thoughts

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be..."

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 23:33:39 -0400

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

- Galatians 5:1

That moment when

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 22:00:00 -0400

That moment when you realize that old-guard, staunch-Republican, Southern-Baptist, Tea-Party supporting, media-demonized, Vietnam-War veteran is your neighbor. Who is actually a pretty nice, soft-spoken guy who helped unclog your toilet that once when Dad couldn’t seem to do it. He also has a penchant for Chinese tea.
That moment when you and your parents remark loudly about the amount of non-Asians in your favorite Chinese restaurant, and you suddenly realize how some of those Americans feel when they say the Chinese are taking over.

Children

Sun, 27 May 2012 23:28:00 -0400

What inspired this post was a story about one of my neighbors. They’re a Caucasian family, and they had taken a vacation to China. They went as a family and came back as a family - but with one more.

Her name was Jade, a small Chinese girl abandoned by her parents. They had visited an orphanage on their vacation, and their hearts went out to the little girls there. As they took Jade back to the States, a piece of their heart remained there at that orphanage.

Now they have another - Macy.

It amazes me how they love Jade and Macy so much, and how that love transformed their lives. Once they had been cast-offs. Now they are princesses (literally, for Halloween - at least for Jade). Once they were orphans. Now they are daughters.

Let the children come.

Children

Sun, 27 May 2012 20:34:59 -0400

This is to commit myself to a post on children. Gosh they be cute.

Jesus is everything of my business (as opposed to none of my business).

Tue, 08 May 2012 22:02:00 -0400

I love it when we Christians just spill all our junk in front of everyone and just confess that we are broken people. When we confess our problems with anger and self-image and our addictions with pornography and approval. It’s very real. It also speaks against two misconceptions about Christians.

One, it says we are not “holier-than-thou.” We are sinners saved only by the mere pleasure of God. One cannot be self-righteous when confessing his darkest sins.

Two, it says we are not guilt-ridden. Some see Christians not as self-righteous but self-condemning and enslaved by guilt and shame. But, may I raise a question: is it not the guilty man who will hide his shameful deeds? It is - on the contrary - a man wholly free from this guilt and shame who can flaunt his misdeeds. It is a man who fully trusts he has been fully acquitted by Christ’s sacrifice who will have no need to save face - for Christ has saved him already.

And yes, this is the Gospel, this is the good news. That Jesus is in the business of redeeming broken people.

The Folly of Christ (cont.): This is the post I promised. Words...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 12:34:08 -0400

The Folly of Christ (cont.): This is the post I promised. Words cannot express the love God has for each and every one of us. Music comes closer.

If nothing else, 6:40.

The Folly of Christ

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:57:59 -0400

God sacrificing his Son, the ultimate good, for humans, a lesser good. This is just to commit me to writing a longer post on this. More coming.

"Is the Lord’s arm too short?"

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:10:56 -0400

“Is the Lord’s arm too short?”

- Numbers 11:23

esthermaaa: Day 6 Speaks for itself. Fully human.

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:44:05 -0400

esthermaaa:

Day 6

Speaks for itself.

Fully human.

I am actually not a rebellious son after all.

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:03:38 -0400

Praise the Lord!

Give me a topic to write about.

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 21:10:42 -0400

I need to end with a question so people can reply? Apparently?

facing disillusionment.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:53:57 -0500

dperng:

To eat, to breathe
to beget
Is this all there is
Chance configuration of atom against atom
of god against god
I cannot believe it.
Come, Christian Triune God who lives,
Here am I
Shake the world again.

— Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People, Introduction

What a day - 2

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:13:00 -0500

My roommate and I are sitting in the room producing and directing our own laser show in the dark. He got this super powerful red laser to gift to one of his high school teachers, and it also came with various kaleidoscopic lenses that give off trippy patterns. When we’ve thoroughly entertained ourselves in shining the laser on every crevice of the room, we decide to expand.

We (or I) decide to shine the laser outside. Peeking the pointer through the blinds, we see the red dot wavering in the streets. A Caucasian boy walking through the night doesn’t seem to notice. Quite frustrated that he is missing out on such a unique phenomenon, I edge the glowing red dot closer to the sidewalk. He starts and swivels his head to and fro, seeming to search for the source. The dot is now inexplicably and inexorably drawing closer to his body, now it is on his body. He seems to look directly at me. To escape being seen, I withdraw from the blinds and collapse with my roommate on his bed, both chuckling heartily. Ahh the wonders of youth.

After reveling in our mischievous actions for about 15 seconds, I get another bright (haha) idea. Moments later, the laser pointer is again pointed out the window; this time, however, with one of the trippy kaleidoscopic caps on the laser. Ladies and gentlemen, let me present to you the first public street light show.

As soon as I am about to initiate this grand opening, my eye catches the urgent dazzles of a siren. I instinctively question the legality of such a light show on Whitis Street. Probably not a good idea. So I retreat.

A minute later I’m peeking out of the blinds again. An unusual sight greets me. Five police cars have blocked off the intersection half a block away from our window. Cops are up and about, standing sentry. Crowds are beginning to gather…what is going on?!

“Oh shoot what’s going on?”

“Dang…wow”

“Is there a shooter again?”

It is important to note that at this time our imaginations are headed off in the wildest directions, full speed ahead. Long story short, we somehow (irrationally or rationally, very likely exceedingly irrationally) surmise this series of events: A police officer had seen our laser, mistaken it for a gun sight, and recruited other officers as backups to an emergency. Supporting evidences for this position included, 1) The event occurred less than a minute after our initial laser exploits. 2) The event occurred way too fast. 3) Whatthefrick do we do?

At this point we are seriously freaking out. I am freaking out. My laconic roommate is freaking out (“Dude, are you nervous?”…”Yes, I am nervous.”) But I can hear the fear in his voice. We are beside ourselves. After some deliberation, we decide to notify authorities if they declare there is some shooter over the PA system. We are seriously freaking out I tell you. This story does no justice to how utterly terrified we were.

blahblahblah more details about how scared we were. (you really don’t need to hear this)

We later were informed that it was a fake bomb threat. Another source reports it being caused “by that guy who harassed those girls in West Campus.” I guess we’ll never know if it really was us. ;)

Then I broke a friend’s bed by sitting on it. It had to be fixed by professionals.

Then our fire alarm started going off. We ended up tampering with it like weed-smoking miscreants. I wrote the post “What a day.” Fell asleep to the chirping of crickets (aka the fire alarm being angry at being tampered with by weed-smoking miscreants).

What a day

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 01:22:46 -0500

I’ll talk about it later.

Music and Massage

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:49:15 -0500

Back in the old days (when I stilled played violin regularly), I would sometimes come out of my parent’s master bedroom (where I practiced for acoustic reasons) with complaints of upper back pain. After lounging around for a while on the couches, I would find myself back in the room practicing vigorously. After all, the music must go on.

Unbeknownst to me - but skillfully detected by my aspiring theologian/masseuse uncle-in-law - I had built up several years of resistance to normal muscle fiber development with my practice regiment. In other words, my back was all knotted up.

I have always been conscious of the discomfort caused by never finding the right shoulder rest/chin rest combination. I have also been conscious of a habitual lifting of the right shoulder, both counterproductive to tone production and (apparently) muscle development. I have even asked my friends (thanks Kevin Ku and Daniel Tan and random other people I scare off when I ask them) to massage me after long practices. But I had never so directly connected my back pain to music.

That is, until my uncle-in-law said, “These knots must have developed for years.” It was interesting that the knots were not mirrored on both sides of the body - usually stress or bad posture produces knots symmetrical with respect to the spine. I realized at that moment they were caused by my violin playing.

The massage was really good, though. My aunt even made me a heating pad out of a white sock and rice. I would show a picture, but I’m too lazy. It’s pretty awesome though.

Let us seek the greatest pleasures

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:25:47 -0400

Let us seek the Lord!

I’ve finally (at last) truly realized that heaven is quite a decent place to spend eternity.

Martha

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:49:46 -0400

The following is taken from the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Martha: “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

…

Jesus: “Take away the stone.”

Martha: “Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.”

Martha: You are God. You are Lord.

Jesus: Do this.

Martha: <insert excuse>

God, help me.

uberawkward: James showed me this a while ago…It’s still so...

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:39:00 -0400

uberawkward:

James showed me this a while ago…

It’s still so good >< like, it’s funny…but it’s so goooood :D

Do we forget that God loves the world? And it’s funny.

EDIT: http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/carson/2000_difficult_doctrine_of_the_love_of_God.pdf if you need it.

"When I am with my friend, me thinks I am alone, and as much at liberty to speak anything as to think..."

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:13:22 -0400

“When I am with my friend, me thinks I am alone, and as much at liberty to speak anything as to think it.”

- Seneca, on friendship

This is how we were raised: weird.

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:39:53 -0400

Sis: I'm taking the MCAT tomorrow!
Me: You're screwed, man!
Sis: I know!
...
Sis: I renamed Smurffy. His name is now Pascal.
Pascal: *waves*
Me: What? You can't do that. Actually you can, whoa! He's smart now!