In the chapter entitled “Serving Leftovers to a Holy God,” Chan discusses how it is so easy to give to God the little leftovers that are easy to give but fail to give Him our whole lives, which is what He actually wants from us. The passage that really hit me was this:

If life is a river, then pursuing Christ requires swimming upstream. When we stop swimming, or actively following Him, we automatically begin to be swept downstream.

Wow. That is so true and hard hitting. More importantly I think it explained an oddness I sort of felt about my walk with Christ since I went to college. It was kind of subtle and I honestly didn’t really notice it until recently, which is I guess is why I never really talked about it to anyone. Basically, I let it stagnate. It’s really one of the most dangerous things that can happen since it is rather unnoticeable. I think I just kind of went into college with the attitude that I would get a baseline for church and such, then just hold that until I got everything settled and figured out with college. Oops, big mistake.

The first thing I should have done was to start looking for ways to get involved with a church and, well, just other ways to chase after Christ with all I’ve got. That’s what my life is supposed to be about. All the time. Not just when  finish college, or on weekends, or when I finish my assignments. Every moment. Everything is either part of that or it should be secondary. Am I saying I should neglect my school work? No, not at all, just that it should all be with the goal of glorifying and pursuing God.

Now, this part of the post I’m writing a few days after that first part. Incidentally my involvement at 12Stone called me away (hey, that’s a good thing!) from writing. Admittedly I don’t remember exactly what I was going to write next, but I definitely have more to say. God just keeps reaffirming this whole point in multiple ways. I love how He works.

Yesterday my good friend Wes and I went to visit our old youth pastor Anson at the church that he is currently in the process of planting. It was great to see him again and how God is already working through the young church. Anson’s message really struck me though. He preached on six Biblical reasons church membership is important. The main point, of course, is that it is absolutely crucial to become a member of a church rather than just attend a service every week or two and walk out. This means getting involved, getting to know people there, and serving. Church shouldn’t be a one-way experience. It’s simply how growing closer to God works.

So, basically, I’m going to be doing a whole lot more chasing after God during this upcoming semester. I’m definitely going to try to get involved with a church somewhere, be it the Crossing or somewhere else, in much the same way that I am at 12Stone. I also intend to spend a lot more time with the scripture. In fact, I started a one year Bible reading plan on YouVersion today (great tool) today in order to have the Bible completely read by the end of the year, and I fully intend to carry it out. I know it will do a whole lot to help me grow closer to God, both because it will keep me focused on a daily basis and because spending time with the Bible is just so important, and it’s an area I’m admittedly a little weak in.

I would definitely like to ask that my Christian brothers and sisters, both at home and in Tampa, would pray that I would just stay focused and active in this respect, and that it would create an amazing impact in my life and in others. I love you all, thanks!

This just struck me as very odd. Why would these two guys say they would make this show and just stop? If you read the article, it says the brothers did not even directly respond to the Discovery Channel when they tried to contact the brothers to set a date for the interviews. Their lawyer did, simply saying it would be wise to not contact the brothers again. There has to be a deeper story here. The interviews would take a day or two at max. Probably not even that. So why not do it? It can’t be laziness.

Motives aside, I have pretty mixed feelings about the result of this. I don’t think the Discovery Channel is necessarily wrong in attacking these two. They said they would do the show, and they did not fulfill their obligation. There’s no telling how much money the Discovery Channel spent on production up to that point. It could very well be a few million. In that sense I definitely think the Hillstrands have an obligation to repay what they cost the Discovery Channel by turning their back on the show. I guess my mixed feelings come from the fact that it could cost the Hillstrands their boat and crew if they end up having to pay $3 million dollars, but at the end of the day I really don’t have much sympathy for them. They said they would do the show; I would imagine they signed a contract, and they did not go through with their promise. If there was some deeper reason, they should go public with it, or at least say they have personal reasons, not just break off contact and hide.

So what do you think? Is the Discovery Channel going too far in suing them, or are the Hillstrands asking for it? Discuss.

Granted, what I’m about to talk about isn’t a direct attack, but it is still something that could weaken my faith if I’m not careful. In my “Great Books” class today, we discussed Genesis as a piece of literature, and last Wednesday we also talked about the Flood and compared it to the similar story in Gilgamesh. Treating the Bible in such a way is dangerous ground (I mean treating it as “just another story to analyze”), but it only managed to remind me of how awesome the Bible is, amazingly.

Who knows how the flood story ended up in both the Bible and Gilgamesh. Could be cultural overlap, the actual historical influence, I don’t know. What I’m getting to here is that Gilgamesh is a story about the hero, Gilgamesh. The story involves “the gods” flooding the earth to get rid of man, but in this case they later admit it as a mistake (yes, the gods made a mistake), and the story still resolves around a human hero. In Genesis, the hero is ALWAYS God. Yes, Noah is always a very important figure, but God is the hero here, and of course as Christians one of our primary goals is glorifying God, so it’s just a reminder of how uniform the Bible is in that.

My second thought was that in Genesis, God does not say he made a mistake. He stands by his decision. He didn’t want to do it, exactly, but he never says it wasn’t what needed to be done. This is a reminder that we may not always understand God’s plan, and it may even seem a little counterintuitive, but He knows what He’s doing and it’s ultimately for the better.

I know that’s not the most sensible post I’ve ever written, but I just wanted to write it down. I just always find it funny that attacks on Christianity often only make it stronger.

If you ask me, Zynga is just another social networking company. Their “games” are really just thinly veiled disguises for another way to connect with people. Yes, I realize real games have elements of connecting with people as well, but I wouldn’t say it’s the main point of the product. Ask any longtime gamer and they will likely tell you [insert a Zynga product here] is an absolutely horrible game. There’s also the fact that all Zynga games are completely dependent on facebook. That just seems like a bad idea to begin with, but it also reinforces the fact that they are just social networking extensions. At the end of the day, comparing Zynga with the gaming greats is a prime example of comparing apples to oranges.

I would also like to take this opportunity to point out the potential problems with these Zynga games. They make all of their money from people buying virtual “goods” in the game. Yes, paying real money to get stuff that is and always will be just in the game. Scarily, Zynga is well on the way to making over $500 million this year. Who the heck is paying that much money to get some virtual junk? It’s bad enough when people waste money on stuff they don’t need in real life, much less things they don’t need that aren’t even real.

My inspiration for writing this post was an article about Zynga in the NYTimes (I’ll post a link at the bottom), and that article mentioned a lady that said she spends $20-40 per WEEK on FarmVille. I don’t think I’m stretching it to say that’s becoming a problem. A pretty big problem. Are we going to start getting names for game addiction diseases or something? The article also mentioned an unemployed man that spends up to 16 hours per day playing YoVille, another Zynga product. 16 HOURS! Some people are unemployed for a reason. Granted, it did say he had some mental disability but I know of plenty of mentally disabled people that can still handle some jobs.

So, yes, I have multiple issues with Zynga. I don’t think they make very high quality products and should not be compared to actual game makers, and I think they’re luring people into paying money out of an addiction in a way that’s really not much better than what tobacco companies do. Thankfully, facebook has tightened down on how much spam Zynga can create in my news feed, but I still think some people need to take a step back to look at this and go “Hang on a second…” Seriously, think about it.

NY Times article – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/business/25zynga.html

I hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but I don’t think Verizon will be getting this amazing device anytime soon, and there’s a very simple reason. Verizon’s network is STILL a CDMA network, versus AT&T’s GSM network. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on cellular networks, but I do know that making a Verizon iPhone would involve more than a simple software unlock. It would involve a hardware redesign.

But the hardware requirement isn’t the main reason Apple won’t be giving the prize to Verizon. The main reason is that GSM is a newer and superior technology to CDMA. Frankly, CDMA is a remnant of older times, and GSM won out. Pretty much the entire rest of the world is running on GSM, but some American companies (Verizon) are still sitting on CDMA. Anybody that knows much about Apple knows they are very progressive and like to abandon old technologies and push the new ones coming in. It would be a step backwards in cellular technology for Apple to make a CDMA version of the iPhone. I don’t think Apple knows how to take a step backwards.

I do want to just note again that I really don’t know the fine details of how cellular networks work, so I could be overblowing the superiority of GSM over CDMA, but this is just based off of my understanding of the situation. I don’t really care on the whole situation either, we’ve always been totally happy with AT&T, and I have had issues dealing with Verizon with my grandmother’s phone, so I couldn’t care less if Apple makes it or not. Just a thought I had on the whole situation.

I do want to start saying that I don’t think the issue is nearly as big as the media has been trying to make it. I can make a bar or two drop in certain places by placing my finger on the infamous spot (if you don’t know about the issue I’m sure a quick google search will solve your problem), but the bottom line is that it hasn’t caused a single problem as far as dropped calls or data rates. It’s purely a “lab” result and not a real-world result for me. Maybe others are having actual issues; I can’t speak for them, but for me, it’s not a problem. Honestly, I’ve had way more problems with the proximity sensor, accidentally activating the speakerphone mid-call and such. Jobs did mention that a software fix should be coming for that as well, though, so that’s good.

Anyway, my reaction to the actual event. I think the actual actions they are taking are about as good as they could do. Even if they do have some sort of internal way of insulating it. I think a recall would be pretty overwhelming for them to handle, considering the supply shortages to begin with. Then it turns into a big fight over who gets the new units first, and I just don’t think it would have ended well. Free cases are a good choice, all things considered.

That said, I don’t think Jobs handled the event the best way he could have. He tried a little too hard to assert the whole “Hey, it’s everybody’s problem, not just us!” thing. I agree with him, but he took it just a little too far. The thing that really gets me though is that he avoided the tough question when he opened the session up for Q&A.

I was hoping someone would ask about the fact that you can cause the drop with a single finger on the gap between the two antennas, and Ryan Block did just that, but the panel (Tim Cook, Steve Jobs, and Bob Mannsfield) basically avoided the question. That’s the whole discrepancy between the iPhone 4 and other smartphones. Everybody knows you can cup a phone and attenuate the signal, but has it ever happened with a single finger? It’s not a case of absorbing the signal with body parts, it’s a case of bridging two antennas. Apple said they wanted to solve the issue rather than put a band-aid on it, but I think somebody missed the actual culprit. It has to be a case where they know it but don’t want to try and explain it to the public, but I can’t say for sure.

Here’s the thing. I have a pretty good idea of how to actually fix it. Just move the spot where the two antennae come together to a spot where people aren’t normally going to be touching. Seems pretty simple to me. I’m still not suggesting they replace everyone’s phone, it really isn’t that big of an issue, but they could easily do it in future batches.

It’s definitely a case where I feel like Apple has been unfairly treated by the media, but I also feel like their reaction hasn’t been the best either. Many people are itching to find a hole in Apple’s armor, so when they found this somewhat easy to replicate “issue,” they jumped on it. It’s unfortunate that Apple had to take the hit from the extremely vocal minority, but I think that if they are going to face the issue at all they need to face the right one instead of try and put a bandaid on what most people think the problem is.

Will I apply for the free case? Probably, just to have it, but I seriously doubt I’ll keep it on most of the time. Now I’m just interested to see how the media responds.

A lot of people have mentioned that an instant replay akin to what we have with American football would solve the problem. It would, sure. Almost all of those mistakes could be overturned if the ref got a chance to watch it over from a few different angles. However, I don’t think it should be added at all. American football is naturally broken up. Soccer (as I will refer to it here for simplicity’s sake) is not at all. If the ref had to stop the clock and take a few minutes to review plays, it would totally disrupt the rhythm and momentum that makes soccer beautiful.

That doesn’t mean nothing should be done, however. I can’t remember where I saw it, but I read an article somewhere that had a great point. Soccer fields are far bigger than American football fields, yet soccer has fewer refs, only one of which actually patrols the field and watches for fouls and the like. I say add two refs to the field so we have more than one pair of eyes on the field. It is very easy for one ref to miss things or be over anxious, but having three pairs of eyes watching would undoubtedly cut down on the number of missed calls. I am a little weary of the possibility of refs getting in the way, as I have already seen the ref get in the way of a few plays this year, but as long as that didn’t become an issue, I think the addition of a few extra eyes would be an incredibly beneficial thing.

I learned many things on the trip. I learned things about God. I learned practical things. Cultural things. Travel experience. I doubt I could list all of the things I learned. Perhaps that is the most amazing thing about mission trips: the missionaries get just as much or more from the trip than the people being served, and that applies to many more things than just bits of knowledge. I made many new friends and grew much closer to those that I already had. Best of all, I my heart was just in a constant state of joy, even when I was working my butt off.

Here’s a not-so-quick summary of the week

Sunday – Everybody met at the church at 6am to board the buses to the airport. It was dark, and I couldn’t even find half of my friends, despite our glowing, highlighter-colored shirts, but we still managed to get everything on and get going in time. Everything went smoothly at the airport and we got on our 9:50 flight to Guatemala City. Upon arrival, we managed to get through customs without any issues and went outside to meet our buses. I’ll admit, the buses were not what I was expecting. I figured we would be in some pretty old and bland buses but up come rolling two school bus style buses, except they had awesome paint jobs, lots of chrome, and the legendary Manuel at the wheel or the lead bus. All the guys pitched in to help get the bags (some of which were very heavy *cough* girls *cough*) on top of the bus, and we eventually got underway to the lake region. After about a four hour ride, we pulled up to our hotel in San Pedro La Laguna. After getting settled in to our rooms we headed to dinner, and then had some devotional and discussion time. It was a long and tiring day, but it was full of new experiences and God protected us all the way.

Monday - Ahh Monday, our first work day. I learned my first lesson very early. Literally. When you don’t change the timezone on your phone and use it as an alarm, 6am becomes 4am. I can’t imagine my roommate, Malachi, was very happy with me when I didn’t figure that out until AFTER he took a shower and got ready. Anyway, we grabbed a couple more hours of sleep and got back up to meet our 7:15 departure time. WE headed to the church we would be based out of for the week in the next town over, San Juan La Laguna. After an excellent breakfast we split off into our work groups and headed out to the houses we were building.

Three of the five groups built houses right near the church. In fact, one of them was just across the road. Not my group. We were lucky enough to get one of the two houses in San Marco, which was two towns over, and thus a good 30 minute bus ride, from the church in San Juan. It wasn’t all bad though, it meant we got a little extra break time going to and from our house. Anyway, we got to San Marco and got off the bus. I thought we were at our build site, but we had another surprise: a VERY steep hill. To be fair, it was only about a 5-6 minute walk, but it was straight up, so we used up a good bit of energy just getting to the house. When we got there, we got to work with the help of Fredy, our translator. We were definitely fumbling around a lot at first, trying not to look like American idiots, but we finally started settling into our own grooves and getting stuff done.

It was tough work, but all of a sudden Fredy was saying it was time to go to lunch, which meant we had been working about two and a half hours. It really hadn’t felt like that long at all, and even more shockingly, I wasn’t in the least bit tired. That was definitely the first instances of God just smacking me in the face with something awesome. Normally after 2.5 hours of hard labor in the blazing sun I would be dead and ready to quit at a moment’s notice, but God was just funneling strength to me, providing the resources I needed to do His work. It was just so ridiculously awesome I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.

The rest of the day was pretty much in the same pattern. We went back to San Juan for lunch, and then back out to our work site to finish out the afternoon working on the house. At about 4:30 we headed back to San Juan for dinner and then the hotel to get some much-desired showers and devotionals. God did give me a subtle reminder that serving Him won’t always be the most immediately pleasant option, as the water died just as I stepped into the awesome feeling hot water. I won’t even try to deny that it was a pretty disappointing feeling. The water came back on pretty quickly though. We ended the night with some worship, devotionals, discussion, and what would become a nightly tradition of card games.

Tuesday - This day started off a little better, mainly in the sense that I did not wake up at 4am to the James Bond theme rattling off from my phone. The flow of the day was pretty much identical, so I won’t bore you with repeating all of that again. I will mention something God started to show me that became a central theme for me throughout the week. At the work site, we all sort of developed our own little niches. I turned out to be a really good brick layer. Some were good mortar layers, others were good mortar fillers, etc. As well fell into these grooves everything at the work site got much more efficient. What I took from that was that God has given us all specific talents, and when we embrace those things and go at them with everything, everything goes so much better than if we try to go off and do our own thing, ignoring God’s plan for us. Definitely a strong message for me, since I can never decide what to do.

Wednesday - Once again, Wednesday fell into the same opening pattern. Left the hotel at 7:15 for breakfast and went to our worksites. Once again, God used our experience at the worksite to just remind me of his power. I was being pretty careful about sunscreen and such, but I was still on the verge of roasting my neck and my ears were already getting a little blistery (is that a word?). I prayed the night before for some cloud cover or some sort of relief from the beating sun. I still went out prepared with a bandana for my neck, but as you might expect, God totally provided. Not only did he make it a totally cloudy and cool day, but Tony (one of Impacto’s leaders) came out with his truck and drove us up our long climb. It was just awesome and prompted me to work that much harder.

After lunch we switched things up a bit and went on a long bus ride up the mountain to a town called Santa Clara to do a VBS for the local kids. The church up there was packed full of children ranging from babies to upper-elementary, maybe even middle school aged kids. They really got into the songs and activities, and even though I didn’t know the words they were singing, it was fun to just get in on the energy with them. After VBS came Happy Feet. People donated shoes to all of us before the trip, and we filled duffle bags with them to take as our second checked bag. We gave almost all of those shoes away to the people of that village that day. It was admittedly my least favorite part of the trip, as it involved closing all of the doors and windows of the church, cutting off all circulation, and worrying about shoes for a couple hundred people. I don’t think I need to say much more that shoes + feet + Guatemalan heat + stagnant air is not the best combination in the world. Still, God gave me the strength to get through it and I know the people were very grateful to get some new shoes to help them walk around.

After all of that excitement, we headed back to the church and ended the day in the usual way: with some good discussion and time reflecting on the day.

Thursday - Surprise! Thursday started with breakfast and building houses, just like our first three days. Our house was already getting in the final stages though, so we finished early and had some time to go explore  San Marco for a little while. We walked through this little area that was mostly Americans and Europeans. It’s kind of interesting to see so many of them in a little town like that. I could understand it in a tourist place like Antigua, but San Marco isn’t exactly a hotspot. I guess to be honest it’s probably drugs but still. Anyway, we walked down to the edge of the lake and sat on the dock for a while. The water was surprisingly clear and blue, and it was just an all around peaceful moment to just bask in God’s awesomeness.

That afternoon we split into two different groups. Most of the people stayed at the church and held another VBS for the kids and then just played with them for the rest of the afternoon. A group of 13 guys went to the Promised Land, a retreat Impacto is building for pastors and other missions teams and such, to do some work. I’ll admit, the job surprised me. The land is on the lake, and it turned out that they wanted to start doing baptisms in the lake. There was only one problem: the lake was absolutely full of rocks. Thus our task was to remove said rocks. How, you ask? The only way a bunch of teenage guys would ever remove rocks from a lake: lining up down the coast and chunking them out into a giant pile as fast as we could. Naturally we goofed off some and had some skipping and throwing compeitions, but we still removed a pretty significant number of rocks. I would say it surprised me when I learned we had been chunking rocks for three hours and it was about time to quit, and yet I wasn’t tired or sick of doing it, but by that time I had pretty much figured out the whole theme of God providing strength to get the job done. I will mention that the truck ride back to the church for dinner was rather eventful, since a big Coke truck almost took us out, and piling 14 guys into the back of an F-150 is an interesting experience in and of itself. As you’re probably guessing, we finished out the day with our usual collection of discussion and games.

Friday - Now Friday was completely different. We started the day later, to the joy of many, and didn’t really have any responsibilities until after lunch. A good number of us went on a climbing trip and hiked up this big mountain next to San Juan. The views at the top were nothing short of gorgeous. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places in my time, but that was definitely one of the most breathtaking. It was a hot and grueling climb, but it was well worth it. Definitely one of those moments where you can’t help but just gasp at the beauty of the world God made for us.

After lunch we went touring around to all of the different houses and dedicating them to the families. It was really cool to get to meet the families that we built the houses for. It makes changing a life much more real feeling when you actually meet them. The afternoon disappeared quickly with so much joy and celebration flying around, and we thoroughly enjoyed our last night at Lake Atitlan. I don’t think I need to explain our nights any more at this point haha.

Saturday - This was definitely the outlier of the trip. Right after breakfast we jumped aboard the buses for the four hour bus ride to Antigua. I think the only real moment of total culture shock for me occurred on that ride. It’s graphic so skip this paragraph if you’re squeemish.

As we rode through one of the towns along the road, I noticed a bunch of ambulances and police cars and a big crowd to the side of the road. Of course being something of a gun junkie the first thing I noticed was that the police were all toting TAR-21′s, but then I noticed the point of attention. A body was laying in the middle of the roped-off crime scene, mostly covered by a blanket. Mostly. But more shocking was the huge pool of blood under. I know people get shot in the US all the time, but I’ve never actually seen it or the aftermath. The really shocking thing, though, was how the police and medical techs seemed to be acting like it was just a normal occurrence. It’s a different kind of world when it comes to that sort of thing in Guatemala. It just reminded me of how many different types of places there are in the world, but more importantly it reminded me how blessed I am to live in a relatively safe place like the US where I don’t have to worry about that sort of thing too much.

I didn’t realize we were even close to Antigua when the bus rolled to a stop and Stephen said, “Everybody off!”, but we got settled into our rooms and headed out for an afternoon of exploring and shopping. Bartering for stuff in the market was a pretty interesting experience. I got some good stuff pretty cheap though. It’s not shopping at the Mall of Georgia by any stretch for sure. We also ate at probably the nicest McDonalds I’ve ever been in as well. While the food Impacto prepared for us was excellent, it was nice to chow down on some nasty American food.

As we had group time that night, we all shared we learned throughout the week and just reflected on it all together. It was a bittersweet moment for sure.

Sunday – Our last day in Guatemala was purely a travel day. We left the hotel pretty early (don’t remember exactly when) and went through the normal procedures. Security at the airport was a little interesting, but we got through it fine. Between the three hour flight and loosing two hours, we landed at about 6:30 and started making our way through the annoying process that is customs. Two hours later, we were getting on our bus and heading back to the church. Riding a big charter bus was eerily smooth and quiet compared to the open air, bouncy rides I had grown used to in Guatemala. It almost felt like we weren’t moving. I eventually got back to my house at about 10:15, already dreading getting up at 6 for school the next morning., but I was feeling very refreshed in God’s glory, and I was ready to take everything I learned out into the world and spread His love.

A Week Later - So here I am, just over a week later (yes, I know I said almost a week at the top, I wrote this over three days), still reflecting on everything that happened. In a way, it feels like it was a dream. Like that week just left from my normal life and I was off in some fantasy land, but I know it was real and I’m living my life differently every day because of it. I’m way closer to everyone that was on the trip, and I appreciate everything a whole lot more. I’m even more careful with what I eat. When I got back and started eating nasty American food again my stomach was NOT happy. At all. Eating all that natural food in Guatemala got my stomach used to healthy things and now I realize just how messed up most of our food is.

It may seem like a little thing, but in a way, that’s sometimes how God teaches us most effectively. I honestly can’t say one huge thing I took away from Guatemala, but I could list off little details I learned for quite some time. I do know I can’t wait for my opportunity to go back though. It might be next year, it might be several years from now, but I totally intend to seize the opportunity. Why wouldn’t I want to serve God in any way I can?

My adventure in Guatemala was easily the most impactful and amazing trip I’ve ever been on, and I’ve been to some crazy places. God affected me in so many ways: through the people, through the land, through my friends, and even through the weather. He’s always teaching me stuff, of course, every minute of my life, but to use the most cliché mission trip analogy ever, it was more like a fire hose in Guatemala. It was way more than I could ever take in, but it was also the most refreshing and wonderful drink I’ve ever taken.

I really don’t have everything collected enough to write a full-out post on the trip. I’m still reflecting on it all and just taking it all it. Hopefully within the next week everything will settle in to place and I’ll write a more detailed post on the whole trip.

Right now I can just say that God’s love blasts away all barriers and he really did some awesome stuff last week.