the glory and the horror

I like this idea – passing on books, and having the largest book club in the world possibly

Just thoughts.

Which Peanuts Character Are You Quiz

Just thoughts.

Yosemite pictures care of Alexa’s digital camera.

Just thoughts.

It’s been over a week since I last updated, and I think I need to get into more of a habit of doing this. Maybe not as much as the original deep end, but enough to make sure that I keep things moving. Right now, I’m waiting for a couple phone calls, so this may be short.

I had some thoughts at church on externalization of the spiritual life that ties in closely with Paul’s late-night essay (which I still don’t have permission to reprint/resend to others – I’m working on that). I think it ties in closely with the “not my fault” mentality that seems to permeate society today. Nothing is ever my fault. Nothing is ever my problem. It’s because of my parents, or my schooling, or my environment, but it’s never ever my fault. In the same way, the spiritual life has been broken down into the things outside of us. The signs of spirituality that we now look for and value are external actions – are you going to/leading a Bible study? Are you attending church/prayer meetings/youth group/small group? Are you going on mission trips? Not that any of these things aren’t good things to do, but in and of themselves, they’re not intrinsically good, if you’re not pursuing the person of Jesus Christ. I’ve also noticed a trend in talking about sin problems as well. People seem to have forgotten that there is very much a sin problem on the inside. It’s not just the world and Satan. It’s the desires of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes. I think that if we’re really honest with ourselves, we’ll have to admit that a lot more of our temptations come from within than without. The concept of mortifying the flesh, a la John Owens, seems to rarely be mentioned, if at all nowadays. People seem to talk nowadays as if it’s just about resisting all the stuff coming at us from the outside, instead of looking deep inside, and asking “What must I kill in myself? What am I thinking is more fun/valuable/desirable than God?” That also seems to tie in with the lack of solitude and silence in modern evangelical spiritual lives. We’re afraid to sit down and face ourselves and God, for fear of what we’ll find and be asked to do (thank you, Paul). It seems to all go together.

Alexa and I made it to Yosemite for a couple days this week. We had hoped to be able to hike up Half Dome, which is ~16 miles round-trip, cables and all. However, according to the rangers, some “careless camper” started a fire up on the Half Dome trail, and closed it the day we had hoped to go up there, Friday. So instead, we went out to Lake Merced. That was 26+ miles round-trip. Not as much ascent (only 3200 feet as opposed to 4800), but it was incredibly long. We did not know what we were getting into. We had enough water and food and stuff, but it was just a LONG hike. I got some pretty good blisters, and I was dead when we finished. The weather was very nice – it wasn’t too hot, but it was definitely nice and sunny. Going out was incredible. The granite domes, the sheets, the sheer rock faces… the waterfalls, the Bunnell Cascades…. On the way back in, though, we were’t EVEN looking at scenery. We just wanted down

Just thoughts.

Yay! It all finally came through. I have no idea what went wrong all those other times, but it’s finally working now.

So today was my other party, and there were more people than the 1st one, and I felt kinda bad that I didn’t get to spend as much time with everyone as I had hoped that I could. I’ll have to go and visit these people while I’m still here. Plus, there’s lots of people, like the Enns, the Kohls, and others that have been faithful supporters who I have not seen, as well as lots of other folks from farther away, like all you Texas folks. It was a great party though. I got to see Liz and Jolly and their kids, Avalon and Linda and Michael, and the Kwoks, the Inns, and Kathey and Belinda, Vic and Avery, Gregory and Susan, and the Lows, and I was just glad that I got to hang out with them. It was a lot of fun to tell stories, catch up with them, see the kids all grown up and stuff.

CIBC had a Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church sitting around in the church library that I’m SURE no one has ever looked at. I have it now, and I’m thinking about buying it from CI. It’s an edition from 1945.

Just thoughts.

Sam and I went to the A’s game tonight and watched Cory Lidle NEARLY pitch a no-hitter. It ended up being a one-hit shutout, although I think he pitched well enough to consider it a no-hitter It was nice to go to the game, just because it’s almost just like the old days. Never mind the monstrosity that is the “bleachers.” Watching baseball with an old friend on a cool summer evening – it’s the little things in life. Plus, the A’s played well, all-around. We hit well, we pitched well, we fielded well.

Next week, Alexa, a friend from Rice who’s now at Stanford, and I are going to Yosemite, and hiking up Halfdome. I didn’t know what I was getting into at first, when she told me she wanted to do that. I figured it was just a day hike, and nothing more. Well, according to some websites she sent me, I’m in for one intense day. Take a look:

An article on the hike up
A personal story with pictures about the hike
Pictures of the scary part with cables

Like I said, it looks pretty intense. I look forward to it

It’s been a bit strange being home. I feel a bit aimless sometimes. I guess I feel like I need some purpose, things to do. At the same time, sometimes, I wish I didn’t have to do anything, and could just sit around and read the newspaper, a book, etc.

Just thoughts.

I just made the reservations for the UHaul trailer we’re taking down to Texas. It’s probably a 5′ x 8′. Not real big, not real small. It’s costing a pretty penny. At least I think it does, but then again, I may just be stuck in the culture transition thing. Things do feel more expensive over here. Gas, movies, food, you name it.

Blogger has destroyed/lost/eaten my last 3 attempts at updating.

Just thoughts.

Taking a Cue From Jews’ Survival – An article from the LA Times about a Korean pastor “studies Orthodox Judaism to teach Korean Americans how to educate children, help churches thrive.”

Something else related is a movement among Christian (mostly in the reformed camps, from what I understand) of sending their kids to “classical Christian schooling,” also known as the Trivium. It sounds pretty hardcore, but also appeals to me on a certain level because it integrates a good foundation of knowledge with critical thinking skills, instead of just focusing on one or the other. From what I’ve heard/read, they base a child’s education on the idea that there are 3 stages in a child’s intellectual development – grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric stage. Quoting from the website in this paragraph:

“Therefore a child will first embark on the stage of brain development that classicists term the grammar stage. In this stage he has a natural affinity for storing up a tremendous amount of information on any number of things, from nursery rhymes to math facts, and recalling that information at will. He will then progress to the stage termed the dialectic, where his abilities to reason are honed and sharpened, and everything is turned into an exercise in argumentation. And lastly he will advance to the rhetoric stage, where self-discovery and expression are the paramount concerns, and where cognitive abilities come into their full flower of maturity.”

I’m still learning about this concept, but it sure sounds interesting.

Just thoughts.

Tomorrow is my first party for my supporters. I’m not sure what I’m going to say exactly. I have stories about Native, Pudge and Noah, about our community, about learning and living, about Thailand. I picked out some of the best pictures, and put it into one of the nice photo albums I picked up. The PowerPoint presentation is ready. Mom’s got the food covered – she does that well. I’m glad for that. I’d just have chips and sodas or something.

I might be headed to Yosemite for a camping/hiking trip at the end of the month. Yay!

Church community outreach programs – what’s the purpose? To draw people into the church? To share the Gospel with them? What’s the criteria for calling it a success? For example, if you’re teaching english classes as a part of your church’s outreach to immigrants/foreign students, is it a failure if you do NOT share the Gospel with them?

Just thoughts.

I’m back! email me or call me!

Just thoughts.