How Hard It Really Is To Talk Faith.

J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain, Skeptical Christian

For once I’d like to hear, “I know how hard it is to talk about Jesus. It’s the most awkward conversation you’ll ever have. If you even say the whole Gospel out loud right now, it sounds like the craziest thing you’ve ever heard. But the Gospel isn’t some ‘speech’ you unload on people and then ‘leave it in God’s hands.’ Blasting people with theology is like serving icing for dessert. Evangelism is your whole life, it’s sharing your home, it’s enduring patiently, it’s being a human being, it’s availability, it’s sharing Jesus through who you are; not perfectly, but passionately. Yes, invite them to church and to that revival and talk about your faith and your testimony, but once you dare to go there, just know you might be rejected immediately, a lot, and aggressively. Except secretly they can’t deny there must be something to it, because you’re not…

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Grundtvig

I came here. I read in this fair woman’s eyes, and what were all the world’s books against that?

– N. F. S. Grundtvig (1782-1873)

What we can tell reflect what we know.

“We can know more than we can tell.”

– Michael Polanyi

Here I am again with my compendium. It’s module 2 now, the first reading, part 1 of the first reading to be exact. And I came across this sentence, “we can know more than we can tell”. Oh darn! I could not help it to write it here. My mind went explode when I read his sentence. I tried to be patient and finished reading the entire reading material but could. not. help. it. anymore.

7 Thoughts On Singleness: Is Something Wrong With Me?

While you were hoping….

J.S. Park: Hospital Chaplain, Skeptical Christian

Anonymous asked a question:

I’m 27 years old and I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve only dated once but that didn’t go so well. I’ve prayed and I’ve prayed and I’ve asked God for my significant other but honestly sometimes I feel as if God doesn’t hear me. Which then causes my heart turmoil especially when I see other girls getting married and dating all the time. It just makes me feel like there is something wrong with me or I maybe I’m unworthy of someone else. I just really need some peace in this area or my life.

Hey dear sister, I know this is an especially painful season for you right now, but please allow me the grace to share a few thoughts with you.

1) Singleness is not a season of waiting.

I’ve said this before, but: You’re not waiting for a man.  A man is not…

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Human Capitalism

“The man without skills and knowledge leaning terrifically against nothing.”

– Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.

I’ve just finished reading one of the reading materials for tomorrow’s lecture. I have been stuck with one of the readings that I jumped to this one. Interesting, I must say.

There’s a real tension of capitalism, where they use human as its tool to gain wealth, with humanism, where they refuse to see human as commodities. We have to admit this is happening. I have seen more than enough on how work labors have been “used” as a mean of capitalism. Massive working hour, low paycheck, no health insurance, etc are just to few somee. But, I also have to admit that without human capitalism, humanism would be just utopia. People will not upgrade themselves to get a better living. I guess human is a commodity after all. But remember, human has something that material does not have, rights. And as long as people still see human as in human commodity, with human rights, and not material commodity, everything should be just fine.

Treasures for a woman’s heart

Ladies out there… what do you treasure the most?

hmmm… if I am to answer that question few months back, the options would be…

1. My BRAIN, though I am not a Berkeley graduate, but I am not a dumb dumb blonde girl… at the very least I know how to tab my own bill.
2. My BEAUTY, I always say I am beautiful. Then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
3. My BEHAVIOUR, I can be cool and collected even when I am about to explode. I use kind gestures, encouraging expressions, and positive words to most people around me. I know my way around people. I read Malcolm Gladwell’s books.

But right now, I tell you, I treasure something rather different. And it’s totally true what they said, where your treasure is, your heart is.

5 cm

It all started on New Year’s Eve. I was writing my blog,  Vallaura Awards. I was shocked to know that I did not read a lot of books in 2011. So much for a person who claim to be a bookworm. So, I got some gears and started reading again. 5 cm was the first book I finished in this 2012.

It’s an Indonesian book and I borrowed it from my friend. I found the book not really have that wow factor but it was not a disappointment as well. It was about 5 friends who like to hang around until they decided to have 3-month break of seeing each other. And after the 3-month period they set a time to meet and go for Mahameru trip (Mahameru is a name of the tallest mountain in Java, Indonesia). The Mahameru trip was described interestingly vivid. So, it was a good part of the book. But that’s all.

The writer also spiced up with his thoughts through out the pages, as if he was reading with us. Some of the spices, I admit, keep us going for the sake of curiosity. while the 5 cm philosophy, it’s a bout dreaming. In essence, if you have a dream, hang it 5 cm before your forehead, so you will always see it and determine to pursue that dream until you make it happen. A good one.

Here I quote original writing from the book, it’s in Bahasa Indonesia (but have similar meaning with what I’ve told you before).

When God Seems Distant

The LORD has hidden himself from his people,

but I trust him and place my hope in him.

Isaiah 8:17 (TEV) –

God is real,no matter how you feel.

It is easy to worship God when things are going great in your life-when he has provided food, friends, family, health, and happy situations. But circumstances are not always pleasant. How do you worship God then? What do you do when God seems a million miles away?

Paradise

I bless thee, Lord, because I GROW
Among thy trees, which in a ROW
To thee both fruit and order OW

What open force, or hidden CHARM
Can blast my fruit, or bring me HARM,
While the enclosure is thine ARM?

Enclose me still for fear I START,
But to me rather sharp and TART,
Then let me want thy hand and ART.

When thou dost greater judgments SPARE,
And with thy knife but prune and PARE,
Ev’n fruitful tress more fruitful ARE.

Such sharpness shows the sweetest FRIEND,
Such cuttings rather heal than REND,
And such beginnings touch their END.

another piece by G. Herbert. Genius.

ALTAR

A Broken A L T AR, Lord thy servant rears,
Made of heart, and cemented with tears:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman’s tool hath touched the same.

A heart alone
Is such a stone
As nothing but
Thy power doth cut
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame
To praise thy name

That if I chance to hold my peace
These stones to praise thee may not cease.
Oh let thy blessed sacrifice be mine,
And sanctify this A L T A R to be thine.

The Temple-George Herbert