Catching up...
I'm currently more zoned in at ping-pong at the office than I am at basketball. For years, my forehand has been a weakness, but I think sometime in the last 2 weeks a switch went on and I'm now starting to put away points with my forehand. Anthony L, if you're reading this... I'm still using the same paddle I used back when we played in high school. 'Twas smart to keep it in a zippered bag, as the rubber is remarkably well-preserved.
Just going to jot down thoughts, memories, and quotes from the past few weeks for later processing, ranging from W4C to New Year's to last weekend.
W4C
Went for one day of West Coast Chinese Christian Conference, which took place up at Mt. Hermon in the Santa Cruz Mountains. When you drive by yourself in the Santa Cruz mountains on 17, it can actually be kinda fun taking curves a little bit faster than I would go were I transporting passengers. Ran into Frank L and Wilma K from college and had the chance to catch up with each of them, and also made a few new friends.
Funny story: the theme worship song for the conference was one composed by the worship band, and as many conference attendees are Cantonese, the band started the song in English and then moved into Cantonese. It was a pretty upbeat song, and so people began clapping during the English singing on beats 2 and 4. When we moved into the Cantonese verse, the clapping switched to 1 and 3 - in the same song!. If you happen to attend a church with both English and Asian congregations, you'll understand why I was having a hard time keeping a smile off my face.
The plenary speakers, Dr. JP Moreland and Hudson Taylor, were both very good, but I suspect that more of their teaching would have stuck with me if I had been around for the entire conference rather than just a day. Incidentally, the latter (Taylor), the son of the Hudson Taylor who is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Christian missions movement to China, was born and raised in China and so was actually more fluent in Mandarin than in English. It was a bit disconcerting, but kinda cool, to see this 70+ year old Caucasian male throwing in phrases in Mandarin while preaching in English, and even asking his Chinese translator (who was translating into Cantonese) what a particular Mandarin phrase meant in English ("da guay, shao guay" -> "big devil, little devil").
Most memorable lessons from the weekend came from a workshop I attended on "The Biblical role of manhood and womanhood," dealing with Jesus' teachings on the family. While overall it was very solid and addressed sometimes-controversial issues with truth and gentleness, the primary thing that stood out was when he was addressing an audience question from a female Berkeley pre-optometry student about the struggle that some Christian women go through, because they work so hard to equip themselves for a job, and then after marriage and children, they're sometimes expected to give that up to manage the home and be the primary caregiver. The workshop leader gave a pretty poignant answer (paraphrasing): "There's nothing wrong with women in the workplace, and God calls different people - both men and women - to all walks of life. One thing that He does make clear, however, is that if He's given you and your spouse a family, its well-being is your primary concern. Never sacrifice family for anything. Work out breadwinning and caregiving roles between husband and wife, but don't sacrifice the family." This seems to be reinforced by Biblical passages on instructions for deacons and elders, saying that an important qualification for leading a church is to lead one's family well.
The other lesson was primarily an exhortation not related to the workshop topic - "God created man to work. He has also created His people as citizens of the heavenly realm, with eternal life promised to those who are faithful. He only keeps His faithful people here long enough to complete the work they've been assigned. Therefore, work hard so you can go home."
New Year's weekend
New Year's weekend... celebrated at James and Luwen's place. Beforehand, had dinner with George, Eric, and Olivia at Miyake where we chowed on rolls and discussed the topic of how we would raise our children if they happened to be prodigies at something (sparked by a conversation I had with Danny a while back). It's a fun conversation topic, particularly when you pull out the Billy Elliott theme and ask guys what they'd do if their son wanted to become, say, a ballet dancer. Haha... I think for me, I'd want to make sure to develop my child's passion and enjoyment of whatever he's good at rather than forcing him to do it because he's good at it... if that's successful, then what he/she does isn't as big of a deal.
'Twas at James and Luwen's where the Texas Hold'em poker craze infected my group of friends. On a whim, Eric brought his professional poker set and the rest of us started learning the ins and outs of blinds, bluffs, and raking in the bling. Okay, sorry, I just wanted to get that "bl" alliteration in there :-). As it turned out, a few of us (JT, Karen, Joy, Andrew W, Eon) got so into it over that weekend that the next day (New Year's Day), we watched "The Italian Job" (decent flick) in the evening, finished at around midnight, and then stayed up till 4 am playing poker again, using Scrabble tiles as chips.
That Saturday, helped Maria and George move, then collectively thumbed our noses at the mad cow scare by going out to eat Korean bbq in the evening.
Past weekend
Last Saturday we celebrated Byron's bachelor party. He and Maria are getting married in a week and a half down in LA, so almost all of my church's English congregation is heading down. Obviously I can't put details of the festivities down in this public forum, but let's say that the following things were involved: duct tape, marshmallows, saran wrap, cheetos, whipped/shaving cream, pink, guitar, push broom, white cape, white beard, white wig. We also played some basketball, had dinner at Todai, and spent some time in sharing and prayer. Byron was a pretty good sport through everything we made him do. Eric thought the hazing was too tame though.
Random sermon notes
A few notes about the idea of success from a sermon a while back based on Phil 3:12-14 ("Pressing on toward the goal...") and 2 Tim 4:6-8 ("fought the good fight...")
- Success sometimes fails to satisfy because the desired end is not our desire
- God is the end to end all ends - 2 Tim 4:8
- Success is often less about what you get, but about who recognizes and affirms you
- What are you trying to prove and to who?
- Calling = Purpose + Uniqueness
I'm currently more zoned in at ping-pong at the office than I am at basketball. For years, my forehand has been a weakness, but I think sometime in the last 2 weeks a switch went on and I'm now starting to put away points with my forehand. Anthony L, if you're reading this... I'm still using the same paddle I used back when we played in high school. 'Twas smart to keep it in a zippered bag, as the rubber is remarkably well-preserved.
Just going to jot down thoughts, memories, and quotes from the past few weeks for later processing, ranging from W4C to New Year's to last weekend.
W4C
Went for one day of West Coast Chinese Christian Conference, which took place up at Mt. Hermon in the Santa Cruz Mountains. When you drive by yourself in the Santa Cruz mountains on 17, it can actually be kinda fun taking curves a little bit faster than I would go were I transporting passengers. Ran into Frank L and Wilma K from college and had the chance to catch up with each of them, and also made a few new friends.
Funny story: the theme worship song for the conference was one composed by the worship band, and as many conference attendees are Cantonese, the band started the song in English and then moved into Cantonese. It was a pretty upbeat song, and so people began clapping during the English singing on beats 2 and 4. When we moved into the Cantonese verse, the clapping switched to 1 and 3 - in the same song!. If you happen to attend a church with both English and Asian congregations, you'll understand why I was having a hard time keeping a smile off my face.
The plenary speakers, Dr. JP Moreland and Hudson Taylor, were both very good, but I suspect that more of their teaching would have stuck with me if I had been around for the entire conference rather than just a day. Incidentally, the latter (Taylor), the son of the Hudson Taylor who is considered to be one of the pioneers of the Christian missions movement to China, was born and raised in China and so was actually more fluent in Mandarin than in English. It was a bit disconcerting, but kinda cool, to see this 70+ year old Caucasian male throwing in phrases in Mandarin while preaching in English, and even asking his Chinese translator (who was translating into Cantonese) what a particular Mandarin phrase meant in English ("da guay, shao guay" -> "big devil, little devil").
Most memorable lessons from the weekend came from a workshop I attended on "The Biblical role of manhood and womanhood," dealing with Jesus' teachings on the family. While overall it was very solid and addressed sometimes-controversial issues with truth and gentleness, the primary thing that stood out was when he was addressing an audience question from a female Berkeley pre-optometry student about the struggle that some Christian women go through, because they work so hard to equip themselves for a job, and then after marriage and children, they're sometimes expected to give that up to manage the home and be the primary caregiver. The workshop leader gave a pretty poignant answer (paraphrasing): "There's nothing wrong with women in the workplace, and God calls different people - both men and women - to all walks of life. One thing that He does make clear, however, is that if He's given you and your spouse a family, its well-being is your primary concern. Never sacrifice family for anything. Work out breadwinning and caregiving roles between husband and wife, but don't sacrifice the family." This seems to be reinforced by Biblical passages on instructions for deacons and elders, saying that an important qualification for leading a church is to lead one's family well.
The other lesson was primarily an exhortation not related to the workshop topic - "God created man to work. He has also created His people as citizens of the heavenly realm, with eternal life promised to those who are faithful. He only keeps His faithful people here long enough to complete the work they've been assigned. Therefore, work hard so you can go home."
New Year's weekend
New Year's weekend... celebrated at James and Luwen's place. Beforehand, had dinner with George, Eric, and Olivia at Miyake where we chowed on rolls and discussed the topic of how we would raise our children if they happened to be prodigies at something (sparked by a conversation I had with Danny a while back). It's a fun conversation topic, particularly when you pull out the Billy Elliott theme and ask guys what they'd do if their son wanted to become, say, a ballet dancer. Haha... I think for me, I'd want to make sure to develop my child's passion and enjoyment of whatever he's good at rather than forcing him to do it because he's good at it... if that's successful, then what he/she does isn't as big of a deal.
'Twas at James and Luwen's where the Texas Hold'em poker craze infected my group of friends. On a whim, Eric brought his professional poker set and the rest of us started learning the ins and outs of blinds, bluffs, and raking in the bling. Okay, sorry, I just wanted to get that "bl" alliteration in there :-). As it turned out, a few of us (JT, Karen, Joy, Andrew W, Eon) got so into it over that weekend that the next day (New Year's Day), we watched "The Italian Job" (decent flick) in the evening, finished at around midnight, and then stayed up till 4 am playing poker again, using Scrabble tiles as chips.
That Saturday, helped Maria and George move, then collectively thumbed our noses at the mad cow scare by going out to eat Korean bbq in the evening.
Past weekend
Last Saturday we celebrated Byron's bachelor party. He and Maria are getting married in a week and a half down in LA, so almost all of my church's English congregation is heading down. Obviously I can't put details of the festivities down in this public forum, but let's say that the following things were involved: duct tape, marshmallows, saran wrap, cheetos, whipped/shaving cream, pink, guitar, push broom, white cape, white beard, white wig. We also played some basketball, had dinner at Todai, and spent some time in sharing and prayer. Byron was a pretty good sport through everything we made him do. Eric thought the hazing was too tame though.
Random sermon notes
A few notes about the idea of success from a sermon a while back based on Phil 3:12-14 ("Pressing on toward the goal...") and 2 Tim 4:6-8 ("fought the good fight...")
- Success sometimes fails to satisfy because the desired end is not our desire
- God is the end to end all ends - 2 Tim 4:8
- Success is often less about what you get, but about who recognizes and affirms you
- What are you trying to prove and to who?
- Calling = Purpose + Uniqueness
posted by Bob at
8:21 PM
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