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| September 6, 2000 | September 8, 2000 | September 10, 2000 | September 13, 2000 | September 21, 2000 |
September 6, 2000 12:24 am
I had a great time this weekend at the Crusade leaders' retreat. It was up at the Towery's Ranch again, and I just love that place. We go there all the time, and the Standley's are just great about it. I really appreciate Mrs. Towery's vision and generosity in opening up her hom as a ministry like that. I mean, it's just a really nice thing to do.
I think it was good for me just because I needed to recharge and remind myself what Crusade was about, and what one of my heart desires is - to see lost people come to know Christ, and grow in Christ, and in turn, serve to glorify Him. That's what it's about. And we can do that through various methods here at Rice, and I know Crusade has a lot of good ideas. The key, as I think was properly emphasized at this retreat, is, and will always be, prayer.
It's prayer because prayer is one of the primary ways we communicate with God. It is one of the main ways which we show our conscious dependence on His power and strength. It's the way we petition Him, and tell Him our worries and ideas, thanks and regrets. It's a conversation with the Creator of the universe. Prayer also opens our eyes to see God working more, making us more aware of answered prayers, and in turn, making us want to thank Him and praise Him more for His grace, mercy, and power as He exhibits it in our lives. Even the little things.
I was really thinking this past weekend, and I'm really going to try to make morning prayer often. Like at least 3 times a week, if not more. It'll work out nicely with the workout schedule with Lisa. Go to morning prayer, then work out with her. Hopefully, she'll also be at morning prayer :-) hint hint
Also, my brother Andrew will be coming to visit this weekend! Wheeee! :-) I can't wait. He hasn't been down here since I was dropped off my freshman year, and so it'll be fun to hang out with him, and show him around, and stuff. He'll finally get to meet Lisa, too. We're even going to an Astro's game at Enron Field while he's here. I don't know what else we'll be doing though. Ideas would be appreciated, if you have any.
Just thoughts.
September 8, 2000 5:30 pm
Andrew is here, and it's been pretty fun. It helped to have no class today at all, so I just got up, went to morning prayer, goofed around, played guitar, went down to Autry to play some ball, read a little. :-) I'm sorta surprised how much time I have. Oh well. :-)
All-campus praise was last night. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. Although it wasn't perfect, I think it was a good thing. I hope the freshmen really take to heart what was sung, and said last night. Lord, give us an acute yearning for you that never goes away. May we always desire you above all else.
There was also that one article in the Thresher. It's a definite thinker. I think one of the most important things to do is to remember that we're not doing what we're doing for a cause, or to meet a goal, or anything like that. It's about people, and investing ourselves in people. We will not be able to invest ourselves in everyone that we want to, but we do want to have some relationships to build upon. God, please keep our eyes on you, and help us to see things as you see them.
Just thoughts.
September 10, 2000 9:11 pm
I just read Sam's musing from the 8th, and it got me thinking. I think it may explain some of the problems I have really feeling like I have a home church here in Houston. Yes, I go to HCC regularly, but I'm not sure that I've found what I'm looking for. [enter U2 song here :-)] I mean, a church really should be about community. That's what Jesus said would distinguish His disciples - their love for each other. I don't know much about community, except that we humans are social beings and need it. We need relationships, both horizontal ones, and a very important vertical one.
As I think about this some more, I think this may be where my desire for unity comes from. How can we Christians at Rice claim to be a community when we hardly ever communicate? How can we claim to be all of one God and one Faith if we don't even know who else is a brother and sister? Granted, we'll never know everyone on that deep, deep level that we know our best and most intimate friends, but that also doesn't mean we shouldn't know at least some of the other Christians around us. Community is a relatively subjective term though. One man's community is another woman's desert. Different people have different ideas about what a community is, what it looks like, how much is needed/good/wanted.
I'm not sure what I'm saying here. Brain spewage.
The concept of community is so vague, and yet we all know we want it. The Christian life is not Highlander. God forbid that there can only be one. We're not competing against each other. Actually, we need each other. What a concept. It took me until recently to figure that out.
I have to do some work, but as I have time, I'll try to add more.
Just thoughts.
September 13, 2000 11:07 pm
I was doing my reading for sociology the other day, and there was this article titled "The Invisible Poor" which I found very intriguing. In particular, there was this one section which I will quote.
This part of the article was in part, trying to explain why it seems that fewer people are truly conscious of the poor. There's another section which mentions that the baby-boomers were very aware of what pverty was, as many of the boomers' parents grew up during the Depression, and they knew first-hand how a community could be devastated by a single industry going sour, "Whenever interest rates went up, the mills would close, and the unemployment would go up to 20 percent..." and the author's parents, who owned the local store, had to take out a loan to cover the costs of the lines of credit they were extending to everyone. And depending on whether or not people were able to pay their tabs, the family would or would not go on a vacation that year. "I feel fortunate to have had that experience to see all the bits and pieces that make up a community and how it works."
I think you can probably see where I'm going with this. The article made a good point. One way of explaining why the poor have seemingly faded out of the national consciousness is that amidst all the boom in the technology sector, people have formed little bubbles within which they feel safe. Their comfort zones. And in doing so, they have cut off what little exposure they used to have to those who are less fortunate, for whatever reason. It seems that the resolve of the monied peoples to help those less well off pales enormously compared to the previous Gilded Age at the turn of the century and into the 20s. The environment is more important than people to some of these overnight millionaires. The forest means more to them than families on the street. They may do lip service to the poor, but they don't actually care, or care to even know, in the sense of taking it as their own personal responsibility. This may seem a little harsh, but from my experience, this seems to be the case. Helping the poor is not about tax dollars and government programs as much as it is about caring about people, and for people, enough to sacrifice some of your own resources (time, money, energy). I guess I'm talking less about non-Christians, who have no real moral obligation, except that of their conscience, to the poor. This is more focused towards Christians, I suppose, who forget about the widows, the oppressed, and the orphans. Those who have no voice. We're supposed to be fighting injustice. One way is to take what we've been blessed with to try to make things more just.
I guess I can even see myself changing. In the past, I used to not care as much about these folks either, but as I look back, I see what my parents were doing whenever we traveled. They were making sure I never developed a bubble. Or at least not a thick one. I may not know first-hand what poverty is, but I have seen poverty first-hand. I have heard stories from my grandparents about how they grew up. I have seen the faces, I have met those who are just struggling to get by in urban Hong Kong and Oakland. I feel for them. I don't know how exactly, and not perfectly, but I know I feel compassion. I know I hurt for them. I want to stand up for them, for the widows, the oppressed, the orphans. Not so much in terms of fighting for government dollars and programs, but on a more personal level. I guess in this lies my motivation and desire to serve the underserved with my life as a doctor, God-willing.
This has been pretty disjointed, I'm sure, but I hope I got my point across.
On a totally separate note, I really enjoyed my brother's visit. We went to an Astro's game against the Giants (which the Giants won in 10, 8-7) for Lisa and Katie's birthday, and I think the 4 of us had a great time just hanging out. I also got a picture of the scoreboard birthday message I got for them :-) They were really stunned and loved it. I thought it was pretty cool, too. Enron Field is kinda cool, too. The retractable roof is definitely a cool one, too.
I really hope my relationship with my brother continues to improve. I really enjoy hanging out with him and talking to him. I don't know, but there seems to be something about going back home which sorta makes the 2 of us revert to our old selves, meaning the way we were when we were younger and growing up in the house. I'm not sure what it is, but it just seems that way. When it's just the 2 of us, I guess we feel more free to act like we do when we're at school/on our own. Not that I don't like being home, but there's something about being home that sorta brings out the kid in my brother and me, so we fight like we did when we were little, and over stupid things, too.
I'm really thankful for my roommates this year. Scotty, Ricky, and Lenny (yeah, and I'm Philly) are really cool, and I think we get along really well. I think we're going to have a really fun year. And Scotty is doing all his cool woodworking again. We've made a deal, which I think I've written about already. Scotty will build me a house on his ranch, and I will be his doctor. :-) At least for a while. Maybe he'll live in a really rural area where I can also serve the underserved as a doctor :-) Anyway, he's building a new stand/shelf thing for his computer and monitor and stuff. He's really excited about it, and i'm sure it's a solid work. I really admire his discipline and skill in working with wood. And his general sense of discipline in all parts of his life. It's pretty amazing. This guy goes to bed before midnight just about ALL the time. Weekends included. He's just a really cool guy. And he really loves to give me a hard time about Lisa. I'm sure he's just jealous. :-)
Just thoughts.
September 21, 2000 10:56 pm
There were some interesting letters to the editor of The Thresher in this week's issue. The first one was a letter from the chair of the Religious Studies department at Rice in response to the article from two weeks ago about Christian "recruiting" at Rice (see the sfc bbs for a copy of the article). He basically took issue with the thesis of the op-ed piece, and showed, quite well, I thought, that the author was wrong. It was nice to see someone come to our defense without our asking them to do so. Shows how prayer and patience seem to be a good option when you don't know what else to do :)
The second letter to the editor that I read caused me some grief. It was essentially one Christian ripping on another Christian group's flyers. :-( <sigh> It's things like this that remind me how much the Christian groups on campus really need to communicate. He had a beef with the flyers, but instead of going to the group, or trying to find out who put up those flyers to talk to them personally, he wrote a letter to the editor. While he's entitled to his opinion, I think the letter was a rather unwise choice. To me, this only accentuates the need for the Christian groups to communicate better. I'm saddened by the fact that he felt his only way to communicate was via a letter to the editor. I don't know why he chose to do that, but I think we definitely need to improve the channels of communication. I'd like to think that the inter-ministry committee that I sorta formed would help do that, but with no interest in it, I'm not sure what will come of that, if anything.
On a much happier note, this weekend, I'm going to Mexico! :-) I'm going with Marta, Lisa, and some of the other people who went down to Monterrey this past summer for their summer project, to visit their friends, and just to see what the ministry was like down there. I'm totally looking forward to it. I'm excited to meet Lisa's friends, and just get to see where she had a great time learning and growing, and seeing God work. I'll be taking a fair amount of work with me, though. I've got lots to do this weekend. Lots of reading.
Just thoughts.