Say What?

ALES HEMSKY. that is all.

Seriously, it is about time that our star player gets the elite status that he deserves around the league. Hemmer is easily one of the top 10 most exciting and purely skilled players in the world today. The ability to make people better and control the game by himself is just so fascinating.

In other words, school work is starting to stack up and I am barely holding on. Something that is important to me that we discussed about in Sunday school for a brief moment was to be able to stay true to our faith. A lot of people have multiple personalities depending on where they are and who they're with. I am still somewhat like this. It's so important to stay true to faith, meaning that who you are in church is who you are outside of church and that you have a constant mindset of what you believe and why you believe. A lot of people are so different at school than when they are at church, and it bothers me quite a bit. I am not perfect but I am trying very hard to be the same person I am in church and outside of church. Because in the end, it is not our buildings, or words that people react and respond to. It's the actions that we take as Christians that will get people talking. I am not ashamed to admit to anyone that I am a firm believer in Jesus Christ, but I can understand the hesitation when you are answering to some non-believing friends. The way that we act in our everyday lives is how our reputations are built as people, as believers. We have to be under constant influence from God in that we dwell every moment of our lives in his Spirit. When we are able to do so, we can reach out to those that are less fortunate, those who lack the love, and those who are lost in the world. It is the way that we treat these people that are going to get people to stop in their tracks and look over and say, "yo, whatever you've got over there, I want some of that man, I want some of that Jesus." If we are able to do this, then we shine and rep the Most High proudly, and it doesn't matter who we are, what color our skin, what denomination, or where you are from, we have fellowship with one another. Through all this, we can see Jesus' light shining bright in every part of the world where we are having fellowship with one another.

Thanks to tobyMac.

DC Talk - In the Light, check it.

Greater Things

Life was designed to be challenging. It is the only way that we may come to see God's greatness. If life were a cakewalk many people would go by life without ever hearing about God's great news. Life often throws you around and kicks you from side to side, it's supposed to. I firmly believe that there is beauty in the ugly from these experiences. I think that with this belief is how I came to have a focus of putting your attention in the right place, at the right time. It's so easy to give up and forget the world and end up a failure. If we do choose this path, what do we accomplish? What's your excuse? Life is just an accident? I would like to disagree. Even if you had no beliefs or faith, no values of any kind, you have to be able to admit that even in a self-centered point of view, life is not an accident. You live each moment to build up the next. Every thing you do and encounter builds you to knowing something new about yourself, adding something to yourself that no one can have - your character.

I know many of us have been six feet from the edge and were thinking about it, some even with a foot off the edge. But the amazing thing is that, as long as we are willing, all we have to do is turn around and walk away from that cliff. I've been there myself, I know what it's like. With all this being said, the song "God of This City" by Bluetree reminds me that God has greater things in store for us as a community, as a city, that have yet to come. Having the faith in this knowledge brings so much satisfaction in feeling that, yes life may be garbage right now, and things could not possibly get any worse, but there IS a way out of this because God runs this world. God is the King of this city. And as the most faithful King out there, He will never let us down even if we lose faith. There is no one like our God, and this cannot be any more true. It just takes some experience and some realization. Hope whoever comes across this will see that as well. Many may have already heard this song but I want to put the lyrics here as a reminder. In the deepest, darkest places of our world and in our lives, God's light burns bright, waiting for people to come and take hold of it.

You're the God of this city
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You Are

For there is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come
Great things are still to be done here

You're the Lord of Creation
The Creator of all things
You're the King above all Kings
You Are

You're the strength in our weakness
You're the love to the broken
You're the joy in the sadness
You Are

Friday? Nope

Since tuesday of this past week, I have been thinking it is friday pretty much everyday. It is only the first week back and people dread the first week or so, so I guess it is okay to be thinking and wishing it's friday everyday. Welp, today is thursday so I am not too far off from friday. "Thank goodness it's friday" seems to be a phrase that runs in me almost every friday. I love relaxing and doing nothing, what can I say? Well I guess the first week of school has been pretty decent this time around. I am "enjoying" this more than the first week of September in a sense that I know more people in my classes now. I am still not sold on a few courses yet but I hope I can get back into some sort of a work ethic because I still don't have a couple textbooks.

I am looking forward to saturday because I get to practice with my worship team again! I think for the last few weeks I have been on some sort of musical drug because I am getting loads of ideas on almost every aspect of music. I developed a couple new "theories" in terms of viewing music, I found some new riffs for my guitar, I can hit some high notes a little more comfortable now, lol, and I am developing a lot of new things kind of like when I first got into this worship business. It's like a booming economy or the "playoff" Oilers where we dominate the game. Speaking of the Oilers, I cannot be more frustrated with the team right now. I will be positive going into every game but I will not know how I will come out of it. I don't care if we win or lose but the inconsistency in our game is just beyond belief. Some games we will look like the Sharks and others we will look like six of me playing on a team. Oh well, I will bank on something happening then after the all-star break, the Oilers will explode and go on crazy winning streaks. Dattebayo! Whoa, where did that come from?

Happy friday.

Not So Unusual

Today is, uhh January 4th? I've been meaning to write down some "objectives" for myself towards this coming new year. Resolutions is a very sketchy word, and like others, I don't like to use it because it's been butchered quite a bit. I've come across something that caught my attention recently and it said that it is one thing to have goals, but another to have goals and to write them down. Writing them down or recording them somewhere brings much higher success than just having them, so here I am, writing mine down.

I've thought long and hard, that's what she said, about these and I didn't want to just set some lame cliche'd things like get fit or stop eating so much, etc. This time of year, I think I've come to approach this slightly different than I would have done it before. Now that I have finally matured into somewhat more of a "adult", lol yeah right, I think I can take myself to the next step in making myself a better person.

Looking at a lot of my problems or weaknesses or whatever you want to call them, it comes down to one simple thing: confidence and faith in myself. Within a few years, I managed to lose all confidence and faith in myself in pretty much all aspects of my life. That's why some people might think that I like to "step on myself". But it's only because it's what I think about myself, so my opinion of myself shouldn't really be taken into that much of an account. Therefore, I need to build a little bit of confidence in myself so it can boost all the areas of me that need to be improved. Things like initiative, communication, work ethic, whatever else, there's a lot of things I don't usually mention to people but just the littlest bit of confidence can probably help me go a long way. I would also like to be able to stand firm in my opinions and views of different things in life. Everyone gets tested in their beliefs and values constantly and if someone is weak in their faiths and values, they could crumble under the pressure and start having doubts and having to rethink what they believe in. In terms of faith as an example, it would be important to be rooted in God's word to be able to be firm in what you believe and why because Christians are constantly put to the test about these things. So this is just basically a "brief" generalization of what I'm hoping to do.

Another thing is I want to be able to step up to become a leader or role model in any area that I can. This easily goes with inspire to inspire. I want to be dependable and approachable in any situation that I may have an influence on. A huge value of mine is to be able to take inspiration and using it to inspire others the same way it inspired me. I also want to take myself to another level in terms of worship, to be able to come out as a leader in this aspect that others can follow upon.

Welp, 2009 looks to be an interesting year and I hope we can all grow and learn from this thing called life. There will be highs, there will be lows, but as long as we stay faithful to God and each other, we will be fine. Of course there will be times when we feel like giving up on life, because I see that happen to me a lot, but this is where.....

Sometimes in our lives we all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tomorrow

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'll understand
We all need somebody to lean on

If there is a load you have to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load If you just call me

... thank you Bill Withers

Happy '09