Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Nothing Better than Following God's Lead.

Without making Francis Chan an idol or making him seem better than other Christians, more Christians should follow his example. I'm not saying every pastor should quit, but his humility and willingness to leave a job that was secure and dependable is astounding. He felt like he was in the spotlight, so he got out. He made sure that Jesus is first. 


What makes me laugh about this article is that the author keeps on bringing up the fact that he did not leave because of scandal. The sad thing is that for the most part, that's the only reason why famous pastors leave their churches. Anyway, don't put your pastor on a pedestal. If he's a great speaker, awesome. It's because God gifted him that way. The most important thing is that he is constantly pointing toward Jesus. Don't base a church off of its pastor, but of its devotion to Jesus.


Here's the article, check it out.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/22/%E2%80%9Cchristian-famous%E2%80%9D-pastor-quits-his-church-moves-to-asia/


Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Balancing Who I Am on the Internet with Real Life.

It's easier to tell a person what I am thinking, how I feel, how I am doing, where I'm at spiritually, argue with someone about theological issues, wish someone good luck, tell a joke, be sarcastic, and tell people where I am whenever I do it online. Being the same person outside the context of social networking has become extremely difficult for me. My sarcasm is still there, but having a good conversation with friends has not been a strong suit for me since the invention of Facebook. Even during my 40 day hiatus from Facebook in September-October, I didn't make an effort to talk to people, I simply just didn't talk to people. 


The main reason I'm more apt to communicate on Facebook is because it's my own world. I decide what I want to share, I decide which pictures to show, I decide what emotions to show. It's all about me on Facebook. Narcissism. I want friends, so I add all the people I know, but I don't take the time to talk to them in person because it makes me more vulnerable. On Facebook I'm safe. They don't have to see my face (ironically). I can just act like I'm talking to them on Facebook Chat, when I'm actually going in and out of my room or checking out another website while "talking" with a friend. 


Don't hide behind your computer.
Yesterday, I talked to Kelsey and Rachel via group video chat on Skype and I completely checked out. I didn't engage in conversation as well as I should've, but did what I could to simply get by. Skype video chat is the best tool the internet has to offer because I actually have to talk to the other person. I can't type a little message and run away to talk to someone else. The other person knows if I'm talking with him or not. I've argued myself out of video calling people because it's just too awkward. Honestly, it's only awkward if you don't actually talk to that person in real life. You can't expect text conversations to be the same as face-to-face conversations. Skype is as real as it gets on the internet.Video chat is not the answer though. Engaging in conversation requires me to put down my selfish attitude and become vulnerable. The internet is like a big shield from vulnerability (unless we are talking about hackers...). 


At other times, I only reveal things on the internet. As easy as it is to hide from people on the internet, it's just as easy to share too much on the internet. Just like you don't break up with someone over a text message, you shouldn't talk about stuff over the internet that you would hide in person. One of the main reasons I use Facebook is for attention. So if I'm in a happy mood, I'll let the whole world know it, but if I'm depressed and having a bummer day, I'll let everyone know it as well. In person, however, I'll tell everyone that I'm doing fine. Why? Because I'm not comfortable facing reality. Again, another problem that can be fixed by just taking time out to talk to people.


Skype is currently down right now, so as much as I'm wanting to call people through the roof, I can't. You might be thinking writing a blog on this matter is slightly hypocritical, and I'd agree. However, if you are in another country and Skype is down, I think a blog is the only solution for ranting. 


Look at their happiness.
The end of the matter: I want to focus on talking to people in person. Right now that's nearly impossible because of that thing called the ocean, but when I get back from Christmas break, I want to talk to people. This means more coffee shops, more getting out of my room for homework, and more pursuit of relationships. As of right now, I can only video Skype to make this possible, so expect some video chats with yours truly. I want to know how break is going and so on. So help me talk to you. I want to, it's just difficult to get started. 


Stay funky fresh. Smell ya later.

Walk About.

This morning I didn't have anything planned to do, so I walked around the neighborhood and took some pics.

There are random stray dogs everywhere, but they are nice and usually lazy.

Clock Tower of a big Greek church.

Entrance to a public sports complex.


Greeks like to stay fit. Not too many obese people here.

I'd be excited to work out if I was in this good of shape when I'm this old.

Public turf field couple blocks from my house.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Acropolis, Mars Hill, etc...



Today was a long day; woke up at 6am due to jet lag. My parents and I went to downtown Athens today. We started off by taking the train there, but a train decided not to show up so we waited for about 30 minutes for a train to get down there. We got there and randomly ran into Mr. Brown, a Moody alumnus who goes to our church. Literally, we just happened to run into an American that we know out of all of Athens. Crazy awesome.



We went to a mountain right next to the Acropolis as the Acropolis costs money everyday except Sunday. So we are going to do that some other time. But we went to Mars Hill and to the Olympic Stadium and through the market place and stuff like that. I had a lot of fun, but I was so tired of walking by the end of the trip. The public transportation was on strike from 11-4pm today so we had to wait until 4 to leave. 


After the sight seeing, we came back and I fell asleep. I slept from 5pm-11pm. So I'm just up chillin' right now. Cursed jet lag has been mocking me this entire trip. One of these days I'll win. One of these days...


Over and out. 

Monday, December 20, 2010

Grocery Shopping and Ναρνια!

Sunrise a couple of mornings ago. This is from our deck.
This morning I woke up a little early to try to snap a picture of the awesome sunrises here. The only problem was that it happened to be cloudy today. Though it was disappointing, there will be many more mornings to take awesome photos.


This bird was just chillin' so I snapped a pic.
Today, my mom and I went to a German Aldi-type place called Λιδλ (Lidl). It was pretty cool seeing the same idea of stores that we have in America that are in Greece. We also went to a place called AΒ. It's basically a Schnuck's or Dominick's. Most everything in the stores are in Greek, but you can usually figure out what the stuff is by pictures or looking for small English translations that may be hidden on the bottle somewhere. Speaking of bottles, there is no age limit on drinking here, so if it wasn't for the fact that I signed my life away to the SLG ....


Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3-D!
Anyway, tonight, my dad and I went to the movie theater and watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It had been awhile since I've read the books, and I hadn't seen Prince Caspian, but I thought the movie was really good. Though there were some parts that were a little cheesy, overall, the quality of the movie was good. The content, being taken from C.S. Lewis, was thrilling. 


The entire time I was wishing that Aslan would talk more. The movie does a good job at bringing the experience of peace when he is around. At the end of the movie (this is talked about a lot, but it's the best phrase of the entire movie), Aslan is talking to Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, and Caspian, and they are wondering if they will ever see him in their world. Aslan says that they will. Lucy then asks how? Aslan then makes a statement which explains the entire reason C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia. He says, "Because there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there." The very reason C.S. Lewis wrote the books was to see what Aslan is to the world of Narnia and meet Him in our world. This Lion, this beast which is "very dangerous", is with us. Just like Eustace, He will rip off our thick, impenetrable dragon skin and restore us. Whenever I see Aslan, there is something about Him that carries reverence and power, but at the same time love. This is the picture Lewis was trying to paint. Pictures of Christ are everywhere in his books, once my luggage shows up I'll probably read them.
quietly brilliant...


Tomorrow, we are going downtown Athens, so hopefully, I'll be able to take a ton of pictures. Over and out.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

When in Greece, throw flares and fire crackers at professional soccer players.

Not Greece, but still looks awesome.


Greece. What a place. I've been here for 2 days and what an experience. Aside from my duffle bag being left in London thanks to the airport and can't get here because of the all the snow, life's been awesome. The weather here is chilly, but it's definitely not Chicago cold so I'm happy. The weather this week will be around 65 degrees, but it gets pretty cold at night. 


Yesterday, when I got here, my luggage was lost and I took along time to get through immigration so my dad was wondering around the airport looking for me, making sure I was on the plane. Then I just walked out the door and everyone was relieved. Funny situation...at least for me.


That day I was blown away by the beauty of Greece. The landscape is unbelievable. Being from Illinois, anything higher than a small hill is a mountain, so I'm freaking out. All around the deck of our house is just a beautiful sight with mountains in the background, I can't wait to hike up one.


Olympic Stadium.
Last night, my dad and I went to a Panathinaikos soccer game, one of the best teams in Greece. They play in a giant stadium that was built for the Olympic games in 2004. It was about half full for the game, but there is a section in the stadium where the fans just go nuts the entire game. They light flares and throw them everywhere. When they don't like something that happens they light firecrackers and throw them. Panathinaikos played awfully. The team they were facing was not too good, so it was embarrassing to watch. They ended up getting scored on with 15 minutes left in the game, and the crazy fans started throwing flares and firecrackers at their own goalie. So with about 10 minutes left in the game, my dad and I decided to leave because we didn't want to ride the train with the crazies. 

Christmas party with my Mom.
Needless to say, I crashed that night. Jet lag sat in pretty early yesterday, so much so that I almost fell asleep at the soccer game before it started. Tonight, we had a Christmas party at the church where there were tons of desserts. Afterwards we had to "quickly" drop a ham off at the Dutton's house (the pastor of the church). We were supposed to be in and out... we ended up staying there for 2 hours. We basically watched YouTube videos so it was full of laughs.


I'm not quite so sure what we will be doing tomorrow, but I bet it's gonna be fan-freakin'-tastic. My dad has a sweet camera so I've been trying to take pictures with it, but it's pretty tricky getting the pictures I took off of there, so we'll see.

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Greatest of Ships are Friendships...


Highlights of my semester:
(no particular order)


-My brother's wedding.
-15-5 Moody Soccer Record.
-Zack and Kristin's Christmas Party.
-Dr. Litfin entering the Snuggle Pad.
-Grabbing Wall.
-Finishing finals alive.


One of my biggest struggles this semester was not jumping into different friend groups every week. I know a lot of people on campus, and while that is really cool, I'd rather have 3 really close friends than know 1500 names. Whenever I start to become vulnerable in a group I tend to jump ship and sail another flag. This started to change at the end of the semester when I was feeling like I found where I belonged. Now Christmas break has hit and I'm going off alone. It's gonna make me appreciate the friends I have even more now. 

"A man of many companions may come to ruin,
but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." -Proverbs 18:24
I want more nights like the night at Zack and Kristin's apartment. I want more honesty and openness between FRIENDS. Don't give me jib-jab and small talk, I want to share my heart with you. Community like that needs to be regular not random. I could use something like that daily not monthly. I want to love my friends which means I need to open up as well. 
I have 3 weeks to prepare my heart before the Lord to come back refreshed, alive, and ready to be a good friend to those who matter to me. Pray that I would be in God's Word constantly over break. Remind me to pray for you if you are hurting. Finally, talk to me over break, I don't care about what, just stay in touch. I may be on the other side of the world, but love has no limits so reach far.