"You are not defined by what you are not." - Mike Richardson
Lately this quote has been resounding in my head. Also this one:
"We do not want to be beginners, but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!" — Thomas Merton
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Goals for 2010
1) Be able to bike from Guelph to New Dundee with Michelle by the summer time (Approximately 40km.
2) Figure out how to have strong convictions without coming across/being a judgemental prick.
3) Become vegan, stay vegan - except for when people offer me food.
4) Acting more on all the weird and wild ideas my housemates and I come up with on how to love people.
5) To go streaking in the field of my old high school.
6) Sit outside and paint something, then and there, in one afternoon.
7) Fast. Actually, practice all the spiritual disciplines.
8) Become undignified in a public worship service.
9) Write more poetry.
10) Have no male "that friend..."s, you know, the sort of person you are nice to to their face but then make fun of behind their backs. That's NOT showing Jesus' love and I don't think its my job to be particularly nice to awkward guys. That can be a Christian guy's job.
11) Be tidier.
12) Stop church dating and COMMIT!
13) Get baptized and have a baptism party.
15) Make something useful.
16) Get more involved at the Dream Centre (see below post).
17) Become less of a hypocrite when it comes to recycling and general environmental responsibility.
18) Plant a garden.
19) To consider school important, but to consider other people more important - to remember that my life's goal is not to get awesome marks, but to love, and sometimes that conflicts with school.
20) To memorize the Sermon on the Mount.
21) To get dread locks when my hair is long enough to tie back.
22) To learn to love all people, even perfectly beautiful or cool people who I am sure don't need another shred of affection coming their way. I think I have some sort of reverse prejudice... it looks holy but I actually harbour a lot of bitterness towards exceptionally gorgeous people.
23) Write more letters.
24) To learn to listen better and flip down the laptop screen when someone is talking to me about something serious.
25) To learn how to be an effective leader.
26) To become comfortable with the fact that it is not my job to change other people.
27) To be more brave.
In other news, this is a beautiful song written by the little brother of a leader at my church who recently died in a car crash. He was 22. As an Embassy leader, I've had the priveledge of spending a couple days at his family's house trying to be a support to his family. His little brother is very creative and musical and I can't believe he composed and recorded this in such a short time.
Follow this link: Ecstacy
2) Figure out how to have strong convictions without coming across/being a judgemental prick.
3) Become vegan, stay vegan - except for when people offer me food.
4) Acting more on all the weird and wild ideas my housemates and I come up with on how to love people.
5) To go streaking in the field of my old high school.
6) Sit outside and paint something, then and there, in one afternoon.
7) Fast. Actually, practice all the spiritual disciplines.
8) Become undignified in a public worship service.
9) Write more poetry.
10) Have no male "that friend..."s, you know, the sort of person you are nice to to their face but then make fun of behind their backs. That's NOT showing Jesus' love and I don't think its my job to be particularly nice to awkward guys. That can be a Christian guy's job.
11) Be tidier.
12) Stop church dating and COMMIT!
13) Get baptized and have a baptism party.
15) Make something useful.
16) Get more involved at the Dream Centre (see below post).
17) Become less of a hypocrite when it comes to recycling and general environmental responsibility.
18) Plant a garden.
19) To consider school important, but to consider other people more important - to remember that my life's goal is not to get awesome marks, but to love, and sometimes that conflicts with school.
20) To memorize the Sermon on the Mount.
21) To get dread locks when my hair is long enough to tie back.
22) To learn to love all people, even perfectly beautiful or cool people who I am sure don't need another shred of affection coming their way. I think I have some sort of reverse prejudice... it looks holy but I actually harbour a lot of bitterness towards exceptionally gorgeous people.
23) Write more letters.
24) To learn to listen better and flip down the laptop screen when someone is talking to me about something serious.
25) To learn how to be an effective leader.
26) To become comfortable with the fact that it is not my job to change other people.
27) To be more brave.
In other news, this is a beautiful song written by the little brother of a leader at my church who recently died in a car crash. He was 22. As an Embassy leader, I've had the priveledge of spending a couple days at his family's house trying to be a support to his family. His little brother is very creative and musical and I can't believe he composed and recorded this in such a short time.
Follow this link: Ecstacy
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Tears of the Saints - Leeland
This weekend my forum visited the Dream Centre, a local outreach centre for homeless and low-income people. They gave us a tour and gave us some information on what homelessness in Waterloo region looked like and their role in relieving it. They also showed us a movie, and this song was playing in the background. Its an incredibly powerful song so I thought I would share it.
Oh! I found a video on the Dream Centre! Its not exactly the one I saw, but whatevs. Here it is:
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Salty Grace by Life in Your Way
Surely death has found me, It has kept a hold of me all this far
My actions will reveal, only time will tell
These passions start to slip away
Memories flash like seconds in a day
I see the world from the outside
There is something to say about being desperate, down and love
Giving a chance to see what it all can mean
There is something to say about being desperate, down and low
Upon my arrival, I either learn to swim or drown
As I struggle for air I see only water
And I reach for anything as I cry for help
I feel my body growing weak
Slipping away, It occurs to me that my cries are worthless
Acknowledging death
I no longer mourn my own loss
And begin to sing praises to the one that has me here
As I sink to my salty grave I drown
No hand to reach for, no ear to listen
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound... In your ear
I sink to my salty grave
Up to the light I will sing praises, surely we will all die
Up to the light I will sing praises because surely we will all die
My actions will reveal, only time will tell
These passions start to slip away
Memories flash like seconds in a day
I see the world from the outside
There is something to say about being desperate, down and love
Giving a chance to see what it all can mean
There is something to say about being desperate, down and low
Upon my arrival, I either learn to swim or drown
As I struggle for air I see only water
And I reach for anything as I cry for help
I feel my body growing weak
Slipping away, It occurs to me that my cries are worthless
Acknowledging death
I no longer mourn my own loss
And begin to sing praises to the one that has me here
As I sink to my salty grave I drown
No hand to reach for, no ear to listen
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound... In your ear
I sink to my salty grave
Up to the light I will sing praises, surely we will all die
Up to the light I will sing praises because surely we will all die
Monday, November 2, 2009
For the Love of Toilet Paper - A Social Experiment
A couple months ago, my two Christian housemates and I excitedly hypothesized about all the great community-building things we would do in our complex. Basically, we epically failed. But we did do this (and will hopefully continue to do more in the future):
There are 22 units in our housing situation. It is two rows of eleven joined houses. The entrances face each other and have a roof overhead. One would think this arrangement would encourage neighbourly affection. It doesn't. Everyone is as cold as a true-blue suburbanite.
We also live in a somewhat terrifying part of town. In September, there were two sexual assaults that took place within a 5 minute walk from my house, one just outside my complex. These occurences didm't encourage neighbourly affection either.
So we wanted to change the status quo by giving every one of the houses a little gift and an encouraging note.
"What does everyone need?" we thought outloud amongst ourselves. People might throw away food fearing it was poisoned. So we decided on... toilet paper!
Thus, we wrapped 21 rolls in blue tissue paper held together with yellow curled ribbon. We attached a note that followed structure of, "Dear (house #), We hope you like your unorthodox gift! We'd also like to have you over for supper. If you want to do this too, please come knock on our door or leave us a note if we're not home. Sincerely, (us)"
I must admit we came up with this idea weeks ago. But we are busy. (Though, mostly, we are lazy.)
Feeling convicted at our Thursday night Irresistible Revolution book study, we finally finished our project at 2:30am that night. We filled a laundry basket with the tp and went from door to door in our complex, putting our presents in the mailboxes. It was blissful and we felt like Christmas elves.
The next morning my housemate overheard a conversation between a guy who lives in our complex and someone who does not. Apparently the guy was pretty weirded out. Ba ha ha. Its only to be expected, but we hoped that wouldn't be EVERYONE'S response.
AND IT WASN'T! Around 3 o clock the next day a girl with black and purple dread locks came to our door. She thanked us for the present and said she and her housemates would love to come for supper! And they're coming on Wednesday.
It. Gets. Better.
So, Saturday night (Halloween) I found myself unexpectedly alone in the house. Ever since L'Abri I've found I get lonely easily, which is odd since for years before that I was definitely overly reclusive. But anyway, so I was feeling sorry for myself when around 8:30, dreadlock girl came to the door! She offered me pumpkin seeds and we talked.
And then I kind of invited myself over to her place and we watched the Nightmare Before Christmas and a transvestite comedian. But mostly we talked. And she brought up God, really early into the conversation, actually. Interestingly, we have similar stories, both disillusioned by the Church, but she took one road and I took the other. It was amazing though in the sense that I was actually able to share my journey with her pretty thoroughly, and oddly enough I wasn't even flustered. It was a really chill evening.
We also talked about drugs and especially marijuana. They're really passionate about pot at that house, which, while different than my background, is okay with me. We discussed the spiritual aspects of pot-smoking for quite some time. It makes me thankful I read a biography on Bob Marley and watched the documentary Grass. I think those educational experiences helped me come off a little more balanced in my views of pot than I would have otherwise.
Yay life!
Yay experiments!
Yay God!
There are 22 units in our housing situation. It is two rows of eleven joined houses. The entrances face each other and have a roof overhead. One would think this arrangement would encourage neighbourly affection. It doesn't. Everyone is as cold as a true-blue suburbanite.
We also live in a somewhat terrifying part of town. In September, there were two sexual assaults that took place within a 5 minute walk from my house, one just outside my complex. These occurences didm't encourage neighbourly affection either.
So we wanted to change the status quo by giving every one of the houses a little gift and an encouraging note.
"What does everyone need?" we thought outloud amongst ourselves. People might throw away food fearing it was poisoned. So we decided on... toilet paper!
Thus, we wrapped 21 rolls in blue tissue paper held together with yellow curled ribbon. We attached a note that followed structure of, "Dear (house #), We hope you like your unorthodox gift! We'd also like to have you over for supper. If you want to do this too, please come knock on our door or leave us a note if we're not home. Sincerely, (us)"
I must admit we came up with this idea weeks ago. But we are busy. (Though, mostly, we are lazy.)
Feeling convicted at our Thursday night Irresistible Revolution book study, we finally finished our project at 2:30am that night. We filled a laundry basket with the tp and went from door to door in our complex, putting our presents in the mailboxes. It was blissful and we felt like Christmas elves.
The next morning my housemate overheard a conversation between a guy who lives in our complex and someone who does not. Apparently the guy was pretty weirded out. Ba ha ha. Its only to be expected, but we hoped that wouldn't be EVERYONE'S response.
AND IT WASN'T! Around 3 o clock the next day a girl with black and purple dread locks came to our door. She thanked us for the present and said she and her housemates would love to come for supper! And they're coming on Wednesday.
It. Gets. Better.
So, Saturday night (Halloween) I found myself unexpectedly alone in the house. Ever since L'Abri I've found I get lonely easily, which is odd since for years before that I was definitely overly reclusive. But anyway, so I was feeling sorry for myself when around 8:30, dreadlock girl came to the door! She offered me pumpkin seeds and we talked.
And then I kind of invited myself over to her place and we watched the Nightmare Before Christmas and a transvestite comedian. But mostly we talked. And she brought up God, really early into the conversation, actually. Interestingly, we have similar stories, both disillusioned by the Church, but she took one road and I took the other. It was amazing though in the sense that I was actually able to share my journey with her pretty thoroughly, and oddly enough I wasn't even flustered. It was a really chill evening.
We also talked about drugs and especially marijuana. They're really passionate about pot at that house, which, while different than my background, is okay with me. We discussed the spiritual aspects of pot-smoking for quite some time. It makes me thankful I read a biography on Bob Marley and watched the documentary Grass. I think those educational experiences helped me come off a little more balanced in my views of pot than I would have otherwise.
Yay life!
Yay experiments!
Yay God!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
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