Passport Photo

Processing Lissy's passport photo and it seems like this is a good website to do it. Needs a "premium code" in order to download photo in full resolution, so I am sharing their website with you!
123passportphoto.com Premium code: e 4 y 5 b 5

it has been too long

 “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25).

Above is a verse pre-fall which is used to describe Adam and Eve, the manner they stood before one another and before God. They were naked, uncovered, hiding nothing. 

Nakedness (Heb. arumim) became a Hebrew metaphor to describe one’s sexual shame. It is the state of guilt (often what an atonement offering was used to cover), which remains when one’s covering is removed. 

Here is my perspective: you’re naked before God no matter what—yet you will not be ashamed if you consciously stand naked before God. (Side note: I am now speaking strictly metaphorically.) Standing naked before God is like stripping off everything you are using to protect yourself and making yourself vulnerable. You feel shame when you hold tight to be concealed and what you cling to is stripped from you. It is called being naked. One can only run around through Times Square wrapped in a bath towel for so long before your towel gets caught or comes loose or a gust of wind blows. 

learning yourself through others: friendship

If you need to make your friend a carbon copy of yourself (your opinions and perceptions, etc.) then you miss out on the nature of genuine friendship. Life should be spent with people who do not understand one another and are coming from different places. It takes time to understand another’s point of view—to really understand and not just acknowledge—and this is the job of friends. It is a like walking a long road together in the same direction.

Isn’t it true that only when someone says or does something that we don’t agree with that we furrow our brows? We think and begin to erect our framework of thinking through our interactions with others. Real friendship is messy and people need time to learn about themselves and how to live with different types of people coming from a different set of perceptions.

You cannot expect another to change quickly the way he or she thinks or acts… or to understand quickly. I want to question why I think the way I do, and in order to do so, backwards steps are necessary. This was imagery that my friend Jess thought up: a person is already a certain way by default; he or she just is. A person acts a certain way, dresses a certain way, talks a certain way, and has already developed a way of thinking. As life moves forward at rapid speed, one cannot observes his or herself except by taking backwards steps and questioning "How did I get here?!" Friends are a great tool when one commits his or herself to taking backwards steps.

waiting

What if when I drop her by the train station, ticket in hand, giving her the ticket just a moment before she boards, hug her and wish her well--what if...what if, she is boarding to never return? What if she travels the world, and what if she falls in love with people, places, and things that are unfamiliar to me. I will not know, if ever she returns, how to speak with her and how to be impressive in her eyes again. I am simple and have nothing more to offer than a ticket, a ticket to leave--to remove the strings which bind her to me, those very strings she wants released--and send her away with a promise. A promise that if she ever returns there will be a kettle boiling within a minute and I will want to hear stories and listen until she has nothing left to say. A promise that I will, if I ever explore, only do so between the market and home, fetching vegetables and the like. And that, though it is very little, will cost my life and my will and my strength and all of the parts of me that want to tell the stories. No, instead it is your turn to explore and to fill your mind with new and fascinating dreams, to see the world in different colors and grow wings with which to soar. It is your turn... And now the train has long since left the station, and these are words that remained only in my mind. Words that I couldn't find until she was gone. It took me too long to think; it always takes me too long to think. Dumbfounded, I stand knowing that she will never return.

a love poem

1 In the context of wisdom, please! Whatever you do, do it in the context of wisdom. Think, my friend, about the end of the matter: for though it is far now, it is soon at hand.

2 In a desire for growth, my brother. Whatever is done, may it lend towards growth. Reestablish lasting roots: for though the weeds are little, they grow to destroy.

3 In understanding: do not forget to seek understanding. For though to be understood is a gift, to understand is riches; and better yet is to sit silently in understanding is a treasured reward.

4 In patience and courage, foremost--first in the mind, then in the heart. Give time and patience your will, for it is courageous to trust, courageous to be vulnerable. But mind your poor heart.

5 In separateness, find unity. In strength and do not weary. In hope and in selflessness, seek to restore. Dislocation is not eternal.

6 In love, seek to sell your rights.

And now the matter at hand. Howbeit love, a mysterious element. Seek it in wisdom, for fruit eaten in secret may be sweet, but a desire fulfilled in protection is sweeter. Have patience and be courageous, for something worth your dignity is worth your life. [And the foolishness of lovers have abandoned dignity long before now. ]

In love do not seek to be sought, there is a garden yet to be found. Unity will find love when it so desires. And so, my brother and friend, while waiting, have strength and do not grow weary; in hope and in love sell your rights. For love owes nothing, yet gives all.

Defined Worship

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. 2 Samuel 22:2-3


Oh Praise Him all the earth; proclaim His goodness from the heights! Sing aloud with passion and joy for He is our deliverer and His faithfulness has settled the troubled sea. I was lost and now I am found, returned home—and so let the whole world join together their hands and voice in one accord; let us please our God, maker of the heavens and earth and all that is good; for His delight is in our fullness and our salvation! He is both the shield which protects me and the horn which proclaims His joy in salvation. Let us in return proclaim from the east to the west His glorious name!

Is that not what worship is, the righteous bearers of God’s name held in the deepest gratitude, shouting to the four corners of the earth? And yet so often such a combination of words sounds so doctored? Instead of altering my praise I rather say: Let all see; let the lost sheep examine my life that they may see and hear the never changing but ever active song of salvation, the work of my Lord. The salvation of the ages, we together with the saints, shall see the Lord as redeemer. Earth once trembled by the weight of His spender and so it does now, ever turning.

In song I closed my eyes and found myself swept away, my imagination surrendered, among a great cloud of witnesses; joy was present in the form of all senses. Tangible, visible joy which would have confounded this world as I know it—and there I stood, part of a light like nothing I had ever seen. Suddenly I saw something I could not escape from. Beaming eyes and brilliant robes penetrated my heart and a myriad of angels enraptured my imagination as I fell to my knees, suddenly alone. Tears filled my eyes but any emptiness was soon filled with a music, which dancing about my ears, circulating about me. And I looked up to a hand which lifted me to my feet. And it was He, smiling. At that very moment I knew salvation, so undeserved. It was the hand that lifted me, the very hand which bore such stripes and pain. And though my sins once nailed Him, no guilt remained for I was home—and so should the praise continue.

Each song which tells the story of salvation, Christ lies at the center of. We have been given, each distinctly, a story which tells of our comings and goings, our losings and winnings, and most importantly of the final victory to which we proclaim the name Christ! And to each is given, his own life of worship and his own transformed heart; it is a gift more precious than anything the world could and will ever offer, the gift of unity made possible through the cleansing blood of Christ. Life is a zealous story of victory and worship is a mere giving back, the people called to be saints whom I will call brother shoulder to shoulder.

....but...why?

Is asking "why?" dangerous? ...It is, sometimes, depending on your expectations.

God works in mysterious ways, and His character is made clear in the Bible, but the way He works remains largely a mystery. I had a conversation with my friend's dad about this and came to the conclusion myself that, although you can have faith and pray for something, really the best thing you can do (in addition to praying in faith) is ask God to help you understand why He worked the way He did in this situation; why things happened the way they did.

However, I began to think about how dangerous asking "why?" is. It is because I personally like to know things NOW, rather than later (It's the reason that Wikipedia can send me on so many rabbit-trials--a lot of subjects just catch my interest and I want to know it all, now). I also know that the information I do receive is rarely enough; and thus, always wanting more evidence, I'll begin to doubt, even the very tenets of my faith. Verification and the desire for empirical evidence can become an appetite like any other; that's why I believe some of the theological arguments that take place are unprofitable--because more evidence doesn't ever prove anything; it just provides due cause for doubt. And clearly, some things we're never going to know; should we have faith enough to allow it to be released in God's timing? I know that the universe is so infinitely big and our scope is so infinitesimally small that there will always be enough reason for two conflicting ideas to be true, at least as people perceive (and just speaking philosophically, one perception is equal and not greater than another perception); it's the nature of paradox, or as I would like to say, our limited understanding!

To be clear and conclusive, I believe you should ask God why, but you should not get angry when you don't get enough information (because, by definition of appetite, hunger is natural). A person should seek to get more information, but learn to accept our finiteness.