A Very Basic Memorial

So, wow, I’ve been in such a nostalgic mood lately.  Earlier this week, I went back and read through my old skype conversations with some of you from 2010 on.  Some of the jokes I no longer remember (guess you had to be there J).  Some of the silliness I’ve maybe matured from a bit (a good thing, I’m sure).  But every one of those late night, emoticon peppered, tribe-inside-joke-ridden messages was so filled with the brother and sisterly-love that we experienced in Christ during our time at TMC (and beyond). 

Life has been busy…for all of us.  I suppose we all knew it would be.  I’m grateful for the precious friendship I still have with you all.  Every time I get a message from Sarah asking how she can pray for me, or a Skype from Joe reminding me how very “basic” I am, or a word of encouragement from Rhi (who I didn’t even have the privilege of meeting until after I left school), I am overwhelmed by the goodness of our Lord.

He didn’t need to bring “The Tribe” together.  He would still be just as good, just as holy, just as in control of our lives.  But through His sheer love and care, God chose to bring together such an odd and unlikely group of strangers, from all corners of the country, all backgrounds.  In a way, I feel like we grew up together, we matured in the Lord together.  You all challenged me to seek God and serve Him in ways I didn’t even know I had neglected.  You were so patient with me when I sinned, when I rebelled.  We loved each other despite our failings and imperfections.  I see in all of you a picture of what the body of Christ is meant to be, a union of new-in-Christ yet not-yet-glorified sinners seeking to use our varied God-given talents to glorify Him and to selflessly serve one another in love. 

Praise Him that this means of worship does not stop at TMC!  We take it to our homes, our grad schools, our work places, Texas, Alaska, Iowa, Canada, Loma Linda, Northern California, missions, and much more.  We take what we learned during our time at Master’s and use these skills to worship God in our relationships.  Praise God for unions that seek to give him praise.  Brian and Amber, Scott and Rhi…what a joy to celebrate with you all this year, to watch you grow and struggle and give all glory to God in your marriage planning. 

Who could have predicted the extent of God’s faithfulness to each of us as we entered uncertainly into Fall 2010 semester?  I often forget just how purposeful my Lord is in all His plans.  I see myself as being much bigger, much more important, and much more in control than I actually am.  It is humbling to remember that our Lord, He is God; it makes the hearts of His children sing to look upon the memorial of what He has done in their lives, and then to respond in worship. 

I guess that’s what this is: a memorial.  J  That’s what all these little bits of nostalgia are to me.  The password on my now-very-obsolete-and-dying laptop, the autocorrect on my phone, hours worth of silly skype messages, a few plastic black spiders hiding in my closet.  We look back and remember that the Lord has brought us safe thus far and it is only by His grace and providence that He should lead us home.

Love you all.  You are in my prayers.  J

-Annie

Well, I was just listening to the following song:

And it brought back a flood of memories, and reminded me again of how much I miss all of you - incredibly much! As I remember all of the chapels we had together singing this song and worshipping together, all of the late nights in Waldock, ridiculous meals late in the caf past closing, being intensely burned out yet being encouraged by each other and forced to laugh. The walks at night, the random pool excursions, the brain frazzled non-sense moments that were so much fun, the incredibly deep and encouraging conversations. In light of this I wanted to say thank you to every single one of you, the Lord truly blessed me by bringing every single one of you into my life - I love you all and your impact has truly changed me. I know there is not much that I can do in return, especially since we are all in so many different places now, but what I can do is pray for you, so if there is anything specific I can pray for, I would love to! So please let me know. I would love even more to see you all if any are in the area at any time!

As much as the past is precious though, the present is right in front of us, and we are all called to make the most of our time: "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." Eph. 5:15-16, so in view of this I would love to hear how you all are doing now! I know there are plenty of wonderful things going on in all of our lives - even if it is the Lord stretching us :) . Life continues to be dynamic and new memories are being made each day.

What is Senioritis?

Senioritis is chuckling at a freshman taking a Dr. Halstead class.
Senioritis is confidence, mixed with the slightest hint of ennui.
Senioritis is waking up to the brewing of coffee, knowing that some day, you will in fact, not have the lower caff.


What is Senioritis?
Looking back wistfully, while looking forward eagerly.

How can it be, That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

The beginning of the end. The final culmination of the 8 year long conference where many lives have been stirred and touched. Resolved has had a special place in my heart for a few reasons, the most important of all being that it is here that the Lord saved me from my path of eternal damnation.
John MacArthur has jump-started this conference with a sobering reminder of the history of the church. Pastor John took us through the lives of John Hus and Martin Luther and how they paved the way for sound doctrine in regards to the headship of the church. "it is important that we remember that these truths sailed down to us on a sea of blood." We cannot take lightly the importance of such a pivotal anchor of doctrine, especially one that such Godly men have given their lives defending.
What an amazing way to start off this conference: seeing our doctrine through the lens of church history, and refreshing our perspective of what it means to be a Christ-follower.
my prayer is that this weekend, the lives of the men and women in this gym will be changed so that they cannot walk away from here thinking about 'what a great conference it was' or 'how great the music was' but that they would be challenged to live a life, dedicated to serving Christ. After all, isn't that the very point of our existence?


http://vimeo.com/42067595
ps: there will be no live stream this year (sad) but the audio downloads will be available that evening, and the videos have been promised to follow shortly after. find this and all previous Resolved sessions here

Santa Clarita - just mostly dead

I was encouraged to go out and evangelize with my friend from the seminary Matt Todd, even though it was mostly him sharing and me listening. This trip brought up many questions and insights into the area that we live - and even for the rest of the U.S....that it is mostly dead. Either people are comfortable in their Catholic church, don't want to hear anything about God, or simply think that they have done enough to earn their own salvation. It is truly disheartening to see, but also challenging me to ask how I am reaching out here and now into our communities, or is everything just related to the bubble in which I live? At the least I could be praying for the people, at the most actively involved in the community, any portion of the community, showing them Christian love and sharing with them the truth of the gospel. If I keep on saying that I will take care of it later, when I graduate, or depend on circumstances and events to drag me out of my little shell, it will never happen. So I guess that this is just to point this out, and to encourage you all to encourage me to step and be a light. To look for chances to reach out to people outside of my church and school. Also to encourage you to look outside at your own communities, or groups, and see how you might share the truth, be salt and light, show who Christ is, especially over the Summer. (Also, don't forget to be light into the lives of other believers, to encourage and continually bring things back to Christ, who is the greatest thing in our lives).

Resurrection Sunday

Hello Dear Friends!
How was your Easter weekend? Celebrated with many heretical egg-laying rabbits? Or making trips to wal-mart the day after for 50% marked off candy? The joys of living in a first-world country :)
Easter for me this year has been quite memorable. I spent the day with extended family. Not many of you know that my grandma is suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease, and has difficulty recognizing even her own children's faces. Names are unimportant and non-existent to her, as she can't even remember how many children she has. However this Sunday, she got to see her only son, out of a family of 9 kids, who came all the way from Brazil to see her. Now her son, my uncle, has suffered from a stroke several years ago that paralyzed half his body and left him unable to talk. Since then, he has made great improvements for a man his age (65) and is able to slowly walk with the aid of a cane, and he can say simple things such as obrigado (thank you) and aigoo (oh my) with much effort.
This Sunday, I got to see one of the most heartwarming pictures I have witnessed: my grandma, who can't remember to turn the light off before going to bed, saw her son, whom she has not seen for almost 20 years, and she recognized him. Her son has no problem recognizing her as his mental capacities are quite lucid; he just can't express his happiness to see her. They begin this long hobble down the hallway to finally be able to grasp the other's hand, only to have the surprise on my grandma's face turn to joy, then turn to anger as she sees how crippled her son is. She starts hitting his arm with tears in her eyes, saying "I gave birth to a healthy boy, what happened to you? Are you really my son?" my uncle has tears in his eyes as he cannot bring himself to say anything but 'oh my', and he can see how grandma is questioning his identity. Grandma gives him an ultimatum: "if you truly are my son, say your name. Say Kim Yung Myung." Now this is a hard name to pronounce even for me in Korean, but for a stroke victim to say, is neigh impossible. The effort that my uncle put into forming the words was painstaking, the emotion that he had was almost tangible, even as his voice has no tone. His face was twisted with the pain that he knew he was causing his mother, and with a super human effort, he finally muscled out: "Kim. Yung. . . Myung!" Grandma demanded that he say it over and over again, until she was satisfied that he was finally her son. At last, recognition set in, and he was accepted by her.
It was both the most heart-wrenching and heartwarming moment-The mother cannot remember her son, and the son cannot say his name or call her 'mother'. yet, by the grace of God, they both were able to overcome their disabilities, and the son says his name, and finally says 'mother', to which the mother replies '..my son.'

Encouraging Tidbit

"To worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, and to devote the will to the purpose of God." - William Temple

Interesting to think about...