Sea of Faces

Have you ever looked out the window as you drive down the freeway and thought about all those cars? There's hundreds....thousands.

Then you get to a big school like my community college. Forget the "school" experience in my 5-kid classroom. That's a lot of people.

Each one of them is unique. Each one of them has a life, a family, friends. They have sorrows, joys, excitements, pet peeves. They have various classes, events, and places they go. They all probably have something different they're going through, they all have different goals.

Does it ever leave you in awe that God meets each of us where we are? What care is this - that He made us all? What love is this - that He loves us all?

And Seattle isn't even the biggest city in the Northwest, let alone the whole country....let alone the world.

How do you make an impact? How do you make a difference?

Books I've been reading lately.

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains

by Nicholas Carr

The Reason for God

by Timothy Keller

Just Do Something

by Kevin DeYoung

Uncompromising

by Hannah Farver

My Utmost for His Highest

by Oswald Chambers

Mere Christianity

by C.S. Lewis

Thriving at College

by Alex Chediak

Humility: True Greatness

by C.J. Mahaney

Notice.

Starting Monday, I shall begin school.

Like, actual, real life, take-your-books-in-a-backpack-school.

Like, you get homework.

And teachers.

And classrooms.

And you have to drive there.

...

Homeschooled much? =P

Anyhow, I'm super stoked, and hopefully you'll hear of my adventurings later on. But it might be awhile till I post, just...to, you know, notify you of that.

Live What I am Dreaming of

Yeah, I'm posting another Trading Yesterday song.

Yes, I just posted about them last time. But I had to share with you another awesome song.

See, a lot of my life recently has been along the lines of:

School planning
Debate about economic security vs. personal freedom
School planning
Debate about economic security vs. personal freedom
Wonder what in the world God is doing with my life
School planning vs. personal freedom
Wonder what God's will is for my life
Debate about economic security
School planning
Wonder about what God is doing with my life
School planning

....you get the idea. It's rigid, kind of intense, and full of all the kind of structure and organisation that I kind of enjoy. (not the stress, the organisation)

But even us non-free-spirited people who love organisation feel a little stuffy at times, and especially after having a deep conversation with your father and brother about personal freedom vs. economic security, long conversations with your mother about school schedules, and long conversations with God about what is going on in your life.....yeah never mind.

(your brain quits working, that's what)

Also what happens after you read books like "Just Do Something" by Kevin DeYoung. (more about that later, I think)

It's like that excitement you get when you start to feel that all that rigidity and organisation and stuff might be paying off, but it hasn't actually happened yet so you aren't sure.

It sparks something. I'm not sure what, because it's too late in the night. But it's in this song. So if you want to know, listen to it. That is, if the above even made sense to you. Which it quite possibly didn't. I'll never know unless you comment.



I'm taking my chances as I go // Life is more than just survival // Love will be the thing that sets me free // Just a little faith is all I need // To live what I am dreaming of.

Music [discovery] of the week.

So, I began this post in hopes that I would (ideally) post somewhat frequently about the music I love and listen to because sharing good music is something that I just kind of love doing. (which is why I love teaching) Buuut I haven't been so good about that lately.

Today, however, I am pleased to present you with the band Trading Yesterday, introduced to me courtesy of Ophelia's gmail status. :D

I found a playlist on youtube for their band, hit play, and went back to the debate homework I had been doing before I got distracted.

After about 20 minutes, I realized I was still listening to the playlist, and I hadn't turned it off!

Okay, so maybe that's not so weird.

But for me (sadly) style of music is kind of important to me in music. I have a lot of friends who don't care what kind of music is, so long as it has good lyrics. Which I agree is a pretty good way to measure it - but sometimes, no matter how good the words are, screaming and yelling just isn't music. (Classical musician for ya)

So I was surprised to find that this band had decent music with a consistent style that I didn't hate. =P

Yes! a band I am willing to spend $10 of my money to purchase their entire album and the lyrics have depth!

Heh. Turns out they are nonexistent anymore. (depression!) So I have to resort back to my youtube playlist.

But man, their music is good.

Current favorite: "Shattered"



Yesterday I died; tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight
The future's open wide beyond believing
To know why hope dies
And losing what was found, a world so hollow
Suspended in a compromise
But the silence of this sound is soon to follow
Somehow sundown
And finding answers
Is forgetting all of the questions we call home
Passing the graves of the unknown

As reason clouds my eyes with splendor fading
Illusions of the sunlight
A reflection of a lie will keep me waiting
With love gone for so long
And this day's ending
Is the proof of time killing all the faith I know
Knowing that faith is all I hold

And I've lost who I am, (i'm waiting)
and I can't understand (and fading)
Why my heart is so broken, (and holding)
rejecting your love, (love) without, (onto these tears)
love gone wrong; lifeless words carry on (i am crying)
But I know, all I know's that the end's beginning (i'm dying tonight)
who I am from the start, (i'm waiting)
take me home to my heart (and fading)
Let me go and I will run, (and holding)
I will not be silent, (silent) all this time (onto these tears)
spent in vain; wasted years wasted gain (i am crying)
All is lost but hope remains and this war's not over (i'm dying tonight)
There's a light, there's a sun (i'm waiting...)
taking all these shattered ones
To the place we belong (i am waiting...)
and his love will conquer all

Yesterday I died; tomorrow's bleeding
Fall into your sunlight

Another amazing one is called "For You Only." It's just....beautiful.



Blinding darkness surrounds me
And I am reaching for you only
This hopelessness that drowns all that I believe
Will be the one thing that I need
For you only

Keep on running farther, faster
Keep on searching for this haunting has an answer
And I know you will find me, in orbit
For I am breathing only for this.
For you only. For you only. For you only.

This is not to mention "Change My Name," "What I'm Dreaming Of," and "World on Fire." (oh my goodness "World of Fire" is AMAZING.)

Yeah, you should check out their music. It's almost as awesome, if not as awesome - as Tenth Avenue North. Now that's good music. :)

My life as a [non] gymnast.

I'm a gymnast.

Sort of.

I was a gymnast from like age 3 until the end of my freshman year.

And I wasn't a real gymnast - since I never seriously competed - only little meets and stuff.

But man, I loved it. I tell you, there's nothing like the satisfying *smack* when you hit the floor in a solid finish after flying through the air in a backflip. I love that noise.

*Smack.*

But now I'm getting all nostalgic.

One thing I really miss, though, was the workout. Nothin' like a good 2 1/2 hour workout and conditioning afterwards.

It is OoooOOoooohhhhh so painful sometimes. No, a lot of the times. Especially if you're doing like splits.

On a 3 inch wide beam.

Yeah. Ow.

So in the last 2-3 years that I've been out of gymnastics, I've tried to work out on my own to stay in shape.

::cough::

Um, yeah, about that....

The thing is, I can't do it myself. I don't have the equipment, the resources, or the right locations.

But, in order to get flexible and to get stronger - you have to work out. Consistently.

Working out makes you stronger.

And it made me think of the verse - you know, that says "work out your own salvation."

I've always been a little confused by that, because you don't need to work to earn grace.

But it doesn't mean "work" in that way. I think it means that once we are saved, we need to work consistently if we want to get stronger.

Cause, see, you don't have to work out to sign up for the gym. But once you're in - and paid the price for it - it'd be pointless to just sit there and do nothing, wouldn't it?

Can you imagine if someone else paid your gym membership - for life? Of course you'd go work out, wouldn't you?

Working out without the right equipment and without the right coaching can be dangerous - and you can easily hurt yourself.

I can't get stronger by myself - I need a coach to push me. I don't know the right exercises to do myself - I need a coach to teach me.

But what if you had the coach who created the sport in the first place? Boy, would that be a workout.

And that's the thing about life, I can't do the right things without my Coach. I can't become stronger and better unless I'm working out consistently.

But how awful it is the number of times I just sit on the sidelines instead of getting in there and doing my splits.

Yeah, I'll admit it. I put off doing splits because, let's face it, it is painful. Especially when you haven't worked out in awhile.

OH! and that's another thing! The longer you don't work out, the more painful it is to get back to where you were. Think splits are as easy for me now as they were when I was doing gymnastics? Think again - they hurt way more now because I haven't been working out consistently.

Okay, so that was a long post - and I might have stretched the analogy a bit.

But what do you think? Am I totally off my rocker here? Is the concept of working out applicable to the verse "work out your own salvation?" Or what do you think that verse really means?

True Perseverance.

If you still haven't checked out Jon Acuff's blog, you need to. Seriously. Look, I made half of that sentence a link so you wouldn't miss it.

This post in particular is really good - and here's an excerpt of it.

"When I focused on one approach...things changed. When I made a commitment and focused on keeping it, things changed. When I didn’t give up and change course the first day or the 15th day or the 30th day, things changed.

Sometimes we have a hard time focusing on things. There are so many different ways to accomplish a goal. So many ways to write a book or record a song or start a business or do anything that really matters to us. And when we hit a roadblock with one approach, it’s tempting to look for another.

When you find yourself in that situation, and you will, wait.

Pause.

Don’t give up on what you’re working on."

Asia Bibi: A Call for Mercy.

I don't know about you, but I've thought a lot about how we have the freedom to share our faith in the USA.

I mean - we don't really think it's that big of a deal.

But can you imagine being put in prison for it? Or even being sentenced to death?

A Christian woman in Pakistan named Asia Bibi did just that - and is right now in jail, with a death sentence.

Through the organization the Voice of the Martyrs, my brother, myself, and some friends of ours recently made a video to spread awareness about her situation.

The Voice of the Martyrs has started a petition for her release, and their goal is to get 1 million signatures.

They're also hosting a video contest to raise awareness, and you need 200 views by this Monday in order to be eligible.

Please watch the video and share it with your friends. It's not often I ask people to repost or reblog something - but it will only take a few seconds.

Even more than that, please, please sign the petition. It may not seem like a lot, but every signature counts.

You can view the video HERE, and sign the petition HERE.

Every signature is a call for mercy.