Saturday, September 03, 2005

hillbillies



the camp I worked at in the czech republic had a hillbilly hoedown theme so we all dressed up as hillbillies.
to see more pictures fomr my trip see my other blog: missionmemories.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 18, 2005

relitivity

I resently got back from a short term missions trip, it was life changing. but at breakfest the day I after I got back I reolized something, I had changed but.... nothing else had.
Suddenly I felt as though my time spent in the Czech Republic with a bunch of teens playing sports and learning english, was spend inside a worm hole, or time pocket, maybe even a different dimention where time pased at a different rate. But what ever it was, sitting in Chicago eating breakfest I reolized that it seemed like only yesterday I had met my team that I would come to know and love as family. And yet wail I was at camp it had felt like forever ago. On day was like the next and it felt that it had always been that way and always would be.
but now thatIi am back it is like I have stepped back in my own time. That day might as well have been yesterday, and in a way it was. I and my team have changed but time has continued to march at it's own beat, and the world has continued to turn like it always has.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

The Good Die Young

Why does everyone think if you do good you will prosper? The good die young, why? What is good? A war hero, he lives life on the edge. He goes to fight injustice. A good person stand for what is right. He stands up for the weak and what is right. The only thing necessary for an injustice to prevail is for good men to do nothing. This is a quote that is illustrated by the movie tears of the sun. Bruce Willis plays a general in the United States army who is sent into a war torn African country to take a priest, 2 nuns and a missionary doctor back to the states. He is told to leave all the patients behind. The priest and nuns refuse to leave and the Doctor refuses to go without her patients. Willis forces the doctor onto a helicopter leaving all her patients behind in a green field. As they are flying they see that the Gorillas had come and killed everyone at the medical center. Willis turns the copper around and puts half the refugees on it and leads the other half across the country trying to get to the refugee camp.
Many of Willis’ men die trying to get them to safety. They strove to stop something and gave their lives to do something Good. Evil men prosper because they take the easy manipulative way. Cowards prosper because they do not stand. He who stands is more likely to fall then he who never gets up.
That is why the good die young. It is tough to go against the flow and play with fire. A good man is not afraid to upset the anthill. He is courageous and knows what fights to fight and which to let go.
A brave man runs to a fight but a courageous man thinks before he acts. Not about the consequences but about whither or not the fight is worth it. No matter what the out come, at the end of the day a good man has no regrets, no matter the ending a good man would do it all again.

Monday, May 02, 2005

The waiting room

The waiting room
There is a time in which the world seems to stop, or perhaps it spins wildly out of control. It can be a time when the how's and why's of the universe can open up to the view and revel its secrets. It is the waiting room. A magical place that exists not only in the doctor's and dentist's office but at any time in which there is a transition.

It can be the days of travel between moving, or the months between high school and college, or the real world. This waiting room can be hard and frustrating, even sorrowful. It could be filled with joy and expectation. Today many of the people I love will be entering the waiting room as the graduate from college and move on to bigger and better things. Others, like me, will be preparing to leave to spend time in the real world trying to make money to pay for the next year's term. Others are preparing to gain support as they six months over seas in their internship.

Our waiting rooms will spend from hours to months. As we hold our breath and wait for the gun to send us off the blocks into the race.

The hours or days, weeks or months will be hard, frustrating, and sad. We leave behind the friendships we have made in the years we have spent together. Like a child looking out the back of truck. Watching longingly as the friends and familiar buildings sink slowly into the distance and then beyond the horizon. Goodbyes are a part of the waiting room. They are the port of entry, just as hellos are the exit sign.

The waiting room is also full of joy, expectation, and peace. It is not all tears. In My Friend Totoro two young girls hide amongst their belongings in the back of a moving truck giggling as they dream about the spirits that may live in the house they are moving into.

Whatever the transition, a job transfer, or a graduation there is a waiting room. It is our choice to focus on the lost, the good byes or the new beginning waiting to be born.

This is what we can learn in the wait room. To start something new, something must end. Just as there is nothing more sad then death, there is nothing more precious them new life. Yes there is sadness in the endings we have, but there is also joy.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. In the never ending story there is a character whose name is Dame Eyola. She will never know what it is like to be a mother, not a daughter. To give birth she must first wither and die just as her mother did to bring her into being.

It is sad, to know that something precious is fading into death, but something better is coming. "If a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces a rich harvest." (John 12:24) Only through death can new life come.
When you find yourself in a waiting room morn your lost, but rejoice for something new is coming. Something better is coming. And that is something to celebrate!

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Marching

At school this year I was voted most unlike any one else. I have been known to do my own thing and not worry about what others think. My mother talks about how when I was little I would purposely wear different colored soaks.

I have always stood out in a crowd, sometimes to the embarrassment of my siblings, cousins. I am the only one in many situations in my family; the only bible college student, the only nonmarried adult, the only attending a college in Canada, the only writer, and many more. In high school I had a hard time fitting in, but since coming to college I have found that there are other people marching to the beat I hear in my head.

so why blog? I was introduced to this form of communication by several friends and thought it would be a great place to voice my opinions and thoughts on things. When I write I often find that I am going in circles, as I think I write which causes more thoughts to write and so on. Hopefully my ramblings will makes sense when you read them.