AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!  BUSY!  BUSY!  BUSY!!!!!!!!!!

I’m sure everyone has experienced the “curve balls” in life… and then there are those big fat lazy “fast balls” that come right down the middle and then “crack”… you just hit a homerun (apologies to those who don’t understand sports analogies). 

I think I’m finally arriving at a point in which the “why” question doesn’t arise so often when things go bad, but rather… “What am I doing wrong?”  “What can be corrected?”  “What should be done?”  “What am I not doing that I should be doing?”  “What is it that I’m missing?”  “What were His last instructions?”  “What are my blind spots?”  “What am I doing that’s creating a gap in my relationship with God?”  “What is causing me to lose focus on Christ?”… etc., etc. 

I don’t know if these are the best questions to ask, but I think they’re better than asking “Why” questions… the why’s tend to get answered sooner or later and you’re able to understand in hindsight… it’s just learning to keep your composure in the Spirit and focus on Christ during the “crisis” that’s tough, but once you are able to begin doing this… well… heh heh… God let’s you advance to the next level where you feel like you’re starting all over again…

…but enjoy the growth and the fruit that you bear and be thankful for them.  I hope to be a man who is always progresive and forward moving, maintaing a momentum of advancing closer and closer to His likeness…the closer I get, the more I realize that there is so much more to learn about our Savior and Lord, who is our friend and comforter, our defender and most crucially, the lover of our souls.  God is good.  ^____^

What will ministry look like in our generation?  The “full time pastor” is so… modernist… and we’re entering a post-modern generation… where truth is relative to personal experience… and some go as far as inventing their own truths…

What tools will we need to do the work ahead of us?

Are we equipped to adapt without changing the life saving message of the Gospel?

we are a generation riddled with multimedia nannies…

Can you communicate with the outliers of society without flinching?  Because outliers are becoming more common…

Are Christians stuck in a dinosaur mindset?

I thought about the things i fear today and amongst them is the ending of “Tarzan, Lord of Greystoke”.  I hope I got the title right… it’s been a long time since I’ve read it.  Anyone who’s read the book will remember the ending and for those who haven’t read it, well I won’t spoil it.

The ending of the book… I remember thinking how afraid I was that I would be just like Tarzan…(I can hear the chuckles and see the funny faces you are making) but if you read the book or have read it, you’ll know I’m not talking about the antics of an half-ape/half-man swinging through the jungle on vines with just a leopard loin cloth to cover his birthday suit.

It’s just that… I am such a fool… perhaps naive is the better descriptor, when it comes to certain things in life… and even as I live through those moments and I realize what I’m doing, as I’m doing them… I still do it… 

Hmmmm… sort of vague huh?  Okay, I’ll share something concrete.  The last 48 hours has been incredible.  I am officially a “real estate agent”.  I know what some of you are thinking… “WHAT?!?!?”  I’m sure some are wondering, “What about seminary” and all those things I talked about.  I’m still answering THE CALL…I’m not that foolish… ^___^   but some things can’t be explained in words… I like to refer to these ineffable moments as a “God thing”… no explanation really… just know that I need to do this… it’s a bit humbling to find myself where I am…but that’s exactly the point.  What a mixed up individual I must appear to be… ha ha ha… it’s “good” fun.

seek the peace of God that surpasses all understanding and guard it with all your strength…

Have that peace and the world slows down, panic ebbs away like fog in the morning sun….

Peace ineffable…without it, maintaining my sanity is… slim to none… guess which?

“Do not be anxious about anything, but with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all undertstanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.”

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight”

By the way, this is an old school Bryan Duncan song… it’s good medicine for the soul… “A Heart Like Mine”

Today was a better day, trying to make it a good day and what can I say, but that the Lord is gracious.  I think God was trying to hint to me that I was being too much Martha and not enough Mary… Generally, I think God tells us 2 basic instructions, “Come” and “Go”.  He says, “Come” so that you can find healing and restoration, forgiveness and renewal corrected vision and new insight, wisdom and conviction to spread your wings and fly higher.  Then, after a little while, He says “Go”, so that we can apply what He has shown, giving us an opportunity to obey and be light and salt to the world.  It’s pretty simple hey? 

I tend to add so much detail to things when keeping it simple is best.  Whenever I begin organizing, I have a category for everything and want to file everything so precisely.  About half-way through, I discover that my attention to detail has well, gone overboard and now I don’t remember things specific enough to find what I’m looking for.  What can I do but laugh at myself for being so…silly.  Life appears complex, but I believe that God intended that we live simply.  Love your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself…  Seek God first and the rest will be added unto you (paraphrased)… Matthew 6:33… 

I was reminded this past week…  the majority of people, including myself, can only relate to the good things when compared to the bad things that occur in our lives.  It’s sad to think, that only through suffering, we come to appreciate redemption and renewal as well as the joy of being restored to a “hand in hand” walk with Christ…  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to appreciate all the good things the Lord delivers all the time, never taking things for granted and ALWAYS dwelling in His presence?  Someday…when our Lord returns to take us all up to where we really belong… we are not of this world.  ^__^

Lots of random thoughts today… I nearly wore out my brain.  I find myself wanting to speak less and less… my own words irritate me and so do many of my thoughts… I can do something about spoken words, but thoughts… what can be done but lose myself watching a movie or XBOX.  It’s a good thing I don’t do drugs and have the Asian curse, a.k.a. low tolerance for alcohol.  How do you take a break from yourself?  It’s in moments like these, I wish I could  reformat my brain like one of my hard drives… but that’s part of growing right?  Having to deal with all my shortcomings… ugh.

Thanks TizzyAlexander for elaborating further.  Please read and ponder carefully.

Let me recommend a great book: “You just don’t understand” by Deborah Tannen
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060959622/qid=1100284336/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-0479842-3235214?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Tannen describes the different conversational styles of men and women. Men speak for “report” or for information, and women speak for “rapport”, or to build community. That means, when you ask a man, “How was your day?” he will say, “Fine” and feel that he has answered your question. If you ask a woman, “How was your day?”, she will fill you in with 101 details about her day, because sharing life experiences is a way of building a relationship between two people. This is why women speak more than men when they get home, and it makes a lot of sense.

Note: Both conversation styles are legitimate, and neither is better than the other, but it does cut down on a lot of misunderstanding when you understand why they speak the way they do.

This one came from Gleefully, I got a good laugh…thanks.

The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a bus, went up on the footpath, missed a biker, scraped a fire hydrant, and stopped just 3 centimetres from a department store shop window.

For a 3 seconds everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver slowly turned around and said, “Look lady, don’t ever do that again. You scared the living daylights out of me!”

The passenger apologized and said, “I didn’t realize that a little tap would scare you so much.”

The driver replied, “Sorry, it’s not really your fault. Today is my first day as a taxi driver. I’ve been driving a funeral van for the last 25 years.”

xbeckyjoyx was kind enough to share these INTERESTING statistics… enjoy.

“A man uses 10,000 words per day.  A woman uses 25,000 per day.  (statistics vary, but the ratio is similiar).

A waking day being, say, 16 hours, the woman’s allotment comes to over 1,500 words per hour.

However, if the working woman uses only 500 words per hour during a 8.5 hour work day, and none during the 1 hour unusable morning time and 1.5 hours commuting alone…,

A woman has 4150 words per hour to use when she comes home from work until the time she goes to bed at night.  That’s 70 words per minute & almost constant conversation from the moment she steps through the door to the moment she falls asleep.”

It must be true: a man should listen more and a woman talk less