fairly tactician

A regular thing that people like to say when making decisions is "follow your heart". Perhaps, not the wisest advice, taking into account that our hearts can be deceitful:


"The heart is deceitful above all things
    and beyond cure.
    Who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9


There is manga called "Fairy Tail" which is a pretty light-hearted show with very good fighting and with themes of friendship, good beats evil, "who do you think I am?" attitude... it is a great show for guys. There is a character called Fairy Tactician "Mavis", who is looks like a little helpless girl but she is actually the founder of magic guild and she is known for her accurate planning when making strategies to combat the opponent guilds. She can accurately predict the enemies' moves so she can plan a proper counterattack.

(warning: possible spoiler if you plan to read Fairy Tail)
In one specific battle, Mavis needs to take down a key member of a enemy guild "Rufus", and "Gray" (one of her guild's members) requests her to set him up to fight Rufus because he has some personal stuff to settle with him. But Mavis declines because based on her analysis from their abilities, Gray is not the most compatible member of her guild to fight Rufus. But Gray insists, and Mavis decides to let him fight Rufus. So she is not able to predict the outcome of the battle, but she acknowledges that "feelings can sometimes surpass calculations". Eventually, Gray beats Rufus, and it is a happy story.

When we make decisions between two good things (like choosing what schools/jobs to apply, where to serve, implementation for a ministry), sometimes it is very hard to figure out what to choose. For example, on the Winter of 2008, I was struggling with deciding whether not running for the CCF committee (actually for the 3 years that I ran, I always struggled with the decision). Serving in committee seems to be a good thing, but also not serving in committee seems to be a good thing to me. It is always difficult to exactly discern what God wants you to do in regards of decisions like this.

Definitely, much prayer, bible reading, and counsel from mentors and peers are essential. On one hand, this can be an intellectual decision based on facts (example: pros and cons, doors that have been opened or closed, time budget, impact on existing commitments, etc). On the other hand, it can be a decision made by "sensing" (example: the Holy Spirit can give reassurance on a decision). Obviously, it can be a mixed of both.

I tend to be more on the intellectual side, and I remembered that I actually made a decision-matrix (something useful that I learned from a bad course in school). It looks similar to that:

Basically, I list the factors that I am considering for my decision-making, and weight them numerically, and then I analyze the choices, and see which option has the higher score. I remembered vaguely that the decision-matrix I made on 2008 had like 10 factors. And based on results, I should not be running for committee (it was a very close). But, in the end I decided to run because somewhat I felt that was the right choice to make despite the results of my intellectual analysis. And by God's grace, it was a great year in committee.

Based on this example, I am not trying to justify that "feelings" should supersede "intellect". I believe that thinking and analyzing thoroughly on the facts is very important as it gives you a better idea of the advantages and risks. But God can also work despite the eminent risks, and we should be opened to what He can do. I believe that our God is one who works in an organized manner but at the same time God can blow your mind, and go beyond your expectation.

And our God is good and sovereign, who is in control of everything, so it is hard to think that we can "block" His plans. That does not mean that we can make irresponsible decisions, but that we should do our best in seeking God to discern for the right decision, but also be reassured that He is in control. And once we have made the decision, we should go for it wholeheartedly trusting that God will work in you.

calling my mom

So I was calling my mom around 1am (since it will be 12am in Guatemala) to wish her a Merry Christmas. And the background noise was so loud that she could barely hear me. The noise is due to the non-stop fireworks and firecrackers, as it is part of the tradition during big celebrations like Christmas. She told me to call her back in 30 minutes (I guess that's how long the firecrackers usually last).

I kinda miss that type of festivity, it's way too quiet here in Canada =P.

Thank you Jesus

I have been reading the Old Testament starting from Genesis with the goal to go through the entire Old Testament. In the past, I often skipped the "boring" parts, so I have not read books like Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

So as I was reading a couple of days ago, there is this prophecy that Jacob made to his son Judah:

"The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs
    and the obedience of the nations is his." - Genesis 49:10

It is a prophecy about the Messiah, who will come from the line of Judah. This is not the earliest prophecy about Christ, but I still think it is quite awesome that God has planned everything so perfectly according to His good will. There are many prophecies about Christ, that He will be born from a virgin, that He will be born in Bethlehem, that He will take away our sorrows and give up His life for our transgressions. It's just amazing that God planned this with such accuracy, showing that He is truly sovereign, in control, and all-powerful. But, God did not have to go through all this, and it will be ok to leave humans as they are, but God is rich in grace, that He sent Jesus to die for us. God is the one who initiated everything, we didn't do anything to deserve it. Intense.

As I was reading through Exodus, it is kind of disappointing to see the Israelites complaining against Moses (and eventually against God) when they were in the desert without water or food. God has just owned the Egyptians in the most spectacular way possible, and delivered them from the harsh slavery, but they tend to forget God's awesomeness so easily. But that actually reminds me of myself since it is so easy to forget about how good God is, and I start to complain about uncertainties in my life, and act sinfully even though He has just blessed me recently. The more I think about that, the larger God's grace becomes.

Christmas is a good reminder of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It's definitely a great time to spend joyfully with close relatives and friends. I have chosen to spend some days in solitude because I really need the personal time with God, to ponder and be marveled at His immeasurable grace. It is a good time for me to rest, to get recharged, to reflect about my life, and to set goals for the near future. This is really helpful since work life has been considerably busy and draining. I have also set some time to catch up with family and close friends via skype since life becomes so busy that if one is not intentional, it is really hard to keep up with relationships.

Christmas is such a joyful times. All for the praise of His glory. Thank you Jesus.

Numbers numbers numbers

I found something interesting (especially if you like Chemistry) about arranging the books of the bible in a visual way: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Challies_VisualTheology/BooksoftheBible-2560x1600.jpg

Actually there are a series of diagrams about other Christian topics here: http://www.challies.com/resources/visual-theology-the-books-of-the-bible

Something that I learned in Simply Church Sunday School (we are doing a Old Testament survey), and there  are numerical patterns in terms of events or book arrangements, like for example:

Pentateuch - 5 books
Historical - 12 books
Poetry - 5 books
Major Prophets - 5 books
Minor Prophets - 12 books

The numbers 12 and 5 tend to repeat themselves quite often. Perhaps it means something more, but there is always a danger of over-analyzing. But I think this pattern helps me remember better the order of the books =P.

different roles

Here Pastor Mark speaks about  the three "offices" that Jesus has throughout the bible:

• Priest: offer sacrifices to God on behalf of people's sins
• Prophet: communicates to people truths about God
• King: with authority to reign over a group of people

As we are getting sanctified by the Spirit we are given gifts that would allow us to serve God effectively. Each of us are very different, given different gifts (1 Cor. 12), which will make you more suitable to specific leadership roles, and often the leadership roles are "categorized" into one of these offices. For example:

• Priest: serve others by caring for them, encouraging and support them (e.g. Caring Ministry, one-on-one encouragements)
• Prophet: serve others by speaking God's word to them, and rebuking them if necessary (e.g. Bible study leaders)
• King: serve others by being stewards of the resources to run the fellowship, and executing and planning events (e.g. Program/Event Coordinator)

There is one year when I was in committee, and there were three brothers (the more vocal ones), and the discussion of this came out because each of them were very different. One of them was really organized at planning and running events (so he was the king type). Whenever the other brother spoke about God, one was always inspired by his zeal for the Word of God, and it always brought conviction (so he was the prophet type). The other brother was the person who cares for the people of the fellowship and often made effort to talk as much people as possible and meet up on one-on-one with some of them to encourage them (so he was the priest type). I thought that was cool.

I just wanted to share this (not because I think this is like very important to know since it is kind of technical), but cause of two things:

1. We are sinners, so since we are different it is easy to come to disagreements and hurt one another. So it is important to know how to listen and understand where the other person is coming from. And also to forgive and offer grace when one is offended (just as God forgives and offers grace to us).
2. In the Old Testament, there are great servants of God that fulfills one of the offices of Christ, and I want to dedicate a great portion of my next blog posts to speak about it because it is a way that Christ was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, which is really neat because it gives us a better understanding of the overarching themes of the bible.

More reference for the three offices: http://carm.org/prophet-priest-king

Another reference for Christian leadership: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/12913395/Christian_leadership.pdf

by Faith

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1

This coming week is a very busy one for me at work, and I really feel uneasy. I usually can handle stressful situations ok, but somehow this time I feel very vulnerable. The nature of the work I am doing now is fairly new to me, and definitely I feel quite inadequate. I think it is probably not a big deal in the big picture of things, but my weak self is stumbling at it.

I have the intellectual understanding that having faith in God will give us hope and reassurance, but to actually live it out is harder than it sounds. But in this weakness, I know that God's grace will be better demonstrated, so I just have to step it up by faith.

In grad cell, a couple of weeks ago we did a bible study on Hebrews 11, and it starts with a brief definition of faith, and then it includes many small stores of great characters like Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Abel, etc. I learn in Sunday school that Jewish people likes to define things with stories (as opposed to facts), so this is an example of how faith is explained with stories. If you look carefully at each story, you get to learn more about what faith really is.

As always, I randomly mentioned some illustrations on how to explain faith in other disciplines.

Engineering:
Engineers are really lazy so we like to explain things with formula, and just plug in the number and get the results. To be even more lazier, we can re-use an existing formula that starts with "F" (for faith), like the second Newton law:

F = ma (Force equals to mass times acceleration)
Fc = mac (small modification to centripetal force equals to mass times centripetal acceleration)

This can also translates into "Faith in Christ is equal to much assurance in Christ".

Science:
There is a condition called myopia (or nearsightedness) where the individual cannot see well things from afar because the light rays converges too early like in the first picture:

In the second picture a double concave lens is used to correct the rays so that the rays converges at the right point.

When we do not see things, we are uncertain and feel stressed. But faith is like the corrective lens that allows us to see that God is control and we reassured.

 Accounting:
So accountants have to balance long list of assets and liabilities. It is an arduous jobs, and many work overtime.

Most of the times, we don't know how it works or how they do it. But we know they will get it done. So faith is like this kind of trust.

seek opportunities

I came across this article from Tim Keller about "Gifts and Talents" (http://theresurgence.com/2012/11/08/gifts-and-talents). It talks about discovering the spiritual gifts given to you.

Pretty interesting as it speaks about 3 ways to figure out what your spiritual gifts are:

• Affinity: in my limited understanding, "what makes your heart beat faster"
• Ability: what you are good at
• Opportunity: doors opened to you, or a need that you see

Tim Keller points that if you are unsure where to start, "opportunity" is a good place because an individual has to try out a few different ministries before really understanding what makes your heart beat faster or knowing what you're really good at, and also God can use that time to mature and mold you.

A good brother of mine has engraved in my mind this lesson: if you see a need in the fellowship, you probably are in the better position to do something about it. It is very easy to not want to step up because we think we might not like it, or we are not good it, etc. I think it is worthwhile to pray and think about the opportunities presented to us, and ask God how He can use us.

It is important though, not to always say yes to the opportunities presented to us. In the past in CCF, many people have the mentality of serving out of a need, and as a consequence we have many people burning out from serving (including myself). After, the leadership started pushing the fellowship to consider serving only when God has burdened with something to avoid this type of issue. But I think that it is easy to go to the other extreme, to the point that we almost ignore the needs that we see. So need to pray and biblically consider each situation.

The important thing is to always be seeking to please our Lord who loves us so much, and has given His Son Jesus to die for us, and that through this gospel we are made to serve for His Kingdom. Be available to God,  have faith in Him, and He use you powerfully.

SPF

I am part of cell group for graduate students (it includes optometry, masters in accounting, masters in Engineering, PHD), and our program consists of bible study every other week. And in the alternative week, we do SPF which is an acronym for "Sharing Prayer Fellowship". (I stole this acronym from the fellowship I attended when I was working in Ottawa). SPF consists of a time of sharing about our lives (our struggles, victories, defeats, how God is working in us) and prayer for one another. It could include worship, bible memorization, mutual encouraging through the Word. It is a free-flowing "program" where we want  to fellowship as brothers and sisters to share a God-glorifying, Christ-centered, Spirit-filled time. It benefits us because we are refreshed from the decay of every day's struggles, we can experience the love from our brotherhood and sisterhood (through encouragement, accountability, rebuke). It is not about relying on SPF to maintain a steadfast spiritual walk, but it is about pointing us back to our great God. SPF serves to bombard us more of the sweetness of Christ.

So very randomly, I created these illustrations for the weekly email. It was only intended for the grad cell people, but I guess it can provide some good laughs so why not put it here. Please keep in mind this is for illustration purpose only.

Why is SPF so good?

From an Engineering viewpoint:



where x = your normal self
         e = encouraged self
         y = soldier ready to do the will of God
         D = daily life
         s = struggles (sin, stress, suffering)
        SPF = fellowship of brotherhood/sisterhood that will pray/encourage/challenge you to fix your eyes on Christ


From a scientific viewpoint:

There are different types of cones on your eyes, that capture a wavelength for the color: red, green, and blue. So in our struggles, we might only see things from the 'red' perspective, but God can use our brother or sister to remind us of the big picture (in all colors) that God's will is the best for you, that His promises are good, that you are loved by Him.

From an accounting viewpoint:

SPF is one of your powerful assets that will help in your walk with Christ.

Assets			Liabilities
Current Assets			Current liabilities
Pastor's preaching	xxxx		Present struggle	xx
SPF (brothers and sisters!)	xxxx		Stress	x/2
desiringgod.org	xx	xxxxx	Laziness	x
Long-term Investments			Fear, lack of boldness	x
Daily date with God	xxxxxx		Potato chips	x/1000	xx
Bible memorization	xxxxx		Long-term liabilities
Sharing about Christ	xxxxx	xxxxxx	Sinful nature in me	xxx
Property and Equipment			Thorn on the flesh	xx
Bible	xxxxx	xxxxx	Cross to carry	xxx	xxx
Intangible Assets
Christ's example	over9000
Holy Spirit indwelling in you	over9000	over9000
Total Assets		***	Total liabilities		xxx
*** Error: out of bounds, no number can contain the grace and power of God (Ephesians 2:7, Ephesians 1:19)

conforming and comparing

This term there are 2 new housemates who joined, and one of them had a Mickey mouse mug. And it happens that I also own one. So we were joking around that the Mickey mouse mug should be the "sign" that makes us belong to this house. Not too long after, another housemate bought a Mickey mouse mug as well. So 3 out of 5 housemates have it:

So we continue "pressuring" the remaining two guys to get a mug. But they have been resisting. And just recently one of them fell to the peer-pressure, and got a nice mug:

We kind of joke around that the requirements of the mug has to be either blue or red color =P, so it does not count haha. Anyways, we were tolerant with it, so he is part of the gang now. So we are still waiting on the last housemate who is quite firm in his decision of not wanting to conform to our "standards". (I think he is just too lazy to get a new mug...).

There are two major things I want to talk with this silly illustration.

conforming

It is very easy to conform to the behavior of other people, because we are relational beings who wants to be loved and accepted by other relational beings. In conforming, we believe that we will find acceptance and approval from our peers, and this creates a sense of belonging. This can include things like fashion and trends, for example: getting a super nice smartphone. (I am not saying that getting a nice smartphone is bad, I am just giving an example. And me not having a smartphone does not make me a better person). So most people have a smartphone now, some have it because they do need its functionality, others have it because they just want to experiment with it, but there are also others who gets one because everyone else has one. I think it is important to question ourselves why we are purchasing it because we are called to do everything for God's glory (1 Cor. 10:31). There is nothing wrong with getting one, but ask yourself what is the reason behind getting one, is it because I feel cooler if I have one? or so that everyone else will not look down on my old Nokia phone?

Back to my point, human beings long for relationship (not specifically speaking about a romantic one) and I believe this is part of God's design, that we will live in community with others, and not live in isolation in a cave or in a monastery. So the pursuit of wanting to be loved and accepted is a valid one, but we tend to forget that we are already loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father even when we are sinners, and sent Christ to die for us (Romans 5:8). We have already been accepted by the Almighty Creator of the universe, so there is little point in striving to get acceptance from others.

comparing

The other danger is to compare ourselves with others (I posted something about this before: http://koinowarrior.blogspot.ca/2010/05/you-are-you.html). We are surrounded by many peers, and some of them excel in academics, some of them in sports, and some of them in ministry work, and some of them have a pretty good job, etc. When we don't perform as well as others, it is easy to feel inferior and then we strive very hard (like really hard) to become this better person. Aiming to becoming better is good, but the issue here is that we are valuing ourselves based on our achievements and performance, so it is all about me. It is about my own efforts, and this is self-defeating because we are not perfect so we will fail in many regards and we will never be satisfied. Also, there will always be someone who is better than you, that is just the reality of things.

We should value ourselves based on our identity with Christ. He had given his own life to die on the cross for us, so now that we are saved, we are also children of God, with so much love poured on us (1 John 3, Ephesians 1). Man, we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We are referred as "dearly loved" (Ephesians 5:1, Colossians 3:12). So there is no need to prove yourself that you are loved by your own effort, because the Eternal God (from everlasting to everlasting) loves you already despite that we are sinful creatures. I feel like unable to really describe God's love, so gonna quote part of the hymn "love of God is greater far":


To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

So we should strive to pursue excellency and become better not to find our worth on its achievements, but as a response to the great love of God, and be convinced that we can be fully satisfied in Him (when God is most  glorified according to John Piper) even if we cannot achieve anything.


So yeah, our last housemate is still our good brother even if the does not get the Mickey mouse mug. But he is missing out.

authority

When guys talk for long hours, it is usually about 2 main things (well in reality it's 3), it's either something very serious and academic (like theological arguments about free-will vs predestination, how to live life, etc) or things that we treasure from our childhood. For example, after a CCF night there were 2 guys and me who stayed in the room until 11pm talking about Dragon Ball Z. We were talking about the correct order of the succession of events in the Majin Boo arc (like in what order were the good guys eaten by Boo). It was fun times!

I remember once I also had a debate with a friend regarding Pokemon game. We were debating about what psychic attack was the most powerful, between "Psybeam" and "Psychic". I thought it was "Psybeam", but I was wrong. Just recently, 2 housemates and I were in living room area and started to talk for more than an hour about Pokemon game, and debating which Pokemons and which types of Pokemon were the strongest, and which moves were the coolest. And we realized that we are missing something important. Basically we have another housemate (who was already asleep by then), and he knows about Pokemon. Like he is like a walking encyclopedia about the subject. We know that this housemate is the "authoritative" voice to resolve any disagreement. The next day we talked to him, and the sheer of information he knows about the subject is actually quite scary...

So it is really important to have an authoritative voice in the way we live, and we find it in the Bible. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are able to understand that the Scripture is a treasure for a believer because God reveals Himself to us through the Word, and we can learn more about Him, about the great mercies of God despite our sinful nature, we can learn about what a holy life looks like, we can learn wisdom in how to handle situations. It is so good!

Many times, when we go to a church and listen to the preacher, it is easy just to absorb everything and take it for granted that what he is speaking is absolutely truth. Also, the ways the church do things we think it is always correct. I think we have to always validate these things with the Bible. (I am not discrediting the preachers or the church, but it is a safeguard for each of us because we humans can easily made mistakes).

I was watching a clip with my housemate about "Francis Schaeffer" titled "How should we then live" and it gave a historical overview of how the church evolved from the early church up to the middle ages. During the early church times, the service was focused on speaking about he truth of the Scripture, mainly Christ. But as times went by, other things gain authority in the church other than the Bible like the things that the priest will say (like the Pope) and traditions. These became sources of truth (regarding how to live and even about salvation) and corrupted the church until the Reformation. And one of the main points of the Reformation is "Sola Scriptura" which states that the Bible is the supreme authority for a believer regarding the aspects of salvation and holiness.

So whenever we discuss about various topics or make decisions about life, let's always refer to the Scripture.

Warren speaking about influence

From the Resurgence Conference recap (http://theresurgence.com/2012/10/09/day-1-at-r12-a-recap), Rick Warren spoke about influence, and I like the main points from the recap because it resonates from what I have learned in the past years about leadership from a Christian context. These are his main points and I added my comments regarding each of them:


“The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who don’t have influence.”

• Leadership is about doing something for the people you're leading (Nehemiah 5)
• It is not about over-lording them, but to serve them

“The pathway to influence is service.”

• Jesus, the Lord we follow showed us that to lead is to serve (Matthew 20:26)
• To impact others, it not just about words, but also deeds of love (1 John 3:18)

“Forgiveness is instant. Trust is earned over time.”

• Leaders are humans and will make mistake, so need to be repentant and transparent about our shortcomings
• To earn trust from others, leaders need show a character of integrity and proven track of record from past experiences 

“The price of influence is criticism.”

• Never can get approval from everyone, even Jesus was not approved by His own people (Luke 15:1-2)
• There is a cost of leading, besides time and energy spent, there will be people who will oppose (Nehemiah 4)

“The leader’s role is to help others use their influence wisely.”

• Leading is not about doing everything yourself, so that you end up all exhausted (Exodus 18)
• Leading is also about developing new leaders (John 21:15-19)

who do you think you are

This is a very common line from one of the greatest anime Gurren Lagaan, and it is an expression (like an outcry) of challenge and courage when fighting against enemies. One of the premise of this anime show is to overcome fear and find courage to confront our enemies, hence I consider it as the most manliness show I have seen. And I say this phrase quite often when young people are jokingly "disrespecting" the older people haha.

So my housemate jokingly recommended me this book from Mark Driscoll: http://store.theresurgence.com/products/who-do-you-think-you-are

I haven't bought it yet, but I am thinking about it (well I have this self-imposing rule that I cannot buy any more books until I finish reading a good number of the books I have). But the question "who do you think you are" is really a good question for each of us to ask ourselves.

I don't intend to target this question in its full entirety, but I want to emphasize an aspect of it that has affected me (I believe that it is a common syndrome among Chinese Christians from a conservative background).

I am Chinese, and became Christian around the age of 16, and I attended a Chinese Christian church which was fairly conservative. So I think the mix of my culture and the church environment influenced me in valuing hard work (in both serving and studying). This is actually a very good thing. But there is also a dangerous side about it because I valued myself based on the things I do (my works), and on how well I performed. My view of God was more of a supreme commander that I am serving for (like 2 Timothy 2:4), but did not understand how I can view Him as a heavenly Father.

Hence, during many times the motivation for me to serve was based solely on duty, and not so much based on the compulsion of His fatherly love towards me. Just to clarify, duty is needed (Like 17), and it is helpful to develop discipline, but the presence of a willing and loving response because of God's love is also necessarily. In some ways, I think I was trying to earn God's love through my dutiful service. This is kinda parallel with a good child trying to earn his parent's love and approval through school and life achievements. It does not seem a bad thing at first sight, but the issue of identity is at stake here.

A brother of mine told me these words "Your good work will not make God love you more, and your flaws will not make God love you less" which really spoke to me. I started to realize more of our identity in Christ, that our value is not based on how good we are, but that God has loved us so much (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16) that He has gave His only Son to die for our sins. It is by grace that we have been saved not by our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Hence, we are dearly loved children of God (1 John 3:1) and we can be reassured by the Holy Spirit that there is not anything that will separate us from this love that is in Christ (Romans 8:31-39). This is all because God is so good, so glory and praise be unto His name!

So whenever we feel stressed, insecure, disappointed, angry, etc... ask yourself "who do you think you are?" The Almighty Creator, King of kings, Lord of lords, the Maker of heaven and earth loves you despite our faults, dear child of God.

Resistant to change

Many people know that I am like a dinosaur (as on old and obsolete) in technology, and do not yet use a smartphone. I recognize the many advantages and cool stuff you can do with smartphones, bu on my current lifestyle I really don't see a need for one.

Just for fun, I have listed all the cellphones I have owned, and they are all Nokia:


1. Nokia 6110

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: ~2000-01
• Reason to terminate: dropped it in the toilet
• Pros: first time exposed to snake game
• Cons: not water resistant

2. Nokia 8250

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2001-2004
• Reason to terminate: moved to Canada (it is still working!)
• Pros: blue light is so cool, specially at night, and it is small and light
• Cons: trouble with the screen (dead pixels)

 3. Nokia 8210

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2005-2010 (second hand from my cousin)
• Reason to terminate: I got a job
• Pros: indestructible
• Cons: cannot send text messages to more than one recipient

3a. Nokia 1208

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2008 Winter work term at US
• Reason to terminate: gave it to my brother
• Pros: cheap ($19 on Prepaid)
• Cons: a bit too thick

4. Nokia 5310

• Specs: link here
• Period of use: 2010-present
• Reason to terminate: N/A
• Pros: color screen!
• Cons: takes time to load contacts after reboot

I was thinking I could write a post about loyalty, but I decided to write about being resistant to change. In many ways we tend to be naturally resistant to change because it is nice to deal with what is familiar or with what is comfortable. Like living int he same apartment for the last two years have been quite nice because I am very used to the place it has become familiar enough as a "home".

On the other hand, there is also a sense of close-mindedness and pride that could impede someone from changing how he/she does things. For example, part of the reason why I don't have a smartphone could be attributed to some pride in me in wanting to rebel against the common trend as well my close-mindedness to see the smartphone has a beneficial tool. To extend the example, I came from a fairly conservative Chinese church and remembered vividly how my pastors were quite resistant when one of our worship members wanted to introduce some contemporary Christian songs into fellowship and worship service.

On my early experience serving at CCF, many of the ministries (cell groups, evangelistical meetings, committee) and methodologies to do ministry were done without much questioning (as in we do this because this is what has been done in the past until now). So a lot of these ministries become more driven by tradition rather than a vision from God.

One of the common examples is Lifesong (which is a huge drama production evangelistical meeting), which had much success in the early 2000s. But at the time when I was serving in CCF committee, it had become like "a thing" that we do every term, and people has forgotten the real reason of this event which is to evangelize our circle of friends. And when the committee (which I was part of) decided to stop having Lifesong every term, there were definitely some voices against this idea. I am not justifying that this was the correct decision (only Gold can tell), but I am voicing out that we need to open-minded in terms of ministry methodologies and re-evaluate the reasons why these ministries exist.

Sometimes change is necessarily in order to be more effective in the Kingdom work. One example is the use of the Internet to promote Christian doctrines (through online sermons, pastor's blogs, twitters, etc).

When Jesus was ministering on earth, He was doing something revolutionary which was not done before. Most religious people at that time took pride on their biblical knowledge, but looked down upon the sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, basically people outside their religious circle. But Jesus intentionally invested time on them, setting a model of evangelism that caused much anger towards the Pharisees who were resistant to accept this change.

the winner takes it all

This is the title of a very famous song from ABBA, but it had a rather sad context. But I am not really writing about that. I want to share a bit more about my observation from the exciting summer Olympics.

One thing that I notice is that some sports are judged based on points given by a panel of judges. It's not like soccer, swimming, hockey or 100m run where you kinda know who is winning. In sports like Diving and Gymnastics, how much points given to the athlete is really up to the judges and most of the time we have little idea of point system. So it gets really exciting on the very last round to wait for the judges to give the amount of points given on that last routine, which can determine who wins the competition. Sometimes it is expected, sometimes it is a surprise. Someone will burst out of joy, the other one in tears.

These are some examples:

Viktoria Komova:

This Russian girl was one of the favorites to get the gold medal for all-round women in Gymnastics (especially since the world champion Jordyn Wieber did not qualify to the last round). But she was barely by 0.259 points (see results) by Gabrielle Douglas from the United Stats (who became the first women from African descent to win gold on Gymnastics). That is such a small difference, and I remember seeing Gabrielle doing her last routine on the floor exercise (which was pretty good), and Viktoria was staring at the results screen to wait and see how much the judges will give to Gabrielle. When Viktoria saw that Gabrielle got just enough points to surpass her, she started crying on the shoulders of her coach. I really felt bad for her, and this set a tone for the rest of the Olympics for her as she was not able to gain any other individual medal.

Tania Cagnotto
She is an Italian diver (3m springboard) participating on her 4th Olympics. I didn't really know her at start since my attention was on the Chinese divers that are really beast. But she was performing quite well, and I had the sensation that she would get bronze (yeah, the gold and silver were pretty much for the Chinese girls).

On the very last dive, Tania needed a 76.80 to get the bronze, but unfortunately the judges only gave her 76.50 (see results) so she was not able to get her first medal and resigned to cry on her coach's shoulders.

Qin Kai

One of the Chinese male diver who was a favorite for the 3m springboard. The Chinese divers started a bit weak in comparison to the Russian Zakharov. But near the end, Qin Kai and Zakharov were fighting head to head for the gold. Qin had finished his last dive, and was leading and just waiting for Zakharov to not sure more than 90.30. But the Russian guy did a spectacular dive of 100+ points, and Qin was left crying in the little pool (see results).


Anyways, getting a silver medal is usually not that joyful. Our company just had a soccer tournament, and I was playing for the QA (Quality Assurance) team, and we played the final against HR (Human Resources). The game was tough and we tied 1-1, and in penal shootouts we lost =(, and it was kinda sad. I guess the fact that our team is so much younger, and that they have a couple of girls, make it even more sad.

But the fact that athlete cannot leave any margin for error when competing for a gold. Any mis-step will lead to losing, and for these two sports it is really up to the judges to decide. Imagine how tough it will be if our salvation depends on our performance, and that a little margin of error will exclude us from eternity with God. That will be so scary. It is up to us, then we will probably fail. But we have a gracious God who is full of mercy and has given us access to Him through Jesus Christ. Our failures do have a cost, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Once you're in Christ, you're part of the winning team.

On a separate note, there is this article that compares the focus of an Olympic athlete with how to live out our faith: http://theresurgence.com/2012/09/01/8-olympic-observations-on-training-and-faith

Ownageness of the Dark Knight

** warning: there will be spoilers about "The Dark Knight Rises" movie in this post **

This summer I was really excited for the last Batman movie. I actually didn't watch the first two movies in theaters because I was in school so I was totally outside of the movies world, but got to watch them on DVD a few years after they were released. What got me excited was to watch the trailer for the  "The Dark Knight Rises" earlier this year (I was probably watching the Avengers haha) because I really like to watch the conclusion of a story.

So two weeks before the "The Dark Knight Rises" was released, I re-watched "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" to refresh myself of the overall story line. It was actually quite an enjoyable exercise!

On the Saturday (one day after the release date), I went to watch last movie with a group of 18 people and I reserved the seats through the Empire Plus (cost $2 more but I don't have to go for lineup). And after watching it, I started to think more about the movie, and as I thought about it more, I realized how good it is, to the point that I wanted to re-watched it (which I did). I think this trilogy of Batman can become one of the best movie trilogies of all times.

I want to take this opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the "The Dark Knight Rises" and why I think its' so great.

Weak points
First, I will start with the weak points. I heard of criticism towards this movie, and I agreed with most of them. For sure this is not a perfect movie, but I think these weak points do not overshadow the greatness of the movie. Here are the two main weak areas:

• Too unrealistic: there are a fairly amount of exaggerated events like Bruce Wayne coming back from the Middle East to Gotham in a matter of hours after he climbed up the hole, or his back getting healed, or the terrorist group able to set up explosives so easily, etc. But if we are picky about loopholes, then most movies will fall short. In general, I don't think it was too far-fetched.
• Bane as a character: I really didn't like his muffled voice, but we don't get to know much about his motivation as a villain (other than his allegiance with Tania). It would have been nice to know a bit more about him, though there was already too many characters to focus on (Catwoman, Detective Gordon, Robin Blake, Tania).

Actually my greatest disappointment about the trilogy is that Katie Holmes didn't take the role of Rachel on the second movie.

Plot
Comparing to "The Dark Knight", the "The Dark Knight Rises" is slower in pace, and it feels less intense. I guess "The Dark Knight" did set up a very high standard (94% on rottentomatoes) and it is considered one of the best superhero movie ever, often described as an art masterpiece in the form of superhero film. There is not a single boring moment, hard to predict plot, and psychologically very engaging. One has to realize that "The Dark Knight Rises" is a different type of movie. First of all, the main villain is quite different. Having the Joker definitely spices up the movie to be action-packed, unpredictable, chaotic, and mentally really engaging. "The Dark Knight" focuses more on the battle between good and evil, whereas "The Dark Knight Rises" focuses more on the resurgence of the Batman as the symbol of hope for Gotham, hence there is less action and more stuff about Bruce Wayne's internal battles, and in how he gets owned but gets back up again.

Theme
The overall theme of the trilogy is the battle of good and evil. "Batman Begins" focuses on revenge, and "The Dark Knight" touches upon the corruption and promptness of evil in men. "The Dark Knight Rises" talks about rising up after failure, not giving up after defeat but coming back even stronger to own your enemies. Something that is encouraging since we will face many failures in life.

Character development
"Batman Begins" is cool because we get to see Bruce Wayne getting trained as a ninja and growing from an angry and directionless adolescent to a man who is committed to fight crime. In "The Dark Knight" he is consolidated as Gotham's superhero but finds the possibility of retiring and letting Harvey Dent be the Knight of Gotham, and pursue a personal life with Rachel. Even though we think the Joker lost the battle in "The Dark Knight", it was actually a total lost for Batman, his love interest (Rachel) died, the guy who he thought would represent the good side of Gotham turned into a bad guy (Harvey Two-Faces), and the symbol of hope that Batman represented now turned into the embodiment of evil (for killing Harvey) so that Gotham will not resigned in its fight against evil.

So "The Dark Knight Rises" focuses on the resurgence of the superhero who had given up pursuing a personal life and is content with letting the name of Batman embodied hatred from the people of Gotham, and is slowly rotting as a human being. But he gets back in the battle, but shortly is badly defeated by Bane to the point of almost death. But his life is spared only so that he can experience the desperation of seeing Gotham getting destroyed. And it is in the hole when we see Bruce Wayne battling his desperation and fear to climb the pit to save his city. He was not able to climb it in the first couple of times because he didn't really fear death so the fear of losing his city was not at its highest peak. It's until he gets rid of the rope and knowing that is all-or-nothing so he was afraid of dying (because dying means losing Gotham) then he was able to rise and rise.

The introduction of Catwoman was genius. Her character does complement Batman very well, and her existence sheds some light for Bruce Wayne.

Legacy
At "Batman Begins", Bruce Wayne wanted Batman to be the symbol of hope for Gotham in the fight against organized crime. It was to give courage to every citizen to stand firm in this battle. By the end of "The Dark Knight", this symbol of hope became the embodiment of hatred (since Joker turned Harvey into a bad guy, so Batman had to falsely become the responsible for killing Harvey in order to not cause people from Gotham to lose hope). This was an act of sacrifice he made for Gotham's sake, and it is very honorable but at the same time does not result in a long lasting solution.

But in "The Dark Knight Rises" after he comes back from the hole, he leads the counterattack to save Gotham, and he saves the city from the nuclear explosion by sacrificing himself. The difference from the previous movie is that he sacrificed himself ensuring that his legacy of hope in fighting against rime will be carried on by the people of Gotham (especially Robin). This is key because Batman was not meant to be there forever but was intended to encourage the city as a whole in this battle against evil. This was accomplished in "The Dark Knight Rises".

There was an interesting dialogue between Catwoman and Batman right before they were about to embark in battle, Catwoman tries to convince Batman to leave with her before the city gets destroyed since Batman has already given everything to Gotham, but Batman replies, "not yet, not everything". Perhaps leaving this legacy was what he had not done yet.

Overall, "The Dark Knight Rises" resolves the problems that Bruce Wayne inherited from "Batman Begins" and  "The Dark Knight"  by establishing Batman as a lasting symbol of hope for Gotham, giving his best on his service to Gotham (to follow his father's shoes) and developing a life for his own (maybe with Catwoman). I really enjoyed how this ended, definitely a very ownage trilogy and ending.

focusing on tradition

Just this past Sunday at Simply Church we looked at the passage in Mark 7 where the Pharisees were complaining that Jesus' disciples did not wash their hands (Jews perform a ceremonial hand washing before eating) before eating, condemning that they were eating with "unclean" hands. Then, Jesus rebukes the Jews that they had let go of God's commandments and are just holding onto tradition because the Jews were only focused on following the letter of the law instead of focusing on the purpose of the law which points back to a relationship with God.

This sort of problem is still prevalent now, and as Pastor Tim said that sometimes even going to church on Sunday might seem more of a tradition rather than an authentic desire to worship God. The danger is that attending church becomes another routine and it does not increase our adoration toward our mighty God. This escalates to other areas such as serving and participating in church events. I have personally seen ministries and serving done out of tradition rather than a given desire by God and this has often resulted in people getting burnt out and lack of fruits.

As an individual who is actively participating in many church events and ministries, I feel that it is easy to fall into the attitude of self-righteousness and condemn others who are not as active or who do not follow the traditions set by the church. This narrows my mind in the understanding that God can work outside of the domain set by traditions. (Please note that I am not stating that traditions are bad, they can be good things but when we focused on traditions above God, we are missing the point and leads to other sins).

In the recent Olympics, two Tunisian athletes Habiba Ghribi (silver on women's 3,000m steeple chase) and Oussama Mellouli (gold on men's 10k swim) won medals for their country and it was big because there aren't that many successful Tunisian athletes. Actually Ghribi's medal is huge because the women on Tunisia are fighting for equal rights. Unfortunately there are some extreme extreme religious groups that expressed that their medals should be taken away because both of them have broken certain religious rules (her sport wear is apparently too revealing, and the swimmer was drinking juice during fasting season).

dethroned kings

As I talked about top performers of the Olympics on previous posts, I personally really like to follow artistic gymnastics and track and field.

Somehow I got into the women's pole vault jump. Mainly because the Russian "queen" Yelena Isinbayeva is renown for her gold medals on Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and she was going for the 3rd straight gold (I don't think any track and field athlete has accomplished it). She is the holder of the world record, the only women to jump more than 5 meters, so I was fascinated and got attracted to follow pole vault jump.

I was watching the women's pole vault jump final which was roughly at the same time as women's soccer semifinal Canada vs USA (which was an exciting game, and 3 of my housemates were streaming in their own rooms) but I was so into pole vault jump. As I watched I realized that it takes great concentration and skills to perform a decent jump, it is a tough sport! So I was all-out cheering for Yelena, but unfortunately she was only able to jump up to 4.7m, 0.05m (5cm) less than her two opponents so she had to conform with the bronze medal.

But when asked whether she was sad about the bronze, she actually said that she was very happy and she wasn't bitter or frustrated but content. She actually thought of retirement, but now she is aiming to participate in Rio 2016 and I look forward to see her compete.

Another great athlete I admired from watching him in Beijing 2008 is the Chinese Chen Yibing, gold medalist on ring apparatus, and double gold medalist in Men's Team in gymnastics.

His dominance in the last 5-6 years in the ring is so intense that he is nicknamed "the lord of the rings". He was favorite to get the gold medal, and actually performed a great routine, but he was surprised by the excellent performance of the Brazilian Zanetti, so Chen got the silver medal.

After the results were announced, he congratulated Zanetti, and smiling showed his thanks to the fans who came. In an interview, he said he was quite happy for his performance and that he did what he could.

These two great athletes have won championships and gold medals so they don't really lose that often. But in London 2012 when many were expecting them to get gold, they actually were dethroned and had to conform with a medal of less value. But the attitude they had in finding satisfaction on their performance, no sense of regrets, admitting defeat and congratulating their opponents is truly admirable. In my eyes Chen Yibing is still the "lord of the rings" and Yelena Isinbayeva is still the "queen of the pole vault".

We don't get to win everyday, and we ought to find satisfaction in doing our best.

Discipline and Hard Work

Back to my thoughts regarding the Olympics, we often remember the great performance of the medalists, and specially those big winners like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. They had great  performance on Beijing 2008, and it is natural for everyone to put their attention of them for London 2012 expecting similar performances.

It is easy to get caught up on the winning and achievements that we often forget the long hours of training, hard work, and discipline that these athletes had to endure in order to perform to such levels. To add, there is the dealing with expectations and nervousness. The fact that Olympics athletes are there participating is already a big achievement since they had to go through rounds of elimination in order to get there.

But it is nice to witness the big achievements that some of the athletes can accomplish.

In a similar way, I sometimes dream about accomplishing big things for God in the ministry I am involved with, whether it is CCF committee, cell group leader, ministry leader, bible study leader, etc. There is an earnest desire to do it for the glory of God, but it is easy to get caught up in wanting to achieve the big things and get frustrated when we're not able to get there. Because it is easy to overlook the hard work and discipline that will prepare us for these big things.

A few good brothers gave me as a present (when I was 2nd year) the book "Spirit of the Disciplines" (by Dallas Willard), and in one instance it mentions that many Christians want to see big things happening in their lives, to imitate what Jesus did, and other prophets (like Moses). But one has to realize that it is not an everyday thing when we will witness these big victories, but that it takes also ardent training on our part so that we can be ready when God calls us for such big battles. Jesus waited until he was thirty before His ministry on earth, and Moses spent 40 years training before leading the Israel out of Egypt.

Hence, there should be more motivation on my part to practice spiritual discipline in studying more the Word of God, memorizing Scripture, praying unceasingly, fasting, frugality so that I can be better prepared when God calls me for His Kingdom work.

We see Usain Bolt running the 100m in 9.63s establishing a new Olympic record, and it was one of the most watched event in the Olympics. But there were tons of hours of hard training that he had to endure to get in the podium!

On a separate note, Guatemala never won a medal before. They had a boxer that reached the bronze medal match 20 years ago, but was not able to win. Until London 2012, when a Guatemalan athlete was able to win a silver medal on 20km walk by Erick Barrondo. Fruits of his hard work, and this is the celebration, Enhorabuena!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOG4t-3XAoA

Tribute to CLASH

This past weekend was  very joyful to witness a dear sister and brother being united as one in the Lord under the covenant of marriage. It was a bit emotional for me since I know both parties for at least 6 years and we have share good times serving together in CCF. I really appreciate the relationship I have with each of them.

Caring - for you genuinely care for your brothers and sisters
Loving - you love the things you do (ministry and school), above all you love God
Ardently hopeful - the hope you have in the Lord is of great worth
Royal - for you are a princess

Admirable - for you pursue what is honorable and noble
Supportive -  your support for the CCF  ministries was invaluable
Heart for God -a man who seeks the Lord's heart in prayer

I am confident that they will continue to glorify our great God. 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. - Ephesians 5:25-33

Staying as #1

It's been said that it is hard to reach the #1 rank, but it is even harder to remain as #1. Similarly, I have been failing to update this blog regularly, so I am hoping to make a comeback since the recent Olympics has filled me with thoughts and ideas.

Why is staying as #1 so hard? Well, because it is easy to get too relaxed, complacent, and maybe even prideful that will make you forsake training. Also, other competitors will look at you as the person to beat, so they will train with more motivation to surpass you.

Similarly, in my spiritual walk, it is hard to be in tune with God, read His Word, and dwell in prayer consistently. This is a daily battle for me, and when I think I am doing well, it actually opens many opportunities for temptations to pull me down. Living by the Spirit is a challenging thing. That's why "devotionals" are very important to keep my mind and heart align with God's so that my sight will not be blurred from His will.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." - Galatians 5:22-25

We are to live by the Spirit, and also to keep in step with the Spirit so that we will remain living offering ourselves to God. This can only be accomplished by getting to know God more, spending more time with Him, and learning more from Him, It definitely takes our effort and discipline to pursue it, but it is by God's grace that we are able to accomplish it.

In the Olympics, there is an athlete who is able to stay as #1 in his field - Usain Bolt.

What he has done is incredible, to win gold on 100m, 200m, 4x100m relay on both 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Only selective few like the legendary was able to defend gold successfully on more than one event in track and field.

He is considered the best sprinter of all time and currently holding the world record on 100m, 200m, and just recently the 4x100m relax. We'll see if he can keep this pace on 2016, but it will be a lot harder as he is aging and many young competitors are developing.

Another athlete that is worth mentioning who is able to dominate in his specialty is Michael Phelps who is the athlete with most Olympic medals in all history (22). Though his level dropped in this recent Olympics, what he has accomplished will not be easily surpassed.

Outside of the Olympics, it is worth noting that the Spain national soccer team accomplished a feat of winning the Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and Euro 2012. Definitely, very had to remain as #1, but it is achievable by being focused on the goal and consistent hard work.