The O.C. Supertones have a song titled "Wilderness". Part of the lyrics are, "I’m somewhere in-between Canaan and Egypt A place called the wilderness I’m not one who always trusts their feelingsI don’t believe in what you’d call blind faith But faith that you can do all that you promised And you said it all works for good It’s safe to say I don’t see the big picture I can’t see the forest for the trees."
As I was writing an assessment of our church for one of my classes, this song came to mind. The following is what I wrote in my paper:
Finally, I would like to call the church to not be content with mediocrity. It is easy to come to church every week, participate in activities, even teach a Sunday school class, but to miss out on the greater vision of the Kingdom of God. I believe that we are stuck in the wilderness between Canaan and Egypt. We are no longer in slavery and we may even thank God from time to time for freeing us, yet we choose then to sit and complain in the wilderness, staying in the desert versus entering into the promise land. It is easy to hope for growth and complain about the lack of commitment of members, however, if we actively pursue Canaan and the Kingdom of God, we will be fulfilling God’s purpose in the world. The end goal is not more programs and meetings; it is to love God and neighbor and to make disciples.
I believe that too often our faith is too small. Do we really believe that God will do all that He promised? It seems to me that if we really believe in the Kingdom and that God will be with us in all that we do, then we will be active in pursuing the bringing of the Kingdom to earth as Jesus prayed in Matthew 6. Instead, though, we hang out in the wilderness, in this place of mediocrity. We have the potential for something great, something beautiful, but we are afraid of taking risks so we just sit around. We don't see the big picture, we allow ourselves to be blinded by the trees, not seeing the forest. We become involved in so many programs, so many "good Christian" kinds of things (which really makes me quite sick, the idea that going to church, giving money, baking cookies for VBS, etc are the ways that we get to heaven)that we miss out on the Kingdom of God. These things in and of themselves are not bad at all, it is when we allow them to blind us, when we become so caught up in them that we miss out on loving God and neighbor, essentially bringing the Kingdom to earth.
I want my life to reflect an active and passionate pursuit of the Kingdom. I am not okay with hanging out in the wilderness, living in fear of change, living in fear of the presence of God. I choose Canaan. I choose to enter into the presence of God in my daily life by pursuing His agenda in this world by acting justly, loving mercy and walking humbly with my God.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Malaria
I wrote this a few weeks ago but never posted it for some reason so here it is.
This is the "Facts" section, and to tell you the truth Wikipedia writes these better then I can so I copied it:
Malaria is a potentially fatal tropical disease that is caused by a parasite known as Plasmodium. It is spread through the bite of an infected female mosquito. The parasites multiply within red blood cells, causing symptoms that include symptoms of anemia (light headedness, shortness of breath, tachycardia etc.), as well as other general symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, flu-like illness, and in severe cases, coma and death. Malaria transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites with mosquito nets and insect repellents, or by mosquito control measures such as spraying insecticides inside houses and draining standing water where mosquitoes lay their eggs.
Although some are under development, no vaccine is currently available for malaria; preventative drugs must be taken continuously to reduce the risk of infection. These prophylactic drug treatments are often too expensive for most people living in endemic areas. Most adults from endemic areas have a degree of long-term recurrent infection and also of partial resistance; the resistance reduces with time and such adults may become susceptible to severe malaria if they have spent a significant amount of time in non-endemic areas.
According to one study one child dies every thirty seconds from malaria.
This is the "Discussion" part of the blog which I wrote:
I was over at Mike and Lawries’ house on Tuesday hanging out and Mike started talking about this e-mail got. He told us that a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. This is so crazy, let’s do the math. That is 2 children a minute, 120 children an hour, 2,880 children a day, 1,051,200 children a year. I don’t know about you, but I had no idea this was even happening, I knew this killed people, but over a million children not counting adults? How did I miss this? To tell you the truth before I wrote this blog I didn’t even really have a full understanding of what Malaria was. Facts like these have been presented to me so many times in the past, but I guess for the first time I realized how hard to them I have become.
Part of all this concern for the hardness is coming from Fancies Chan. I listened to one of his sermons yesterday and I started crying. He started talking about this guy he met who is one of leaders in the fight against human trafficking. There little children who are being kidnapped and sold into slavery. He brought up how when one part of the body suffers the whole body should suffers, and how we should mourn with those who mourn. So he said that he tried imagining his own children being taken from him and forced to do the horrible things. He asked himself questions like, “What he would he do?” and “How would he react?” He was such a mess, it was so astounding how heart broken he was for these kids. I wish I could say that the reason I cried was for the same reason, but it wasn’t. I was so upset that I have never truly felt that way. Of course I am saddened by the injustice in this world, and I long for the opportunity to do something about it. But have a really mourned for those people, those children who are dying from a mosquito bite? I mean really mourned? I am not sure that I can say that I truly have.
I live in my own little world.
In this world it is nice to talk about change.
It is nice to talk about injustice and how it should change.
It is also nice not to do anything about it.
I understand that I am in the place I am for a reason, and I am making a difference, even if it is small. But I want more. I want to help people. Awareness of the issue is one thing, but doing something about it is another. There isn’t a cure for Malaria, I watched videos and read articles on what is being done. As far as I can tell it’s far too sciency and smart for me to understand, but I do think they are doing the best that they can. Someday there will be a vaccine to cure this madness, but it will be a while.
Malaria isn’t the point for me, as bad as it is. The point is that I have to keep letting the Holy Spirit invade my life. We all do. We have become hardened by the things of this world. We can’t stop focusing on justice. We can’t stop talking about things outside of ourselves. I need a constant reminder of where Gods heart really is. We may get tired of hearing these facts, seeing these kids, reading these words, but we have to keep doing it.
This is the "Facts" section, and to tell you the truth Wikipedia writes these better then I can so I copied it:
Malaria is a potentially fatal tropical disease that is caused by a parasite known as Plasmodium. It is spread through the bite of an infected female mosquito. The parasites multiply within red blood cells, causing symptoms that include symptoms of anemia (light headedness, shortness of breath, tachycardia etc.), as well as other general symptoms such as fever, chills, nausea, flu-like illness, and in severe cases, coma and death. Malaria transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites with mosquito nets and insect repellents, or by mosquito control measures such as spraying insecticides inside houses and draining standing water where mosquitoes lay their eggs.
Although some are under development, no vaccine is currently available for malaria; preventative drugs must be taken continuously to reduce the risk of infection. These prophylactic drug treatments are often too expensive for most people living in endemic areas. Most adults from endemic areas have a degree of long-term recurrent infection and also of partial resistance; the resistance reduces with time and such adults may become susceptible to severe malaria if they have spent a significant amount of time in non-endemic areas.
According to one study one child dies every thirty seconds from malaria.
This is the "Discussion" part of the blog which I wrote:
I was over at Mike and Lawries’ house on Tuesday hanging out and Mike started talking about this e-mail got. He told us that a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. This is so crazy, let’s do the math. That is 2 children a minute, 120 children an hour, 2,880 children a day, 1,051,200 children a year. I don’t know about you, but I had no idea this was even happening, I knew this killed people, but over a million children not counting adults? How did I miss this? To tell you the truth before I wrote this blog I didn’t even really have a full understanding of what Malaria was. Facts like these have been presented to me so many times in the past, but I guess for the first time I realized how hard to them I have become.
Part of all this concern for the hardness is coming from Fancies Chan. I listened to one of his sermons yesterday and I started crying. He started talking about this guy he met who is one of leaders in the fight against human trafficking. There little children who are being kidnapped and sold into slavery. He brought up how when one part of the body suffers the whole body should suffers, and how we should mourn with those who mourn. So he said that he tried imagining his own children being taken from him and forced to do the horrible things. He asked himself questions like, “What he would he do?” and “How would he react?” He was such a mess, it was so astounding how heart broken he was for these kids. I wish I could say that the reason I cried was for the same reason, but it wasn’t. I was so upset that I have never truly felt that way. Of course I am saddened by the injustice in this world, and I long for the opportunity to do something about it. But have a really mourned for those people, those children who are dying from a mosquito bite? I mean really mourned? I am not sure that I can say that I truly have.
I live in my own little world.
In this world it is nice to talk about change.
It is nice to talk about injustice and how it should change.
It is also nice not to do anything about it.
I understand that I am in the place I am for a reason, and I am making a difference, even if it is small. But I want more. I want to help people. Awareness of the issue is one thing, but doing something about it is another. There isn’t a cure for Malaria, I watched videos and read articles on what is being done. As far as I can tell it’s far too sciency and smart for me to understand, but I do think they are doing the best that they can. Someday there will be a vaccine to cure this madness, but it will be a while.
Malaria isn’t the point for me, as bad as it is. The point is that I have to keep letting the Holy Spirit invade my life. We all do. We have become hardened by the things of this world. We can’t stop focusing on justice. We can’t stop talking about things outside of ourselves. I need a constant reminder of where Gods heart really is. We may get tired of hearing these facts, seeing these kids, reading these words, but we have to keep doing it.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Orthographic Drawings
This is my final for my construction detaling class. I hand drew everything which means it took a very long time!
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