Congratulations to Liz+Chris and Scott+Heidi!
(i’m trying out wordpress on my iphone, let’s see how this goes.)
from my last entry it seems like i was just on vacation. well, this past week i’ve had the opportunity to take another small trip (thanks work for accomodating my travel schedules). it wasn’t quite all vacation though…i was chaperoning my little brother and 50+ other junior highers on their trip to washington dc and surrounding areas. 10 dense days full of history, fun times, and lots of walking.
some highlights and impressions:
- touring monticello. mr. jefferson had really innovative ideas for the architecture of his house and the inventions inside
- seeing benjamins getting printed, cut, and stacked onto huge pallets at the bureau of printing and engraving. so weird to think that it’s just paper…
- the iwo jima memorial is much bigger and amazing in person. the artist really captured the emotion, movement, and detail of that moment in history
- walking around the halls of the pentagon. it’s just a really huge office building (and also happens to be the center of defense)
- seeing the lincoln, jefferson, vietnam, korean, wwii, and fdr memorials–all unique and magnificent in their own right
- seeing obama’s motorcade drive by on his way to the news press conference last tuesday
- sitting in on a senate session and watching senators cast their votes on the americorps funding bill. our government at work!
- walking around arlington national cemetary and seeing the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknowns
- exploring philly and finding cheesesteaks
- eat-til-you-drop-dead dinner buffets
photos forthcoming! i’ll probably remember more stuff as i go through them.
for now, it’s time to return to my own bed and catch up on sleep…back to the grind tomorrow!
]]>I was able to make a trip last month to London, Paris, and Chicago+Urbana/Champaign on a tip from a friend of a super cheap fare that only came out to be $223 roundtrip.
Photos from the trip:
I’m realizing that I’m not quite sure what to write here anymore. What are you guys coming here to read?
]]>
I still can’t really believe I’m writing this now…things always happen so suddenly.
My grandpa passed away today after battling colon cancer for over two years. Although I only knew him from a handful of visits during my youth and during visits to Malaysia these past few summers, he holds a special place in my heart.
Some snippets remembering who he was:
- He was a sailor that traveled around the world
- He was a hardworking shopkeeper that ran a coffee shop called 三美 and supported his family through years of toil
- He loved to drink Johnnie Walker whiskey and Guiness Extra Stout
- He liked to keep up on current events by reading the newspaper with a magnifying glass
To be continued…
]]>Congrats to you all!
]]>
I came across this verse the other day:
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. (James 2:14)
These verses talk about actions in relation to faith. I feel that love and actions go hand-in-hand as well. It’s easy to think or say stuff about love but without doing they just remain as thoughts and ideas that don’t have much power on their own.
Onto a related subject: giving. I feel like I can give when I have the means…and conversely I withhold giving when I feel like I can’t possibly meet that need. For example, I get a ton of stuff from WorldVision. I really like what they do (and that 86% of their revenue goes to actual programs), but sometimes I feel like I have nothing to give. Because I feel like I can’t give financially, any capacity to emote or express compassion is also stifled.
Another example. I recently heard a friend of mine is going through some crazy health stuff. During times like these it’s hard to feel I have enough faith to pray and ask for healing, and I’m at a loss because I can’t really do much else than offer well-wishes.
This applies to the way I love too. I think I often think of it as a financial metaphor, as a kind of commodity. Don Miller has some interesting thoughts on this from Blue Like Jazz:
Mr. Spencer then asked us about another area in which he felt metaphors cause trouble. He asked us to consider relationships. What metaphors do we use when we think of relationships? We value people, I shouted out. Yes, he said, and wrote it on his little white board. We invest in people, another person added. And soon enough we had an entire white board of economic metaphor. Relationships could be bankrupt, we said. People are priceless, we said. All economic metaphor. I was taken aback.
…the problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money.
So I suppose the challenge is…to break away from the mindset that we only have so much love to give, that it will run out. I know that if I try to love people out of my own self and willpower I’ll burn out. But there’s a freedom and empowerment to love freely as we’ve been loved first.
]]>Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
…
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
(1 John 4:7-19)
On the note of giving thanks, I created a simple webapp that will hopefully encourage people to be mindful of what they’re thankful for…even after Thanksgiving. The app pulls tweets from Twitter that are tagged with #thankfulfor. To add what you’re thankful for, you can submit it via the interface or if you’re on Twitter just add the #thankfulfor hashtag to your tweet and it’ll show up in the rotating display at the bottom.
I had my first tailgating experience the other day at Qualcomm (Chargers vs Colts) for Lars’ bachelor party. It was quite a spectacle seeing so many crazy Chargers fans with their crazy setups–canopies, grills, huge TVs, and even satellite dishes. And to think that each car paid $25 and RVs $150 to hang out in the parking lot…
Cheap beer+beer pong+bag game+BBQing+friends = good times.
]]>
With Thanksgiving just around the corner (geez where did November go?), I think it’s an appropriate time to talk about being thankful.
We had a thanksgiving dinner at our homegroup this past Thursday and it was good times: turkey with all the fixings, awesome people, and a chance to share what we’ve been thankful for.
I think it’s a discipline to be consciously thankful on a day-to-day basis–not something that I’m not too good at but I’d like to get better. So, five things I’m thankful for today:
- The weather was beautiful today
- Sleeping in was much needed
- Meeting random people at a friend’s bday/going away party
- Really good dinner and movie with friends last night
- Hanging out at the Branch today
I think if we share publicly what we’re thankful for, it helps creates a culture of recognizing the good things in our lives.
What are you thankful for?
]]>Thanks to everyone who put up with me this weekend–driving, hosting, and taking me around (Nate, Kevin, Jon, Steph, Hsiu-Fan, Esther, Danvin). It was really good seeing you all!
Palace of Fine Arts (click for more)
