My thoughts freely treading

The leaves are falling. Workers are coming out with their rakes and leaf blowers. Kids are jumping into huge mattresses of leaves for fun. Batman Begins. A hero without any super powers can still be a superhero. Cool powers alone do not make a superhero. Batman flirts with the psychological fears of an enemy's mind. To quote Henri Ducard, "You have to become more than a man to the mind of your opponent. " Dramatism and theatricality is the strength of Batman. Thursday night our band played at The Well. We ended the service with "Take My Life", the last track on the Passion Hymns album. Have you tried laying down outdoors on freshly fallen leaves? Soft yellow ones? Look at the heavens. What a nice color combination. Blue sky. Green leaves. A touch of white from the moon. And nice company. Shawn McDonald writes amazing stuff. '...as i look off into the distance, watching the sun roll on by, beautiful colors all around me oh, painted all over the sky..." Asinine fatuity is a cool phrase I learned from CS Lewis. It means foolish foolishness. Culture night is tonight. Eric is making mac n cheese. I wonder if the Indians are going to cook again. I sure hope they do. I've been uttering "Beautiful God" since yesterday. "... and the same hands that created all of this, he created you and I, what a beautiful..." We have four guys in the house now. That means a new housemate, Billy. I can lose myself in Lord of The Rings. Oh man, can't forget Narnia. Frodo, I pity Smeagol too. There is always hope. There will be redemption from corruption and depravity. Gollum, master was not trick-sy. Master takes care of us now. Say it; "...leave and never come back..." Leave and never come back. "And why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

Written by Shawn McDonald

So hard to fathom the pain in Your eyes
As You're watching Your children, doing what You despise
In pursuit of our own
We just go round and round
Another nail to our cause
We continue to pound
What are you, man, if you do not learn love
What are you, man, if you do not learn love
So hard to fathom, oh, the feelings inside
As You're watching Your people choosing to die
You called out a warning
To all that would hear
Saying come to Me, come to Me
And I will draw near
Learn love
I must
Learn love
Learn love
Learn love
Learn love
Learn love

Humanity and its funny tendency of incorrectly extrapolating wrong potentials, and the total lack of faith in the right ones.

I was walking home from school the other day and this suddenly occurred to me: Man has not fully grasped with his heart the scope of his true potential in this world. In fact, I dare claim that all of humanity has degraded their promise and reduced their childhood dreams to more “realistic”, “grown-up” desires. At least twice a day, five times every week, I take a 10-minute walk along Broad Street to campus. I usually love the journey to school, and most of the time I dread the tiring trek back home. I like the former ‘excursion’ better because of the fresh morning air and the feeling of clean, dry socks around my feet. When classes end around three or four in the afternoon, this fresh sensation is usually replaced by a foul, sticky numbness all over my body. Do not pretend. I know this happens to you also. Nonetheless, as I was saying, my ritual of ‘the walk’ has become sort of a sacrament. It is a time to ponder. It is my time to commune with God. When there is no one else beside me and the rest of creation… and God. I would tell myself, “King Pui, there’s no one else who can hear these birds sing.” I am the only person at that particular instant in time and space to sense the steady rhythm of fallen leaves crunching beneath my feet. And yes, sometimes I do catch me talking to myself. I cannot help it, my ‘walk’ is my devotion; in it I ponder the deepness of the soul and try to make sense of the intensity of life.

It is during one of these walks, that I realized that I only needed one second to change my life. No, you are not getting me. I shall tell you again. One second, no… a tenth of a second is all you need to change your life. However long it takes for a single thought to travel from the brain into your heart. That’s how much time one would actually require to spark a revolution or transformation in one’s own life. Let me explain. I can, at that moment, whilst walking to school, decide to skip class. I can choose to skip my whole week’s classes and never come back. I can choose to drop my books and bible, head over to a bank and rob it of its reserves. Rob it with what, I do not know. But I can choose. All I need is for the idea to translate into desire. Yes, I can also choose to give up on life, and throw myself down in front of a speeding Hummer. Or I could go ahead and choose to go to school, do my usual routine, and compose this article. My point is, I can choose to change my life. Contrary to what the world says, it doesn’t take a lifetime of growing. The journey begins with the initial (usually most challenging) first step. Don’t you get it? This is the potential of a human: a creature sculpted in the image of God, a creature given dominion over all other creation. You and I have more potential than what we credit ourselves with. Many will choose to disagree. But I am not finished with my idea yet. I also believe that humanity has a funny tendency of incorrectly extrapolating wrong potentials, and the shameful lack of faith in the right ones.


(to be continued)

My mind is consumed. By a green leaf.

(continued from 113)

All capabilities given to us are indeed made for good. When it is used wisely, it would be beneficial to ourselves and to other people. Therefore, there really is no such thing as a “bad potential” or a “wrong one.” My definition of a “wrong potential” is simply an originally beautiful gift twisted and distorted by self-serving motives. If you have not noticed yet, nothing good comes out of self-centeredness and self-glorification. After all, it was the cause of Man’s downfall, way back in the Garden. I cannot deny that we live in a fallen world. Some modern effects of boosting the wrong potentials? Hitler. Terrorism. Corruption. Changing the law of God. Sigh. We are, according to the bible, rebellious beings who fall terribly short of the glory of the Living God. Well then, should not the world be brought down from its sick self-centered pedestal? We should be humbled instead of being further exalted! That is true. But let’s give humanity some grace. They did not do a whole lot of things right, but they did do some things right. I have been looking at the world in a new light, of late. I notice a whole lot more beauty than before, that is for sure. A good friend, who also happens to be Christian, recently told me about his ideas about heaven on earth. He says he rather likes it here (the world). And so I gave it some thought. Besides the plethora of ruined morality and messed up earth-folk, the mountains and music and raindrops and puppy dogs and fish and leaves and stars and orange juice and smiles and a woman’s love… are quite… fascinating. I must admit, I like it here also. I believe mankind is given the potential to learn, to study, to create and to love. Along with that, is a yearning to see justice and righteousness. Certainly you have seen the fruits of this potential: mathematical formulas, sciences, art, poetry, civil rights movements, freedom, charity, service and sacrifice?

Standing back and admiring our achievements are fine, but I feel more inclined to write on Man’s common mistake of degrading remarkable potentials. I guess I really want to trigger a change. In you, I hope. But in me, even more. Believe me, this is my personal struggle. That is because I realize my propensity to ‘resign to my fate’, throw a pity-party, and curl up into a ball under the covers, and forget about the world. It is much easier to blame circumstance. It is even easier to say “nope, I can’t do it”, rather than labor furiously to reach a goal. The astonishing thing is, both Christians and non-Christians are guilty of this. Many a times, I have seen people falling into the rut of decadence, saying things such as, “…if only I had a million dollars…” or “…if only I was born into a different family…” or “…if only I had ‘mad skills’ like that…” Circumstances are helpful, but I doubt that they are ever really necessary for us to become all that we were made to be. We need God to achieve that, not the “right conditions.”

(to be continued)

Some pictures from my Thanksgiving Break in Republic. Didn't have many pictures because the batteries were about to go dead. So I guess all i have left are mental images of Bass Pro Shops, Springfield, Halo 2, and the Drury Lady Panthers... wish you could've been there.

[img:719026]The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus
[img:719024]Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
[img:719023]Mere Christianity by CS Lewis
[img:719022]The Master Plan of Evangelism by Robert E. Coleman
[img:719021]Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller
[img:719020]Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

My Take on the Purpose of Life

“The whole purpose for which we exist is to be taken into the life of God.”- C.S. Lewis(Mere Christianity)
Maybe being taken into the life of God is the same as learning Love. Maybe learning about Love is the same as knowing Jesus. Maybe trusting Jesus is glorifying God. Maybe glorifying God is caring for the poor and oppressed. Maybe social justice is our souls being filled with the Holy Spirit. Maybe being filled with the Spirit is making the world a better place. Maybe improving society is to have the best life you can ever live. Maybe having an abundant life is to experience fullness of Joy. Maybe joy is having a family, and raising Godly children. Maybe the purpose of life is to show others the way of Jesus. Maybe guiding lost sheep back to the shepherd is the same as making disciples. Maybe.

Maybe all these purposes (and more) are summed up in one person: the one who walked, died and rose again, the one who called himself … I AM.