Unswerving Hope

Mr. and Mrs. Cain

2010-06-23T10:43:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was Mike and Joni’s wedding, and it was so epic. 700 confirmed guests (though there was more like 750 there…), with volunteers cooking 400lbs of the best Hawaiian spare ribs ever tasted, several hundred bread roles and lbs of rice, hundreds of cupcakes, a 7-course Chinese dinner for the family after the reception, and 1 very very happy bride and groom.

Mike’s been an incredible friend and I couldn’t think more highly of Joni his wife. I’m so excited at what God will do through their marriage!

The Butler Legacy

2010-06-23T10:39:00.001-07:00

Ahh the Butlers. Today they’re flying to Georgia to permanently take residence there and start an African American ministry in Athens.

I honestly can’t image the UofA ministry without them. Lori has been here since I set foot on the campus my freshman year as a student, and Dustin has been here since my junior year (though he was around a bit my sophomore year visiting). I’ve loved them as staff, and when I joined them their friendship to me and Ariel only increased.

I look forward to how God will use them in Georgia. God’s hand is clearly on their life and Ariel and I both dearly love them.

Dustin and Lori- we’ll miss you.

Yesterday we packed up their house into a Truck they rented. Everything in their entire house fit into an 8’x9’x9’ space, which is actually pretty incredible. Here’s some pics as proof.

Craigslist

2010-04-09T23:29:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I completed my first post on Craigslist – A broken camera. Today, I received my first inquiry about it. I copied it below:

CALL ME
CHECK OUT.
275-5618
EDDIE
THANK YOU

Needless to say I will probably not be following it up.

What state am i in…?

2010-03-11T11:59:00.001-08:00

Bug

2010-02-10T12:25:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Bryce showed me how to change spark plugs. It was epic. And saved me almost $400.

Camelback

2010-02-10T11:56:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we celebrated my dad’s 50th Birthday by hiking camelback mountain, playing 5 games of bowling, eating tons of food, and enjoying the hot tub with a slight drizzle. It was great!

Kevin joined us for the hike, but he didn’t need the 18 rest breaks me and my dad used…

Prayer blog updated

2010-02-06T09:44:00.000-08:00

Updated my prayer blog. Check it: http://prayforuofa.blogspot.com/

When the Gnagey’s Come to Visit…

2010-01-08T13:32:00.001-08:00

Klein Gnagey, Ariel’s bro, is visiting for the week. We all remember what happened the last time the Gnagey’s came:

This visit’s incident was confined to the face, and only involved a sharp rock.

But in all honesty, it’s been a really fun time having Klein here.

Top 10 Highlights from this past year

2009-12-28T16:13:00.001-08:00

1. Getting Married

2. Having flexible jobs where, despite Ariel working nights for the year, we enjoyed time together and even a handful of great vacations together.

3. “Through the Bible in a Summer” ended up taking me 5 months, but getting hit with a whirlwind of Bible all at once was one of the most enjoyable and eye opening studies I’ve done.

4. Working with Reed and Micah this past semester, and becoming better friends with them. They’re two super enjoyable guys and it’s been fun to get more into their world.

5. Where things are at the end of this semester with the ministry. God' has brought in a great freshman class who are saying things like, “I want to pray for my hall and family over break,” “I’d be interested in memorizing scripture with you,” “Let’s next semester do something together to reach out to my floor.” I’m especially excited about one student I’m friends with whose grown up in the church and I’ve had the opportunity to share the Gospel with but is carefully considering how real he considers his faith. It excites me to see students who don’t take their faith for granted or who want to be lukewarm, but rather who are interested in all or nothing.

6. For my birthday Ariel took me up to Sedona. Sitting on a balcony at starbucks looking at the red rocks in the morning with a slight rain was one of my favorite times.

7. I got bit by a rattlesnake. It sucked, but really, how many people can say that?

8. We’re having a baby! just kidding… seriously though, not true.

9. Not passing out while giving my first Nav Night talk.

10. Despite all my close friends moving away after college, I was able to spend significant time with all of them. From visiting Kurt and Heather in CO, to seeing Thart at the Glen and vacationing in Hawaii with him Meaghan and Kmomo, seeing Scraw at Nav functions, watching Tim Lin get married, and sitting next to Mike on a 6 hour plane ride.

Tim Lin has a wife!

2009-12-28T15:10:00.001-08:00

pictures from the trip:

View Full Album

I love bugs

2009-12-25T21:21:00.001-08:00

Upon arriving at home I realized Ariel’s bug battery was totally dead. Turns out it’s harder than I thought to find a set of jumper cables on Christmas day…

Circle K – Open, no jumper cables

Safeway – Open, no cables

Auto Zone – Closed

Target – Closed

Walgreens – Open, might be out of stock, associate looks, found! But I’m already heading in the wrong direction so I continue along until…

Cheveron – Open, LAST pair of jumper cables!

Hoorah!

Highlights from Hawaii

2009-12-25T21:19:00.001-08:00

Poke and Shave Ice with Mike and Joni when they picked us up from the airport (Poke is Ahi marinated sushi, and shave ice is like heaven).
Staying in a fun hotel with Ariel
Getting handed a buy one-get one free coupon booklet our first night in Honolulu. Which we used. A lot. :)
Staying in a perfectly adequate hotel with our friends
Walking to, hiking, and walking back from Diamond Head (total: 8miles)
Actually being there for John Armstrong’s post about being a real surfer. I too never got up and was on a little 6’ short board.
Seeing Tim Lin’s intense glare through the entire wedding ceremony. He did break into a smile once :). I think he was really concentrating.
Steven’s “second best speech ever” that most of the people couldn’t hear because the speaker wasn’t loud enough.
Leonard’s malasadas (a freshly baked filled donut with macadamian nut goodness. I imagine this is what was hanging on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden, and that’s why Eve couldn’t resist.)
Driving back from the North Shore on the Windward side and enjoying the most fun dinner ever with all our friends, eating an incredible pork sandwich, watching the sun set over the ocean, listening to our monotone waitress say “sure” like a dozen times.

Cam-bowl(s)!!

2009-12-12T18:54:00.001-08:00

Today was the inaugural Mullet vs. Soups house football throw down. It was epic. Score: Mullet 40ish, Soups 7.

View Full Album

December 1st

2009-12-02T10:28:00.001-08:00

In honor of the first day of December Ariel and I celebrated by turning our heater on to 65.

A bit more celebratory was our first annual watching of White Christmas with peppermint hot chocolate while wrapping the presents we bought on black Friday. :)

Birthday Week

2009-11-18T14:49:00.001-08:00

For my birthday my wonderful wife took me to Sedona for 2 days of rest and relaxation. It was the perfect vacation-hiking, great weather, starbucks in walking distance from the hotel, great food, and time catching up with Ariel after she worked 5 out of the last 6 days.

Collegiate Staff Conference

2009-11-05T13:44:00.001-08:00

A lot of work went into this staff conference. 525 Collegiate Navigators staff embers flew to Florida all last week for a time of refreshment, encouraging speakers, and friends. I was able to reconnect with my good friends Mike and Tim from University of Hawaii, as well as Scraw from UC Long Beach.

Praise God Ariel was able to join me for all 8 days of the conference. It was so encouraging being able to experience this with her!!! She was able to really connect with a handful of other staff members in our same EDGE class and really had a great time.

One of our highlights was being able to interact with other couples our age who are on staff. It’s been difficult to find fellowship in Tucson with other young couples. It seems my EDGE class has the most married couples in it yet (almost more than single staffers actually…) and we enjoyed living with 2 other couples and sharing meals with several throughout the conference.

Jerry Bridges (author of several books) shared devotionals with us every morning over the Greatness of God, the Holiness of God, and the Love of God. They were some of my favorite times of the conference. Also a highlight was Mike Jordahl (former president of collegiate navs) sharing on the simplicity of a passion for Jesus. He challenged us to not allow anything to take that place, whether good or bad. Not other ministry related things, busyness, time constraints, or results. Both Ariel and I fell blessed, cared for, encouraged and refreshed as a result of this time.

Mulleteers

2009-10-22T14:13:00.001-07:00

Trick or Treat from the guys at the Mullet.

Through the Bible in an [extended] Summer

2009-10-22T12:38:00.001-07:00

Today marks a significant day for me as I actually finished a goal I had previously set! That’s pretty rare in my life…

5 months, 14 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes ago I set off to read through the Bible chronologically looking at some specific questions. I am looking forward to reviewing my notes and sorting out what I felt like God was showing me through this time.

Deb Masshoff, a NavRep who leads our bi-weekly staff Bible Study in California, keeps reiterating that the entire Bible is a story about God working through Jesus Christ. I’ve never found that more true than now. God’s the main character. Not us.

Learning Experience…

2009-10-21T15:34:00.001-07:00

Last night I made Oyakudon. It was good. I nearly set off the fire alarm twice and spent 3 hours from start to finish.

San Diego but not really

2009-10-14T14:50:00.001-07:00

Highlights from the Beach Camping trip this last weekend:

- At least a dozen students asked why we were taking I-10 instead of I-8 if we were going to San Diego. “easy” I said, “because we’re not going to San Diego. We’re going to south LA.” The irony? My caravan took the 8 :).

- A car of all guys from our caravan (which I won’t identify) somehow made it through border patrol not wearing any pants.

- Dustin and Bryce sumo-ing on the beach

- Richie and his bro Steven also sumo-ing in a Moreno throw-down

- Edwardo’s car breaking down at the meeting point before leaving and a group of guys pushing his car into a parking spot, with all the students staring asking themselves “…who’s going to have to ride in that car?”

- Asking the famous Scraw camping trip question to a tent full of freshman guys.

Statistics:

80 People
18 Cars
792 gallons of gas consumed
1 stingray attack
2 blown tires
8 vehicles that tried to find the beach by going east (needless to say, they got lost)
11 hours of sleep
14 hours on the beach
18 hours of driving
1000+ pictures and counting
2 students who were really, really, really sunburnt.

Credit due

2009-09-21T17:55:00.001-07:00

When I got out of the hospital my parents came down from Phoenix for the day to see how I was doing. They brought a dozen roses for Ariel for putting up with me in the hospital and this for me:

Oh yeah. be jealous :)

In other news my blood is back to normal except for my Fibrogen levels. Right now they're at 36. They're supposed to be between 200-400. We're getting there!

What I’ve been up to

2009-09-20T00:05:00.001-07:00

After a regional conference in Palm Springs I followed a friend back to Irvine for a few days to hang out with Tokyo BEST club, and namely my japanese buddy “M”.

It was a great time reconnecting with “M”, “MO”, and “Y".” We went surfing (I just watched because of my still-thin-but-getting-thicker-blood), hung out on the beach, and reconnected at a bonfire with all the other Japanese summer workers.

The funniest thing about the experience is that as soon as I returned to Tucson, that night was the kick off BBQ to a three day Utsunomia BEST club trip. I miss Japan.

snakebite update

2009-09-11T10:38:00.001-07:00

After seeing more doctors and giving more blood than I ever want to again, the verdict for now is that I can go to CA this weekend for our annual Navigators Regional Kickoff (yay!) and I don't need to get more antivenom. So that's really good! My blood is still screwy (read: really thin), but the doctor told me as long as I'm careful and avoid major activities for the next 2-3 weeks I'll be fine and it should thicken out eventually.

Thanks for your prayers!

Recovery

2009-09-08T22:35:00.001-07:00

Keep praying I recover quickly from this dumb snake bite. I’ve been dizzy and way weaker than I though i would be. Today I had to cancel 2 out of my 3 meeting time with students. It’s even more frustrating because I’m heading out of town next week and don’t feel like I’ve had much time to “sow” during this extremely valuable sowing season. Pray for energy and that God would lead clearly on who to be investing in during this precious time at the beginning of the semester.

And for your viewing pleasure, my best scar from this whole experience is in fact totally unrelated to the rattlesnake bite. While in the ambulance the EMT tried putting in an IV right when we went over a bumpy bridge. The result was an IV that slipped out, lots of blood, a ruined shirt, and a sweet bruise :)

There’s a snake in my boot!

2009-09-05T14:22:00.001-07:00

Two days ago while walking at night in flip flops down a dark paved road with Ariel’s parents I felt a surge of pain in my foot. I shake it off, pull out my cell phone and see two small blood marks on the top of my small toe, and feel my foot start to cramp and bruise.

After an ambulance ride to the ER, two IVs (one fell out over a bridge), four bottles of CroFab anti-venom, two nights in the ICU and way more opportunities to pee in a bottle than I care to remember, I was released!

Now at home my foot’s still swelled and it hurts to walk on it, but at least I can get around. Ariel's family was in town and kept me company most of the time I was in the hospital, and Ariel spent the night both nights, which I'm increadibly greatful for.

My fat swelled foot. The lines are how much it swelled at different times.

Post-Bible Study

2009-08-25T23:09:00.001-07:00

5 guys came out. It was a really good group. Praise God! Micah and Reed were both really encouraged coming away from it. 3 of the guys live on campus and are active in their dorms. Pray God would grow these men and give us favor on their dorm floors reaching out to their friends.

Ethical Question

2009-08-25T23:03:00.001-07:00

Say for instance there was a former UofA student who since graduated and was hanging out in the dorms one night with his friends. In an attempt to meet people he joins the Ping-Pong Tournament happening down the hall. Out of a group of 20, he progresses to the semi-finals.

Should the former student purposely lose, or fight to win and steal the title from the legitimate freshman residents of the dorm?

…and i will walk 5,000 miles…

2009-08-25T23:01:00.001-07:00

The lines are everywhere I walked during a typical recruitment day. Oh yeah. It’s that time of year.

Leave from house to walk to Gila dorm at 9:30am to pick up tent, gila to mall to set up tent, down the mall for free eegees, to mexican taco stand to hang with freshman I just met, back to tent for a while, random call from Richie who wreched his bike and lost a battle to the pavement, walk southwest to try and find him, return to tent, pack up tent and return it to Gila, continue to Starbucks to get an hour by myself, back to the Union for dinner with the crew, to the circle to drop Richie off at saferide, back over to Gila to pick up flyers, realize someone already picked them up and head to AZ-SO/Volleyball courts for Overflow, decide to go to Nico’s after Overflow, detour back to Gila, take a round a bout way to a parking lot, drive to Nico’s, get dropped off at House at 11:30pm.

Pray Blog (again)

2009-08-21T23:33:00.001-07:00

just updated it again: www.prayforuofa.blogspot.com

2009-08-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

My wife's up in Ohio. I'm in Tucson. I wish I could be up there.

http://amullarkey.wordpress.com/

Twitter Style

2009-08-15T16:06:00.001-07:00

Today I bought my first pair of Rainbow sandals. After walking back from campus with them looking like a penguin, I am hoping they’ll fit better soon.

“They will see His face…”

2009-08-08T20:35:00.001-07:00

On Revelations 22:4

…O Christ, He is the fountain,
The deep, sweet well of love!
The streams on earth I’ve tasted
More deep I’ll drink above:
There to an ocean fullness
His mercy doth expand,
And glory, glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

The bride eyes not her garment,
But her dear Bridegroom’s face;
I will not gaze at glory
But on my King of grace.
Not at the crown He giveth
But on His pierced hand;
The Lamb is all the glory
Of Emmanuel’s land.

O I am my Beloved’s
And my Beloved is mine!
He brings a poor vile sinner
Into His house of wine
I stand upon His merit -
I know no other stand,
Not e’en where glory dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s land.

Rev. Samuel Rutherford, Puritan, 1600-1661

For such a time as this.

2009-08-08T15:08:00.001-07:00

I think Esther 4:14 is a chilling calling verse that reveal a lot about God’s Sovereignty.

¹⁴ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

God will deliver. Period. Whether you or I do anything at all, whether my University forbids religion in the dorms, whether America socializes religion and banns Christianity, doesn’t matter. He preserved the Messianic line after 70 years captivity in Babylon. God will do his deal.

The question is, will we respond to our calling? Not to do God a favor, but to save ourselves. Do you catch the subtle reference to Eze 3? “¹⁸ When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for ^[a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood.”

So what about that is fair? Why doesn’t Mordicai give the same ultimatum to all the other Israelites, telling them “Hey if you don’t act you’ll die for your disobedience. Don’t worry though, God will save all your other Jewish friends though through some other means.” Answer: I don’t know, for whatever reason, God chose Esther. And although her responsibilities were greater, her rewards was far greater as well.

Internet Explorer

2009-08-06T14:02:00.001-07:00

If you’re still using it, please do yourself a favor and go here:

http://www.google.com/chrome

or here:

http://www.apple.com/safari/

or yes, even here:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

The Book of Daniel

2009-08-06T11:47:00.001-07:00

I’ve always had a difficult time with the book of Daniel because of the languages it was written in and crazy prophesies. It is hard for me to read it and think it was meant for anything other than a series of motivational stories about Daniel’s courage and faith in God.

But today I was reading it and had a very different thought. The book showcases God’s Sovereign work through foreign nations in a way no other book in the Bible does. Nebechadnezzer: sternly humbled before God and ends his life regarding Yahweh as the true God. Neb’s son, the last King of Bablyon, an arrogant, pompous King who dies from a fulfilled prophesy against him the night before. Cyrus, King of Persia, conqueror of Babylon, for a reason only attributed to God directing his heart, releases the Jews from captivity in Babylon and sends them back to Jerusalem along with their temple treasure to rebuild the temple. King Darius, successor of Cyrus, is yet another King who finds favor in Daniel, and seeing God close the mouth of the lions and spare Daniel’s life, also turns to God and believes Him as supreme.

Sure, the book gives a model for us to follow. But I think there’s something else going on in it that God wants us to notice.

Prayer Blog

2009-08-05T11:29:00.000-07:00

I started a prayer blog.

I will continue this blog as it's been, with a mix of serious and not so serious posts. Both Ariel and I will regularly update our prayer blog with specifics about our ministry at University of Arizona.

http://prayforuofa.blogspot.com/

David vs. Job

2009-08-05T10:43:00.001-07:00

David:

Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long (Ps. 86:1-3).

Job:

"If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit- let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless- (Job31:5-6).

Compare and contrast? Two righteous men, two very different ways of appealing to God: one on the basis of God’s goodness, the other on the basis of his own goodness. Two very different results follow:

David: “I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22).

Job: "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? (Job 40:8) “…I [Job] have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6).

Next time you read through Job take note of how Job views himself at various points throughout the book. It’s fascinating.

No wonder people are angry

2009-07-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

⁸But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the offspring of Abraham, my friend;
⁹you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
and called from its farthest corners,
saying to you, "You are my servant,
I have chosen you and not cast you off";

Hold the phone. God just called Israel his friend? God has been, at best, their adversary the past 350 years. About a hundred years ago God sent Assyria to destroy, pillage, rape, and murder Israel because of their wickedness. the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah have been belittled, ridiculed, and tormented because they've been commissioned to tell Judah their fate will be the same, and that fate its coming quickly. God will send his servant Babylon to humiliate Judah's King, burn down God's temple, and export legions of Israelites to a foreign land. Yet God uses the word friend.

And it's no wonder many people today are angry at God for such-and-such a reason. People have been fed a narrow-minded and incomplete Gospel saying God is unconditional love and nothing else. This as their shallow foundation of doctrine they simply can't fit the idea of the Lord "sending them off to Babylon" with all its hardships and despair into their paradigm of God. God winnows and sifts them for their own good, then extends a hand of friendship to them, to which they respond "No! We've already tried that solution and it didn't provide what we were looking for!" And they miss out of the full picture of Love God offers us. A love so deep he drags us into a deeper and fuller view of His glory, where we learn how much more honorable He is, and we begin to take a greater delight in that glory.

Ezekiel, ya' old crazy preacher...

2009-07-28T15:57:00.000-07:00

Today I read Ezekiel 40-48. Try as I might, I don't understand in the slightest the significance of the Temple. The new, glorious temple is mentioned in both Ezekiel and Revelations 20-21. It was constructed by Moses and the gang, beefed up by Solomon, slowly stripped by the stupid Judean kings that followed and used as tribute to Assyria and Babylon, demolished by King Neb of Babylon in 586bc, rebuilt by Ezra thanks to King Darius in 515bc-ish, (though it was a sad imitation of Solomon's), and destroyed again in 70ad by Rome. It hasn't been rebuilt since. Before the temple was annihilated Paul says "you yourselves are God's temple, and God's spirit lives in you." And the author of Hebrews adds that the Temple was a mere shadow/illustration/parable of the New Covenant, lighting the way for the One who can once and for all offer a sacrifice, meriting us perfect righteousness.

Why should the Temple be such an encouragement to Israel? Why should the Temple in Revelations be such an encouragement to us?

P.S.

2009-07-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

here's my favorite three posts for the week:

Promises

Thoughts on False Doctrine

Death & Taxes 2010

great book

2009-07-23T21:46:00.000-07:00

Some day I would like to go through this as a devotional. Its great because cahapters with the title "Incommunicable Attributes of the Character of God" are followed by "Questions for personal application," "Scrupture Memory Passage," and even a Hymn.

Jer 22:8-9

2009-07-18T16:55:00.000-07:00

⁸ "People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?' ⁹ And the answer will be: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.' "

Background: God's about to throw the smack down on his chosen people of Judah by calling Nebechadnezzer of Babylon to utterly destroy them.

I came across this in my reading today and was stuck on the idea of "Why?" Why Lord do you cause this to happen? One reason that occurred to me was: Because the Lord will not let his name be defamed.

Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Moab--they each served their own patron diety. If one was from Babylon he and his actions were associated with the god Marduk, and the reverance that person showed his god was how others saw that god. Similarly, Judah worshiped Yahweh. However over the last several hundred years their worship of Yahweh had become intermingled with Asshura poles, child sacrifice, and temple prostitution, to name a few. An outsider looking in saw this as how to worship Yahweh, and God was very, very angry.

Three years ago when I was in Japan a Christian there told me one reason it's difficult for Japanese people to become Christian is because they associate all people in America as Christians, just as we associate everyone in Israel as Jewish. The Japanese do not like the picture American's who consider themselves Christians portray, and thus, don't want anything to do with it.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. (II Cor. 5:20).

Woe to us if we call ourselves Christians and our life does not model it. We are ambassadors to a Leader who very concerned with His Honor.

Credit Cards

2009-07-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Let me describe my last hour to you

Call American Express toll free line to discuss an error about my card.

Sit through automated service.

Receptionist tells me I need to speak to a credit bural.

Call Experian.

After answering to a maze of options, I answer wrong question and the automated systems responds "good by"

Call again. Realize I need to sign up for a free credit report

Call again. Reweave through maze and get put on hold.

still on hold

Still there

almost.

finally

talk to very friendly and helpful receptionist

Call back american express new card application

Transfered to customer service.

Customer service has no idea what's going on and transfers me to "Jen" at some unknown office promising she can help.

Phone goes dead

Call customer service again and ask to be transfered to magical "Jen" lady. The person has no idea what I'm talking about.

Reexplain (for literally the 5th time) the situation. He says I need to talk to American express' credit bural. Unfortunately, they just closed 8 minutes ago (no joke).

Asked again to talk to "Jen." No luck.

Tried to explain situation [again] to customer service agent.

Hung up utterly defeated.

This really shouldn't be that difficult...

The Miracle

2009-07-07T14:20:00.001-07:00

48 hours ago this 2004 beauty suffered half a can of coke to the keyboard, thus potentially destroying my entire Funding database, among other important documents. Thankfully, the only permanent damage is a missing key and sticky keyboard. Thanks God!

Men of Whom the World was not worthy

2009-07-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/MP3CDs/ByTopic/42/363_Men_of_Whom_the_World_Was_Not_Worthy/

You can click on the link of the names and listen to/read the sermons.

A parable.

2009-06-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Once there was a great flood. It was so great that it broke the dam of a small community and threatened all who lived there. The waters continued to rise.

Inside the town lived a God-fearing man stubbernly would not abandon his house. The water grew higher and higher, and the God-fearing man climbed on top of his roof. The water level continued to rise and the God-fearing man prayed "Lord would you rescue me so I don't drown?"

Soon a neighbor rowed by in a boat and said to the God-fearing man "Hurry jump in!" But the God-fearing man sat down and said "no, I am waiting for my God to save me." Shortly thereafter another boat rowed by, manned by the coast guard. The coast guard said "Hurry, jump in!" But the God-fearing man simply said "no, I am wating for my God to save me." As soon as the boat rowed out of sight a helicopter flew overhead, and the pilot shouted "Jump in! For the water is still rising!" But the God-fearing man simply responded "no. I am waiting for my God to save me."

The water continued to rise and the man drowned. The man appeared in Heaven standing before God. A bit perplexed, the man asked God "Why didn't you save me?" God replied, "I did! It tried three times! I sent two boats and even a helicopter, but they couldn't get your attention!"

------------------------------

Does this story sound familiar? For a long time this story somehow made it to the theology shelf in my brain, and I believed it to be an accurate picture of waiting on God.

Today I was reading through several of the Psalms. The waiting on the Lord that David talks about is totally different from this story. God's plans aren't thwarted. God is not so small that a simple human rejection would nullify his great and mighty plan. Out of his mercy God rescues those who trust in Him. This story is bogus.

Two cool guys

2009-06-03T14:21:00.000-07:00

PHX

2009-06-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

34 Hours
364 Miles
7 hours of driving
60 ounces of coffee
15 ounces of ribeye
4 visits with friends

Judges

2009-05-29T12:33:00.000-07:00

portrays Israel as really stupid. They turn away, the Lord delivers with a judge, the judge redeems and rules justly for X-number of years, Israel turns away again, etc... After a time of this it presents the picture of "there being no judge in the land and everyone did what was right in their own eyes." Like a Levite priest throwing a concubine to a mob to be ravished, then cutting her into 12 pieces to send to the twelve tribes. Whoa.

Israel was commanded under Joshua to fully take the land and totally and utterly remove the foreigners, or else their pagan ideology would spread into Israel and it would be a snare to them. Upon entering the promised land Israel saw it, claimed it, and cut there losses. They hadn't totally removed the Philistines and Canaanites, but who cares? They had more land then they've ever possessed before. Manasseh, Gad and Reuben didn't even make it West of the Jordan before they claimed their inheritance.

Hebrews 11 says:

And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

C.S. Lewis says our problem isn't that the world and its pleasures are so wonderfully enticing that we are distracted from what God offers, but rather that we are far too easily pleased. The world is not so good that it competes for the goodness of what God offers, but rather we are so fallen that we can't even imagine the greatness of God and thus settle for what the world offers, thinking it is true joy.

So it is with Israel, and often times me. Reading through Joshua I was getting the picture that the Promised Land was like a modern day equivalent of Heaven. But I don't share that thought anymore. The Promised Land is good, but still not home. Israel saw the beginnings of their inheritance and settled with just that. They received the land, but not fully. They did not rout the pagan nations left, and a century later in Judges Israel sees fully the consequences of that. The Philistines enslave them. They take other nations as wives and begin worshiping their deities. The Law in the Torah is almost completely forgotten, Levi priests serve households rather than Israel and carved images instead of the Lord.

Regardless of how good this world ever is to me, I never want to lose sight that my true home is not here.

Politics take 3 - N. Korea

2009-05-29T12:29:00.001-07:00

Thanks Economist. Great cartoon, once again.

My wife said in psych class they used him as a case study for "Narcissistic."

The Prodigal Son Without Jesus

2009-05-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

A certain man had a son. And the son said to his Father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." So he divided his livelihood to him.

After many days journey the son arrived in a far country, and there wasted his possessions with wild living. Having nothing left, he longing to fill his stomach with the same pods he saw pigs eating. He said to himself, "Despite my wickedness I will return home to my Father and beg to be made a slave." So the son began the journey home.

While he was still a long way off, the Father saw the son and went to him and dragged him out to the city gates and said "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.' Then all the men of the city stoned him with stones, and he died. And so the evil was put away from among the people. And all the people heard and were afraid.

Deut. 21:18-21

True justice is a scary thing. How easy it is to take grace for granted.

God in a box

2009-05-20T11:07:00.000-07:00

just doesn't work. I just finished Numbers and was beginning to kid myself into believing whatever the patriachs asked God would grant, and that he was a jokster who enjoyed doing things like listening to Israel complain simply so that He could watch them squirm from plegues and snakes. Abram begged God to spare Sodom in 10 righteous men were found in the town. Moses presuaded God to spare Aaron after he constructed the golden calf, to spare Israel after they were stupid, and to provide healing from the vipers in the desert.

But just when I think God can be fit in a box, along comes Balaam to curse Israel. But he can only return to the King and say "Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?" With local dieties it was popular to petition them again and again until they did what you wanted. But not the Lord. He makes up his own mind. His mind doesn't change.

I used to think prayer was simply a formula: righeousness + consistant prayer = request granted.

It's not as simple as that.

Leviticus

2009-05-16T19:16:00.001-07:00

Be holy, for the Lord is Holy.

Leviticus and my ethnic friend

2009-05-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

After a little over a week I'm in Leviticus in my "through the Bible in a Summer" expedition. It's slow going...

In other news, here's a pic of a friend of mine who on an impulse decided to raise money to fly to Hawaii by singing on University. He made $42.

Thomas More

2009-05-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

"Of worldly substance, friends, liberty, life and all, to set the loss at right nought, for the winning of Christ."

~A Godly Meditaiton

Al the Repair Guy

2009-05-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

90-some years old. wicked tattoo on his arm. Retired police cheif. Blue-tooth headset savvy. Does good work fixing windows.

When I was messing with my curtains the other day I slipped on the couch and put my shoulder through the window. The temp fix was cardboard. Whoops...

Still not as bad as the vertical blinds episode...

The Gospel in Joseph

2009-05-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

The effect of guilt: there is always something to fear. God will realize the guilty one and execute judgement. At the end of every conversation with Joseph the brothers bring it back to "We have killed our brother now our evil deed has caught up to us! Surely God has found our iniquity and will bring justice." Justice is Joseph killing the brothers who sold him into slavery when he first saw them. Or when they returned for the second time. Or when the cup was found in Ben's bag. But Joseph instead spares them, loves them, and eventually feasts with them.

The situation: they are fearful that their actions a decade ago would be found out and punished by God. They go to Egypt thinking their doomed. Simeon, the second oldest and most influential outside of Reuben the oldest, probably played a major role in the plot to kill Joseph. Reuben tries to save Joseph but fails. Judah suggests to sell his own brother into slavery, even going so far to make money off him. And the result? Simeon is imprisoned for a time. They narrowly escape Egypt a second time (or so the brothers think). A cup is found in Ben's bag and he, the only innocent one among them, is sentenced to death. Judah realizes he is the one who is guilty. He sold Joseph, not Benjamin. Something inside of him changed when he realized one who was innocent is taking the death he rightfully deserves. He offers to take Ben's place.

An innocent man died for me too. That's why I love the Gospel.

And the climax? Joseph weeps with joy over his brothers when he has every right to kill them.

Gen 45:7 "And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God..."

In God's mercy he always spared a remnant of wicked, undeserving Israel. Jesus came to redeem the lives of others by a "great deliverance." Not by His will did he endure the Cross, but because God said this is the way it must be.

My buddy Scraw has been writing posts about a guy who asks several influential Christians what they would write if they were told to Twitter the Gospel. Though incomplete, this would be my answer:

I should die. But instead I'm blessed.

Spring Break (finally...?)

2009-05-08T13:44:00.001-07:00

mmm. I like the beach.

Summer Goals

2009-05-06T10:53:00.001-07:00

To read through the Bible over the Summer.

Aprox. pages: 1430

Pages needed to be read per day: 16

Pages I've read over the past 2 days: 26

...I'm already behind...

Unmanly List #86

2009-05-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

Big dude walking small dog.

politics, take-2

2009-05-02T16:01:00.001-07:00

~The Economist, KALs cartoon

I remember Bush looking quite similar as he progressed through his presidency. All I can say is I'm glad I'm not president. That's a tough job.

Pray for morality and wisdom for the president.

I Peter 1:3-9 Unpacked

2009-04-21T11:31:00.000-07:00

Demetri Martin recently wrote a 224 palindrome poem--one which says the same things both ways you read it. I think the guys kind of weird.

On a totally unrelated note, here's I Peter 1:3-9 backwards:

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

-------

The goal of our faith is our Salvation. As a result of faith in our salvation--demonstrated through loving and believing in Him though we do not see him--we are given inexpressible and glorious joy; further, if we keep faith through trials we will be given honor, glory, and praise. Our faith is worth far more than gold because it shields us from doubt and enables us to receive this Salvation, in which we have an eternal inheritance because of the resurrection of Christ, in whom we are enabled to place hope in because of the Lord's great mercy on us.

As I Thess 1:3 says:

...Your work is prompted by FAITH--witnessing about the God I've neither tangibly seen or heard but only know of through faith.

...labor is prompted by LOVE--Love the Lord first

...endurance is prompted by HOPE--Life is hard, but the inheritance given in our new life is worth these comparatively short trials.

John Newton on Acts 3:19-21

2009-04-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

Alas! I knew not what I did,

But now my tears are vain;

Where shall my trembling soul be hid?

For I my Lord have slain.

A second look He gave, which said:

"I freely all forgive;

This blood is for thy ransom shed;

I die, that thou mayest live

Thus, while His death my sin displays

In all its blackest hue;

Such is the mystery of grace,

It seals my pardon too.

With pleasing grief and mourning joy

My spirit now is filled,

That I should such a life destroy,

Yet live through Him I killed.

snow

2009-04-12T12:16:00.001-07:00

On good friday Mt. Lemmon was dumped on by a bunch of snow.

Snow in April... who would've thought...

two verses

2009-04-11T12:19:00.000-07:00

have been on my mind lately:

"My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
jer 2:13

but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
jn 4:14

for never like the Well Illustration, it sure comes to mind a lot...

I jn 5:3

2009-04-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

"Go make disciples of all Nations..."

"You will be my witnesses..."

"I give you this charge: preach the word..."

"You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant who I have chosen..."

and the kicker...

"This is love for God: to obey his commands..."

-------

I find witnessing terrifying. And frankly, i simply don't want to do it. I'm praying the Lord will change this.

Conflicting Interests

2009-04-04T12:57:00.000-07:00

As I open my web browser (Google Chrome over Mozilla by a landslide. And don't think I even considered opening Internet Explorer) and my homepage of Economist.com loaded I scanned, as usual, through the headlines.

Heading in the same Direction: America wants Europe to offer more than words of support for the new battle against the Taliban

G-Force: The G20 outcome is better than nothing, but can the IMF save the world?

India's election: Congress's great dynastic hope:

Rahul Gandhi kicks off his campaign for India's general election

and finally...

Madonna and No Child: International adoptions are not always for the best

Ready? Pop quiz. Which headline looks out of place?

Second quesiton - Out of the 4 which one story do you think I actually read? Sad, huh... There is something greatly appealing about personal, individual stories that I don't think I realize.

Spring Break long overdue

2009-03-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'll post picture soon

Around the world and back again

2009-03-28T16:13:00.001-07:00

Like Kmomo's post about recalling all the memories that come from balancing your check book over the course of a few months, so it is with laying to rest my trusted Nalgeine that I've had since High School. For fear of cancer it was tossed out and replaced with Nalgeine 2.0. But before it's last breath, let's review all the places its gone...

First time out of the country it ventured to Uganda. This was in fact the purpose of the Nalgeine, which it fulfilled excellently. It even suvived rapids on the Nile River.

Next was several trips to Mexico, namely Ensinada and Nogalas. It met the onion-field working nomads outside of Ensinada, which was pretty exciting to say the least.

Stateside, it visited the coasts of CA ( a handful spanning from San Diego to LA, to Irvine and back again). Experiencing chocolate covered frozen bananas on Balboa Island, and the luxurious Hotel de Cornado, though not in the fashion one might have preferred. It visited the beaches of Japan and 14K mountains, ski slopes and sand dunes, the atlantic, pacific, gulf of mexico and sea of Japan, Rocky Mountains and the Appalatian, historic castles and hot springs, blizzards and dust storms, Big Ben and Buckingham, weddings and funerals; refueling at Coffee shops on four continents and over a dozen states. Stickers were used to record its journies, but the harsh environments stripped the bottle of these mementos.

I wonder what the future holds for my next water bottle...

Paul Washer

2009-03-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

is really intense. Sometimes I close my eyes and think I'm listening to John Piper fuesed with Steven Crawford with a side of steroids.

However, he treats the Word with a lot of respect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cncEhCvrVgQ&playnext_from=PL&feature=PlayList&p=F09DE12C53FFEEA7&playnext=1&index=99

Crossing

2009-03-13T08:08:00.000-07:00

There was a showing of a movie called Crossing by an organization called www.linkglobal.org at our school yesterday about a North Korean who escaped into Chine in hopes of bringing back medicine and food for his child and wife with TB. They organization showing the movie said it was created from hearing the testimonies of over 100 N. Korean refugees.

I'd highly recommend anyone to see it. And if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.

2009-03-05T10:35:00.001-08:00

http://insidework.net/resources/articles/meditation-for-christian-dummies4

Crockpot goodness

2009-03-04T12:13:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this will be dinner. Usually I follow at least some sort of recepie, but not today! Chicked with Mango Curry Maranade, pinapples, mangos, green onions and some seasonings. I'll know whether it's edible in about 5 hours...

Paul, the fundraiser...?

2009-03-04T12:02:00.000-08:00

I've recently been spending my quiet times going through passages in the Bible on giving and receiving. Paul has some interesting things to say about the subject that are difficult for me to understand...

Paul is master of being anyone to everyone. He believes the two basic principles that "you should not mussel an ox while its treading grain," and "A worker is worth his wages." Yet for the Corinthians he makes it crystal clear that he has not come for their money, but rather for them. He instructs the church it is good to be generous, and though Paul has every right to demand wages from them ("For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings." Rom 15:27), but instead Paul took no more than what he absolutely needed.

Thessalonians are a different story though. I don't know what historically was going on with that church, but Paul urges them to keep to themselves, mind their own business, and work with there hands. Later he tells how he ate nothing while with them without paying for it himself. He worked night and day. He gave them the rule "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." And he urged them not to be busybodies, but rather efficient and devoted laborers.

Finally he reminds Timothy about the Ox and of what Jesus said about the worker being worth his wages.

As I continue fundraising to work full time with Navs, I have been thinking through these things more. I know I believe all this, but being so long in the fuunding process it is really seperating my simple beliefs from my solid convictions.

God's economy is so different from this world.

Biblical Masculinity

2009-02-26T10:55:00.000-08:00

Steven gave a great talk on Biblical Masculinity during the regional conference this past weekend. Despite hearing much of it in Noblemen before, I loved being reminded of principles I either forgot or are still working through.

He talked about how God created Adam and gave him the purpose of honoring/obeying Him. In addition to the command to not eat from the tree, God gave Adam two tasks: Tend the garden, and protect the women. He failed at both. The serpant was a creature Adam was given authority over, and Adam stood and watched as the serpant subverted God's command and God's natrual creation order. Adam should have put the serpant back in line, but instead remained silent.

Secondly, and the issue I've been putting a lot of thought to lately, is how Adam should have protected the woman in this situation. C.S. Lewis in his scifi book Perleandra seems to think Adam should have simply killed the snake, or else even if Eve had said "no" to eating from the tree, the snake would tempt her again the next day, and the next, and the next...

What does it look like practically for a husband to protect his wife? Where is the line between guarding her vs. allowing God to use pain and hardships as an instrument for refinement?

Irreducible Mins

2009-02-19T12:46:00.000-08:00

A few years ago our campus director and staff came up with 12 qualities they wanted to see in every student graduating from the UofA who was enrolled in Navs. Bryce talked about them a lot, but after four years I still couldn't name more than 2...

Here they are in no particular order

Devotion to Jesus
Servanthood
sharing their life with the lost
Identity
A Vision for Multiplication
Grasping the need for the body
Scripture Memory
Prayer
Money (Biblical view and wise stewardship)
Authority and sufficiency of the Word
Devotional Life
A Heart for the World

Reading back through them, they're actually pretty profound.

A big prayer of mine towards my sophmore study this semester has been "Grasping the need for the body." Unity seems to be a big issue on nearly everyone's hearts. The majority of nav nights have been talks about unity. We're studying through Philippeans, which largely is about conducting oneself in a manner worthy of a Gospel, with the predominent way being, you guessed it, unity.

One of the biggest lies I believe about unity is that it's ok to simply tolerate someone now at this time of my life. Sure it'll effect the Nav body a little, but then again we're not trying to advance the "Navigators Gospel." This is stupid thinking. There is no such thing as being a "lone-ranger" for the Gospel. Skip Gray says "you can't make it in the Gospel for the long haul if you don't have a wingman." I believe that.

Would you join me in praying this semester in particular my study and the whole of navs grows in understanding the importance of the body of Christ and living together in unity with it. So that rather than being the cynical voice which bounces from church to church always discoving the flaws, we can be a blessing to any body or group we come in contact with throughout our lives. And further, so that we can remain followers of Christ for the long run and not be picked off the Enemy twenty, forty, or sixty years down the road.

I've never done a political/economical posting before...

2009-02-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

And I guess this changes that.

I saw this cartoon in the Economist and thought it funny, sad, and remarkably true.

One of my goal's in this new year is to stay more up to date with what's going on in the economy, presidency, and world in light of politics.

Biblically Funding the Work of God

2009-01-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

is a Bible Study I'm going through [again] on biblical fundraising that Navigators provided. It's been extremely helpful and I'm very grateful to feel shepharded by the Navs through this.

One thing I've been thinking about lately is what it takes to keep our eyes fixed upon the Lord. Such verses as "Fix your eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith," the disciple who took his eyes of Jesus during the storm and started sinking, and "Those who look to the Lord are radient, their faces are never covered with shame" have been in my mind.

Qualities of one who fixes their eyes upon the Lord:

- Extol the Lord at all times

- His praise is always on my lips

- His soul boasts in the Lord

- Gethers others to glorify the Lord with him

- Desires to exalt His name forever

The constant battle seems to be between believing the Lord is good, and focusing on Him while the waves of anxiety, despair, life in general, difficulties, and uncertainties constantly distract my focus.

Thankfulness

2008-12-12T08:52:00.000-08:00

The last newsletter I sent out listed three thing I was thankful God is doing in the ministry here. If I had more room I would've listed this as well:

4. The freshmen class. From the outside this isn't a class "the world" would be excited about. There are only about 5 freshman guys and a handful of girls. We had more upper classmen recruit for freshman studies (the primary way we attract freshman to the Navigators) at the beginning of this year, and the smallest turn out of students since I came here 4 1/2 years ago. But I believe God has blessed us with one of the greatest classes yet! One distinguishing characteristic of this class is their desire to be around the lost-something we've been praying for years. One freshman brought three unbelieving floormates to his freshman Bible study. Another brought three different friends to another event. Another student is excited for a non-believers Bible Study to begin on his dorm floor.

Please continue to pray that the UofA Navigators would continue growing in our desire to simply tell other "Come and see" who Jesus is.

Top 10 Reasons why I love...

2008-12-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

...The Mullet House!!

10. This house runs out of many things-soap, toilet paper, paper towels, and airsoft BB's-but Mac and Cheese is never one of them. My personal favorite is Safeway spiral noodles with a slice of pepper jack cheese melted in and chili powder sprinkled over the top. Adding a hotdog or two creates pure bliss.

We have a lot of coffee too.

9. Escalating ideas. Actual situation from a few days ago when playing with a rubber band in a room full of people.

"I wonder what you can shoot? Lets try shooting a toothpick!"

"yeah!"

"Oh you hit Triz! Here try to launch a sucker accross the room!"

"I bet you can't hit Sarah on the couch!"

*Louiville brings out chopstick*

"Ah that's a great idea! If the toothpick worked and it was small, clearly the chopstick will be better because it's bigger!"

...so on and so forth...

8. Dan Devine [or at least a picture of him, ever guarding our kitchen].

7. At the Mullet, we apply the quickest and most efficient disposal methods towards trash. Take for instance the Newspaper box that outlived its effectiveness.

Unfortunately, we forgot to close the bedroom window close to the burning box. The fan in the open window sucking in air from outside didn't help much either...

6. Our newsest favorite addition to the Mullet is a Lion Cookie Jar. It's always empty, but is prowdly displayed on our counter. When you open it's mouth it roars at you.

Take that scary lion!

5. Mullet Dinner. Highlight in itself. Though not a tradition, we generally always conclude Mullet Dinner with a YouTube video. LEROOOYYYYYY JENKINS!

4. Though slightly ticked off at first, I've become very accustom to the multiple alarms that go off every morning at 8am, thanks to my two roommates who could sleep through the Apocalypse. One morning Richie's alarm kept going off and he wasn't moving, so I threw a penny at him and hit him in the head. He still didn't move. So I threw another one. That finally woke him up.

3. Breakfast of Bachelors. One of my favorite mornings was eating breakfast with John Armstrong. Without flinching, he put down an entire bowl of leftover pork sausage. That was it. Nothing else. Just straight up pork sausage.

2. No Shave November. I try to participate, but come on, who can compete with this:

1. And finally, the Mullet Roof. Providing the best view of sunsets in Tucson

Tucsonian Sunsets

2008-12-07T16:52:00.003-08:00

5:00pm

5:15pm

5:30pm

5:45pm

Xmas List

2008-11-27T15:39:00.001-08:00

In typical Steven Crawford fashion (http://geezwhathello.blogspot.com), I will begin posting my Christmas list on my blog. Then promptly printing it out so my parents will find it :)

We just finished our Thanksgiving meal, meaning it's officially Christmas Season!

1. Comfy House Slippers

2. UofA Cat Shorts. Not sure what color... I wear a lot of black, so maybe white would be best. Best option would be the old white ones with CATS down the side in red.

3. New wallet. Black. Bifold

4. Clothes.

There you go. There'll probably be some ammendments down the road :)

Fan Probs

2008-11-26T10:21:00.000-08:00

The fan in my laptop broke a couple days ago. Unless I hook it up to a giant portable fan it can only last a few minutes before overheating and turning off. At least I'm not getting the "Fan: Error" message anymore.

I tried to switch my fan out with my brother's laptop fan. They weren't compatible. This was probably good because out of my desperation I hadn't informed him I was taking his fan...

My only option from reading through forums is to send it into the manufaturer. Quite unfortunate...

It's amazing how much of a crimp it puts in your day when one simply thing goes wrong.

Road Rally 08!

2008-11-11T13:30:00.001-08:00

Two days ago I returned from our annual Road Rally, where tons of students from ASU and UofA "go somewhere with some friends to do something for someone else" (according to our extremely vague Road Rally missions statement).

We traveled near Rocky Point, Mexico to build some houses and play with some kids with a group of about 120 from our schools. It was a blast! Here's some pictures and highlights

Other highlights include:

Fishining our foundation on the first day
Visiting the Morrison's camp and eating delicious Michaka, quesadillas, potatoes, home made guacamolli, soda, and brownies smothered and chocolate chips with peanut butter running through the middle. It was like I found the Kingdom of Heaven. I wanted to go and sell all that I had for the "richest of meats and finest of wines." And run back to our camp and tell everyone about what I found. :)
Bum-rushing the sandy hill me and Jmo had previously gotten stuck in the sand twice on. I rushed it at 35-40mph and plowed through the dunes in a 15 passenger van. It was awesome.
Having a constant morter fight with my house team.
Hearing from Alia how she thinks it would be funny if instead of clapping for people we hit each other with chairs to express graditude.
Carne Seca tacos on the ride home
The ride home in general
Not vomiting repeatidly like most of the other people.
The family whose house we were building cooked homemade tortillas for us both days. The first day was bean burritos and the second was mexican hot chocolate and bean soup. Super delicious.

Overall it was quite the trip.

UofA

2008-10-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

The University of Arizona.

362 acre campus

29,070 Undergratuate Students

6,569 Freshman students enrolled

5,804 Students live on campus.

Pray for my school.

Isaiah Dump

2008-10-07T16:17:00.000-07:00

I'm really liking these massive verse dumps. Less typing for me. Seemingly longer posts. A+ in time efficiency :)

I've been reading through Isaiah for the last several months. I try to pick a couple of verses from each chapter that best summarize the main thought. Here's my reflections from Isaiah 24-35.

24:5-6 Universal Judgement
5 The earth is defiled by its people;

they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.

25:8-9 Praise for the Future Kingdom
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.

9 In that day they will say,
"Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

26:1-2 Salvation comes from the Lord
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.

2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

27:6,9 Israel Delivered from Idols

6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.

9 By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles ^[b] or incense altars
will be left standing.

28:13 Consequence of the Egyptian Temptation

13 So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there—
so that they will go and fall backward,
be injured and snared and captured.

29:16 A Rebellious People

16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?

30:15 Israel Refuses to Trust in God

15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

31:3 Consequences of Trusting in Egypt

3 But the Egyptians are men and not God;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
he who helps will stumble,
he who is helped will fall;
both will perish together.

32:17 Effects of Righteousness

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace;
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

33:5-6 The Fear of the Lord

5 The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. ^[a]

^{34:? Lost more destruction}

35:3-4 Redeemed Mankind

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;

4 say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."

I spent about a month on these 12 chapters. Aside from a lot of vengeance I was consistently struck with how Israel was determined to place faith in everything other than the Lord. Things like Egypt, themselves, their plans, idols, their military, treaties, you name it. God beckons them again and again to place trust in Him, and only through that are they assured what they truly longed for: quietness, peace, comfort, rest, repentance, trust, and security. I love that God won't allow us to settle for a counterfeit source of security and rest.

Hope

2008-10-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Some thougths on Hope.

4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption. (Ps 130:5,7)

23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Rom 8:23-25)

23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:23)

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. (Heb 4:14)

Biblical hope is rooted in the Scriptures

Directed towards the Lord who offers unfailing love and full redemption

Securely believes one day our bodies will be fully transformed by the power of the Spirit

Thanks entirely to Jesus, the Great High Priest, who has gone before us.

What I do with my life

2008-10-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

When told that I work for a rain gutter company in Arizona, the nearly predictable response is, "Arizona gets rain??" Well, not much. But here's some pics of what I do:

My company

Stylish work gear! (UV protection, too!)

In my profession you get to hang out on roofs a lot.

This is a gutter. Funny story about this one in particular... Turns out this color gutter has two sides, each a different color (both variations of red). And as luck would have it, after running our 70feet of red I was told that we needed rosewood, the other color. Major whoops. Guess we'll come back to this job tomorrow...

We use ladders alot. Sometimes the metal is hot and burns my shins

I didn't realize until I started working this job that I actually am afraid of heights. I hate them. Go figure... Probably the only thing I hate more than heights are extention ladders. Especially when you have to stand them almost vertical to reach what you need to. I can't deny the beautiful view though. Tucson has a lot of them.

And there you go! A day in the life of a gutter-guy.

A few words about rest

2008-09-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

Refuge. Peace. Calm. Shelter. Protection. Strong Tower. Shade. Relief. Quietness. Confidence. Security.

My favorites are Relief and Confidence. What's yours?

9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them.

4 You have been a refuge for the poor,
       a refuge for the needy in his distress,
       a shelter from the storm
       and a shade from the heat.
       For the breath of the ruthless
       is like a storm driving against a wall

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace;
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,
in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest.

19 Though hail flattens the forest
and the city is leveled completely,

20 how blessed you will be,
sowing your seed by every stream,
and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe.

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
       We have a strong city;
       God makes salvation
       its walls and ramparts.

2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

3 You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Google rocks my world

2008-09-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

Two reasons this is a great week for the world.

1. Google released its web browser named Google Chrome. It's awesome. Significantly faster and simplier than both Internet Explorer and Firefox. So innovative you merely need to think it and Google makes it happen.

http://www.google.com/chrome

2. Google also released the third rendition of Picasa, the simplest and most awesomest picture organizer ever. Now with more photo editing options than ever.

http://www.google.com/picasa/

Yahweh Shalom

2008-09-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

We are one week into the school year here at the UofA. Last week was a crazy time of Bible Study recruitment, catching up with friends, and figuring out what on earth my roles are this year. I've never lived off campus before, and always seen the University as my "home," but this year having graduated and living off campus things are a bit different. Instead of me being exhausted trying to balance school and social life and freshman recruitment I watch all of my friends struggle through balancing these priorities and running all over the place. And the current state of their lives is very much like mine consistently was the first week of school: exhausted and drained.

Surely there is a better way to survive freshman recruitment than this.

I was encouraged this week by a sermon from my paster on the name of God Yahweh Shalom, from the call of Gideon in Judges. God says of himself he is peace. The word Shalom doesn't simply mean tranquility but also completeness, wholeness, justice, etc. I feel like my mind has been racing the last couple of nights reviewing all the problems we are up against this year in Navs and in the lives of my friends. It is encouraging to remember that God is my peace and Sovereign over our lives. He works in us even when we fail.

To Lim Tin

2008-08-24T16:08:00.000-07:00

Safeway-the grocery store closest to my house-is offering 10 cents off gas prices for every $100 you spend in the store, as I'm sure they do across the country. Little known fact, however, is that I believe you can compound the savings, meaning if you spend $200 you receive 20 cents off every gallon of gas you pump, so long as you use it in the calendar quarter. Safeway also is the seller of gift cards to virtually every store in the Tucson area. Said giftcards count towards your $100 of purchases...

So what if, needing to buy a computer, clothes, food, and whatever other merchandise you need to purchase, you instead buy giftcards from safeway to the individual vendors, thus quickly accumulating thousands of dollars on your safeway card, causing you to be eligible for, say, $3.00 off your next purchase of gas per gallon. This brings your total cost per gallon to roughly $0.48 (price as of 4:15pm sunday as I'm looking out the window of starbucks at the safeway across the street). The pump shuts off after $100 on your credit card, meaning you could pump a total of 208 gallons of gas before the auto shut off. So take your closest fourteen friends (provided they have gas tanks roughly 15 gallons in size), and line them up behind your car charging them half of what you save with your discount. Benefits: you earn $289 of free money ($1156 annually I might add) and your friends get crazy cheap gas. Cons: You're banned from shopping at safeway for life.

Anyone in?

---------------------

In other news, I was meditating on Eph 5:25-27 and stumped when pondering to what benefit did Christ received for himself by his unconditional love towards us. Thoughts?

Free Book

2008-08-21T15:58:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the title being slightly misleading. It should probably read "I received a free book," not interpreted "I am going to give away a free book." :)

Every so often I receive Navigators corporate emails which are usually handeled in much the same way campus Navs emails are handled. As an incentive to read the corporate emails, however, a note was posted at the bottom saying the first person to respond will receive a free book called "Making Disciples." Turns out I won.

Here's some great insight from the book on the chapter I was reading today about how to motivate Christians to become disciples:
-Motivation is defined as the force, either external or internal, which stimulates the spirit, soul, or body to respond.
-We motivate others not for personal glory or power, but for that person's highest good and the glory of God
-The individual whom we work with is on infinite worth in the Kingdom.
-The disciple must feel certain we care for them whether they sink or swim
-Let the person learn from his misteaks (Matt 14:23-31)
-Get the person in over his head to create a need inside of them (example: Jesus taught about having the "faith of a mustard seed," then just after that told them to cross the lake in a boat, whereupon a storm freaked them out. After Jesus woke up at told them "have you no faith?" I bet his words from earlier that day sunk in much better).
-We need to make the disciples as independent from the disciplee as possible.
-People may not do what we expect, but are usually more likely to do what we inspect (work related)
-To motivate effectively we must understand people and have the willpower to force ourselves to do what we have determined should be done.
-We will never motivate others until we pray for them, their goals, objectives, and their needs.

A closing thought is Romans 15:30:

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Pray hard this year for what God will be doing at the UofA. Pray for the guys in my study. There names are: Micah, Daniel, Jon, Reed, David, and Enrique. Pray Joshua 14:8 for them, that they would grow into men who wholeheartedly follow after and obey God.

Day... 2? Psalm 61:2

2008-08-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well so much for the consistency idea... Just goes to show you that no amount of motivation is enough for something you really don't like doing. Like blogging. :)

Psalm 61:2 says:
From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Have you ever come across a verse that God brings up so many times that you realize you've memorized the verse without even trying? This is one of those verses for me.

God first put this verse on my heart half-way through my final semester at UofA as I was furiously job hunting. Through this verse I heard God promise to me that He would take me to a place I could never get to myself. I did not want (and still do now want) any ordinary job that I could claim I acquired myself through sheer talent. My faith is in God to provide something to lead somewhere I could never have gotten to myself.

Over the last several months the first half of the verse has become ever more real to me. I call as my heart grows faint. Maybe God won't come through and I will be left installing rain gutters for the next several years. Maybe installing rain gutters, working part time on campus, and laying a good foundation for my first year of marriage will be to much. Maybe Ariel and I won't be able to pay back our student loans after two years like we are praying for. Maybe we'll never make it to Japan to labor among the lost there.

And so I will call to my God increasingly louder, as if from the ends of the earth. I will continue to have confidence that He will never forget about his children. Lord, by faith would you lead me somewhere I could never get to on my own, both during this season of life and every season that follows.

Day 1 - Heb 11:1

2008-08-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Today begins my two week adventure to post a blog update everyday. The theme will be FAITH, because I believe God has been teaching me a lot about that lately.

I will start with Hebrews 11:1, because it is the best place to start with faith, and has continued to speak to me many a time.

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

Faith requires me to answer "yes" to two questions found in Heb. 11:6: Is God good, and is He near. I used to ask God to grow me in faith. But now coming to the end of a summer where God has done just that I believe instead that no one truly wants to grow in faith. A lot of people say they do. But when it comes down to it who wants to willingly enter into a place of trusting that what we hope for will come to be. We cannot see it, but are called to cling to it with certainty.

I do want to grow in faith. So far I have applied to more than 30 positions and have not received so much as an interview. I have visited two career advisers, allowed them to pick apart my resume, reworked my "system", and continued to move into rejection and failure. Though God has blessed fundraising, it too is not without obstacles that are out of my control.

Having faith with my finances is believing that, although there is no way I can envision Ariel and I being debt free in two years, I can be sure that the Lord can do this, and certain he will act on his promises.

Background trouble

2008-07-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

I'm having trouble finding a background I enjoy. Most of the ones I like render the pictures transparent and make them look funky.

Maybe I'll just change it weekly.

MO

2008-07-10T15:00:00.000-07:00

Since feeling convicted about my lack of photos on my blog, I decided to publish a blog almost entirely of pictures. These were from the 10 day work period my family and I spent in Missouri fixin up my grandma's house.

We ripped up the pee-soaked carpet and threw down some hardwood

It took a couple of days

My mom and I hard at work

Dad cut his finger, so we thought it'd be funny if he put his initials in blood under the floorboards :/

When it was finished I called it the "Pride and Prejudice Room"

Next we tackled Grandma's bed room

Ya never know what you will find under the wallpaper... Dad swore it wasn't mold. I just nodded my head and wore a gas mask the rest of the time :)

painting
And done! You can't tell but it's really yellowish green

We called this the "George Washington Crossing the Delaware" room

Some of the wallpaper was peeling off so I stapled it back on. Turns out that was a bad idea...

Primer

Room #3 finished!

Next was the Bathroom

Someone from the '60s thought gold butterfly wallpaper was in style

'nuff said

We had to move the toilet to the front hall. Grandma didn't like that very much. It stayed there three days.

Nice new tile and paint.

We also spraypainted the furniture outside

I found a German leatherbound Bible in the basement from 1850. It was pretty sweet.

We filled a commercial dumpster with stuff from the basement. There's an Atari in there somewhere, but at this point we didn't really care to find it.
Dad's office. One of my favorite memories was him sawing wood with an earpiece in listening in on some meeting he was supposed to be supervising.

I always had a problem with...

2008-06-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

...how God blessed people in the Old Testament. Take David for example. He loved the Lord and worshiped outrageously, and was restless until the Lord had a home. Yet he kills Uriah, sleeps with Bathsheba, and reaps terrible consequences sending shock waves in his household for the next several generations.

And then his son Solomon loved the Lord yet served foreign gods through his brothel which was larger than some cities in the midwest. God says to Solomon that He would have taken his whole kingdom from him, yet because of the obedience of David God showed favor to Solomon and spared two tribes of Israel for Solomon's children to rule. Sweet. Yet the question that I've wrestled with remains:

How is this not conditional love?

Here are some thoughts I came up with today in my quiet time. I would love any comments you guys have regarding this as well.

~~
Solomon was extremely blessed--despite disobedience--because of David's wholehearted obedience. David was blessed and chosen because Good looked favorable on the servant Ruth. God smiled on Ruth and did not allow Israel to destroy itself during the time of the judges because of Joshua's fearless courage and obedience, and his dedication to bring the whole of Israel under service to the Lord. The Lord appointed Joshua because of the faith and obedience of Moses. God selected Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt because of the promise sworn to her through Jacob, Issac, and ultimately Abraham. All of these blessings seem to be given on account of obedience, righteous deeds, and the turning away from sin.

Yet with Abraham no previous track record was needed. Abraham received the promise through faith, which was credited to him as righteousness, NOT through deeds, acts, or wages owed to him through his good works. The promise was given by grace--for no reason whatsoever linked to Abraham's effort. It was totally unmerited, believed in through faith, and evidenced through obedience to what Abraham believed.
~~

I realized I could have discovered the same thing through any Romans 4 commentary, but I feel like this finally clicked in my mind today.

Praise Jesus, the author and substitute of our faith! Who offers salvation to us the same way he did to Abraham: by faith, entirely unconnected from our previous track record.

Inside Work

2008-05-28T11:20:00.000-07:00

Hey all.

Here's an article from a sweet page called InsideWork. The original source is found here: http://insidework.net/resources/articles/coming-soon-to-the-usa-nontrepreneur-nation.

It's quite good, and talks more about failure rather than entrepreneurship. I especially like the response to it that I copied at the bottom.

Coming Soon: Nontrepreneur Nation

How parenting and education are killing American entrepreneurship and innovation

Despite how U.S. students continue to lag far behind those in Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Japan in math and science and score comparable to European students (The New York Times, 11/14/07), I was never concerned about the welfare of our nation. Even though, for more than a decade, U.S. students typically placed outside the top ten in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

Why wasn’t I worried? The U.S. still leads in the number of patents awarded, in its disproportionate amount of Nobel Prize winners in the sciences, and in the number of entrepreneurial ventures started each year. The U.S. rewards creativity with programs and prizes such as the MacArthur Fellows Program and numerous “entrepreneur of the year” awards. Confident about our unique culture and emphasis on creativity and entrepreneurship, I strongly believed that our national innovation engine would continue to lead in technology and entrepreneurship for decades to come.

However, recently I have begun to feel as though I am on shaky ground, confronting fears of collapse in our city on the hill. The current crop of U.S. students – what should become the next generation of scientists and entrepreneurs – shows strong characteristics that counter the unique culture of innovation on which our country built itself, and our future is at risk.

Evidence of Changing Times

Around me, in various circles of my life, I’ve been seeing anecdotal evidence to bolster this concern.

Last week I came back from a college student conference where I serve as an adviser. The conference was started 22 years ago and typically has 500-1000 students attend each year, and I’ve been involved since 1992. Of late, we have recognized a trend among these student organizers, who are ambitious leaders on their campuses. Over the past five years there has been a change in their mentality. More and more, the student leaders were asking for guidance and hand-holding throughout the effort of organizing this conference. This was a strange experience for us, because previously the student organizers wanted more independence, and were pushing our boundaries. Today’s student organizers generally wanted to be told what to do instead of taking their own initiative – while, oddly enough, sometimes a greater degree of pretentiousness and sense of entitlement crop up.

Last year, I was speaking with a friend who is a school administrator in New York City about this trend I noticed. She agreed with my observation. In high schools, she also saw recent changes in students, where they want more guidance and reveal an increasing fear of failure. She recalled one conversation where she was talking with a student about why this student decided not to take Spanish:

“So why did you decide to not take the class?”
“Because I don’t know Spanish, so I’ll probably fail.”
“Well, that’s why you’re supposed to take it, so you can learn something you don’t know.”

My friend told me that these types of conversations with students – where uncertainty and the unknown are avoided rather than confronted – are becoming more common for her.

Causes for Declining Entrepreneurship

So I began to consider some of the causes for this lack of entrepreneurial spirit among students. I remember raising an eyebrow when in 1996, a few years after I graduated from college, the Educational Testing Service adjusted its scoring because the national average was dropping. A 730 verbal on the old scale would be awarded a perfect 800 on the new scale, and a math score of 780 on the old scale would get 800 on the new scale. Even in today’s new SAT Reasoning Test, a “perfect” isn’t a truly perfect score. I also remember grade inflation starting to happen while I was in college, when some universities began taking “Fs” out of their system. At Harvard in the early 2000s, 90 percent or more of students graduated with honors. And in 2003, The Washington Post’s Stuart Rojstaczer noted that fully half of all grades given at Pomona, Duke, Harvard, and Columbia are “As.”

In Denise Shekerjian’s book Uncommon Genius, she searched for the essence of creativity by following 40 winners of the MacArthur Prize (also known as the “genius award”). Some of the key characteristics she chronicled: the Fellows’ ability to take risks, and how they built resiliency. Resiliency comes from facing your mistakes and failures, and learning that failure is a path to success. Being resilient and able to take risks are characteristics that are also clearly necessary for entrepreneurship, as most successful entrepreneurs have failed at least once. From numerous veterans of Silicon Valley to local hometown entrepreneurs, failure is a badge of honor.

Yet for the past decade, we have been conditioning our next generation of would-be leaders, entrepreneurs, and scientists to avoid risks by letting them opt out of classes or exams they might not ace, we’ve been protecting them from failure with grade inflation, and we’ve been inflating their self-worth with scoring adjustments.

And the result? These actions have been destructive to this generation and to our nation. There have been additional adverse effects from this risk-avoidance approach. A 2004 article in Psychology Today, A Nation of Wimps, states that in 1996, anxiety overtook relationship concerns as the major problem cited by students, and The University of Michigan Depression Center estimated that depression affects 15 percent of college students nationwide.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a conversation with my colleague Dan Wooldridge, a leadership consultant, about the recent entrants from Generation Y into the workplace. He said that companies have had to adjust because this was the first generation parented by “soccer moms” – every minute of their children’s lives have been scripted and scheduled from soccer to piano to church activities to social events.

“The kids are dropped off and picked up and taken to the next event on the schedule. They have not learned how to spontaneously organize or manage themselves, and so when they enter the workplace, they need more instruction, structure, and coddling. Also because their parents have so managed the risks they face and so trying things that might result in failure is absolutely terrifying,” he explained. He continued to state that this group’s strengths are multi-tasking, grew up in diversity, more optimistic than the previous generation, and can be very self-confident.

The parents of this generation have created a competitive frenzy for schooling and an abundance of “high achievers.” At the same time, they have promoted an environment of dependency on a parental figure, which is what I’ve been experiencing first-hand.

Our education system and the latest parental practices are threatening the valuable idea that failure and learning from it can lead to success

Today, failure is still accepted in our society. But burgeoning undercurrents from our education system and the latest parental practices are threatening this valuable idea – that failure and learning from it can lead to success – which helps fuel our national innovation engine.

I am deeply concerned about the future of innovation and entrepreneurship in our nation, which is so strongly tied to its economic growth. To reestablish ourselves, we need a closer examination of our education system – and possibly wholesale changes in testing, grading, and teaching. For every Mark Zuckerberg or Matt Mullenweg who rises up from today’s generation of students, hundreds of thousands of future entrepreneurs, scientists, and leaders are not able to overcome their conditioning of dependency and doubt. My fear is that we are creating a nation of “nontrepreneurs,” and that because of our eroding entrepreneurial spirit we are losing future contributors to not only the U.S., but to the world.

So – Americans, world citizens – what should we do about this?

Posted by Bernard Moon on April 21, 2008
Filed under Articles and tagged Education, Entrepreneurship, Failure, Startups

Response:

Bernard,

Thanks for the article. This was truly an illuminating read for me.

My answer to your question "what should we do about this?" is that we need to have the older generation who will allow for failure in the younger generation and guide them through failure by helping them see why they failed and how they can grow.

I agree that failure is a necessary ingredient for growth, but simply the experience of failing is not enough. Failure left to itself is very damaging and confusing. If a young person fails and doesn’t know WHY he/she fails, he cannot grow from the experience.

We need to have an older generation who will allow for failure, and then reach out and provide evaluated experience for that failure.

Compassionate, evaluated experience needs to replace dictated experience.

Mike Cain

wrote this on May 12, 2008 at 12:07 am

Unity

2008-05-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Eph. 4:3

Random thoughts on unity:
- Without the Spirit there is no unity
- Unity for the sake of unity is an intangible dream. Because there is no concrete example of perfect unity for every situation there will always be room between where we are and where we want to be.
- Critical minds take said gap and inflate it exponentially
- Thankful minds look at the blessings and encouragement which God has grown in the unified group.
- Vision is essential for unity. A compelling vision that members of the group desire to run as hard as possible towards, dragging, coxing, or carrying all other members towards. Running with such a force that to look left or right long enough to criticize the limp in another's step is out of the question; one can only look straight ahead.
- The most common visions I've seen unite men is the desire to protect and honor women, the desire to serve other men, and the desire to run hard after God together.
- Things in my class which have aided vision and ultimately group unity are:
-- Praying together as a class
-- Praying consistently with another member of the class
-- Preparing dinner for women in the ministry
-- Serving common causes in small groups. Examples: widow, impoverish Mexican families, etc.
-- Taking time to encourage each other in a group setting, through letters, gifts, or quality time together
-- Taking communion together

The closest friends I have now are the ones who, in twenty years, I will be just as excited to hear how they are still chasing after the common vision of loving God and making him know.

There are two things I feel I understand less about every year. One of which is how to get other people excited about a common idea or vision, and best spur each other on towards love and good deeds.