Life is Good, God is Good

So the past couple weeks have been the hardest weeks ever, but I am happy to report that I love it. The harder I work the more I enjoy myself. It sounds really weird, and I agree. I don’t know what it is. Based on the things I am doing this year, I would say that I was lazy last year and every year of my life.

Here’s a little update on the things that I am doing. Working at the UW is great. I love the staff, and everyone is fun to hang out with. To be honest, it is one of the only places that I actually get to hang out and talk with non-Christians. I really enjoy showing Jesus’s love to them with my words and actions. I am still working at my church, but mostly on Sundays. I work occasionally at the church during the week depending on the things that need to get accomplished. Something that is curious to me is that I can tell my heart is really with my church. I feel that the work that I do here at the UW is not as fulfilling as the work that I do at the Church. The church has a mission and I can see that the work that I do there helps to accomplish that mission to reach the people of Seattle. The work that I do at the UW doesn’t lead to anything and seems empty to me. Don’t get me wrong, I do a lot of work at the UW fixing things, but I can’t see what it is for…maybe I am here for a reason, and I just don’t know it yet.

Crew practice is on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 AM on Lake Washington. Each practice is amazing. We always have great weather and a beautiful sunrise. We have our races a week from yesterday on the 24^th. I wish I could take some pictures and show each one of you what it is like out on the lake. It is so beautiful. The actual rowing is tough, but it creates discipline in me and I like that. I actually enjoy crew more then I ever thought I would.

I have been biking a lot lately…or at least as much as I can. I am in the process of building a new bike. My budget is around $2000 dollars. I hope to spend less, but I will do what I have to. I can get a lot of things from my brother-in-law as he is moving to San Francisco. He has some nice Nike biking shoes for me for free. Building this bike is in preparation for the Seattle to Portland ride this summer. Last night I decided to do it. If I can train enough this summer, I will do it this summer, but If I don’t feel ready by July 15^th at 5:00 AM then I guess I will have to do it next year. The race is 204 miles.

Summer plans are shaping up for me, and it looks to be a good summer, but I will save that for another post.

New Job

So a few weeks ago, I was e-mailed about a job opening with the UW Technical Communication Department. I decided to apply for the job and see if I was qualified enough to get the job. I quickly wrote up a resume, and sent if off. The next week I was deathly ill, but I was called in for an interview. I thought about calling them and telling them that I was sick, but I didn't think that would set the right first impression.

A week later I was offered the job. I didn't really know what to do since I wasn't really sure if I even really wanted another job/time commitment... So I spent a few days really thinking hard about taking the job. My thoughts alone were not good enough to convince me to take or leave the job. After a few days, between a combination of talking to God, some older people I respect, and myself, I was told that I could handle it.

After 3 days of working here, I am already loving it. I get to do all the things I love. One of the best things is meeting new people. The TC staff and faculty are really nice and very welcoming. Maybe it is just because they really needed someone to fix computers and run their servers, but I think they are always very welcoming of anyone. I work room 20 in the basement of Loew Hall. Come visit me sometime.

P.S. Tonight I get to take care of my nephew from 5:30 PM to 9 AM. It is such a nice day out, I think we will go to the park or maybe Golden Gardens

45.2 Miles

Yesterday, I got to go on an awesome bike ride. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and there was a warm breeze. I had been planning to go around the south-end of Lake Washington for quite sometime now, and I decided that this was the time to do it. All was well until I realized that I had forgotten the one thing I wanted to remember. My sunglasses; it was already too late to go back for them, so I decided that I would just have to live with bloodshot eyes for the next few days.

Around Seward Park, I rode right into a swarm of bees and by the time I came out of the swarm, I had about 100 of them all over me and in my helmet. I stopped a safe distance away from the swarm, and proceeded to brush the bees off of me and out of my hair. They were honey bees, and still very capable of stinging, but believe it or not, I never got stung.

The Renton Airport/Boeing Plant was pretty cool. As I was riding around it, I saw them painting the side of an airplane with the words “RYANAIR”. I thought that was pretty cool, so I tried to grab a picture of it, but my phone camera didn’t have good enough resolution to see the words. Anyway, I have included some pictures from my trip. The only other thing that is worth mentioning is the bike tunnel that I found over I-90. I didn’t even know it existed, but it is pretty cool (see the picture below and see for yourself).

He is Risen!

My Lord and Savior has risen! Easter is one of my favorite holidays because i get to be reminded of everything I live for. I also love it because it is a day for family.

Friday I went to a very powerful Good Friday service at Mars Hill. The service was very somber, and held in silence. I couldn't really do the service justice if I tried to describe it here, so I won't try. But I can definitely say that it made me constantly think of Jesus all weekend in everything I did. That is how it always should be, but I have to admit I don't constantly think about how Jesus died on the cross for MY sins.

Today I went to my parent's church's early Easter service. It was a very good service and it completed my weekend. I spent the day with my family and grandparents, which is something that I enjoy, but don't get to do often enough. I thank God for every blessing that He has given me.

He is Risen! Don't forget that.

Where does that line lie?

Ok, so recently I have been thinking a lot about my life as I walk to and from school, and bike around the city(on my new bicycle, yay). I have found that thinking is a very complicated thing. Often times I wonder how I get from one subject to another and how I ended up there. On a recent walk to class, I found myself continuing to come back to the same conclusion to each of my thoughts. That conclusion was basically as follows: “Well, I guess if God wants me there, then I guess He will lead me in the right direction.” Over and over I came to this conclusion on topics like: “well, if God wants me to have a job then I guess I’ll get the job I applied for” or “If it is the right time for me to have a girlfriend then I guess I will find that special someone and He’ll point her out to me.”

Then I started question myself after awhile when thoughts like “well, if this is the right major that God wants me in then, then I guess my classes will be easy, and I will do well in them” started popping into my head. I think this is when I first thought of the fine line between relying and trusting in God too much to the extent that you are passive about what you do. For example, if I was to lie in bed all day watching TV and then say to myself; “well, if God wants me to get a job well then I guess he will get me a job” So hypothetically that would mean that I could just continue to sit around and God would provide for me. ABSOLUTELY NOT!

So I ask you, where does that line lie between trusting that God will give you what you need and becoming passive about the things you do in life. Here is where I think it lies. It starts with where you heart is and who you are out to serve. Are you out to serve yourself, or are you out to serve God? Ask yourself that question, I did and asking myself that question answered a lot of my own questions. Next, don’t be afraid to take your next step. Do it and then if you fall, God will pick you up and set you in the right direction. Now let’s not be extreme about this point. You could say, well you said to do it and then expect God to pick you up so that’s why I started smoking and now I am addicted. NO, that is not what I am talking about. This point definitely doesn’t mean that you should not be in thoughtful prayer about what God wants you to do with your life. What I am really trying to say is you should not be afraid live your life when you don’t know what God is calling you to do.

For me, that means I need to become disciplined in all areas of my life. A few include, school, relationships, working-out, and actively seeking to strengthen my relationship with Jesus. In then end almost everything that we stress over in life comes down to one thing. It’s all about how much discipline we have. Think about it. If you were more disciplined about studying, your grades would be better and your finals wouldn’t be so stressful. Or if you had the discipline to exercise for at least 30 minutes everyday, you would need to stress over how big your love handles are. Those are just a few examples, and I am sure that I could think of many more. I really think self-discipline is crucial in all areas of life.

There are a lot of things that I have brought up in this post that are controversial or even possibly not correct. I wrote this because I needed a way to organize my own thoughts on this subject, and sometimes writing out my thoughts helps me do this. I just thought I could share it with everyone, because sometimes one person’s thoughts and ideas impact another person’s life in a way that can never be foreseen. If you have anything you disagree with me on, tell me and I would be more than happy to hear it.

To be Continued...

I was going to post tonight, but I started writing it and now I am over a page long of text. I decided to quit for the night and proof read what I have written tomorrow. So I guess what I am trying to say is...Expect a long post soon.

A gift from me to you...

So recently I have been thinking about starting to blog again, and yesterday I found something that convinced me to start blogging again. I am so excited with what I have found that I wanted to share this wonderful experience with all of you. I ran across this today and was very curious to find out what it did. So I read some reviews and most of the reviews were raving about this free product. I am usually very skeptical to install random programs on my computer (especially free ones), but this one stood out to me. The nice people at Orb, recently released a program that allows you to access the files on your computer from anywhere that has an internet connection. This program has great potential, let me explain.

I have built a home server before, and each and every one of them has become virtually useless to me. The nice thing about orb is that it does everything for you, all while providing a simple interface that caters to my needs. Here’s how it works. After installing their simple utility, you can log-in from any browser to your computer. Depending on how you configure the installation, you can now view all of your multimedia. This includes your music, pictures, and videos.

The program works by testing the connection that you are accessing your computer from and figuring out how much bandwidth that you have available. Once it determines your connection speed, it streams your media to your device at a bit rate that your connection can handle. Not only do I see this as a plus for when I am at a friend’s house, but this means that I can access all my media from my cell phone. All I have to do is log-in from the browser in my phone, and like magic I have videos on my phone. The program also has support for TV tuners, which means that you can stream live TV to your cell phone. So if there is an accident on the bridge I can tune into the local TV station and see how bad the backup really is. This will work amazingly on my new cell phone if I can ever muster up the courage to buy it.

Check out the cell phone that I really want here. I have probably done over 20 hours of research on cell phones in the recent weeks. I really need(not want) a new phone because the only I have barely works. The internal speaker is broken, so I have to use a headset for every call. Yeah, I know it sucks, but I am too stingy with my money to go out and but a new one. Someday, someday...

And just FYI, since spring break is coming up soon and I will have some time on my hands, which means I can finally obtain my own domain for this blog, and for some other things I have been wanting to do. If you have any suggestions for what my domain should be, leave me a comment.

My Dominican Republic Mission Trip

I have decided to post my journal from my trip on my blog so that everyone can see what I did while I was down there. I have omitted the personal things that I wrote. I will post a page a day from my journal.