The Mind of Mikey G

Resisting Sin: What's the Point?

2012-11-21T14:49:00.000-06:00

Resisting ~~Sin~~: What's the Point?

As humans, we all have a general sense to try to not do bad stuff. We all inherently know that we probably shouldn't lie, cheat, and steal, and it probably isn't a good idea to punch that guy who's talking really loudly on his phone on the bus. But as Christians, we are called to do more than just "not do bad stuff". Instead, we are called to be "holy and blameless before him", "flee from idolatry", and to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength".

Sounds impossible, right?

That's because [spoiler alert], it is. That's the whole reason why Christ came! If people could muster up enough strength and resolve to live lives that are perfect and sinless (not just one that do "more good than bad"), then there would be absolutely no reason for Jesus to come here and die in the first place. But the Bible is clear in saying that no one is righteous.

Okay great, so we know that people are sinful, and our only hope for salvation is the blood of Christ (also known as "the best news you could possibly ever hear"). Then if nothing I do can save me, then why try at all? If all of my sins are going to be paid for by Christ's perfect death, then why shouldn't I just keep on sinning? Paul has a few words to say about this in his letter to the Romans.

"What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?"

Romans 6: 1-2

So we still have yet to look at how resisting sin brings us much benefit today. Here are 3 ways:

1. It shows the life and love of Christ to those who DON'T know Him.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of "coffee mug Christian phrases", cheesy phrases that are often overused, watered down, and marginally Biblical. But one that seems to fit in this category, but I believe instead holds some Gospel-truth is that you may be the only Jesus that someone sees. This is not to say that you could be someone's savior, or that your do-good life could somehow pay for someone else's sin, but the fact of the matter is that in today's individualistic and increasingly secular culture, unless someone walks themselves into a church, they probably won't hear the name Jesus proclaimed. Resisting sin, loving people, and living as Christ lived shows a transformed heart that is against things of this world and proclaims things above. We see a great example of this in the life of the early church in Acts.

2. It shows the life and love of Christ to those who DO know Him.
A lot of times, there is a false assumption that once you become a Christian, then immediately your life will become picture-perfect, everything will start going well for you, and it will be smiles and rainbows from now until death. The Christian life is not easy. Therefore, it is very helpful for believers to have Christ-like examples among their community to look towards, so that they can better see the ultimate example that is Jesus. Paul speaks of this in 1 Cor. 4:12-17, saying to follow his example as he follows Christ's example. We do have freedom in Christ, however we are to persevere as living examples to other believers around us. If you were constantly living in unrepentant sin, how would that demonstrate and celebrate the transforming work that God has done in your heart?

3. It shows the life and love of Christ to YOU.
If you've ever tried one day to say to yourself, "I won't do [insert sin here] today", sometimes you see success and then can rejoice in the redemptive work that the Gospel has done in your heart! This is a point at which we can worship our Lord, and celebrate His glory with Him. Sometimes though, we don't even see success in this tiny period of time we've set for ourselves, and in times like this the wicked nature of our hearts is further revealed to us. This repetitive rebellion that we seem to frequently choose over God is a continual reminder to us that at our core, we are not "good people", and that we cannot even live up to the imperfect and incomplete standards that we set for ourselves. It is a reminder that in contrast to our imperfect wickedness, Christ is absolutely perfect in his domination and eradication of our sin, of which we could never do ourselves. So therefore resisting sin is an opportunity for us to both glorify God by following His commands and to draw us into further reverence of Christ's redeeming death on the cross.

_______

Resisting all sin is not, and will never be easy. We are born into rebellion, and redemption of our hearts is impossible by human effort. If all that God required for "perfection" was for us to go to a certain building every week, read a certain book every day, and be nice to people most of the time, that is a goal that many people could actually accomplish in their lifetimes. However doing these good things does not destroy the sin that has been with us since the Garden of Eden. Only the death of Christ can bring true redemption. Living a life free of sin is impossible for us imperfect people.

Resisting the temptation to sin is an opportunity to bring glory to the Father, by showing the redeeming power of the Son's death, through the strength given to us by the Holy Spirit.

Parallel Pavillion

2012-02-29T00:41:00.002-06:00

Hey, long time no see! It's been a while since I've last posted, I've basically moved in to the studio for the past 2 weeks, and had no life outside of that. But, it's what I signed up for, so I can't really complain! Anyway, thought I'd update you all on what I've been doing there!

We were given a project 2 weeks ago, which called for us to design a pavilion. For those of you who aren't in the architecture world, and therefore don't hear all of the often made-up vocabulary we throw around (like "horizontality"? In fact, not a word.), a pavilion is basically architecture-speak for "no actual purpose or function, other than to be a good little building, stand there, and look pretty". This seems like a great thing for a designer (no limitations, woohoo!), but in fact, this makes designing something incredibly difficult. So then what we did was, well, interesting.

Totally looks architecture-y, right?

What we had to do was pick 6 random areas in the studio, and draw them, fairly quickly. Here's the one I liked the most:

Just call me Frank Lloyd Wright.

Then from here, we turned these into line, shape, and value drawings. What are those, you ask? Well you're in luck, because I'm about to show you.

C'mon, the building is practically building itself.

Here's some close-ups:

Line

Shape

Value

Then we took those, and developed them into "parti" diagrams. These essentially you can think of as very simple ideas of floor plans or elevations. Mine looked like this:

I really hope you guys like pictures.

And then that was developed further:

And short sentences separating the aforementioned pictures.

Okay, so now we've got what looks kinda floor plan-ish. Where do we go from here? Study models. After a few attempts at an idea, here's what I came up with:

In case you can't tell from the picture, the walls are slanted, and the building looks basically like a parallelogram, with a smaller corresponding one next to it. This slant in the walls came from my earlier pictures, which I will remind you of now.

Remember me? It's been so long.

This idea was repeated throughout the whole building, including the shape of the windows. After further development of the ideas, I made a 2-pt perspective rendering of the project, which looked something like this:

Actually, it looked pretty much exactly like this.

What, you want MORE pictures?

Okay fine, maybe just one more...

And so after a long while of meticulously measuring (nahh), checking safety codes (zoning what?), and analyzing the building site (pshh), I came up with a final model. Throughout the project, I had it in mind for the building to function as a gallery space, with a large outdoor area for galas or other swank get-togethers. What can I say, I'm a classy man.

Just call me Ron Burgundy?

Anyway, check it out, let me know what you guys think of it!

Thanks for reading!

PASSION: Part 3

2012-01-26T23:52:00.004-06:00

Back to Passion. It's been like 2 weeks since PASSION: Part 2 about the cause we supported, and PASSION: Part 1 about the speakers. So what's left?

The worship.

Source: Donna Irene via flickr

HOLY COW. In very few places (short of Heaven of course) will you find more powerful worship. The absolute magnitude of 45,000 loud, unashamed college-aged Christians singing their hearts out for the Lord is something you can't forget. If ever in our lives do we have the chance to SHOUT and be LOUD and have so much ENERGY for our Lord... IT'S NOW. It's in college, while we have a strange combination of adult maturity and childlike vitality. And Passion was the perfect place to do that unashamed.

The worship leaders there were fantastic. Chris Tomlin was sort of the head of all the worship leaders, but throughout the week we got to have Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, Charlie Hall, Matt Redman, Hillsong United, and David Crowder Band lead us in worship (I don't think I'm forgetting anyone?). Every one of them was amazingly talented, and speaking purely from a musical standpoint, were incredible. Then from a spiritual standpoint, things get to a whole new level. The connection to the Lord that was felt in the room whenever worship music was going on was overwhelming.

After some of the songs, I found myself thinking, "Why isn't worship always like this?" I'd justify it with the fact that there were 45,000 people singing together, there were loud bands, there were incredible flashing lights, or maybe because we came to the Georgia Dome for this exact purpose? Then I started thinking, "Seriously, why isn't worship ALWAYS like this?" Worship, in addition to its corporate context, is a very personal thing too.

Why should I need 45,000 other people around me to have one-on-one time with God?

I don't. It's nice. It's really cool. It's motivating even. But necessary? I don't think so.

Even still, it was an amazing launching point for me to begin to realize this a little more, and it's definitely something everyone should experience. I don't want it to sound like I'm criticizing a huge gathering of Christians like that. I'm not AT ALL. Oh my gosh, I wish I could have that every day!! (Which gets me even more stoked about Heaven, because it's going to be approximately a billion times as awesome). It says in Matthew 18:20 that "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” But realistically, we probably don't have quite that magnitude wherever "home" is. Back to what I was saying before though, because worship is a very personal thing as well, it's not necessary to have thousands of people with you. That same experience of complete surrender to God can happen even while worshiping alone!

Back at school and at home, sometimes it seems like people just generally not as interested in worship as they are at conferences like Passion. I'm guilty of it too! But why? I don't think there's really a good reason. So this is challenge to my brothers and sisters in Christ who are reading this. Stop caring about how you look or sound when worshiping. Stop thinking that you should save your best "worship hands" for conferences. START letting God into your heart and mind. START allowing Him to take you over. START making worship personal again.

I'm not much of a hand-raiser during worship. I have absolutely nothing against it, just personally that's not usually my thing. But at Passion it happened. I don't even know why, surrender I suppose? But I didn't really care if I looked goofy or awkward, or if I looked cool and more spiritual. It didn't matter at all. All that mattered is that I had the honor and privilege to worship our God.

So be bold. Be loud. Be energized. Be joyous! Clap your hands and lift up a shout to our God!!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this! I didn't plan on writing a post like this at all, but here it is! Please, let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or if you have any questions feel free to contact me!

PASSION: Part 2

2012-01-11T21:32:00.002-06:00

Passion 2012 was absolutely fantastic. You should definitely go next year. This is a continuation of my last post.

via 268generation.com

2. The Cause
The need and absolute darkness that is in our world today is astounding. It's difficult for me to see that there is suffering throughout the world because I can easily get complacent in my Christian suburban American bubble. But this conference make it very difficult to stay comfortable with that. We became very quickly aware of how prevalent of a problem slavery is in the world. You might be saying, "Didn't slavery die out like 100 years ago?", and its not a very visible problem, so it is easy to be unaware. But still the problem is there.

Currently there are 27 MILLION people in slavery throughout the world. There are more slaves now than at any other time in history, even during the slave trade in the US. There was a large focus from the conference on this issue, and God did some amazing things through us. The goal that was set for us by Louie Giglio, the man who puts together the conference every year, was to raise $1 million. When I heard that, I didn't believe that was possible. With 45,000 people at the conference, it would mean that $22 given by every person there. There was no way that people would give that much, right?

At the end of the 4 days, we gave $1.2 million. Combined with those who were giving online, our total was up to $2.5 million. Then one unnamed couple approached Louie and gave another $500,000, bringing our total to $3.3 million. $3.3 million. Good thing that wasn't dependent on my faith... but wow, that's a lot of money. What does that look like to help end slavery? Here's an idea:

Here are the ways your generosity is bringing FREEDOM so far (more to come):

Fund a year-long prevention program that will reach 48,000 kids who are at-risk of being trafficked. Ukraine - $240,000 – A21 Campaign

Build and fund (8) border monitoring stations and (8) safe homes that will help intercept victims as they are being trafficked. Nepal - $108,480 – Tiny Hands International

Fund (23) rescue operations that will provide freedom for hundreds of forced labor slaves. Chennai, India - $116,955 – International Justice Mission

Fund a 2-year aftercare program for 1,100 forced labor slaves that have been freed. Chennai, India - $115,500 – International Justice Mission

Fund holistic aftercare for (25) children rescued from horrific circumstances. Cambodia - $169,500 – Hagar International

Renovate (12) apartment homes for survivors of sexual exploitation as they experience healing and a new future. Atlanta, Georgia - $141,240 – Wellspring Living

Help fund a Child Exploitation and Online Protection Squad through training, education, and social services. Atlanta, Georgia - $110,000 – City of Atlanta

Establish a vocational training program for 100 people at a manufacturing unit that provides jobs to survivors of human trafficking. New Delhi, India - $56,500 – Not For Sale

Establish and fund (for 1 year) a crisis center for rescued victims of human trafficking. Cape Town, South Africa - $56,500 – Not For Sale

Host (6) action-driven education conferences (for 300 people) on anti-trafficking for Traditional Healers, Police Officers, and Judges. Uganda - $40,680 – Restore International

Fund (2) Ugandan High Court Session to bring to trial Witch Doctors or others responsible for human trafficking. Uganda - $36,160 – Restore International

Purchase and renovate the Sari Bari building where women who have been exploited and trafficked can experience a new life through community and employment. Sonagachi, India - $129,950 – Word Made Flesh

Fund (6) certificate-training programs for 85 aftercare workers. These caregivers will serve 1,260 survivors of child slavery and exploitation over the next year. Asia - $47,460 – Love146

Restore and reconcile (18) rescued children to their families and communities. Philippines - $16,385 – Love146

Build a safe house for 16 young girls who have been recused from abusive situations of child slavery. Port Salut, Haiti - $169,500 – Restavek Freedom Foundation

Build an Innovation Center for young girls born into brothels, but rescued before they were exploited. Ahmednagar, India - $239,560 – As Our Own

To provide alternative employment, training and care for (15) women who have been rescued from sexual exploitation. Bangkok, Thailand - $50,850 – NightLight International

Fund a restoration program for (50) women that includes housing, care, education, and employment for 1 year. Badlapur, India - $84,750 – Bombay Teen Challenge

Fund (15) rescue operations that will result in freedom for dozens of women and children. Mumbai, India - $76,275 – International Justice Mission

You also donated 33,880 towels and 170,250 socks for Atlanta area homeless shelters.

Taken directly from here.

If you feel like giving to the Freedom cause, here's the place to do it: https://secure.268generation.com/dosomethingnow/give/freedom

Also at the conference on one of the nights, we held a candlelight vigil to bring awareness to the cause, ending with the unveiling of a sculpture that had been worked on all week. It was a large hand stretching towards the sky, covered in the top 5 products produced by slave labor. Here's an excellent video someone made capturing it:

Also, CNN covered what was going on as well, which you can watch here:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2012/01/05/cfp-clancy-do-something-now.cnn

Takeaway: God will do amazing things, and it is not dependent on my faith for it to happen. God is bigger than me, and yet He still chooses to use me for His plan, and that is such a humbling thing, and something I am absolutely undeserving of. Also, our world is a place in need, and God has called believers to do something about it now. Not when it's convenient or when I have more time, but now. If it were your daughter who was being sold as an item for sex, or your son forced to work every day doing slave labor, would you sit by and just wait for someone else to take care of the problem?

PASSION: Part 1

2012-01-08T22:38:00.002-06:00

Passion 2012 in Atlanta, GA was one of the most awesomest things ever and everyone should go.

I'm not even kidding, like everyone who is in the age bracket of 18-25 should totally go. But just be aware, your head's probably gonna explode because of how insanely mind-blowing incredible it is. Anyway, I know I have a tendency to ramble, especially when my audience (you) can't give me any "you can stop talking now" nonverbals through your computer screen, so I'm going to give you a limited, short synopsis of how crazy sweet it was. PLEASE, ask me more in person and I'll be more than happy to talk your ear off. So here's the the start of a three-part post highlighting the main things that were incredible, and my takeaway from them:

1. The Speakers
Louie Giglio. Beth Moore. Francis Chan. John Piper. If you're a Christian and involved in the Christian community at large, you probably have heard of some of these people. If you're not, then try thinking of the modern Christian smart-person equivalents of people like Elvis, Marie Curie, Michael Jordan, and William Shakespeare. But Louie, Beth, Francis, and John would fervently deny any such comparison or any such level of fame and glory. That's because they all humbly serve the Lord, and are just as imperfect as everyone else. It's just they're just crazy smart when it comes to the Bible. BUT, the point here is that when they know how to speak well, and help people to understand more God's word in the Bible. They were not there to bring fame to their own names, but simply were there to use the gifts given to them to help people absorb the Bible more.

One of the coolest things they did was when Lecrae (check him out here), Beth, Francis, Louie, and John all simply read through the entirety of the book of Ephesians together. They didn't add their own thoughts in the middle of the chapters, or even summarize what happened. In this instance they simply let the words of the Bible speak for themselves. In doing so, they were making the powerful statement that the only point of the conference was Christ. In Francis Chan's talk later, he spoke passionately about how the Bible is the only thing we can count fully as Truth. He said that because he is imperfect, even his words can be wrong sometimes. All he does during his talks is read something in the Bible then go, "Just do THAT!".

Piper talked about how we once were dead, and now are alive and renewed in Christ. His "thesis" of the talk was that Believing in Jesus=Seeing/savoring Him=Being satisfied. As our love for Christ grows larger and larger, the temptations of sin in this world will get smaller and smaller as we realize how stupid they are. If I have the chance to know Him more and more and He brings me complete satisfaction, why would I not want to grow that relationship?

Takeaway: While listening to the wisdom of those older and more well-educated is beneficial to me, I cannot put my full faith in their words. I should be constantly desiring to get more in the Bible and learn more from it. New year's resolution (probably the most common one among Christians) is to read through the Bible in a year. All my friends reading this, PLEASE keep me accountable to this. Like, hound me with random text messages telling me to do it. So I guess that's your takeaway... Bottom line is that the Bible is absolutely saturated with awesome things that I should be yearning to know, so why not read it?

Check back soon for part 2!

Pleasant Surprises

2011-12-26T18:50:00.001-06:00

Enjoy the little things.

And cardio. Don't forget cardio.

We hear that all the time, and experience it all the time, but rarely recognize the joy that daily life brings us. I was reading a post on Marc and Angel Hack Life entitled "101 Short Stories that Will Leave You Smiling, Crying and Thinking". Story #21 goes like this:

"Today, while I was driving my grandfather to his doctor’s appointment, I complained about hitting 2 red lights in a row. My grandfather chuckled and said, 'You always complain about the red lights, but you never celebrate the green ones.'"

That really made me stop and think about how much I take for granted, and how often I complain, even if only in my mind to myself, over trivial "hardships" I run into everyday that, when reexamined, make life actually interesting. So to me, that left two opportunities for me to daily find cheer, in times of hardship and in times of joy. "Mike," you say, "there really aren't many other options beyond those two," to which I excitedly respond, "Exactly!" (Check out Romans 5:3-5)

This Christmas season, I've found many small opportunities to enjoy the little things in life. For example, my parents got me a book called "The Fountainhead" for Christmas. I read about it somewhere online about a month ago and was interested in reading it, but never said anything to my parents about it, and yet it ended up under the Christmas tree. Another example of this was on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. The joy that comes from God's gift to us through Jesus is something that I should find joy in every second of every day, so that's not what I'm talking about right now. What I thought was awesome was just hanging with my cousins and aunts and uncles, dad's side on the Eve and mom's side on the day. We don't spend a lot of time together throughout the year, and so getting together and just hanging out and catching up on our lives was a blast. Lastly, seeing my best friends from home has been amazing, because I'm realizing more and more about how blessed I've been to spend the past 10 years with a lot of these guys, and so every time we hang out has its own significance in that I get to experience our friendship over and over again. Anyway, that was a bunch of ~~lame, sappy, emotional,~~ manly things I've been thinking about this break, and I'm excited to have 3 more weeks left!

The bottom line here is to let yourself be surprised every day by things that bring you joy. Stop living as though happiness is entitled to you, and let it shock you by how often it comes. Live life through the eyes of a child who finds wonder in things daily (Matthew 18:3). You might be shocked by how blessed you really are.

Albert Einstein said that “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle”.

Dang, he must have been a pretty smart guy.

[Working Title]

2011-12-13T20:02:00.001-06:00

Zdravstvuyte! (Hello in Russian!)

I just got bored saying "hi!" to an audience that doesn't audibly hear me, so I wanted to mix it up. Anyway, I've been working for a few weeks on a song! As I've been doing more and more research on worship music, what it means, and its significance, I've found that writing worship songs can (and sometimes should) be a significant part of a worship leader's responsibility. This is important because as a leader, you are serving those specific people whom you are leading, and so in my situation as a college student with the privilege of leading other college students in worship, I have a different perspective from people Chris Tomlin or Joel Houston. I absolutely love singing the songs that they've written, and there is so much Truth out there in the contemporary Christian music scene, and its cool to have the opportunity to contribute a little bit to that. And sure I might not be as talented as them and I'm fine with that. But heck, I won't know until I try, right? I've decided to share with the blogosphere some of the lyrics I've written, and I would love to hear back from people and get your thoughts/opinions! Also, please don't like steal them and claim them as your own or anything. That would be really lame.

"Why should I believe that I know better than
You, El-Shaddai, Adonai, the Beginning and End?
God You reign most high, eternal You live.
And yet I still deny the wisdom you give

Humble me, take my pride
You are Lord, the Lamb who died
Counselor, King of mine
Change me

Change my heart to be like You
Give me words to speak the truth
I am nothing, Lord it's You
And Your will

Lord, still I try to prove that I know better than you
To You I cry, arms are high, fill me with the Truth
God please take my life, I surrender all
Though I trip, stumble by, You will NEVER FALL

Humble me, take my pride
You are Lord, the Lamb who died
Counselor, King of mine
Change me

Change my heart to be like You
Give me words to speak the truth
I am nothing, Lord it's You
And Your will"

So that's a rough idea of what I've got so far! I'm planning on working on it more over Christmas break (which is in like 4 days!), and hopefully there will be something more concrete by then. The idea behind the song though comes from some of my own struggles with pride, and trying to determine my own future, when truly it is in His hands. If you're a college student too, you probably have had gone through some of the same things at some point. But to wrap it up, here's what I've got so far, and like I said before, I'd love some (constructive) thoughts/opinions in the comment box below!

Thanks and God bless.
Mike

What My Finals Look Like

2011-12-08T03:35:00.002-06:00

So for the past couple weeks, I've been working hard in the studio to finish our final project in Arch 271. The program we were given for this project was that the building sat on a site that is 40'x20' (aka really small), and there had to be a 3' area of space between the building and the site border. This means that our actual building could only be 34'x14'x20' (meaning even smaller). From here, we had to design a building that consisted of 7 spaces, using around 1000 sq. ft. To give you a sense of scale, my dorm room is around 200 sq. ft. The 7 spaces were defined as:
A- Small enclosed space upon which you enter the construction
B- A large linear room directly related to A
C- A secondary space proportionally related, yet smaller than B
D--F- Tertiary spaces, smaller than C
G- An outdoor space

So that's what I was given to do, and here's a little taste of how I did it.

One of my earliest "parti" diagrams for the idea.

I wanted to use the simple language of a rectangular box to maximize the space, but keep it interesting using variation. So I decided to take the opposite corners of the space and rotate them, to form their own axis through the building diagonally.

Parti with room labels

Clearer idea of walls

After making the parti diagrams, we developed those into floor plans, elevation, and section views.

Seen here: Aforementioned floor plans, elevation, and section views.

That was made into an axonometric view, with a 2-pt perspective to get a better idea of the space. At the top of the roof you can see the clerestory window that sheds light into the 2nd story space.

I then made a 1/4"=1' model of the building to give an even clearer idea of the space, shown in the pictures below:

I thought I'd take a little break from using a bunch of words in this post and hopefully let the pictures do the talking for me. Let me know what you think of it or if you have any questions about the design ask in the comments section below!

Some Thoughts on Worship Music

2011-11-21T17:18:00.001-06:00

Hola amigos and amigas!!

Wow has school been busy. Currently I'm on Thanksgiving break and still have 2 final projects, a 10 page research paper, 2 speech assignments, and a sketchbook assignment to do. So, like, that's been fun. Anyway I'm in the middle of writing the research paper (which is about how the work of architect Walter Gropius helped in the development of the modernist style. Exciting, I know!!), and I had to take a break, and blogging sounded great to me!

Also, I recently found my iPod after losing it for about 3 weeks, so I've been playing it nonstop since. In the past couple years, I've been listening to worship music a lot more often than I used to (top 2 most played worship songs on my iPod probably being Hillsong and Elevation Worship). Anyway, there are a lot of reasons I choose to listen to songs like this. I still listen to secular music, actually quite a lot of it, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing. But the point here is worship music. Worship music. Worship music. Man, I need to stop my habit of rambling. I'll just get off topic and keep talking about it and go on and on and on...

Credit: Luke-rative via Flickr

So, here's a few things about worship music that I think are awesome:

1. It focuses my attention to God.
So this is definitely the first and foremost reason why worship music is awesome. The whole point of it is not to call attention to us, but to direct all the glory and honor and praise to Him. For me, music is a huge part of my life, and so it can very easily be used as a medium for me to understand what is being conveyed. In all things, His name should be glorified, and music is no exception. This isn't necessarily the case all the time, but for me, true lyrics coupled with music can be much more powerful than just the words alone. It is difficult for me to listen to worship music without constantly thinking about Him and the grace he's poured out on me.

2. It gives me ideas as a worship leader myself.
If you don't know me, I'm a worship leader at Cru at U of I. Before that, I lead worship for 3 years in my high school ministry. I've been around worship leading for a while, but I am far from an expert. In fact, I'm quite an amateur. But by God's grace people haven't kicked me out yet, so I get to continue doing it! Anyway, I've been given the privilege of leading around 250-300 college students in worship, which is a blast for me. Listening to people who are truly gifted helps me to get better, and be able to lead people better, and help them to focus attention on God (see #1).

3. It shows how people can use their gifts for God's glory.
I think it's so ridiculously cool how we're not tied down to specific acts we have to do to honor the Lord. Romans 6:14 says "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace". Basically, we are no longer condemned by Old Testament law, and there is freedom in Christ! So, in 2011, this can often mean using contemporary rock-style worship to bring glory to Him. Many people will criticize contemporary worship and praise old organ music-style worship as being the only "true" way of worship. To that I ask, what about before the organ was invented? Did people not worship then? My point here is that the genre of music doesn't matter, and they can all be used to worship him! And I love seeing contemporary music being used, because that's a style I really enjoy!

4. It can just be really great musically.
Worship music is so much more than just music. It's a conversation with God Himself through music. That being said, a lot of worship music is simply just really good musically! As a person who constantly surrounds myself with music, this is a quality that I really appreciate. Not as spiritually significant, but important to me!

5. It legitimately makes me get emotional.
Okay so I'm not an emotional guy. I can appreciate when things are sad, I can get really excited about things, but rarely will a tear come to my eye. This isn't because I think men aren't supposed to cry or anything, just in general that's not how I am. BUT, that being said, here's the exception. Worship music can really get to me. Sometimes I'll be walking to class listening to my iPod, and I'll start tearing up because of how the worship song I'm listening to will affect me. I've heard arguments against bands like Hillsong that they are a dangerous "worship band" to listen to because they appeal to people's emotions too much. I've heard that they will distract you from the purpose of worshiping God. This I think is completely wrong. We were made to have emotions, to feel both joy and sorrow, anger and passion. What is a relationship without emotion? By "relationship" I mean this could be anywhere from a romantic relationship or just being friends with the dude who lives down the hall. The point is that every real relationship we have with people involves emotions towards/with them. Our God is a very personal God who wants to have a legitimate relationship with us. Without emotion, we become nothing more than the holier-than-thou Pharisees who did not care about our relationship with God, but rather focused on what we can do ourselves to get the most out of it. My most intense moments of joy, of longing, of awestruck wonder, of righteous fear, of just being absolutely floored by how overwhelmingly HUGE God is, have happened to me when I'm worshiping. Of how much he cared for me to send his PERFECT SON to come and die for my sin. One of the greatest feelings ever is that tingling rush throughout my entire body I get when truly, deeply worshiping, when I'm not focusing on the people next to me, or the people in front of me when I'm leading. I don't know if this is simply adrenaline or the Holy Spirit rushing through me, but either way I know that God's the one doing it.

I'm not saying this happens to me every time. I'm very imperfect. I get distracted. I try to impress those around me. I don't process the words I'm singing. I try not to look at the screen so people think "Oh, he memorized it so obviously he cares more". These are all sinful behaviors that I fall into, and I'm sure a lot of other people do too. But man, I cannot wait for Heaven, for when we are free from worldly distractions, for a place eternal where there is no room for sin, for the day when I get to see God for who He is, fall to my knees out of how perfect and mighty and glorious and powerful He truly is.

Psalms 150 "Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!"

What I've Been Up To

2011-11-08T18:29:00.002-06:00

Hey people on the internet!

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post, and I know that you've all been uncomfortably bored, anxiously awaiting my next stream of consciousness. Well then here it is! Yet another ~~probably boring~~ exciting look into who I am and what I do!

I've been really busy working on this one project in particular that isn't quite done yet, but the part that took forever finally is. In my ARCH 231 class, we had to model one of 3 buildings, the same three that we've been working with all semester. BUT, for my section, my professor offered up the option to work with him to help develop a project for a small maternity center in Haiti. I thought that doing this could be a much better use of my time than the other buildings, so I volunteered. It's a small structure with really only 2 main rooms, but here's the model we made:

Check out the little dude over on the right side.

There he is again.

Can't get rid of this guy...

Anyway I'm just really glad I had the opportunity to do some indirect work for this organization I conveniently just wrote about. The next step is to make a model in Google SketchUp, which currently looks like this:

Hey look, he has arms now! And clothes!

Keep checking back for new posts soon!

So much Line and Composition...

2011-10-23T19:56:00.000-05:00

For my ARCH 271 course, we have been progressively been building off of our first project of this half of the semester (hopefully that makes sense... oh well, I trust you to figure it out). Anyway, it all started with the subject of my first blog post, Getting Started, where we took photos focused on good line and shape composition. Then we had to use those to make 8 line composition drawings, 6 shape compositions, with 3 iterations each (so 42 3"x3" drawings total). Then we had to take THOSE, and use those as inspiration for 3 line/shape compositions, with 3 iterations (so 9 drawings at 6"x6"). So now we're up to 48 drawings. THEN we took those 3, and picked one to develop even further at 12"x12", and then do a final version of that out of pen.

Shown here. Taped to the wall. Classy, right?

In total, that's 50 drawings. DANG. Didn't really feel like it, but looking back we did a lot of iterations. But that's sort of the nature of architecture. That means if I don't like it, then I better get used to it! Luckily, I absolutely love it, so problem solved. A lot of times people will think that if they really concentrate, they can get the best project the first time, and that doing multiple iterations is useless. I used to think that... until I was forced to do 50 freaking iterations. Then I realized that it's actually a fantastic thing to do. It helps you to refine what you were originally thinking, and get out all of the bad parts you're almost guaranteed to have lurking somewhere in the piece. So anywho, that's how I got to that part. Then, (guess what?) there was more to do! And not some wimpy 2D little league drawing, we're talking all out, major league, no messing around 3D model. Bring it.

What we had to do was essentially take our final pen composition, and then use that for inspiration for a 3D model. My model is made out of 1/4" thick foam core board and tracing paper. I just finished it tonight, and I thought that I would share it with the world. In order to get to this point, my TA and professor both gave me advice, not on specific things to do, but rather different ways to approach the end goal. For example, my professor suggested using the 2D composition as an inspiration for my elevation (view of the vertical stuff from the sides), as opposed to a plan view (looking at it from the top). This opened up the possibilities, and here's what I ended up with. Please let me know what you guys think in the comments section!

An Organization Making a Difference

2011-10-18T22:54:00.002-05:00

Forward: If you're reading this blog and you don't know me, I'm studying architecture. Also in case you don't know me, I'm a Christian. These two huge aspects about my life I think will explain why I think this is so ridiculously cool.

"Architecture for Humanity is a nonprofit design services firm founded in 1999. We are building a more sustainable future through the power of professional design"

Says the first line of their about page on their website, www.archtiectureforhumanity.org. This organization essentially does long-term relief work for places in need through volunteer work and skills in architecture/engineering. HOW COOL IS THAT?? They've done projects in places like Haiti and New Orleans, and areas like Uganda and Kenya. What I think is great about his organization is that they use the skills of people who will do the job, and do it well. Architects and engineers don't their jobs halfway, it's just not in our blood! Perfection is a necessity, and anything short of that is unacceptable. This is perfect for situations like this where these structures can literally change communities for the better for years.

They did this project in Haiti with Ben Stiller. Yes, THE Ben Stiller. Pictures 32 & 34

This is an organization that I would love to get involved with in some capacity in my lifetime. My British ARCH 231 professor, Mark Taylor, is involved with them and has given us mini-presentations about the organization throughout the semester. What I really like about the organization is that they not only work on the big disaster relief "hotspots" like Haiti and Japan, but recognize that there is a tremendous need all over the world, even in our own backyard. Here's a small project the Chicago chapter of AFH is working on: http://architectureforhumanity.org/node/1147. It's really sweet to see how the small efforts of so many people throughout our nation can truly make a global impact. I'm really excited to see how the Lord can use me and my passions in the future for His glory!

“To belong to Jesus is to embrace the nations with Him.” — John Piper

Fall Getaway, growing closer to Christ

2011-10-09T22:09:00.001-05:00

Wow. I'm involved in an on-campus ministry here called Cru, and I just got back from a retreat called Fall Getaway. If you're reading this and you're a student at U of I, GO NEXT YEAR. It was such an awesome experience and a chance to grow closer to the Lord, and further understand the personal relationship I have the honor of having with Him. Our speaker we had for the weekend was Ryan Berg (twitter: @ryanbergusa), who is a guy who's on staff with Cru in Cincinnati. Man is he on fire for the Lord! He's a man filled with such passion for the Truth, and he's blessed with the gift of explaining it in a way that everyone can understand and relate to.

What I enjoyed most about his talks was that he dispelled the common misconception that Jesus Christ was a nice guy who just hugged everyone and had cute squirrels and doves all around him. In his talk about Christ being the Good Shepherd, he made it clear what that truly meant. Typically we think of shepherds today as this:

I don't know what this is, but it's weird.

easterpageantcostumes.com

That looks like the lamest, most boring, weakest job you could have. In the time that the book of John was written, however, the hardship of a shepherd was well known, and the Pharisees who Jesus was talking to understood the true caring and labor He was talking about (John 10:1-18). The shepherd had to constantly pick up the sheep who would get themselves into trouble. When sheep got scared, they would freeze up and fall over on their sides, unable to get up on their own. The good shepherd would very carefully massage each leg of the sheep to restore feeling, then slowly pick the heavy sheep up to a standing position... but still wouldn't let go. Then he would help the sheep start to walk again, then set it on the correct path, and THEN finally let go. This parallels the fact that Jesus doesn't just let us stay fallen as if we weren't worth His time. He takes His strong hands, the hand of a father who cares, and brings us back to life, then leads us toward His intended path. Without Him, we would be laying helplessly on our backs, with no chance of getting up, just waiting for death. But our Lord cares for us individually, and seeks a personal relationship with us. This weekend just gave me some perspective on that, and really helped me to grow more in my faith.

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

John 10:11

Music: Adderall to the Ears

2011-10-04T20:10:00.002-05:00

[Photo: GadgetSin.com]

I love music.

It's as easy as that. But what amazes me constantly is how much it can have an effect on you at any given moment you're listening to it. Whether it's getting the urge to dance on the quad like a solitary flash-mob because the next catchy tune from the radio comes on, or when you get the chills down your spine as the climax of an instrumental epic explodes in your eardrums, music can (and frequently does) affect you physically. Today I was working in the studio after yet another frustrating experience at Kinko's (but we'll save that for another post), and I was exhausted. So of course, what did I do? I popped my headphones in and got ready to rock the heck out. Music of choice? Super Mash Bros.

My brain felt like this.

BAM! Efficiency and focus went up by like 50 points. There were X-acto blades flying everywhere, paper was whirling around like a blizzard... it was probably a safety hazard, but what did I care? I was in the ZONE. After about 30 minutes I already had all my work done for a project I had set aside at least an hour for. I've also recently started to listen to the scores of movies (e.g. Lord of the Rings, Tangled, How to Train Your Dragon), and man do those work! I just feel like I'm on some picturesque mission filled with wonder and adventure to, like, complete an assignment or something. For some people, listening to music can be a distraction, but for me pumping music through my ears while I'm working is no doubt the best way to really lock me in to what I need to get done.

Getting Started

2011-10-03T16:14:00.001-05:00

We switched sections today in one of my architecture courses. I used to do more technically-focused work (plans, elevations, sections, the usual), but now I'm in a more abstract design focused section, which means a bunch of ~~goofy~~ educational art projects! Our first assignment is to take a bunch of pictures of two buildings, focusing one on different shape compositions, and one on line compositions. As a flood of sophomores engulfed the graduate architecture building and business facility, here's some of the pictures I came up with (one of which is the wallpaper of this blog!). Of course they're black and white, so I can hide the fact that I'm not really a great photographer...

Business Instructional Facility

Temple Hoyne Buell Hall