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| As the sun began to peek over the horizon, the tiny white car speed towards it's destination. The passengers watched the colors, first a simple red haze, and slowly, the colors expanding into orange and white, illuminating the brilliant blue of the canopy sky.
"The reason I love the sunrise, is that it reminds me of the flag," the passenger in the front stated. "It looks like the French flag," she specified.
Upon closer observation, the girl in the back realized the truth to her mother's statement. It did, in fact, resemble the French flag. The deep red followed by a brief light ring, before the rich blue of the sky was lit.
The girls heart went out to a land she had once called home. Yet, here, as she drove towards her elder brothers house to celebrate the holidays, she realize that this too, was home. And in retrospect, neither were. Her goal was not to dwell on the earth eternally. She was in pursuit of something great, something far beyond the physical. A land which one day, should could call her own, where her Lord dwells and reigns sovereign, forever.
This morning we're on our way to Hot Springs to visit my brother and his family for a few days. It's Thanksgiving, and oh, how there is much to be thankful for.
When I was little, my sisters and I used to play a game to keep our spirits positive. If we said something negative about someone, something or some event, we automatically had to say five good things about whatever or whomever we criticized. It came to a point that we started to just say the positives (sometimes through gritted teeth), for fear of having to say five of them. Then slowly, it became a way of thinking.
I wish that I could always be perfect in positive thinking, always seeing the good in people, giving people the benefit of the doubt, and being able to see where things might lead that will inevitably turn out for God's greater and higher purpose. While I might not be perfect in my pursuit, it is, none the less, a goal. To be able to look past the physical and the circumstantial into the hearts of men, and into the plan of God. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not Christ, and I do not have His miraculous abilities.) Yet simply, I want to see things the way Jesus saw them, and see people with a pure heart and with pure motives. | | |
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This weekend I was blessed to go to Jal and be a part of Bob Fowler's 80th Birthday party as the photographer. I really enjoyed getting to spend Saturday with their family (my mom's brother's wife's family :: winks :: ).
Here are a few shots of Anabelle, my 1st cousin's daughter. She looks like a porcelain doll! | | |
| I am fully persuaded that the occasional trying of something new and different is heathy for ones person. Upon this conviction I set out today to do that very thing. After a few hours at a different coffee shop than normal, at which I drag a Java Something (which I'd never tried before), I went to the Asian Market on 50th to find something new.
When I lived in France there was a little Asian market right down the street from my flat. I'd go there on occasion and buy random soft drinks (whose titles I could not read) just for the fun of experiencing something I'd never experienced before. Sometimes it turned out to be good. Sometimes, not quite so good. (Hint : Licorice flavored pop is not appealing to most peoples taste buds.)
While going into an Asian market might not have been the new, it was somewhere I could expect to find an array of things I'd never tasted before. So, I rummaged through the isles, back and forth, trying to decide what to choose.
After a few minutes of browsing I came upon rice sheet. Thin pieces of pastry used in making spring roles or nems. That was it! I was going to make something new! Something I'd never tried to make. I read the directions on the back of the package. (If you've ever heard of Engrish, you'll know why the directs didn't help much.) And the only person I know who knows how to make nems is a sweet Vietnamese woman who lives in Paris. So without much help from the directions or my Parisian friend, I tried to decipher the ingredient list, and gather what I thought I needed.
 With everything in hand I still wanted to try a food I'd never tasted before. I walked around seeing many interesting things. Though the pickled lemons, curry powder and frozen fish didn't seem like great "let's try that!" foods, so I headed towards to snack-food isle. Chips. Those are always different tasting depending on culture. The bright orange bag that caught my attention read : "Shrimp flavored Chips - Hot Garlic". Voila! My taste test of the evening. (As I'm writing this I've noticed on the bag a stamp indicating that the chips are 5 months out of date. Pray I don't die.)
Coming hope I set out to create my masterpiece. I looked up various recipes, got a good feel for how to make a nem, and then set to work. I boiled the noodles, cut up the carrots, found some seasonings I though might work (though not the ones instructed), and ground the meet. Once the ingredients were together I wet the rice sheet. (The first one flopped. Mainly because I didn't realize how sticky it became and accidently folded it up on itself.) Adding the stuffing to the second sheet, I rolled it to the best of my abilities. Seven tries later, the stuffing didn't fall out and Becca, my roommate and I, had a meal.
While the filling was not up to Vietnamese standards, it was in fact edible. With a little fish sauce on the side, and some shrimp chips, the meal went down quite well. Next time, I'll try some more ingredients, but for now, I am happy to report, I tried something new and it felt great!
PS - The photo isn't of my nems. | | |
| "Jim was responsible for getting speakers for the weekly meetings of the Foreign Missions Fellowship. He was not satisfied, however, with the emphasis that some of them had been placing on 'leadership' and training for the mission field. He wrote to me:
Everybody who comes to FMF these days tells us that we must be more educated than the past generation of missionaries. There is not a word in the New Testament about this 'training for leadership.' There all the training is for being a servant of everyone you meet. Training to learn to follow, not to lead. But we must have "Christians who are leaders you know.' Jesus said, 'He that is first shall be last.' 'It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master.' That is the sort of training that we need, to be as He is, sharing His rejection even be well-meaning Fundamentalist." - Shadow of the Almighty
"You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be fist among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." - Mark 10:42-45
"But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called 'teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." - Matthew 23:8-12
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|  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord."
The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He who was and who is and who is to come, the Almighty. Is there any other point to our existence? Is there any other reasons for moving forward on this linear plain we know as time? From the very first moment He was the subject. On the last day, He will be the object.
How does and should that one realization, that He is the center of the universe, affect my life? How should I react to that? Not merely on an emotional level but on the extensive level of my everyday speech, actions, and choices. How does it affect what I think about when I'm driving to school? How does that make a difference in the conversations I participate in? What career I pursue? Who I make friends with? How I live?
It should affects everything! From the first thought when I awake, to the things I ponder as I lay my head down at night. He affects my friendships, my speech, my actions, my entertainment, my occupation, my life! Through and through.
What else matters?
When it is all said and done, and you are lying in a hospital bed ready to die, what else will matter besides eternity? When the last trumpet sounds, what will people have on their minds? The economy? The latest fashion? The next episode of Lost? NO! He will be all that matters.
So why isn't He all that matters now?
The goal : That He is everything. From A to Z, 24-7, day in day out. | | |
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