March 2002 Archives

On a totally different note than yesterday, OU lost to Indiana in the Final Four. Sick, really. But I told myself during the game, even before it was looking bad for the Sooners, "Look, you have a God who loves you and wants your desires to be fully satisfied; don't let a simple sports game rob you of being satisfied in Him." So, while I was sorely disappointed, even frustrated, it didn't take long to chill out and get perspective.

Saw Fellowship of the Ring for the third time, today. It was rereleased yesterday with a new ending: right before the credits roll, the words "Coming this Christmas..." appeared on the screen, along with a two-to-three minute preview of The Two Towers. Yowza! Exciting movie indeed!

I haven't done much journaling recently, especially since I've been staying up way later than I should. I have time tonight (it's only 8:49), so I think I'm going to get ready for bed, grab my journal (I have two, each for a specific purpose) and write.

Jesus, thou Joy of loving hearts,
Thou Fount of life, thou Light of men,
From the best bliss that earth imparts
We turn unfilled to thee again.
We taste thee, O thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon thee still;
We drink of thee, the Fountainhead,
And thirst our souls from thee to fill.

Bernard of Clarvaux

That’s not just pretty poetry; that is my heart’s desire, every word of it. Friend, if it’s not yours, it’s time for a spiritual tune-up. I believe what’s thoroughly missing in current Christianity is a passion for God that is both in spirit and in truth. You have the Charismatics and vast majority of contemporary Christian music where there is much spirit of worship, but shallow or no truth. You have, on the other hand, groups where doctrine itself, not what it implies,is the end-all to everything, resulting in worship in truth but no spirit. The Father wants our worship to be both, emotionally involved yet never without the solid truth of the Word supporting us as we worship.

And how I want us to return to accurate interpretation of the Word of God. My heart is distressed when I hear how people so misuse the Word of God either out of a wrong motivation, or out of ignorance. “Just read your three chapters a day,” it’s often said, but never mind the study of the Author’s intent through hermaneutical principles. Just whatever God says to you is good for you. My Advanced Bible Study Methods course has opened my eyes to the problem even in conservative circles of the misuse of the Word.

But I don’t point that out because they are bad in and of themselves; I point them out because they are hindering us from experiencing God the way He wants us to experience Him. John Piper hit the nail on the head when he said: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Glory, oh let us bring maximum glory to our God!

Somewhat of a random coming together of different thoughts in my head for the past few weeks, here’s my latest update. I want to open up a section for essays which are longer than journal musings. Maybe I’ll do it soon.

The Sooners beat Illinois/Chicago, so on to the second round!

I talked to Josh Williams today, fresh back from his honeymoon. Dang, nice to talk to him and his wife! He's working on a new icon set for the Pixelpalooza contest at IconFactory.

Last, I'm working on some original music for a game that a friend of mine, Peter Young, is making for a school project. When I'm done, I'll post a link. It's corny, bouncy, and very repetitive.

My room is entirely, completely, positively organized and cleaned. I have not done this thorough a cleaning since August or so. This has been a long time coming, but there is not a single pile of stuff that doesn't belong. How this can free up one's mind to focus on other things!

Do you ever notice that sometimes you don't want to do something in particular (like homework, or some other responsibility in business or whatever) and use your room as an excuse to not do that particular thing? "I know I need to complete that paper, but I really need to get my room cleaned." Maybe it's just me; my tendency is to look for anything, anything I can do that's other than my current responsibility. Quite a stupid mentality, and one I am working to change.

I'm attempting to set a solid system for myself, one contrived by me whereby I can complete everything I need to get done, and then be able to relax with a totally clear mind, not worrying about, "Oh, I need to do this," or "Oh, I forgot about that...." I spent several years of my life telling children that it was a better idea to get their homework done as early as possible so that they could enjoy playtime. I ignored that advice myself for so long. What hypocrisy.

I'm thinking of studying Proverbs again, one per day, just for some solid practical advice. This is in addition to my own personal devotions. I think it can be said that common practical sense is the icing on the cake of concrete Christian doctrine. I love to study the Word, but don't often make the transfer from study to living.

There's a commercial for OG&E that's been playing during all of OU's basketball games that says:

Ignore the past, and you will fail; ignore the future, and you've already failed.

We can't change the past. And we can't really change the future. All we can change is the present. From one standpoint, we can change the future because the changes we make in the present impact the future. However, since we know little of the future (except for prophecy and the coming judgments), and truly nothing of our own personal future on the earth, I think it's safe to say we can only change the present. Like the Greek perfect tense, it's our completed actions every day that has effects on the future.

But what I am most grateful for in considering this point is that God is in control of it all. He uses the trillions of every day "incidentals" to work out His perfect will. Think about all, heck, just some of the variables it took for your parents to be in the exact place they needed to be in order to meet for the first time. We tend to think of God's acts of providence with too little a mind.

So, point of application: Don't give in to the lie that when you can't find your car keys, you have a reason to be angry. God's in control, so do not be anxious. I had to get my thoughts out. Didn't know I'd ramble for this long. As my good friends Jonathan and Jenni reportedly love saying: "That was random."

OU beat Kansas by nine points! And we still don't have enough respect to get a #1 seed in the big dance. I'm glad, actually. It makes us aggressive and out to prove a point, and I think we have the weapons this year to do so.

I watched "Bill Cosby: Himself" with the fam today. Oi, I haven't seen it in years. Incredibly hilarious.

Faithworks went pretty well tonight. I'm glad to be done with the Loyalty story, as it's awfully sad. It's about a Canadian gander who dies saving his mate and little geese (goslings?). Fascinating animals, Canadian geese. They're beautiful, and they stick with the same mate their entire life. Sad story, but got a good point across.

I'm tired, so it's off to bed.

I spent a lot of today evaluating where I am and where I need to go. As we tell our clients, most people don't plan to fail; they simply fail to plan. I have been failing miserably at planning. Dad and I spent some time tonight going over the things that I need to accomplish, and it really helped. I hardly have any accountability in my business and school life, being both self-employed (my own boss with my own hours) and self-schooled (my own teacher). My fallen human nature wants nothing more than to abdicate responsibility. This must not be so.

So, I'm definitely working on getting more organized. I have almost completely cleaned my room, and will be done in a few minutes in time to go to bed in good time. This will be the first time in about six months where my room is totally and absolutely organized in every area, with nothing being shoved in the closet. A place for everything with everything in its place.

God is good in giving me the parents He has.

I'm glad today is over. I went to Java Dave's and studied for the morning, came back home for a brief break, and went back to studying the same seventeen verses for the rest of the day. I did have a breakthrough in studying the audience of the passage in question, so hooray for that. It's only opened a host of new questions I have to answer. I've had to study at my kitchen table because I have about six massive volumes open at a time. Whee.

In other news, my business is picking up again. I've been too lazy, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I love what Atrus writes in one of his journals in Riven, the sequel to Myst:

"Enough! To live in the past is to die in the present."

I'd link you to the song of the day, but for some reason my iMac's copy of the song in question is missing the last minute or so. Weird how that happens. I'll post it next time.

Out for now.