As many of you read earlier today, my iphone passed away. It was found without a working bottom half of the touch screen at around 10:30 last night. This had happened once before, but last time it was after being dropped. Taking off the screen and putting it back on did not work this time though. For those of you who don't know, I got that phone with an already cracked screen for $10. And it lasted 2 years. Oh yeah. But it's okay because I got a 3Gs, now, instead of just a 3G.
So if you didn't know, it's very hard to judge if a church is gooding by looking at their website. I have run into this problem when looking for churches in Newberg. You can tell if they are super old, and if they have some beliefs you don't like, but other than that, most churches have pretty similar beliefs and sometimes you can't even tell if they preach on certain topics. So you really have to visit to figure out if you like it. Some people in the college group are talking about commuting to Portland or other places like 30 min away, but I would prefer to stay closer to campus, so that if I wanted I could be involved in the church community. It is very hard to be an involved member if you live 40 min away from your church.
I reached 170 one day this week on the scale. I would be celebrating but I'd like to see it more consistent at 170 instead of steady at 168 or so. Anyway working out and basketball have been good, but I could go for being a bit less tired some days. Like right now I am debating whether or not I want to do noon hoops tomorrow. Sometimes I just like to get my shots up, since that is a better way to work on individual skills. But I also know I need to work on my team game, moving without the ball and getting people involved.
So I was thinking about careers some this week. This was started by reading Katie's most recent blog, about wanting to be a sports broadcaster. While I think this would be a good fit for her, I got to thinking about my career. Because I know Katie wanted to be a teacher, which I also thought was a good job for her. That got me thinking, like if I wasn't going to be an optometrist what would I be? Don't get me wrong, I really like Optometry, it's what I want to do, but I am very cognizant of the fact that God often changes our plans, so I like to keep an open mind about it. I thought about some parts of my life I enjoy, like basketball and working out, music, and religious stuff. What I have realized when watching trainers at physical therapy appointments and going to bball practice this whole year without playing, is that you can spend hours and hours at the gym without getting any exercise. I really don't like that. I might be okay with that at some point, but I feel like it would be better to keep the gym as a place of fun and relaxation(mentally) rather than have it be work. I would like to do music stuff for a career, but I am not a musical genius, and there is too much risk financially, since I would like to have a family that I could support financially. Also listening to artists that I consider more mature, like Thrice, Blindside, and Brian Welch, they often talk about how hard it is to be away from your family that much. I thought about religious stuff, and I am not feeling it. I like listening to sermons and getting stuff out of them, looking at the verses that were talked about, but I could never preach. I like to learn and have knowledge, that way I can be ready to respond when the right time comes for me to share with people about Christ or about other issues, but it's just not a career option. I'm not even like "God, I will not do that," I just don't see it as my calling. That is probably an obvious statement to those of you that know me. So until God changes my mind, Optometry it is.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Listening to voices, and David compared to us
Time for another blog post. I have decided to use that tumblr account that I made as a place to compile my music. Not much is really new right now from what I have posted on purevolume and youtube, but I will probably post some different stuff on there sometime. Here's the url if you want to check it out: http://aaronsalzano.tumblr.com/
In other music news, I said I was going to write a song after last blog, and I totally did. It is not my best work or anything like that, but I might record it sometime.
I wonder if famous artists have trouble listening to their own music. I know I do. Obviously I know that I am not the best, so there will be little mistakes here and there, and that is sort of hard to listen to. And I often hear things I could have done differently that would have made the song better, and that's also kind of hard to hear. But it's not even that stuff. It is just weird, I don't know how to describe it. Like it's sort of eerie or something to hear your own work, and it feels kind of dumb to listen to my own stuff just for fun. I mean, I can play it, or I can listen to people who are way better than me, so what is the point of just hearing my stuff? Whatever, it's just something I've thought about a bit.
Have you ever read the whole story of David in 1 and 2 Samuel. I'm right in the middle of 2 Samuel right now, and it is a lot more brutal than you get told as a kid. Like I am pretty sure that I didn't know until a few months ago that when David was running from Saul he eventually ended up working for a Philistine king, and David was almost involved in a battle against the Israelites, except the Philistine commanders didn't trust that he would stay on their side so they kicked him out. What kind of actions are those for someone who is anointed to be a future king? Then when he is King we all know the story of Bathsheba, where he sleeps with her and then gets her husband, Uriah, a totally loyal commander, killed. This man is a man after God's own heart?
Yeah.
And I think to how it relates to my life, and Christians in general. I do not think I could be called a man after God's own heart. That would be called a life goal. I would love for that to be my legacy, but I am pretty sure David is the only own who gets called that haha. David went from defeating the Philistines with Goliath, to working for them, to defeating them again. Thinking back, there are a few things that I used to think, "I'll never do that," and sure enough I ended up doing it. It's the same thing as David's deal with the Philistines, just on a personal level. I look forward to reconquering those aspects in my life, as David did with his problems. What did he do when he made a mistake? He repented. And repenting isn't a simple "Oh, I'm sorry." It's a change of heart and mind. So I thank the Lord for David, because he shows how you can be a godly man despite making mistakes.
I keep listening to different sermons and clips, and I do enjoy how each pastor has their own style, and yet they are all on the same team(obviously I am referring solid preachers, not like Joel Osteen or Rob Bell or anyone really controversial Biblically). Like Pastor Dave uses life stories and he likes puns, groupings using alliteration, meaning the first letter is the same(heck he is like a physics major or something, organization runs in his blood), and he uses tons of verse references for each point he makes. Matt Molt uses more life stories than Dave, and that seems to be where a lot of his jokes come from, and I feel like he uses one passage a lot more than Pastor Dave does. Like he backs it up with other scriptures, but it's not like 25 more references like Dave. Molt also focuses a lot on spiritual gifts. Driscoll is much more in your face with his points, like he will yell. However a lot of people think that is all he does, and it's just not true. He is very often quiet, and whether he is quiet or loud, you can always tell that he is very sincere.
I could mention others, but I got my point across, and I don't want to look like a connoisseur of churches and pastors like C.S. Lewis talks about in Screwtape Letters. Just sampling different churches without having a home is not good, and I don't want to look like I am promoting that. I'm all for the idea that God places us in churches for a reason, and we don't have to like the sermon every week for it to be God's place for us.
In other music news, I said I was going to write a song after last blog, and I totally did. It is not my best work or anything like that, but I might record it sometime.
I wonder if famous artists have trouble listening to their own music. I know I do. Obviously I know that I am not the best, so there will be little mistakes here and there, and that is sort of hard to listen to. And I often hear things I could have done differently that would have made the song better, and that's also kind of hard to hear. But it's not even that stuff. It is just weird, I don't know how to describe it. Like it's sort of eerie or something to hear your own work, and it feels kind of dumb to listen to my own stuff just for fun. I mean, I can play it, or I can listen to people who are way better than me, so what is the point of just hearing my stuff? Whatever, it's just something I've thought about a bit.
Have you ever read the whole story of David in 1 and 2 Samuel. I'm right in the middle of 2 Samuel right now, and it is a lot more brutal than you get told as a kid. Like I am pretty sure that I didn't know until a few months ago that when David was running from Saul he eventually ended up working for a Philistine king, and David was almost involved in a battle against the Israelites, except the Philistine commanders didn't trust that he would stay on their side so they kicked him out. What kind of actions are those for someone who is anointed to be a future king? Then when he is King we all know the story of Bathsheba, where he sleeps with her and then gets her husband, Uriah, a totally loyal commander, killed. This man is a man after God's own heart?
Yeah.
And I think to how it relates to my life, and Christians in general. I do not think I could be called a man after God's own heart. That would be called a life goal. I would love for that to be my legacy, but I am pretty sure David is the only own who gets called that haha. David went from defeating the Philistines with Goliath, to working for them, to defeating them again. Thinking back, there are a few things that I used to think, "I'll never do that," and sure enough I ended up doing it. It's the same thing as David's deal with the Philistines, just on a personal level. I look forward to reconquering those aspects in my life, as David did with his problems. What did he do when he made a mistake? He repented. And repenting isn't a simple "Oh, I'm sorry." It's a change of heart and mind. So I thank the Lord for David, because he shows how you can be a godly man despite making mistakes.
I keep listening to different sermons and clips, and I do enjoy how each pastor has their own style, and yet they are all on the same team(obviously I am referring solid preachers, not like Joel Osteen or Rob Bell or anyone really controversial Biblically). Like Pastor Dave uses life stories and he likes puns, groupings using alliteration, meaning the first letter is the same(heck he is like a physics major or something, organization runs in his blood), and he uses tons of verse references for each point he makes. Matt Molt uses more life stories than Dave, and that seems to be where a lot of his jokes come from, and I feel like he uses one passage a lot more than Pastor Dave does. Like he backs it up with other scriptures, but it's not like 25 more references like Dave. Molt also focuses a lot on spiritual gifts. Driscoll is much more in your face with his points, like he will yell. However a lot of people think that is all he does, and it's just not true. He is very often quiet, and whether he is quiet or loud, you can always tell that he is very sincere.
I could mention others, but I got my point across, and I don't want to look like a connoisseur of churches and pastors like C.S. Lewis talks about in Screwtape Letters. Just sampling different churches without having a home is not good, and I don't want to look like I am promoting that. I'm all for the idea that God places us in churches for a reason, and we don't have to like the sermon every week for it to be God's place for us.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
"I just like to read." Have you watched TV?! It's WAAYY better!
Hmmm let's see, I did some cool stuff this week. I job shadowed at Dr. McCartneys(I don't think that is how it's spelled), but anyway, he is an optometrist. Some of the tools that he uses are pretty sweet, I am not going to lie. And I don't mean the classic "1 or 2, again 1 or 2." They have tools that do everything from charting the surface of your eye to taking pictures and showing you how different prescriptions in different frames will look on you. It was pretty cool.
I've really been having fun with basketball this past week. And it's not even that my shot has been on, I mean that doesn't hurt, but it's more than that. I don't know, it's just been really fun. I've been pushing myself to get better, and I realize that I can only get better from here on out as long as I stay healthy.
I still have some rust to clear off in my team play, but I need to get back to that point our whole team was at my junior year. That point where making a good pass was almost as satisfying as scoring. That is what made us so successful that year, and it really is much nicer to play with people like that. Right now I still want to score more than I want to make that one more pass, so I need to work on that.
It is starting to hit me that I will be leaving the Tri in a month. It feels really weird. My whole life has been in the tri so it will be interesting to move onto a new chapter of my life.
And I have too much reading to do in that time. I haven't read Lewis in a while, which I should get back to. But I also have to read that book Enrique's Journey for Fox, that I am pretty sure I am supposed to have read by the time I get there. Honestly I am having trouble bringing myself to it because 1. It looks like a terrible book. It's about an illegal immigrant kid who travels on a train to America to go find his mother, who left like 10 years prior. There is really no draw for me. 2. I have trouble seeing any consequences for not reading it. Some topics will be brought up in a pass/fail class for first year orientation? Mine is about God in Science, I have my doubts about immigration issues coming up. They might also be talked about in some random groups that I don't get graded for? If you haven't met me, I'm pretty good at staying quiet when I have to. I know this seems like a rebellious attitude, but come on, can you blame me for wanting to read something that can actually have an impact on my life, like a C.S. Lewis spiritual work. Also, I have been told that I should read some Spurgeon too, so I would like to do that sometime. I like to read stuff that is more useful on a day to day basis in my life.
Oh and I saw The Prestige this week for the first and second time. Christopher Nolan is ridiculous, I am stoked for Dark Knight Rises. I also watched Captain America, which was actually pretty solid. But I find it funny that Dark Knight Rises is just Batman and it will make more money next summer than Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Thor in the Avengers.
On another note, I think it is time for me to write some more music. I have written one song this summer, and honestly if I focus, I can usually bust out a song. I just need a guitar riff and a topic, and I think I have a fitting topic...
So that will be all for tonight.
I've really been having fun with basketball this past week. And it's not even that my shot has been on, I mean that doesn't hurt, but it's more than that. I don't know, it's just been really fun. I've been pushing myself to get better, and I realize that I can only get better from here on out as long as I stay healthy.
I still have some rust to clear off in my team play, but I need to get back to that point our whole team was at my junior year. That point where making a good pass was almost as satisfying as scoring. That is what made us so successful that year, and it really is much nicer to play with people like that. Right now I still want to score more than I want to make that one more pass, so I need to work on that.
It is starting to hit me that I will be leaving the Tri in a month. It feels really weird. My whole life has been in the tri so it will be interesting to move onto a new chapter of my life.
And I have too much reading to do in that time. I haven't read Lewis in a while, which I should get back to. But I also have to read that book Enrique's Journey for Fox, that I am pretty sure I am supposed to have read by the time I get there. Honestly I am having trouble bringing myself to it because 1. It looks like a terrible book. It's about an illegal immigrant kid who travels on a train to America to go find his mother, who left like 10 years prior. There is really no draw for me. 2. I have trouble seeing any consequences for not reading it. Some topics will be brought up in a pass/fail class for first year orientation? Mine is about God in Science, I have my doubts about immigration issues coming up. They might also be talked about in some random groups that I don't get graded for? If you haven't met me, I'm pretty good at staying quiet when I have to. I know this seems like a rebellious attitude, but come on, can you blame me for wanting to read something that can actually have an impact on my life, like a C.S. Lewis spiritual work. Also, I have been told that I should read some Spurgeon too, so I would like to do that sometime. I like to read stuff that is more useful on a day to day basis in my life.
Oh and I saw The Prestige this week for the first and second time. Christopher Nolan is ridiculous, I am stoked for Dark Knight Rises. I also watched Captain America, which was actually pretty solid. But I find it funny that Dark Knight Rises is just Batman and it will make more money next summer than Captain America, Iron Man, The Hulk, and Thor in the Avengers.
On another note, I think it is time for me to write some more music. I have written one song this summer, and honestly if I focus, I can usually bust out a song. I just need a guitar riff and a topic, and I think I have a fitting topic...
So that will be all for tonight.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Music and Responsibility
Alright a quick shameless promotion to start this blog off. I have posted several new songs on my purevolume. Yes, they are both covers, but you should still listen to them. They can be found here: http://www.purevolume.com/Accolades70796
Victor and I collaborated on Busy Little Beehive by Neon Horse. We knocked that thing out in like 2 hours, which was nice.
Not in Nottingham was just me performing. I re-watched the cartoon Robin Hood like a year ago and have just wanted to cover that song since then. So no, I did not get the idea from Mumford and Sons. For all I care, they got the idea from me. I saw their version on Youtube after I had started recording this song. It's okay though, because I had a different take on the song than they did.
Meanwhile, Thice and Mutemath have new albums coming out this fall that I am stoked for. It is kind of weird for me at this point because I see release dates and I think "I'll be at George Fox then." It just feels weird to me, not to make that run to Hastings for a new CD, I'll have to find a new music store. (I like buying the physical copy of CD's, I like the looking at the artwork, and I guess just having something tangible to hold.)
After watching those Youtube clips of Driscoll, I decided to watch his most watched sermon "Marriage and Men." I mean, I heard about it and it's a subject that I think about a lot, how to be a good man and prepare for marriage. So heck, I figured I'd listen to. It was really good I thought, and raised some very important points, some things I think I am good at, others I need some work on. But I can see why people might not like it, because it is a sermon geared towards guys, so it is like a coach getting in your ear at times. That harshness is something that can be good and definitely needed at times, but it can also be taken the wrong way. Anyway, I don't want to critique anything and honestly I think it's a bit odd that I brought up Driscoll two blogs in a row. What I really want to say is a point that he made that I love. I have often thought about marriage being the image of Jesus and the church, but somehow I hadn't thought about this before. Driscoll points out that as leaders of the household, men need to take responsibility for their families mistakes. It may not be their fault, but they should take responsibility. A recent image is Dirk taking responsibility for the Mavs wins and losses. But we are shown the most extreme example by Jesus on the cross. Our sins are our fault, not His. Yet he took responsibility, bearing our sins and dying on the cross for us. That is being a man. I don't know why I had never thought about it from that angle, but I like it.
Man, I only have like 35 days or something til I leave for college. I need to continue to spend some time with my friends, and maybe hang out with a few more. I'm looking forward to whatever God has planned for me this year.
That is good for tonight
Victor and I collaborated on Busy Little Beehive by Neon Horse. We knocked that thing out in like 2 hours, which was nice.
Not in Nottingham was just me performing. I re-watched the cartoon Robin Hood like a year ago and have just wanted to cover that song since then. So no, I did not get the idea from Mumford and Sons. For all I care, they got the idea from me. I saw their version on Youtube after I had started recording this song. It's okay though, because I had a different take on the song than they did.
Meanwhile, Thice and Mutemath have new albums coming out this fall that I am stoked for. It is kind of weird for me at this point because I see release dates and I think "I'll be at George Fox then." It just feels weird to me, not to make that run to Hastings for a new CD, I'll have to find a new music store. (I like buying the physical copy of CD's, I like the looking at the artwork, and I guess just having something tangible to hold.)
After watching those Youtube clips of Driscoll, I decided to watch his most watched sermon "Marriage and Men." I mean, I heard about it and it's a subject that I think about a lot, how to be a good man and prepare for marriage. So heck, I figured I'd listen to. It was really good I thought, and raised some very important points, some things I think I am good at, others I need some work on. But I can see why people might not like it, because it is a sermon geared towards guys, so it is like a coach getting in your ear at times. That harshness is something that can be good and definitely needed at times, but it can also be taken the wrong way. Anyway, I don't want to critique anything and honestly I think it's a bit odd that I brought up Driscoll two blogs in a row. What I really want to say is a point that he made that I love. I have often thought about marriage being the image of Jesus and the church, but somehow I hadn't thought about this before. Driscoll points out that as leaders of the household, men need to take responsibility for their families mistakes. It may not be their fault, but they should take responsibility. A recent image is Dirk taking responsibility for the Mavs wins and losses. But we are shown the most extreme example by Jesus on the cross. Our sins are our fault, not His. Yet he took responsibility, bearing our sins and dying on the cross for us. That is being a man. I don't know why I had never thought about it from that angle, but I like it.
Man, I only have like 35 days or something til I leave for college. I need to continue to spend some time with my friends, and maybe hang out with a few more. I'm looking forward to whatever God has planned for me this year.
That is good for tonight
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Acceptance
So uhh this week has been pretty solid. I ended up playing a lot of bball, most of the time with pretty good competition, but I need a few days break now since I played 5 days straight of games, so I'm pretty tired. Anyway, there are a few obvious things I need to work on, like finishing at the basket in traffic. Wow, not good. Well, on the positive side, I'm getting to the basket. I think I played pretty well most of the week, but today I played noon hoops and just sucked. I mean, sucked. I was a bit blown away, and then I realized that I wasn't playing with my regular confidence, my swag if you will. I realized that I was trying to look like I was good because I was playing with people I don't normally play with, so I wanted to impress. It hit me just how stupid that was. So as soon as I decided I would just play my game, without worrying about others, I started to do a lot better. Mind you, not great, it was just not a good day, but I picked it up quite a bit.
So I came home kind of disappointed in myself for looking stupid, and I read Andrew Schwab's new blog and watched Talladega Nights. Weird combo in the day, I know. They both had to do with the same thing though. Sort of. In Talladega Nights, Ricky Bobby has been racing to win so that others will like him, and he ends up learning that he needs to race because it is what he loves. He needs to race for him. Schwab's blog talked about how if we accept ourselves, that God has given us the abilities we have and has us right where he wants us, that we can be a lot more confident and content. So that was pretty cool to have that stuff apply right away. I am not saying that I play to impress all the time or anything, but it has happened before and it just leads to bad basketball, so it is something I am trying to work on.
So I have been watching some YouTube clips about spiritual stuff. Mostly Mark Driscoll right now for some reason. I don't agree with all of his beliefs, but overall he is pretty solid. Now I don't know if you are aware of this, but people on Youtube make some really dumb comments. Shocking, I know. I usually don't read many comments but on some spiritual vids people have nice little debates and stuff. It can be nice to see people's points of view, but it can be maddening sometimes. Oh another shocker, Driscoll has a few haters. People will accuse him on these videos of having a pigeonholed view of Christianity, because he calls for strong young men to step up and lead the next generation. People don't realize that they are pigeonholing him because they are only watching a 5 min clip and don't really look into what Driscoll preaches. People accuse the guy of not preaching the whole gospel, when he pretty much talked about it in the video. Even if he carefully explains something simple, like why "The Shack" is wrong, people get super mad about how he just likes to tear down other people in the church and how wrong that is. I won't even get into my opinion on "The Shack." I know that was a long rant for a guy that is definitely not perfect, and I'm not perfect, and no one commenting on these videos is perfect, but this subject raises several important points.
1. I can't say it enough, know what you believe and why you believe it. Ignorance is most certainly not bliss when you are trying to argue.
2. Look into what other people believing before you try to tear them apart. You may not like their style, but you might actually agree with what they said if you looked at more than one snippet. (especially if that bit is an absolutely horrible bit about Mars Hill on nightline. Just bad reporting.)
3. This goes back to point 1 again, but look up what you hear in the Bible, or at least make sure that the speaker is backing up what he says with what the Bible says(and then you should still make sure he is in context). Like if you like listening to Joel Osteen and Rob Bell a lot, and both guys have a lot of influence and do say a lot of good stuff, but if you listen to them and read their books and you don't have any red flags raised, you should probably spend some more time in the Word. (Ex. unlike what Bell's book Velvet Elvis says, we do need the virgin birth of Christ. Or an easier one, homosexuality is wrong.)
Alright that is enough for tonight. Please do not take me as attacking anyone, I just wanted to bring up some points I have been thinking about.
One more thing, please feel free to leave comments every once in a while, or text or talk to me about what I said in the blog if you have questions. It makes me happy.
So I came home kind of disappointed in myself for looking stupid, and I read Andrew Schwab's new blog and watched Talladega Nights. Weird combo in the day, I know. They both had to do with the same thing though. Sort of. In Talladega Nights, Ricky Bobby has been racing to win so that others will like him, and he ends up learning that he needs to race because it is what he loves. He needs to race for him. Schwab's blog talked about how if we accept ourselves, that God has given us the abilities we have and has us right where he wants us, that we can be a lot more confident and content. So that was pretty cool to have that stuff apply right away. I am not saying that I play to impress all the time or anything, but it has happened before and it just leads to bad basketball, so it is something I am trying to work on.
So I have been watching some YouTube clips about spiritual stuff. Mostly Mark Driscoll right now for some reason. I don't agree with all of his beliefs, but overall he is pretty solid. Now I don't know if you are aware of this, but people on Youtube make some really dumb comments. Shocking, I know. I usually don't read many comments but on some spiritual vids people have nice little debates and stuff. It can be nice to see people's points of view, but it can be maddening sometimes. Oh another shocker, Driscoll has a few haters. People will accuse him on these videos of having a pigeonholed view of Christianity, because he calls for strong young men to step up and lead the next generation. People don't realize that they are pigeonholing him because they are only watching a 5 min clip and don't really look into what Driscoll preaches. People accuse the guy of not preaching the whole gospel, when he pretty much talked about it in the video. Even if he carefully explains something simple, like why "The Shack" is wrong, people get super mad about how he just likes to tear down other people in the church and how wrong that is. I won't even get into my opinion on "The Shack." I know that was a long rant for a guy that is definitely not perfect, and I'm not perfect, and no one commenting on these videos is perfect, but this subject raises several important points.
1. I can't say it enough, know what you believe and why you believe it. Ignorance is most certainly not bliss when you are trying to argue.
2. Look into what other people believing before you try to tear them apart. You may not like their style, but you might actually agree with what they said if you looked at more than one snippet. (especially if that bit is an absolutely horrible bit about Mars Hill on nightline. Just bad reporting.)
3. This goes back to point 1 again, but look up what you hear in the Bible, or at least make sure that the speaker is backing up what he says with what the Bible says(and then you should still make sure he is in context). Like if you like listening to Joel Osteen and Rob Bell a lot, and both guys have a lot of influence and do say a lot of good stuff, but if you listen to them and read their books and you don't have any red flags raised, you should probably spend some more time in the Word. (Ex. unlike what Bell's book Velvet Elvis says, we do need the virgin birth of Christ. Or an easier one, homosexuality is wrong.)
Alright that is enough for tonight. Please do not take me as attacking anyone, I just wanted to bring up some points I have been thinking about.
One more thing, please feel free to leave comments every once in a while, or text or talk to me about what I said in the blog if you have questions. It makes me happy.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Haven't had a blog about trials in a while...
Alright I don't think I have too much to say tonight, but that's okay.
I have been playing a little more basketball to go along with my regular drills, and it is going pretty good. I am getting some game back, and I definitely see some improvement from my work. This week is 7 and a half months post op so that is when I planned on increasing real competition, like running full court and stuff, but now that it is here I don't know where to play at. I suppose I could try noon hoops once, but I don't know if I will because it turns into rat ball real quick. Hmm I don't know what to do.
I found out my roommate and dorm arrangements for Fox next year. Actually I found that out last week but I didnt put it in my last blog post. I havent talked to the guy yet, mostly because I can't find him on facebook and I don't feel like sending an email from the school address. I mean, who sends emails? Aren't those just for colleges to send you informations that you dont care about? Anyway, I didn't get the dorm that I asked for, but I'm hoping there is a good reason for that. I will probably never know.
I really liked the sermon today at Bethel about Hezekiah, and the challenges in his life. Pastor Dave made quite a few remarks to young men(and women) about jumping in and doing stuff. He also pointed out that it doesn't get easier as you get older in your spiritual walk, in fact it gets harder. I've kind of thought about challenges in my life, you know, what God might have for me. I've been thinking about my knee injuries, and the differences between what I learned through the first and second ones. I think it has been pretty clear if you read my blogs what I learned through the second one, but it took me so long to realize that a knee injury really isn't that big of a challenge. It sucks because I like basketball, but really, no one died, no ones eternal life was at stake(not that I ever have control of that in any situation). Heck, unless you were greatly impacted by my deep, philosophical writings(which, I guess I could see...Definitely not being sarcastic), I am probably the only one who gained much of anything spiritually. Basically what I am saying through that drawn out bit is that I am wondering what challenge God is going to throw my way. I will be honest that I have asked God that I get a different challenge than another physical injury, rehab is just a pain, but I know that I should be careful what I wish for and will accept whatever path He has laid out for me. "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." Not gonna lie, I'm gonna get that crown of life.
I have been playing a little more basketball to go along with my regular drills, and it is going pretty good. I am getting some game back, and I definitely see some improvement from my work. This week is 7 and a half months post op so that is when I planned on increasing real competition, like running full court and stuff, but now that it is here I don't know where to play at. I suppose I could try noon hoops once, but I don't know if I will because it turns into rat ball real quick. Hmm I don't know what to do.
I found out my roommate and dorm arrangements for Fox next year. Actually I found that out last week but I didnt put it in my last blog post. I havent talked to the guy yet, mostly because I can't find him on facebook and I don't feel like sending an email from the school address. I mean, who sends emails? Aren't those just for colleges to send you informations that you dont care about? Anyway, I didn't get the dorm that I asked for, but I'm hoping there is a good reason for that. I will probably never know.
I really liked the sermon today at Bethel about Hezekiah, and the challenges in his life. Pastor Dave made quite a few remarks to young men(and women) about jumping in and doing stuff. He also pointed out that it doesn't get easier as you get older in your spiritual walk, in fact it gets harder. I've kind of thought about challenges in my life, you know, what God might have for me. I've been thinking about my knee injuries, and the differences between what I learned through the first and second ones. I think it has been pretty clear if you read my blogs what I learned through the second one, but it took me so long to realize that a knee injury really isn't that big of a challenge. It sucks because I like basketball, but really, no one died, no ones eternal life was at stake(not that I ever have control of that in any situation). Heck, unless you were greatly impacted by my deep, philosophical writings(which, I guess I could see...Definitely not being sarcastic), I am probably the only one who gained much of anything spiritually. Basically what I am saying through that drawn out bit is that I am wondering what challenge God is going to throw my way. I will be honest that I have asked God that I get a different challenge than another physical injury, rehab is just a pain, but I know that I should be careful what I wish for and will accept whatever path He has laid out for me. "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." Not gonna lie, I'm gonna get that crown of life.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
A good amount of Lewis with a bit of daily events
Alright back to writing. The Voice ended, and Javier won as predicted. Dia did get second though which was cool. 4th of July was cool to just chill with a few bros, play badminton, shoot hoops, eat, and have fireworks in the backyard. In basketball my shot has been a bit off, and I actually got pretty angry yesterday, which is really stupid. I mean, I play basketball because I love it, I enjoy playing, so shouldn't I be happy when I am playing no matter if I am a little bit off or pretty on? I mean, if I am incredibly off, I might shoot a bit under 40 percent from 3 in my drills, which if you don't know, Kobe would kill to get that kind of 3 point percentage for a season.
Okay, I have had a good deal of stuff going on in my life recently, so that is a good enough catch up on daily experiences.
Travis and I talked to Harmony about Mormonism and Christianity, and I know both of these people will probably read this, but the whole situation is kind of tough. My friendship with her is a big deal to me, she is a wonderful person, and I enjoy hanging out with her, but it is an important issue that I believe needed to be addressed. All I am saying by this is that I would love your prayers for wisdom and clarity on both sides, and that our friendship wouldn't be damaged.
So I finished Mere Christianity, and I have a few thoughts on the last chapter. As usual, C.S. Lewis made some great points about, well, Christianity. He started talking about how, if we are all supposed to be little of versions of Christ, wouldn't that make the world kind of boring since we would all be the same? He used a somewhat flawed metaphor to prove a point, that I really like. He used the illustration of salt. If you gave a man just plain salt and had him taste it, he would think it was too strong and would just kill the taste of whatever you put it on. When in actuality, salt (in the right quantities, its a flawed metaphor but bear with me) brings out the flavor in other foods. Christ is like that. When we don't let Him control us, most of our decisions are based on physical desires so we really don't have as much personality as we think. Lewis said "It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." Think about it.
And since I am done with Mere Christianity and now moving onto Miracles, I want to say something I enjoy about Lewis. Obviously everyone loves his imagery, you can see it throughout Chronicles of Narnia and he is constantly illustrating religious points with images we can more easily understand, but what I also like is how he uses tons of logic in his arguments. It isn't just "Jesus loves me, and he loves you too, so let's say our God is great." He backs up his beliefs with sound logic, looking at points from several worldviews and walking you through why something is true. The first chapter of Mere Christianity made the case for God simply existing, starting by providing an argument that we have a natural sense of right and wrong. The beginning of Miracles looks at the Naturalist and Supernaturalist viewpoints. I don't know if that is something that you enjoy, but I think it is pretty darn cool.
Well, that is good for me tonight.
Okay, I have had a good deal of stuff going on in my life recently, so that is a good enough catch up on daily experiences.
Travis and I talked to Harmony about Mormonism and Christianity, and I know both of these people will probably read this, but the whole situation is kind of tough. My friendship with her is a big deal to me, she is a wonderful person, and I enjoy hanging out with her, but it is an important issue that I believe needed to be addressed. All I am saying by this is that I would love your prayers for wisdom and clarity on both sides, and that our friendship wouldn't be damaged.
So I finished Mere Christianity, and I have a few thoughts on the last chapter. As usual, C.S. Lewis made some great points about, well, Christianity. He started talking about how, if we are all supposed to be little of versions of Christ, wouldn't that make the world kind of boring since we would all be the same? He used a somewhat flawed metaphor to prove a point, that I really like. He used the illustration of salt. If you gave a man just plain salt and had him taste it, he would think it was too strong and would just kill the taste of whatever you put it on. When in actuality, salt (in the right quantities, its a flawed metaphor but bear with me) brings out the flavor in other foods. Christ is like that. When we don't let Him control us, most of our decisions are based on physical desires so we really don't have as much personality as we think. Lewis said "It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." Think about it.
And since I am done with Mere Christianity and now moving onto Miracles, I want to say something I enjoy about Lewis. Obviously everyone loves his imagery, you can see it throughout Chronicles of Narnia and he is constantly illustrating religious points with images we can more easily understand, but what I also like is how he uses tons of logic in his arguments. It isn't just "Jesus loves me, and he loves you too, so let's say our God is great." He backs up his beliefs with sound logic, looking at points from several worldviews and walking you through why something is true. The first chapter of Mere Christianity made the case for God simply existing, starting by providing an argument that we have a natural sense of right and wrong. The beginning of Miracles looks at the Naturalist and Supernaturalist viewpoints. I don't know if that is something that you enjoy, but I think it is pretty darn cool.
Well, that is good for me tonight.
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