tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74176432024-03-13T18:10:03.584-06:00The Clandestine EnigmaWe begin on this trek of public discourse with both parties—you the reader, and I the author—entering and interacting voluntarily. I offer no disclaimer, no limitation of liability and no promise for your money back. Let's begin.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-17004835902909586432011-07-14T07:31:00.002-06:002011-07-14T07:31:52.671-06:00Isaiah the Astronomer?Either Isaiah was an inspired prophet or he was an excellent astronomer. 2700 years ago, he stated that the moon was 1/7 as bright as the sun (cf Is. 30:26). Current measurements of the moon's reflectivity (albedo) match this claim to within 5% accuracy. Pretty cool :). Can't claim that this was written later & injected into the Bible, since the oldest copies of the book of Isaiah are dated 600 years BC. Pretty friggin cool, if you ask me.<br />
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Check Albedo information here:<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo</a><br />
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and the moon's characteristics here:<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon</a><br />
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And compare to Isaiah's prophecy:<br />
<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isa+30%3A26&version=NASB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isa%2030:26&version=NASB</a>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-47649786730290394702010-06-01T19:34:00.000-06:002010-06-01T19:34:49.620-06:00Dirty Faith<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<span xmlns="">I recently read through the book of Leviticus as part of my regular Bible reading. For those of you who aren't totally familiar with what this book discusses, let's just summarise it as a list of regulations and stipulations for holy and proper Jewish living. Often times, people complain about its content, wondering what level of worth this "book of the Law" has for contemporary Christianity—seeing as Christ's death and resurrection supersedes the Mosaic Law and imposes a new manner for creating community with God. Usually I read the book with the notion in the back of my head that its purpose is to remind me of the old ways, under which I don't have to submit—to reflect, instead, upon the freedom and grace that I have, having been saved by Jesus. But not this time... something <i>else</i> grabbed my attention.<br />
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<span xmlns="">If you ever get a chance, read through<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lev%2015"> Leviticus chapter 15</a>. Kind of weird, eh? This section spells out laws about cleanness and societal propriety with respect to bodily discharges. "What," you may ask, "grabbed your attention so much in this section of the Law?" Well, if you'd like to know, it was the portion on women & bleeding at the end—<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=lev%2015:25-30&version=NASB">verses 25-30</a>. Immediately after reading that passage, my mind turned to the New Testament woman who was healed by Jesus from her persistent problem... and then I got to wondering about the context of this story and to the way Jesus reacted in this situation.<br />
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<span xmlns="">You see, according to the Mosaic Law, this woman was unclean. She was restricted from coming within a certain distance of other individuals—so much so that, in her state, anything that she touched would also be considered unclean. Those who, in turn, touched anything unclean would themselves become unclean until the end of the day—when they had to ceremonially cleanse themselves with a water bath. Now bear this in mind as we progress: whomever and whatever this unclean woman touches will become "tainted" by her uncleanness and would be required to separate themselves from society until evening, when they had to wash themselves and their clothes before returning to a "clean" state. <br />
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<span xmlns="">Read that last sentence again. Now read the story of the bleeding woman in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%205:21-34&version=NIV">Mark 5:21-34</a>. Notice what was going on? A large, tightly-packed crowd was swarming around Jesus. This unclean woman pushes her way in, through the throng to the centre where Jesus was... and she touches the fringe of His cloak. Do you notice what's just happened? This unclean woman has effectively made the entire crowd surrounding Jesus ceremonially unclean. They all are compelled, by Jewish Law, to cleanse their clothes and themselves with water, and they're required to isolate themselves from other people until evening. That includes Jesus. And even after the woman herself is healed from the affliction, she's to be considered unclean for another <i>seven days</i>. Now, let's not forget where Jesus was going when this all happened: He was implored to visit the house of Jairus, a synagogue official, in order to heal his dying daughter.<br />
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<span xmlns="">So, let's assess the situation. Jesus, a teacher and moderately well-known public figure, is on his way to a synagogue ruler's house. If anybody knew about the implications of uncleanness in everyday Jewish society, it was a synagogue ruler (of course, Jesus notwithstanding). All of the sudden, an unclean woman comes up & touches the man who was on his way to this ruler's house. Because of this seemingly small action, Jewish Law declares both the dying daughter's healer & the dying daughter's father as unclean. That means there's <i>no way</i> they should be getting anywhere <i>near</i> the sickly child. <br />
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<span xmlns="">One must wonder what was going through Jairus' mind as this happened. He must have been altogether mortified, furious and distraught. Mortified because he had just become unclean owing to no fault of his own & would therefore need to be cut off from his family for the rest of the day. Furious because the woman who made him unclean gave him no warning—like she was <i>supposed</i> to—all because she wanted to sneak up to Jesus and "snag" some of His healing power for herself. Distraught because now, not only would he be technically forbidden from touching his dying daughter, but so would her potential healer until nightfall, owing to the purity laws. Jairus' daughter was now, therefore, facing a condemnation of death because this inconsiderate, impure woman decided that her needs were more important than others'—that she would inconvenience and taint whoever got in the way of her getting what she wanted.<br />
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<span xmlns="">But is that how the story goes?<br />
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<span xmlns="">Interestingly, we see a very different picture unfold. No mention of Jairus' reaction is made in any of the Gospels, and Jesus—being a teacher of the Law Himself—doesn't even bring up the fact that he, she and the whole crowd around them were all now unclean. He doesn't condemn the woman at all. He, instead, praises her for her faith.<br />
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<span xmlns="">There's got to be a handful of lessons that we can draw from this story about this woman's actions, her faith & Jesus' response to it (note well that Jesus proceeds to Jairus' house right after this and touches the dying child in His "unclean" state). What does this story tell us about the importance of faith vs. "obedience," or about means justifying the ends? What does this tell us about ourselves and our own interactions with Jesus? What are the deeper implications of Jesus' response to the woman's actions—namely, when He tells her to "Go in peace"?<br />
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<span xmlns="">Usually, I would do my best to spell out my own opinion on the aforementioned passages of Scripture and formulate a reasonably convincing position as to why I believe what I believe in light of the scriptural implications... but this time, I want to do something different. <br />
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<span xmlns="">I want to hear what <i>you</i> have to say about this New Testament story. I want a discussion on these things.<br />
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<span xmlns="">Will you bite?<br />
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<span xmlns=""></span>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-24697188419689632992010-04-05T15:15:00.003-06:002010-04-05T15:18:27.504-06:00Hope beyond hope: why, as a Christian, I’m either an idiot or savedEternal life. <br />
Re-incarnation. <br />
Heaven / paradise. <br />
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Life after death in any of its forms is a common theme throughout humankind’s global heritage. It seems to be a universal notion that these 80 or so-odd years are not the end of our existence; that there is something else afterward. Why? Well, maybe it’s true. Can we prove it? ...Can we disprove it? It’s pretty hard to devise a conclusive experiment which could test these divergent outcomes, and if it were even possible, our current understandings of life and of spirit are far too meagre even to begin seriously devising such processes.<br />
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How does one secure another life? Many religions believe that nothing needs to be done in order for one to pass from this existence to the next. In fact, the majority of belief systems that come to mind seem to stress that the purpose of activity in this life is directed not toward ensuring continuance, but toward improving the quality of our next phase in existence. The better a Buddhist you are in this life affords a stronger foundation to build upon in the next life, which progress one towards reaching nirvana. The better a Hindu in this life, the higher up the castes you will return as in the next one. The better a Mormon, the better chances you’ll get to be in Heaven instead of just living for eternity on the New Earth. Same with JW’s. Similar with Muslims and Jews. It’s all about merit. Then there’s Christianity. It also is about merit, but with a twist: Christianity teaches that a person can borrow someone else’s meritous deeds to replace one’s own for the purpose of determining one’s quality of existence in the next life. And herein lies the dilemma.<br />
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Every major religion in the world that I can think of tells me that my next life will depend largely on what I do in this one. How good I act or how righteous I live in this life is essential. Christianity teaches very much the same thing, except that the Bible tells us that <i>no level of good deeds will ever be enough</i> to counterbalance the amount of evil that we undertake in our lives, according to God’s standard (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rom%203:10,23&version=NASB">Rom 3:10,23</a>). Even if we were to only ever to “good” things in every waking second of our lives, the level of “goodness” that we accomplish, the Bible tells us, is about as valuable as filthy rags in comparison to God’s requirements for humankind (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+64:6&version=Niv">Isaiah 64:6</a>). If this is the case, where is the hope of salvation in Christianity? Every person should be (and is) doomed to hell, based on this unattainable goal God places against each and every person. <br />
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God, however, provides a loop-hole for us to squeeze out of this predicament. He allows anyone who chooses to substitute their own efforts toward attaining righteousness for the actions & deeds of Jesus Christ, who essentially (and literally) is God Himself (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Rom%206:23&version=NASB" target="_blank">Rom 6:23</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202:6-11&version=NIV">Phil 2:6-11</a>). Since God sets the standard which determines who is good enough, it follows naturally that when God declares Himself as “good,” He must necessarily make the merit “grade” which would allows access to heaven. Simply put: A.) Jesus is God; B.) God is good; C.) Only people whom God declares to be good get to go to heaven; therefore D.) Jesus is good enough to go to heaven. Flawless logic.<br />
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So, because God offers humankind the option to substitute their own deeds for Jesus’, that pretty much means a free pass to heaven—provided that this option is <i>chosen</i> by the individual. There’s a condition, however, that God places on those who wish to swap their efforts of attaining righteousness for Jesus’ credentials. The condition and its implications are intense. You ready for it? Jesus tells us that we can only use His deeds in place of our own if we consciously decide to give up trying to earn our way to heaven by any other means (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14:6&version=NIV">John 14:6</a>): we must choose to risk our place in the next life based upon the <i>promise</i> that His deeds will actually take the place of our own. That’s right. We are given no guarantee that what Jesus says is actually even true, besides His claims of being Truth & of being God & from the reports of his coming back from the dead. But what if Christianity is wrong? What if it’s a big fictitious “feel good” story? Then all those people who chose to hang their eternal futures on this promise Jesus gave us have <i>wasted their entire lives</i> (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2015:16-19&version=NIV">1 Cor 15:16-19</a>) & destroyed their chances for improving the next one. Choosing Jesus, if He is wrong, means damnation for His followers.<br />
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I’m a Christian. That means I’ve chosen to believe all of Jesus’ claims and promises. I recognise that this life isn’t the end and that there will be a continuance for me after I die. I have placed my eternal future entirely in the hope of a promise from a man whom I’ve never physically met, who lived 2000 years before I did and who was reported to have come back to life after three days in a grave... only to float away to heaven one afternoon & disappear from the world thereafter. Is there any concrete, objectively verifiable evidence that what Jesus said back then was true? Nope. The best we have are the written claims from eyewitness reports.<br />
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If I’m wrong and if Jesus was a fraud, then at best I’ve wasted all those opportunities for self-centred pleasure & self-gratification in this life and my existence ends on my death-bed. At worst, I’ve offended the real god who will punish & torment me for not serving him/it. Somewhere in between is the karmic reincarnation, where I’ll have to suffer through a harder life-cycle with more obstacles and greater challenges toward reaching nirvana. Essentially, I’m either shooting myself in the foot or shooting myself in the head. My hopes for a better future would be lost.<br />
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If I’m right, and Jesus in fact <i>is</i> the Son of the one true God, then I’m saved from eternal destruction and I will live in eternal glory with Him. It’s an all or nothing deal. Black or white. Right or wrong. A glorious eternity or a wasted existence....<br />
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No wonder Paul refers to belief in the Christian God as “hope against hope” (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+4:18&version=NASB" target="_blank">Rom 4:18</a>).<br />
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I’ve made my decision; what’s your choice?Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-76533062379081204122010-02-25T14:09:00.000-07:002010-02-25T14:09:03.699-07:00Jeremiah’s CisternThe name for this poem comes from the story of Jeremiah being thrown into an empty cistern in Jerusalem during the Babylonian siege. You can read the story <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2038&version=NIV" target="_blank">here in Jeremiah 38</a>. <br />
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<div align="center"><b>Jeremiah’s Cistern</b></div><div align="center"><i>How long, O Lord? How long?</i></div><div align="center"><i>The mire and stagnant decay ooze slowly around me, drying, stiffening</i></div><div align="center"><i>Congealing into a cake’d mass of putrescent filth</i></div><div align="center"><i>My arms, once wielding weapons of valour,</i></div><div align="center"><i>Once vanquishing and defending;</i></div><div align="center"><i>Now lock’d beside me, lay dormant, lame</i></div><div align="center"><i>Cocooned in this muck-filled, thorny pit.</i></div><div align="center"><i>My feet, once swift and steady,</i></div><div align="center"><i>Agile and able to carry the heralded message of your return;</i></div><div align="center"><i>Now suck’d beneath me, tapped and trench’d</i></div><div align="center"><i>As fast as the eldest trees’ bulwark roots.</i></div><div align="center"><i>The fog, as it rises here, scrapes at my eyes</i></div><div align="center"><i>And washes my brain with a dullness of thought.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Yet still I remain most keenly aware:</i></div><div align="center"><i>The memories of light; of fight; of action and charge</i></div><div align="center"><i>Compel me to struggle and long to be wrenched</i></div><div align="center"><i>From this sinking, oozing, stifling mass</i></div><div align="center"><i>That surrounds me; suffocates me; immobilises and demoralises me.</i></div><div align="center"><i>How long, O Lord? How long?</i></div><div align="center"><i>Free me from this pit.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Lift me out & let me run.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Let me run & let me fight.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Let me live to proclaim the coming Kingdom.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Wash off this filth so I can reflect You.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Come. Rescue. Cleanse. Renew. Activate. Send.</i></div><div align="center"><i>Come.</i></div><div align="center"><br />
</div>Jeremiah’s own response to “seasons” of life like this can be found in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations%203&version=NIV" target="_blank">Lamentations 3</a>:<br />
<div align="center">For men are not cast off <br />
by the Lord forever.</div><div align="center">Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, <br />
so great is his unfailing love.</div><div align="center">For he does not willingly bring affliction <br />
or grief to the children of men.</div><div align="right">(<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations%203:31-33&version=NIV" target="_blank">Lam 3:31-33</a>, NIV)</div><div align="right"><br />
</div><div align="left">Thank God for hope. : )</div>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-71350726419706959932010-01-29T08:40:00.003-07:002010-01-29T09:10:25.431-07:00Concerning DoubtIn my personal Bible reading, I recently worked through the Book of Luke (fitting, since I started reading it right before Christmas; and with the first few chapters being the primary source for the Christmas story...). It struck me as interesting to read through some of the passages contained in Luke four—the sections of Jesus’ temptation in particular and of Peter’s calling in chapter five. Right after Jesus is baptised by his cousin John, he wanders around in the Jordanian wilderness for 6 weeks, at the end of which Satan comes to tempt Him. Take a good look at exactly what Jesus’ temptations involve in this passage (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204:1-13">Luke 4:1-13</a>). If we look past the immediate things—the bread, the lordship and the frivolous demonstration of God’s power—there seems to be something else going on. In all three instances, Satan questions and challenges Jesus’ divine nature. He attacks Jesus’ authority & Jesus’ origin. Take a look: Satan says, “If you are the Son of God;” “If you worship before me;” and again, “If you are the Son of God” in this part of Luke’s Gospel when he’s trying his hardest to overpower Jesus.<br /><br />Why did Satan phrase the temptations to Jesus in these ways? How come the Accuser of the Saints was spending all of his energies & efforts on the Son of the Most High God by questioning and attacking Christ’s divinity? From what I know about temptation and how Satan’s accusations work, it’s certain that Satan is the father of all lies (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%208:43-44">John 8:43-44</a>) and that he seeks to find those whom he can devour (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%205:8">1 Peter 5:8</a>). What, then, is the easiest way to overcome an enemy or to overpower a victim? Does the attacker go head-on to the most fortified position, the most heavily-defended point; or will he survey the victim, assaying which things pose a potential weakness & then exploit those weaknesses in order to break through defences? If Satan is smart (and I figure that he is), he definitely would want to maximise the potential for successful attacks by focussing on the weakest areas of defence.<br /><br />I’m fairly certain that that’s how Satan works in my life, and I’m pretty sure it’s universal: he finds the areas of our lives where we’re the least certain, where we’re weakest & he exploits those weaknesses to trip us up, to make us fall, to tear us down & to destroy us. Often times, our weakest points tend to be related to the deep-set desires within. Greed is a twisted desire for comfort. Rage is a twisted desire for control. Lust is a twisted desire for the marriage relationship. Envy is a twisted desire for equality or fairness. Jealousy and pride are twisted desires for recognition. So what’s going on with Satan’s method of approach to Jesus in the wilderness, then? Why does he spend almost all of his efforts on questioning and undermining Jesus’ Sonship?<br /><br />Here’s a possible explanation as to why Satan challenged Jesus in this manner: maybe Satan wanted to make Jesus uncertain. Maybe he was trying to put doubts into the Christ’s identity. Now I know that it’s nothing that we can confirm (or deny, I suppose) this side of heaven, but it would be an interesting thing to ask Jesus when I get to see Him face to face. “How much did the ‘fully human’ part of you, Jesus, come into conflict with the fact that you are the Son of God? Did you have to believe in your divinity the same way that we do? Did you ever struggle with that dual nature—being fully God & fully human? Did you ever have doubts?” We know that there were some miraculous attestations to Christ’s Sonship at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: there was the voice from heaven after His baptism (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%203:21-22">Luke 3:21-22</a>) and the prophetic declaration by John the Baptist that Jesus indeed was the divine redeemer (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%201:29-34">John 1:29-34</a>)—both of which happened immediately before Jesus roamed around in the wilderness... but you’d still have to believe that what John said was true, and you’d have to believe that the voice from heaven which you heard was actually a real voice (for sometimes, when “voice from heaven” proclaims things, only certain people understand it [<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2022:6-9">Acts 22:6-9</a>]). It’s pretty clear from the Scriptures that John was convinced that Jesus was God’s Son, and we know that Jesus was certain as a child... but how many of us were thoroughly convinced of something as a child only to start doubting it later on in our adult lives? How many of us have heard promises about the future, and in the delay of their fulfilment, start to doubt if they would ever come to pass? If your mother told you as a 3 year-old that an angel came to her before you were born & said that you were the Son of God who would be the Saviour of the people, you probably would believe her... but when you turned thirty & all you’ve done with your life for the past 27 years has been to work with wood in a provincial town, it’s plausible that—as a human—you might question whether the statement made by your mom all those years ago might have been little more than “just talk.”<br /><br />We believe that Jesus was fully human while He walked around on earth with us a couple of millennia ago. I wonder if Satan was trying to capitalise on the fact that humans are prone to weakness of faith in light of delay. I wonder if Satan was trying to trip Jesus up—trying to make Him doubt that He was the Son of God. I wonder if Satan’s challenges in the desert made any impact on the human part of Jesus. My Old Testament instructor back in Bible school almost a decade ago commented on this passage in the desert as being a perfect example of how & when humans give into temptation. His acronym to describe the scenario was HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. The theory he proposed was that people will more often than not give into temptation when one or more of these conditions are present in the situation. In the desert, Jesus had been wandering around for forty days by himself. No doubt he was lonely & tried... and what do we see that Satan tempts Christ with first? The devil enticed Jesus to make food by challenging the authenticity of Christ’s divinity: “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread” (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204:3">Luke 4:3</a>). The style of this temptation is two-fold: if Jesus gave in, Satan would have caught Jesus in the trap of subservience, for if Jesus did what Satan told Him to do, Satan could cite that instance as being in higher authority than Jesus. If Jesus resisted the temptation, Satan could cite Jesus’ resistance to being a cover-up for not really being the Son of God. The more that Jesus resisted the devil, the more “ammo” Satan potentially had in trying to make Jesus doubt His own divinity.<br /><br />The chapter in the book of Luke following Jesus’ temptation recounts for us the story of when Peter, James and John were called to be Jesus’ disciples. Luke relays the story, telling us that Peter had just spent a futile night trying to catch fish. Jesus comes along and tells Peter to go out one more time and drop his nets. Now Peter is a professional fisherman. He’s been fishing probably for his entire working life—maybe even longer. Jesus is the son of a carpenter. What does he know about fishing? Why in the world would the fish be out in broad daylight, when birds & other predators were at their most active? If they had no luck catching fish under the shroud of darkness when the fishing was its most fruitful, what made this wood-cutter’s son think that fish could be caught now? I wouldn’t be surprised if such thoughts were racing through Peter’s head when Jesus asked him to go out this last time. Even the tone of Peter’s reply in this Gospel betrays the fact that he had his doubts about the attempt: “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets” (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%205:5">Luke 5:5</a>). Despite his doubts, Peter obeyed as he went out & cast his nets in the lake one more time.<br /><br />Sandwiched between the stories of Jesus’ temptation & Peter’s miraculous catch, Luke tells the story of Jesus speaking to the citizens of his hometown. It, again, is a story of doubt and uncertainty. The people, after hearing Jesus claim ownership of some Messianic prophecies in the book of Isaiah, start murmuring amongst themselves, discussing with scepticism the credulity of whether this local carpenter’s son actually was the Christ. Motivated by their doubt, they challenged Jesus to prove to them that He really was the Saviour, and Jesus, in response, rebukes them for their lack of faith. Furious that this self-assuming wood-worker had enough nerve to think He knew more about the Bible than the leaders of the local synagogue, they decided to go throw Him off a cliff. They were convinced because of Jesus’ remarks and attitude that He was disrespecting and blaspheming God. No miracles were performed in Nazareth that day for the people, except—of course—that Jesus walked away from the murderous plot.<br /><br />The people of Nazareth doubted Jesus’ claims and acted on these doubts so as to not believe a word He said. The result? Nothing: their doubts were neither dispelled nor confirmed. Instead, everything stayed the same as it always was. Peter, however, despite his doubts concerning Jesus’ skills at fishing nevertheless followed and obeyed. The result? A catch of fish so large that it began to sink <span style="font-style: italic;">two </span>fishing vessels. Jesus, despite the fact that Satan tried to make the Lord doubt His own calling, obeyed the Father—even to the point of death by public execution. The result? Resurrection and eternal life for all of Mankind.<br /><br />So what’s the point about all these stories? It seems to be that everybody will, at one time or another, be confronted by doubts concerning the things they believe. The question & the concern isn’t so much <span style="font-style: italic;">that </span>we doubt—it’s more about what we do <span style="font-style: italic;">in response </span>to those doubts. Do we trust & obey despite our doubts; or do we conform our actions to the “reasonable outcome” of what our doubts predict? Do we, like Peter, act on our faith in what God tells us even though our doubts tell us otherwise and as a result, witness the miraculous; or do we act like the people of Nazareth & respond to our doubts only to witness the results that our doubts would expect? I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather witness the miraculous than the mundane.<br /><br />We all will have doubts. It’s unavoidable. Our response to these doubts, however, is the important part. Everyone chooses what they want believe, whether it’s true or manufactured—and it’s nearly impossible this side of heaven to confirm whether our beliefs are based on truth or not. Even scientifically proven beliefs are subject to uncertainty. Our beliefs undoubtedly will be challenged and will be subjected to doubts. We must, nevertheless, choose which position will guide our actions: our faith in what we believe or our faith in our doubts. A wise man once told me a proverb a long time ago that has helped me retain a good perspective on this struggle in life, and it goes like this: “It is alright to doubt your beliefs; just don’t believe your doubts.” A choice to place faith in our beliefs or in our doubts must be made. Which, then, will you choose?Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-972458916365195322010-01-10T19:46:00.001-07:002010-01-10T19:48:16.222-07:00On Relationships, God and Relationships with God… Jack Deere instalment 4<style type="text/css"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />.ab{<br />color:#b3cccc;<br />}</style> <p>An excerpt from Jack Deer in his book,<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Voice-God-Jack-Deere/dp/0310225582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1258733344&sr=8-1">Surprised by the Voice of God</a> </i>:</p> <br /> <p style="margin-bottom: -2.5em;"><span style="margin-top: 0.7em; color: rgb(81, 81, 81); margin-left: -0.15em; font-size: 650%;font-family:Georgia;" >“</span></p> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <p><strong>Availability</strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p>If you study the life of Jesus, who heard the voice of the Father better than anyone else, one of the first things that will impress you is his “unreserved availability for God.” I had been a Christian for only about a year when I first noticed this characteristic of Jesus’ life. I was reading the first chapter of Mark, where Jesus stayed up late into the night healing the sick and the demon possessed (vv. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mk%201:32-34" target="_blank">32-34</a>). After staying up half the night ministering to people, Mark tells us that “very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (v. <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mk%201:35" target="_blank">35</a>). If anyone ever had an excuse for sleeping in, Jesus certainly had one that morning. But instead he followed his daily habit of seeking solitude with God (see also <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%204:42;%205:16" target="_blank">Luke 4:42; 5:16</a>).</p> <p>Early in my Christian life I used to use this passage to say that Jesus always <i>found time</i> for God. I don’t see it that way at all now. When I look for the life of Jesus, I never really see him “finding time for God.” Rather, I see a Son whose time belongs completely to the Father. Jesus was never in a hurry. He never needed more time. This is because he looked on his time as his Father’s time. Also, he was completely available for his Father’s desires. He only did what he saw his Father doing (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jn%205:19" target="_blank">John 5:19</a>). And he was always in the right place at the right time in order to fulfill the desires of his heavenly father.</p> <p>I am continually amazed at the <abbr class="ab" title="Happening or arising without apparent external cause; self-generated.">spontaneity</abbr> and <abbr class="ab" title="Not formal or ceremonious; casual: an informal gathering of friends; a relaxed, informal manner.">informality</abbr> of the ministry of the Lord. Whether he was speaking to an unexpected crowd of over five thousand, as in the Sermon on the Mount, or to just one lost woman at the well in Samaria, he was always prepared and did just the right thing. He was never <abbr class="ab" title="desperate or wild with excitement, passion, fear, pain, etc.; frenzied.">frantic</abbr>, like the modern pastor who continually frets about how busy he is and then has to stay up late Saturday night putting together a “message” for Sunday morning. It is comical to imagine Jesus staying up the night before the Sermon on the Mount wondering what he was going to say to all those people. Yes, it is comical to imagine Jesus ever struggling for a sermon. His life is the sermon, and he ministered out of the daily overflow of his communion with his heavenly Father. He was able to do this because he was completely available to God.</p> <p>Please don’t think I am speaking about having a regular “quiet time.” I am speaking about much more than this. I have known people who never missed their 5:30 A.M. quiet time of Bible study, and yet were meaner than junkyard dogs. It is possible to have a quiet time every morning and never be available to God. Unlike people who “find time” for God, who get their quiet time out of the way in the morning so they can go on with their real lives and forget God the rest of the day, people who are truly available to God see God as owning their day. He is free to reorder it at any time he chooses. They are not content simply to have a quiet time and get their “God stuff” out of the way early in the morning. Their satisfaction comes from experiencing his presence throughout the day and knowing they are pleasing to him.</p> <p>Years ago I was in the process of developing a close friendship with a person who eventually became one of my closest friends. I was going through a difficult time and needed his help. As I was saying good-bye after lunch one day, I asked him how late I could call him that night. He said I could call him as late as I wanted to. I told him I didn’t want to wake him up, so I needed to know what time he planned to go to sleep. Then he said to me, “It doesn’t make any difference what time I go to sleep tonight. For you, I am a twenty-four-hour friend, seven days a week. Call me whenever you want. I’ll be there.” You see, availability is one of the primary characteristics of friendship. Friends are available to their friends.</p> <p>Differing levels of friendship call for varying degrees of availability. There are a number of people to whom we will not give our phone number, but we will smile and speak to them if we meet them in a public setting. There are others who have only our office phone number. Then there are people who have our private home number. Of the people who have our private home number, only a few of them would feel free to use it any time of the day or night. These are our closest friends, the ones who can come in our back door without an appointment and be genuinely welcomed by us. Our closest friends are the ones who can interrupt our plans without causing any irritation. The deeper the friendship, the greater the availability.</p> <p>This is what God really wants with us: a friendship (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jn%2015:15" target="_blank">John 15:15</a>). Many of us try to satisfy God by meeting religious duties and <abbr class="ab" title="A social, legal, or moral requirement, such as a duty, contract, or promise that compels one to follow or avoid a particular course of action.">obligations</abbr>, but in our closest friendships, we go far <i>beyond</i> the sense of duty. We are available to our closest friends because we love them and want to be with them. In true friendship, availability is not a burden or an obligation. Instead, it is a joy and a privilege.</p> <p>In a real friendship, availability is <abbr class="ab" title="1. given or felt by each toward the other; mutual. 2. given, performed, felt, etc., in return.">reciprocal</abbr>. The people who have unrestricted access to me also give me unrestricted access to them. It works the same way with our heavenly Father. He is most available to those who are most available to him. To many Christians this idea won’t sound fair. It may even sound like a “works” version of Christianity. They like to picture God as being equally available to all Christians at all times. It is almost as if the conceive of God as a cosmic bellboy who exists to meet their needs and can be dismissed when they have no conscious need of him. But this is both a misunderstanding of grace and of the nature of personal relationships. God doesn’t throw pearls before swine. The ones who find him are those who seek him with all their heart (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deut.%204:2" target="_blank">Deut. 4:29</a>).</p> <p>If we want a deep friendship with God, it is important to <abbr class="ab" title="to promote the growth or development of (an art, science, etc.); foster.">cultivate </abbr>a state of mind where we view all of our time as God’s time, a state of mind where we are totally available to him. … Availability to God is the first priority in ministry and the first requirement for hearing his voice. </p> <p></p> <p>There are both passive and active aspects to availability. There are times when we are simply to wait in the Lord (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jer.%2042:1-7;%20Isa.%2040:31&version=NASB" target="_blank">Jer. 42:1-7; Isa. 40:31</a> NASB). On the other hand, people who are available to God actively seek him (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matt.%206:33" target="_blank">Matt. 6:33</a>). How long should one seek the Lord? Thirty minutes every morning, an hour after lunch, two hours in the evening? Remember what I said earlier. We are to seek him until he comes (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hos.%201:12" target="_blank">Hos. 1:12</a>). … If we make ourselves available to God, he will make himself available to us (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%204:8" target="_blank">James 4:8</a>).</p> <p> </p> </div> <p>(pp. 309-314)</p>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-42594955201319593192009-11-29T15:25:00.001-07:002009-11-29T15:25:45.631-07:00Deere Droppings, #3<p>An excerpt from Jack Deer in his book,<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Voice-God-Jack-Deere/dp/0310225582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1258733344&sr=8-1">Surprised by the Voice of God</a> </i>:</p> <br /> <p style="margin-bottom: -2.5em"><span style="margin-top: 0.7em; font-family: georgia; color: rgb(81,81,81); margin-left: -0.15em; font-size: 650%">“</span></p> <div style="margin-left: 8px"> <p><b>Treasuring the Bible</b></p> <p>In order to experience the power of the Scriptures, our attitude and desire to obey them is crucial. Yet the main reason the Bible is ineffective in the lives of so many Christians is that they simply don’t read it. Make up your mind to set aside a regular time every day to meditate on the Scriptures, so you can hear the voice of God and see the glory of the Lord Jesus. When you do, you will find that the voice of the Son of God is indescribably sweet, and the face of the Lord Jesus, indescribably lovely (Song 2:14).</p> <p>Anyone who wants to hear God’s voice on a regular basis will have to become intimately acquainted with the written word of God. I have been treasuring the Word of God in my heart for over thirty years, and I don’t regret a moment of the time I have spent reading, meditating, and memorizing the words of Scripture. If I could turn back time and do those thirty years over again, I would spend even more time meditating on the Bible and less time reading of other Christian books.</p> <p>Many times the Holy Spirit has brought the words of Scripture to my mind, not only to guide me, but also to save me from disasters. He has used the words of Scripture to guide me in serving others, to keep me from hurting them, and to increase my love for his Son and his people.</p> <div style="clear: both"></div> <p></p> </div> <p>(p. 112)</p> <p>****</p> <p>Although I haven’t been a Christian (or even alive) as long as Jack Deere, the words he speaks in this passage tell very much the same story as what I’ve come to understand about the Bible, God and my (our) relationship with Him. I’ve never once regretted spending time reading my Bible or studying it diligently. Like Jack Deere, the one thing I would change if I were to re-do the past 25 years of my Christianity, I would also spend more time reading the Bible & I’d also try harder to apply what it says to my life—for of the little I <em>have</em> applied to my life, I’ve seen amazing results. Too bad I’ve wasted so much time not following to & not listening closely enough to the Word of God.</p> <p> </p> <p>The great thing, however, is that the future and the rest of my life indeed can be changed with a simple decision <em>today</em>.  We all choose our own paths <em>and </em>our pasts.</p> Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-13981007743520880112009-11-24T10:41:00.002-07:002009-11-24T17:03:54.306-07:00Another Insight from Jack Deere et al.<p>An excerpt from Jack Deer in his book,<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Voice-God-Jack-Deere/dp/0310225582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1258733344&sr=8-1">Surprised by the Voice of God</a> </i>:</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: -2.5em;"><span style="margin-top: 0.7em; color: rgb(81, 81, 81); margin-left: -0.15em;font-family:Georgia;font-size:650%;" >“</span></p> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <p><strong>Attitude Matters</strong></p> <p>Any coach will tell you that the right diet and exercise are essential for optimum performance. But a <i>good</i> coach knows you can have both diet and exercise and still lose if the players don’t have the right attitude. Listen to the story of Matt Biondi:</p> <blockquote> <p>Americans who follow swimming had high hopes for Matt Biondi, a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in 1988. Some sportswriters were touting Biondi as likely to match Mark Spitz’s 1972 feat of taking seven gold medals. But Biondi finished a heartbreaking third in his first event, the 200-meter freestyle. In his next event, the 10-meter butterfly, Biondi was inched out for the gold by another swimmer who made a greater effort in the last meter.</p> <p>Sportscasters speculated that the defeats would dispirit Biondi in his successive events. But Biondi rebounded from defeat and took a gold medal in his next five events. One viewer who was not surprised by Biondi’s comeback was Martin Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who had tested Biondi for optimism earlier that year. In an experiment done with Seligman, the swimming coach told Biondi during a special event meant to showcase Biondi’s best performance that he had a worse time than was actually the case. Despite the downbeat feedback, when Biondi was asked to rest and try again, his performance—actually already very good—was even better. But when other team members were given a false bad time—and whose test scores showed they were pessimistic—tried again, they did even worse the second time.</p> </blockquote> <p>Biondi's confident attitude made the difference between a good swimmer and a champion.</p> <p>Attitude is critical in the world of athletics. It’s even more critical when we talk about reading the Bible. The words of God will never benefit us unless we believe them (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Heb.%203:7-19&version=NIV" target="_blank">Heb. 3:7-19</a>). If my friend Dorothy had not believed the words of Luke 24:26, those words would never have turned her away from her suicidal course. Reading and attempting to obey the Bible without having confidence in God’s words robs the Bible of its power.</p> <p>Not only do we need to have faith and confidence in the Bible, we need to read it for the right reasons. C.S. Lewis wrote that when we come to the Scripture it’s not a “question of learning a subject but of steeping ourselves in a Personality.” In other words, our primary purpose for meditating on the Bible should be to meet Christ, to hear his voice, and to see him more clearly that we might love him more passionately. Scripture reading is meant to aid in the process of “forming Christ within us” (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Gal.%204:19&version=NIV" target="_blank">Gal. 4:19</a>)</p> </div> <p>(pages 106-107)</p><p>***<br /></p><p><br /></p> <p> </p> <p>On a wall in my house, I have a poster with this quote from Chuck Swindoll:</p><br /><p style="margin-bottom: -2.5em;"><span style="margin-top: 0.7em; color: rgb(81, 81, 81); margin-left: -0.15em;font-family:Georgia;font-size:650%;" >“</span></p> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <p><strong>Attitudes</strong></p> <p>Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I am that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it. </p> <p>I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, what other people think of me or say about me, my circumstances, or my position. Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.</p></div>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-70293348613851856472009-11-20T09:28:00.000-07:002009-11-24T09:30:09.553-07:00Things I’m (re)learning in seminary.<p>An excerpt from Jack Deer in his book,<i> <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Voice-God-Jack-Deere/dp/0310225582/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1258733344&sr=8-1">Surprised by the Voice of God</a> </i>:</p> <br /> <p><span style="margin-top: 0.7em; color: rgb(81, 81, 81); font-size: 650%;font-family:Georgia;" >“</span></p> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <p>I grew up loving sports. I was so active physically, I never had to be concerned about my diet. Then I graduated from college, went to seminary, got married, and started a family. With all those responsibilities, my athletic activity slowed down—and so did my metabolism. I began the battle of the bulge. Over the years, through various diets, I lost hundreds of pounds. Of course, I managed to find them again, every one of them, and a few new ones as soon as I got off the diet. Occasionally I mixed regular periods of exercise with the diets and got better results, but none lasted.</p> <p>About two years ago I threw away all the diets that promised quick fixed and started eating foods low in fat. My tastes have now changed. I actually prefer low-fat foods to the fatty stuff I used to eat. I don’t go on diets any more, and I never go hungry. I have found a lifestyle I can live with day in and day out.</p> <p>I also started an exercise program with a good friend of mine, Benny and I meet at a local gym three to five times a week to work out with weights and do some aerobic activity. The result of all this is that I‘m in better physical condition now than when I was in high school or college.</p> <p>When I first started a low-fat diet and exercise program, I didn’t notice much change in my physical appearance or in my health. Actually, it was about three months before I noticed any significant difference. After nine months though, the difference was dramatic.</p> <p>I learned a very important lesson through all this. One workout doesn’t change you, and diets you can’t live with day after day aren’t going to help you either. It is the repeated workouts over a period of months, even years, that dramatically change you.</p> <p>The same is true with the Bible. A little Bible reading won’t really change you. It is the daily meditation, month after month, year after year, that changes you. Reading the Bible is very much like eating food. Food is fuel for the body, but without exercise, it can’t be used to build up and repair the body. In the same way, the Bible is fuel for the soul, but without exercise, the soul will shrink into a weakened state, just as our muscles do without exercise.</p> <p>The first step to spiritual health is taking the right fuel day after day. The second step is using the fuel to make right, often hard, choices every day. Over several years, obeying the Bible, not simply reading it, produces Christ-like character. Quick fixes don’t exist in the spiritual realm any more than they do in the natural realm.</p> </div> <p>(pages 105-106)</p> <div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7417643-1218207200409872829?l=lucid-elusion.blogspot.com" alt="" height="1" width="1" /></div>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-39849143793643347082009-07-13T15:38:00.003-06:002009-07-13T18:34:45.815-06:00Snippets of love, spelled “Joy”<blockquote> <p align="center"><i>Let everything that isn’t <br />Pure in Your sight Lord Jesus, <br />Be swept away by Your power, Lord. <br />I long to stand before You <br />Dressed in the finest linen; <br />Holy in purity my God! <br />Pure & holy, giving glory to the King of kings; <br />Here before you, I adore You: praises I will bring. </i></p><p align="right" style="font-size:60%">—"Pure and Holy," Parachute Band.</p> </blockquote> <p>Oh Lord, You are good & Your love indeed endures forever. I love You so much that words cannot even begin to express the dimensions and facets and volume of the longing I have to worship, serve, know & be with You.</p> <p>Father, it has been a very long time since I’ve had the opportunity—and the desire even—to spend as much time with You as I have had in this past month. Thank You so much for the freedom to have access to such a soul-whelming time. Man, God, I’ve forgotten so much of the goodness & the wonder that comes when one is living a life which desires resonance with Your Spirit. It is such a refreshing reminder, Lord, to have my spiritual heart pounding again; to have my spiritual mind woken from its coma & to know that even in my inconstancy, You nevertheless remain the same.</p><br /><p>* * *</p> <p>Those who don’t know You; those who have never experienced the communion that can be had between their souls and the Almighty Creator, who in Himself encompasses all that is Love—Father, those souls I pity, for they have <i>no idea</i> of what they’re missing out on. <em>No idea!</em> The marvellous, transcendent ecstasy that You fill my heart with—indeed, my entire being—as I fall in step with Your Spirit, as I feed my soul on the sustenance of Your Word; as I bend my mind toward You & subjugate my will to Yours... man, God, it is amazing.</p> <p>Nothing compares; nothing shakes a toothpick at the wondrous fullness of a heart & soul falling into its proper place alongside the Lord of all things. There is no other word; there is nothing that can even come close to such a state. It can only indeed be called Joy.</p> <p>* * *</p><br /><p>I’m utterly crazy about You, God: incomparably head-over-heels in love with You. I couldn’t possibly imagine a better companion, a better Lord, a better Love & Centre of my life. “Amazing” and “awe-inspiring” are nothing more than rotting carcasses when I compare them to You. Nothing is greater & nothing is better. Nothing can possibly compare to the boundless riches available when one truly, completely & unconditionally abandons oneself into the hands of the Almighty. There is no way to even come close to describing accurately the state of one’s soul when in resonant harmony with You.</p> <blockquote> <p align="center"><i>Amazing Love, how can it be? <br />That You my King would die for me? <br />Amazing Love, I know it’s true: <br />It’s my joy to honour You. <br />In all I do, I honour You.</i></p><p align="right" style="font-size:60%">—"Amazing Love," Chris Tomlin.</blockquote>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-81269569884202748042009-04-22T08:26:00.002-06:002009-04-22T08:29:53.907-06:00Taiwan Adventures VI<span style="font-size:130%;">Monday<br /></span><br />Indeed, my quads were still sore after my GEP experience—my first hike in almost a year. I decided, adding to the fact that it was drizzling outside, that this would be a perfect day to go soak in the hot springs. The plan was to go to this 5-star resort an hour out of Taipei & soak in their various pools, some of which were hot-springs, while others were filled with random fluids like tea, wine and/or other herbal concoctions. How could I resist the chance of sitting in a pool of steaming wine? I mean, really? How many people to _you_ know who could say they’ve done such a thing?<br /><br />Following a mixture of both the Lonely Planet & the resort’s website, I grabbed an MRT train up to some station outside of a university, where I was supposed to wait for a green bus that would take me up to the town, Jishan, where the resort was located. No mention, however, was made of the bus’ number, so I stood there… waiting for a green bus to show.<br /><br />A green bus did eventually show up, and it read “Taipei Main Station à Yangmingshan National Park,” and seeing as the park was on the way to the town—and that the vehicle was green—I hopped on. It was a nice ride; it was a pleasant ride. In fact, it was so great that I didn’t even have to pay until I reached the end of the line, unfortunately, right smack-dab in the centre of Yangmingshan National Park.<br /><br />“That’s alright,” I thought to myself, “I’m sure the other green bus will run through here, I mean it really is the only highway through the park to that town… now, just to find out where the bus stop would be… … …”<br /><br />Fortunately for me, a nice, elderly Taiwanese lady spotted me as I was thumbing through my various literatures. She asked me where I was going, and I told her, “Jishan.” She informed me that I needed to take the green bus, and that it ran every 30 minutes or so. I asked her what the bus looked like, or what the bus number was, and she told me that there was no bus number: the bus was bigger than a normal metro mass-transit bus, “Just like that one,” she said, pointing to the nice green bus chugging up the mountain highway. *sigh* I thanked her for her help, and asked where I could catch the next bus. She directed me to wait at the bus stop in front of the 7-11. I thanked her, and went in my way.<br /><br />7-11 arrived—or I did, rather—and there I waited for the next bus. 10 minutes... 20 minutes…... 30 minutes……... 40 minutes. I now was getting antsy. It was getting late in the day, and the hour bus ride there/back was becoming disconcerting. I had seen the International Hotel, another high-class hot spring destination over here, in Yangmingshan Park on the way up in my bus, and although it’s 3-hour price tag was 190 NTD more than my original tea-pool resort, Tienlai’s full-day price, the bus fare & time lost might easily make up for the discrepancy. My decision was to wait 5 more minutes for the bus to arrive & whisk me off to pools of heaven, but it never did materialise. Resolved to my decision, I grabbed my backpack & went hiking down the road, looking for the International Hotel.<br /><br />Not 20 metres into my hike, as I turned the first bend in the road, did I stumble upon my destination: I was surprised to find how close the International actually was! Within 5 minutes from the bus stop, I was now in my own private hotel room with its own private hot spring bath, whose water was pumped in on demand from the spring outside. It was glorious. A wonderful 3 hours. But, perhaps, not wonderful enough for $30. Nonetheless, it was worth the experience—and my muscles thanked me for it.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Tuesday<br /></span><br />I decided, after getting back from the hot spring hotel last night, that I would awake early & grab a train south along the eastern coast to go and see “the eco-tourist destination in Taiwan: Taroko National Park.” 6 am came very early, but I was okay with the short sleep, knowing what was in store. Hopping off the MRT at Taipei Main Station, I purchased my 1st class ticket to Hualien (pronounced hwa-lee-en) & jumped on the train. This time, I actually got a seat! Yes!!!<br /><br />My train ride was spent mostly sleeping until we arrived at Sincheng, the train station at the entrance to Taroko Park. For a moment, I considered getting off at this station & just grabbing a bus from there to the park, but I had already purchased my ticket all the way to Hualien, _and_ Lonely Planet said that not all busses to the park stopped at the station… so I sat tight until my final destination.<br /><br />The final destination vomited me out of its train station & within minutes, I was on a bus to the park… that would take 2 hours to reach the end of Taroko Gorge, the feature I’d targeted for this day’s hike—and purportedly the main feature of the park. All was made better when, after an hour of travel, we arrived at the park’s entrance & picked up a couple of boorish Slavic girls that had been on the train with me. I’d lost _no_ time! Hooray!<br /><br />After another hour of travel through the windy roads of Taroko Gorge, we finally arrived at Tsingshang, the town at the end of the gorge. Quickly, I strapped of my backpack & began my 20 km hike down the highway, tracing the river toward the ocean. The views were spectacular: reminiscent of drives through Banff National Park, except instead of bare rock, lush green & instead of mountains, one continual cliff. The sides of the gorge were literally vertical in some locations, and poking through the greenery (or where life wasn’t conducive) were some marvelous specimens of virgin marble. Spectacular.<br /><br />However, after you see a kilometer of huge cliffs that blend into the clouds overhead in such a manner as they look as though they could be the very foundations of heaven, the rest all begins to look the same. At the beginning of my hike, I was surprised why there wasn’t more space for walkers along the side of the highway or in the numerous mountain tunnels, but after the 5th km, it became pretty apparent: not many people, I think, would bother to walk all the way out. It was a good hike, nonetheless, and the only thing I’d change would be to have had about another week or 2 in the park to explore the copious side-trails that the gorge had. To hike in any of Taiwan’s mountainous national parks, you need to create a hiking plan & submit it to the park authorities in triplicate before taking the routes. Before actually walking through the gorge, I didn’t really have any idea what the park had to offer, but now that I have, I’d love to come back. This hike to me felt very much like a reconnaissance hike, as I raced through the first 18 km in 3 hours, racing the clock to catch the last train at Sincheng station, which left at 6:14 pm.<br /><br />At km 18, in the slight drizzle, a Taiwanese pick-up truck passed me along the highway, stopped, geared into reverse & halted beside me. The man driving, poked his head out of the window & asked if I wanted a ride. I asked him where he was going; he pointed along the road ahead, and I gratefully accepted the lift, for my legs were rather tired at this point. We motored along for 1.5 km until the truck reached a fork in one of the mountain tunnels. He stopped, turned to me and said, “I go to Taipei. You want to go?” Politely, I declined, hoping to see more of the features in the park, and hopped out of the truck with a great “thank you” before resuming my trek to the train station.<br /><br />Lonely Planet’s map of Sincheng shows the train station to be a mere 2 km directly down the same road on which Taroko National Park’s entrance lies. I was counting on this as I planned my schedule, and by the time I reached the park’s gate, it was about 5:35. Plenty enough time to hike the 2 km (20 minutes), but a ticket and hop on the 6:14 train, right? Well, technically, yes it was enough time… if the train station was only 2 km (or even 3 km) away. I hiked 2 km & followed the highway, looking in vain for the train station as the road began to veer to the right—a feature not detailed on the map. After km 3, I checked my watch & noticed that it was 6 pm. Poo. No train station in sight & no confirmation that I was even going the right direction. Saying a quick prayer, I hoped that I was going the right way & began to quicken my pace as much as my tired legs would allow.<br /><br />At 6:05, I reached a second community & saw the train tracks pass under a bridge for the road. Looking out from the bridge, I couldn’t see a station in either direction. Depressing. A bit further up the road, however, a sign pointed ahead for the train station. Yes! I was on the right track, but would I make it in time? Encouraged, I quickly walked forward, saw another sign a little later, which directed me to my right. It was now 6:10. I had no idea how much farther up the road that train station was going to be, but I knew that I only had 4 minutes before the train would leave. I prayed for God’s favour, asking that I wouldn’t miss the train & began to run. I ran for as long as I could before losing my breath (which was like only a couple minutes after the 23 km walked so far), but I knew that timing was essential: I could rest either after 6:14 & the train station was out of reach, or after I had bought my ticked & was sitting in a chair on the train. This ultimatum (and the knowledge that this was the last train leaving this area for the day) propelled my legs forward with as much urgency as they could muster. After clearing the next block, I saw it: the train station was right in front of me! <br /><br />6:12 pm. I huff & puff up to the ticket counter, ask for a ticket to Taipei, pay & was urged by the man behind the window to hurry to platform #2. I pass the ticket-taker, fly down the first flight of stars, jog along the hallway, climb the last flight of stairs & arrive on the platform just in time for the train to stop. 30 seconds later, I was on the train & it was on the move. I had made it. Thank the Lord, I had made it! Come to think of it, had that truck driver not given me a ride for those 1.5 km, I would never have made the train in time. Talk about divine providence, eh?<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Wednesday<br /></span><br />And that leads us to today. Thanks to my resistive stretching on the 3 hour train ride back, my legs aren’t sore at all today. The downside, however, was that it rained rained rained all day, which made for a bunch of chillin’ here at the hostel & reading some books. Tomorrow’s my last day here & then I fly back to Thailand at 11pm for 2.5 days before heading back to North America.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-74320441950722347252009-04-19T22:26:00.000-06:002009-04-19T22:27:42.811-06:00Taiwan Adventures, VSunday<br /><br />After a long sleep, I woke up to some stiff quads and to some knees that protested at even the thought of stairs. My original thought before hiking in Gold Ecological Park was to go today down to Taroko Gorge and have another 20 km or so of hiking. My body was not in favour of this option, so instead I decided to head north along the MRT to the end of the line in Danshui, where the old colonial forces were stationed.<br /><br />I had read in my Lonely Planet that there was a Canadian missionary who came to Taiwan at the end of the 19th century who practised medicine and introduced western educational practises to the island. The travel guide hails this man, Dr. Mackay, a one of the pivotal players in modernising Taiwan. This must be true, because as I walked toward the San Domingo Fort--the colonial bastion used by pretty much every foreign power who had a presence in this country, ending with the British by WWII--I passed by a large sculpted bust of the Presbyterian Doctor in the middle of the town square, below which was a plaque extolling Dr. Mackay for all of the great things that he had done for Taiwan. Further along the road to the fort were his hospital and Taiwan's first Presbyterian church (perhaps also the country's first protestant--and maybe even the first Christian--church), both reverently preserved historical sites.<br /><br />The fort was really nothing to write home about: a small, red-brick cube sitting at the top of a look-out hill over the Danshui Bay, strategically placed to observe naval traffic. Beside the fort was the former British Consulate's office & quarters--a building erected in very much the British style, complete with the red bricks & the royal symbols.<br /><br />Up the hill, however, from the fort was Alethia University, which I originally thought was the fort, owing to the gothic vaulting windows that I attribute to Spanish architecture. It turns out, though, that Alethia (alethia is the Greek word for "truth") University is the modern extension of Taiwan's first post-secondary institution, founded by Dr. Mackay in 1882: Oxford College. Oxford College received its name from Oxfordshire (I assume in Ontario), the place from which Dr. Mackay came in Canada.<br /><br />Reading about the history of Dr. Mackay's work a hundred and twenty five years ago stirred my heart within me & made my soul leap for joy in very much the same way that hiking in the mountains yesterday made my soul rejoice and worship God as I walked through & took pleasure in the beauty of His creation--a feeling that I haven't felt in a long, long time. The stirring of my soul was brought about because I know that Dr. George Leslie Mackay's work 125 years ago has brought life--both physical & eternal--to people in this country. It reminded me that even if we don't see the results of our work, God still can take our efforts and use them to advance His kingdom. The work of Mackay and other missionaries like him in this country are why you see one Christian cross for every three 7-11 signs (and there are, says Lonely Planet, over 7,000 7-11s here) and why the spiritual feeling of this country I _so_ much less oppressive and dark as compared to the spiritual environment in Thailand. After seeing how much the Taiwanese people respected Dr. Mackay, I was compelled to give thanks to God and worship Him for bringing life to this country through His servants.<br /><br />After visiting Danshui, I began retracing my path back south, and then went a bit further than my usual station to go check out another Taiwanese historical figure: former president/dictator Chiang Kai Shek and his massive monument. The monument itself is huge & imposing, giving off a feeling of oppressive authority, which discordantly contrasts the ginormous statue of the former leader inside the main hall, where the president has been immortalised with a big grin on his face. In the basement of the monument is a small museum containing random artifacts related to the late president, including a couple of Cadillacs that weighed 7 tons each and were 6 feet wide--one of them was even bullet-proof.<br /><br />At the same site as the memorial were the national theatre & the national concert hall--both huge Chinese palatial buildings decked out with red and yellow roofs. In the shared central square, some hip hop groups were practising as was a marching band. I didn't stay for too much longer, as my feet were beginning to remind me that yesterday's hike was long.<br /><br />Tomorrow, if my quads are still sore, I'm considering a dip in some hot springs, which will be a good use of the day, as the weather forecast calls for thunderstorms.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-68562584582068911082009-04-19T06:40:00.002-06:002009-04-19T06:44:48.787-06:00Taiwan Adventures, IV<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Saturday</span></span><br /><br />Yesterday was epic. I got up at about 6 am to get ready for my trip to Gold Ecological Park. After scarfing a quick breakfast at McDonald's, I came back to the hostel, filled my hydration pack, woke up this French college-level PE teacher named Patrick who was flying out that day, grabbed the next MRT & got off at Taipei Main Station.<br /><br />Taipei Main Station is nothing short of a bona fide mass-transit interchange. From the station, you can catch any of several bus lines—both local & inter-city; you can catch MRT trains for 4 of the 6 city lines; you can purchase tickets for & board Taiwan's High Speed Rail service (trains that whip across the country at 350 km/hr.) and you can do the same for the regular—but much more extensive—rail service, and for all four classes. It's intense: there are at least three underground floors and at least two above ground. All the trains leave underground, which means that you have rows and rows of train platforms crisscrossing each other in three dimensional space. It's nothing short of an engineering marvel.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />The Train Ride</span><br /><br />At the station, I purchased my ticket to Rueifang (pronounced "Roo-fahng") for something like 24 NTD (under a buck), whereas Lonely Planet said that the price would be somewhere around 80... I was having the sneaking suspicion that the train I'd be getting on was a.) either heading to the wrong place, owing to the communication barrier, or b.) a super-slow, stop at every station kind of train. It turned out to be the second type.<br /><br />Once boarding the rail-car, I was a bit surprised to see about 6 bicycles in the back wit their owners. Everybody else seemed to pay it no attention, so neither did I. Next, I noticed that there was a general absence of seating on this train—again the others paid no heed as we sandwiched ourselves into the passenger car like there was no tomorrow. Then, after a ring of a bell, off we went! The next 70 minutes went by as you'd expect, but I feel I must mention one interesting detail: A girl climbed on the train wearing a black felt mask (as is common over here when people are sick, though the mask colour / design varies by personal preference), then she pulled out her mobile phone. Attached to the phone, along with a fist-full of other random keychain baubles was a square, yellow package with the number "18" printed in black but placed inside a red, slashed out "do not" circle. I was wondering what this might mean, and on closer inspection, I noticed that this plastic square was the right size and shape for a condom package. Looking even closer, I noticed the slightly raised form of a disc underneath the red "do not" circle. I have no idea why he had it on her keychain—I mean who in the world carries around a condom on their keychain that says "not 18" on it anyways? A couple of ideas come to mind, but really...?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Gold Ecological Park</span><br /><br />Okay, off the train at Rueifang and on to a bus heading to Juifen. Arriving at the park, I'm informed that the 110 NTD ticket price will be waived if I have a receipt from any purchase that I've made in Taiwan. Score. Free admission!<br /><br />Then the bliss begins: a day of pure mountain hiking. It was _awesome._ I climbed several hundred stairs to a long-disused highway (at many points, there was only a dirt track on this "highway") and followed the highway up to a mountain pass, where the trail veered off onto a 1.x km ridge-walk.<br /><br />It was on this ridge that I ran into a Taiwanese gentleman who was taking a break for lunch. He offered me some of his green tea, and we struck up a conversation that continued along until we had traversed the ridge, passed "through" Teapot Mountain & climbed down from the summit to a pavilion where we then parted ways. He was a pretty interesting individual, who happened to teach himself English because of a failure in his first business promotion. One of the jobs that he was given was to translate a document from Mandarin to English, and when he told his boss that he couldn't speak English, his boss said, "Just use a dictionary!" After the translation was done, it was deemed a failure, but his boss covered the shame by saying, "Perhaps he just didn't realise the context" from over 200 of the words that had been mis-translated. As a result, this guy went home in personal shame, closed the door to his room & vowed to learn English. So, for the next who-knows-how-many days, he would spend hours after work teaching himself English until he became so proficient, that his company chose him to be the international sales-rep. For their manufacturing business. It's a pretty amazing story.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Knee-buster & 13 Levels</span><br /><br />After we parted ways, I proceeded to descend the entire mountain on the hundreds of granite & concrete stairs below. The decent was too steep & the soil too hard or too overgrown with vegetation for me to avoid the knee-jamming stone steps, but where I could, I did.<br /><br />Further down the mountain, I ran in to a WWII memorial, recognising that the gold & copper mines in the mountain (hence thee park's name: Gold Ecological Park) were at one time POW camps in service of the Japanese, employing Allied prisoners as workers to collect the valuable ores. Further down the mountain was the remains of the copper refinery, called The 13 Levels (aptly named because of the number of levels the complex had in the side of the mountain). The refinery had three concrete "smoke tunnels" that traced their way up the side of the mountain to very much near the summit. These "smoke" conduits looked like blood vessels or concrete train tunnels that spread out up the mountain. I put "smoke" in quote, because I'm pretty sure that this is only the official statement for what these concrete tubes—6 feet tall and 4 feet wide—were used for... If that truly was their purpose, then why did these "smoke tunnels" have windows built into them every 20 metres or so? A better explanation would have been that the Japanese constructed them to hide the existence of POWs as they mined the mountain.<br /><br />After passing the 13 levels, I reached the ocean shore. I knew at that point that it was time to catch a bus, for my water had long since run out (here I where I mention that I found 500 NTD on the ground while exploring in one of the mining tunnels-proper by the 13 levels. Score.). The lat bus stop that I had seen, however, was up at about level 7 of the refinery on a municipal road, and my feet/knees (more the knees) were not really interested in any more elevation change. Hoping to find another bus stop along the coastal highway, I started walking back to the train station...<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hiking to Für Elise & Standing in 1st Class</span><br /><br />But no bus station ever appeared. I passed by a flood diversion spillway (huge), past a cave of which I had been told about, past a small town wherein the garbage trucks blare out "Für Elise" to signal to the people that it's collection time (the sound at which the people obediently stand at the curbside waiting, garbage bags in-hand, for the small yellow trucks to accept their offerings. It made me feel a bit creeped out, as images from Soylent Green and other dystopic Pavlovian-abusing sci-fi depictions of the future popped into my head.<br /><br />I stopped in at a 7-11 on the highway—the first I'd seen that day—and bought a Pocari Sweat drink (which makes Gatorade hang its head in shame) before continuing onward. Then, there was a fork in the road, and one pointed to Keelung, while the other pointed toward Jinguashi (a town on the way back to the train station). It was getting dark, and the thought of walking along the side of either a mountain highway or a coastal one really didn't appeal to me, so in order to minimise the chance of taking a wrong turn, I went over to the gas station at the same corner and asked, while pointing in the alternate directions, "Rueifang?"<br /><br />The kind guy tried asking a clarifying question in Mandarin, to which I replied apologetically, "I don't understand."<br /><br />He lifted an index finger and aid, "Wait," while he rushed into the station & grabbed his mobile phone. After a minute of Mandarin conversation, he hands me the phone and said, "My teacher ask you."<br /><br />His teacher was on the other side of the line, and after a few moments, we figured that there indeed _was_ a bus station that would have the correct bus to take me back to the train station. And it just so happened to be directly across the street [who would have known that being able to read Chinese could've come in so handy? : ) ]. After a 20 minute wait, the bus came & about 2 km later, I was at the train station. But the adventure doesn't end there...<br /><br /><br />The next train to Taipei wouldn't leave for an hour, which gave me little else to do but wander the streets, looking at the night market & food courts before boarding the (now) 80 NTD train. I'm pretty sure that this 1st class train had reserved seats on it, because my ticket said on it (I think): Car 3, Seat 33. When I got to the car with my seat in it, there was a gaggle of uniformed old ladies who were sitting in mine & 3 other individual's seats. Not knowing Mandarin proved to be another issue in getting this sorted out, as only the Taiwanese lady whose seat had been usurped received a sitting location. The couple from Hong Kong & I were relegated to standing between cars right outside of the bathroom until we arrived back in Taipei.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-45185757544650625592009-04-19T06:38:00.001-06:002009-04-19T06:40:17.417-06:00Taiwan Adventures, III<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friday.</span></span><br /><br />Yesterday, I travelled along the North line of the MRT; today was discovering the East/West line. I decided to go see Longshan temple, because it was one of "the things" to do in Taipei, and then trace my way eastward to the city's centre, where Taipei 101 was located—I couldn't really visit this city and not go at least to the base of the world's tallest office building!<br /><br />Longshan temple has a 350ish year old history, whose story begins when a person hung an amulet on a tree & it apparently glowed brightly because of the god's power in that location. Since then, they've built a temple & they've increased the godly patronage from just that first single one to now dozens of worshipped statues and several incense altars. Every time I visit a temple or religious location where people pray to, sacrifice and in other ways worship idols, my heart cries within me. I cannot wrap my mind around the notion that a rock or that a piece of wood or even that a lump of baked mud can contain any power in which to help people. Granted, I can concede that these images are not the things worshipped, but the ideas behind these images and the spiritual forces involved there could in fact be very real. The depressing part is that you can see that the worshippers of these spirits are slaves: they give up their freedom, their resources, their very lives to kneel down & pay tribute to these things in the hope that their actions might bring about a positive impact on their lives—and if they become slack in their devotion, bad things will happen.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A Rabbit Trail (or snake tail)</span><br /><br />This reminds me somewhat of the recently installed sculpture in Bangkok's international airport: one that depicts a classic scene from the creation account in their religion—a blend between Buddhism and Hinduism. The scene shows a struggle between the serpent lord and demons against men and angels in the middle of the sea of milk. The serpent lord has himself wrapped around the mountain of the world, and the demons are tugging on his body in one direction, whereas the men and angels are pulling on the serpent's tail in the opposite direction. The resultant struggle causes turmoil in the sea of milk, which creates, somehow, the elixir of immortality. This elixir is held in the hand of Vishnu, who is dancing atop the mountain between the serpent lord & his demons, and the men & angels.<br /><br />Why I 'm reminded of this is because in Thailand, they not only worship images of Buddha, but they also pay tribute to local animistic spirits, and a set of the Hindu gods—including this serpent god, the king of the naga, whose minions are used as wards or protectors of the temples & holy places. Take that as you will, after some consideration. It gives me the chills every once in a while.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Back to Taipei</span><br /><br />Longshan was pretty interesting, albeit sad. There are some beautiful pieces of artwork created for the temple, like the intricately decorated columns which have been carved to resemble twisted vines on which birds perch. A couple golden altars of incense mark certain areas within the holy place, and in the outer courtyard, a man-made waterfall rushes down over rocks into a coy pool. Pretty nice.<br /><br />As I arrived there, I was met by an older gentleman without many teeth in his mouth who had been sitting/lying underneath a pavilion to stay out of the rain. When he saw me, he ran up and shook my hand, expressing several things in Mandarin of which nothing made sense to me (surprise, surprise). Eventually, I had to tear myself away from him to get to the temple, so when I returned to the MRT station, I purposefully avoided the pavilions, just in case another incident of the same likes would happen.<br /><br />Several stops down the MRT line, I jumped off to wander around the city centre. It was getting close to lunch-time (and when I saw close, I really mean 2 hours after), so I decided to take the advice of my Lonely Planet & check out Taipei 101's basement food court. Fantastic! It reminded me of North American food courts, but on a much higher scale / class. There were sushi bars, rib BBQs, subways, pizza joints, Italian cafés and a slough of indigenous eateries. Opting for something I couldn't get elsewhere, I grabbed a bowl of Shanghai beef noodle soup and supped till I was stuffed.<br /><br />The Mall on the first 5 floors of Taipei 101 is nothing really like anything I've seen in North America. The only thing that comes close is Siam Paragon at the heart of Bangkok: piles of boutique shops where only the crème de la crème could ever afford to drop some cash into the offers. For those of you familiar with Paragon, 101's mall makes the Thai equivalent look like a grubby strip mall on the bad side of the tracks.<br /><br />On the fifth flood of this mall is a cavernous hall that possibly could be used for expositions, but instead "housed" a few posh dessert shops and a top-tier tailor. Up the escalator from here was the entrance to the observation decks. I decided that I might as well take a peek of Taipei from 351 metres up in the air while I was here, so I dropped down 350 Taiwanese dollars ($12), jumped in the waiting line & then rocketed up 83 floors in like 20 seconds on the world's fastest elevator system (top speed is 61 km/h). The next two hours of my life were spent looking out from the tower through clouds and amidst the slight swaying of the floor, only to then proceed to walk by & see the building's 651 tonne passive sway damper and the walk through about 60 coral jewelry stores before being let down to the base of the behemoth building.<br />It's funny to me, knowing that the CN tower is much taller than Taipei 101, that all the signs in the observation deck proclaimed that this structure was the world's tallest—and then it struck me as even more humourous when they listed the top 10 tallest buildings in the world, and the CN Tower was conveniently ignored. Apparently, Canada's engineering marvel doesn't rise higher than the Empire State Building. Heck, the observation deck even cites the Space Needle, but it doesn't anywhere mention anything about the CN Tower. I wonder why... ; )<br /><br />It continued to rain for the rest of the day, so I headed back to my hostel to get some research and planning done for tomorrow's adventure to Gold Ecological Park.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-11140354882848481642009-04-16T07:44:00.000-06:002009-04-16T07:45:58.355-06:00Taiwan Adventures, IIEnd of Day 1.<br /><br />Let's call today a day of discovery, shall we?<br /><br />Originally, I started off the day by going to try & get my digital tour buddy (aka free cell phone for the duration of my visit), only to find the whole place cordoned off with a yellow ribbon that had what seemed like health warnings written on it (I now wish that I had taken a photo). Outside of the building, I saw some workers spraying water & scrubbing carpet. Why? Not exactly sure. I think that perhaps the office had been quarantined for disease, though what disease will forever be a mystery to me.<br /><br />I hopped onto a train at the MRT station, travelled a whopping 1 station to Taipei Main Station & debarked to pursue another train on another line of the MRT. Two more stops, and I left the subway in search of an English bookstore called Caves Books, which Lonely Planet recommended for me to find hiking guides of Taiwan (in English). As I walked, I wandered through an underground strip mall that connected two MRT stations; I passed out front one of Taipei's hospitals, only to "almost" get run down by an ambulance that was travelling 15 km/hr & making a turn into the decorative driveway toward the front of the hospital. The driveway was so well-manicured, in fact, that I didn't think the emergency vehicle would make its way up the lane toward the main entrance--I thought that the roadway was for something like limousines & maybe for taxis... Oh well, another Taiwanese person again came to my rescue & said, "Watch out, sir!"<br /><br />So, most cities that I've been through generally have pedestrian crossings at street level & then often also above street level. Taipei has the secondary crossings underground. Why? My current theory has something to do with the propensity for this region to suffer earthquakes: an underground tunnel probably withstands shaking earth better than an overhead concrete bridge--and if in the event of a structural failure, the tunnel would at least not send huge blocks of mass crashing down onto someone's poor vehicle.<br /><br />I turned the corner from the hospital & saw Caves Books across the street. The light changed just in time for me to not bother with the underground passage, and I made my dainty trip to the bookstore.... Only to find its doors shut. Alas! Two destinations already visited and _both_ were closed! Undaunted by this omen, I continued my Taipei trek back toward the MRT, through a back-alley, along a parkway & up to the next station on the line. Now, off to Beitou & its Di-Re valley!<br /><br />I got to Beitou & eventually oriented myself sufficiently to head in the right direction toward Di-Re / Hell Valley. Passing by the public hot-springs, which were closed at the time, I vowed to return later & see what they'd be like. So, on I go, up the side of a small mountain (for you Albertans, that "mountain" is a large hill), along alleys & up moss-covered staircases (some of which lead nowhere) until I see what's been making the air smell like the Banff Hot Springs since I got a whiff of the air when I was back on the MRT, 2 stations before arriving. Di-Re valley: a veritable geothermal experience, I was told. It was spectacular: spectacularly overrated. Talk about a letdown! _ALL_ I got to see was a big, steaming pool of water. No Taiwanese fumaroles, like what I read in my Lonely Planet. Nothing. Boo! Perhaps, however, there might have been more to see _in_ the Di-Re area, but can you guess what I found when I got there? Yep: closed. So far, Taipei was seeming like one big "we're not open" party.<br /><br />I wandered up the hills, through more alleys & up random staircases--one of which led me to an abandoned complex that had been destroyed by seismic activity (I took a picture of this one!), and the leas one led me up on to a local highway. For a good few minutes, I was considering the 5-km walk from where I was to a national park, but given that it was a "mountain" highway, where the roadway was hemmed in by concrete barriers and cliff faces, I decided to take the shorter route toward what the road sign called the "Taiwan Handicraft Museum." I thought to myself, "Might as well. I mean, it's on the way back & it's a different route & it might actually be interesting."<br /><br />I get there and guess what? Yep. Also closed. Renovations or something. I was now getting somewhat disheartened by the state of closure of this state--so far. I meandered down the road back to the MRT station & passed the local public hot springs. After reading the sign, it became clear to me that even after bringing all the stuff I thought I needed, I still couldn't go in: I didn't own a swimming cap. Merde. The one place that was open so far didn't admit me. *Sigh* back onto the MRT & off, now, to see the Grande Hotel.<br /><br />And Grande it was! Oh-my-goodness. It is without a doubt _the_ most spectacular/impressive hotel I have ever seen. Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise seem like Barbie houses in comparison. A twenty-seven floor, red, ark-of-the-covenant-shaped, Chinese decorated monster. It's so impressive in fact, that I'm seriously contemplating staying there just to say that I have. Wow.<br /><br />All the maps of Taipei that I've seen so far seem to want to make the city huger then it actually is. Even the Lonely Planet maps give you the illusion that what's there is actually much more spread out then in reality. <br /><br />I took a random hiking trail off the side of an MRT stop on my way to visit the Grande Hotel, and after perusing the map placard, I surmised that if I took the short loop, I'd probably be done within an hour, which would still give me enough time (and light) to check out the monster motel. Well, I accidentally took the long loop & completed the majority of the paths in the hiking park before hitting up the Grande... And it only burnt 30 minutes. Seriously, they need to find some better way to establish scale on their maps, since even the scales proper still give the illusion of great distance.<br /><br />Now, I'm again sitting in Taipei's biggest McD's, only because the other restaurants that I wanted to go to either a.) were packed with supping patrons; b.) selling food with menus--that didn't have pictures (I can't read Chinese); or c.) had tables too small to spread out big maps upon to plan my next part of the adventure.<br /><br />That begins tomorrow. Cya!Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-60371143979702233182009-04-16T07:35:00.001-06:002009-04-16T07:44:25.273-06:00Taiwan Adventures, I16/04/09<br /><br />I landed in Taipei yesterday, after a day's worth of preparation and travel. The leaving part of this journey was relatively uneventful. In the morning, I did my usual 7-11 run for ramen noodles and Coke Zero, saying hi to the Sev. Girls. They made some comment about my peculiar attire in Thai, as I was decked out for travel & hiking--an atypical raiment. After munching on my morning meal in the staff room & printing off some maps along with some other documents, I grabbed my things & jumped into a taxi at 9:30, destined for the airport.<br /><br />Songkran is amazing for me not because of the water fights, or the flowery shirts or the general party atmosphere that comes along with the festival. No, the best part of Songkran is the fact that there literally is an absence of vehicles on the roads! I managed to get to the airport in a little over 30 minutes. After my checking in & emigration paperwork, I had ninety minutes before my flight took off.... If it was going to take off on time.<br /><br />My flight to Taipei was delayed for some unknown reason. We passengers sat in the departure gate for an extra half-hour before the announcement to board was made. However, the delay in departure really didn't effect our arrival time very much: I still landed in Taipei at about 5 pm, and I exited the plane in a groggy state of mind, inadvertently forgetting my hat at my seat. I only discovered the missing chapeau from my noggin when I went through the "fever scanner" at the Taipei airport, when they had infrared scanners checking for body temperature extremes. A sign mentioned that you should remove your hat while going through, and I noticed at that point that my hat was already removed... Alas, once on the other side of the health screen, I couldn't return to the plane.<br /><br />Leaving the airport was remarkable: Taiwanese people are amongst the most helpful people I have ever met! I read the same statement in my Lonely Planet, but I didn't really think much of it until I was looking at thee airbus route map, trying to figure out which route I was supposed to take to get to the Taipei Hostel downtown. Within 40 seconds of me standing there, an elderly gentleman came up & asked me in rough English where I was going. I showed him the map & address I printed from the internet and he, after some reading, pointed to #33 and beckoned for me to follow him to the counter. After exchanging some Mandarin with the counter clerk, I was 90 Taiwanese dollars (about $3) poorer and one bus ticket richer.<br /><br />After getting off of the bus downtown, I followed my map & the directions to the hostel--but not without grabbing the attention of a lady who was walking in front of me, who said, "Come, follow me: I live right close to there." (I guess a white guy with luggage and a back pack really spells 'international hostel' quite clearly. Ha!)<br /><br />Taiwan has a program wherein travellers between the age of 15 & 30 are allowed to borrow a mobile phone from the government for up to 30 days--it's part of their youth travel initiative--and it just so happens that the Youth Hub, where these devices are lent out, was on the same block as the hostel: literally less than a minute's walk away. Among other close things of interest are the MRT station (apparently one of the world's best systems), about five 7-11s (just like Thailand!) and the Taiwan national headquarters for McDonald's, which also happens to have a flagship restaurant in the first two floors. Turns out that Taiwanese McDonald's is cheaper than Thailand's--perhaps the only instance of this happening. Everything else, so far, seems to be from twice up to four times as expensive as the comparable item in BKK.<br /><br />Today, my plans are to go see Beitou & the national park there, which has a feature called Di-Re Valley (which translates to Hell Valley), owing to the geothermal activity in that area. There's also a mountain peak & some hot springs at the park, which is within walking distance from one of the MRT stations. Sweet.<br /><br />I can see Taipei 101 by looking east down the street from the corner where McDonald's is located. It's not as impressive as I thought it would be--but perhaps when they say it's the tallest building in the world, they really mean the tallest office building. The CN tower would make 101 look like a shoebox.<br /><br />Well, now it's time for me to plan the rest of my day. Peace.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-89074147919205359772009-03-06T23:53:00.001-07:002009-03-07T00:03:01.253-07:00Song of PeaceEvery once in a while, I catch myself reminiscing about the time that I spent with a group of international missionaries in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk. It now has been 11 and a half years since I last saw any of them, but my memories of those people never seem to fade.<br /><br />I spent the first 5 weeks of my grade 11 year visiting / working with a tent-outreach ministry group called "Christ is the Answer", or Христос есть ответ, the Russian equivalent. The weeks' activities would include home, prison & hospital visits; street evangelism; evening church services in the big, circus-style tent and youth / child outreach activities in the smaller, adjacent tent. It sounds like a lot of activity, but while we were doing it, these ventures didn't ever really seem to feel consuming or draining. We always had enough time to sit and eat simple meals together, either right outside the small mess trailer or at a house-on-wheels of one of the families in the group. And there were Bible studies and corporate worship times and prayer meetings. It was awesome.<br /><br />I will never forget the people in that ministry. People like Timon—a Belgian boy (at that time) who was my age—his sister, Ortja & their parents who spoke English, Flemish and some Russian. Their family oversaw the ministry's activities. Or people like Oleg, the man who used to work for the Russian mafia but then found Jesus. Sasha, the college-aged guy who hung around the camp with us in his free time; the little blonde-haired boy, Max; Margarita, the little girl from (if I remember correctly) Latin America and her parents. The two or three women with the name Natasha, one of whom was a national-grade athlete. And, of course, the dozens more whose names have begun to fade from my mind, but whose faces are permanently emblazoned into my memory.<br /><br />Their lives were simple—the families lived in trucks or small campers/trailers, while the single team members lived inside a converted tractor trailer container: where freight once was stacked on palettes, now bunk upon bunk was found stacked one on the other to accommodate those who were serving God in this area. I lived in the "guesthouse"—a passenger van whose seats were removed to & replaced with a plywood plank and a thin mattress—along with another Canadian fellow, Marty. There was just enough room to sit up & crawl out of the front doors, but it was ample enough for our needs.<br /><br />While serving with these people; while eating borsch or toast with jam or even sala as the hornets buzzed about our heads, devouring the few meager crumbs that escaped our maws; while praying or even while visiting the market on daily errand runs, I have never felt a stronger sense of community and kinship elsewhere. They are, to date, the only group of people over whom I've shed tears when I left, knowing that I probably would never see them on this earth again. They were—and are—a group of Christians that inspire me, and even today, still encourage me with the knowledge that true Christian community can be had on this earth, and that true brotherly kindness and love can exist—even in close proximity for extended periods of time among people from all corners of the world. Their exceptionally wielded secret was this: they knew Jesus Christ, and they knew that following Him with 100% of their beings was the best way to live. And they knew that Christ is the Answer: that Christ is the Answer to all of the questions that life presents.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-89228212294128961302008-11-29T04:35:00.001-07:002008-11-29T04:37:50.573-07:00SparkyOne of the biggest lessons—or things or ideas or whatever you would want to call it—that God has been teaching me for these past two years through my time in Thailand is the complexity & the fervency of His love for me. I'm of the understanding that we, as human beings, typically take the love of God for granted & perhaps we really don't comprehend what our Creator is doing with us all the time. Slowly, and bit by bit, I've started to come to a greater understanding of this thing called "love" and of the Supreme Being who defines Himself as the very same concept.<br /><br />Now, surely there are many ways that God could teach people—even me—about how He loves: He could shower us with blessings; He could have a divine symphony composed for us & display it in dazzling splendour in the skies, making the brilliant display of stars look not much more extravagant than a paltry pauper's burlap bed sheets. He could even reveal the pervasive truth of His love in the scriptures, making the concepts & the instances of His undying, unconditional love so apparent that even a preschooler could have a complete understanding; or He could manifest Himself in physical form(s) declaring & displaying His love for us in concrete ways. Instead, for me to come to the deeper realisation of His love, God gave me a student. Her Thai nickname loosely translates to "Sparkles;" in this blog entry, I'll refer to her as Sparky.<br /><br />Sparky isn't really your average high school student. Granted, she does many of the same things as your typical teenager: hanging out with friends on the school grounds before & after school, doodling on paper or desks or whiteboards, living online in social community websites like Facebook & Hi5 and chatting up a storm on MSN or listening to music on her MP3 mobile phone. What makes her different from most, though, is that she's a dedicated student. Rarely would she ever complain about homework assignments all the while her classmates burst into a cacophony of moans and groans resembling "too much" (as if 12-18 questions are too much!). And every day, you could count on her bright eyes & warm smile to greet you as she slid into your classroom, glad to see you & anxious to grow/know. In all honesty, it was her warm, enthusiastic demeanour and a similar attitude from one of her close friends (his name loosely translates to "Little Fish") that kept me from losing my mind & capitulating to the negative/hostile teaching environment that I had found myself in last year.<br /><br />Because of her warm demeanour & her eagerness to learn, we formed a pretty good bond by the end of my first year of teaching. We'd hang out & talk after school, and when there were social crises in her life, she'd come to me to talk about them for support & advice. I had never known someone who had ever been so delighted to see me even after a separation of less than 24 hours—and it still blows my mind to this day that someone could ever be so excited at my presence. Earlier this year, before I left to return to Canada for the summer, she told me that she considered me her big brother & that it was nice to have someone like that in her life (as she's the oldest in her family).<br /><br />Man, it is an amazing feeling to know that you are missed, and to know that you are appreciated, liked, looked up to, trusted and leaned upon. The fullness & the satisfaction that such a position brings just make one's heart sing with joy. I can totally understand why God desires our love & our attention: because love & attention is awesome!<br /><br />Of course, things rarely ever stay the same. Relationships are dynamic, and many factors play into how one person interacts with another. By July of this year, the second month of our school year, I came to realise that I had grown a genuine love for Sparky—not the "in love" love: the type of love that a father or a guardian or big brother or something like that would feel toward the person they were caring & looking out for. Perhaps this was my first taste of what bona fide {agape} love is like. I mean, I know how friends love friends in community & I can begin to comprehend the complexities & intricacies of spousal love, but I don't think I have ever really understood or even experienced true "brotherly love" in its fullness before this year. It's a type of love that is deeply seated in one's soul, where the other's good is longed for and where a desire to support, uplift & develop the other—regardless of the personal cost—supersedes all other motivations: a love that persists & pervades whether the other chooses to reciprocate or not. It is a powerful perspective, resilient and resistant to environmental conditions that would seek its decline. And for the first time in my life, I understood. I began to realise that how I approached Sparky in my position of love could very well be a decent approximation of how God approaches and loves me.<br /><br />Indeed, relationships are dynamic. I enjoyed a high level of reciprocation from Sparky for a good long time until a boy came into her life. It seems—and probably rightly so—that her romantic interests consume more of her attention & time than do her non-romantic ones (which is quite in keeping with Gen 2:24). I genuinely missed hanging out with her & all the time we spent together, but I also knew that such decrease was an inevitable part of life. I learned what it felt like to "let go" and still love from a distance. She still felt the same way toward me: she still valued me & looked to me for support, but there was someone else now in her life that was providing her something that I could not supply.<br /> <br />I can't but help wanting to draw a parallel between our relationship with God in heaven and our own personal desires to be in intimate relationships with members of the opposite sex. Now, I'm not implying that I really know the full extent of how God loves us, nor do I begin to suppose that I act just like God does in my personal relationships (Ha! If I could only ever come close to a shadow of what He is like, I would consider myself to have arrived). Nonetheless, I have come to a deeper understanding of how intricate & complex God's love for us truly must be: if I still loved Sparky from the depths of my soul & missed her as she grew in a different kind of relationship with somebody else, I can begin to understand a little bit better why God created Adam alone in the Garden at the beginning & I can begin to understand why Jesus refers to the related concept in Mat 19:11-12 and why Paul echoes this in I Cor. 7. Love thrives in intimacy & it thrives in closeness, but the condition of the human being requires differentiated relationships, each of which satisfies different aspects of the complexity that is love. <br /><br />Did God want Adam to be in relationship with Him and Him alone? Probably; but being his Creator, he knew that "it [was] not good for man to be alone," and here we witness God's first sacrifice for humanity—the provision of 'space' in the God/Man relationship so that human intimacy & human community could develop. Did it suck for God? I'll be so bold as to assert a strong "most likely." Who likes to let the people that they love spend more time away from them? I mean, really!<br /><br />As Sparky's relationship developed with her newfound beau, a distance grew between us... But it didn't really stop growing, and this distancing in relationships wasn't isolated only to me: her other close friends soon began to feel alienated, "left behind," and as a result, hurt. It occurred to me in this point of our relationship that, perhaps God feels the same way when we forget to pay Him any attention. Perhaps the Lord of love feels hurt & neglected when we tromp about in our busy lives, choosing to meet & interact with others, choosing to spend that extra bit of more time at work or at the mall or at the beach instead of meeting one-on-one with Him to talk and catch up on things and—truly—to maintain that beautiful relationship that He desires to have with us.<br /><br />One day, in the midst of this phase, Sparky was feeling the effects of the filial alienation rather acutely, as it seemed that her closest friends were now giving her "the cold shoulder." After letting her talk to me about it for a good while, she recognised what was happening & admitted that she herself missed spending time with those others who were important in her life. Sparky was presented with the concept & the need of socio-relational balance. In fact, she admitted to recognising this quandary a week previous & had begun to address the situation, but she was just surprised at the extent to which some of her friends felt left out or cut off. I'm glad to say that since then, her relationships have mostly righted themselves & restoration has led to progressing development.<br /><br />One day a few weeks ago, I was asked to be party in a cover-up. As we were waiting to meet her mother at a grocery store after watching a movie that afternoon, Sparky turned to me & asked if I would tell her mother that I had invited her beau to come along with them that afternoon (which, alas, I did not, and which, alas, gave me a hint at the notion that perhaps Sparky's parents didn't approve of her relationship with said boy). I had to let her down. I apologised & told her that I could not lie for her. As a result, her mother discovered the boy's presence. Sparky knew that she had disappointed her mother, which, in turn, made her feel crappy.<br /><br />Now, Sparky knows that I would quite literally lay down my life for her, and I think that maybe from that knowledge came her request for me to participate in the cover-up. I'm not exactly sure, but I could imagine that because of my answer, she may have felt let-down. Often, there have been times in my life when I have asked God for certain things to benefit me or to improve my quality of living (at least from my perspective) & quite often, the Lord refuses my requests. There have been times in my life where this has seriously caused me much distress and pain in my relationship with Him: God allowing my best friend's father to die of cancer last year, for example, even though I know full well that He could have wiped the disease clean away from the man's body in a second. Other times, the refusal of my request causes me less duress, but there still remains a touch of frustration: finding a suitable female tends to be my most often denied request. I guarantee you, though, that it still produces frustration in my soul :).<br /><br />Does God want to hurt me? Does he desire to see me frustrated & upset? Probably (I'd bet it's more like "definitely") less even than I desire to see Sparky unhappy, hurt or upset. Quite honestly, I hurt when she hurts: it's a unique situation in my life as, to date, no other person's emotional state causes my own to resonate with this type of intensity. Consequently, having a Father who "likes to give [us] good gifts," I would imagine that He is similarly moved when His good gifts result in our momentary disappointment, frustration or upset.<br /><br />A situation has happened in the recent past which has created a strain in relationship with Sparky. There was a direct trespass of stated boundaries during one of the school's activities, which put me in the position of having to work with the school's administration to implement disciplinary measures. What's worse is that I was the first authority to be made aware of the transgression, and as such, I was involved in "catching" the group of students party to the trespass.<br /><br />After initially talking to the students, I was asked if I was disappointed. I wasn't really. I was saddened, but I knew the characters of those involved, and to be disappointed implies a discrepancy between perceived & displayed character. This situation didn't speak so much of character as it did of the foolish mistakes children make by not taking time to think through their actions. I was saddened, and the nature of the transgression was one that resulted in the shaking of trust.<br /><br />Because love builds itself on the foundation of the person's heart, my approach to Sparky barely changed. It is character that dictates one's actions, not actions that dictate character. This, of course, implies that transient activities are more likely a result of mistakes or poor planning than they are a result of fundamental shortcomings in the person itself. That notwithstanding, I nonetheless was party to the apprehension, investigation and discipline of the transgression at hand, and up until today, Sparky has altogether avoided me.<br /><br />Again, I can appreciate the feelings of hurt and possibly betrayal inherent to her position. Most of the time, people do not believe that they are doing something wrong when they are doing it, and—especially if they are convinced that they indeed did nothing wrong—this holds even more true in youth, when wisdom & understanding have yet to become fully mature (do they ever?). I can't help but think that these experiences are just tastes of what parenthood eventually will be like (if not for me, than perhaps for you): Transgressions, whether deliberate or accidental, still remain transgressions, and justice mandates discipline (as does the fostering of integrity & character).<br /><br />Nobody, I think, is pleased with the one who wields and implements the staff of instruction. Discipline rarely is a pleasant experience, and the feelings associated with punishment tend to generalise to the punisher—if even only for a short time. I'll be honest: I can't think of a single time when I've been punished where I turned to the disciplinarian and said, "Thank you. What you're doing is awesome." However, in hindsight, I have come to appreciate and respect those who made the effort to correct me for my transgressions.<br /><br />Now, because of the ethereal nature of God and His relationship to us, it is very difficult for me to identify specific instances in my life where God Himself came & "brought down the law" upon me. He did, though, give me rather strict parents, and from them I have learned to be quite self-disciplined, particular & bent toward the pursuit of excellence in all of my activities. I was never pleased with my mother or father after they issued punishments, and those unhappy feelings would always tend to linger. This, perhaps, is the closest approximation that I have of what it may be like when God issues punishment in our lives: perhaps he uses others to administer in proxy? Or maybe providential circumstances—persons aside—also work in the service of divine correction? I'm not sure. What I am sure of, though, is that in this situation where it was necessary for me to administer discipline, I knew that my actions would bring about life and development. Conversely, I also knew that my actions would bring pain and hurt to Sparky. Inasmuch as she experienced the negative repercussions of being party to transgression, I in turn suffered—though my suffering was the result of compassion and empathy. I never believed my parents —or any grown up, for that matter—when they said, "This hurts me as much as it hurts you;" I now understand. I couldn't, therefore, possibly begin to understand the amount of pain, compassion & grief that God must have experienced when, not only was he compelled to punish mankind for its transgressions, but furthermore He took up those transgressions and placed them upon His very Self. Not ending there, the God of this universe proceeded to issue punishment for mankind's transgressions on the substitutionary target: Himself. Talk about feeling all sides of the situation. Grief at seeing the rules being broken (grief from knowing that the broken rules would hinder positive development), grief of knowing how to correct the problem (discipline), grief at administering discipline on those He loves, grief at embodying every single transgression against His law that ever existed and ever will exist, grief of enduring the punishment. Goodness me: I would never have been able to appreciate the extent of this sacrifice of love before experiencing what I have in the past few weeks. I may have come to this realisation some other way in the future, but I am glad that God is revealing more & more of his love & its awesome scope to me even in my youth.<br /><br />I have experienced much distance from Sparky in the past couple weeks. This, in all honesty, has caused sadness in my heart, and the idea has come into my head on more than one occasion that perhaps it was I who did something wrong. However, in discussing the situation with my peers and the others involved, the consensus is that our activities as authorities were and are correct. It pains me to know that Sparky has deliberately chosen to distance herself from me, but it reminds me yet again that such a perspective could very well be (and I think "is very well") held by our Father in heaven when we choose also to remove ourselves from His presence.<br /><br />I heard from Sparky a little over a week ago. She told me that she was sorry for the distance, citing that she felt awkward around me. I can totally understand her sentiments, and although there's nothing I'd like more than to talk to her & figure out what happened in her brain in these past few weeks, I recognise that there is nothing beneficial in forcing one's presence on another. I let her know that I'd be there for her, waiting until the time she's ready to come back presents itself.<br /><br />Now, forgive me for beating what might seem to be a dead dog, but I again am brought to a clearer understanding of how God loves me and how He interacts with me. Often times, I distance myself from my heavenly Father, feeling let down or hurt—or even unworthy—to be in His presence. I can begin to comprehend why He lets some people to their own devices instead of presenting Himself in absolute splendour & glory, forcing our hands to come back to His throne & bow down at His feet. The human heart is a tender thing and it needs to be dealt with gently. In any relationship where love is the primary motivation, I have come to learn that the stronger party must bear the hardship in service of the lesser, and that through this, restoration and growth result. Laying aside what I want for what is best, considering the circumstances, is a difficult thing. But I know it must be done. And I will continue in it till the flowers of patience bear the fruit of restoration and redemption.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">In sum:</span><br /><br />What I have learned about God and His love through my time with Sparky is this: That God truly is a God of love, and that His love is so much more far-reaching and multi-faceted than I ever before imagined. I have had a taste of what it might be like to be one who gives and supports and is caught up in complete love for another person without any ulterior motive. I have come to understand how genuine love doesn't always equal happiness or joy, but how it often equals sacrifice and discomfort. I have come to know that despite the sacrifice and discomfort, there is something so much more powerful and so much more awe-inspiring in this concept of love which compels one to give freely & sacrificially to an other, even when it hurts & even if no compensation is ever returned. I am so glad that God loves me, and I can't even begin to fathom how full and rich His love must be in that He was willing to forsake all of His power and all of His holiness to become the vehicle of sin in place of me so that there could be restoration and redemption; that He chose to do this regardless of whether He'd receive compensation from me or not. That is crazy love, and that is amazing.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Thank You, Lord, for bringing Sparky into my life that I might grow to know You more. I stand in humble awe of You, reminded that while I am yet unworthy of what You've done, You love me nonetheless. Thank you.</span>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-61888799059242237892008-11-01T04:17:00.001-06:002008-11-29T04:39:10.815-07:00Where Honey Comes FromPit<br />Pitter pat<br />Pit<br />pitter patter pitter<br />This<br />This or that<br />This<br />this or that or neither<br />Eyes on the roof<br />Eyes on the floor<br />Eyes in and out--all around--except on the door.<br /><br />Open the door and you will see<br />Open your eyes and you will believe<br />Open your heart and you will receive<br /><br />The wonderful mess of inconsistency which clouds the vanes of straightfor'd reality, leaving us only with what we can be<br /><br />As we buzz all around in this allergy cloud,<br />Kicking and stirring up bollen of pollen<br />Scooping up every last one that was fallen,<br />Til we're drenched in the dust of a fine yellow shroud<br /><br />That causes a histamine overreaction which comes into conflict with yellow dust fasion, but what else is there to make sure that we fit in?<br /><br />Seriously.<br /><br />The cloud rends.<br />Its grief wells up and whelms o'er,<br />Cleansing the skies with its self-sacrifice.<br /><br />And pooling on roofs and seeping through cracks,<br />The cloud guts will fall til someone reacts<br />To the pat<br />Pitter pat<br />Pat<br />Pitter patter pitter.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-25703156439445365792008-08-10T01:13:00.003-06:002008-08-10T01:18:07.318-06:00BlogPsalm 6<p align="center"><i>Oh Lord, You are awesome beyond understanding.<br />Beyond comprehension are you great and good, my God.<br />I will exalt and I will magnify your name from the depths of my soul to the height of my voice.<br />Let your precepts be extolled by all generations in all the corners of the earth,<br />For you, oh Lord, are God.<br />You, oh Lord, are the lifter of weary hearts and the encourager of forlorn souls.<br /><br />Let the skies resound with songs of praise to my King!<br />Let the clouds reflect your majesty as they bring<br />Showers of jubilee upon your people.<br />Above all things may your name be praised.</i></p><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />More BlogPsalms can be found <a href="http://lucid-elusion.blogspot.com/search/label/blogpsalm">here</a>, or by clicking on the <i>blogpsalm</i> tag below (if on my blog & not a feed).</span>Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-64616036734620861592008-05-19T10:10:00.000-06:002008-05-19T10:12:38.997-06:00Remember your HeritageI caught myself having to swallow a few tears the other day while sitting in the movie theatre, and I doubt that there was anyone else around who was so moved as I was at this point in the film I was watching, for to most, it would seem to be a rather detached, unrelatable moment, yet for me the imagery resonated deep within my soul.<br /><br />Four children had just been swept away from the monotony of their everyday lives back into a magical world where they once had spent their entire lives… until, by the magic of the story, they were returned to their original world where only hours had passed. Upon their return to the magical world, these four children discovered that centuries had passed in this other kingdom: the castle that they had once ruled from now was a pile of decaying rubble, looking long forgotten. However, a hidden passageway in one of the remaining walls led them to a secret chamber, where these children had stored their prized treasures—gifts given to them from their sovereign, the creator of this magical world.<br /> As I watched these four children walking to four separate chests, each with a marble statue of their former selves standing behind the individual boxes, I couldn't help but be reminded of the opening sequence of the film, where we were shown snippets of their "ordinary" lives. In one of these, we watch as the oldest of the four gets caught in a rough altercation with several other chaps, and after the scuffle ends, he remarks on how he hates being treated like a kid. "But we are kids," said one of his sisters, to which he replied, "Yes, but we weren't always."<br /><br />Now the director's brilliance really shines through here, as the whole gambit of lighting, framing, picturisation and the rest of those toys at any good director's disposal come to impress the contrast of what they presently were—as children in England—with what they formerly had been: kings and queens of a glorious nation. As each opened their individual chest, a wave of remembrance churned through the characters (or at least in my experience/take of the film) when they became reacquainted with their treasures from a time that felt so long ago…<br /><br />Yes, it was at this point—and a few others within the first 30 minutes of the film—that I had to fight back tears and swallow the hefty lump lodged in my throat. I was deeply moved, having been reminded of how these characters' situations were ever so much similar to mine (and possibly yours).<br /><br />I am told that I am royalty, heir to the throne of Heaven—well, actually, co-heirs with the firstborn Prince of this kingdom called Creation. This firstborn prince and his Father decided to adopt me and vest in me the same authority as they have, insomuch as I remain or entwine myself in the character and presence of this supreme ruler. I am told that this King and his Son have brought their kingdom near to this world that we currently see, but that their kingdom is neither of this world nor fully made known yet. I am told that "for a little while" I'm to be living in this world as a foreigner, all the while trying to recruit others into citizenship in my adopted Father's kingdom—for all who are citizens acquire the rights, authority & privileges inherent to co-regency with the Firstborn.<br /><br />Yet often I forget this. Often I get lulled into a sense of "that's a great idea or memory, but how much of it really effects my daily life?" Often I feel like this image of me being a prince of Creation is a nice thing or a good memory, and I shove it to the back of my brain because in this world, it really seems to not have much of a bearing on how things progress—much like the eldest child in the previously mentioned film, wishing that he were treated less like dirt in a kingdom that wasn't his. And often, I feel as if I act like the oldest sister, regarding the former kingdom as a thing gone by: a memory that makes her feel good, but one that really has little bearing on where she is right now.<br /><br />Yet, as they open the chests, they remember their heritage. As each child lifts the lid on each of their treasure boxes, a recollection of who they are and what their true identity is floods back. They are not helpless, ordinary little people, trapped in a position where they can do nothing. They are kings and queens, endowed with gifts of power from their only Lord, the Creator of this magical land in which they sit as royalty.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-13388802070540449052008-03-11T07:47:00.000-06:002008-03-11T07:49:05.916-06:00Fruit SaladFumaroles and watermelons floating through the sky<br />Peppermint & cinnamon have stopped to ask for apple pie<br />Rollie pollie butterfly stops stooped atop a flow’red heart<br />While zebra looks along forlorn, wishing so much he were a tart<br /><br />Bumblebees and bubblegum fill ears and hands and throats and pants<br />While apples cooked in sugar cane parade along in lavish dance<br />Shiny orange glimm’rs a trance with tangerine twist lemonade<br />All in the eyes of little limes sat perched atop bolts of brocade.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-84802475994505180672008-03-07T22:12:00.003-07:002008-03-07T22:34:35.358-07:00No more apologiesI'm a retard. This morning, I realised how much of a fool I have been over the past year & a bit, and looking back at myself, I can't believe how stupid I've been. Well, no more. The charade ends today.<br /><br />This morning, it occurred to my by random chance that I have not really been letting me by myself. Why? Well, there's a wide range of factors:<br />•New job; trying to learn the ropes<br />•New country; trying to learn the language & the culture<br />•New community; trying to feel out what other people are like (though, to be honest, this one shouldn’t really affect the way I interact with people, but it does cause me to be a bit more reserved than usual—I'm prone to being shy at first)<br />•Huge responsibility; I'm directly in charge of forming the minds of 20 teenagers.<br /><br />All of these are well and good; I wouldn't really be writing this blog post if that was all. Instead, there's this one last nagging one that deserves enlightenment. For the past year, it came to my attention that I've been sacrificing who I am in service of making other people feel more comfortable or giving them the appearance of what I think they want to see. I've been a social people-pleaser.<br /><br />How'd this realisation come about? Well, last night, as I was out with a bunch of people, I couldn't help but notice after the second hour of conversation that there was no effort to include me at all. Granted, the location was a bit noisy, so the whole thing was very difficult to hear—in fact, I think that I only caught about 15% of what was being said the whole night. So, what you're probably thinking right now is something like, "Well, why didn't you try to hear better? Like move closer or ask them to speak up?" Well, I did. After several gestures of straining to hear, and after several phrases like, "Pardon me?" "Sorry?" "I can't hear you," "What did you say?" it became clear to me that nothing was going to change.<br />The conversation was centred around the opposite end of the table, to no surprise. At my end, behind me there was a raucous crowd of Thai people drinking, laughing and smoking away. However, even before this crowd came, the conversation tended to be opposite-heavy, and this wouldn't have bees so bad if the people at that end of the table would have spoken loud enough for me to hear what the fuck they were saying. But did my requests for an increased volume come to fruition? Nope. Not a chance. As soon as they repeated the last phrase spoken (which once in a while was directed toward me, and when I didn't respond, they raised their voices and looked at me quizzically), the general tone of sub-audible volumes took over, leaving me afloat in the conversational doldrums.<br />This, too, wouldn't have been so bad, were I have not been told to go sit at that very end of the table, so as to accommodate one of my associates' personal desires. And this morning, that got me thinking. Looking over the past year, it has become apparent to me that I have sacrificed me personal well-being in service of making others feel more welcome, more at home & helping others achieve their goals. In light of this, I expected that a certain level of reciprocation would play out, but it doesn't seem the case. Instead, earlier in the past week, when I mentioned to one of my associates a situation where their reciprocated well-being would have helped me out, the individual turned the other direction and began to make the situation in question increasingly frustrating.<br /><br />And I'm tried of it. I'm tired of being the calm, unseeming individual who's bolstering the initiatives of others when they in turn show not even a bit of gratitude (much less reciprocation). I'm tired of being walked over. Tired of suppressing who I am to help others feel more at ease or comfortable—and THIS may not even be a reality: it could just be my perception—maybe I am just subduing myself so as to give people what I think they want.<br /><br />And that is the tragedy of the story. I've learned many moons ago that people don't like a people-pleaser. People like individuals who are strong in their convictions, strong in their personality, strong in their carriage. Ergo, in light of this realisation that I've been retardedly smothering my own life, I've decided to give the world the finger and act as I please; true to self, true to image, true to who I am in Christ. No more of this effingly irritating subduction. The game is over, the wet blanket's coming off & I'm ready to shine in brilliant glory, even if that scares some people away. And if that offends you? Tough. Go cry in your little corner until you're big enough to realise that the world's not all about you.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-84784774805871170122008-01-27T03:08:00.000-07:002008-01-27T18:00:31.341-07:00Some Things Are Timeless…I was sifting through the files on my PDA today to try & allay my boredom, and I stumbled across this nice poetical gem I wrote in 26/March/05. I thought I'd share it with you all. Enjoy.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Untitled, March 26.<br /><br /></span>What do you do when you look at your shoe<br />When you dance in the moonlight and breathe in rich air<br />How do you move when the one that you love<br />Lies hid in the folds and the locks of time's hair?<br />No searching, no climbing, no building, no flying<br />Nor money, nor power, nor wisdom or care<br />Will placate the burning desire in your soul<br />For that one other person, who'd complete your pair.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7417643.post-53158334768789492312007-10-15T05:02:00.000-06:002007-10-15T05:09:08.223-06:00Soular Sleeping Bags<strong>Wresting Rest from the Rest of it All </strong><br /><strong><br /></strong>The sun is beginning to set, yet the battle continues to rage on. You see your comrades brandish their bloodied swords, belaying the enemy's advances. It seems to be a stalemate, with both forces suffering the effects of fatigue and diminished visibility as twilight quickly begins to overtake the valley.<br /><br />You have been warring for what seems like an eternity, even though the battle really only started at dawn. Nonetheless, your whole body aches. Cuts, contusions and blisters pock your body despite the robust body armour weighing you down like a terrestrial anchor. A weary foe advances towards you, hoping that the remnants of his strength will overpower the little energy you have left. You groan on the inside as he approaches, knowing that if you don't push yourself to the very edge, you will die—nonetheless, you make no indication of this on the outside, lest your enemy notices and is encouraged by your weakness. Conserving your strength, you prepare for the assault, and just as soon as the opposing warrior raises his sword over his head, you hear two different horns—one coming from each side of the battlefield. Both are understood as signals for retreat.<br /><br />Your swords clang upon his impact, and you know by the force of this blow that your enemy really had no intention of fighting further. His weapon being deflected, he takes a step backwards, raising the steel blade to a defensive position as slowly, he takes a few steps backward. Relieved by this change in events, you yourself begin to take a couple of backward steps before turning around to begin the arduous trudge to the where the army is camped, just over those hills to the east.<br /><br />It's been a long day. You're exhausted and the only thing that you want to do when you get to the camp is take off this heavy plate armour and collapse onto your bed. The washbasin can wait til the morning. Having arrived, you disrobe and crumple into your bed, falling asleep even before your head comes to rest on the matress.<br /><br />But what if? What if there were no guards, no sentries, no watch towers to keep a look out for approaching enemies? What if all of your comrades were mercenaries, willing to turn the instant that the opposite side made an offer that outbid your side's agreement? What if there was no one around you that you oculd trust to keep you safe as you recouperated from the day's long battle?<br /><br />You probably wouldn't sleep very well. You probably wouldn't get much rest. You probably would spent the night in a state of half-sleep,as you kept your guard up & kept your senses alert to the slightest hint of anything approaching your "resting" self.<br /><br />Of course, you probably would die in the next day's onslaught due to fatigue & demoralisation, so why bother trying to keep yourself safe during the night when you're pretty sure that you're gong to die the next day because of it? Vigilence, perhaps. A sense of self-preservation that hopes to defy the inevitable because maybe, just <em>maybe</em> you can beat those insurmountable odds and live an extra day.<br /><br />Every living thing needs rest, even if we try to overlook this necessity in life. Plants average 12 hours of rest from their labours each day. Humans require an average of eight hours of sleep every night to "recharge" sufficiently for the next day's challenges. Bears, frogs, insects, reptiles and other select members of Animalia all go into hibernation for about a third of the year (bears technically engage in torpour, but that's not really the important part, now is it?). The human heart is at rest more often than it is beating. Even God Himself rested on day number seven.<br /><br />But what happens when we cannot find rest? Each of us, for certain, can accommodate to certain stressors and demands upon the physical body, but ultimately, we fall asleep whether we want to or not. This takes care of the physical requirements of rest; but what about all t hose other facets of human existence? What about social rest? Emotional rest? Mental rest? Spiritual rest? These things (unfortunately) do not resolve themselves through sleep or another unescapable physiological process: we can push these things aside for pretty much as long as we want to. However, ignoring these fatigues does not resolve the defecits.<br /><br /><br /><strong>What's in a Sleeping Bag?</strong><br /><br />I'd like to assume that every animal that is capable has some form of refuge, some form of hiding place yto which it can let its guard down and rest. Humans, I think, are a bit more complex, though. It isn't really a place that humans need to get to; it's a state of mind. We need to feel safe despite the surroundings. We need to feel protected regardless of what goes on around us. I could be six inches away from a furioius grizzly bear and feel perfectly safe—provided that there was a steel cage between us. I could be sitting right next to a venting tank filled with 60 pounds of liquified petroleum gas while playing with a lighter, provided that that venting propane is being shunted through a regulated control valve and directed towards a burner in my barbecue. I could feel delightfully at ease while scaling an 80 foot cliff with jagged rocks baring their sharp edges at the base taunting me, were I to fall, as long as I had tethered myself to a safety rope as part of my ascent procedures. Mind you, I could be sitting at home, buried in my sleeping bag nice and cozy warm, all the while being scared crapless because I was certain that the boogieman was going to eat me.<br /><br />We all have "places" that we find rest. For some of us, we find rest in large groups of people who all know our names & welcome us by name. For others, rest is found by a campfire in the middle of the woods. It could be found on the highways as you weave in and out of the speeding vehicles. One could even find rest at a casino, at a bar, at church, in a café, with family, with friends, with strangers, with a book. Perhaps you're one of those people who finds rest in doing stuff—hobbies, sports, activities, etc. Each of us has an escape. Each of us also probably has more than one.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Building Forts</strong><br /><br />It would be sweet if we, as Christians, could always model ourselves after Biblical precepts, wouldn't it? I mean, David says that he finds his refuge in the Lord. Jesus admonishes us to come to Him to get rest, all the while imploring us to abide in Him so that we may be one with eachother in Him as He is one with the Father. Oh, to be perfect... It would be nice.<br /><br />I seem to find myself usually getting into the situation where life gets in the way of this "taking refuge" in God. Busyness and obligation often eat up my daily time until I have nothing left—not even enough time to devote to more than 6 hours of sleep per night. Teaching in Thailand is very much this way, and to be honest, I hate it. I work too much. I have so much work to get accomplished on a daily basis that my ability to commune with God—much less anyone else—is essentially a pipe-dream. Not really a good place to be in especially when you're supposed to be doing ministry work, eh? So, I do what I can—I replace my ideal place of refuge with a crappy substitute. Since I know that I don't have the time to spend with God, I default to me carnal desires—finding rest in accomplishment & excellence (believe you me, this is a bad combination to have: too much work + finding "rest" in doing a good job only ends up with you doing more than too much work, if that were even possible. Unfortunately, I am myself and I can't see beyond my own perspective as to what is required and as to what is mere "excellence" striving). Believe you me, this substitute works about as well as replacing the cream cheese in cheesecake with axel grease. However, it's only after you've gone through the fire that you realise how much the substitute sucks in comparison—while you're in the midst, you cannot even begin to appreciate how feeble your scarecrow guard is against any lurking enemies while you sleep.<br /><br />So what about guards? What about community? What about being one with others, striving towards the goal of community with Him? It takes work. It takes trust; it takes faith in the others. Community is essential in labour-intensive ministry, I am finding.<br /><br />But what happens when you do not see your fellow soldiers? What happens when you feel alone & deserted precisely because you're so heavily engaged in the battle? I don't know. Maybe it's a lie. Maybe it's misinformation fed by agents of the enemy precisely formulated to keep community from congealing.<br /><br />The more & more that I think about it, the more & more I begin to realise that community doesn't happen by accident. Forts & garrisons don't self-assemble; they do not spring up out of the ground ready to go. No, they require foresight, planning and purposive striving—sapping what little strength each individual has left in the hope that the meagre investment will produce bountious returns.<br /><br />But how does it start? Well, you gotta let your guard down. You've got to let others be the sentries, be the watchmen, be the ones armour-clad. You need to let go of your perosnal safety, to trust in the ability of others to do this for you, to lie there, vulnerable and naked. If you don't, you're going to die in the battle tomorrow; no one can keep the vigil and find rest at the same time.<br /><br />And what about finding rest in God? Same deal. Are you willing to let go of what you think is important and necessary just so that you can spend enough time to be with Him to find the rest that He's wanting to give? Do you trust Him enough to act as a sufficient guard, allowing you to complete the tasks that He has assigned for you...<br /><br />Or would you rather lie on the ground in a state of fitful half-sleep, jumping to the "ready" as soon as you perceived anything that closely resembled an offensive advance, essentially guaranteeing your slaughter in the next day's tour de force?<br /><br /><br />It's up to you: sleep, or die trying.Lucid Elusionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15054313659965931583noreply@blogger.com0