Memorial Day Weekend recap...
- Friday night went with the youth to a praise night at Korean Baptist Church in San Jose... initial impression: the church owns an entire block. Literally. There's a small court in SJ with about 6 houses and the larger sanctuary, and the church owns every house on that block. Used for nurseries, church offices, Sunday school classrooms... wow. The night itself was pretty cool, first chance I've had to spend time with the Canaan young folks outside of Canaan proper... even though most of them didn't really know people at the praise night, it was cool to see some of them actually singing and having a good time in God's presence. On the way back in George's car a bunch of us started spontaneously singing loudly along to the worship CD George had in his car, which was pretty darn cool.
Afterward headed over to Byron's place to hang out with folks and spend the night... had some good conversations with people about discerning purposes for your life, and just telling stories... I've found that I've always tended to prefer conversation to games when getting together with people... unless the games are geared towards prompting or inspiring stories... after people left the people sleeping over stayed up to watch "Ocean's Eleven" again. Eventually went to bed at 5 am... didn't know I had it in me anymore.
- Saturday had Korean bbq (bul go gi and kal bi... mmmmmm) and played basketball at the park near Byron's place. I like the courts there because they have the full-size rectangular backboards, which lets me get back into my bank shot rhythm. If you understood that last sentence you've undoubtedly played with me before. Later that evening had a good time of just jamming on guitar with Jen and Karen. That particular weekend, a band with two friends of Jen's/Byron's/Maria's were performing in San Francisco, so they ended up stopping by Byron's place that night and gave a private concert... too bad I had already left b/c I was exhausted :-).
- At church on Sunday Pastor Tim (who speaks at Canaan every 4th week) shared on the topic of "Living by Faith" from the book of Habbakuk - not a commonly used book in most people's messages. Very neat message that's similar to a theme that God's been teaching me over the past month and a half or so - P Tim termed it "Though-Yet" theology. Hab 3:17-18 - "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." This has been a theme recently for me because as I come to grips with the fact that struggling - with sin, with longing, with the world, with people - is a natural fact of human life, no matter how hard it gets, I can still rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my Savior. At the YA retreat a few months ago God led me to Psalm 13, which introduced me to this idea that I've been pondering - v. 2a - "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?" v. 5-6 - "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." I think that sums it up in a nutshell. The essence of living by faith is rejoicing in God and having complete trust in Him, even when your mind is being attacked from all sides saying that God isn't delivering you from trial. This is quite a challenge.
Sunday afternoon headed up to JLau's/Cal's/Danny's pad in Richmond for a bbq... as always the food was good, but it was neat getting to catch up with the guys, as well as seeing Abe with his shaved head (Mr. Police Academy man!) and seeing Isaac (visiting from LA, moving up here in the fall for grad school at Cal) begin the milk challenge. The milk challenge, for the unaware, is a little game cooked up by Danny and Cal - basically, they'll pay $40 to anyone who can down a gallon of milk (2% milkfat or higher) and keep it down for an hour. Many have tried... none have succeeded. Oh, we also got some wiffle ball in before seeing Robert Horry save the Lakers' butt. Since I consider myself a basketball fan, I'm trying not to root for either team in this series, but it's turned out to be a great one. Incidentally, I can't think of a single reason why Horry was at the top of the key to get that lucky tip-out. If I'm Coach Jackson, I'm sending in all my players to crash the boards after Kobe drives the lane... it's not like Horry's gonna prevent a fastbreak the other way. Sometimes you do get lucky.
That night hooked up with some folks from Canaan at the Voodoo Lounge in San Francisco where a couple of indie bands were playing. One of these is Losing Daylight. They're a rock band with a few San Diego AACF alumni. The lead guitarist went to high school with Jen, and the rhythm guitarist was at the same church as Byron and Maria, and apparently the lead singer is a friend of Reni's (whose wedding I'll be going to later in June!), so naturally we turned out to support them. They were pretty good, musically... the lounge crowd was generally fairly subdued and small, but they exhibited a high level of skill and passion... the sound people could have done a better job though b/c I couldn't really make out any of the lyrics. Maybe they'll eventually go big and I can say, "Yeah, I saw them before they hit the big-time." Check out their website!
After the concerts they cleared the floor and brought a DJ, so a few people hit the dance floor. I was feeling a bit headachey, so I hung out in a booth and watched. JT and Jen were the best dancers out there.
- Monday (Memorial Day)... took some time to remember why there is a Memorial Day... it's staggering to think about the number of people, the generations of men and women who have given up their lives to protect the values that this nation stands for. Particularly since over the last two years I've been growing in sensitivity to the uniqueness and specialness of each individual human life... those lives that were given up for this nation, hopefully they weren't given up in vain. Later in the day hung out with my dad... we went to test-drive an Infiniti G35 (niiiiiiiice car... rear-wheel drive... 260 hp)... never seen him hit 90 mph until Monday.
Overall a pretty eventful weekend. Gee, it's been a long time since I've blogged, huh?
- Friday night went with the youth to a praise night at Korean Baptist Church in San Jose... initial impression: the church owns an entire block. Literally. There's a small court in SJ with about 6 houses and the larger sanctuary, and the church owns every house on that block. Used for nurseries, church offices, Sunday school classrooms... wow. The night itself was pretty cool, first chance I've had to spend time with the Canaan young folks outside of Canaan proper... even though most of them didn't really know people at the praise night, it was cool to see some of them actually singing and having a good time in God's presence. On the way back in George's car a bunch of us started spontaneously singing loudly along to the worship CD George had in his car, which was pretty darn cool.
Afterward headed over to Byron's place to hang out with folks and spend the night... had some good conversations with people about discerning purposes for your life, and just telling stories... I've found that I've always tended to prefer conversation to games when getting together with people... unless the games are geared towards prompting or inspiring stories... after people left the people sleeping over stayed up to watch "Ocean's Eleven" again. Eventually went to bed at 5 am... didn't know I had it in me anymore.
- Saturday had Korean bbq (bul go gi and kal bi... mmmmmm) and played basketball at the park near Byron's place. I like the courts there because they have the full-size rectangular backboards, which lets me get back into my bank shot rhythm. If you understood that last sentence you've undoubtedly played with me before. Later that evening had a good time of just jamming on guitar with Jen and Karen. That particular weekend, a band with two friends of Jen's/Byron's/Maria's were performing in San Francisco, so they ended up stopping by Byron's place that night and gave a private concert... too bad I had already left b/c I was exhausted :-).
- At church on Sunday Pastor Tim (who speaks at Canaan every 4th week) shared on the topic of "Living by Faith" from the book of Habbakuk - not a commonly used book in most people's messages. Very neat message that's similar to a theme that God's been teaching me over the past month and a half or so - P Tim termed it "Though-Yet" theology. Hab 3:17-18 - "Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." This has been a theme recently for me because as I come to grips with the fact that struggling - with sin, with longing, with the world, with people - is a natural fact of human life, no matter how hard it gets, I can still rejoice in the Lord and be joyful in God my Savior. At the YA retreat a few months ago God led me to Psalm 13, which introduced me to this idea that I've been pondering - v. 2a - "How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?" v. 5-6 - "But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me." I think that sums it up in a nutshell. The essence of living by faith is rejoicing in God and having complete trust in Him, even when your mind is being attacked from all sides saying that God isn't delivering you from trial. This is quite a challenge.
Sunday afternoon headed up to JLau's/Cal's/Danny's pad in Richmond for a bbq... as always the food was good, but it was neat getting to catch up with the guys, as well as seeing Abe with his shaved head (Mr. Police Academy man!) and seeing Isaac (visiting from LA, moving up here in the fall for grad school at Cal) begin the milk challenge. The milk challenge, for the unaware, is a little game cooked up by Danny and Cal - basically, they'll pay $40 to anyone who can down a gallon of milk (2% milkfat or higher) and keep it down for an hour. Many have tried... none have succeeded. Oh, we also got some wiffle ball in before seeing Robert Horry save the Lakers' butt. Since I consider myself a basketball fan, I'm trying not to root for either team in this series, but it's turned out to be a great one. Incidentally, I can't think of a single reason why Horry was at the top of the key to get that lucky tip-out. If I'm Coach Jackson, I'm sending in all my players to crash the boards after Kobe drives the lane... it's not like Horry's gonna prevent a fastbreak the other way. Sometimes you do get lucky.
That night hooked up with some folks from Canaan at the Voodoo Lounge in San Francisco where a couple of indie bands were playing. One of these is Losing Daylight. They're a rock band with a few San Diego AACF alumni. The lead guitarist went to high school with Jen, and the rhythm guitarist was at the same church as Byron and Maria, and apparently the lead singer is a friend of Reni's (whose wedding I'll be going to later in June!), so naturally we turned out to support them. They were pretty good, musically... the lounge crowd was generally fairly subdued and small, but they exhibited a high level of skill and passion... the sound people could have done a better job though b/c I couldn't really make out any of the lyrics. Maybe they'll eventually go big and I can say, "Yeah, I saw them before they hit the big-time." Check out their website!
After the concerts they cleared the floor and brought a DJ, so a few people hit the dance floor. I was feeling a bit headachey, so I hung out in a booth and watched. JT and Jen were the best dancers out there.
- Monday (Memorial Day)... took some time to remember why there is a Memorial Day... it's staggering to think about the number of people, the generations of men and women who have given up their lives to protect the values that this nation stands for. Particularly since over the last two years I've been growing in sensitivity to the uniqueness and specialness of each individual human life... those lives that were given up for this nation, hopefully they weren't given up in vain. Later in the day hung out with my dad... we went to test-drive an Infiniti G35 (niiiiiiiice car... rear-wheel drive... 260 hp)... never seen him hit 90 mph until Monday.
Overall a pretty eventful weekend. Gee, it's been a long time since I've blogged, huh?
posted by Bob at
1:17 AM
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