The Constant Wanderer

Several people have told me that I sound angry or bitter in my last post. My response to that is: I'M NOT ANGRY OR BITTER ... haha. Now that's settled, let's risk sounding critical and judgmental with the following post. One of the fears I have for the modern church is that in order to penetrate into the mainstream, the chuch is diluting its message and portraying an unbalanced view of the Gospel. In our strive to change the common stereotype that Christians are intolerant and conservative, churches becoming more and more vague about its beliefs and tenants. Please don't misunderstand, I am all for being more culturally relevant and reaching out to the masses, but not at the cost of compromising our values. Yes, Jesus reached out to the outcasts and "sinners," and we should do the same by displaying love rather than condemnation. But even when Jesus saved the adulterous woman from being stoned in John 8, He said to her after the crowd left, " Neithe...

Here are two of my pet-peeves: 1) When people make unsubstantiated claims about some obscure subject without even taking two seconds to think and confirm it with reality 2) When people, after hearing someone make a claim about something, quickly accepts it as truth without taking time to think whether it has any basis I am not sure which group of people annoy me more, but I just can't stand it when I see that happen. This probably has to do with the fact that almost everyone in our society have developed ADD. No one wants to take some time to think about anything anymore. People just want to suck up knowledge like a vacuum, without digesting any part of it themselves. Sadly, this reality has seeped into the Christian community as well. More often than not, people don't think through their beliefs as they should. They have no desire to engage with theology, to mull over topics they deem too hard to grasp. It's true that we may never fully understand the Trinity or pi...

During my college days I took a number of psychology classes to fulfill my elective requirements. Not only were they entertaining, they also made me realize how fragile a personÂ’s mind is and how easy it is to manipulate them (Not that I ever use any of my knowledge to play mind games with people of course). My first psych class was taught by Dr. Maas , a world renown sleep researcher. For the majority of the semester, he would convince us that an normal person needs an average of 9 hours of sleep each night to function optimally. If that were true, I would have been functioning sub-optimally almost all my life! Sad, isn't it? For the past two weeks, I have been adding to my sleep debt: sleeping later and later. This turned out to be not good for me especially when I have tons of things on my mind. So all this emotional tiredness and physical tiredness drained the life out of me. I could tell that I couldn't focus or hold my thoughts together ... I become a walking zombie. ...

"How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light." Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez I can't begin to explain how deeply this resonates with my heart. Life is easy when things are black and white, when boundaries are clearly defined, when you know exactly where you are heading. Sadly, life is never that simple or direct. For the past week, I've been wallo...

It's been almost one week since the accident, and I still feel myself going through the typical stages of grieving for my dead Camry. Since it wasn't practical to spend a couple thousand dollars fixing an old car, we donated it to the Red Cross . It's such a consolation to know that it's still doing some good even after its death. (I came across a great page while trying to find a link to the stages of grief ... click here ... now read the the page replacing the word "pet" with "car." Haha I find it hilarious.) Sometimes you just need to let go, so I went out and bought myself a new car! Honestly, I still feel pretty guilty as if I was over indulging, but since I spend 1.5 hours each day driving to and from work, I don't feel quite as bad. So here she is, my new 2006 Acura TSX. The challenge now is to give my car a name. Some people, like my sister, find it weird that I would want to name my car, but isn't it the normal thing to do? ...

The Good News: I went to my first wedding of the year last Saturday and I had a blast! Weddings are always mood lifters, you really can't do much better than celebrating the union of two people, especially when they are your friends. Just look at Jennie and Andy ... aren't they such a cute couple? Whenever I go to a wedding, I always feel this sense of hope and lingering joy. Even though human unions are but a faint representation of our eventual union with God, it is still a beautiful picture of love and faithfulness. Two people swearing an everlasting vow to be devoted to each other through the good times and bad, how awesome is that? Luckily for me, I have another 5 weddings to go to this year, making that a total of 6 weddings this year. Next up: Matt & AJ: April 25th! I'm already excited. It was such a good time because I got to see a lot of old friends too. The more I think about it, the more miss my college friends. Yea, they are a bunch of freaks and we...

I happen to LOVE Tim Keller. Here's an article about him on NYTimes several weeks ago. When I was in East Asia, Keller would preach to us almost every Sunday through my trusty MP3 player. I listened to him for two years before I finally saw him face to face when I visited Redeemer last July. I can still remember how I couldn't focus on the message that first Sunday because he looked so much different than how I pictured him in my head for two years. Preaching the Word and Quoting the Voice By Michael Luo , Published: February 26, 2006 In the twilight of the biggest snowstorm in New York City's history, the pews of a rented Baptist church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan were packed for the Rev. Timothy J. Keller's fourth sermon of the day. About 4,400 people attend the church; many joined after the Sept. 11 attacks. The 600 or so who braved the snow for the evening service got what they had come to expect — a compelling discourse by Dr. Keller, this time on Jesu...

and you will see the world. Hmm ... it sounds like something taken straight out of a cheesy chick flick, but ironically it's something that I believe in. Perhaps it's more than just the eyes, but a mix of non-verbal communication, observation, and intuition. There is just so much you can gather by looking deeply into someone's eyes. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect someone to know exactly what's going on inside my head with just a look. After all, most of us aren't mind readers. I just think that if you're keen, observant, and intuitive enough, then you should be able to grasp a general sense of what's going on inside someone's mind. If you don't already, try really looking into someone's eyes for a change.