Am I There Yet?

Recent events have led to the necessity for me to hermitise, so I am going away for about 2 weeks. Many people do not realise how much I need to withdraw, especially in a time such as now. It is vital for me to just be in complete solitude and isolation just to recharge, much less process through things. I have had such a racket in my head the last 4-5 days, and cannot even think a thought through. (That also explains why my posts in the last week do not really seem to make a point. At least not to me...)

I have been working on the details of my going away for the last 2 days, and I have to say, I am tired already! It looks like I will most likely leave on Wednesday, so I have only tomorrow left to get everything squared away... both for the trip and for here. Please pray for strength for me, and peace. I know I will meet God in my time alone -- that is one of my goals. I need Him to clear up all the mess in my head so that I can focus on His purpose for me again. Until this racket and fog go away, I am of no use to anyone and I cannot solve any problems, especially my own.

SWEET!

Ferrari Previews the GT Roller Coaster

Faith

This simple yet power-packed statement ended Todd's sermon this morning:

"Faith is increased... strengthened... purified in the crucible."

For all of you who skipped Chemistry lab, the crucible is a little bowl (usually porcelain) which gets heated up directly by the Bunsen burner flame. It gets super hot, usually melting and calcining a substance inside of it that requires a high degree of heat. In layman's terms, it purifies by burning the heck (or crap) out of what is in it.

From personal experience, I can testify to the truth of that statement. It has always been uncomfortable, sometimes painful, even agonising. Yet the end product is so much better and sometimes even beautiful. It is kind of like having a baby -- the pregnancy is uncomfortable, the labour pains are agonising but in the end, you are usually holding a beautiful (and hopefully healthy) baby. And you hold on to that beautiful moment for the next couple of years, enduring all the diaper changes and unearthly-hour feedings. Then you hold on to "I love you, Daddy/Mommy!" and the ice-melting smiles which carry you through all the headaches and heartaches your child brings for the rest of your life. (At least so I have heard...)

So why is faith so important, so vital to life? Because FAITH is HOPE. What kind of life could one hope have without faith? Without faith, what kind of hope could one even have?

It is faith, specifically faith in God, that is carrying me through my current fire. No one likes being in the fire and I am no different. However, I am trying to keep my eye on the end goal -- becoming more like Jesus. God, in His love, will not leave me (or you) in my(your) imperfect and sinful state. He intervenes with trials, looking for us to turn to Him as He burns up the impurities within us.

God is purifying the Christ-likeness within me by burning the crap out of me.

Lord, increase my faith!

Interesting Report On Retirement

Hey, I'm not in the doom and gloom business here. Just sharing my opinions on what is being reported out there. Retirement is part of life too. The article title "$1 Million Doesn't Cut It For Retirement" is self-explanatory. What is interesting is the recommendation from people they polled, who are (and rightly should be) financial number-crunchers.

Gist of their advice: save at least $2 million for retirement.
Real-life Translation: Make more money.

"I'm already doing all that I can!" -- Dude, there is a better way than picking up jobs #2,#3 and #4. Read my previous post.

"I've never been a big fan of planning to earn less in retirement than you are making now... I'd like to see an individual continue making the same amount of retirement as when he was working."

~Bill Smith
President of Ohio-based Great Lakes Retirement Group

Now forgive me if I blow your mind with this last statement.

How about making increasingly more in retirement than when working?

We Have Been Sold A Lie - Part 1

Courtesy of Yahoo News:

"For the past 40 or 50 years, Americans have lived by a series of unofficial tenets: A good education guarantees a good job, hard work will bring prosperity, and 40 years of 40-hour-a-week work earns a comfortable retirement. Then, maybe; now, not so much. Workers who believe that somebody owes them a comfortable life just because they try hard are risking bitter disappointment in a Darwinian economy, where there are likely to be more losers and fewer winners than we're used to. The winners will be those who learn how to adapt, expect nobody to give them anything, and are prepared to work harder in the future than they did in the past. That's how it was in America before anybody ever heard of the middle class, and it may be that way for a while again. The real middle class--the true bedrock of the nation--will be able to handle it."

Friends, this is what folks in my industry have always known. We have been proclaiming the truth for years about this lie (get a good education so that you can get a good job, work 40 hours a week for 40 years and you'll be set) and yet few people actually listen. Of the ones who do, even fewer of them are actually willing to do something about it. Of those who are, they are the winners. Of those winners, those who persevere become the top 2% of income earners.

"The first 40 hours (a week) you work, you work for a living. The next 40 hours (the same week) you work, you work for a lifestyle."

~Anonymous

Of course, you probably have to work 50-60 hours a week now to maintain your standard of living. Indeed many are worried about their falling income, rising costs, and reduced financial safety net (though their ultimate safety net should be dependence on God and not something tangible anyway). The question is: what are you willing to do about it?

We meet so many who have big mouths to complain, yet when push comes to shove, they scurry away either because of fear of ridicule/embarrassment/other people's unqualified opinions or they think they know better. Personally, I rather take financial advice from someone qualified to give it -- someone who is actually retired and still making money, more than they did when they were working; not the financial advisors who are still working to earn 5- or 6-figures each year, not Grandma or Uncle Bob, not the broke guy in the cubicle down the row, and most certainly not the bathroom wall of the 21st Century, the Internet. (Honestly folks, I could take a picture of your good-looking significant other and paste it on the Internet with my own opinion. Does that make it true?)

Listen, in the end, only you (not the politicians or government) are responsible for taking care of your family. If I can show you a legal and ethical way to replace or add to your income in a quarter of the time, and that income will continue for the rest of your life PLUS it is will-able for up to 4 generations, would you really do something for your family?

Looking Forward To This

One of the bloggers I read posted this. I am really looking forward to reading the publication, whenever it happens. (Now, if I can just remember when it does!)

I wish the book were in existence now. Life as we know it is full of broken people and brokenness. Life is also full of fog -- we go about most of our everyday life on auto-pilot and miss out on so many little details. Much of those details involved God somehow. I know I have missed numerous inches of (playing) snow because I was too bogged down with "responsibilities", or missed the chance to brighten someone's day with a smile because I was too focused on my own thing in my own little world. Most of all, because we are not God-aware enough and not transformed enough by the gospel, we are too self-focused and selfish to care about others, and that can lead to so much brokenness and pain in both persons.

I would anticipate this book opening our eyes to the bigger picture so that we might see just a little more of what God sees, be more aware of Him, and have our lives radically transformed (more) by the gospel. We have heard the analogies -- God is the maestro, we are the orchestra... God is the weaver and we are the tapestry... God is the driver and we are the car... etc. How about just this: God is the teacher and we are the students? My mom always said, "The test is not to reveal the student to the teacher, but to reveal the student to the student."

"When you fail, and you will... fail forward."

~Anonymous

Dead or alive...

Oh dear! Government of the living dead? The same one professing to take care of the living?

Do you trust me?

I had a brief chat with an old friend tonight. He has always been a big brother to me and so full of wisdom (and other things!). In the course of our chat, he said, "Trust is vital." Indeed it is. No relationship can function without it. No friendship can continue and grow without it.

So here I am, trusting in the infallible and unchangeable characteristics of God, yet not fully trusting Him. I believe that nothing is impossible for Him. I know in my head and heart that Jesus came to give us new hearts. With new hearts, we become new creations and our lives transform as a result. However, I am having difficulty in accepting that it could happen at some future time in one particular case.

Am I wrestling with the roots of bitterness, perhaps hoping that God will withhold His transforming power from this individual and have this person punished on my behalf?

Or perhaps I am just being willfully disobedient to God because I do not want to trust Him on this one?

Truth be told, I am afraid to trust God on this one.

BA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

This is hysterical!! You go, Warren Buffet!!

I needed the laugh -- Thanks!

Being schooled in God

Tonight is the night of multiple posts. Reading Jared Wilson's post today was an encouragement to me. I wholly agree with his statement of "I think that when a believer feels forsaken by God he is on some cusp of Christlikeness he could not broach otherwise."

Even from an early age, I was always the kid who had to learn the hard and painful way. Thankfully, it moulded me and I turned out a lot better... (I might have turned out a lot more like my mom than I like though!) I think God uses the same method to mould us into the likeness of His Son, the only one with whom He is pleased.

I have been on that cusp before. More than once... I firmly believe that God really had to bring me to my rope's end to finally grasp more of who He is. It is never about the "why" or even the "what (is He trying to teach me?!)". I think it is always about the "Who" -- Who is God?

Parliamentary Rule... in the USA??

Courtesy of MSNBC:

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer declined to say Wednesday if Democrats have enough votes to pass historic health care legislation, but hinted that they're poised to use an arcane parliamentary process to get it done.

"I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what the procedural rules are in the House or Senate. What I can tell you is that the vote that's taken in the House will be a vote for health care reform," Obama said in an interview with Fox News. "If people vote yes, whatever form that takes, that is going to be a vote for health care reform," he said in an excerpt of the interview to be aired later Wednesday evening. "And I don't think we should pretend otherwise."

Whoa.

First of all, they are going to use a form of government that the Founding Fathers rejected 200+ years ago?? Parliamentary rule in 2010 America -- home of the free??

Secondly, the President said "If people [i.e. the members of the House of Representatives] vote yes"; the President did not say "If the [American] people vote yes".

Mr. President, there are many of us against the passing of the bill in its current form -- are you really listening to the people? Majority of the House of Representatives either sure aren't listening or they are listening with re-election ears. I applaud the ones who are standing firm against passing the bill in its current form. Do you really think that the bill in its current is going to be good for the people, for your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Why are you guys trying to ram this through without thinking it through?

My mother taught me that in doing anything to do it right the first time. The only thing that should be passed at this time is the law against denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. All the other things need to be more carefully examined before making into law.

The New Body Scanners

Let's get right to the point. The new body scanners installed in Chicago O'Hare is not the latest body scanning technology. There is another technology that has been developed that is nowhere as invasive of privacy as these. These current scanners give graphic images regardless of the hogwash officials are spewing, and privacy rights groups are right to protest the use of them. Good grief, we might as well take off our clothes and have our physicals while walking through them!

The alternative: Scanning technology which uses thermal imaging. It images the body heat radiated and can pick up anything that blocks it. The image looks more like a thermal scan (kind of like how Predator views the humans) than an actual graphic image.

Folks, if we really have to have body scanners, the thermal imaging is a much better way to go. Besides, from a scientific point of view, I'd rather be subject to thermal scanning than being constantly bombarded with x-rays (increased risk of cancer, anyone?). But in the words of one of the founding fathers,

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety."

~Benjamin Franklin

Inspiration

Wow. And again I say WOW.

Do you know the God he knows?

The Journey

Life is a journey. As with any journey, there are periods of adventure and discovery, often in times of sunshine and laughter. Did you also know there are periods of discovery in times of storms? When you are assailed from every direction with nothing to take shelter under?

I am going through a period of deep struggle. The last time I remember feeling this low was while in graduate school. Back then, things were so dark and so bleak that there was no hint of deliverance from the storm. No, I was not going to take my life! Things were just so bad that I was a hair's breadth from abandoning my faith. I had almost decided that I had never received salvation at all (since I do not believe that salvation can be lost), and that my decade-old Christian walk was a complete farce up to that point. I stood at that crossroads and had a decision to make. Out of that 2-year storm came the resolute and absolute belief that my God is real, my salvation is real, and that I will never, ever consider abandoning my faith again.

This storm is different, but still a period of deep struggle. I am not in any danger of abandoning my faith or my faith in God. I can trust that He is good, that He works in all things, and that He works in all things.

I do not know when this storm will be over, but I know it will be one day. It could be 9 months, it could be 3 years... Only God knows. I do not know what the outcome will be. Only God knows. I do not know what (else) will happen during this storm. Only God knows. I do not know what discovery I will make in this storm. Only God knows.

What I do know is God is my Anchor, my Rock. He is my beacon of light in the darkest storm. He will not abandon me, nor will I He. I know that this storm too will pass.

Health Care Reform

This is one of the most divisive topics I am coming across in conversations with people. I support some of the proposed measures, but not all. Here are my thoughts on them:

1. C'mon folks, if the government can't even balance its own budget, what makes you think it can run health care?? They can't even run the country half as efficiently as a CEO runs a company!
2. Nothing in the proposed health care reform mentions anything about cutting the cost of health care -- isn't that the primary reason why so many are without health coverage?
   
3. For those are us who have lived outside of the US and have seen government health care as part of life, none of us want to see it here. Let me just ask you this: why do you think the Canadians and other international citizens come to America for health care? They may have less expensive prescriptions at home, but they come here for health care!
4. Here's a great example of government health care functioning in America -- the Veterans Affairs Hospitals. Most of the veterans I know go to the VA for their prescriptions and tests and stuff, but they go to their own doctors for care. Why do you think that is?
   
5. I agree that insurance companies should not deny coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions. I also feel that higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions is justifiable. Afterall, it is a good incentive for people to take responsibility for their health.
   
6. Being pro-life myself, I absolutely will not allow my money to pay for someone's abortion(s). I am against including abortions as part of health coverage. If someone wants to have an abortion, they can pay for it out of their own pockets. This also means that I do not think having a taxpayer-subsidised insurance company should allow for abortion coverage, whether it is a separate optional coverage or not. That being said, I am alright with abortions being declared a FSA-eligible item (FSA=Flex Spending Accounts).
7. The government insists that every American have health coverage -- I'd like to see that happen. The government will fine every American who doesn't -- if you could only afford crappy health insurance, which is sometimes just as good as no insurance, should you flush away money every month just to avoid paying the fine? Oh, and why should members of the government be exempt from these same programmes required of Americans?
8. One of the goals for the reform is to reward doctors for keeping patients healthy and not just treating them when they are sick. I'm sorry but "it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." (For the record, you will find those exact words in the Bible. Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31 [NIV].) Duh! The responsibility of your health lies solely on yourself! Science has already shown us that healthy lifestyles ward off many chronic diseases. It's up to each person to put it into practice!
   

Last but not least, this concluding thought is not just about the health care reform debate. It's about how much do we really want the government in our lives. For people who want all these programmes by the government, you believe that you are entitled to something, and I have this to say to you: You are not owed anything and do not deserve to have anything handed to you on a silver platter. If you want what you want, then go out and work 3 jobs to pay for what you want.

Now, back to what I was saying, if we want the government to have all these programmes, where do you think the money comes from? There are only 2 ways for the government to pay for programmes:

1. Raise taxes -- With the exception of one country, all the other countries with government health care have taxes of more than 50% (some up to 85%) of a person's income.
   
2. Print more money -- In other words, deflate the value of the currency, which means everything will cost MUCH more.

Are you still crying for the government to take care of you? Time to wake up and grow up -- that's your own responsibility.

Daylight Savings Time Sunday

It's that time of year again when many miss church services and Sunday School classes all over the country because they forgot to set their clocks one hour ahead. Thankfully, my alarm clock is my cell phone -- it automatically updates date and time. Still, waking up early is brutal for a night owl, and it is especially excruciating on DST Sunday. Top that off with serving at the recording soundboard, which means that I'm supposed to be at church by 8.10am... Ai yai yai!!

For the record, I made it to the soundboard before 8.20am...

Louder Than Words

How do you know when someone means what they say? I believe there is only one thing that proves it: their actions back up their words.

One does not have to say anything. One simply does (or does not).

I care not for empty words. In fact, I do not care much for spoken words at all. Actions speak so loud that words are unnecessary.

Life Song

It is a dreary day out. I am tired and pensive -- good moment for some tea and writing.

"Life is a song to be sung."

Those words reverberated within me when I heard them in a short play this afternoon. My own life song has been filled with loss, loneliness, disappointments, betrayals, struggles, periods of deep sadness and grief, and lots of tears. But it has also been punctuated with joy and laughter, fun, happy times, relief, and gratitude. Together, they will make quite a masterpiece by the end of my life. Kind of like Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 (aka. Sonata Pathétique) -- one of my many favourite pieces of music.

At the moment, my life song matches the dark and wet weather outside. Due to recent events, my emotions have been fluctuating between P.O.D.'s Satellite album and Mozart's Requiem Mass in D Minor. Friends, I am not at liberty to disclose what is happening, but I really would appreciate your prayers for wisdom. I want to get back onto the happy movement of my life symphony, and I know it is all in God's timing. He is writing the score of my life and He will determine when it is time for the next step, whatever it is.

Ethics

I remember a story told by John C. Maxwell, the world's foremost leadership teacher. He was once asked to write a book on business ethics. To which he replied, "I can't write [a book on business ethics]..." When asked why not, John stated, "There is no such thing as business ethics. You either have ethics or you don't."

John's statement pretty much sums it all up.

By the way, I am happy to learn about Rick Green's run for Texas Supreme Court. He is a stand-up man with integrity, persistence, and a very good head on his shoulders. He has a great passion for the history of this country, and even greater passion for passing it on to future generations. His children can quote The Declaration of Independence from memory -- I was there at the business conference where the following video was recorded.

Any time some person of excellence sticks their head above the crowd or does something the crowd doesn't, he is bound to get tomatoes in the face. Clint Eastwood, Albert Einstein, even Mother Theresa! So in spite of the nasty stuff that is coming, go for it Rick!

Something to enjoy

I was wondering which thought I wanted to post tonight until I saw this. These guys created an awesome video!

What an honour!

I became acquainted with a great man today. Mr. B is a soft-spoken, gentle man born in the early-/mid-1920s. He obviously grew up in the Great Depression. When he graduated from high school, he served in World War II fighting the war in Europe. He told me that they waited in Ireland and England until the invasion -- he was involved in the invasion at Omaha Beach. From there, he eventually moved on into Germany. After his return, he met and married his bride of now 50 years. He has also served in a school district for a decade or two. He is actively involved in the lives of his descendants spanning 4 generations.

Folks, if you ever have the honour of meeting someone from that great generation, make sure you at least shake their hand if you can't spend the time to hear their stories. That great generation is fast disappearing and it will be a loss for society if we don't take some time to learn from their lives. I have the utmost respect for them -- how they have lived, what they have done, and just the class of their distinguished lives. It is a tremendous honour to meet a WWII veteran -- it is by their blood and the blood of their fallen comrades that set the world free from tyranny. Their sacrifice have enabled generations to grow up in a much difference world. Do not take it for granted -- freedom is never free.

To all military veterans of all ages: Thank you! **Salute**

To College Or Not To College

I'd love to add the video here, but I can't. Probably because of copyright issues and I don't pay advertising... Still you can access the video and the full article here.

One of the things I struggle with -- Part 2

So along similar lines as my previous post, I continue to struggle with The Right Thing To Do vs. How To Do It in the sensitive subject of abortion. My personal beliefs cannot and do not condone abortion or even certain methods of birth control, yet when it comes to legislating abortion, I do not know if that is the right way to go about it. Regardless of your right to choice or right to life, should the Government be the one deciding what is acceptable and laying it down as law? Can and should the Government have the power to tell you what to do or what not to do? Does and should the Government have the right to do that?

I have been struggling with this for many years. I am unashamed and unabashedly pro-life. I believe in the sanctity of life. Whether you take the life of a person with a knife/gun/bare hands/car/etc. or you take the life of a fertilised cluster of dividing cells, it is still the taking of a life. (And there is always a price to pay.) Yet should these beliefs be forced upon someone else who has less of a conviction in the sanctity of life?

Let's flip it around. What if the government mandates abortion, making it "mainstream"? Oh wait, we know a country that does that... but let's imagine that happened here in America. How would pro-lifers as "rebels" feel and what would we do?

My struggle ultimately comes back to the issue of government -- to what extent do we allow its power to dictate our life? As I quoted an excerpt from The Declaration of Independence in my previous post, life and freedom are unalienable rights. So I leave you with the following quotes to think about:

John Adams

Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Second President of the United States

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

(Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798.)

John Quincy Adams
Sixth President of the United States

There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.

(Source: John Quincy Adams, Letters of John Quincy Adams to His Son on the Bible and Its Teachings (Auburn: James M. Alden, 1850), pp. 22-23.)

Oliver Ellsworth

Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court

[T]he primary objects of government are the peace, order, and prosperity of society. . . . To the promotion of these objects, particularly in a republican government, good morals are essential. Institutions for the promotion of good morals are therefore objects of legislative provision and support: and among these . . . religious institutions are eminently useful and important. . . . [T]he legislature, charged with the great interests of the community, may, and ought to countenance, aid and protect religious institutions—institutions wisely calculated to direct men to the performance of all the duties arising from their connection with each other, and to prevent or repress those evils which flow from unrestrained passion.

(Source: Connecticut Courant, June 7, 1802, p. 3, Oliver Ellsworth, to the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut)

James Wilson

Signer of the Constitution

Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law, as discovered by reason and the moral sense, forms an essential part of both.

(Source: James Wilson, The Works of the Honourable James Wilson (Philadelphia: Bronson and Chauncey, 1804), Vol. I, p. 106.)

Robert Winthrop

Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives

Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.

(Source: Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172 from his "Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.")

Disclaimer: I did copy those quotes from a great organisation called Wallbuilders.

Ps. As uncomfortable as I am with government legislating moral values, I have to give my support towards sustaining a moral society. Separation of Church and State was for the protection of the Church from the influence of the State, not vice versa.

One of the things I struggle with -- Part 1

Tonight, I read about the lone senator who is "single-handedly blocking more than a million Americans from receiving unemployment and COBRA health insurance benefits... when their benefits funded under the 2009 stimulus law run out [today]." (Quoted from my oh-so-solid source of Yahoo News...) Before you go ahead and condemn him for such a dastardly act, realise that the source of his reluctance to comply has to do with the funding of such programmes -- his concern is from where the money is coming. Whether it be budget-cuts elsewhere or increased taxes or whatever other creative suggestions people may come up with, someone has to pay for it so it is really a question of fiscal responsibility. You cannot promise (money) when you don't have (money to give).

So my struggle is: I understand where this courageous senator is coming from and I applaud the sane thinking he demonstrates, yet is it the right thing to do in the face of mass struggle? How do you decide something like that? And how do you support the intention without supporting the means if they do not agree?

To use another example of something remotely similar, allow me to "pen" my thoughts on the subject of gay rights. The following words are penned in The Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

(On a tangent, take note that it does state "the pursuit of happiness", not "the right to happiness"...)

That being said, I believe that regardless of one's sexual preference or beliefs of it, every person is a human being and is entitled to certain rights. Even though my personal belief does not condone the homosexual lifestyle, I still believe that homosexuals should not be treated as second-class citizens. Yet how do I support gay rights without appearing to condone the lifestyle?