How Great Thou Art

There is something beautiful about impromptu worship on a warm summer night with just a keyboard, a few voices, and a cool breeze floating in through the open windows.

Let's do it more often!

Oh, Happy Day

God is good, all the time. Thankfully, I have been more aware of his brilliance lately.

Much congratulations and jubilance over my brother, Michael Wen. As the first person I have witnessed through the process, it makes my heart soar with immense joy. Excitement and hope have filled the air like a refreshing deep breath of deliciousness, and praise the Lord for that.

At small groups this week, besides having a good time of fellowship, we were able to dwell upon who God is, and who God is to us (a God of grace and never ending blessing), delving deeper than just the normal descriptions that people throw out as the "right answers". Through reading Psalms 112, we also got on the topic of "the fear of the Lord."

Wisdom, knowledge, and apart from being anxious about worldly things, my fellow leader Amy summed it up nicely. Having a fear of the Lord is being fearless of worldly things. Amen!

You are over comer,
You are heart transformer
You are life forever, ever more.
You give songs to the hopeless
Shower grace on our weakness
You are love forever, ever more.

Sure Enough

One of the best things I learned from AP English in 11th grade was to cut out all the unnecessary words and clutter in your writing. Recently, I've been reading a book about becoming who God intended, and the author has some great ideas, but is less than eloquent.

I especially didn't like his use of the phrase "sure enough". As in, "I surmised that Johnny would be playing video games. Sure enough, when I looked inside, there he was, playing video games." What does that even mean? "Sure enough"? There is no 'enough' involved, Johnny in this case IS playing video games. I love my figures of speech (and catachresis apparently), but this one just seemed overly hackneyed.

It's weird, because "sure enough" is never usually used in its literal context anymore--the debating of whether you are confident enough in your decision. Instead it is like a guarantee of sorts--basically the "enough" is silent.

Hmm. In other news, cheers for successful new experiences and challenges, back-to-back walk-off wins in summer softball, Jesus equalling the rock in the bible, and the All-Star Game in Anaheim.

A Blast to the Past

Get Him to the Greek. MLB Showdown. Board and Brew. Strolling the Beach. Padres - Blue Jays. BP Home Run Balls. Oh Canada. Jose Molina. Not right now. World Cup Craziness. North Korea - Brazil. Del Mar Fair. Dennis DeYoung performing the music of Styx. Desert Moon. Domo Arigoto, Mr. Roboto. Come Sail Away. More World Cup. Steve Cherundolo. Vienna. Lakers - Celtics at 126. Home made spaghetti. Monopoly Deal. Moulin Rouge Singalong. Phantom Redux. Elephant Love Medley madness. USA - Slovenia on the projector. Stupid Mali ref. Donovan and Bradley. Taco Truck. Lollicup. Pick-up basketball at the arc. In-n-out. Boy Meets World. A wrench in the plans. Jamba Juice. UCI campus tour. More Vienna attempts. Toy Story 3. Korean BBQ. Three ice cream cones each. Pick-up softball. The epic socal road trip of death. Irvine - El Segundo - Montclair - Hacienda Heights - El Segundo - San Diego. Showdown comeback and an epic Game 5. Leaving on a Jet Plane.

It doesn't get much better than that.

helpless

The inexperienced boy stood like a firefighter without water, exasperation and a lingering wistful aftertaste hanging in the air.

"Just wanted to say that I love you man," he said quietly, looking at his feet. "I freaking can't wait to talk to you again."

Three Years

Today marks the end of my third year of college, as well as the end of my vegetarian challenge. On one hand, it all seems to have passed so quickly. When I think of my college experience as 3/4ths over, I shudder and can only shake my head. But then I think back to certain moments from this year, times that I can reflect on and contrast to today... and I can find a sense of peace in the year gone by.

This quarter in particular was not an easy one. It definitely was filled with plenty of good times and new friendships, but above all, it was a quarter filled with challenges.

One in particular, the vegetarian one, I can soundly say was a success. I hope that all of my challenges this quarter can turn out that well.

But all in all, God has repeatedly been good. So very good. And for that, I am thankful.

Lessons from Love & Estrangement

As daunting and challenging this class was at times, I left it saying to myself "Man am I glad I'm a LJ major..." more times than not, and that pretty much speaks for itself.

"Life moves fast. Memories fade. People die. Only storytellers have the power to slow down time, force us to pay attention to the quiver of an old man's lip, the lavender streaks in a Missouri sky, the flutter of a woman's heart. How often do we ignore these details in every day life? How lucky are we to document them for the world to read?"

"God is in the details."

"Put yourself aside. Because the stories you write are so much bigger than you. Because the people you interview deserve to have their stories told. Because it is our responsibility."

Call me a sucker for the motivational speech, but I am pretty dang motivated. How can you not be after reading that on the last day of class?