February 2012
8 posts
Life in a Post-Maciavellian World
I think sometimes in our post-modern world, it’s easy to forget we used to be a society that was conquered by kings. We increasingly as society have cause for much less situation of large heads to make decisions of necessary evil to maintain the good of the masses. So much even now, the term ‘necessary evil’ has become taboo in our society. I believe it’s important to...
January 2012
3 posts
Like I'll Never Be Free.
Sitting at the desk in our office here in SF, I had a striking revelation that I had never fully realized. I realized when I think about who I want to marry, I don’t think about how our marriage would be; I think about how it’ll be after the inevitable point where I shatter, and we live in dissidence till the end of our days. Never before now have I realized how deep the effect of...
Last Year; Reflections, Thoughts, Processes.
Man! It’s been a year, that’s for sure. It seems as if I’m finally starting to coagulate it into something tangible. It’s been a blur at times, and full of clarity others. That’s how it is though, isn’t it? This past year has been a year of learning, a year of processing, a year of growth. As a missionary, this has been my first full year with YWAM. As a...
December 2011
4 posts
I crushed a bottle into sand
And threw it into the ocean
Hoping that someday
If I never met you
That it would wash up by your feet
As you frolicked on a summer beach.
That even if you never thought of me
I was still there.
The Green Wall of China
In 1978, a project in The People’s Republic of China called the Green Wall of China was begun to cease the spreading of the Gobi Desert. China has seen 1,290 square miles overtaken by the Gobi Desert every year. The storms caused over this desert each year rip off over 900 square miles of top soil, and effect countries beyond China including North & South Korea and Japan. The project,...
Liberation.
So, I’ve ceased to link my Tumblr with facebook as of this last post. So from here out, only people on Tumblr, or with the link (or RSS, or many other ways I suppose) will see my posts.
I think I’ve said it before, but I’m moving to more shades of discretion with what I put where. A lot of my thoughts stem from the passage of 1 Corinthians 8, in which is read:
1 Now...
Missin' These Times.
Some Natureboy by Jon Owen on Grooveshark
Never sure what to do in these kinds of seasons. I feel like I’ve somehow slipped back into my years of teen angst. Renewed feelings of inability to express the way I feel; inside, about life, about beauty. The worst is the feeling that you won’t be able to express yourself when it’s necessary. The ‘adult world’...
November 2011
7 posts
Smalllittlethoughts: Christianity & Homosexuality
Just thought of a little tidbit. Like, a half thought. For anyone who comes against dilema in thought of Homosexuality in Christian environments:
As a parent, if your child coming to you to tell you that they’re gay is the first you’re hearing it or the first you talk about it, wasn’t there maybe something wrong going on a bit before that point?
One Year.
So yeah, it’s official. It’s been one year since I began staffing at YWAM San Francisco. October 31st, 2010 I arrived in SFO and San Francisco to seek out the task God had for me in the City by the Bay. It’s been one of the most stretching experiences of my life this past year. I’ve been tested in my faith, in my ability to live as an adult, in my ability to manage...
6 tags
Lately: Music.
Here’s some music I’ve been listening to lately in their playlists. I’ve been using Grooveshark for a while now as my music source, coupled with Last.fm. I use Last.fm to intentionally find music I want to listen to, and Grooveshark to get new stuff based off of their radio.
A little snippet:
1. Lately by Jon Owen on Grooveshark
I do this thing where I pick a song I...
It's Been a Long Time.
Like I’ve never been in love Or as if the world hadn’t had light shown upon it till now That way light blurs, unfocused camera lenses Or words taken away, as if language had never yet been spoken.
Caught in a strange net No hope of going back, In between that time when life is choices, till it’s responsibilities Looking into a mirror, in which world displays another terrestria.
...
“Sometimes I feel like I work for the Dutch East India Company. Except minus the...”
October 2011
4 posts
What I'm Doing Today: Photo Journey
View Larger Map
A 5 mile hike through San Francisco.
Here’s a little look at my day. You get to see it before I live it! One of the things I do at YWAM San Francisco is produce our newsletters. That means I’m in charge of layout, editing, story writing, photography, mailing logistics - The whole production process. Our next newsletter is our big end of year print newsletter,...
6 tags
Recent Inspirations
One of my favorite musicians is Jonas Bjerre, originally of the band Mew, but involved now with other projects like Apparatjik and solo projects. Checking in today on Mew, I discover Jonas’ solo project production for a Danish movie. I’ve been listening to the album in their embed all day, listen above.
It got me thinking. In order to do creative work, I always need...
Quick Thoughts: The Quality of My Pragmatism in...
Image by Andrew Paranavitana via 500px.
Verbose title, I know. But this is a thought I was having as I was laying down to sleep, and I feel like it’s important to record. The quality of my pragmatism in life does not supersede my will in Christ. In the short this means, simply because my life doesn’t seem to be in the place where I’d like it do be, doesn’t mean that...
September 2011
4 posts
Identity: Shift
Photo by Jorge Poveta via 500px.
A conversation I’d had with a friend of mine got me thinking the other day. In the current situation I’m in, I’m the ‘head’ of Communications at YWAM San Francisco. The funny thing about this position is, YWAM San Francisco, up until this point hasn’t ever had a ‘Communications’ department. From what I can tell,...
All a Dream.
Sometimes I think of the idea of moving on with a season in life, any season really, and I’m solaced by the idea, “Even if I leave wherever I am, I take with me the experiences I’ve had, and the person I’ve been.” But I ruminate on the thought now: what if it all seems like a dream?
I always count myself blessed even to have the challenges I do because I know...
Glad to be a Part.
Last night here at YWAMSF, where I live and work, we were honored to have an event that has been years in the making. We hosted the graduation from our 360° program of a guy by the name of Ali, who’s been coming here for years. It wasn’t until the event was taking place that I realized the gravity of everything that was happening. This has apparently been a story 15 years in the...
August 2011
4 posts
Keep Reminding Yourself
The peace of Christ.
As I spend my time here in YWAM San Francisco, I’ve been stretched more than I have in my entire life. Face to face with the darkness of the streets; many of these people know more Bible memorization than I do, and still yet are bound down by addiction, and seemingly schema of modal perception that causes them to remain in the emotionally and physically impoverished...
Lives not lived.
I’m living in Ohio. I have a girlfriend with an apartment with a big living room. When we’re off work, every day at 7:00 we lay on the carpet listening to Gentle Hour by Yo La Tengo for an hour, just to spend time alone with each other in silence. She works at a clothing outlet, and I’m working at a grocery store while I attend classes at college. I don’t know what...
Brimstone: Should Christians Rebrand Hell?
The story goes like this: I walk downstairs tonight at the YWAM base where I live. I can’t sleep. Sleeping during the day, plus caffeine has got me. I find on a table an item that we for some reason sell: an Evangecube.
For those of you not familiar with an Evangecube, is is basically just as it sounds: a cube, that ‘evangelizes’. The cube, which switches inside and...
July 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Processing: You Are What You See.
I’ve been pondering lately about my life and the things I do. Today I was in the kitchen here at the base at YWAM San Francisco, and I was thinking about the things I do. Not so much the things I’m passionate, but the hobbies or activities I find myself drawn to and find easy to be a part of. I’m realizing increasingly that the things I find myself alright with doing or...
Structure, Structure!
Working in YWAM is amazing. It’s one of the coolest blessings I’ve ever been given. Sometimes it feels like a giant Lego block board; everything we decide to do, we build ourselves. One of the endless spirits of YWAM is pioneering. Along with that, one can find many woes in structure.
In my role of Communications, as well as facilitating communication, I’m at the hot spot...
Philippians 4:13 - Living on Support
“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
All my life I have known this verse. It was the second verse I memorized after John 3:16, and one of the first sources of my ability to face hardship in any way. But I had never realized what came before it.
10:”I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed...
DTS
I miss you, My now old and dusty kin, The last warriors of tribulation To pass through these stalls. The fiery hearts The glimmered eyes of wander. You, Who, readers of books of far off lands, Took the step of against feared others, And trekked beyond your bubbled doors; Have we been your Good Home? The Far West; Was it as your ink scrawled pages? Literary minds can capture what isn’t seen;...
June 2011
1 post
May 2011
8 posts
10 tags
Selfishness.
So, for the past while or so, I’ve been reading Patrick Dodson’s book Stuff my Dad Never Taught Me About Relationships. It’s really, really challenged me in a lot of the ways I view life. When I say really, I mean not as much as I would mentally hope, but when I say a lot of ways I view life, I mean A LOT.
Though the book talks about many of the same things in different...
Devotee.
I’m beginning to realize that anyone who has a bunch of people following them in life scares me. In so many of the bigger institutions in life who has hundreds or thousands of constituents behind one person, it always seems that that person isn’t in their right mind. The government, there’s no way that it seems politicians can get to the head without crushing someone along the...
April 2011
5 posts
11:11
Conflict.
Sometimes I like to think to myself, the troubles I go through in ministry are just preparation for what it’s going to be like trying to spread the Gospel in Japan. Sometimes, it seems like I’m at a point of no return. If I go back from the things I’ve seen now, into what semblance of what I would say is ‘real life’, then I’d be giving up something deeper for...