How Does He Nike?

Throughout the past few days, I have been reading about the life of Paul in the book of Acts.  This guy was instrumental in the spreading of the Gospel throughout the ancient world and brought many people to God.  The amazing thing about Paul was that he was merely human.  He was just a man who responded to God’s call to spread the good news to those who were lost.  Paul’s zeal, confidence in the Lord, and decision to share the good news (regardless of the cost) are truly admirable.  This package of attributes seems to be missing from a lot of Christians in our day.

 Paul carried out his ministry during such an era where proclaiming such news would earn you serious consequences.  Such actions could have resulted in starting a riot, sending you to jail, or even an invitation to have your life taken away.   Luckily, we are blessed to live in a time and area where people are allowed to speak freely about the Gospel and where these earlier consequences are no longer around to haunt us.  But, despite the reduction of these penalties, many Christians still find themselves in a state of fear about sharing the Gospel. 

I’ll share from my past experiences.  At school, I have found myself at times ashamed of sharing the Gospel.  There was one day when a professor spent almost half the class ridiculing Christianity.  His comments were quite hurtful to me yet had the opposite effect on my classmates: he had the entire class roaring with laughter.  Although I really felt like speaking my mind on the issue, I was paralyzed and held back from saying anything.  At that moment, I was ashamed to expose myself as one who really believed these things and, during my prayer, was ashamed that I had been ashamed earlier in the day.

As I look back on the issue, I believe that the cause for my absence of action was a desire for acceptance.  I guess we could also rephrase this with a quote from John Dewey who said, “The deepest urge in human nature is ‘the desire to be important.’” As humans, we are constantly looking from acceptance from others and want others to see us as great or important.  This drive is what makes humans follow the latest fashion styles, purchase the latest smart phone or laptop, and wear a personality or mask when anyone is around (the list is endless).  A lot of the time we stray from who we really are in order to gain approval of others to satisfy that insatiable craving: to be regarded as important. 

Now what’s the difference between Christians who are able to speak freely and confidently about the Lord to the world and Christians who are fearful of such a task? My thinking is that the two types of people draw from different sources for their self-worth; as a result, this source makes their ministry as different as night and day.   

The cost or worth of something is what one is willing to trade or pay for it.  Although it is easily overlooked and taken for granted, Jesus and the cross should be the source of our self-worth.  It says in Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  A ransom is a sum of money demanded or paid for the release of a captive (Oxford Dictionary).  In this particular case, the captives were us and the sum was Jesus’ life.  God traded the life of his Son in exchange for the life of a Christian.  We did not do anything to earn this freedom and he even freed us when we were still his enemies (Romans 5:10). 

The sacrifice of Christ assigns us our value of importance and proves our acceptance from the One who really matters.  If we see our value and view our acceptance in the same light that God sees us, then our lives would look very different: we would be serving God with zeal and confidence. By seeking our affirmation from God instead of humans, we come to see ourselves as people of great worth.  We are important! We are his children! Let’s make a difference!

My Dreams Keep Getting Weirder!

Hey Reader, I hope this entertains you.

Yesterday Had a dream that I moved to an old university called St. Thomas to complete my last year of college.  It had a lot of character and seemed to have a Roman theme going on.  The dream started in a courtyard filled with green shrubs and 4 stone benches that made a square formation there was also a big stone arch behind one of the benches. I sat on the bench by the stone arch, just across from this nice girl in a yellow hoodie who was also majoring in English Literature (my new major); she initiated a conversation with me and began to teach me to play guitar chords using a pillow(I would strum the pillow and form chords on the pillow too).  The chord was Fmaj7 to be exact. Anyway, I realized that class was going to start soon because the courtyard was beginning to fill up with students; in a panic, I stood up and started to walk aimlessly toward a class with an unknown location. I didn't have a clue where my class scheduled.  I backtracked back to where the blonde girl with the yellow hoodie was but she was gone.  

While searching for her, I bumped shoulders with this Asian fellow who I later learned was Chinese.  I showed him the map of campus and he indicated to me that he knew exactly where to take me.  We began our trip from the courtyard to the northwest region of campus where my class was going to take place.  As I followed him, we passed several buildings made of smooth gray stone blocks and laced with ivy. There was a huge grass field located in the center of campus; it was being used for sports such as soccer and lacrosse.  We walked along the boundary of the field that had a huge stone wall beside the sidewalk (sorry I’m not too good at describing what I’m picturing). When we got to the end of the field, we walked up a flight of stairs which brought us level to a busy street with several cars and old buildings. From its appearance, this area of campus felt like London or the old areas of Victoria.  We continued along the path which ran parallel to the side of a huge white house and its backyard.  We stopped along the path by the sycamore tree where several people were gathering.  Apparently, this student’s friends were waiting for him by the tree and in the tree.  His friends were two Chinese girls and another Chinese guy. This guy had an afro on his head and two tiny afros growing out of his cheek bones.  They all started to speak Cantonese and began to laugh at me since I was Chinese yet didn’t understand a word they were saying.

While they were chatting, I noticed something really tall and skinny coming into my peripheral vision: it was my good friend Jon who was walking on stilts. He came over to me and explained that we needed to run an errand.  We built a wooden bed, placed white bed sheets on the mattress then someone loaded a man’s body wrapped in white cloth.  Jon and I began to carry this bed into the house with the big white wall. This house was quite old in the inside; everything in the cottage house was made from cherry-wood and polished really nicely.  I soon learned that the deceased man on the bed on our backs was Martin Luther (weird huh).  We brought him up the first flight of stairs. On this floor, there were two rooms which each contained a wrapped body: Francis of Assisi and Mary (the mother of Jesus).  The two rooms were lined with windows to let light in and contained nothing but the wrapped bodies. 

Since these two places were occupied, we decided to bring the bed up another flight of stairs and set it down in the attic. The attic was well lit and contained a couple of low wooden tables which were lined with low log benches on each side. There were 3 kids in the attic that seemed very pale and lifeless; each child wore a plain white hospital gown.  Two of them were playing alone: one was sitting on her rocking horse and the other was trying  to use his mind to bend a spoon. The last child was setting one of the tables with silverware, tea cups and plates. While he was preparing the table, he spoke to Jon and me and asked: “Would you two like to join us for tea?” I politely declined the invitation as we set down the wrapped up Martin Luther and headed back for the stairs.

Then I woke up! Darn this is weird!

Good Day Space Cows!

Yes, twas a dream.

Here’s a dream that I had last night. I’ve changed the character names to keep them faceless.

1 - I think it was St. Patrick’s Day or at least all my stuff was green.  Everyone was also wearing some sort of green apparel.  My locker was full of green mugs, a green flannel, and a back pack.  Even though this place was carpeted, the room contained benches similar to those in changing rooms, and had a laundry sink.  I’m assuming that it was originally a gym locker room that was transformed into a hallway.  When entering the room via the cafeteria, my locker was located on the left side, third locker in. My friend, Kim, had her locker stationed on the right side two lockers away from that laundry sink (I think that she appeared in this dream because, yesterday, I was having lunch with my grandparents showed them some pictures from my GAP year. Kim was in a few of those pictures).

2 - After everyone had put their belongings in their respective lockers, the scene shifted outside.  The entire class was taken to a really, really beautiful grassy field with a giant sycamore tree located in the center.  The sun was blazing so bright; she should have had our sunglasses on.  Oh, I forgot to say, there was one more person that I was able to distinguish in my dream: Ray (I’m almost sure that he made an appearance because he called me yesterday asking me for a cure for his itchy tongue).  He was roughly the same size as me and the same build too.  The teacher instructed us to choose a partner of the same sex, size and strength; so, naturally I chose to pair up with Ray. We were then told to get into two long lines, one partner on each side, and to line up across each other. Each pair was assigned a number which, when called by the instructor, indicated that the designated pair had to play the game. Kim was also on the field but was located much further down the line. I tried to get her attention but she just looked blankly as if she didn’t see me jumping and waving my arms.

Anyways, Here’s how the game worked (it does not make much sense now that I think about it):  when a number was called, the assigned pair would take three steps back while counting to three; then, on three, they would charge at each other then start wrestling the other to the ground.  Maybe it was some sort of Spartan training plan. I have no idear.  When my number was called, Ray and I got into a very lengthy match that began drawing the attention of the rest of the class. Eventually, the teacher broke us up because we were taking too long and he wanted to give other students a chance to scrap (I don’t really understand why pairs couldn’t fight simultaneously. Maybe the teacher only wanted to deal with one pair just in case someone actually got hurt).  Once our fight was brought to a halt, the scene shifted to a really small yoga class.

3 - The room was very dark and yet one able to see most of it because of the light produced by some tiny torches that were lodged into the walls.  There were yoga mats lined up against the walls: the area for one’s head faced toward the wall while the area for one’s toes faced the center.   By this time, the class really shrunk; the amount of students probably reduced from 50 outside to 10 in this room.  Kim was also in this scene yet she still didn’t realize who I was.  This activity was run by a guy that looked quite evil.  He had these mini horns, lacked a shirt and had the legs of a goat (I’m guessing that this creature was seen in my dream because last night I was reading “The Horse and His Boy;” they just introduced Mr. Tumnus; additionally, I think his evil characteristic came from a recent discussion I had with my mom about spirits). He was also equipped with an insincere grin and was really overweight and sweaty.  The game that we played also did not make much sense to me. Here’s how it was played. Everyone was lined up standing with their heels against the base of their respective yoga mats. When the faun shouted, we’d all fall with our backs onto the mats. While lying down, he would yell out something else and we all had to, in one swift motion, shift our bodies in such a way that we were still kind of lying down but it would prepare us to jump back up (it’s hard to imagine but I know you can do it!).  It was really hard to keep this position yet we were told to hold it while the faun’s minions placed screen doors on us (I have no idea as to what the purpose was but I was playing this game a couple of days ago, called “Plants vs. Zombies,” and one type of zombie walks with a screen door in front of him).  After every student received their own screen, the teacher would yell once more and we had to lunge ourselves back to the starting position.  Most students weren’t able to bring themselves back to the standing position so that teacher gave up and told us that he was ending class.

1 – We returned back to the original hallway, with the lockers and the carpeted floor, yet this time it was populated by a younger grade.  Kim and her friends were still at their lockers yet they soon left to go outside.  As they were heading out, I told myself to go and say hi but I was paralyzed by fear. Since she did not acknowledge me in the first two classes, I assumed one of two things: that she didn’t actually know me or that she was actually mad at me.  I sat on one of the benches in that locker room and waited until everyone cleared out.

 Then I woke up. Gah!