The Birth of a Salesman

What is the American Dream? To many people, it means different things. However, I think at the basis of the American Dream lies this: hard work, dedication, high morals lead to success in life. I think many people in our society exhibits these qualities but why does the American Dream often escape their grasp? Is it really just -- a dream? To those who have entered the "real world," we truly realize how real this world can be and how it's not a dream but can become a nightmare. Many of us during these troubled times have seen co-workers laid off or even worse, having that happen to a family member or yourself. And then you hear horror stories of those who spend their entire lives working 9-5 Monday through Friday and when it's all said and done, finally at the ripe age of 65, they can live out their American Dream. Hard work, dedication, morals paid off finally. Is this really what we imagined it would be like when we first stepped out into the working world? Why is the American Dream so elusive?

But maybe we need to ask a better question. Maybe we need to ask ourselves, what is success in life?

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God's working in China

It's no surprise that the Beijing Olympics have helped to reinforce the truth that China is a growing and dominant power in the world today. From the first sparks of the Opening Ceremony, the world saw with its own eyes that China has come a long way since opening its borders back in 1984. The grandiose architecture of the Bird's Nest and Water Cube only highlights the tremendous power of the Chinese people. As I watch these games, there is a great sense of pride that comes from seeing my home country exhibit such great precision and technique in preparing for the games and also a dominance in many of the Olympic events. In a way, the games have also helped many to put aside their ignorance in believing that China is still a 'Marx-Mussolini-Castro-Stalin' communist society. By and large, China is in essence a totalitarianism, but much have changed, ie. The Tianan Men Square, once the site of the infamous 1989 Massacre where tanks ran over college students is now the center of the 2008 Olympics where over 205 nations gather to compete in the peaceful Olympic games.

But with all the growth and change, many large issues still affect the world's negative perception of China: human rights issues, Muslim groups in XinJiang, Buddhist groups in Tibet, China-Taiwan relations, organ harvesting, and lack of religious freedom. It's obvious that there is still work to be done, and China's far from becoming a nation known for her integrity, fairness, and peace. But I think that's the beauty of it. There's no doubt in my mind that God's getting His hands dirty in China. And we (I'm assuming you're Chinese or of some Asian ancestry) are living in this age and time and bearing witness to a growing world superpower that has a great potential to be molded and transformed by God's love.

In a recent article of missionaries working in Beijing during Olympics:

One outreach success came ahead of the Olympics, when a U.S. team was in China for an exhibition match. The U.S. team and the Chinese team — Britton wouldn't name the sport — gathered in a hotel room the night before the match for a 30-minute prayer meeting arranged by a foreigner who had access to the Chinese team.
"It was very powerful," said Britton, who said he had seen photos of the meeting, where members of both teams prayed and sang. "God pulled it together."

- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26334578/

I can't help but get excited about how God can use those of us who are willing to serve to change the next generation of the Chinese people in China. The opportunities are boundless, and people are more willing than ever.

The ephemeral magnificence and glamour of the Beijing Olympics will fade away, and the chinese people will resume their hard-working lifestyles but one thing is for certain, God's glory will continue to shine in China if we answer His call.

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Help Wanted

If you or someone you know is jobless and looking for a great experience in an IT position, please let me know. I've worked for ACS almost 1/2 a year now and they are still hiring many positions. There are quite a few positions available, and we are mainly searching for software/engineering types of people. ACS has some nice benefits and is a growing fortune 500 company with over 60,000 employees (only about 120 in Austin). It also pays very well. Please pass this to your friends who have graduated/jobless or laid-off. Thanks!

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Purity

A great message about purity and holiness from Matt Carter at Austin Stone.

http://www.austinstone.org/audio/mp3/2008/06_08_2008_mc.mp3

and a great boundless article...

http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001753.cfm

...and a great blog entry from boundless to go along with it :D

http://www.boundlessline.org/2008/06/flee-sexual-imm.html



Enjoy.

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Purposeful Singleness Part 1

Disclaimer: I don't claim to have this all figured out so I hope you do your share of research into other resources and scripture. Also, bear with me as I'm still learning.

If you haven't been to boundless then you are seriously missing out on a great Christian resource for young adults. Through my times of surfing through the site, I've noticed that there are quite a few great articles on dating/relationships and the term "purposeful singleness" comes up quite often. Initially, this term was pretty foreign to me but now I've come to understand that for those of us who are in the season of singleness (un-married), we need to be purposeful in preparing for marriage. Now it doesn't mean you need to start taking cooking classes or start looking at real estate, but it does mean that God's designed this very time for those of us to grow. Many of us can feel like we're in no man's land -- on the verge of finally "growing up." But our attitude should absolutely change if we don't want to miss out on the great things God wants to do in us now. If we don't take the time to grow and allow God to mold us, it can only spell trouble for the future. Maybe I'll go more into detail as I finish my research in one of my later posts.

For now, I do want to address that our time of singleness is vital to God's plan and will in our lives. Why? He wants to reform our minds and that takes time. Many of us who are single fall into the trap thinking that we need to find that someone now. Who do we have good chemistry with? Who do we connect with? How much do I have in common with him/her? Those are some great questions and valid questions to ask. Just flip on the tv and we can probably see a reality tv show like The Bachelor, Bachelorette, Flavor of Love, Tila Tequila just to name a few. Now sure as Christians we watch those shows but brush them off because we know we're better than that. We're not that shallow. That could be true but there's no doubt in my mind that our worldly generation's perception of love has tainted us and God's image of love just a little. And if we were to commit to a marriage relationship with that image tainted, imagine the consequence! We all know that divorce is as common between nonchristian couples and christian couples. Why is that? I mean, I'm sure all those couples had "chemistry" and "things in common" but why did they end the same way? We have to dig deeper and when we do, we will find that God wants to give us more than what the world tells us. To be continued...

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Day 4

Only in California do you see street signs like this one. I guess skateboarding is really that popular. So as I near the end of my first business trip, I can see why some people are turned off by traveling for their job. Living out of a suitcase, eating out every meal, not sleeping on your own bed, and just getting familiar with a new surrounding can be draining at times. And with all the eating out, it does take its toll on your body. That's why for dinner tonight, I'm eating these.

As if California wasn't already amazing...They have the best strawberries I've ever had. Normally when you buy a pack of strawberries in Texas, you have to wash all the dirt off of it and pick out the mushy ones. But man, I don't know if it was shear luck but every strawberry in this box was perfectly ripe and clean. I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to the strawberries in Texas :(

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Day 1

So it's only been 1 day in California and yeah, it's everything everyone makes it out to be and then some. The picture above is where I work currently. When I first passed by it, I thought it was a museum. And if it didn't have that huge sign in front of it, many would of made the same mistake I did. A few things I've noticed so far about California:
1) Weather is truly amazing. But you knew that already.
2) People are surprisingly friendly. The waiters at restaurants actually look happy to serve you. When they speak to you, they look at you like you really matter to them.
3) There are palm trees everywhere. Even when you're not near a beach.
4) Gas prices here are ridiculous.

My story of the day:
Most of time you get owned at restaurants when you order something and you expect a nice sized portion and you end up with like pea-size rabbit food. Well today was a rather different experience for me. For lunch, I walked into a restaurant called Bugambilias. What drawn me to the restaurant wasn't the name but the fact that the subtext said "Mexican and Salvadorean Food." Salvadorean. Any other day and I would just turn and walk away. But being in a new place, I thought heck why not try out Salvadorean cuisine. When given the choice, I asked the waiter to bring me the Salvadorean Menu. The only thing on that menu that looked remotely appetizing was Deep Fried Tilapia with beans and rice. I remember sitting at my table after 20mins of ordering and wondering what's taking the tilapia so long to cook. I was the only person in the restaurant, and knowing that Long John Silvers can give me what I ordered in mere minutes, I asked the waitress over. "Can you hurry? I have to be back at work in about 15minutes." She goes back in the kitchen and then brings me this.
O.O I swear that thing looked ALOT bigger in person. Atleast 3-4lbs. And apparently, this was a lunch special and you're suppose to eat it with the hot tortilla. Needless to say, I ate 1/2 of 1 side of the fish and just left feeling quite disgusted. So what did I learn from all this?
does not equal Salvadorean Cuisine.

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California...California....Here we come

I'm on my first business trip, and it hasn't even been one night yet and I'm already feeling pretty tired. But I guess that's what 9 hours of traveling does to you. I don't know how consultants can get use to doing this for like years. One thing about traveling is that it sucks when you travel alone. If you sit down for an airport meal or settle down in your hotel room, it would be nice to have someone to chat with. Things like traveling and eating are really best experienced with other people around.

As I was riding on the plane and having 9 hours to myself, I got to thinking why companies send their employees on business trips. If you add everything up, it gets quite expensive to send one person. Here's what my expense report will look like:

$300 Plane tix
$300 Rental Car
$600 Hotel at 120/night (why did they book me a baller hotel room? ...I'm not complaining though...)
$300 Food at 50/day

That total is roughly $1500 just to send me here to learn something. The more time I spend in the corporate world, the more I realize how crazy it is. The amount of money I spend here in a week can equal to the amount of money required to feed a small village of 50 people in Africa for a month. America is insane.

(Above image is a pillar at the Sacramento Airport. Neat!)

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Like a window to the other side of the world

Above is a pic from Phil's webcam in China. A few of us gathered together to celebrate his birthday recently and being able to see the big guy again definitely brought a smile to my face. Isn't it amazing how there are so many ways for people to stay connected these days? And yet as new technology makes communication easier, I feel like something has been lost in our generation. If you think about it, we're the first generation to grow up in the age of cell phones, IM, laptops, webcams, and the likes. It always makes me wonder, what did communication use to look like? I know there were pay phones, pagers, etc. But how did friendships form? For many us, we can agree that we form most of our friendships through AIM and maybe more recently, Facebook. It's just too much out of the way to go meet someone up to talk or share a meal. And if we were to do that with someone of the opposite sex -- well that's been somewhat of a taboo in the asian christian circle. So did we miss out on an important piece of communication? Have we become dependent on technology to foster our relationships with people? I guess it's one of those things that we'll never really know but intriguing to think about.

One thing's for sure though. Good communication will always be at the foundation of every meaningful relationship.

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Like back in college all over again

When you're in college, you go through countless experiences that make you think, yeah, these are the defining moments of what college life is about. One of those moments for me have to be going on HEB runs late at night. It's funny because when you go late night, almost everyone shopping are college students.

One of the things that I miss about the college life is the fact that you share so many experiences with so many people. You can probably go through a week and have the opportunity to spend quality time with quite a few people. Once you're out of college, well, there's alot more work involved in maintaining those friendships. I look at my parents and really when I think about it, they probably don't interact with that many people from week to week. Is that what our lives will become when we get older? I hope not.

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LIke A Scene From A Sitcom

Having worked in the corporate world for almost 3 months now, I have to say, the writers of The Office are genius. I'm not sure how they do it but there are many days where I can relate the activities in my office with the episodes on the show. Can anyone else relate? Sure, the happenings aren't as ridiculous as what goes on in the show, but I can't help to smile and chuckle when I see/hear something that reminds me of Dwight or Michael.

One of the things that I enjoy alot about my workplace is that we're all so different and yet, there's so much to learn from them. When I first started, I was standoff-ish as most of them were my parents age, but now, it's great to feel like I can talk to them like friends. Hopefully, God can open doors for spiritual conversations!

(yes, we had a team lunch at a japanese steakhouse -- like when Michael took his employees to Benihana)

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One of two of my oldest friends

Johnny and his brother Danny are two people that I've known since I came to the states when I was 7. We went to chinese school together through all of grade school. However, faith would have it that in 5th grade, both of our families would move to Sugar Land, and we would go on to attend Elementary, Middle, and High school together. Though Johnny didn't join his brother and myself at UT, this guy still remains as one of my best friends. What's been amazing is how God really entered our friendship and helped to shape both of us to be God-fearing men. I still remember the day I dashed to their house to tell them about how great God was after I accepted Christ the previous weekend. And since that day, God's really been showing himself to us and guided us in our ways. One of my biggest joys in high school was to see Johnny accept Christ and go on to be baptized my senior year. After almost five years since, God's still moving in our lives and teaching us. Nothing brings joy than the sweet fellowship you have with believers and that you can gather to talk about the thing that really matters to us in our lives -- our Lord and Savior.

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Pork Belly

Wow. Korean BBQ ranks highly up there in my fav foods list. I think this really puts hotpot to shame. No offense to those who enjoy the soup, but really, fried pork with the amazing Korean sauces and rice all wrapped up in lettuce -- it's hard to beat that. But then, after the meal, you're whole body is pretty much drenched in oil so I guess that's the tradeoff.

My good friend Johnny came in town to visit me for a couple of days, and it's nice to see a familiar face when everyone's gone home for Spring Break. Literally, the town feels kinda dead when you're driving and you no longer see students walking on the streets of downtown. I think one of the harder things of being in the "real world" is making that mental shift of not being in college and being in the working world. I think in college, we've established the expectation that we're going to have opportunities to have fun and hang out with people basically whenever. However, much that has changed since working as you'll be lucky enough to even catch glimpses of your roommates. After a while, you begin to feel like you've taken for granted the conveniences of friendship for all these years. You really do have to make a conscious effort to meet and see people because in a blink of an eye, days, weeks, and months go by real quick.

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The Lesson of the Paperclip

This devotional was written by Jim Liebelt

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”—Ephesians 2:10

The ingenious little device known as the paperclip has been in use for well over 100 years. Unlike so many items of “old technology,” there’s no retirement in sight for the tool that most of us use to keep our important papers together. I read an article recently from the archives of Time magazine, from the July 17, 1958 issue to be exact, that revealed results from a Lloyd’s Bank survey on the fate of 100,000 paperclips. (It must have been a slow time in the banking business!) The survey yielded the following information: Out of 100,000 paperclips, 25,000 fell to the floor and were swept away, 19,413 were used as chips in card-games, 14,163 were twisted or broken during phone conversations, 7,200 were used as temporary replacements for broken buttons, snaps or zippers, 5,434 were used as toothpicks or ear cleaners, 5,308 were used to clean fingernails, 3,916 were used as pipe cleaners, leaving only 20,000 paper clips which served their proper function. It stinks to be a paperclip, if you ask me!

How wasteful that 80% of paperclips are never utilized for their intended purpose. It also seems to me that people are a lot like paperclips! Just as the creator designed the paperclip for a specific purpose (Johan Vaaler, 1899), God has created each one of us purposely, to fulfill His own design. Today’s Scripture passage speaks to the heart of that issue: “we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” Still, like the paperclip, far too many people do not fulfill the purpose for which they were created. How tragic! But it doesn’t have to be this way!

We fulfill the purpose of our Creator when we live according to the principle Jesus states in Matthew 10:39, which reads. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” We truly become all that God intends for us to be when we decide to make following Jesus our top priority. Today, may the “lesson of the paperclip” motivate you to live your life as God designed you to live!

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Redemption

I love saying this word. It's one of those words that just brings alot of meaning and feelings when you say it, especially if you do it in a deep voice and say it slowly. Redemption.

I think every good movie has redemption at its core. It's because we love hearing stories where someone does something great against all odds. Somehow, we feel inspired to live our mundane lives. But perhaps what we long for is redemption in our own lives. Watching those movies and reading those books make us realize that even though we could be at the bottom of the pit of our lives, when we look up, we can see the heavens. There's a part of human existence where it longs to be redeemed. Made right. Made whole. Made new.

Redemption.

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Remember

If it wasn't for Hakeem Olajuwon, I would probably never have the pride that I have in the city of Houston. Not only that, but I would of probably never found the love for the game of basketball. So this is a shoutout to Hakeem for being that big of an influence in my life. Isn't it amazing how celebrities can have that big of an influence on us? What if I grew up in Canada? Would I actually enjoy hockey? Or if I grew up in Connecticut, would I be a figure skater now? Guess we'll never know.

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Relinquished

What does freedom mean to you? To the founding fathers of America, it was something worth fighting and dying for. Many of us who are fortunate to be born and/or grow up in the states take the American freedom for granted. For me, it's hard to imagine what it looks like to fight for something like freedom. What does oppression look like? How does it feel to live in fear of your government? How would I live my life differently? You always hear of stories in foreign countries where new believers in those countries find so much joy when they come to know Christ. It seems to be an everlasting joy -- a taste of freedom. For many of us who came to know Christ in America, we also experience that kind of joy but for me, there have been times where I lose sight of what God has done for me, and next thing I know, I get sucked back into the world. Do we really know the price Jesus paid for our freedom? If we profess to know, what's stopping us from living for Him each and every day of our lives?

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Reacquainted

It's refreshing to see old faces again. I think there's a part of our inner being that longs to belong and be part of something. The world tells us to belong to a lot of things: you are what you do, you are Generation Y, you are class of '03, '07, you are what you want to be, etc. But nothing quite gratifies the soul than when you know you belong to the family of God. What comes to mind when you think of family of God? Security, safety, love, joy, peace, and so on. But I'll also add that the sorrows, sufferings, brokenness, and heartaches really defines what being in the family of God is all about. After all, the second greatest commandment after to love God with all our heart is to love our neighbors as ourselves. If this was in fact easy to do, I doubt Jesus would of called us to obey such a great commandment. Bearing with one another, living in love and patience, and considering others better than ourselves are what characterizes the uniqueness and sacredness of the family of God. And we can hope to live in this way because we know that God will not forsake those who belong to Him.

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Reunions

It's been a while since I've had some good fellowship with people. Being with a group of believers again and hearing about the way God's been moving in their life is always encouraging. I think there's a unique joy that we experience when we have opportunities to interact with other believers especially those we haven't seen in a while. Looking back on missions circle, God's definitely shaped each of us in this past year or so and to see that God is still doing His work in us is exciting to see. One of the things that I'll miss most about having college small groups is that not only do we have time to interact in small groups but we'll also get to see each other outside of small group. There are always opportunities to meet people and to get to know them better besides through small groups. However, people's time becomes a lot more valuable when they have to work 40+ hours a week. But part of the responsibility of being in the real world is adjusting, and so adjust I must!

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Refueling

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is what drives us in our walk. This is where I think the beauty of scripture comes out. In order for us to live a life that brings God glory, we have to be filled by God, and it's the overflow of what's in us that allows us to live a life pleasing to God. How many times have we felt like we've been running on empty? Our feeble mind can lead us to think maybe if I start going to church again, maybe if I go on a missions trip, or maybe if I read this Christian book I'll be able to feel God again in my life. Though often times, those things can give us a spurt in our spiritual lives but compared to the well of life found through the Holy Spirit and scripture, those things are just mere cups, maybe bottles of life at best. The source of life where we need to visit frequently in our walks is found only in Christ Himself. How do we know we are being filled by God? Two words: peace and joy.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

Refuel through God and His Word today.

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Biblical Wisdom

Sometimes it's hard for us to discern what is Godly wisdom and what is worldly wisdom. The reason being is that we don't see Godly wisdom exercised much in our society these days. Take divorce for example. The idea of divorce has become so widespread that some statistics say that Christians are more likely to divorce than non-Christians. Many of us can become confused when much of the world lives in one way but the Bible tells us to live so differently. But that's where the difference lies. The Bible instructs us to live according to Godly wisdom, and many times, it does counter perhaps what the majority of people around us think. Psalm 111:10 says
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise."
If we seek after biblical wisdom, we must approach God with the posture that He is in control of our lives. The fear that we have for God isn't that we're afraid of him, but it's a reverential fear that leads us to respect, worship, honor, and obey God because we recognize that indeed, God is God!

You might say, "Well, I do view God in that way, but why do sometimes I just don't feel like I have the wisdom that's talked about in scripture?"

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. -James 1:5

Examine your heart. Is there anything that you need to repent before God? A repentant heart is what allows God to give us His wisdom. It is the channel that God uses to speak wisdom into our lives. We realize that it's hard and painful sometimes to look back on our past mistakes and bring them before God because we think it would be shameful for God to see that side of us. But that's where Satan lies to us. God doesn't see us that way because of the work of the cross. If we can begin to grasp just the wisdom that's found in the work of the cross, God will give generously to us and reveal to us even greater things.

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Finding The One

You've heard the term before. Much of the young adults of our generation hold steadfast to this belief. If you happened to be living in the cave for the last 20 or so years, then let me quickly explain to you this school of thought. It's the belief that God has designed for us that one person that is meant to be our spouse. As we approach our dating life, we can either pursue after our "one" until we find that one or be absolutely sure that our first relationship is with our one. I've always struggled with this thought because what if our "one" lived a thousand miles away from us. I mean, do we find our "one" in our circle of friends, do we just sit tight until God brings that one into our lives, or do we journey to some random place like Costa Rica to find that one? Or maybe this "finding the one" isn't really that biblical at all?

What is our mindset when we go into a relationship? What questions do you ask yourself? "Do they treat me right?" "Will they meet my needs?" "How do I know if I've found the one?" What's common in these questions? What can you do for me. In an article I read recently, it discusses how modern dating is essentially a selfish endeavor. Many of us have been caught up in finding the one when the question we should be asking is "how can I be the one for him/her?" The point is this. When we search for our one, we've already laid the foundation for selfishness. If selfishness is not what drives a biblical marriage, it should not be what drives a biblical relationship. "Do Nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves" (Phil. 2:3). Rather than looking for that person to fit your list of characteristics that comprise your perfect spouse, you turn to scripture to see what defines a Godly man/woman. If you look hard enough, you'll see that our God calls us to love one another sacrificially. Loving sacrificially is what will secure the commitment in our relationships, not the fleeting feelings of finding our one.

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Meditation

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purpose and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.

Its purpose is to clear one's mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one's mind and heart. It is a matter of talking to oneself about God and oneself; it is, indeed, often a matter of arguing with oneself, reasoning oneself out of moods of doubt and unbelief into a clear apprehension of God's power and grace.

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No Confidence In The Flesh

If I was to pick one chapter in the bible that captures the essence of the Christian life, it is Philippians 3. Paul warns us of men who do evil and reminds us to continue to praise the glory of God. When we come into God's presence, we must be reminded that we are nothing compared to Christ. Whatever we might consider to be our gain should rather be considered a loss when compared to knowing God. To truly know God, we must yearn to know God by becoming like him in his death -- die to ourselves. Paul reminds us that it's not easy, even he's not perfect. But he encourages to press on in the race and forget what's behind us for this is spiritual maturity. We must never forget that ultimately it is the return of Christ Himself that will transform us and perfect us.

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Falling In Love

I'm not a big fan of this term. When people say they fell in love, it just makes it seem like they just tipped themselves over and found themselves in Love Land. While this may hold true for some, I feel the majority of us don't function quite exactly like that. Perhaps what I would call it is persevering on the path to love. I know, I know, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue but bear with me here. The biggest lie that the media can tell us is that in the matter of 90mins, you'll meet the man/woman of your dreams, fall in love with him/her, face 1 or 2 critical moments in the relationship, and boom, the wedding bells are ringing and happily ever after. If only that was the case in our lives, then watching chick flicks would be terribly boring. Love just doesn't get handed to you on a silver-platter. You've got to want it, labor in it, and ask God to perfect it. Looking at Jacob and his 7 years of labor, well actually it was more like 14 years, that's something any man can respect and admire.

"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." - Gen 29:20

And I'm sure in those 14 years he spent laboring, there were tough moments, there was probably some frustration on his part, some arguments here and there. But he set his eyes on something greater than the meaningless conflicts, the small things. The sacrifice that he made to give up 14 years of his life to pursue the woman of his dreams is probably the epitome of persevering on the path to love -- only to be topped by how much our Savior has worked to show us His love. In the bible, Christ is often referred to as the Bridegroom and the people as his Bride. But imagine the love! He died for us before the vast majority of mankind was even born. We love people that we like, attracted to, compatible with, and have good conversations with. Christ didn't care about those things for his love was deeper than anything we can imagine. Instead, Christ loved us while we were ugly, broken, emotional, fallen, weak, sinners. To be able to say to someone like that that I want to marry them -- man, talk about tough. But if you think Christ didn't work to show us his love, you've got another thing coming. Not to take anything away from the cross because it is the ultimate display of love for us (1 John 3:16) but while He was with us, Christ endured shame, sorrow, verbal abuse, mental abuse, physical abuse -- you name it, he endured it. I know if I even go through just 1% of what Christ had to endure on his path to loving us, I would be jetting way in the other direction. Cya! But you know what? We've got to start somewhere. God takes whatever morsel of ourselves we're willing to bring to Him, forgives it, loves it, restores it, and perfects it.

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Facing Disappointment

It's difficult when we come face to face with reality and realize how disappointed we've become with certain things. The human mind has the keen ability to paint an illusion before our eyes that behind what we believe to be there stands disappointment. And when we do come around to seeing the truth, the disparity is often times so great that we're just left speechless and in tears of how things have become. In our lives, we can't run away from disappointment. And I question why is that? Why do we become disappointed? I offer the notion that it is sometimes because of our self-righteousness that leads us to disappointment.

disappointment - a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized
self-righteous - exhibiting pious self-assurance

The correlation lies when we believe ourselves to be better than who we really are. Majority of the people in the world picture themselves to be a certain type of person -- an expectation. This in it of itself is good when we strive at it and work at it to become a person that we can respect. However, more often than not, our pride kicks in and tells us we're already there -- our self-righteousness. Now take this simple example and apply it to many more of the important areas in life, and you can easily see why it's so hard for us to face disappointment.

Wouldn't this be a terrible if our lives were just one disappointment after another? And time after time, we turn our heads to look at the cross, and we find the comfort and answers we seek. The self-righteousness in us is replaced by the righteousness that's given to us through the death of Christ. And with God's righteousness in us, there is no disappointment. God's expectations for us is repentance and faith -- the very foundation of our beliefs. And when we come to Him in that attitude, there is no disappointment. There is only forgiveness, and through Him, we are made new.

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Life Comes At You Fast

Congrats to Andy and Angela! I remember the first time I met Andy was at camp challenge. Fate would have it that I would meet him on the day that I accepted Christ. Little did I know that we would meet again in college as fellow students and later, become my discipler and a great friend. I think Andy's testimony has been a source of encouragement for me that God is there pushing us through those times of weakness. When we fall and struggle, God faithfully stands by our side. To see Andy come to this point in his life truly shows just how much God loves us. His faithfulness to ministry and commitment to loving people is something that I will always respect and admire. May God bless them both!

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Spotless

I gotta say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Today was the first time that I washed a car from head to toe, front to rear, inside and out, ... Two observations from today:

1) Washing a car is more laborious than it looks
2) Car washing products are pretty $$$

But it's worth it, because for the next week, your car will look spankin' new :D

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Found It!

Did anyone have King Cake today? Hope you found the baby.

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Let The Games Begin

First day of work tomorrow and I have to say the past month or two have been quite a rollercoaster ride. It's amazing how God works in our lives, and the way that God has worked in mine is a true testament of His love for His people. When you've arrived at a milestone, it's always a nice feeling to look back and see the experiences that you've gone through. There's no doubt in my mind that those experiences help mold me to be who I am, but something greater than that, I know God's sovereignty is working behind the scene. Through the mistakes, challenges, and success, God is still the God that He proclaims to be time and time again in the scriptures. How can we lose faith when we have such a faithful God? PTL.

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Losing The Superbowl

I can't imagine how the Patriots are feeling right now. For just being a bandwagon fan, I feel like my heart just sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Perfection was so close. Almost made it. What do you say to your teammates and coaches after a loss like that? My heart really does go out to Tom Brady and the rest of the Patriots. However, I can't take much away from the Giants. Having watched a good deal of the Patriots' games this season, this is by far the best defensive team they've played. But man, I'm still in disbelief at what just happened...

Some people might wonder, why do people take sports so seriously? Sure, it's easy to understand the players emotions but for fans too? I think it's in our human nature to cheer for something. To be excited by something and put our hopes into it. Be it sports, new technology, or fashion - we all cheer for something. In addition, guys who watch sports knows how those men feel when they step onto the field -- their hard work, dedication, pride. You can't help but to feel empathy for those players who've put everything on the line and then go on to lose the biggest game of their life.

...but, then again, maybe I'm just too into sports...

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Holiness

"Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." - Colossians 1:21-22

I think one of the most frequent questions that I ask as a Christian is how does God see us as holy when we're still so broken and sinful. The verse in Colossians is a promise that when we believe in Christ's death on the cross, God no longer sees us as the way we are but the holy, perfect being like Christ. It's mind-boggling to think that such a great God can be so compassionate and loving. I think it's easy for us to say to ourselves: God doesn't love you more when you're being sinful - there's no way God can forgive that, how could you do such a thing! But every time I'm tempted to believe these thoughts in my human head, I'm reminded of God's promises to His people. God's love is so all-encompassing that we can spend our whole lives investigating the depth of that love and will never fully understand just how big God's heart is for us. When we do sin, we need to view God not as a God that just shakes His head in shame and turns His face from us, but rather, God runs to us even faster, longing to hold us safe in His arms. When we begin to view God in that way, it's hard not to acknowledge His presence in ours lives and the good work that He's doing within all of us.

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You Can Run But You Can't Hide

In service today, Pastor Dick preached on the story of Jonah. Being one of the greatest prophets of his time, Jonah received a special calling from God to speak the message of repentance to the Ninevites, Israel's enemies. However, Jonah was scared -- he always brought messages of growth and expansion to the Jews, he didn't feel comfortable bringing a message of God's potential wrath to these Pagans. And so he did what we all would of done -- ran (or rather sail away). How do you escape from the creator of the world? You can't. God shook Jonah with a storm comparable to the one in Noah's time. However, through a merciful God, Jonah was rescued and brought to safety and eventually did the will of God.

What does this story remind us?
1) We all have a little Jonah in each of us. We all want to run away sometimes from the will of God. But...
2) Our God is relentless. He loves us way too much to just let us go because of our arrogance and ignorance. He will pursue you to the ends of the Earth.

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No Hassles Please

Credit card companies suck. I think they purposely make it so hard for you to decide just what's the best for you. I literally spent the whole day reading about which credit cards give the best rewards, miles, points, you name it. And I've come to the conclusion that, well, there is no best credit card. Actually, I think I've approached this all wrong -- rather, I should try to find the credit card that sucks the least. If you spend the time to read all the fine print involved with every rewards program, you'll be shocked to see just how sketchy these companies really are. Hidden annual fees, reward cap limits, expiring points, etc.

However, even with the difficulty in finding one, we still have to decide on one unless you just like carrying around rolls of cash. I offer my advice: start here. Find out just where you spend most of your money monthly. From there, the website will help identify the right card(s) for you and just what will get you the most bang for your buck. After that though, it's up to you to decide on one of the top choices as all come with their own restrictions and fine print. Even after all that and you're still scared off by these devilish companies (and I don't blame you), I would suggest these as they're the most reliable rubber bands in the business.

My Picks:
Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards - 5% cashback on groceries/gas/drugs for 1 year, $50 gift card for signing up, no fees, 75,000 points limit/year, Mastercard
Citi Professional Cash Card - 3% cashback on restaurants/gas/office supplies/car rentals, no fees, $500 reward limit/year, Mastercard
Bank of Americard Rewards - 1.5% cashback on everything if you have a Bank of America account, no fees, no reward limit/year, Visa

Day-Maker: Receiving my college diploma.

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Hired

Seven weeks after graduation, I have landed myself my first job. Okay, so technically, it's not my "first" job, but you get the point. Through the months of searching, I've finally found something that I want to do and a place that's willing to pay me to do it. The interesting part is how God totally paved the way for me through all this. About a month ago, I was set on finding a job back at home where I could be with my family; my career would be in the energy/power field since that was the focus of my technical areas in my degree. However, in the matter of just 3 days, God has revealed to me and my family a plan beyond our expectations. Our prayers have been answered and He's provided for us His plan. Praise God.

Now, I'll be known as an IT consultant working at Affiliated Computer Services, Inc -- working in Austin where our family might be moving to. What a turnaround!

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Life In The Fast Lane

It takes big events in your life to make you feel like life is just flying by. Going to high school. Going to college. Graduating from college. Finding a job. Which leads me to think, do we just take the mundane things that happen in life for granted? Why does life seem slower when we're just cruising from day to day? I offer a notion that perhaps we just don't stop to smell the roses anymore. Who has times these days, right? I have to get this errand done, turn in this, attend that meeting, etc. I wish there would be days in my life where I can go to sleep and say to myself, today was a good -- no, great day. And to say that without having anything extraordinary happen.

Couple of years ago, I started this thing called my day-maker. What did I do or see today that made today special? I hope to be reminded of my day-maker every time I visit my blog and to share that with you. Today's day maker was seeing Penny purr at my feet when I walked in through the front door. And unlike other times, her catfood bowl was full.

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It's All About Confidence

Walk into any room like you own the place. That's one of the mottoes to finding success in the business world. It really is all about how you sell yourself. You can be the biggest jerk in the world but in that 30mins of meeting you, that someone can believe you're the second coming of Mother Theresa. That's really the trick to an interview. How well can you present yourself to be the perfect fit for the job? Acquire the skill to do that and you can land yourself anywhere.

Where do we find this confidence?

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The On-site Interview

After my phone interview with ACS, Inc. today, I was fortunate enough to get a 2nd, on-site interview tomorrow. Preparing for an on-site interview can be as intensive as studying for your finals. It's your one shot to make that great impression that you're a perfect fit for the job. Fail and well...you fail. And just like studying for your finals, you probably learn more about the subject through those late night cramming sessions than you did for the previous 3-4 months of attending the class.

Now let's see, what else do I need to know about windows and linux...

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So what are you doing now?

I probably face this question about 5-10x a day from various people that I come in contact with. And to be honest, I am what you would call 4.8% of the USA population right now -- unemployed. I spend most of my days doing research on various companies and adjusting my resume to meet some of those companies' job qualifications. In addition, I started to play around with Linux and Perl scripting. To the engineering world, those are fundamentals to almost any job (if you haven't graduated and pursuing an engineering career, pick those up now!).

I feel like unemployment can be more tiring and arduous than working at any job. My mom was right when she said how her 3 months of unemployment after she got laid-off was the most tiring time of her entire computer programming career. Advice to all who are graduating soon, it's never too early to start job searching!

Some things that I've picked up through the past few months of job searching:

• Writing skill is KEY -- whether emails, letters, resume, etc. (a top reason why I started blogging again was to improve my writing skills)
• Fully charge and carry your phone -- you never know when someone is going to call you about a job.
• Connections, connections, connections -- there's no shame when it comes to job searching; meaning, go through every route possible, whether it's your mom's cousin's boyfriend's friend, or that facebook friend whom you've only talked to once in person, seek those options out! The world is competitive so don't expect a job to fall right into your lap.
  

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An Introduction

It's been almost 3 years since I've last written on my blog. And after spending a fair amount of time today re-reading some of my posts in my archives, it's given me inspiration to continue to document the happenings in my life. However, aside from just using this as a soapbox to release all of my emotions, I hope to encourage you, the reader, through the journaling of my innermost thoughts, the struggles of finding myself in the real world, and God's story of redemption and love in my life. What a better way to begin a new chapter in my life than to write it all down so I can revisit it when I'm 80 and sipping on my cup of tea at the retirement home!

The first thing that strikes me as I'm starting my blog again is how much my writing style has probably changed. Looking back on my posts in high school, my words were filled with fervor and enthusiasm. Not to dissuade you from ever visiting this blog again, but I've definitely "mellowed out." Which is a good thing because keepin' it real is something worthy of respect these days, right?

Moving on. I've titled this blog "Quest: A Young Man's Journey Into The Real World." Inspiration for this title comes from many different parts. The word "Quest" brings the connotation that you're striving for something. There's an end goal, and you want to get there no matter the cost. Such a definition brings to mind 1 Cor. 9:24-27. As for "A Young Man's," atleast for the next 6-7 years, I would consider myself a young man. And finally, "Journey Into The Real World" is inspired by the small group that I led last semester -- where we explored the difficulties of living a Christian life post college graduation. And so, let this day mark the beginnings of my journey into this unknown!

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