Phenomenon (aka Linbow Mania)

As an avid sports fan, but also (more importantly, of course) a Christian, I find it incredibly amusing when these two happen to collide and create a certain phenomenon. Sports fans call this band-wagoning; Christians call it supporting a brother-in-Christ. Whatever you wanna call it, I think we all have to acknowledge that it exists. Some of you know what I’m referring to, and others still have no clue; if you are one of the latter, what I’m talking about is Tebow mania, and the currently trending Linsanity craze.

From a sports perspective, these two tales have a lot in common. Without a doubt, if you call yourself an honest sports fan, then you have to admit that at present, Tebow and Lin are average at best. And perhaps more so with Tebow and less so with Lin (he’s giving me hope), being a lot worse than mediocre is probably the expected norm. And to be perfectly fair, they’re only a couple of seasons into their professional careers, and for much of their first years, they were in a bench/D-League role. Yet one may argue that they both have looked amazing when thrust into their starting roles (coincidentally or not, playing QB and playing PG have kinda similar roles in their respective sports). However, and I think it bears more than a little consideration, a lot of their “amazing-ness” has come against less than amazing opponents.

*** Here begins a somewhat exhaustive analysis of Tebow and Lin, purely from a sports perspective (skip if uninterested) ***

Let’s look at Tebow first. As a starter for the Broncos, he started out 7-1, and finished the regular season by dropping the last 3 games in rather spectacular fashion. While some of the wins were admittedly miraculous to the extreme, most games were not won because Tebow was amazing. But the opposite could be probably said; that when Tebow was bad, he was really really baaaaaaadd, and it probably was the reason they lost. However, I will admit that Tebow looked good in the Steelers game in the playoffs, and like I said, he’s still young and still has a lot of areas to develop in (like he’s definitely gotta improve that throwing motion of his).

Next, let’s examine J-Lin, keeping in mind the incredibly small sample size that we have of him as a regular (more than 30 min. a game). In the three games that he’s factored in, the Knicks are 3-0, and J-Lin has shown an ability to get to the basket and score, an adequate ability to shoot from farther out, an ability to run the pick-and-roll (at least a lot better than Toney Douglas and co.), and an ability to dunk as well. However, and not to be a downer, but going 3-0 on the Nets, the Jazz, and the Wizards isn’t exactly world-beating. In fact, with the exception of Jazz, the other two teams have shown themselves to not just be bad, but exceptionally so. Yet J-Lin has played against Deron Williams (I guess it’s All-Star Deron Williams), Devin Harris (waaaayy past his prime), and John Wall (still young, but an emerging superstar perhaps), and has actually held his own against them. But, like I said, it’s a small sample size of only 3 games, and the teams that they’ve faced aren’t exactly stellar. All in all, the jury’s still out on J-Lin. I would like to see him play a full season and see the effects of D’Antoni trotting J-Lin out there for 35 mins a night. I would also like to see how J-Lin’s play meshes with Melo and Amare. Since Jeremy started seeing minutes, neither of them have really factored in any of the games (Melo due to his ever mounting injury list, and Amare due to a death in the family), and if J-Lin’s play doesn’t fit well with their games, guess who would be the odd man out? I would also like to see how Jeremy matches up against the better PGs in the league; no disrespect against Deron, but that was one game and J-Lin has yet to face the likes of Nash, Rondo, CP3, or Rose (it’s partially because I have this lasting image of last year where I remember there was one game where Dragic came  in and made J-Lin look really bad).

*** Here ends the sports analysis of Tebow and Lin ***

So what can we say? Is it just simply that two very average athletes have captured the hearts of sports fans and non-sports fans alike? Is it simply that we are struck and held attentive because they are very much underdogs and Americans have an obsession with underdogs? Or is it that their hard work makes us realize that yes, success is possible when we work hard, even if one isn’t born as innately talented as others? Perhaps it is a little bit of each of these, but it would be wrong of me (perhaps even blasphemous) not to attribute some of their wild fame to the role that Christ plays in each of these men’s lives.

Now this is where perhaps someone might want to tune out. Oh dear, you say, not this whole argument again. The one where some say that if you love God, he will bless your team and lead it to victory.

No, in fact, I don’t think that’s true at all. In fact, I think God doesn’t give a rat’s ass who wins the World Series, and neither does he care whether or not the Lakers win (sorry, had to say that ). With all those people who pray to God for their team (myself included at times), I guarantee you that God can’t have the Giants and Patriots both win the Super Bowl. It just doesn’t happen. So no, I don’t think God factors into sports competitions to the point where we can say, oh, well, our team’s going to win because there’s a lot more Christians on the team, etc.

In fact, this is somewhat of a personal issue that I have with many Christian people. They think that somehow Tebow, or even Lin now, simply because they play for their teams, that somehow God will provide miracles in football games or basketball games. Now far be it from me, if God wants to provide some miracle, and far be it from me to limit what and who God is. But my point is this: I believe it is not in the character of God to simply give some player the victory in some sports competition just for victory sake. And yes, 1 Corinthians 15:57 does say that we have victory in Christ, but we have to take that in context.

Now I do want to add that I do believe that God will bless those who give glory to Him, but the blessings are never for their own sake and the glory always belongs to God. In that sense, maybe Tebow and Lin playing out of their minds at times is a sign of favor from God, but it is never, ever, for their (Tebow’s or J-Lin’s) own sake. Rather God lifts them up to be a light amongst the people that they compete with, and as a light to us who watch them. Without a doubt they have been lifted by God into a prominent position, but not for their own sakes, or for win sake. But rather it is for God’s glory, for God’s work, that they are there.

I admit that I very much enjoy watching Tebow and Lin, and reading up about their stories and seeing them do well. For Tebow, perhaps to Christians in general, and for J-Lin, perhaps more specifically to Asians and Christians (or both together ), they are role models. For myself, I look up to them a lot and I realize I need to pray for them more, because they are under an immense amount of pressure. It’s no easy thing to be in such a prominent position and to continue to live such humble lives; it’s not easy to have the whole world watching you, knowing you are a Christian, because you know some people are just waiting for an opportunity to bash them for some bad decision they’ve made. All I can do is continue to look up to them for the example they set for me to continually place Christ first, and to give glory to Him, and to pray that the Lord sustains them and keeps them humble. From what I’ve seen so far, they’re been nothing but gracious and humble, giving glory to the God that has given them the opportunity. I pray that God continues to bless them and keep them injury-free!

So if anybody who reads this knows Tebow or J-Lin, hook it up! I’d love to meet them because I think we’d all be good friends (Actually, I’m pretty much 95% sure we would be good friends).

EDIT:

Some links:

Great Article on J-Lin: http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201202/jeremy-lin-nba-new-york-knicks-harvard-taiwan

Lin’s already having a big impact in Asia: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AnQ0BmcYitKd9uN1FYxRi1.8vLYF?slug=ap-knicks-lineffect

 

Ok, this article gives me hope..haha
Yes!

Hope…Or Something Like It

So I haven’t written much since I’ve been in China, and it’s not because all my thoughts are in Chinese now. Despite the fact that wordpress is also blocked in China, the lack of activity has more to do with laziness than a lack of things percolating in my brain. Like the Clint Eastwood movie, there’s been good, bad, and ugly here in China; much of which forces one to slow down and think and contextualize within the Chinese culture.
Two things in particular force me to slow down and re-evaluate not just the people and culture around me, but myself as well. First, I’ve noticed that the longer that I am here, the more I am influenced by the culture around me. Granted, this is obvious, but specifically I am referring to the way that Chinese people spend money on things. I have found that I am really good at spending money on myself, and increasingly without qualms. Sure, I’ve never had a job longer than two-weeks prior to my current position, so having my own money is a new sensation, but I find that I am disgusted with my own ability to spend. It has become easy to fall into the mentality that the money I have received was EARNED BY ME; in fact, the money is God’s and always has been HIS. In addition, instead of being a light with how I spend, I find myself buying into the whole philosophy perpetuated by Chinese society that who I am, is measured by what I own (at least perhaps for males). And really, how is Christ revealed if I am no different than everyone else?
Second, an incidence in one of the English classes that I teach stuck out to me this past week. We were talking about what people did over the Spring Festival holiday and someone was explaining that he had gone to a temple and burned incense and prayed, etc. Then I asked him, “To whom was this all offered to? To whom were you praying to?” And he semi-joking replied that he prayed to the God of heaven (in his words, “To the God of the sky???”), and we all kinda laughed. And it really got my thinking: “Why bother doing any of this when you don’t even know who’s listening to you? Or do you even care who is listening?” Paul, in Colossians 2:8 says:
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic princiles of this world rather than on Christ.

I feel so broken because not just in China, but in the US as well (but for different reasons), people are doing spiritual things and participating in some spiritual rituals, but the recipient of such actions doesn’t seem to matter. I read in a book somewhere that a popular book says that prayer is super important and that people should do it more often; that it’s the secret to life…or something like that. But when some Christian asked the author who the prayers should be offered up to, he/she replied that it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Reminds me of Romans (1:20-21,25), where Paul again writes:

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified has as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened… They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen

And in some convoluted way that only perhaps makes sense in my mind, this all comes back to faith, hope and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Because really, who/what I love is essentially the same person/thing that I have faith in, and the very person/thing that I hope in.  As I walked home yesterday, I found myself asking: “What do I love? Who/What do I place my faith in? And where does my hope lie?” Because even though my answer should be “In Christ”, I look at myself and honestly have to answer a lot of the time, “In the same place everyone else looks to.”
And I guess the sobering reality of it really is that, that’s exactly who I am. Without Christ, that is EXACTLY WHO I AM. The truth of the Gospel is that it leaves no room for myself. If I continue seeking and searching for ways to insert myself, if I continue to hope that somehow a part of me is still alright (perhaps somewhat ok in God’s eyes because it is only partially affected by sin), then I leave no room for Christ. I hit me last night (probably not for the first time) that in my life, I need to be nothing, so that Christ can be everything. I need to acknowledge that I need to let go of hope in myself, so that Christ can be my only hope. I need to stop fighting for respectability in myself, so that Christ alone is enough.

Technology, People

NOTE: This was originally another post that I hadn’t posted about a frustrating event that happened recently in China, but due to some uncertainty about the direction of that post, it is now reworked into this one.

People, love them or hate them, they are an inevitable part of our lives. One of my favorite random quotes that I throw out from time to time is from English poet John Donne:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

And regardless of what Donne’s original meaning was in this quote; i have taken it to mean that no person is so isolated and apart from society that his life and actions do not matter. I believe that our actions carry consequences that affect the lives of others; often far beyond the scope of our comprehension. As the philosopher-warrior Maximus once said in Gladiator:

What we do in this life echoes in eternity.

So as people and nations in our world become increasingly interconnected through our world’s ever-advancing technological breakthroughs, it worries me that ironically, we as people are becoming more and more insular. I worry because I see in my own life how easy it is to hide behind my emails, texts, and instant messages. I can say things without meaning them, and I can talk to someone without ever actually meeting them. Some people even go through various stages of relationships, all within the confines of the virtual world.

We all know that the internet (invented by Al Gore of course) has brought us many conveniences and services. We can buy something and receive it the next day; all without ever leaving our homes. From what I hear, online dating is quite popular these days. But is online dating just an excuse for people to never leave their homes and have an actual conversation? I’ve never tried online dating (but I do hear that it is quite easy to lie on one’s online profile…WHY YES, I AM 6’2″ AND AS HANDSOME AS FABIO.), so my assumptions may seen naive and uninformed. Some of you may say, “But some people are just too busy to go someone and find a girlfriend/boyfriend.” And my immediate thought goes to: Aren’t our iPhones and tech gadgets supposed to make life easier so that we have MORE time for people?

I dunno, maybe it just seems like I’m on a soap box wishing for “the gold ole days.” But I’ve got to be honest and ask this (because I ask myself this as well): Does having all this technology just allow me to put on a bunch of masks without ever having to show myself?

 

On another note, being in China has gotten me thinking a lot about people lately (because let’s face it…there’s a lot of people in China). The good, the bad, and the sometimes really ugly.

Having a lot of people is a good thing. If anything, having lots of people has enabled China to become an economic superpower; capable in a few years of probably out producing any nation in the world. And if there’s still any lingering doubt, yes, I would build the arks in China too. After all, you wouldn’t have to ask permission or anything…just tell them to build it.

But having a lot of people has its downsides as well, unfortunately. Something I experience everyday is the maddening crowds that seem to be everywhere I go. Whether it is getting on the bus for work, or whether it is waiting to get food, sometimes the issue is just people. And because there’s a lot of people in China, the culture has evolved where Chinese people just don’t know how to line up…it’s like impossible for them. Sometimes, I don’t even try and get on a bus when it is practically full because I just don’t want to deal with the ridiculous crowding and pushing. This past Monday, I purchased a meal at the cafeteria, but I had made the mistake of going at exactly noon…when the number of people is greatest, and I basically gave up trying to get my food. There were just too many people, and the mob of people waiting at the food place to pick up their food was just too much for me to deal with. If you ask them about it, Chinese people don’t see what the issue is, but that’s because it’s just natural for them. And being a cultural outsider, I’ve realized that I can’t simply stand aside and cast blame on Chinese people for not knowing how to line up. I’ve realized that sometimes in China, if you want to get something, you just have to deal with the mobs of people and try and plow through. It’s what Chinese people are accustomed to and it’s partially a result of so many people everywhere in China. As an American, I don’t have to like it, but I’m probably not going to change it just be standing back and pretending like I’m the well mannered person.

However, sometimes, there’s just the really really ugly. And it has not as much to do with the number of people, as it has to do with the kind of people that we (I say we to mean humanity as a whole….I think) are becoming. If you haven’t heard about it already (and I don’t write that to accuse you of being uninformed if you haven’t already), a little two-year-old girl was hit by a car and then subsequently ran over by another car, while 18 people just passed by without doing anything. Finally, a lady runs over and calls for help before the mother is alerted and runs off to get help. Here are a few links about the incident (WARNING: the videos may be a little sickening…I haven’t seen the videos off these links but I saw the actual footage on the Chinese news without any censoring):

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15382273
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15331773
• http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/19/world/asia/china-toddler-rescued/index.html?hpt=ias_c2
• http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/18/world/asia/china-toddler-hit-and-run/index.html?hpt=ias_c2
• http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/passers-by-ignored-dying-child-who-was-run-over-twice-in-street-in-china/story-e6frf7lf-1226169281030?fb_ref=rec-top&fb_source=home_multiline
• http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/25/world/asia/china-toddler-dead/index.html?hpt=ias_c2

Now you the reader, as I, are probably feeling a mixture of rage, anger, amazement, etc. However (and this may or may not sway your opinion), I need to say that in China, there is no Good Samaritan Law. Meaning, there is nothing in the law to protect you for helping someone in need. Not only that, but there have been cases where people who were hurt, turned around and sued the person who helped them, and then won the case and a good bit of money. So yeah, as incredibly messed up as this situation may be, it reveals a far greater institutional and systemic issue at hand.

There’s a lot that can be said and debated upon with regards to a problem like this. A lot has been said and argued about here in China already. It would appear that online, plenty of people care or have solutions to this issue, but it’s a lot easier to say something in a forum online or on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) than to do it in real life.

There’s a lot that I can say or comment on with a situation like this. I can honestly say that I felt a lot of anger at Chinese people, I felt ashamed of being Chinese, and I quickly tried to formulate a solution to this plan. One can go crazy with suggesting plans of action in response to instances such as this. You can create a Good Samaritan Law in China to protect the people who help. You can place more emergency phones. You can institute special classes to educate people on the importance of helping others. These are all possible courses of action that would probably lead to potential solutions. However, the more I think about it, the more empty these solutions seem.

The answer, like it is 9 out of 10 times in Sunday school, is Christ. And I don’t mean to trivialize this situation into just saying, “Oh man, this just goes to show you that people need God in China, those pagans!” No, I say this because today, Christ reminded me as I was walking to the bus that for as many people as there are in China, His heart for them is bigger. His heart for them is bigger than mine, but God asked me today if I wanted to have a heart like His. Instantly I knew that I would never have a heart like His, purely by my own will or ability. I say that the Chinese people need Christ because only love is enough to change hearts. Only the love of Christ is enough to change the hearts of stone into flesh. Even though Ezekiel was writing to the exiles in Babylon, I believe it is a promise to us as well:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.   –Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV)

As I was reflecting on this, God also led me to John 10, where God reminds us that He is the good shepherd who leads His people into fullness of life:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.   –John 10:10-11 (NIV)

I realize how difficult it may be to change the hearts of 1.6 billion Chinese people (or however many Chinese people there may be now), but now more than ever, I think the Lord is just teaching me to ask, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come.” It’s easy to stand on the side and accuse Chinese people of being heartless or selfish, but I understand that we as humans are powerless and that change only comes through the power of Jesus.

 

It’s been a long post. Heh…

Grace and Peace,

O

Sometimes

Sometimes, God just kinda blows you away. Sometimes, when you least expect it, God kinda just shows up and shows you that you don’t really get it. Sometimes God just shows up and lets you know that He’s still in control and that He’s still good. I had one of those moments this past Sunday (yesterday for me). In a couple of ways, God kinda just showed up this Sunday and made it known that the way that I knew Him was too safe, too limited, and too lacking.

Yesterday, was probably started like any Sunday. Which, if you think about it, isn’t probably how Sunday or any day should be approached. However, in all honesty, I don’t wake up everyday thinking that the Lord’s mercies are new morning (Lamentations 3:22-24). Perhaps I have fallen into somewhat of a routine here in China. Anyways, I go to church and it’s a guest speaker. He’s a Mexican pastor who is leading an international fellowship in another part of China. So there I am, expecting another sermon (not the best attitude, but there are difficult seasons when I find it hard to be as excited for sermons as I want to be). But this Sunday, it was not to be. No, it was like God turned on a fire-hose in front of my face. So the pastor gives his testimony and it is probably one of the craziest, craziest things I’ve heard. A few years ago, his son was discovered to have a under-developed right ventricle along with a malfunctioning heart valve; a condition which prompted Chinese doctors to recommend his wife get an abortion (it’s an incurable condition by current medical techniques). However, he goes back to the States and their family goes through with the pregnancy. His kid has already had two open heart surgeries as well. Then, he proceeds to tell us that last year, he was diagnosed with Stage IV terminal cancer (the same kind that killed Andy Whitfield), which upon further check-up turned out to be five tumors all throughout his body. He’s gone through chemo and the doctors told him the cancer had regressed almost fully, but they recently discovered four new tumors.

The craziest thing through all of this, is he’s standing there telling me how GOOOD God is. To be honest, this guy is probably one of the happiest guys that I’ve ever seen. It was struck me how much crap this guy has gone through and yet how much JOY he has. When I approached him afterwards, he was even joking with me how he could survive with cancer, but he couldn’t live without Mexican food. I was just incredibly touched, encouraged, shamed (it’s the Asian in me), and blessed by his testimony. To live through so much and yet to have such JOY. As I sit here, I just think, “Lord, I want that. I want the joy that he has. And I know it only comes from You.”

And the thing about testimonies that I’ve realized is this: they’re super addicting. After the pastor shared, I was sitting there thinking: “I want to hear more. More Lord, more.” Not only do I want to here more of your kingdom at work, but I want to see it and experience it. I guess that’s what Psalms 34:8 means:

Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.

Once you’ve had a taste of how good he is, you just want more.

 

The other cool thing that happened occurred later that night. Our international service had joint worship night with the Chinese church (we share the building). It was just amazing to see so many people come out (we had a similar event earlier this year, but a lot more people came out last night). At the end of the night, the worship leader asks people to come forth and receive prayer, and I felt like almost all the Chinese people there (by my estimate, perhaps 200-300???) went up to the front. And I don’t know how many made decisions, or how many really meant it, but the thought of, “God, you are moving in power here in China, Lord; and it is crazy cool to see,” crossed my mind.

Right now, I’m involved in the Saturday morning bible study/English corner and it’s been awesome to see 20+ people come out each week to not only learn English, but (and they might not admit it) to hear about Jesus and his teachings as well. There are some Christians for sure, but there are a good number of non-Christians who know we teach about the Bible and yet they still come out. I know they are hungry and I know that only God can satisfy their cravings. If you’re reading this, my prayer is that you’d be praying for not just the people who come to the English corners, but also for the students in the 6-7 university campuses in my area (i know, its ridiculous how many universities there are). I would ask that you pray not only that the Lord would bring the harvest, but that he would send more harvest workers, because there are a lot of Chinese people…(understatement of the century).

And on that bombshell… I’m headed home from work… (I can only write on wordpress after work, since wordpress is blocked now otherwise…sux).

Grace and Peace to you all,

O

Adrift

Since being back in the States, many irritating, confusing, and frustrating issues have come up again; most of which I wish  I could simply whisk away underneath the bed or into a closet, but to deny them would be simply unrealistic. I think the predominant issue at hand is this feeling that I have of being adrift, not having any direction in life. I don’t know if this is common among people post-graduation (I’ll assume it is), but however common it may be, it has been incredibly frustrating to deal with. For one thing, I’ve realized that I just don’t know at this point what I want to do. I think that prior to going to China  and working for two months (more on this later), I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do simply by sitting around and do nothing…which I learned was not the most practical or helpful way to go about things. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll just go to China, try it for a couple of months, and we’ll go from there. And while these past two months in China have seen their ups and downs (it could be a whole blog entry unto itself….if I get to it), it still leaves me not knowing what I want to do, and it still leaves me asking the question: “God, where are you leading me?” Because as much as I enjoyed China, the independence that I had (it was great being away from my parents…I don’t hate them, but man do I feel as if they are incredibly overbearing), how cheap food was over there, and how great my co-workers were….I can’t escape the fact that if I’m honest with myself, I really don’t enjoy sitting at a desk all day programming (and it really doesn’t have much to do with making less than minimum wage in the US, although getting paid more wouldn’t hurt I guess). If I rewind my life back to grad school (which at the time, I was sooooo sure God wanted me to do), the biggest issue I had with leaving the lab was because I felt like I was just getting to know my co-workers and they were the ones who helped me make it through those times in lab where I was just sitting around or standing at a desk, pipetting something for the millionth time, or making bacterial colonies for the millionth time (I have been known to exaggerate at times…). Now once again, I feel as if as much as I enjoy the people that I work with and the environment that I am in….I absolutely can’t get over the fact that I don’t like what I’m doing. Sure, it’s not something that I absolutely dread (after watching a few episodes of dirty jobs with mike rowe, I can definitely think of somethings that I’d dread doing), but if I had a choice, sitting at a desk doing lab work or sitting in a cubicle doing programming all day wouldn’t be at the top of the list. (On a random sidenote, I have this random urge to become a field biologist because this airplane documentary on orcas made it seem really cool, but field biologists wake up super early to get stuff done and there’s all sorts of other things too).

So that kind of leaves me where I started before going to China, trying to answer the question of where God wants me to be; as well as questioning God why in the world he has me taking this circuitous route around different careers still without an answer as to what I am to do with my life. A verse that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately comes from Isaiah 55 (Julie, I know it’s your favorite verse, but I’ve got to thank JoJo for reminding me of this chapter in Isaiah). Isaiah 55:8-9 says:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

(Actually the whole chapter is pretty dang amazing, go read it.) As I’ve been thinking about this verse, I’ve been asking God, “What does this mean for my life?” Because as much as it’s cool to be able to recite verses and know what they mean, it’s a whole lot more profound (at least for me) when they hold personal meaning as well. So, to be honest, I’ve still got no answer, but I’m still asking and I’m still seeking for answers.

I’m pretty sure I’m going back to China again early September; I just want to be able to stick it out at least until the end of this year and then come what may. Two of the reasons that I want to go back are that there is this english teaching bible study thing on Saturday at the church that I go to. It’s been awesome getting to know people, but also just getting to help teach English through scripture. Hopefully you can pray that as the people come hungry to learn english, that the Lord would also cause them to be hungry for His word and His spirit. Also, I want to know my co-workers even better. The people in my group all know that I’m a Christian, but I just haven’t been able to share much with them. If you could pray for more boldness and courage for me, to be able to share with them and just love them more.

Grace and Peace,

O

A Tale of Three Wise Teeth

So this last Tuesday, i went in for a dental consultation for extracting my wisdom teeth. I figured if i went in on Tuesday, it’d be another week or so before i got them taken out…i was gravely mistaken. My mother advised that i get the procedure done ASAP, so we scheduled in the procedure for the next day at 9am. While i was a little worried about getting the multiple local anesthesia shots, talking with the oral surgeon (who coincidentally went to grad school for marine biology, but then decided to go to dental school) left me a bit comforted that the procedure wouldn’t be too bad. He looked at the X-ray’s and he didn’t seem too worried about the procedure, so i didn’t worry too much either. I mean, my wisdom teeth are apparently growing horizontally, so he’d have to cut off half of the tooth before extracting and then pull off the other half. But he didn’t make it sound too bad, so i just assumed it wouldn’t be too bad.

So come the next day, it’s bright and early and i’m pretty tired because i’m not used to waking up that early, but there i am. The oral surgeon was actually a pretty funny guy and fun to talk to, so that made the tooth extraction process a little more enjoyable. He was basically talking to me the whole time, so that made it easier not to think about my teeth or the pain. Anyways, so i go in, sit down, they give me some topical anesthetic so i won’t feel the shots as much, and a few minutes later, they shoot me up with anesthetic and i’m about ready to go. I had decided not to have the nitrous oxide (aka laughing gas) administered because i wanted to be conscious (call me a masochist, but something about being able to be fully conscious appealed to me). Anyways, after waiting about 10 mins for the anesthetic to kick in, the surgeon starts the procedure. So he starts with my bottom left wisdom tooth. I assumed he had to cut a slit in my gum in order to get to the tooth, but of course, i don’t feel anything. Then he gets the oral drill and starts cutting my tooth into pieces in order to extract it. Of course, this is where things start to get crazy (to say the least)! So the tooth is split in half, and he’s trying to use this other tool to either pull/pry it out some how…but my half-tooth is too big, and it can’t fit through the incision he made in my gum. So he’s got to cut it into smaller pieces. So he starts drilling again. Now I don’t remember the specific order of the next events, but here are a few highlights from the extraction of the first tooth:

1. While trying to pry the first piece out, my tooth actually breaks his dental tool (i dunno what its called…just know that it was stainless steel and i broke it). I don’t know how it happened. All i know is that out of the corner of my eye, u see a rather large piece of my tooth (apparently about 1/4 of the tooth) fly out of my mouth and i hear the doctor say something to the extent of “holy cow”. Yeah, dunno how it happened, but without a doubt…i’ve got some strong teeth.
2. So as i alluded to earlier, my tooth in actuality was a lot bigger than the x-ray had suggested, so instead of cutting my teeth into halves, i think the oral surgeon had to do fourths.
3. Towards the latter half of the tooth pulling, i still wasn’t feeling anything, but as a preemptive measure, he shoots me up with more anesthetic, of which i feel a little bit of the last shot, meaning it was a good thing he gave me the extra anesthetic, or else i would have felt something during the extraction (more on this later).
4. As pieces of the tooth are being removed, the surgeon notices that my tooth as three roots. The normal number for a wisdom tooth is two roots. I thought i was superhuman or something crazy until he told me that the person before me had four roots….daaaaannnnggg.

So finally, after a good long while, my first tooth is all out. He then proceeds to pull the tooth right above the first one. Now, this one was supposedly the easy one to pull out, at least according to the x-ray. However, i was beginning to be a little skeptical. Thankfully, compared to my other two teeth, this one actually was, at least in my mind, a walk in the park. The tooth came out in one piece and overall, it didn’t take too long to pull out. However, I did have to shift my lower jaw into a weird position so the surgeon could fit the dental tools in….not very fun.

And finally, there was the bottom right tooth. This one was probably at most, just as difficult as the first tooth pulled. HOWEVER….and this was a big however,  it was during this tooth that I probably used up 3-4 tubes of anesthetic alone. The reason being that for some reason, I kept feeling some pain at one point or another while this tooth was being pulled. And no matter where the oral surgeon shot anesthetic, I wouldn’t feel anything, meaning that nerve had been already sedated. It was like I had some phantom nerve that just wanted to cause me pain…. So during this last tooth, the surgeon kept saying that we could stop for today and continue the procedure another day. He even continued to say this after half my tooth was out already….which in my mind was ridiculous because I wasn’t going to leave the office with half a tooth still left. So I don’t know if it was just jaw pain or if it was just me feeling pain from the teeth pulling, but I decided to go ahead and finish the procedure, despite needing to basically grit out some of the pain (which wasn’t excruciatingly bad…but still, it hurt). The surgeon actually told me after the sixth tube of anesthetic that he couldn’t shoot me up with more because I’d hit the limit of how much I was allowed…but then he later added another tube of anesthetic to shoot me up with. So that pretty much concluded the surgery part of the procedure.

So I go to Target right after to fill my penicillin + vicodin prescription. So I wait about 20 mins for the prescription to be filled. The assistant dentist actually had told me to get some advil if i had to wait a little bit, but at the time i wasn’t feeling anything…so i was like, “why do i need advil, i’ll just wait to take the vicodin and i should be good?” Then i wait another five minutes to get to church where i can get some water to down the vicodin with. However, this is when my wounds start to really hurt. So i’m thinking, “i need to get take this pill, NOW!” But when i still the pill into my mouth and drink some water, all of a sudden i realize that i don’t know where the pill is, because i can’t feel my tongue, it’s still hella numb. It’s at this point that i’m in a crazy amount of pain because every single gulp of water hurts and the pill is no where. I decide that waiting for the pill to dissolve in the water isn’t a good idea, so i stick my finger in my mouth to find the pill, and i finally find it under my tongue (of course it is). I still it on the back of my tongue and finally swallow it with water. About 10 minutes later, i start to feel great because the pain is gone….who knew pulling out some teeth would be this epic of an adventure?

Hope all your wisdom teeth stories aren’t as grisly or painful as mine!

O

Communication

So i haven’t used this blog in awhile. partly because i haven’t felt too inspired to write anything, and partly because there’s been a lot of personal turmoil in my life. i won’t digress too much into that (i just wrote a lengthy email about it, and so i know its like a novel), ask me if you want to know more. but hopefully i’ll be getting back into writing more regularly. it’s a helpful tool for me to process things and since a strength of mine is communication (i’m referring to the Strength Finder’s 2.0 assessment), blogging is helpful in general to release some of my pent up thoughts. i’m thinking about blogging some thoughts about the current books that i’m reading (Sex. God. by Rob Bell and Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller; i absolutely LOVE both of these authors) as they come up, so i’ll hopefully be writing more. not that i’m a great writer, or for that matter blogger (because there’s a distinct difference), but i’m trying my best. so onto what this post is really about:

today at coast vineyard, jamie was speaking about entering into solitude with Christ, a state of being where we are restored and strengthened by the Lord. it was an amazing message that really spoke into where i am currently with Dad (i’ve been finding this to be true a LOT lately…which probably means i’m paying more attention to what God’s actually trying to say to me). but what really got me thinking was actually His intro about how much people text in America and how it has surpassed actually meeting face-to-face as the number one way humans interact and communicate with one another. when he said that, i was simultaneously worried and incredible conflicted. i become incredibly conflicted because while technology is an incredible blessing and an incredible tool for helping people, relaying information, and keeping people connected, it is also the ultimate impediment to actual human interaction. i see it in my life and i see in all around me. if you don’t believe me, walk around UCSD or whatever school you go to and tell me that people who are listening to their iPod’s are having genuine interactions with the world around them; or tell me that you’ve never had a moment where you would have much rather preferred to keep reading that all-too-savvy tech/fashion/religious/video game/craft blog so you can brag to a friend how knowledgeable you are, while ironically, that same blog which has you so enthralled, is the very reason you are neglecting said friendship (incredibly ironic, isn’t it?) [ALLITERATION FTW!]. and hey, i’m not pointing any specific person out, nor am i accusing/blaming anyone for anything, i find myself doing the very same things day in and day out.

i think that what worries me is that everywhere i look, whether its at myself, or the world around me, i see the incredible effect that technology has had on “communication.” whether its through twitter, facebook, youtube, texting, iphones (and their apps) or another other communication outlet that technology has afforded us, connecting to one another and finding out what someone else is doing has never been easier. all around us things are flying at the speed of light, and the only time interval between something going on in my friend’s life in China and me finding out about it, is the time it takes for them to post it on FB or Twitter and for me to see it (well, ok, not China because you can’t access either in China….but you get the idea). in the book The Revolutionary Communicator by Jedd Medefind and Erik Lokkesmoe (which i HIGHLY recommend to read if you are interested in being a better communicator, i’m not done with the book yet, but its a very good read), they write:

The word “communication is itself from the Latin communicare, meaning “to share together,” or, more literally, “to make common.” …Many textbooks focus on communication as little more than the transmission and reception of information. …The issue of connectedness fades to the background, valued only as a tool to be exploited. Viewed in this way, communication becomes an impersonal exchange of messages, a one-way street where, as author Margaret Miller described, “conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness.”

and isn’t that exactly what our communication has become? we wait on the edge of our seats for the latest twitter update from our celebrity crush or favorite youtube star, or stare hour upon hour at our newsfeed, waiting for the latest activity from that girl/guy we have a crush on. all the while we neglect people around us, we withdraw instead of engage, all for the sake of “communication”, except at our pace and in the way we want it.  is communication in our day and age really about connection anymore? or is it really just monologues tossed back and forth across the internet while people around us are dying because no one is listening? As Taylor Caldwell once said: “The most desperate need of men today is not a new vaccine for any disease…His real need, his most terrible need, is for someone to listen to him, not as a ‘patient,’ but as a human soul.” I think the question that we need to answer is one posed by the authors of The Revolutionary Communicator: Dare we seek more from communication in a media age? There is no easy answer to this question and there is no easy solution. but I think Jesus challenges us to slow down and to listen. to listen to Him most of all, but to listen to each other. it is probably one of the hardest things to do, to slow down our lives enough to listen, but like jamie challenged everyone at coast (if you weren’t there, go to coast’s website and listen to the 11/7 message), let’s be people who are willing to slow down to listen to the voice of the Father, and to listen to the voices of the oppressed and hurting around us.

 

Blessings,

O