wcs's Xanga

Hitting the streets

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:18:57 GMT

The street preachers of Penn State, especially those that frequent the HUB area, are drawing large crowds this week. It's unusual. Few people paid attention to them last year. Their message sounds basically the same. Why the large crowds? Freshmen? People wanting spiritual guidance? Protest? (though the crowd has been mostly calm) I don't know.

An online communications pet peeve

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:14:00 GMT

"umm..."

"uhh..."

When I read that, I hear the writer saying it in his or her "you're-an-idiot-and-what-I'm-about-to-say-is-obvious" tone of voice. You know what I mean.

If that's how you intend it, stop being a jerk.

If that's not how you intend it, realize: there's no reason to write uhh or umm. They're fillers in speech but they don't serve any purpose in written communications. If you're thinking and need a few seconds, don't write anything. Think, and then write. If you need lots of time, tell the person you need lots of time.

uhhh, thanks!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:13:49 GMT

Vacationing at my parents' has included some hilly cycling, hot weather for swimming, good times with family picnicking, a Pirates baseball game, and the reading of this book. I highly recommend all except the Pirates.

Donnie Iris hates me

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 19:14:30 GMT

For the last two days I have had "Ah Leah" by Donnie Iris stuck in my head. Finally today I wasn't thinking about that song anymore.

Until one minute ago when I turned on the radio and... you guessed it. Ah, Leah...

Remnant

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:52:21 GMT

I was reading Zechariah this morning, thinking about the Jewish exiles returning to Jerusalem to build their city and temple, and the prophesy God gave them through Zechariah.

In Zechariah, the remnant are the people who remained followers of God during their exile to Babylon. Many of them had never known Jerusalem because they were born in Babylon or taken there at a very young age.

I was thinking about the word remnant--those who remained [followers of God], the remainder, generally considered to be a small minority. And then I thought about a modern day Christian churches and fellowships known as "Remnant," and wondered.

God labeled his remnant appropriately, but is it right for a Christian group to label themselves as such? If you are the remnant, what about all the other Christ-following churches? (Side note: orthodox, meaning true, established and approved, is a similarly dangerous label for a church to apply to itself, for the same reason.) Moreover, to call yourselves the remnant seems to imply exclusivity and inability for others to become part. This should never be true for the Christian church.

(Edit: I am not talking about the Seventh-Day Adventists that call themselves "remnant." They are intentionally exclusive, not to mention strange. I'm talking about Bible-believing, Christ-following churches and fellowships.)

News

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:24:56 GMT

As of June 6, I am engaged to be married to Alisha, who, as of June 20, is in Thailand for six months.

That is a packed statement.

Most who read this blog already know those things. It will be interesting planning a wedding while we are so far apart. Already, it has been a little challenging, and we've only just begun. E-mail and chat provide a way to communicate but seem to provide lots of opportunities for little or big misunderstandings. I am hopeful for opportunities to communicate by voice, whether using some sort of voice-over-IP or regular phone.

I am excited--excited for Alisha, who loves Asia and is pursuing a dream; excited to have her soon as a lifelong companion; excited as I see God at work all around me in little and big ways. I'm grateful for my folks and Alisha's folks, who are extremely supportive of our relationship.

Now there are so many decisions to make, in planning for one wedding day and in planning for the future in general. I'm not afraid to make these decisions, but from this point forward decisions seem to have a lot more weight.

I take my mind off the heavy stuff by engaging in low-thinking but fun types of things. As you probably know from past reading, I love working in the yard. I finally decided to bring the monster rhododendron under control. Near the rhododendron is a large patch of peppermint that was also creeping all over the place. After cutting it back for a while, I was sick to my stomach from the strong peppermint smell. There is no end to yard work but I'm not discouraged because it's fun to bring order to my 1/3-acre kingdom.

Memorial Day weekend

Fri, 22 May 2009 19:52:38 GMT

It's almost Memorial day weekend, and I am looking forward to the peace of not having a lot to do.

Sure, I'll do my usual weekend routine of mowing the grass and randomly working on stuff around the house. Maybe I'll even go downtown on Memorial Day for the festival. Boalsburg claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, and who am I to argue? I'll attend the festival and buy a funnel cake or some other delicious treat and enjoy the nice weather, probably with whatever friends I can round up to go with me.

Days of rest are important, yet I tend to take them for granted. Only when we are at rest do we get to think and reflect without pressure. Forced, focused thought and relaxed, maybe unfocused thought are both good and productive but tend to have very different outcomes.

I updated my ministry site with a recap of the last few months of AACF happenings. Sometimes it's just hard to keep up with writing. Now that I've written something, though, I'm satisfied and encouraged to keep writing. This seems to be a secret to successful blogging.

10 Words

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:12:23 GMT

Things significant to me right now, in random order:

bike phone Alisha piano God work weddings praise summer moving

One sentence for each:

It's warm and I'm back on the bike now, resuming my commute to work and thinking about some longer rides soon.

I'm restoring an antique phone and it's been fun working with 60-year-old technology and seeing it still function on my server-and-network-powered phone system.

Alisha: I do not write lovey-dovey stuff about her on blogs or she will be embarrassed. See our Facebook pictures. National Zoo was fun. This is four sentences.

I love to play the piano.

The path God has laid out for my life is interesting, exciting, fun, and somewhat unpredictable.

Work is steady and mostly enjoyable though I wish for more creative opportunities.

Alan and Ginny's wedding is coming up in just over 2 weeks; Gabe and Erica's is in two months!

Praise ministry in AACF and Calvary has been meaningful and fun this past semester since God has invigorated me in it.

Both of my roommates, dear friends to me, are moving out this summer but two other great guys are soon moving in.

Osteens on LKL

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:00:41 GMT

Osteens: Obama doing great job, loves the Lord (April 2009)

The Osteens get invited back to Larry King Live again and again, and this is potentially a good witness for Christ. Yet every time I read the transcripts--I seldom get to watch the show--I am left with the feeling that an opportunity to deliver Truth has been squandered, that the gospel has been replaced with a feel-good, sin-is-no-big-deal message and that there's no hard decision-making or repentance in Christianity.

Christians have to make hard decisions every day, pushing back against the world and repenting when they give in to the world's enticements. This is a very real struggle for me and all the Christians I know. But the Osteens seem to have their cake and eat it, too. I guess if they testified the real gospel on LKL, they might not be invited back.

Additional reading:

In the beginning... LKL/Joel Osteen June 2005

LKL/Osteens December 2006

LKL/Osteens October 2007

LKL/Osteens December 2008

wcs.xanga.com

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:48:38 GMT

Xanga has changed their URL scheme. Now www.xanga.com/wcs redirects to wcs.xanga.com. This subtle improvement makes Xanga more like personal blog sites (Blogspot) than like a social community (Myspace/Facebook) by putting the person first (wcs) rather than the site (xanga).