Sunset

Sunset

Malnourished

Malnourished

"Faith is walking with God. The biggest problem with life is that it's just daily. You can never get so healthy that you don't have to continue to eat right... Spiritually, we're in much the same place... It's not what you did, and not what you say you're going to do, it's what you do today." - Rich Mullins

Lately, during this holiday season, I've found that while my body has been feasting, my spirit has been starving and weak. Like the Supersize Me guy, subsisting on a steady diet of the world has caused me to be more prone to irritability, more susceptible to sin, and more distant from God. I realized this morning that just missing a week in the Word and in prayer has severely impacted my ability to think upon heavenly things, to see with God's eyes, and to experience the joy and freedom that He offers. It's really not enough to go to church or listen to music with Christian content - without the Bread of Life, without Jesus, without recognizing my need on a daily basis, I will starve, and I will fall.

Spending time this morning re-memorizing Scripture verses that had already begun to dull in my memory after only a few days, and trying to express contrition to God through prayer, I began to experience some of the "peace that transcends all understanding" (ref. Phil 4:6-7) - and it's something I'm craving more and more. In my body, I'm generally a pretty health-conscious person. I pray that in my spirit, in my faith walk with Jesus, that I might be more disciplined in my diet (intake of spiritual "meat" and "bread") and exercise (working out my salvation and applying my faith).

While searching for the Mullins quote to open this post, I remembered that I had written on this topic before 3.5 years ago. Reading that post reminds me of perhaps a less-scarred version of myself - one that placed a higher priority on processing my life, identifying those teachable moments from God, and enjoying Him.

I think I'd like to get back to that.

Feels a little bit like Christmas...

Feels a little bit like Christmas

A time of corporate worship focusing on the power of Christ to give us freedom from ourselves in order to experience true joy...

Catching up briefly with old friends whom I haven't seen in years...

Grooving to the jazz/gospel/soul/country tunes of Bart Millard's "Hymned No. 1" album in the car...

Picking up my bro from the airport and watching the end of the Lakers-Heat game with him and my dad at home...

Napping away a lazy, wet Sunday afternoon on the couch (since hoops has been pre-empted by weather again)...

Playing around with my unexpected newest toy (a gift from dad... too! many! features!)...

Dinner with the four of us in the family at the table, highlighted by fresh hamachi and salmon sashimi, and good conversation about "finding meaning and enjoyment in our work" and "empty nest psychology in Taiwanese culture"...

Viewing the enjoyably funny and surprisingly poignant "Bruce Almighty" with my bro and my mom (I'll probably delve into some more aspects of the movie and relating it to some personal thoughts I'm working out in a later post)...

Felt like Christmas to me.

A quote from Torence's Sunday School lesson today:

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so he sent us a Savior.

Merry Christmas!

Quote on the Incarnation

From Shaun Groves:
A new King. A new kingdom. The kingdom of God lying in a manger, growing in Nazareth, learning from the rabbis, wearing his prayer shawl, preaching in the synagogue, ""The Spirit of the Lord is on ME, because He has anointed ME to preach good news to the poor. He has sent ME to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19)

Revolution has come to a manger, come through a Jewish rabbi born to a virgin in the Middle East. And an empire, a god, a savior, is overthrown. A new kingdom for the poor of spirit, the mourning and the quitters that would outlast the reign of all Caesars has come...

What the nativity scene dimly lit on our mantles fails to capture for us is the defiance, the seditiousness of the Christ. The placid figurines leave us wondering why anyone would want to kill this precious child. Remember though: asleep on that hay is the King of Kings come to do through his people what no Caesar could, come to bow every knee, erase every border, destroy every flag, save every soul, free every captive, feed every stomach, open every eye, right every injustice - and do so by giving up His own life, not by taking another's.

Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Oh, and Go Bears! See Cal's blog for details on Vegas.

Ramblings 2005-12-20

A few thoughts from the weekend

- In response to one of the youth kids receiving their driver's license on Friday, I pulled out my own license to show everyone my picture from when I was 16. Apparently I'm either a young-looking 27, or I was an old-looking 16, since everyone agreed that I looked exactly the same. I'm betting on the latter, since it's been a running joke my entire adult life how I typically look older than I really am. The youth kids had a cookie design contest and then a white elephant $5 or less gift exchange (best gift: one of those super-soft travel pillows filled with microbeads, funniest gift: nail clipper shaped like a football). See Chris' xanga for all the details and photos.

- Gonna be going through Celebration of Discipline with Sam from the youth group starting in 2006. It's been at least a year since I've read it, so it'll be good to be reminded of the spiritual disciplines I've found to be so helpful in my spiritual growth. The ones that resonate most closely with me are Meditation and Simplicity.

- Celebrated JT's early birthday on Saturday with a surprise dinner at Chevy's and then headed up to the City for a night of live jazz music at Jazz at Pearl's. For the club, I needed to borrow a jacket to attain the "business casual" standard for entry. This sparked a new conversation amongst my friends about how I need to invest in some new clothes, like a wool coat that would be more appropriate for "dressy" occasions than my typical windbreaker or ski jacket. Heh... as far as I'm concerned, "business casual" = jeans and a T-shirt. It's what I do my business in!

The club had a two-drink minimum, so I ordered one $9 cocktail and a bottle of water ($4). The cocktail was some kind of vodka mixed with chocolate flavor - not too bad, but a bit stronger than I expected. Couple of my friends seemed quite surprised that I actually purchased alcohol.

I've been listening to more jazz the last month or two, mostly Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and I'm beginning to get a feel for what I like and what I don't like in the genre (even though I still don't have the context to "get" the different styles or nuances, like how to appreciate improvisation). I'm not a big fan of horns, outside of the sax, and I tend to be favorable towards piano and upright bass sounds. The bass player at Pearl's was flinging his 7-foot tall monster around pretty good.

- After church on Sunday, was thwarted from our weekly hoops game by pouring rain, so a few of us set up instruments in the sanctuary and jammed for a few hours. I spent most of my time on bass guitar, which was a blast. If I start playing it more often, I'll have to build up the calluses on my index and middle fingers of my right hand.

- Watched "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" in the evening with the youth group. Having recently read the book (I'm now on The Magician's Nephew in the series), I had a pretty good idea of what to expect going into the movie. The filmmakers did a pretty good job, I think. While the commercials might have you believe that it's "Lord of the Rings Lite," the battle scene at the end was really not all that important in the grand scheme of the movie. They did a good job transporting the viewer through the wardrobe to the magical world of Narnia. The little girl playing Lucy did a marvelously natural job expressing wonder and delight (according to reviews, they actually blindfolded her and brought her onto the snowy Narnia set, capturing her honest astonishment on camera after taking off the blindfold). Some parts of the movie were awkward or unintentionally funny, at least to an adult viewer, but overall it did a good job of capturing the feel of an intelligent childlike fantasy, with some Christian symbolism. They did inexplicably leave out my (and many others') favorite line of dialogue from the book: "Is (Aslan) safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he is good. He's the king, I tell you." I'd give the film a solid B to B+ - certainly worth seeing in the theater, but not worth seeing more than once in the theater like the LOTR movies were.

- Quote of the day: "I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it." - Harry Emerson Fosdick. Do you agree or disagree?

Off to Vegas. Go Bears!

Mishmash

Mishmash

It's been a rather busy week with things at work ramping up right before the typical holiday lull, and thus my writing and processing has fallen into a severe lull. So, here's some short takes, links, and quotes that I've accumulated over the last few days.

- Last Saturday, I went with a couple of friends to the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose to see their "Game On!' exhibit about the history of video games. Andy has a good writeup of it here, and George documented the experience with some photos. Basically, the exhibit had a bunch of old consoles and arcade games set up for you to play... I got to relive nostalgia with NBA Jam, Galaga, and spent a lot of time on River City Ransom, which was tons of fun.

- Sunday, I had a great time at dinner with Byron, Maria, Andy, and Joy. We ended up sitting at the table conversing for 4.5 hours. Andy recapped our topics pretty well here. It felt like a very grown-up conversation. What happened to immaturity?

- Today, my group at work had our holiday party - bowling followed by a gift exchange and dinner at the very posh Parcel 104 restaurant in Santa Clara. This was my first time bowling in at least a year, and probably two... the last time I bowled much was probably back when Eric, Jeff, and their crew were going to the lanes like every week. I started off hot but then tired quickly, but was relatively happy overall - scores of 153, 139, 122 in consecutive games. The team of four with the highest average score (my team finished 4th out of 9 teams) won iPod Shuffles! For the gift exchange ($15 and up per gift), I ended up with The Chappelle Show Season 2. Who wants to come over and check it out?

- Some thoughtful quotes from Martin Luther King:
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."

"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

- The Ten Golden Rules of Google - basically a PR piece running in Newsweek. Some interesting principles that Google credits with helping them succeed.

- Humanity's Greatest Inventions/Discoveries, as told by seventh-grade students. Funniest answers: "tomatoes", "iPods", and "marrying a princess." Plus, the sample sentences written in support of the claims are painfully badly structured. Is this really what a seventh grade education in America will get you?

- A while ago, ANg sent me this link with the caption, "I have a bad feeling about this." See if you can figure out what it looks like.

- I think I'll roll out a new blog template with the new year, and keep this existing webpage as an "archive" of sorts. I'll experiment a little to see if what I have in mind will work.

- If I was an NBA player, I'd apparently be:

Ben Wallace 40% Speed, 30% Selfishness, 40% Skill, 70% Athleticism

Big Ben Wallace is big. He's not fast. He's not particularly skilled (although in recent years he's unveiled a functional mid-range jumper). But he's big. And selfless. Big Ben doesn't care about his points, he cares about swatting that ball you're trying to lay up into the sixteenth row, and about banging in the middle to give his team the shots they need on the perimeter.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 19% on Speed You scored higher than 8% on Selfishness You scored higher than 16% on Skill You scored higher than 69% on Athleticism

Link: The Which NBA Player Are You Test written by dgc20e on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I still maintain that my actual on-the-court playing prototype is Shane Battier, though.

- Vegas is ON next week. Time to warm up. Hey Alumni! Go!

Vegas, baby, Vegas

Vegas, Baby, Vegas

In a week and a half or so, I'll be heading to Sin City with college buddies Cal, Danny, JLau, Mel, Gina, and a few other folks to watch the Cal Bears take on BYU in the Vegas Bowl! I haven't had the chance yet to visit Vegas during March Madness with the 5824 guys (how sad that soon, 5824 will be no more), but this visit ought to be fun.

Eric likes to poke fun at me for being introspective:

[12:15:01 PM] Eric: ur going to vegas bowl?
[12:15:07 PM] Bob: yup
[12:15:26 PM] Eric: oo, fun
[12:15:29 PM] Eric: who u going with?
[12:16:14 PM] Bob: Cal, Danny, JLau, some other folks
[12:16:40 PM] Eric: o, that sounds fun
[12:16:56 PM] Bob: yup
[12:16:59 PM] Bob: kinda signed up on a whim
[12:17:05 PM] Bob: heh
[12:18:01 PM] Eric: don't lie
[12:18:08 PM] Eric: u didn't sign up on a whim
[12:18:23 PM] Eric: u thought and reflected about it for 5 days
[12:18:56 PM] Bob: ... you made me laugh out loud
[12:19:10 PM] Eric: u know it's true :)

In the "DOH!" news of the day, pulled this headline from Slashdot - basically, some guy at a multi-billion dollar bank in Japan got his numbers switched on a stock sale, and instead of selling one share for $5k, he sold 610,000 shares for 1 yen each, resulting in a net loss of $250 million, which would negate all the profit from the previous fiscal year.

Favorite site of the moment: HowStuffWorks.com. I'm generally a pretty inquisitive person, so I like knowing the basics of how things work, but not necessarily in detail. This website is great because the articles cover just enough to satisfy curiosity about just about any topic under the sun. This past week, I enjoyed reading stuff about Christmas history, swearing/cursing, sharks, intelligent design, a new 1000 hp production sports car from Bugatti (0-60 mph in 3 seconds!), and snipers.

Recent books: read through the first 5 books of the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and most recently, The Horse and His Boy. Next up: The Magician's Nephew.

Recent albums: "White Flag" (Shaun Groves) - current, "Jesus Freak" (dc Talk), "Blue Train" (John Coltrane). Next up: "The Drunkard's Prayer" (Over the Rhine) and "With Abandon" (Chasing Furies).

Scripture in music

Scriptural truth (and lies?) in praise songs

I'm currently going through a set of memory verses while taking the train to work in the morning, on a variety of topics, such as Christian life, witness, God's promises, etc.

One of the verses is Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not of yourselves, it is a gift of God - not by works, such that no one can boast." An interesting thing is that I've had it memorized for years now, and I can credit a rather inane, cheesy, but catchy praise song I learned back in high school, when I was a churchgoer but not yet a believer: For by grace (doot dootdoot doot) / I've been saaaaaaaaved through faith (dootdootdoot dootdootdoot doot) and so on, pretty much just adding Scripture verbatim to music. By most critical standards, it's not really a "good" song. But, it's helped me memorize an important piece of Scripture quite easily.

As I read through my Bible, I come across tons of passages that I associate with a melody in my head - usually it provided inspiration for a praise song or some other piece of music written by a Christian. Most recently, I found that a Rich Mullins song ("Sing Your Praise to the Lord") pretty much adds a chorus to Psalm 113.

I don't think it's a real shocker to anybody that music and melody can be an incredibly powerful teaching tool. I'd wager that 90% of the people reading this paragraph still sing the alphabet. This is why I believe that for the church, where music typically plays a large part of the worship service, the songs we play need to be tested for truth, because it can be so easy for a congregational participant to internalize into memory the sets of words they're singing, accompanied by melody. When the song teaches truth or straight-up Scripture, it can be a valuable teaching tool for the congregation to learn a principle. However, many songs today, in my opinion, can teach incomplete or easily misinterpreted principles.

I'll give one example (feel free to disagree with me if you have a different viewpoint). I learned how to sing and play "His Banner Over Me" a long time ago. It's fast, catchy, and even has a fun intro. It references some New Testament imagery that needs a little bit of context to understand fully (a banqueting table and a banner). However, I probably won't be leading the song again, primarily because of my issue with the last line of the song: "You (God) do all things well, just look at our (congregation's) lives."

Really? The best evidence for God's amazing creativity and worksmanship is the messy, sinful lives of man? It's the very depravity of those lives that requires something as powerful as God's grace to begin the redeeming work of sanctification. Unlike other songs expressing an aspiration for greater holiness, this one seems to assume it. Perhaps a few members of the singing congregation could honestly express the sentiment of "God's made me holy, look what a great job he did with me!" but even then, the focus has shifted from God (where it should be) to man. At best, the lyric doesn't seem to reference the best examples of God's handiwork; at worst, it can introduce an element of self-pride into singing ("Look at me!").

I have some more thoughts on the power of music to teach and inspire, but that'll hold for another post.

Small world

Today's sign that the internet is making the world smaller: for the second time, someone I'd never met before was able to identify me based on my presence in the blogging community. 'Twas quite surprising.

I don't care for diet soda, or for Dr. Pepper, but the song in the Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper commercial is stuck in my head and driving me nuts right now. So, I did a little research and found out that it's from an old Muppets skit that you can find here.

24 Season 5 is coming up in about a month! The trailer looks intriguing.

(mahna mahna) do do, dododo
(mahna mahna) do do, dodo
(mahna mahna) do do, dododo, dododo, dodo do dodo do

(It's stuck in your head now, isn't it?)

Love molecule

"Baby, you make my NGF level spike..."

Interesting article here. Text:
--------------------
Molecule gives passionate lovers just one year
Tue Nov 29,12:34 PM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Your heartbeat accelerates, you have butterflies in the stomach, you feel euphoric and a bit silly. It's all part of falling passionately in love -- and scientists now tell us the feeling won't last more than a year.

The powerful emotions that bowl over new lovers are triggered by a molecule known as nerve growth factor (NGF), according to Pavia University researchers.

The Italian scientists found far higher levels of NGF in the blood of 58 people who had recently fallen madly in love than in that of a group of singles and people in long-term relationships.

But after a year with the same lover, the quantity of the 'love molecule' in their blood had fallen to the same level as that of the other groups.

The Italian researchers, publishing their study in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, said it was not clear how falling in love triggers higher levels of NGF, but the molecule clearly has an important role in the "social chemistry" between people at the start of a relationship.
--------------------

Keeping in mind the super-small sample size of the study, there are some interesting comments, questions, and implications here:

- How long before a company comes out with an NGF level detector? Future DTR talks can involve the two people giving each other blood tests. "Sorry, I think you're really great, but the chemistry really (literally!) isn't there. I need at least a '100' level response to consider dating you." Eharmony would be all over this.

- How long before a company comes out with an aphrodisiac/perfume/cologne/drug with NGF supplement? "'He's just not that into you?' Well, help him along with this special love powder! One spoonful into his coffee..."

- On a more serious note, perhaps this study suggests that people in a relationship ought to give it at least a year to see if there is a more substantial love and commitment as the foundation after the feelings (and NGF molecules) fade away.

Redrum

No beer and no TV make Homer something something

I had the chance to watch the quasi-classic Kubrick scare flick "The Shining" this past weekend at Mike P's place. Being an avid fan of The Simpsons, I'd already watched the animated parody of the movie, so I actually had some ideas of what the plot of the movie would turn out to be. Even though I don't usually go in for horror, I'd consider this movie to be more along the lines of "The Sixth Sense" in terms of portraying the supernatural influence on psyche and relying on suspense and tension rather than gore. From an artistic standpoint, there's a lot to admire about the movie:

- effective use of sound to evoke ambiance, rather than just predictable scares, such as the big wheels of Danny's tricycle echoing differently on hardwood or carpet.
- innovative camera shots, such as smooth pans following characters around corners of the hotel, magnifying the size of the place and subliminally giving an impression of the convoluted paths the minds of the characters are taking. Another neat shot is the behind-the-typewriter shot on Wendy when she comes on the typewriter.
- interesting use of mirrors as "windows to the soul," providing interesting shots and playing parts in the plot by symbolizing inner demons, and also to illuminate the creepiest part of the movie, the growing-in-intensity chant of "REDRUM".

Finally, watching the original made my memory of the Simpsons episode that much funnier. "You read my thoughts boy! You've got the Shinning!" "Oh, you mean the Shining." "Sh! Do you want to get sued?"

Afterwards, we squeezed in a viewing of "Undercover Brother" with Eddie Griffin, which was much funnier than I expected it to be. It effectively switched between racial quips, homages to martial arts flicks, and situational humor so that it didn't become too much of a one-note comedy. My favorite quote, from the end of the movie:

Undercover Brother: You know what they say, behind every great black man...
Conspiracy Brother: Is the PO-lice.
Undercover Brother: No.
Smart Brother: A bunch of slow white athletes?
Undercover Brother: No!
White She-Devil: A cute butt.
Undercover Brother: NO!
Lance: Probable cause.

Sign of aging: Playing ball on Sunday, I got there a bit late, and so didn't have time to stretch before diving into a game with a team that needed one guy. Jumping for my first blocked shot, I felt both my knees pop, and they stayed sore through Monday. Sigh.

Pulled this from youth member Rachel's blog and thought it might be amusing:

"If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want - good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you."

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

Thanksgiving in short

Quote of the weekend:

"You know what I realized? If it wasn't for girls, I'd be wearing the same clothes everyday." -- Sam H

Amen to that.

Incidentally, a red throw rug accidentally got thrown into my whites laundry on Thursday... so now I need to buy some new clothes. Pink's not my color, sorry. But man, I hate clothes shopping unless it's for athletic shoes.

Pretty chill weekend this year... Turkey Bowl was less pain-inducing than previous years, probably because I just rushed the QB and ultimately didn't do a whole lot. A big turkey-and-hot-pot dinner with extended family, and braved the insane Black Friday crowd at Fry's to pick up an external 160 GB hard drive that will be $70 after rebate. Gonna go watch "The Shining" in a few minutes, then church, hoops, and the end of the long weekend tomorrow.

A&E was playing a 24 season 1 marathon yesterday. What a great show. Season 1 might have had the "smallest" threat, but felt the most human and most real. Can't wait for season 5 to show up in January.

One of my favorite Warrior whipping boys, Troy Murphy is actually playing quite well. He still can't defend his position or box out, which annoys me to no end, but offensively he has added a low post game and driving to the hoop out of the triple-threat stance which make him much more effective. If he keeps improving, he may turn out to be a keeper after all. Now Dunleavy has to wake up and Baron has to start hitting his shots.

It's been fun reading various people's blogs with lists of what they're thankful for. As for me? Well, I'll eventually write out a long post on the idea of entitlement, but as trite as it sounds, I'm striving to be thankful for everything, because I don't deserve anything good. To close this post, two great perspective-giving quotes from Rich Mullins:

"God doesn't have to be good to anybody. He doesn't owe us the breath we breathe. I figure if God has given us salvation, that's way more than we deserve, and I won't judge Him for not giving me something else."

"As a disclaimer to everything I've ever said or everything I ever will say, when it's all said and done we'll only have two things left to say: One is 'Forgive me' and the other is 'Thank you.'"

Have a blessed Thanksgiving and holiday season, everyone.

Quick Hits

Quick hits

- I've been thinking of changing up the look of my blog to a more modern template. On the plus side, it'd probably be a template that blogger supports for all their latest features (like the RSS reader that a bunch of my friends want me to enable), on the minus side... this current look is something I feel some nostalgia about, having kept it for most of the last 3 years.

- Lots of people have been commenting on this Wall Street Journal article starring my high school alma mater (Monta Vista) and rival (Lynbrook), and how the last ten years has seen an Asian-American invasion into the schools that is actually driving out non-Asians, specifically white folks ("the new white flight"). At first I was thinking of writing a long treatise on my own experience, but instead I'll just say that a lot of the article did in fact sound familiar, such as competing with other 2nd-generation students who were pushed by their parents to take classes and private lessons over the summer to get "ready" for the school year. The interesting thing about going to Cal was that in terms of student makeup in my major, it was pretty much a similar academic environment.

- Random nostalgia link: remember Contra for the NES? This article covers almost every level in pretty darn good detail, and the screenshots sure take me back. Quite possibly my favorite game of all time. I remember playing it on the "Asian NES" the last time I visited Taiwan - that console was red and white, and the cartridges were half the size of the American ones. I still recall being annoyed to no end by the spikey stompers in the second-to-last level.

- This article does a pretty good job of describing why I don't think live actors will be replaced by computer-generated characters any time soon. In short, it's because of some theory developed by a Japanese roboticist saying that at some point, our expectations will influence our enjoyment in such a way as to change us from positive thinkers to nitpickers. In gaming, this is illustrated by the fact that when graphics and sound were more primitive, we appreciated little moments of realism, but once things became close-to-lifelike, we become repulsed by the uncanny inhumanness of the object. This can probably be credited with why a cartoonish CG movie such as the "Incredibles" can be such a hit, but a movie with lifelike representations such as "Final Fantasy" can flop.

- Currently reading: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 3rd book in the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis. I began re-reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in anticipation of the December movie, and just kept reading... the books are actually a lot better than I remember from the first time I went through them. I do have more perspective now on Lewis' writing style, so that's probably contributed to the enjoyment.

- Recent CD purchases: "With Abandon" (Chasing Furies), "White Flag" (Shaun Groves), "Hymned" (Bart Millard), and "The Drunkard's Prayer" (Over the Rhine).

The Simple Geek You answered 69% of the questions as a geek truly would.

You don't seem to sway in either direction, however you still seem to have some latent geek attributes within you. Maybe you're interested in computers but not a gamer? Maybe you've got geek hobbies but none of the awkward social tendencies. You may be slightly geekier than you thought and in denial! The simple geek usually has various quirks that friends may make fun of, but in general can be considered a fairly normal person. Your geek attributes make you less likely to conform to society. The popular kids don't hate you but the geeks don't either, so it's a respectable demographic. In a nutshell, you answered enough questions with geek tendencies and enough questions without geek tendencies that it's difficult to pinpoint your exact alignment.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 32% on geekness

Link: The True Geek Test written by ambientred on Ok Cupid

Worship inspires change

Worship inspires change

Second musing resulting from last week's Tomlin/Redman/Giglio "worship concert"...

I believe that the genuine experience of God and Christ through musical worship should always leave the worshipper changed - either orienting him to a new truth, or to repentance because of the reminder of a truth he already knows. To do this, it needs to engage the heart through emotion, and the mind through doctrine. Additionally, the worship service ought to frame the music within the context of Scripture to help the worshipper engage God on many levels.

I particularly like this quote by singer/songwriter Shaun Groves on the topic, when getting ready to lead worship:
You guys ready to worship with me tonight? Worship is not a song. Worship is my response to God with all that I am. It's all that He is: all that He has done, is doing and will do - in me, through me, around me and in spite of me - but it's not just a song. Worship is our response with all of our lives and everything that we've been given to all that God is. And so, if we come in here into this place and we raise our hands and we raise our voices but we don't stretch these hands out when we leave this place to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and fight for the poor, for the oppressed then what you and I have done is worshipped a singer or song and not a God. So let me ask you again, are you ready to worship with me tonight?

During the first half of the night last week, I was concerned that there didn't seem to be a clear purpose for the evening - whether it would be an actual concert, or a corporate worship service. There's certainly nothing wrong with Christians using musical talents for the purposes of entertainment, as I believe that exercising these gifts with excellence to point to God is their own form of personal worship. However, the church has become a significant buying force in America that is specifically marketed to (see: the tremendous success of the Passion movie and all the worship music that has been expressly created more because people will buy it than because the musician wanted to do it), and for many American Christians, I think we fall into the trap of worshipping a singer or a song. So, I was concerned that as Tomlin and Redman bounded out to screaming voices and blazing lights, that "worship" was just going to be used as a marketing tool to sell more CDs and give people happy, bouncy feelings - that they would come out and sing all of their most popular songs, without so much as a corporate prayer to frame the music within truth.

Thank God for the mini-sermon by Louie Giglio. When I heard him speak at another Passion event back in college, I didn't really learn much, but this time, I felt that he was able to preach truth about God's eternal and expansive perspective simply and clearly. He was able to bring a clear purpose and focus to the evening, and this connected beautifully with all of the music that we got to sing together afterwards. I believe there was a genuine experience of Christ in that our hearts and minds were fully engaged with the Scriptural picture of God's bigness, and lives were re-oriented to this new perspective. Reading people's responses through blogs indicates that God did indeed change people.

May we raise our hands in worship, and then be inspired to stretch them out to help impact lives of those around us, so that they too might be changed.

Humility in Worship

Humility in Worship

Like a lot of other people, I had the opportunity to go to the Chris Tomlin "Indescribable" tour last Thursday. George was able to get a camera in and took a lot of good shots here. Here's Chris' review and Andy's two-part review. Since I was/am fighting off a cold, I wasn't able to lift my voice up with the 1800 other (predominantly Asian, and younger than me) folks who filled the room that night, but the evening did bring to mind two thoughts that I'll share in separate posts.

I'll cover the shorter one first. A few entries ago, I wrote a little bit about humility - desiring the best interests for another person even when it hurts, considering others better than ourselves, ultimately being given strength by a focus on the eternal truth that Christ has set us free from the need to be selfish. I think it likely that I saw a great example of this at the concert in Matt Redman.

From around 1995-2000, just ten years ago, Redman was the guy in modern church worship music. Along with a handful of other songwriters, Redman spearheaded a new wave of music intended for the church that was as catchy as it was effective in communicating truth. As more and more worship leaders came onto the scene, he continually distinguished himself as a thoughtful musician and lyricist a significant cut above the run of the mill, penning classic songs that are sung even today in congregations all around the world - Better is One Day, Once Again, Let Everything That Has Breath, and of course, The Heart of Worship. In his heyday, Redman would undoubtedly have been headlining a worship tour like Thursday's.

In the last few years, however, his songs have seemingly fallen off sharply in popularity. Off his most recent three albums, only one song has really joined the ranks of his classics (and an awesome one it is, too - Blessed Be Your Name). Also, the last half decade has given rise to newer leaders such as Tomlin, who seems to be turning out 3-4 worship standards a year these days.

If I were in Redman's shoes, I think it'd be very easy for me to fall into envy, with a desire to cling to past fame ("I used to headline Passion tours!") and perhaps some frustration that my work was no longer being appreciated in the same way as it used to be. Heck, I've even read several blogs about the concert where the writer had no idea that Redman was also on tour.

However, I'm guessing that God has graciously brought him to a place where he can experience the joy and humility of selflessness through worship. I've read articles about how Redman has been very influential in mentoring new, gifted songwriters and worship leaders like Tomlin and Tim Hughes. I could sense during the concert that he seemed pretty content about playing second fiddle to Tomlin and speaker Louie Giglio, because he already knew and had experienced deep down the overarching message of the tour - that God is big and we are small. So, it didn't matter that a man whose music has been so incredibly influential in the modern church only got to play about 3-4 of his songs, or that his name was in small print on the marquee, because ultimately, it wasn't about him.

That, I think, is a powerful example of humility in worship.