I wanted to blog so badly the last couple days, but I kept forgetting. Seeing as I haven't blogged in a week, I'll do that now.
This week, so far, has been a pretty decent week. It hasn't been great; but it is not so bad either. Amazing how the weather can make everything so much better. It's been above 0 degrees this week, and already I'm seeing tank tops and mini skirts. Haha.
School has been slow. Chapel yesterday was really great, and just what I needed too. It feels great that I can finally attend the chapels this term since I have classes before and after. It just seems that I've been serving so much, I've almost forgotten what it's like to just be a member in the congregation and not have to do anything, rather just worship the way I do and absorb everything in. Other than chapel though, I am struggling to get going with school work. Lucky that January is a lighter month without too much that needs to be done. But I am not getting into the groove that I should've been in two weeks ago. The reason is probably that I'm still hungover from Christmas break. I don't think I realized it right away, but that Christmas break was one of the most refreshing times I've had in a few years. Yes, even with the snow, it was refreshing. Half of my classes are really interesting because they're my type of class. The other two are just flat out boring as balls. All it is, is regurgitation of information on and on. Whereas the other two actually allow me to think about this whole Christian thing - which is what I like; nothing is concrete, but at the same time there is so much depth in the truth.
Anyways, through all the rollercoasters in life, I feel like I've hit a bit of a standstill with my spiritual life. I may have mentioned "mountain top" experiences in my other blog (if I didn't, I'm probably going crazy then), and how we can't always be living up there because it is windy, cold and unstable. I have to give my Spiritual Life, Calling and Purpose's professor credit for that awesome analogy. If you want to read more, just click on my Tumblr blog link. In the short few weeks of this term, I've also learned that we don't really grow new characteristics and that kind of stuff. As each day, we unfold these findings about who we are as we trek along our lives. Which makes sense, because ultimately, we are to be like Jesus; so more and more, we just uncover how to be like Jesus.
All that "you should consider Bible college and be a pastor" stuff that God told me was such a revelation, that I was just skyrocketing in my climb up towards a mountain. And now that I'm here, with a term under my belt, I've had some time to really soak it all in. Whenever we get to these "highest points", we can't really see the path going down. We always try to take a peak over the cliff to see how scary or how far down the fall is, but you're still unsure. That is kind of where I'm at right now. I'm at the peak, it feels great. But I'm approaching the edge where the top is coming to an end.
I know that the path down is unpredictable. I could fall really fast, or it could be a slow and steady decline. Either way, I know that as I get more of this doctrinal and knowledge stuff into my mind, I'm going to get challenged on each and every one of them. Who knows, that might be the lowest point in the valley that is to come. If I make it out alive, I'll be stronger than I am now. Or, all hell could break loose and I get completely GG'd by this whole thing. Either way, I'm excited. The process of getting to this plateau was really fun, and I look forward to the next one. Or heck, it might even be possible that I go up to another level that I didn't think I would have. Who knows.
Whatever the result, this is why I wake up every morning.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
All Things
Dang, it seems like 2011 has just begun and there are things happening everywhere that aren't very favorable at all. Myself, personally, I haven't quite settled back into the school routine yet. Getting up every morning has been tough, even if I'm sleeping insanely early.
This lovely winter term of 2011, I find myself stuck with four courses again after one of my courses was dropped from my degree, thus making it no longer necessary for me to stay enrolled in it. So guess what? I have Mondays off again! Wow. A lot of the work intimidates me yet again this term. I am not so sure I can match the results I got in my first term. But it is still incredibly early, so I don't have a whole lot to say as of right now.
I saw Jeff's update, and I thought I would do something similar. A little over half way through January, I've already read, heard, and seen some rather unfortunate things happen to some people I know. I know a lot of times, things seem to happen for the very purpose of going against what we want individually. I'm not going to do a whole chunk of writing to try to offer my sympathies; I'll just post a chunk of videos or songs or whatever I find helps me through these things.
This lovely winter term of 2011, I find myself stuck with four courses again after one of my courses was dropped from my degree, thus making it no longer necessary for me to stay enrolled in it. So guess what? I have Mondays off again! Wow. A lot of the work intimidates me yet again this term. I am not so sure I can match the results I got in my first term. But it is still incredibly early, so I don't have a whole lot to say as of right now.
I saw Jeff's update, and I thought I would do something similar. A little over half way through January, I've already read, heard, and seen some rather unfortunate things happen to some people I know. I know a lot of times, things seem to happen for the very purpose of going against what we want individually. I'm not going to do a whole chunk of writing to try to offer my sympathies; I'll just post a chunk of videos or songs or whatever I find helps me through these things.
---------------------------------------
"Your Love Never Fails" - I've heard this song a little over a year ago, and have always wanted to try leading it for worship. Except it's a really contemporary song and probably would take quite a while for everyone to catch on. I particularly enjoy the bridge. Some people might question it, but it reminds me of Romans 8:28 and how God works for the good of those who love him.
"How He Loves" - David Crowder's version just hits me right in the heart. The song is self-explanatory. It's also funny because I decided to sing it for worship this past Sunday; and since then, I believe it's been sung another few times in multiple worship sessions over a span of a couple days.
"Rain" - For those of us who were here when Ps. Joe and Phil showed us these videos, this will be really familiar. It's a great reminder and shows us through the rain metaphor about all the little storms we go through.
Lastly, there's a whole bunch of Scripture I could list out, but I'm not going to do that because reading God's Word should be standard in pretty much everything we do. Usually reading the Bible coincides with praying.
Last week, during my first spiritual calling class, I learned that as great as the mountain tops feel in life, it's all about the path before and after the peak that make life worth living for. Sure the view and feeling you get when you get to that peak is phenomenal, but you can't live your entire life up there. Mountain tops are usually really cold, windy and unstable; life is the same way, and we can't make a living up there our entire lives. When you do get to the peaks and valleys, you kind of look back at the road that you just took; and that's why we do this. We're all called to live and help each other, and everyone is at a different stage of the road. Some might be at the bottom, some might be on the way up, some might be already on top, and some might be on the way down. Wherever we are, we've got to help each other through it all.
I think this is all I've got. I just wanted to do my best to help anyone who is in the valley right now or have recently been there, or maybe even the point just before the valley.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Up, Up Here We Go
Maybe a bit of a summary before I go to bed. Yes, it is just past 9:00pm, and I'm thinking about going to bed. Why? I'm lonely and have nothing to do.
So starting last Thursday night, the sky began to have massive diarrhea. I've experienced some pretty intense dumps in my life, but nothing quite like the one we've had that lasted probably three or four days. I've never shoveled snow to a point where the snow is taller than me. There's been times where it's been as tall as I was, but that was way back when I was about three feet tall. When backing out of my driveway, I knew I was going to get stuck eventually, it was just a matter of time. Turns out that every attempt, whether it was me, my mom, or my dad, to get out of the driveway, we got stuck in that pile of poop. I was backing out on Sunday night to go to fellowship, and I couldn't even see if there were cars coming. If I'm standing on the driveway, the snow is literally as tall as I am. I'm about 5'10, so that's actually a lot of snow. Haha.
On Saturday, I got to have my annual exercise at church when I played a bit of hockey. After maneuvering through the manure, I got to church with my brother and it was pretty much fun from there on. I've missed playing hockey. I forget how many goals I scored, but with only about 10 people total, everyone is going to have natural hatty's.
Like I mentioned earlier, Sunday was a day of more diarrhea. Honestly, even though we had to help so many cars get unstuck, these are the best experiences and my favorites. Why? Because we're having fellowship. We're living out the community that we're brought to live together. I was asked to share with the Chinese congregation about my whole Bible college thing so far, and that was pretty cool. It was pretty last minute but I thought it went well. There weren't a whole lot of people at the service (maybe a little over 100?), and that's understandable. In fact, I was told that someone liked my sharing so much, he went to the English worship just to hear me speak again. But I was never asked to speak for the English side, so hopefully he isn't too disappointed. Maybe for the first time, there were more people in the English worship than there was in the Chinese - victory #2!
Sunday night, like I said, went to fellowship. I think a little over a year ago, I didn't have a whole lot of desire to go to fellowship because no one went. It made me pretty disappointed to a point where I thought, "what's the point, if it's the same few people everytime?" But since then, it's so obvious it's gotten so much better. Stats show that once people get into college, most of them don't come back to the church. It's quite sad, but it's a fact. Like I mentioned in my previous post and on my Tumblr, the fact that pretty much all of our group is still here, that has to amount to something. Back to fellowship, it was pretty sweet. There isn't a whole lot of other ways I can put it; it was just pretty darn sweet.
On Monday evening, after a four hour drive, I got back to Calgary. The roads aren't too bad after Red Deer. It's the section from Edmonton to the Deer that's pretty bad. I think that even through Tuesday, I wasn't mentally ready to go back to school. I wasn't in the mindset at all, so I thought it was going to be a struggle today. But luckily, it wasn't. Now it's story time.
First day is always a day of experimenting. I had my first class at 9:45am, so I wanted to get to school a bit earlier to pay my tuition fees. On my way to school, I was rejected by the same bus, same driver on two different occasions. I'm not going to lie, I was swearing at him the second time.. in my head, of course. It felt like he was intentionally trying to avoid having to pick me up on both times. The first time, he didn't even stop at the stop. The second time, at a different stop, I got off the bus and his bus was right behind, so I walked toward him just to see him turn out the lane and blow himself down the road.
However, after the minor inconveniences, I got to school and first day was decent. My New Testament class is huge, so it's rather intimidating; 120 people is about as big a class is going to get at Ambrose. So after my first day, I got home pretty early because I end at 12:30pm; so it's pretty nice to have some earlier days this term. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I may quite possibly be stuck with four courses again this semester.
Stay warm, friends!
So starting last Thursday night, the sky began to have massive diarrhea. I've experienced some pretty intense dumps in my life, but nothing quite like the one we've had that lasted probably three or four days. I've never shoveled snow to a point where the snow is taller than me. There's been times where it's been as tall as I was, but that was way back when I was about three feet tall. When backing out of my driveway, I knew I was going to get stuck eventually, it was just a matter of time. Turns out that every attempt, whether it was me, my mom, or my dad, to get out of the driveway, we got stuck in that pile of poop. I was backing out on Sunday night to go to fellowship, and I couldn't even see if there were cars coming. If I'm standing on the driveway, the snow is literally as tall as I am. I'm about 5'10, so that's actually a lot of snow. Haha.
On Saturday, I got to have my annual exercise at church when I played a bit of hockey. After maneuvering through the manure, I got to church with my brother and it was pretty much fun from there on. I've missed playing hockey. I forget how many goals I scored, but with only about 10 people total, everyone is going to have natural hatty's.
Like I mentioned earlier, Sunday was a day of more diarrhea. Honestly, even though we had to help so many cars get unstuck, these are the best experiences and my favorites. Why? Because we're having fellowship. We're living out the community that we're brought to live together. I was asked to share with the Chinese congregation about my whole Bible college thing so far, and that was pretty cool. It was pretty last minute but I thought it went well. There weren't a whole lot of people at the service (maybe a little over 100?), and that's understandable. In fact, I was told that someone liked my sharing so much, he went to the English worship just to hear me speak again. But I was never asked to speak for the English side, so hopefully he isn't too disappointed. Maybe for the first time, there were more people in the English worship than there was in the Chinese - victory #2!
Sunday night, like I said, went to fellowship. I think a little over a year ago, I didn't have a whole lot of desire to go to fellowship because no one went. It made me pretty disappointed to a point where I thought, "what's the point, if it's the same few people everytime?" But since then, it's so obvious it's gotten so much better. Stats show that once people get into college, most of them don't come back to the church. It's quite sad, but it's a fact. Like I mentioned in my previous post and on my Tumblr, the fact that pretty much all of our group is still here, that has to amount to something. Back to fellowship, it was pretty sweet. There isn't a whole lot of other ways I can put it; it was just pretty darn sweet.
On Monday evening, after a four hour drive, I got back to Calgary. The roads aren't too bad after Red Deer. It's the section from Edmonton to the Deer that's pretty bad. I think that even through Tuesday, I wasn't mentally ready to go back to school. I wasn't in the mindset at all, so I thought it was going to be a struggle today. But luckily, it wasn't. Now it's story time.
First day is always a day of experimenting. I had my first class at 9:45am, so I wanted to get to school a bit earlier to pay my tuition fees. On my way to school, I was rejected by the same bus, same driver on two different occasions. I'm not going to lie, I was swearing at him the second time.. in my head, of course. It felt like he was intentionally trying to avoid having to pick me up on both times. The first time, he didn't even stop at the stop. The second time, at a different stop, I got off the bus and his bus was right behind, so I walked toward him just to see him turn out the lane and blow himself down the road.
However, after the minor inconveniences, I got to school and first day was decent. My New Testament class is huge, so it's rather intimidating; 120 people is about as big a class is going to get at Ambrose. So after my first day, I got home pretty early because I end at 12:30pm; so it's pretty nice to have some earlier days this term. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on how you look at it, I may quite possibly be stuck with four courses again this semester.
Stay warm, friends!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Mind Games
Man, my mind is playing games on me. The second I start to get comfortable in one place, I've gotta go back to the other place. I got comfortable in Calgary, and then I get to go back to Edmonton. I've had so much fun being back in Edmonton, but now I have to go back to Calgary. In under two months, I will be back in Edmonton for Reading Week. My brain is like getting so confused from all the switching back and forth. Like I said before, I have wished I could just pull the two worlds together. Luckily for me, we'll all be together when we get to heaven; so this time and space continuum thing's got nothing on us!
Well, there's been some uncertainty about when I would get back to Calgary - all thanks to this wonderful snowstorm - and the only answer I could give people was "I don't know". The last thing I wanted to do was to take the bus back down because I have an absolute hate for taking the bus. Thankfully I have a ride, and will be leaving tomorrow at around 1-2pm. Just like coming back here, it's going to be weird to have to get used to everything again. I finally feel right back at home after three weeks. I'm not too sure how things would be if it was only the two weeks for Christmas. But, nevertheless, I have adjusted just to have to readjust again. Oh well.
The past three weeks that I've been back has been such a blessing and my mind has been so refreshed. Although I'm physically tired from all the shoveling and StarCraft, I'm glad I got to come home. There's always been something about the people here at NEAC that is something else. I don't know what it is, but I think God is seriously doing something with the English congregation here. Perhaps I will write about the way I view our congregation on my Tumblr, because I have to make use of that one too! But anyways, as people go back to school tomorrow, I'll be on the road and hopefully can get back to Calgary without too many delays. After that, I'll really need to mentally prepare myself for this next term. I know I'm going to have to really do a whole lot better in terms of everything in comparison to my first term. I'll give myself a break (haha, who does that?) and say that the first term was a bit of a warm up for going back to school after having a year off.
So I'm really glad that there's a new year that we get to experience. Being able to see some of you guys just put a smile on my face, even if it were just for a day. Certain things will never change and I am very curious where this NEAC group will be in 5-10 years. If most people are still there, I'll be amazed. Well anyways, I am getting tired, and I took a break while writing this blog post to lose a couple games on StarCraft. I am a nerd, I know. But that's okay, it's irrelevant.
To start off 2011, I want to thank all the people I know that attend or have attended NEAC; you guys are too cool. I also want to thank God for dumping snow everytime I need to travel on the highway, making it more difficult for me to get a ride back, either to Edmonton or Calgary.
And... I'm done. Now I need to go rest my sore body from all the shoveling and hockey.
Well, there's been some uncertainty about when I would get back to Calgary - all thanks to this wonderful snowstorm - and the only answer I could give people was "I don't know". The last thing I wanted to do was to take the bus back down because I have an absolute hate for taking the bus. Thankfully I have a ride, and will be leaving tomorrow at around 1-2pm. Just like coming back here, it's going to be weird to have to get used to everything again. I finally feel right back at home after three weeks. I'm not too sure how things would be if it was only the two weeks for Christmas. But, nevertheless, I have adjusted just to have to readjust again. Oh well.
The past three weeks that I've been back has been such a blessing and my mind has been so refreshed. Although I'm physically tired from all the shoveling and StarCraft, I'm glad I got to come home. There's always been something about the people here at NEAC that is something else. I don't know what it is, but I think God is seriously doing something with the English congregation here. Perhaps I will write about the way I view our congregation on my Tumblr, because I have to make use of that one too! But anyways, as people go back to school tomorrow, I'll be on the road and hopefully can get back to Calgary without too many delays. After that, I'll really need to mentally prepare myself for this next term. I know I'm going to have to really do a whole lot better in terms of everything in comparison to my first term. I'll give myself a break (haha, who does that?) and say that the first term was a bit of a warm up for going back to school after having a year off.
So I'm really glad that there's a new year that we get to experience. Being able to see some of you guys just put a smile on my face, even if it were just for a day. Certain things will never change and I am very curious where this NEAC group will be in 5-10 years. If most people are still there, I'll be amazed. Well anyways, I am getting tired, and I took a break while writing this blog post to lose a couple games on StarCraft. I am a nerd, I know. But that's okay, it's irrelevant.
To start off 2011, I want to thank all the people I know that attend or have attended NEAC; you guys are too cool. I also want to thank God for dumping snow everytime I need to travel on the highway, making it more difficult for me to get a ride back, either to Edmonton or Calgary.
And... I'm done. Now I need to go rest my sore body from all the shoveling and hockey.
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Era
Shoot! It is technically the third day of the new year and I haven't blogged yet! Circumstances have led me to still being up at 1:11am, so I will make the most of it. The first couple days of 2011 have been pretty good. A typical weekend with some family time; not too bad at all, because that's usually the way I like it. Today was the best sermon I've heard in quite some time, so that's definitely a prop to Ps. Alfred. Also, I am not the sharpest, so I spent all of last night trying to figure out whether 2010 was the start of a new decade, or the end of one. Over 24 hours later, I still don't really have an answer, so if anyone would like to enlighten me, please go ahead!
Anyways, I've got a week left before I am back in Calgary. There is one thing that made the trip back to Edmonton worth every minute of the three hour drive: pho. The first time I had pho in Calgary, I thought it was a bit strange. I didn't think it tasted the way I am used to. I think I've only been to two or three different Vietnamese restaurants, so I can't say I've tasted the best of the city; but from all of them, it didn't seem to attract me as much as the ones in Edmonton. And coming back just confirmed all of this. At first, I found it hard to believe Edmonton's pho tasting better, but I had some agreement from others, so I'll take another victory in favor of Edmonton!
Whether 2011 is a new decade or the second year of a new decade, it has a lot of living up to do. The year of 2010 really set the standard of this millennium and it's going to take a lot in 2011 to be able to live up to that. Personally, I don't like to compare; but it's often the case where people come off a high and get challenged quite a bit and experience a lot of lows. So I don't think I'll be too surprised if the calender year of 2011 will be a tough one. 2010 already had its fair share of disastrous events, but it's only going to get worse. I'm not being pessimistic, it's simply reality.
Probably also worth mentioning is that, like some others, I'm not big into the resolution thing. I have my goals and standards, and I'm always going to work toward them - readjusting when it calls for it - and that's about it. I don't think I can really list out things that I would want to include in my "New Year's resolutions" if I had to make one. I am someone that learns through experience, and am usually someone that rides the waves. I don't try to go out of my way to do things or be different, so I wouldn't really have any outstanding or cool things that amaze people that I want to do this year. But regardless of what I think about resolutions and stuff, I'm pretty stoked to share some good memories with some friends and family this year. I will say, though, that I need to be challenged a bit. I think I have my challenges right now, but slowly, I think I will try to push myself a little bit more everyday to be a little bit better than I was yesterday.
Looking forward to a good relaxing week to wrap up my Christmas and New Year's holiday!
Happy New Years Everyone.
Anyways, I've got a week left before I am back in Calgary. There is one thing that made the trip back to Edmonton worth every minute of the three hour drive: pho. The first time I had pho in Calgary, I thought it was a bit strange. I didn't think it tasted the way I am used to. I think I've only been to two or three different Vietnamese restaurants, so I can't say I've tasted the best of the city; but from all of them, it didn't seem to attract me as much as the ones in Edmonton. And coming back just confirmed all of this. At first, I found it hard to believe Edmonton's pho tasting better, but I had some agreement from others, so I'll take another victory in favor of Edmonton!
Whether 2011 is a new decade or the second year of a new decade, it has a lot of living up to do. The year of 2010 really set the standard of this millennium and it's going to take a lot in 2011 to be able to live up to that. Personally, I don't like to compare; but it's often the case where people come off a high and get challenged quite a bit and experience a lot of lows. So I don't think I'll be too surprised if the calender year of 2011 will be a tough one. 2010 already had its fair share of disastrous events, but it's only going to get worse. I'm not being pessimistic, it's simply reality.
Probably also worth mentioning is that, like some others, I'm not big into the resolution thing. I have my goals and standards, and I'm always going to work toward them - readjusting when it calls for it - and that's about it. I don't think I can really list out things that I would want to include in my "New Year's resolutions" if I had to make one. I am someone that learns through experience, and am usually someone that rides the waves. I don't try to go out of my way to do things or be different, so I wouldn't really have any outstanding or cool things that amaze people that I want to do this year. But regardless of what I think about resolutions and stuff, I'm pretty stoked to share some good memories with some friends and family this year. I will say, though, that I need to be challenged a bit. I think I have my challenges right now, but slowly, I think I will try to push myself a little bit more everyday to be a little bit better than I was yesterday.
Looking forward to a good relaxing week to wrap up my Christmas and New Year's holiday!
Happy New Years Everyone.
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