Thank Goodness for "Good Days"

Today is a good day. Not that every day isn’t or can’t be a good day (hurrah for double negatives!), but usually there are two or three days in a week that are especially pleasant. On those particular days, the sun shines a little bit brighter, people are slightly more sympathetic, and all the little things that a day is made up of are somehow more delightful. Today, I saw a row of trees with matching lichen, watched as neighbours helped each other shovel their walks, and walked down my old block, among other things. There’s nothing exceptionally remarkable about those things, but the small things in life are my favourite ones I think. It’s so cool to see how detailed God’s creation is, whether in the way that water sticks to itself when my spoon slithers in and out of it, or the amusement of moving my static-y hair from side to side. On good days, these little things are magnified. When Jess and I were younger, we had designated “good days.” Friday was always a good day, and then usually another day, made special by a new episode of Star Trek or a visit from Auntie Anne and Uncle Tim with Frosty Dairy Desserts (it was necessary to call them “Frosty Dairy Desserts” rather than Frosties; I was a highly snobby child). On these good days, we would save our best underwear, favourite brightly-coloured tights, and save one of Grandma’s famous buns to eat on that day. I like that we were able to appreciate how wonderful it was that even underwear could be cool, and that a fist-sized homemade bun could make one’s day. I hope I never grow out of getting excited over trivial things; I’m quite sure that my parents haven’t grown out of the fascination with small details (my mom shouts exclamations of joy when she sees anything in a shade of robin egg blue), but I think it’s very easy for life to become slots of time rather than an experience of God’s creation. Life’s a feast for the senses; we have five of them for a reason.

Onto an equally self-indulgent topic, last night was Oscars night, and as aforementioned, they were rather fantastic as usual. I read quite a few articles by disappointed journalists this morning, and it’s true that the 79th Academy Awards were deficient in politics and ridiculousness, but the awards themselves were decently allocated (especially because I won the prediction competition, a fact which I will savour rubbing in for at least a few weeks). I was slightly appalled by the fact that The Departed earned Best Picture Oscar, just as Brokeback’s loss last year was so inexcusable, but at least Martin Scorsese finally earned his little statuette, albeit entirely out of sympathy. Ellen was overall disappointingly unfunny, and although John C. Reilly, Will Ferrell, and Jack Black partially made up for this fact, Jon Stewart certainly outshone her last year. Pan’s Labyrinth deservedly won a number of Oscars, and the Mexican award-acceptors for the movie were excellently cute and Mexican. Not so cute at the awards last night was Jack Nicholson; he is a mainstay at the Oscars, with his trademark glasses and incredible amusement at everything, but it really is disarming to see him sans-hair. Jess and I used to listen to this tape of the story of the Elephant's Child when we drove to and from Vancouver, and Jack Nicholson voiced the story; I will forever think of him as the horrifying and murderous crocodile , and seeing him with a chrome dome makes him seem all the more creepy and crocodilish.


Also bizarre in the hair department was my beloved Philip Seymour Hoffman, who looked strikingly similar to me when I was 2 and combed Zincofax (diaper cream) all through my hair. I realize that actors are forced to tolerate strange hairstyles for film roles, but couldn’t he have washed his hair prior to walking the red carpet? As for all the acting awards, I think the Academy chose well. Alan Arkin was wonderful in Little Miss Sunshine, and my family said that Forest Whitaker was brilliant in Last King of Scotland. Jennifer Hudson is so very adorable and ingenuous, and Helen Mirren embodies the sort of older person I’d like to be: dignified and intelligent, yet still silly enough to ham it up with Jamie Foxx and Vince Vaughn. Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal made an appearance at the awards, and not only was she wearing Proenza & Schouler (my favouritest designers of all), but they remain the cutest, smartest, and most likable celebrity couple of all. They're daughter Ramona Sarsgaard-Gyllenhaal is in very good hands. Perhaps my favourite moment of the night, next to the comedy musical, was Beyoncé's admirable attempt to appear not at all jealous of Jennifer Hudson; at one point, she had to sing the line "You're the best!" to J-Hud (as she is apparently now called), and her fake smile was so massive that I thought her lips might split in two. All in all, it was a first-rate night despite the group of us being tired for various reasons, namely returning from foreign countries, writing essays all weekend, and facing the grim prospect of school the next day.



Among the extraneous tidbits of my life, I miss reading week a wee bit. I slept 2 hours (a truly awful amount of time to sleep!) last night after editing my essay on the awfulness of racial profiling, and missed my first class due to issues with our upstairs printer, heretofore known as The Printer of Death. It was an interesting essay to research, and the issue has more complexity than I initially thought, but I’m glad to be done with reading about the horridness of American law enforcement and inherent Canadian racism. On a happy note, my gashed lip and toe from dancing are pretty much entirely healed, and I’ve missed not a single call on Owen since the weekend! Plus, I’m enjoying the spring cleaning that I did over reading week, despite the family room being taken over by Jess’ Rube Goldberg machine for Science Olympics. Her all-girl team is always really intense, and like to make all of their contraptions pink for some absurd reason; last year, they won the silver medal out of dozens of teams (they’re little mad scientists except with prettier hair). Jess recently got seriously gorgeous new glasses after Mitchell Buyer playfully threw his school bag at her face and broke her previous pair. They’re almost as cool as Jude Law’s specs in The Holiday.

Jess has also joined Facebook, which is really rather fun, except that she doesn’t quite understand how it works yet. I sent her a message days ago, she replied on her own wall (gasp!), and proceeded to simply delete her message. But basically this provides another opportunity for me to barrage Jess with my thoughts on various topics. The ability to tag her in pictures by which she is embarrassed is quite happifying as well. I’ve got a fun week of midterms ahead of me, so I should likely get to some reading and reviewing! Although I suspect that no amount of studying will help me with one Michael Snyder’s entirely capricious marking schemes (Betty and Nicole and I concur that he is certainly the worst professor we have ever encountered in our years at the University of Alberta; he derides refugees for pity’s sake). But studying does have its benefits, including the learning of strange terms, reason to create memory-aiding rhymes, and an excuse to do my laundry later on. I hope you're all having excellent Seasons of Lent; flowers and sunshine and Easter are just around the bend!

An Entry Written Whilst Essay Writing

The Oscars were smashingly excellent, although they lacked the shock value and hilarity of last year, I must admit (there was nothing on par with the absurdity of Three 6 Mafia, and no speeches given in complete hysterics). I did, just for the record, win the award-winner-prediction contest, although Matt was only one behind (one of my correct guesses was disqualified by a highly biased jury), and I ate enough potato chips to feed a small country. There’s much to discuss about the Oscars, but I must keep this concise, as this is only my break from finishing a paper on racial profiling. I’ll have to write an Oscar entry later this week when school and work settle down a bit, and after I’ve heard the podcast’s feelings on the whole shebang. On another note, I’m quite sad to see reading week come to an end; it was a week full of silliness, partying with dear friends, much movie-watching, reading, and generally being languorous. I’m rather exhausted tonight after writing an essay for much of the day (that rhymed!), but I certainly had enough rest this past week to last a while. This is likely the most pointless blog entry of all time, but it made for a good break from reading about charter sections and examiner bias. Anyhow, discussion of racial profiling awaits!

P.S. It is true. I do bear a striking resemblance to the Oscar statuette. It’s simply uncanny.

Love, Angel, Music, Baby (- Babies and Angels)

I’ve been waiting for this day for a while now; not only am I done midterms until after reading week, but the Oscars are a mere ten days away (!!!), and tonight is TV bonanza night wherein Jess and I discover whether or not Meredith Grey survived her encounter with the choppy Seattle waters. Contrary to what certain people say, Grey’s Anatomy is rather suspenseful in many respects, and it is extremely possible that Meredith will kick the bucket tonight; a very small part of me hopes that she does die to prove my correctness. February is officially one of my favourite months; the days are getting exponentially longer (the sunrise this morning could actually be enjoyed while I munched on some breakfast!), and it’s jam-packed with my two favourite things to top all my thousands and thousands of favourite things: love and music. In my life, there always seem to be a couple of recurrent themes that I ponder at any given moment, varying from how colours mix together, to the merits conventional evangelism. Delightfully enough, music and love have been intermittent throughout this month, making for a good month indeed. Sunday night was Grammy night in Hollywood, and I was quite thrilled by the musical gong show, despite missing much of the ceremony while out at a feminist play with Caitlin (it was a seriously strange play, but written by a tormented soul, so I was correspondingly informed that I should appreciate it more).


I love that my whole family gets into the Grammys; my parents watched it upstairs in their room because they’re sleepyheads, while Jess and I watched downstairs in the family room, and throughout the show we yelled our excitement and thoughts on the performances and award recipients across the house. Quentin Tarantino announcing a nominee list in an at least slightly wasted state was almost a musical feat in itself; I’m pretty sure that he got up to 100 dB. Additionally, performances by Gnarls Barkley, Corrinne Bailie Rae, Mary J. Blige, and The Police made the night particularly memorable. We saw Sting and Annie Lennox in concert a couple of years ago, and he’s decidedly better with his old band than without them. Other mentionable musical events this month include new music from Acrade Fire, Bloc Party, Jann Arden, Sondre Lerche, The Shins, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and Nickelback (haha)! (Arcade Fire is playing SNL next weekend, too; I’m definitely taping that episode.) The release of CYSI Vol 2, which you really must have the CYSI Mail Service deliver, has also added to the month of February, and facilitates much dancing fun with Jess. There are a ton of new favourite songs contained on this release, including one about children of December. People born in December are the coolest people of all. FYI, I have come up with a new dance move which is actually the best thing ever. It’s really embarrassing to perform for other people, and thus I can’t show anyone but Jess, but you can trust me on this one.


My parents have been to a gazillion concerts as of late, and although I’ve been pretty jealous of their enjoyment of Alexander Escavado, and Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, they give me hope that I can be just as much of an audiophile in 30 odd years (my mom turns 50 in a month; this is exceedingly exciting). For my entire life, I’ve been anomalous in terms of my maturity levels. Since I can remember, I’ve always liked pondering, discussing, writing, and getting involved in rather serious issues, be they political, spiritual, or intellectual. However, at the same time, I’m one of the nuttiest and most eccentric people I know (around really close friends and family; only Jess has seen the extent of my hardcore ridiculousness). Thus, growing up has been strange for me. I don’t really want to lose the harebrained side of me, and I feel as though I’ve known who I am in terms of my tastes, passions, concerns, callings, and beliefs since grade 8 (that was such a good year). Not to say that I haven’t had loads of growing up to do in the past decade or so, but it’s been an odd manner of maturing. I’m quite certain that I’m forever going to be an oddly intense, serious, and silly individual who has no interest in “traffic,” and I kind of like knowing that. I really, really love children and elderly people, above any other group of people, and this is in part because I relate to them most, I think. Children appreciate the small things in life, whether the colour of their favourite milk glass, or the insanity of Mary Poppin’s carpet bag. They know how to be spontaneous and creative, and aren’t afraid to be emotional. Most elderly people seem to have learned that life can be tragic and harsh much of the time, but know from experience that people and situations can be redeemed. They’ve realized what the important things in life are, and have a strong sense of who they are. I aspire to be a child at heart with an old soul.

As for the love theme in February, yesterday was obviously Love Day. At my house, this involves Jess and I making up horrifying love stories for each other (Jess is in love with Elvis Stojko, and enjoys hooking up with playas) while my parents are adorably cheesy and even more vomit inducingly affectionate, though this year Valentine’s festivities took place a day early as my dad is in Calgary playing various “unChristian" card games with his friends, among other things, for teacher’s convention. My grandma made us her world famous Valentine’s Day cookies, and I wore clothing in various shades of pink and red. “Rob” got Crystal flowers, which was so very sweet of him; only a truly magnificent person would get Crystal flowers for Valentine’s Day. Plus, I bought $18 worth of heart-shaped Belgian marshmallows on Tuesday (that’s a lot of Belgian marshmallows: mmmm…) and have been slowly munching on my considerable stockpile. There’s an awful lot of anti-Valentine’s rhetoric, but I really think it’s kind of silly. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be commercialized if you don’t want it to be; it’s only a superficial day if you let it be. It is silly only to tell the people you love loads and loads that you love them loads and loads once a year, but one day to do this especially, and to have fun with it, strikes me as kind of wonderful. Also, I think that St. Valentine was incredibly cool, and certainly deserves a day in semi-commemoration of his love of God, and love deserves at least one day where we think of it especially. After all, life at its very best is all about loving God, loving others, and loving life.

Providentially, I’ve been reading 1 John for the past two weeks. Yes reading four chapters in two weeks is kind of silly, but my devotions have been taking it slow recently; we’ve been reading 10 verses a day, but they’re such good verses with so much to unpack! 1 John is definitely a good book in the Good Book. John, or who we think was John at least, talks about love in such a great way, and his writing rings so true, and gives me much cause to think. I could talk about love for ages and ages, and would likely bore everyone, so I’ll restrain myself, but suffice it to say that reading John’s thoughts on a temporally appropriate subject makes me smile. Onto an unrelated topic, my family’s going to see John Mayer in April. We love John Mayer sooo much, and have been huge fans ever since Heavier Things. My mom recently signed us up for his fan club, so that we could reap the benefits of being official Mr. Jessica Simpson aficionados, and resultingly we had first dibs on tickets to the concert. WE’RE SITTING IN THE SEVENTEENTH ROW. ON THE FLOOR. Words cannot express my excitement! John Mayer is supposed to be simply awesome live, and I’ll be done exams by April 28, so it should be a perfectly lovely night out. I can’t wait until the end of April!! I’m hoping to find a job working with children, and plan to do a great deal of camping, longboarding, and adventure-making this summer. My parents are going to NYC too (they’re such copycats), so I’m so stoked for them!

Another exciting upcoming event is reading week! Crocheting, catching some films, a party or two, lunching with friends, sunrise walks in the river valley, baking, making movies with Andrew, and reading await. Plus, my family has the long weekend for family day, so we can have extra fun; we’re watching Half Nelson tomorrow when my dad returns home from his Cow Town bonanza, and a weekend spent with Jess promises to be great fun. We’ve now compiled Jess’ grad outfit, and it’s so deliciously pretty! Jess caved, and chose the shoes that I liked and she didn’t, and her dress is BCBG Max Azaria (the best dresses of all time!). My smarty-pants sister is going to be über-gorgeous at Grad 2007. Also over reading week is the C&C missions trip to Jamaica, which I’m so excited about for all of my friends heading over to the Land of Rasta. Crystal is taking my horrifically disgusting money belt (pictured coming through my belt loops in NYC on the left), and has promised to search high (haha… high… Rasta…) and low for a crochet Rasta hat for me. I’ll be praying for you guys and can’t to wait to hear all of your stories! I’ll miss hearing from you all for an entire week. As an aside to my small group members, the C&C Courier comes out very soon, and you know what that means; we must chat after you return from Jamaica-ness! In other news, my dad is officially the best dressed teacher of the dozens of staff members at his school, according to his students. The girls of our family are rather proud of this. We’re kind of intense about how my dad dresses, and frequently purchase random articles of clothing for him that are lovely and fun while on shopping escapades. At last, all of our attention to his wardrobe had paid off! I’m about to head off for a walk outside to make the most of this wonderful weather (clearly the groundhogs were correct!), but I hope that all of you are having splendid weeks full of love, music, and all other good things! I love you!


Joyful Things Recently
- journaling
- the fresh layer of snow
- 1 John
- CBC Radio
- cookies, cottage cheese, and chocolate rainbow ice cream
- the way my halogen lamp lights up my eyelashes like bulbous Christmas lights (you too should notice this)
- being an expert money-saver
- heart-shaped marshmallows
- blankets
- my new Weimeraner calendar
- new music videos
- eating out with friends
- my $3.99 daffodils
- walks down Saskatchewan Drive
- feminist plays
- cooking (I’m getting kind of good at it!)
- watching sunrises and sunsets from the gigantic windows at work
- green tea with honey
- having a clean room
- discussion of Aboriginal issues in Poli Sci
- CYSI Vol 2
- incredibly wonderful professors
- Jess’ grad dress!!!
- my new dance move that involves jumping whilst letting my arms flail about (simply awesome)
- Grey's Anatomy, The Office, and The OC
- pranking Crystal/Rob
- my teddy bear being washed
- Pokey and Gumby figurines
- making people blush by bringing up romantic things
- Charles Bukowski
- articles about music and the emergent church
- playing Slaps with Jess
- Motorcycle Diaries on DVD

Bands to Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Check Out
- not the Beastie Boys
- Architecture in Helsinki
- Julian Nation
- Rosie Thomas (BFF of Sufjan and Denison!!!)
- Jens Lekman
- Sondre Leche
- Damon Naomi
- Purnice Brothers
- M. Ward
- Philip Glass


P.S. Charles Bukowski’s poetry is simply incredible. He writes things in a way that no one else can, or at least no one else dares to.
P.P.S. Journaling is totally my new favourite activity. Like blogging, except even more self-indulgent and wordy (hard to imagine, I know!). I write at least a few times a day now, and it’s so freeing and delightful.
P.P.P.S. I put up a massive Nacho Libre poster on my wall today that my uncle bestowed upon Jess and I. While it sounds corny, the poster is actually beautiful; I love Mexican wrestler masks. And Jack Black.
P.P.P.P.S. An election is coming soonish! I can feel it in my bones! Yaaay!
P.P.P.P.P.S. I have a new Compassion child, named Daniel José Jaminez Romèro. He likes soccer, his grandpa, and playing group games! He's pretty much my Colombian twin except that he's 5 years old (pictured above; sooo cute!!!!!!!).
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Most postscripts ever! I love hyperlinks.

Learning Wisdom

Growing up as a Christian, I’ve heard more than a thousand sermons in my life, and have come across an awful lot of theological concepts and contentions. I love learning about God, but I think some things have to be felt and experienced to become part of one’s reality. I can hear something, and believe it to be true, but sometimes it’s not totally internalized until I recognize on my own. Being told something I acknowledge as true is not equivalent to knowing it in my heart (however cheesy that sounds). I’ve been reading through Job this week, and my devotions have emphasized the wisdom that Job gained through his extreme misfortune. Job’s life is such a great illustration of gaining wisdom experientially. In the midst of a brutally harsh time, friends brought him the advanced knowledge of their time in an effort to help him through his pain. This knowledge, however, was insufficient to alleviate his heartache. As one writer puts it, “Having hit the bottom of depression, Job begins to limp towards the light as he realizes that there are some questions we can never fully answer on a human level. What saves Job is not a philosophical breakthrough, but a fresh and life-changing encounter with the God he thought had abandoned him.”

This has been true for me over the past few months as well, not that I was anywhere near depression. A few years ago, a study was conducted on the group of people that psychologists refer to appropriately as “very happy people.” There’s definitely a genetic predisposition to acute happiness (it has to do with dopamine and other fun neurotransmitters), and I’m pretty sure that Jess and I have at least some of these genes. Thus, I’m not used to being less than pretty cheerful most of the time, like I was for some of last term. My job was getting increasingly ludicrous while I simultaneously felt so weighed down trying to keep up with school, family, volunteering, church, friends, my relationship with God, and improving my mind and character. I would read something in my Bible or a favourite book that I normally would have found delightful, but didn’t get that much out of it. I was generally content, but it took energy for me to be truly joyful, and I felt stagnant and stunted spiritually. Like most rough patches, though, this time passed, and I learned so many things deep down as God brought me back to my normal self. As much as I read, discuss, and brood over things, it’s only through God that the truth is really instilled in me, just as it was for Job around 4,000 years ago. I love that our God is so steadfast and unchanging as the source (and embodiment) of truth.

Over the weekend, I was at a session on preaching to the postmodern mind, and the speaker emphasized the value of walking alongside the church as opposed to preaching at them. Rather than simply telling this “postmodernal” generation what it means to walk a Christian journey, actually journeying beside them and wrestling with questions and struggles allows the church to be a relevant and authentic community. This community, Dr. Bob suggests, needs to be willing to acknowledge Sometimes it seems as if Christians shy away from asking questions, and being OK with not knowing the answers to some of those questions. Rob Bell writes, “A Christian doesn’t avoid the questions; a Christian embraces them. In fact, to truly pursue the living God, we have to see the need for questions. Questions are not scary. What is scary is when people don’t have any. What is tragic is faith that has no room for them… A question by its very nature acknowledges that the person asking the question does not have all of the answers. And because the person does not have all of the answers, they are looking outside of themselves for guidance. Questions, no matter how shocking or blasphemous or arrogant or ignorant or raw, are rooted in humility. A humility that understands that I am not God. And there is more to know.” Bell goes on to describe Abraham’s questioning of God, and points out that instead of getting angry, God seems to engage with Abraham all the more. Perhaps God desires us to be people who don’t just sit there and mindlessly accept whatever comes their way.

It was once said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” How true that is sometimes. A lot of my growth as a Christian has simply been applying already-gained knowledge. At times, I begin to feel like the rest of my walk with God is looking at the same facts in a different light, and living out what I already know to be true more fervently. This makes me sad because one of my super-duper favourite things to do is to learn. Thankfully, God consistently shows me that I’m a piddly-brained squat, and there are many more lovely and beguiling things to stuff into my little mind. I have dozens of pages of notes in my journal from Break Forth filled with ideas and stories that are fresh to me, and remind me that there’s no limit to how much I can grow (spiritually at least; I stopped growing physically at the age of 19). I find it so encouraging to think of the rest of my life as an opportunity to constantly be learning and applying what I learn. I love words with “en” prefixes: encourage, enchant, enamour, engender, enliven, encompass, endure, enwrap, enjoy, enable, encapsulate…). These words depict actions of actively creating some sort of state, whether it is one of liveliness, love, joy, etcetera. I strive to engage in some of these en- words, but also to experience them.

My devotions last weekend took me to 2 Kings and the story of Elisha en-couraging his servant with truth and prayer. It’s not so much that encouragement is just making someone feel better and rosy about a difficult situation, but rather it’s giving them courage to face that situation. I don’t know that my life is going to be all smooth sailing, and I’m almost certain that it won’t be, but I do know that God will encourage me through anything and everything. He’ll give me the courage to trust in Him, to do something bold, to put my fears and concerns into His hands, to be honest and vulnerable about where I’m at, and to have joy despite my circumstances. With this courage, I can step past my fears and have faith that God will be there through it all, and that most of the things that I am fearful about have only ephemeral significance. There’s something so powerful about the power of the Bible and prayer to encourage. I don’t buy into the idea that our painful moments are a result of God shaping our character and teaching us a lesson; maybe some of these times are directly from God, I can’t be sure. But Genesis 3 tells us that it’s because of our sin that we experience anguish and discouragement. I do know, however, that God can use our hardships to build our character and teach us lessons, and I know with certainty that He wants us to know His encouragement and love in these times.

Despite not feeling tired at the current moment, it’s time that I make the short journey over to my pillows. My body has realized that it’s a 20-something in the past few months, and correspondingly has decreased my propensity for nonsomnia. I’ve adapted surprisingly well to needing more sleep, I must say, but it still feels absurd to go to bed when I feel like reading or dancing or writing. I was exhausted for most of today, but got a pretty decent second wind after watching the incredibly entertaining American Idol auditions in Los Angeles. There’s nothing like the mortification of deluded American singers to revive one’s spirit (in truth, it’s kind of pathetic that I enjoy watching people embarrass themselves, but it’s absolutely hilarious). My parent’s small group isn’t meeting at our house for once, so our usual Wednesday night cleaning was deemed unnecessary. As a consequence, our basement remains in a state of sorry disarray; I’ll have to tend to it before heading off to school tomorrow. On the tangent of walks to school, the snow was just beautiful today. The snowflakes were the size of Cheerios at one point, and it’s refreshing to have a fresh coat of snow on the ground, although poor Jess had to scrape off all the University-student-trampled snow on our front walk. As a final unelegant segue, I shall mention that my courses right now are pretty much awesome with the exception of my evolutionary psych class with the disdainful Dr. Snyder. Who yells at people for reading at the beginning of class? Who states outrightly that Christianity is wrong? Who believes that any “good” human act is in some way a selfish act? Dr. Snyder, that’s who. I’m grateful that most profs are infinitely more kind and open-minded and sanguine.

Some Break Forth ’07 Thoughts (Lots! Rhymes with Thoughts!)
- God’s justice for all people is not retribution; it’s mercy and grace (resultingly, He wants us to care well for the people who God says are precious)
- the more I read about God, the less I know for sure, but the more I know God
- Jesus is quite literally the way; He is the journey, the road we walk on, the path that we follow (not just the destination)
- Christians don’t save anyone; He sends us out to the world because that’s where He will meet us
- He sends us out into the world because that’s where the Kingdom is; when Jesus said “the Kindgdom is near” He didn’t only mean that in a temporal sense, but in the sense that it’s right here, close enough to touch, and He’ll meet us there
- just as Christ was Jesus in human form, so too is Christ in us; thus, He says to us just as He said to Jesus, “you are my child, I love you, and am pleased with you”
- “you are my child” we love when we see parts of ourselves in our children, and it is the same with us
- as children of God, God delights in seeing His truth, His beauty, His love, His justice, His mercy… in our lives
- “I love you” God IS love, and just as He loves an alcoholic homeless person, so too does He love us, and we learn this “out there”
- “I am pleased with you” we bring God immense pleasure, He gives us stuff knowing full well that we’ll abuse it because of His grace (Derek with the $1000 that he frittered away in Vancouver)
- St. Ignatius and Paul teach to end the day with a “prayer of examination” where we end the day seeing what we did well (Christians rarely do this; we’re encouraged to feel guilty and not reinforce ourselves)
- we are free from condemnation in Christ – when we’re full of the Holy Spirit
- the tension of seeing our faults leads us to two possible conclusions (a) get rid of God in our reality (b) repent and live corresponding to God’s ways
- there is a cognitive dissonance (between what we do and what we want to do)
- in prayer, we should indeed make our requests known to God, but first and foremost we need to “centre down on Jesus”
- the difference between quietness and stillness is subtle but considerable
- Phil 3:13-14 with the presence of Christ in you, you can press onwards
- we are not what we were (thankfully), we are not we’re going to be, but we’re pressing onwards
- let in the affirming, cleansing, purifying Christ
- the feeling of guilt is at the heart of religion (not Christianity)
- Tony as a runner lacked will and strength, but when the Spirit is in you, the Spirit works in you
- don’t condemn yourself, don’t focus on the dark sides of humanity, but instead let the Spirit come into you and empower you
- like Cait, he doesn’t like praying publicly; it’s hard to be aware of what you’re saying to Jesus while you’re talking to others
- “if you wait on the Lord, He will renew you” (strength) and “in quietude and stillness He will come to you” (let Him invade, penetrate, saturate; it is then that He will empower you “to will and to do His good pleasure”)
- when we know we’re a child of God, we know His importance, His significance, His value
- He is our Abba, we have that intimacy with Him; we become an heir of God when Christ is in us, and we feel the things that Jesus feels
- we feel heartbroken for those who are broken, we see others as God does; we inherit His feelings for others, His compassion, sense of justice, love, understanding
- when we were born, we were predestined to do great and wonderful things, the destiny prescribed for us is carved out: the question is, are we going to live it out?
- when you get involved in ministry, you change, you sense God’s presence
- “praxis” is the dialectic of how what we do conditions what we believe, but similarly, what we think and believe influences what we do (the zealous Christian fakers who became actual zealous Christians)
- the friend who did loving things for the disgusting Arthur Forbes was seduced into loving Arthur Forbes
- “I don’t mind being a Christian up to a point…” do we want our lives to mean something? we might be believers, but are we disciples?
- Satan believes in Jesus; we have to let Christ come in and surrender, allow ourselves to call him Abba
- the Bible is full of calls for social justice; it’s our duty as Christians to work towards the end of racism, poverty, sexism…
- in a certain sense, the Beatitudes say blessed are those who strive for justice
- a Christian must be committed to love and justice (there are 2,000 verses about doing good for the poor)
- evangelical means: we adhere to the doctrines of the Apostle’s Creed and have a very high view of Scripture (we see it as an error-free book), and believe in the inner transformation of mind and heart and soul by letting Christ into your life
- Charles Finney invited “the invitation” to the front of the sanctuary, but less known is the fact that he got the anti-slavery movement and the feminist movement started (the first feminist meetings were held in churches in Niagra, NY)
- Finney would say that if someone didn’t sign up for either the anti-slavery movement or the feminist movement, that they weren’t being very serious about Jesus (how true!)
- churches are often set up to prepare us to die, but Jesus wasn’t about that; He prayed “let Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”
- we must define the Kingdom of God
- sometimes we do one or the other: transform people or transform society
- prayer is not informing God, but making requests know to God (but as Romans 8 reminds us, the Holy Spirit repackages what we say – don’t be afraid to make a stupid prayer)
- Kierkegaard warned to beware of what you pray for; God isn’t a transcendental Santa
- the Reformation established that we’re saved by grace, not by good works, but we left a lot of good things behind, some of which are ideas about prayer such as the prayer of examination
- Protestantism is really into beating people up, there’s often a sado-masochistic relationship between a speaker and their audience
- however, only when we’re affirmed are we able to handle the wrong we’ve done, and then (and only then) go through the day confessing, and He will forgive you and cleanse you
- my sins are forgiven (done in the past on a cross) but cleansing is what Jesus does to you in the present tense in your life
- “I Am” He always is, all of time is present tense for Him, all time is compressed into His eternal now
- when Jesus was on the cross, He was comprehending now; He was contemporaneous with now; He can empathize with us right here and now
- He who knew no sin became sin on the cross; that’s why it was so painful for Him: He who loathes sin had all sin transferred to Him and conversely His righteousness to us
- we must keep in mind that sin isn’t covered by “cheap” grace; it pains Jesus for us to sin (it’s free, but very much the opposite of cheap)
- John 14-15 He will be in us
- Christ has always been, He was incarnated in Jesus; the same way that the Spirit was in Jesus, so too will Jesus be in us
- our bodies are the temple of the Lord, it’s a dirty temple; we don’t choose Him, He chose us; the Holy Spirit fills us when we are cleansed (Romans 1: anyone who says it’s a choice is stupid, though not bad)
- when a person becomes spiritually actualized, the thoughts and feelings of Jesus become real in you
- the fact that we’re all so safe in church and our faiths today indicates that something is wrong (Romans 8 again – faith is not just a ticket to Heaven!)
- two sets of values in our society are in diametrical opposition, but far too often the church has tried to synthesize them: the worldly quest for status and reputation, and the Christ-like rejection of status and worldly ambitions
- Mark 10, 1 John 3:17-18, Phillippians 2 (Jesus made Himself of no reputation, there is no question that Jesus would never own a BMW, we need to stop justifying lifestyle choices such as these
- the lifestyle of affluence is so counter to what Jesus taught; we need to embrace a simple lifestyle instead
- as the Quakers say, “Live simply so that others can simply live”
- there’s absolutely nothing wrong with making a lot of money (excepting ethics, etcetera), but there is something wrong with keeping it
- piety isn’t what Jesus wanted for us – Romans tells us to clothe our enemies, overcome evil with good: it’s not that Christianity has been tried and failed, but it’s been tried and been found to be difficult
- the Mark and Luke Beatitudes differ on the way “poor” is described; in one, it’s “poor in spirit” (those without Jesus, those with weak spirits), while in another, it’s “poor” as in without wealth (those with physically very little)
- Jesus desires for us to pursue both of these aims
- “blessed are those that mourn” for the poor, for the boys watching you eat your meal, for those who have gotten the short end of the stick
- “blessed are the meek” we cannot change the world by coercion, otherwise Jesus would have come as a Caesar; He wasn’t about gaining power (this can’t be done through political action, unlike what many Christians in North America believe)
- when we vote, we don’t represent Jesus, we try to be spirit-led; saying otherwise is untrue, and self-centred
- Jihadists aren’t acting out in the name of politics, but rather they’re doing these things in the name of religion
- it comes down to living out the Sermon on the Mount
- George Bernard Shaw once said “God created man in His image, but so often Americans have done the reverse” (how true)
- the idea of hating the sin, and loving the sinner gets it wrong; hate your own sin (deal with the beam in your own eye)
- I'm sick of typing now, and this list has reached a ridiculous length; will perhaps finish in the next entry


P.S. I’m having paranoid imaginings of serial killers in my basement right now. Jess is asleep and I’m too afraid to go scope out the serial killer situation in the family room. However, typing this out and seeing how silly it looks is reassuring in some way. Hopefully I will be alive tomorrow morning.
P.P.S. Tony Campolo is a beautiful, beautiful man.
P.P.P.S. Someone just walked past my window (like right in front of it), and it wasn't anyone who lives in my house. They definitely fit the profile of a serial killer. Aaaaah!