Finished up with some, but still working on most of the same ones. Added a couple new ones to the list, but with GMATs and everything else going on, I've been a little preoccupied.
Finished Good Life, excellent book, highly recommend everyone read it.
Current Reads about Life:
The Four Loves by CS Lewis
The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoffer
Current Reads just for fun:
Eulalia by Brian Jacques
The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
All or Nothing
Something I've been thinking about a little while is the idea of compartmentalization. I think it's something that happens because we feel like we need to organize our lives. I don't think I exactly thought of it this way though. If you think of the idea of "big picture/little picture" thinkers then come to the idea of compartmentalization then maybe you get a little closer to what I'm thinking about. Hopefully this conveys my thoughts on the issue adequately, but of course, I doubt my communication abilities do my theories much justice, then again, perhaps there's not much to be had from such theorizing, regardless, I appreciate the time that you (the reader) take to peruse and consider what I have to say (write) and the attempt (however meager) made to understand my point.
We live a world where everything needs to have a time and place, everything is categorized, filed, and organized accordingly. If you go to a store, items are sorted by type and arranged accordingly, in a music store there is a guitar section, an acoustic section, a bass section, a live sound section, a keyboard section, a recording section, a miscellaneous items section, etc... in a supermarket there is the fresh produce section, canned goods, dairy, frozen foods, meat, juices, beverages, etc... Likewise, we've been encouraged to perform such organization with our lives, and to some extent it's helpful, we have work, school, recreational hobbies, family, friends, and various other things in our lives that we can make various categories for. We take each experience and then neatly file it away under a specific category in our lives. In some instances, things might fall under a couple of categories which might make things a little messier, but it's still manageable nonetheless.
The problem with this view is that life invariably is more than the sum of its parts, and there are things that call from us our entire being, not just a part. The "here and now"s of life require our everything, and if we're not all here, then invariably we miss out on something. Not to say that we ought not look at the future and plan what may be had, but we ought not be reserved or hesitant because of what "might be". When we start planning based on hypotheticals, then we start holding ourselves back, we miss out. Life will be that much sweeter if we learn to immerse ourselves in what we have now as opposed to what we might have in the future.
Maybe I'm being "irresponsible", but I think the fact of the matter is, that we live in the here and now. There's no point in fretting over something that hasn't happened yet, in fact something that might not even happen. I don't know what's going to happen, plans have changed for me several times, I've gotten it wrong enough times to know; I miss out of I hold back now. I feel like that I cheat myself of a lot if I don't. Hopefully this made sense to whoever is reading it. I hope.
We live a world where everything needs to have a time and place, everything is categorized, filed, and organized accordingly. If you go to a store, items are sorted by type and arranged accordingly, in a music store there is a guitar section, an acoustic section, a bass section, a live sound section, a keyboard section, a recording section, a miscellaneous items section, etc... in a supermarket there is the fresh produce section, canned goods, dairy, frozen foods, meat, juices, beverages, etc... Likewise, we've been encouraged to perform such organization with our lives, and to some extent it's helpful, we have work, school, recreational hobbies, family, friends, and various other things in our lives that we can make various categories for. We take each experience and then neatly file it away under a specific category in our lives. In some instances, things might fall under a couple of categories which might make things a little messier, but it's still manageable nonetheless.
The problem with this view is that life invariably is more than the sum of its parts, and there are things that call from us our entire being, not just a part. The "here and now"s of life require our everything, and if we're not all here, then invariably we miss out on something. Not to say that we ought not look at the future and plan what may be had, but we ought not be reserved or hesitant because of what "might be". When we start planning based on hypotheticals, then we start holding ourselves back, we miss out. Life will be that much sweeter if we learn to immerse ourselves in what we have now as opposed to what we might have in the future.
Maybe I'm being "irresponsible", but I think the fact of the matter is, that we live in the here and now. There's no point in fretting over something that hasn't happened yet, in fact something that might not even happen. I don't know what's going to happen, plans have changed for me several times, I've gotten it wrong enough times to know; I miss out of I hold back now. I feel like that I cheat myself of a lot if I don't. Hopefully this made sense to whoever is reading it. I hope.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Beyond Simply Patience
I haven't written much recently, and perhaps that's not necessarily a bad thing. In some respects I suppose I'm my own harshest critic and therefore my own worst censor. On the other hand a lot of random junk doesn't get thrown up here because of it, and perhaps it's better that way, the Internet already has enough of that already. Then again, this could possibly be construed as random junk. Anyways, I think I probably already wrote about this somewhere, I have the recollection of doing so, but I want to revisit this simply because it's something that I feel like God has been pounding into me again and again.
Over the past 20-some years of my life I've had 4 major relocations. That's not a lot by any stretch of the imagination, I know people that have jumped from country to country throughout their childhood, however, it's enough. My most recent and shortest relocation being moving approximately 850 miles south from Seattle to the Silicon Valley. The furthest relocation being a 7600 mile move from cozy old Niskayuna, NY to Hsin-Chu, Taiwan for two-and-a-half years, and then an about face and back. In the middle is a 2800 mile move from Niskayuna to Seattle for college. Within the course of the past 4 years or so I've had to move a good 9-10 times within the local area, so I'm pretty familiar with the whole moving process and all that. So what's this have to do with anything?
I think the major thing that I've learned from the frequent movement is that I really can't take anything for granted. Furthermore, I can't afford to be idle, lest time pass me by and take away whatever opportunity that I may have had for growth and development of relationships. God put me in each and every situation for a reason, and for that reason I'm there. It's no good to sit and ponder if I should be somewhere else, and even if I plan to be somewhere else, I'm here now. I don't know if I'm being clear, but the lesson is this, make the most of what you have now. I may not plan on being where I am a year, maybe two years from now, I may more may not see my plan through for various reasons. However, any time I hold back because I don't plan on being here, I'm losing out. Any time I spend worrying about what may be is a moment lost in the here and now. If I say, "I'm not going to commit to anything because it's only short-term" then in essence I idle away whatever time that "short-term" period denotes. If that's not a waste of time I don't know what is. I am where I am, I need to make the most of what's in front of me.
Over the past 20-some years of my life I've had 4 major relocations. That's not a lot by any stretch of the imagination, I know people that have jumped from country to country throughout their childhood, however, it's enough. My most recent and shortest relocation being moving approximately 850 miles south from Seattle to the Silicon Valley. The furthest relocation being a 7600 mile move from cozy old Niskayuna, NY to Hsin-Chu, Taiwan for two-and-a-half years, and then an about face and back. In the middle is a 2800 mile move from Niskayuna to Seattle for college. Within the course of the past 4 years or so I've had to move a good 9-10 times within the local area, so I'm pretty familiar with the whole moving process and all that. So what's this have to do with anything?
I think the major thing that I've learned from the frequent movement is that I really can't take anything for granted. Furthermore, I can't afford to be idle, lest time pass me by and take away whatever opportunity that I may have had for growth and development of relationships. God put me in each and every situation for a reason, and for that reason I'm there. It's no good to sit and ponder if I should be somewhere else, and even if I plan to be somewhere else, I'm here now. I don't know if I'm being clear, but the lesson is this, make the most of what you have now. I may not plan on being where I am a year, maybe two years from now, I may more may not see my plan through for various reasons. However, any time I hold back because I don't plan on being here, I'm losing out. Any time I spend worrying about what may be is a moment lost in the here and now. If I say, "I'm not going to commit to anything because it's only short-term" then in essence I idle away whatever time that "short-term" period denotes. If that's not a waste of time I don't know what is. I am where I am, I need to make the most of what's in front of me.
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