What’s wrong with the current generation?
The ‘Gen Y’ers, I mean.
Such a lack of commitment!
There is nothing to fear but fear itself!
You don’t know what I mean?
Just look at my FB wall. All these people wish me Happy Birthday and wish that I’d find a wife this year, but none of them are able to take the slightest step of faith and say “I will be your wife today, on your birthday”.
What’s the point of wishing me a wife if they can’t uphold their end of the bargain?
It’s frightening, really.
I’ve gotta say, C4C girls are really one of a kind.
Now of course I am not talking about just any girl that’s involved with the ministry, but ones that have caught the vision, gone through the proper training, taken the initiative to lead groups and projects, etc. You know, those ones who really standout in their ministry.
Yeah, you could argue that those things are all very basic, Christian things but then, you can easily tell the difference between a born and bred C4C girl and other Christian ladies out there.
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but yeah. It might just be the way they laugh, even.
So if you are a C4C girl, I just wanted to let you know here and now that you are very special.
And of course I am sort of a born and bred C4C guy too, so if you ever wanna go out for a coffee or a walk by the sea wall or something just give me a ring. My direct line is a Vancouver number, and it is at area code 604……
Oh, the pain of having to answer 200+ calls everyday. God bless call centres.
Anyways, I finally met up with Not My Type today, and coincidentally, we did meet just right next door to a Burger King (but not actually at one, sorry to disappoint you Tim).
And when she got to the page about “Ways that you can support me”, I almost LOL’ed.
Sadly, I didn’t see spousal support as one of the options there. And of course the Holy Spirit did not prompt me to use the ultra super combo pickup line on her.
And one last bit of news: my workplace is a great place because they buy you birthday cakes, and today I just ordered a white chocolate cake for my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There’s a reason why all I’ve been blogging about over the past few months are white folks and blonde girls (to be fair I can’t remember the last time I talked about blonde girls, but whatever).
I’m quite thankful for the service tonight. Throughout most of his sermon tonight on Exodus 17, our intern – also my friend – took the time to share some very, very personal experiences of when he was angry with God.
I figured that I am pretty much angry with God right now. Like the Israelites, I am currently asking: “is the Lord amongst us or not?”
I think that’s it. I think that hits the nail right on the head for me.
I have been so sick of Christianity. I am so tired of the bubble we live in and the little principles we follow – be it consciously or not – that really have no place in our faith. I am sick of praying packaged prayers. You always hear us Evangelicals talking about our faith being about a relationship and not about a religion or a set of rules, but honestly: is that really what happens in our lives? And what on earth does “a relationship” mean anyways?
This is exactly the same reason why I get really angry and want to shoot someone whenever I try doing the 40 days thing with Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. I am sick of all this Christianese and shallow understanding of this supposedly greatest truth I will ever discover!
I remember going out with this really artsy friend from C4C sharing our faith at the UBC SUB, and he shared this concept along the lines of “life is a journey for us to discover”. At the time I thought it didn’t sound very Christianese, that it sounded a bit too liberal. But now, I think he’s so right. As Christians, we never take the time to process our thoughts and find out why we believe in the things we are “supposed to” believe in. Everything is presented on the dinner table like a buffet at Uncle Willy’s. We seldom discover anything for ourselves.
Last week the senior pastor at my church asked me out for lunch. I hesitated at first, not knowing why he wanted to meet me. I was afraid that he was gonna ask me to do something new at church. It’s weird, having gone to my church for something like 8 years now, I have maybe met with my pastor only 3, 4 times, the last time being my meeting with him about Halifax Project ‘07 in early 2007.
Turns out he wanted to meet me because he knew I have been quite discouraged. You see, after having invested almost every Saturday in the past 3-4 years into the youth at church, I have finally called it quits. Our English pastoral staff decided that it was best that we dissolved our one and only high school youth group. To be honest I felt so relieved. I was so happy. It meant that I finally had my weekends back – that I can now be a proper game-attending Whitecap, and that I no longer have to be a party pooper (I used to have to ask my friends to “book me” at least 2-3 weeks in advance), and that I no longer have to face disappointment every Saturday evening.
I mean I have been feeling so out of it, so stale, that I needed this girl that I could technically fancy (but I never did actually fancy her) to tell me that I am apparently very good at the piano to finally put in any thought into preparing my worship sets.
Join my pity party.
Anyways that’s enough self-pity. So my pastor gave me some much-needed encouragement (since I thrive on positive reinforcement and words of affirmation). He praised me for my loyalty, claiming that many youth leaders would have left the church many a days ago if they faced the same situation. He asked me if I ever thought of leaving the church. I honestly told him that I did, but I simply had no idea how to work it through. I have always hated people who switched churches like switching King deals at Burger King.
If this is my home, then this is my home. If I switched churches, if I ever got married I would want to switch wives too. This has always been my rationale for staying at a place that has, quite honestly, made me quite miserable at times.
But I suppose it’s like supporting a football club that is never going to win anything. You simply take joy from being able to stick through the thick and thin with the club. Winning just becomes an extra bonus.
My pastor then started talking about him finally understanding the concept of discipleship – about the effectiveness of starting small, simple, genuine one-on-one relationships. You’d think that as a C4Cer, I would’ve been so excited that I’d immediately jump in headfirst to help see this vision come through. But with me being in the bad shape that I’m in – you know, being angry at God and discouraged and everything – all I felt was apathy. In fact, I think this is the most apathetic I have felt in a long while. I remember in one of my journal entries from back in my first or second year at UBC – back in the time when I just bought into the whole Crusade thing (which really is the Jesus thing) – I wrote that my biggest fear was seeing myself becoming a fat, lazy, apathetic loser who just shows up at church and does absolutely jack squat.
Here I am, fitting into that exact mold. Bleh.
In my defence, right now I just really wanna know that God is outside the 4 walls of this building called church. I want to know that the Church really does actually mean the Body of Christ, and not merely this social group we meet in every week. If I am sick of church, but not sick of God, then I want to be able to take this relationship I have with Him – my Father – and take it everywhere I go. As a football fan. As a person at work. As a student.
My friend closed the sermon with The Gospel Song by Drew Jones and Bob Kauflin. What simple words that capture what this thing is all about at the end of the day:
Anyways, I am apparently meeting up with “Not My Type” this coming Tuesday for a C4C staff support appointment.
It’s funny, the name “Not My Type” came about because on our way to Winter Con ‘07, I asked my friend to show me who the female Key Student Leader at this nearby uni was, as I have only heard of her but never met her in person. But all my friend said in response was, “Ricky, she’s not your type”.
Well, we’ll see, won’t we? If all goes well at this appointment maybe I will ask her to marry me or something. Afterall I am turning 24 in a week. It would be a good time to become engaged and all.
I think this pickup line is gonna work like a charm.
And if she rejects me, I could just say, “Ministry at [university name] is very tough. You are going to need all the support you can get, including spousal support”.
Wow, I can’t wait!
Just this past week, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into considering whether the Canucks are picking me to become a fan (because I am a Calvinist: the club picks you and not the other way around). I think there is no better time to become one than right now.
They are doing so, so very poorly right now. What was it, 7 straight losses at home? Which means great news because a good bunch of the plastics should be driven out by now. No more of stupid girls raising up banners saying “Naslund, I wanna have your baby” because now they are probably too busy watching Gossip Girl now.
And there’s still enough of the season left for me to learn about the game, so I can be ready by the start of next season.
I have been listening to Team 1040 (the Canucks radio station) everytime I get in the car these days, and I was very pleasantly surprised when one of the pundits on there raised the point I have always tried to raise without success: there are way too many teams and games in the NHL for neither of them to matter.
I mean, if you look at, say, the Canucks, you see very little in them that is representative of the fact that they are a club from Vancouver. There are no real rivalries against other teams (I reckon some might say we are rivals with the Oilers or Flames, but I have seen little evidence other than a few silly ‘BOOs’), no real chants or anthems that we are associated with. The only thing I can see is that the fans are mostly half-arsed middle class fat asses (like myself, if I must say), which I guess IS representative of the population here.
I suppose that’s why all you hear people talk about are the stats and the players. You very seldom hear anyone talking about the clubs themselves.
I mean, this is a bit like a Christian talking about the little things they do at church without ever referring to God. They’ve totally missed the point.
Whereas, say, if you were to attend say Man Utd vs. Liverpool, you can probably easily trace a lot of their chants (yeah, they actually chant and sing) back to historical
events, and the cultures of the cities the teams are from.
Although, what is actually sickening is when they decide to play those lousy rock tunes on the PA everytime the play stops over here in North America. We are talking about fricking hockey (or baseball or soccer or football) games, not a night out at the movies or circus for crying out loud. Let the crowd make the atmosphere!
One of the goals I’ve set in the beginning of the new year is that I will go to at least 1 away match with the Whitecaps, be it against the Portland Timbers, Montreal Impact, or against Toronto FC (if I can get a ticket there, which seems unlikely).
Shame we won’t be playing against the Sounders anymore. But I think it’d be fun to head down there when they play against Becks’ team.
Sometimes I think about my behavior and wonder just how much a people-pleaser I really am.
But upon further introspection, I think these behaviors actually go far to show that I am a man of decency, a man of principles.
Let me give you an example:
There are two bus stops that are close to where I live. One is basically right outside of my neighborhood, the other at the major intersection about 200-300 meters further out.
Now, because the bus stop that is farther away is at a major intersection, usually you’d get people wanting to get off there. And my principle in this situation is this: if I were the bus driver, I think I would be quite annoyed if I had to stop at the first bus stop (the major intersection), start moving again, and have to stop again in just about 10 seconds later.
And so, in keeping with the whole Jesus thing (do unto others as they unto you etc.), I just get off at the first stop 90% of the time.
If it’s raining really hard or snowing or something like that then I’d just bug the driver that little bit more and get off at my actual stop.
Another example:
I’ve always believed that only really really fat people or really really lazy people (most of the time the same people) would use the elevator to get up to the second floor.
Take the stairs for crying out loud!
And so, because my workplace is on the second floor, and because I don’t want to have to refer to myself as really fat and really lazy, I have always been taking the stairs.
Third example:
If you know me you’d know about me and umbrellas. I just don’t touch them. I have one in the trunk of my car just in case my grandma is with me and it’s pouring. But I would rather get sick or drown or die than to have to use an umbrella.
Just imagine if the Nazi’s came into your house and demanded that you either killed your neighbor or they’d kill you……imagine how much more likely you would give into their demands if you weren’t even able to simply stick to a simple principle: don’t ever use umbrellas! Just imagine.
And so, yeah, I think you could look at these examples and conclude that I am really just a people-pleaser, always caring about what others would think of me.
Or you could be real biblical and think about manhood and think about how much of a good man I am.
What a mess this stupid Winter Olympics is turning out to be. So now our municipal government has turned into a condo business. Great.
How does it work, that us taxpayers have to pay for this stupid mess that the government made?
The Olympics is stupid enough to start with. Every sport that is worthy to be called a sport has its own form of a World Cup anyways, what the heck is the point of Olympics existing these days?
Worst of all, we’re talking about the Winter Olympics here! Watching some dude cross country skiing and then firing his rifle at some targets is not exactly what gets me off my armchair in excitement. The most exciting thing is probably figure skating where you’ll get to see some pretty Russian girl or something like that.
Maybe it’s ’cause I semi-work for the government. And I get to find out everyday how the government’s job is really to screw us common folks over. A new way everyday.
It’s almost like the King Deals at Burger King. A new combo everyday.
Brilliant.
It just occurred to me how beautiful this past winter break was. As piles of that white stuff poured down from the heavens, I couldn’t help but gasp in the love in the air.
What am I talking about, you ask?
I mean, how could a guy who couldn’t even drive out his brand spanking new car like the snow? How could a guy who had organized a party – got ready to order pizza for delivery only to find out that they don’t deliver – and had to walk out in the snow for a block to pick the pizza up like the snow?
The beauty lies in the Canadianese of it all.
Let me put it this way: when was the last time you saw a Chinese guy work together with a Brown guy?
It sounds very Russell Peters, I know, but honestly, I can’t recall the last time I had seen that happen.
But yet that was exactly the scene on one snowy morning, when my neighbor and I shoveled snow out from our driveways along the very same back alley.
Isn’t that beautiful? Both of us doing our parts to make sure that OUR cars can get out of OUR driveway so WE can bring bread home to our family (while the white guys out there are actually shoveling walkways that they don’t even use themselves, because for them it is simply doing their jobs as nice, responsible citizens)?
So Multicultural. So Canadian.
It was so beautiful that I didn’t even mind the fact that he shouted at me one day as I was driving home and got stuck, yelling, “I told you not to stop!” (referring to the fact that cars are better able to tackle the lack of friction on the icy ground when they have momentum) when my car was actually stopped by the snow, and not by me.
No, my Christmas was not white.
I didn’t even have turkey. I didn’t watch some beautiful children sing Christmas carols. I didn’t have gingerbread or anything. I didn’t go to any white church for mass. And the times when I did have egg nog were way before Christmas when I visited my old Starbucks store for their 40% discounts, and way after Christmas when they were on sale in the local groceries store.
But what I had was, in my eyes, more beautiful than any white Christmases.
It was a beautiful beige Christmas.
Thank You, Jesus.
I was just trying to figure out what my top 25 albums are, based on all the stats I have collected from my iTunes library and the influence the albums have had on me.
It’s interesting to note that not a single album is by a female artist. I guess they just don’t really do it for me. Best I can think of off the top of my head is Fiona Apple or Lauryn Hill, and maybe a few other Christian artists.
Anyways, here it is, in no particular order:
1. Michael Jackson – Thriller
2. Radiohead – OK Computer
3. Death Cab For Cutie – Plans
4. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
5. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
6. U2 – The Joshua Tree
7. Dave Matthews Band – The Central Park Concert
8. Ben Folds – Ben Folds Live
9. Nirvana – Nevermind
10. Snoop Doggy Dogg – Doggystyle
11. Radiohead – Kid A
12. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood
13. The Oscar Peterson Trio – Night Train
14. The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
15. Dream Theater – Live Scenes From New York
16. Switchfoot – Nothing is Sound
17. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York
18. Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
19. Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go
20. Pixies – Waves of Mutilation
21. Guns ‘N Roses – Appetite for Destruction
22. The Verve – Urban Hymns
23. The Doors – The Doors
24. Mute Math – Mute Math
25. Muse – Origin of Symmetry
This list is by no means definitive. It’s just the top 25 I can think of right now.
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