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| Yup, I'm moving my blog. I'm not sure what I'm going to use this one for - but at any rate, I'm moving!
I'll be importing updates from my new blog onto Facebook, so you'll be able to see it there ALSO. At any rate, you can leave a comment here or send me a message me and ask me for the link to the new site!
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| So, I just finished prepping for Bible study tomorrow (I know, I should do these things earlier - it's been a bad week, ok? [that was more for Derek's benefit  ]), but I wanted to say something.
Well, first off, I'm thinking of moving my blog to another site. But please move with me, so ask me if you're interested in finding out the new site. It's up and running, but nothing's on there right now.
Now for the real post: I was looking through some of my old blog posts over the last year. It's fascinating! I know I've changed a lot, and my circumstances have changed, but it's really cool to hear what I was thinking and going through a year ago. I think I'm going to start a practice now of, every few days or so, reading last year's blog posts from around the same date.
Also, I think that reading Paulman's blog is one thing, but hearing the tone and attitude and sentiments behind what I end up typing is quite another. In fact, I actually sound different and say things differently, I think! But my point is, I don't think you can fully get to know the real Paulman through the blog. You can get to know me in certain ways pretty well through the blog, but there's still a lot that's "lost in translation". Oh, for physically being in someone's presence... right now there's no real substitute.
Not to say we're not trying, though.
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| I say that blogging is very important to me, but it seems that I never get around to doing it. However, since I believe and preach that baby steps are important, because little is better than no progress, I shall now post something.
For all you perfectionists and procrastinators out there, this is a good point. Imperfect is better than nothing. And yes, perfectionism and procrastination are often related.
#1 - People often ask me, "Would you ask a friend to photograph your wedding for you?" An excellent question. At my wedding, I wouldn't want my friend to be distracted by the demanding demands of photographing the wedding. Because taking good photos is hard work! So I would hire a professional photographer, and probably shell out quite a bit for that. Because photos tell a story, and I think stories can influence lives. I want my life to be a story about how God is about good things - things that bring life! As opposed to the things that destroy our relationships, families, and keep the Gospel from being as effective to those around us as it might otherwise be.
P.S. Obviously, no one ever asks me question #1. I just thought about it on my way out of the laser room. But I've thought about the wedding photographer deal at my wedding, before. And no, I'm not a girl - I don't constantly think about my wedding (hey, now I'm blogging defensively, like Ricky).
#2 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man (or woman) listen to his/her friend's talk at IGNITE.
- Not actually a quote from JesusOk, I was thinking about what the line is between shameless self promotion (or pride) versus humility. Well, I decided that I have this overwhelming desire for people to listen to what I have to say, and it's not necessarily bad. It's not that I want people think I'm great - it's just that I want people to hear what I have to say. Cause obviously I believe in what I have to say. I hope that's what it's about, anyways. So... yah, I'm going to write a future blog post about my talk at IGNITE. Did you miss it? No problem, because it's available online, along with other audio from this semester (including BC Summit) on our SFU C4C website. I'll save the link for the future blog post, because then I can make the title appropriate and hopefully that will grab people's attention when it gets imported into my Facebook and shows up on people's news feeds. Is that wrong? Cause if it is, I don't wanna be right (ok, jk). P.S. Here's a random photo: Tim looks to the heavens - "Where does his help come from?"
P.P.S. If anyone thinks they know what I should do with my life, please let me know. Thanks.
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| I didn't get that many e-mails. It's weird - I was just checking my inbox, and there were no new e-mails. I've only gotten like 10 e-mails the entire day, including school spam and Facebook spam and everything.
Anyways, today's been a slow day. There's this fine line of whether I expect much to get done in the day or not, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. In my defense, I guess it's in part because you don't always have a clear idea of what to do next in research, and things can take awhile to get started.
P.S. I hope to finally pull enough hours together so I can put together my talk.
P.P.S. Here's a random photo from today. With my new 50mm f/1.8 Nikon lens.
U-Pass Referendum - Day #1
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| Ok, if you would like to know how I would recap my Summit experience, I'd probably explain it like:
"Familiar, and pretty uneventful for me. But that was cool in its own way!"
Anyways, two other things I will point out:
1.
It's cool seeing young Christians (like myself) get exposed to really
important teaching and vision about how we should each view our walk
with God. Ideas like surrender, and living for eternity, are all
things I've heard so many times before, but seeing it begin to shape
people's lives (like how it's shaped mine) is... cool.
2.
Summit made me realized how I've grown up. Small things, like being
able to make myself sleep earlier; or waking up earlier, on purpose, to
give myself some time to read my Bible and pray; and other small things
like that (like not procrastinating with going into the slightly
disgusting washroom), all served as indicators to me that God has been
changing me over the last couple years, and growing me up a little. (I'm talking about doing all these things at Summit, btw)
In
terms of the speaker and message, and what I learned, I shall summarize
his theme by sharing what I've learned from the passage he preached on,
Romans 12:1-2:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present
your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and
perfect.
First off, the end of chapter 11 ends by talking about how great is God - specifically, how great are his riches and wisdom and knowlege - and how He should be praised. Then this passage continues with Paul's appeal by the mercies of God to us to, basically, surrender our lives to God, because it's our spiritual worship. The word "spiritual" is the Greek word, logikos, which is often translated as "pertaining to reason". Sounds logikal, right? (*snicker* I love puns). In other words, surrendering our lives to God should be the logical thing to do; it should be the reasonable response of worship that we have towards God. And why should you believe me (and the Bible) that we should do this?
The answer lies in what is explained in chapter 11, and by the phrase "mercies of God". The word "mercies" is the Gree word, oiktirmos, which other than being unintelligible to me turns out to be translated elsewhere in the Bible as, like, compassion or kindness, as "in relieving sorrow and want" (I guess this is the time I should give credit to Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words, which we all got in Halifax Project  ). Anyways, God's "mercies" sounds a lot like charity, to me. And I'm all for charity. I mean, I benefited a lot from free food in Halifax (whenever I visited my fellow project-members' apartments).
So what's the point? Well, if God is truly great & awesome, then in light of the fact that He cares about helping us so much, then it really does make sense to offer ourselves totally to God. We can trust Him with our lives and our daily choices and actions - this is the sort of worship that God desires and finds acceptable.
Application: One thing I learned in Halifax over the summer is that application is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. So, my application point for myself from what I've learned here is... if I say I believe in God and all that He calls me to, then quit wondering about how much faith I have, and start living out my faith. Life speaks louder than words, and so I will set my mind about living my life in a way that says to God, "I'm actually do listen to you!"
So that's my Summit recap. I will leave you all with an ACTUAL Summit recap video:
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