, He could have flown down from space. He could have been this intimidating super-powerful entity.
Yet He wrapped Himself in flesh. I am 8000 miles away from home and I still see Christmas lights. That type of action impacts people. It impacted this world. So today I have to wonder, if Christ wrapped Himself in flesh, how am I wrapping myself in Christ?
It's 2000 years later, I'm on an island, and His actions are being seen here. What actions in my life will even reach beyond the walls of my office?
So today I'm thinking, and thinking, and wondering who I can write, who I can encourage, and how I can wrap myself in Christ to reach a world that is so in need.
This is a rarity. Wonderful rarity as it is.
I am thinking about life and am so grateful. I have so much.
This week we start making phone calls to our alumni students. It's incredible to see what students have caught and managed to keep spiritually, and which ones are still coming around before they get it.
Taiwan is cold this time of year, well, actually its like 63 degrees, and everyone has scarves on, winter coats and jackets, and gloves. Dale and I have t-shirts.
Dales mom sent us a christmas tree with some lights, there is something about having a christmas tree that just makes me happy.
This will be my first Christmas away from America, although not away from home. What's strange is the thought that Christ came in the form of a child. I know it's the status quo to hear about three or four sermons a December on that but it's something to engage. To really engage. God could have joined our world in so many different ways, He could have flown down from space. He could have been this intimidating super-powerful entity.
Yet He wrapped Himself in flesh. I am 8000 miles away from home and I still see Christmas lights. That type of action impacts people. It impacted this world. So today I have to wonder, if Christ wrapped Himself in flesh, how am I wrapping myself in Christ?
It's 2000 years later, I'm on an island, and His actions are being seen here. What actions in my life will even reach beyond the walls of my office?
So today I'm thinking, and thinking, and wondering who I can write, who I can encourage, and how I can wrap myself in Christ to reach a world that is so in need.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
ADHD
So pretty much I don't focus very well, but I have just got insurance.
It's pretty awesome!
Break a bone? X-RAY!
Sneezy? Antibiotics!
So I started going to the doctors to prepare for Taiwan... in one session they gave me a Hepatitis A shot, Whooping Cough Vaccine, and Tetanus, as well as a spinal x-ray and a blood test. I have sore arms now.
The plus side though is I finally got on ADHD medicine/may be able to get adenoids removed... why is that important?
See that little green thingy there?
Well when it is too big it blocks the air canal, keeps one from breathing during sleep, and shunts all the oxygen going to the brain into some random place like Manchuria. Why is this important? Especially for returning to a blog after a millennium? Well... Lack of brain oxygen is remedied a couple ways, one through ADHD pills, and as such my focus today quadrupled times a billion. I can focus now, which helps me with blogging, writing, making phone calls, learning Jewish dance moves. Ya know, the usual! I'm trying to get the little green guy scraped out though so I can have natural super human concentration. Plus people won't throw shoes at me if I snore.
Anyways I'm getting ready for Taiwan (I embark in 12 measly days) so I am spending a lot of time hitting up doctors and such. It's strange to be getting this close to leaving, getting random shots, talking to doctors about foreign medical care of which I have no idea. It just makes Taiwan seem that much realer. Monday they send my passport. And then... Bon Voyage... I'm preparing my final stuff, thus I will have tons to write about! SYME, plane flights, cultural differences. I'm excited! Soon, soon my minions. So for now I'm getting into the habit of writing and updating on life often cause pretty soon I'll be able to daily.
Now I just gotta practice my Chinese :p
P.S. Here's my mostest recent prayer letter!
It's pretty awesome!
Break a bone? X-RAY!
Sneezy? Antibiotics!
So I started going to the doctors to prepare for Taiwan... in one session they gave me a Hepatitis A shot, Whooping Cough Vaccine, and Tetanus, as well as a spinal x-ray and a blood test. I have sore arms now.
The plus side though is I finally got on ADHD medicine/may be able to get adenoids removed... why is that important?
See that little green thingy there?
Well when it is too big it blocks the air canal, keeps one from breathing during sleep, and shunts all the oxygen going to the brain into some random place like Manchuria. Why is this important? Especially for returning to a blog after a millennium? Well... Lack of brain oxygen is remedied a couple ways, one through ADHD pills, and as such my focus today quadrupled times a billion. I can focus now, which helps me with blogging, writing, making phone calls, learning Jewish dance moves. Ya know, the usual! I'm trying to get the little green guy scraped out though so I can have natural super human concentration. Plus people won't throw shoes at me if I snore.
Anyways I'm getting ready for Taiwan (I embark in 12 measly days) so I am spending a lot of time hitting up doctors and such. It's strange to be getting this close to leaving, getting random shots, talking to doctors about foreign medical care of which I have no idea. It just makes Taiwan seem that much realer. Monday they send my passport. And then... Bon Voyage... I'm preparing my final stuff, thus I will have tons to write about! SYME, plane flights, cultural differences. I'm excited! Soon, soon my minions. So for now I'm getting into the habit of writing and updating on life often cause pretty soon I'll be able to daily.
Now I just gotta practice my Chinese :p
P.S. Here's my mostest recent prayer letter!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Foreign Policy
Somethings have been on my mind recently. I'm gonna be updating this blog regularly now as I get ready for Taiwan, I've been thinking how to approach blogging and I think I will focus on Taiwan often but I will also use this as an outlet for free thought, discussion, and such on everything from religion and politics to Ramen noodles and Halo...
I was watching the news tonight and started thinking.
Life is highly mathematical. We ignore it obviously, otherwise we would see the wave formations in bathtub water, the light wave patterns, the way atoms and protons move. Even more so these patterns can be observed in large frameworks like economies and societies. We see society, popular culture, history, and science go through phases. Interestingly enough I find most Americans, most people, are rather ignorant of things such as fiat currency, wikileaks, world reserve currency, the federal reserve. They even call people who study such data crackpots or intellectuals depending on whether or not they follow the common flow of the herd.
We brush over events like the mystery missile in LA around thanksgiving to watch Dancing with the Stars, which when held in light of China's 2004 missile practices is rather scary.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/national/main7036716.shtml
This is the discovery
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/mystery-missile-is-probably-a-jet/
This is them thinking it's a jet a day later
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/71719,news-comment,news-politics,la-vapour-trail-mystery-was-it-a-chinese-missile
This is ten days later finally wondering if it's a Chinese Missile
And this is 7 years ago…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/2/20041202-115302-2338r/
And this is more recent...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/2/20041202-115302-2338r/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-05/china-s-ballistic-missile-stealth-fighter-advances-draw-attention-of-u-s-.html
http://www.helium.com/items/1915068-chinese-dong-feng-missile-capable-of-sinking-every-us-supercarrier
If we search the internet we find China has satellite destroying missiles, new technology, and whatnot as well as recently visited the U.S. for the first time in quite awhile.
We brush over weird laws such as Obama enabling the assassination of U.S. citizens and think "It'll be fine, he's not targeting Christians, I'm gonna watch Opera", then brush over the ceasing of militia groups in the U.S.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qzs-57av0s The Policy
Granted we need to protect out country and not all this stuff is inherently bad nor unwise… I just find it so interesting how much we ignore these trends and pieces of a puzzle. I think if you logically put all this stuff together you end up with quite the interesting conundrums. You see how the world is moving, like a giant beuracratic monster we can see the trends of it turning and going. It is incredibly important to perk our ears up and know. I'm not spitting conspiracy theories about China, nor trying to breed fear. I just find it something important to understand… That we can see trends, patterns, and directions and wisdom says we should listen up...
If… Satan exists…
If he wants to destroy humanity as well as Christendom…
Should not we pay attention to the news? The world movement? Everybody knows that to take over a country you don't attack the people you attack the leadership, everybody knows that leadership influences, wealth oft corrupts. So I think it is very important, not in an obsessive way, but in a wise way of stewardship to understand what is going on in the world, foreign policy, and how that affects our daily choices in life, government, and engaging the culture.
World War II didn't happen overnight.
The holocaust wasn't sudden.
It happened in political discussions and beer halls.
I was just thinking about that today, how the people who prepare and engage culture can make quite an impact.
How this entire world needs Jesus and we have to work hard to offer Him, as well as be wary of the enemy out there seeking to destroy. So some crazy stuff is happening in Egypt right now. We NEED to pay attention.
I was watching the news tonight and started thinking.
Life is highly mathematical. We ignore it obviously, otherwise we would see the wave formations in bathtub water, the light wave patterns, the way atoms and protons move. Even more so these patterns can be observed in large frameworks like economies and societies. We see society, popular culture, history, and science go through phases. Interestingly enough I find most Americans, most people, are rather ignorant of things such as fiat currency, wikileaks, world reserve currency, the federal reserve. They even call people who study such data crackpots or intellectuals depending on whether or not they follow the common flow of the herd.
We brush over events like the mystery missile in LA around thanksgiving to watch Dancing with the Stars, which when held in light of China's 2004 missile practices is rather scary.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/09/national/main7036716.shtml
This is the discovery
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/11/mystery-missile-is-probably-a-jet/
This is them thinking it's a jet a day later
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/71719,news-comment,news-politics,la-vapour-trail-mystery-was-it-a-chinese-missile
This is ten days later finally wondering if it's a Chinese Missile
And this is 7 years ago…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/2/20041202-115302-2338r/
And this is more recent...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/dec/2/20041202-115302-2338r/
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-05/china-s-ballistic-missile-stealth-fighter-advances-draw-attention-of-u-s-.html
http://www.helium.com/items/1915068-chinese-dong-feng-missile-capable-of-sinking-every-us-supercarrier
If we search the internet we find China has satellite destroying missiles, new technology, and whatnot as well as recently visited the U.S. for the first time in quite awhile.
We brush over weird laws such as Obama enabling the assassination of U.S. citizens and think "It'll be fine, he's not targeting Christians, I'm gonna watch Opera", then brush over the ceasing of militia groups in the U.S.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qzs-57av0s The Policy
Granted we need to protect out country and not all this stuff is inherently bad nor unwise… I just find it so interesting how much we ignore these trends and pieces of a puzzle. I think if you logically put all this stuff together you end up with quite the interesting conundrums. You see how the world is moving, like a giant beuracratic monster we can see the trends of it turning and going. It is incredibly important to perk our ears up and know. I'm not spitting conspiracy theories about China, nor trying to breed fear. I just find it something important to understand… That we can see trends, patterns, and directions and wisdom says we should listen up...
If… Satan exists…
If he wants to destroy humanity as well as Christendom…
Should not we pay attention to the news? The world movement? Everybody knows that to take over a country you don't attack the people you attack the leadership, everybody knows that leadership influences, wealth oft corrupts. So I think it is very important, not in an obsessive way, but in a wise way of stewardship to understand what is going on in the world, foreign policy, and how that affects our daily choices in life, government, and engaging the culture.
World War II didn't happen overnight.
The holocaust wasn't sudden.
It happened in political discussions and beer halls.
I was just thinking about that today, how the people who prepare and engage culture can make quite an impact.
How this entire world needs Jesus and we have to work hard to offer Him, as well as be wary of the enemy out there seeking to destroy. So some crazy stuff is happening in Egypt right now. We NEED to pay attention.
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