θαυμάζω

It is a historical fact that never has a series that's been started on this blog ever seen completion. My posts listing is littered with drafts and random ideas that I've jotted down but never taken the time to fully develop. For that I apologize. I do, however, fully intend on finishing my faith journey series, because I see tremendous value in documenting how I became a Christian and hold out hope that people who are someone along the path I traveled might have a glimpse of where they are heading. Plus, it's all already completely written on my private journal. Before I go on with that, I just wanted to jot down a few thoughts I've had as I read through Albert Mohler's excellent blog series (now there's an internet author that I can learn many things from) on the Christian worldview. In his first installment, Mohler makes the claim that a central axiom in the Christian worldview is that God reveals himself to us. God is not discovered. He is not conceived of ...

Facebook has documented most of my religious journey from a pudgy little Matthew Ha, strutting around church like I own the place because everyone in church knows either myself or my parents, to where I am now. When I first got facebook before my first year of college, I think I was just " Christian ". Two years later, I had changed my religious views to say, " Creation-Sin-Redemption ", reflective of my frustration and weariness of wandering around lost in Gordon College, a veritable intellectual agora of competing Christian beliefs, and betraying my desperate longing to belong to a transcendent meta-narrative that explained my life, no matter how insignificant I was made out to be. A year later, my religious status once again changed to say, " Reluctant reformed evangelical Christian ". God had my hand and was finally leading me out of the crowds. I was starting to realize what I truly believed but the realization was lined with an edge of wariness and ...

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ" - Mahatma Ghandi A few months ago a young couple invited me to their house for dinner. I showed up and we had a wonderful time dining together. Shortly after dessert, the wife cleared the table and went into the kitchen to wash up. The husband was a friend of mine and so I said to him, "Thanks for having me over. It was truly kind of you. The meal was was delicious and I am thoroughly satisfied. You're a great guy. But your wife! I can't stand her! She's completely unlike you! I don't like her and I can't enjoy your company when she's around!" "Look, don't get me wrong, man. I've got nothing against you. I think you're awesome. But I really dislike your wife. " Okay, that never happened. Let me be very clear about that. I should hope that I have more tact than that. But seriously though, WHO WOULD DO THAT?? That story is so un...

Above is the subject of my current existential crisis. It's not something I haven't wrestled with before. It's something I tried and failed to get into the conversation of the Boon boys last year when I organized our first ever "Boon Church ExtravaMANza". It's something that Mark Driscoll originally got me interested in when someone sent me a near-viral youtube clip of him lambasting the boys in his church. And nearly three years ago, on my xanga page, I wrote that my lesson for the year of 2008 was: Passion without temperament is immaturity Anyway, as life cycles, I find myself revisiting this issue and experiencing a deep discomfort with where I am right now, prompting this following brain dump. Last December, right before I left for my MAP internship in Australia, Stanley asked me how I saw myself in terms of maturity. My reply was, "severely conflicted". When I look around at those my age, I see many ways in which I am clearly ahead of my peers....

Thinkers run the world. Thinkers call the shots. It’s always been that way throughout history. It’s meant to be that way. It can’t be any other way. But knowing this fact and dealing with it means coming to grips with the inherent weaknesses of human leadership. It will always be that those who make the decisions struggle to understand the ones they make decisions FOR. Has it really taken me 22 years and a college degree to learn this one fact, that humans aren’t robots? Feelings aren’t weaknesses. They aren’t diseased outgrowths of human evolution that need to be transcended, as some later, post-Wittgenstein Analytics would have it. A warning to all foolish thinkers out there; future decision-makers and scientists alike. You have been born with a terrible deficit in your humanity. You have been born with the inability to speak a language that the rest of the world are fluent in. You have been born with the inability to speak the language of emotions, and until you come to terms with t...

Something I've seriously been struggling with is trying to understand why it is that certain churches so alienate people who are different. If the gospel transcends all boundaries and is really meant to destroy the dividing wall of hostility, then why do the churches of Jesus make it so hard for a Christian who is different to live and thrive and give glory to God? In my life, there have been three churches that I consider my church. In one of them, if you don't like softball, you're an outsider. In another one, if you're not studying at a prestigious Boston educational institution or able to converse about jazz or indie music, you will feel left out. In another, if you don't like meeting up to drink coffee and talk about life, you're not growing in Christ. In all three, if you're not committed to dropping 50 bucks a week eating out, then you're not fellowshipping with Christians . Call these observations unfair caricatures if you will, but caricatures ...

Dear friends, This past Sunday, Eugene from GracePoint church reminded us from the Scriptures the following : "The world's economy tells us to work so that we may gain, but God's economy tells us to work so that we may give." Isn't it a beautiful reflection of the gospel when our lives are not oriented around personal gain, but in giving? Well here's a chance to put the gospel's transforming work into practice: My birthday is coming up on July 17th! Instead of giving me a present, please consider donating to this charity in order to help people in the world get clean water. http://mycharitywater.org/ p/campaign?campaign_id=525 1 1 billion people in the world don't have access clean water. ONE BILLION! That totally blew me away when I found that out. But we can help change that. Since it is my 23rd birthday, I am asking for a donation of $23USD. If 50 people give that much, we can raise enough water for 57 people. But please feel free to give more if yo...