This is my theory. The sense of hearing is as strongly linked to human emotions as smell is to memory. You may remember one entry that I wrote a long time ago concerning music. To refresh your memory, I said that music to me is basically the art of combining sounds in a pleasing way. (The word "pleasing" here is of course very subjective and very general; there are some forms of music which I absolutely detest). That isn't my point, however.

Sound vibrations manipulate the innermost pulsations of the soul. Every person reacts to a scream. Don't ask me if this is a physiological or a psychological reaction. I will leave that question to brain surgeons or whoever more suited to answer. My hypothesis originated from an event, many months ago when my 'engine' went through an emotional kick-start. In two simple words: a girl.

There were times when I could not sleep. I could not eat. I may have wanted to eat... a lot. And there were times when I didn't know if I wanted to eat or sleep! My size-10-font textbooks and bible looked like a mess of jumbled alphabets. Like three-year old Andrew who vomited his alphabet soup lunch on the floor. Like me being a severely dyslexic Tom Cruise trying to read Hamlet. Even studying was out of the question. And when I tried to pray, all I could think about was... her.

Nod if you know what I'm saying. Call it whatever you want. Butterflies in your stomach. Infatuation. Attraction. Love. But one thing is for sure- music allowed me to disregard all that emotional "baggage", even if just for a little while. It allowed me to continue functioning properly in society.

If you need a quick remedy, switch on that CD player. Music (not caffeine) is the Christian drug of choice.

Megan and I have been reading The Horse and His Boy, one of the books making up C.S. Lewis’s the Chronicles of Narnia. In that magical world, horses talk, toffee trees sprout instantly and telling stories is considered an art form. The noble peoples of Calormene, a land south of Narnia, still treasure the art of story-telling. You could easily tell the difference between a trained, talented narrator and a normal person merely relating the gossips of the day. Friends gathered around campfires with their eyes and ears aimed at the master storyteller; with no one wanting to miss a trace of a word and how it came to be spoken. Animated and expressive, a skilled narrator can manipulate every tone and nuance of his countenance for the pleasures of his captivated audience. Once a story began, one could no longer tell if time was decelerating or speeding up. What a moment.

Somehow I wished there were some aspects of that lifestyle in my world today. Can you imagine it? How life would be if we no longer needed generic film productions and predictable fairy-tales to satisfy our longing for good stories? Instead, we can stare into the unique faces of our friends or families, and share equally unique anecdotes of lore, love and life.

Our destination is Mission, Texas. We begin our spring break holiday today with a incredible road trip. It's so long that we need to stop by for a night in Oklahoma City. I have never been to Mission, TX, but from what I've heard it is a border town pretty close to Mexico. Have you ever stepped foot into Mexico? Ask me again in a week and I will probably say 'Yes.' Let us hope for an adventure so I can have the raw material to craft stories.

For the past couple of weeks I have been reading my new eBay book purchase: Uprising by Erwin McManus. This guy is definitely more of a speaker than a writer- although not always able to hold my attention, Erwin has many interesting things to say. I am pleasantly shocked to find some of the concepts that I've been learning in my own life - in his book. It feels good to know that I am not alone.

Wickedness Redefined

This is based on the parable of the minas in the book of Luke. The master commended the servants who have used and multiplied the money(or talents) given to them. Two words he used: faithful and trustworthy. On the other hand, to the servant who buried his talent in the ground, the master condemned as wicked and lazy.

"...If he had taken the talent and hired an assassin, I would have thought that wicked. If he had used it to solicit a prostitute, i would have considered that wicked. If he had stolen the money, made millions and kept it for himself, I would have condemned that as wicked. But he didn't do any of that. In fact he returned exactly what was given him. Why would that be wicked?

Is it possible that God views negligence of human capacity differently?

" - Erwin M.

Holiness in the church has long been defined as not breaking the Ten Commandments. Besides the first two commandments, the rest are basically what "you should not do-s." And what was Jesus's opinion on it? All the law and the prophets hang on these first 2 commandments. Love. It is an act. To give. To serve. To do instead of to refrain from doing. Erwin McManus claims that "...when we refuse to maximise our God-given potential, it is wickedness in the sight of God." If being a Christian centers on the legalistic "virtue" of 'not breaking the rules'... we would all be reduced to being merely existing.

Everyone dies. But not everyone truly lives.- Braveheart

This was my perception: failure of reaching your full potential should merely be considered a sad case. But could it be that God elevates it to wickedness?

Whoa.

Here is an interesting excerpt from Wolfgang Simson's "Houses That Change the World." What an example of man's leaning toward predictability, control and fear... when the way of Jesus is one of faith and adventure.

Page 61: "...Some further steps into spiritual darkness..."

709 - Kissing the Pope's foot introduced
786 - Worship of images and relics develops
850 - First use of holy water
995 - Canonization of dead saints
998 - Fasting on Fridays and before Lent introduced
1079 - Celibacy of priesthood introduced
1090 - Prayer beads adopted from several pagan religious systems
1184 - The Inquisition, the policing of the faith, millions of Jews and witches (and later Protestant believers) will die at the hands of the Church of Rome.
1190 - The sale of indulgences
1215 - Transubstantiation of the wafer and wine declared
1229 - Bible declared to be too holy for ordinary people to read and forbidden to lay people
1414 - Communion cup forbidden to lay people
1439 - Doctrine of Purgatory decreed
1545 - Traditional teachings of Roman Catholic Church granted equal authority with the Bible at Council of Trent

Comments Please

Here's a question which you can help me think over. Feel free to voice opinions and give some scripture references. There are many sides to this issue, so i hope to see many comments.

"Should it be different in how we treat a non-Christian or a Christian person? Why?"

I think that i have something worthwhile to say after organizing some of my thoughts, and hearing your conversations. Tell me what you think.

It seems like worrying or fretting about how we should properly treat believers and unbelievers is more destructive than helpful. The argument can go both ways. One thing I agree with is Joanne's comment: that Christians are called to be wellsprings of love. It should flow from one person to another freely. Still, it is quite possible that the kinds of love that we show to different people vary. It probably is. I can conclude that just by looking into my own life and relationships. Like Matto said, there are just people whom i enjoy being with more. There are people with whom I find hard to 'click'. I experience different kinds of depth/substance with every individual person i interact with.

Here is what I think: this phenomenon is more of a consequence, rather than a choice.

Maybe a better question to ask then, is therefore this: "Are we treating non-Christians or Christians differently?" Sadly, it is a resounding "YES!" Though I wished i could treat everyone the same way, life just doesn't work that way. And maybe, just maybe... that's how God designed it to be.

In Acts, it is said that "the believers had everything in common, and shared everything..." I would imagine, they had the deepest friendships, forgave everything, gave grace, showed the greatest mercy, et cetera... It is impossible for nonbelievers to see the sense of that! I implore you not to take the consequences of salvation for granted. We're talking about a life dramatically changed by the power of God! A Christian! New heart, new spiritual eyes, and a mind being renewed daily! a Christ-ian.

Essentially, a kingdom will always look like this: citizens trust fellow citizens of the kingdom. The only way an outsider can fully experience and understand a citizen's way of life is... to BE a citizen of the kingdom of heaven himself. From the outside, the most he can see is but a mere glimpse.

Let me conclude with five words that will hopefully govern all our further discussions and dialogue and life:

Love wins. It always does.

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Flux
People need flux. We absolutely require it, to keep our sanity.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"How are you doing?" Smiles cheerfully.

"I'm doing good! How about you?"

"Very good..."

Three second silence.

So you are doing good? Really? What good did you do on earth today? What noble act did you sacrifice your time to do today? Whose life did you brighten up today? If you left town for two weeks, would your classmates or friends or teachers ache deeply?

If you died or moved away, would anyone remember what you did?

Would your loss produce a noticeable void in the community around you? Does your presence matter?

All this while, you were sure that you were living. No one ever told you that you were ...

merely existing.

One bored and hungry man with excess time on his hands. One cool lazy Friday afternoon on the campus of a little Midwestern town. Mix these elements together, add a touch of green leaf, and this is what you get: A Spontaneous Survey of Students (which I shall christen ... Word on the Street.

What is something that happened today that you're grateful for?
"I woke up."-Drew
"I get to wake up."-Carol
"My train didn't crash."-unnamed
"I got to see my old friend today."-unnamed
"Seeing him." -girl, about her boyfriend.
"The color green. It's my favorite."-Sarah
"Double Whopper at Burger King."-Kevin
"My Geography quiz got moved to Monday."-Zach
"I got my bills and taxes completed, and my parents live in town and they can take care of the kids. For free."-Dana

What is one nice thing that you did for someone else today?
"Open doors."-Aaron
"Made someone laugh."-Jason
"Drove for 3-hours to a conference. For my wife."-unnamed
"Helped someone with a paper."-unnamed
"Nothing."-unnamed
"Open a door."-Nick
"I woke someone up for class."-Robert

Traversing Beings

I’ve got a project that I’m thinking about doing. It’s awfully massive in nature, therefore I have no qualms about saying that I will probably never succeed in finishing it.

I endeavor to know people.

Hear my pre-story. One day, as I was walking home, my prying eyes darted all around with the intent of locating something of interest to me. You could tell I was bored. But boredom triggers discontent and down the road, discontent invites curiosity. At that moment, I was curious to know what exactly excites me. What perpetually is of interest to me? What matters?

Instantly I knew of a eternally correct answer: People. People matter. Heck, how can I not care about people when the ‘know-it-all’ of the universe (a.k.a. God) cares about people?

But why do people matter? Close to the dawn of creation, the bible tells us that human beings are the only creatures to be made in God’s own image. What that fully entails, I have yet to know. But obviously, that difference alone is jarring enough to warrant at least some exploration, don’t you think? This one quality alone separates us from everything else, living or inanimate.

Going back to my story of walking home. As I walked past each house in the neighborhood, I began to see that in each home resided ‘Eikons’ of God Almighty. In each home, there lived inherently unique minds and souls. Let the world forever try, but it is impossible to perfectly classify and catalogue each human being. Let your imagination go wild. There are more than 6 billion minds on earth today. Each of these 6 billion I compare to the deepest seas, far-reaching lands or endless skies. Unlimited areas of exploration. (Remember we still aren’t counting the ones who have died-how crazy is that?) With each passing day, the boundaries of our minds are being expanded, as newer experiences influence our character. Every second adds to the challenge of someone endeavoring to catalogue what we are. Let's all start exploring immediately, because we need all the time we can get.

SpringBreak Pics

The problem isn’t God sending us too few messages. The problem is our paralyzing fear of a Flood. Once we stop pretending that He is being silent, we are faced with the fact that life is an exhilarating torrent of His language and His song. A downpour. A bombardment.

She counted for me tonight. From zero to ten, entirely from memory. In Malay. And may I add, she did it perfectly. Imagine the biggest smiley in the world. It would be here.














Saya bangga dengan kamu.

Rest. What a word. To have rest is probably the best feeling in the world. Now don't let our preconceived definitions of the word fool you. To have rest does not necessarily mean being idle or passive; you could be having the adventure of your life while still being at rest. You could be drawn into the most honorable, "violent" affection for your spouse and still be at rest... etc.



Only if that rest lies in God.



Enter His rest.

We Christians take the humanity of Jesus for granted a lot of the times. We don't often remember that the Lord's humanity causes him to be able to sympathize with our weaknesses. Every single one of them. I can't tell you enough about how awesome it is to have someone else understand. Do you realize that to find someone who fully understands you is like finding a diamond in your backyard? It is a true rarity.

Therefore imagine a God who is not detached from suffering and temptation. Jesus offered up prayers with loud cries and painful tears from the very pit of mortal anguish. Remember this facet of Jesus. He understands like he was there himself. Because he was there himself. The writer of Hebrews believed that by having this knowledge of Him, we will find strength to finish the race.

Another Friday survey of CMSU students:
What does "spiritual" mean to you?

"Connecting with God, having the Spirit in us because God lives in us." - Kristina
"Being in touch with God." - Cody
"One word: Religious." - John
"Connecting with a higher power." - John and Culleen
"Everything because God is everywhere." - Megan
"It's more of a thought or a feeling..." - Shannon
"Having a love for Jesus." - Drew
"Being spiritual is being honest, not hiding from our implanted desire and ability for something more than what we can see." - KP
"Angels and demons fighting for our souls and trying to determine who goes to heaven and hell." - Courtney

Lately I have been wishing that I was more driven, hardworking and consistent in character. And maybe a little less dreamy and a little less of a perfectionist.

I need to get stuff done.

If you have any doubts about the power of sinful woman to control sinful man just reflect for a moment on the number one marketing force in the world — the female body. She can sell anything because she knows the universal weakness of man and how to control him with it. The exploitation of women by sinful men is conspicuous because it is often harsh and violent. But a moment's reflection will show you that the exploitation of men by sinful women is just as pervasive in our society. The difference is that our sinful society sanctions the one perversity and not the other. (There are societies that do just the opposite.)

This is not the way God meant it to be before sin, when man and woman were dependent on him for how to live. This is the result of rebellion against God. How then did God mean it to be? What was the relationship between Adam and Eve supposed to look like before sin entered the world?

Those things towering tall above trees. Stars. We like them, don't we? I absolutely adore them. Tonight I wondered why humans want stars to be in "order"; from ages past, we have conjured up and attempted to understand galactical arrangements, zodiac signs or picturesque constellations on these things so wondrous. For what? To predict the future?

Quit it. Just quit it. Stars are not in order. Stars have never been in order. Stars are not supposed to be in order. Just start to enjoy its explosive stillness.

One more thing: is God reminding us to be still as the stars that hang in the sky are still?