Wow, have to dust this off the shelf! The last time I blogged was in 2006. Why didn't anyone tell me how horrendous my blog looked? I guess that is equivalent to answering the question: Does this dress make me look fat? *sigh*

I will probably find a new blog hosting site someday soon, but its 4am and I will just use what I have for now. It's amazing how much happens in 5 years! But I'll start with today. Today I told someone to start a blog. She's going through a rough time. Blogging/journaling is very therapeutic, helps makes sense of our experiences and thoughts. I figure that since I am always telling people to blog and journal, that I need to follow my own advice. 

In our prayer meeting before Sunday school, someone shared about a movie that he watched of a man that was down-in-the-dumps. But this guy took a "miracle pill" and his whole life turned around. My friend was saying that he knows there is no miracle pill, but wants his life to change.  It makes me wonder: what brings life change? I know that God can bring life change, but we have to let Him. We need to take it one day at a time, and be faithful with the time He's given us. It means obeying His command: love God, and love others, and love yourself. Life is simple when we boil it down to those three things, right? But as we talked about in Sunday school, the commands listed in Luke 6:27-49 seem straightforward and easy to understand, but hard to actually put into practice. Give your shirt to someone who just stole your jacket? Turn the other cheek after he slaps you? Pray for someone who has just cursed you? Everything in you screams, "no way!" But isn't that how we treats God? When we ignore Him and do our own thing, or repeatedly do the exact thing that grieves His Spirit, and take His grace and patience for granted. That's kind of like slapping God in the face. But He takes it.

But, one can argue, He's God! He CAN take it. We're just humans...He can't really expect us to love our enemies. Or (as I learned recently) our "frenemies." [FYI, from wikipedia: "Frenemy" (alternately spelled "frienemy") is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival.^[1] The term is used to describe personal, geopolitical, and commercial relationships both among individuals and groups or institutions. The word has appeared in print as early as 1953.^[2]]

The amazing thing is the fact that THIS GOD who can "take it" lives in us. We are shells of the Spirit of God! HE gives us the ability to live out the kind of life and love He wants of us. I think another amazing this is the promise He gives us that "Love never fails." That is a hope and promise I cling to everyday.

We have something greater than a miracle pill! We have a God that lives in us and gives us the real ability for life change. It's just a matter of saying everyday: "My life is not my own, so too bad Glennis. You're just going to have to let go of your own way and live this better life that God wants for you!"

I am praying for life change in ME as well...

Hey All!

Sorry I've totally dropped off the face of Xanga-land. But I know y'all want to hear the story, and Sunny (my fiance!! love saying that) did such a great job on  writing about it on his own blog so I'm ripping it off his site. I'm sure he won't mind. Here it is:

I was driving down from Albany the night before in the rain, wondering just how am I gonna do this. The nice warm days are well behind us, and it's just going to get colder from here on. I had always hoped to propose by the water, under nice weather... but it didn't seem like a possibility. The weather report was very bad for the weekend. Then I thought to myself, doing this indoors might be just as nice. When I arrived at her house that night, I left a dozen roses and a small box on her porch. The box was just big enough to hold a ring... (it actually was the box the ring came in). When she found it, I told her to open it. To her surprise, it was full of Hershey's kisses. [Side note: He didn't mention that the box had a sweet little note inside that said, "Hi Glennis! I hope you enjoy these Hershey's kisses. Now come and get a real kiss! I love you." Hee hee]

I thought it might be more special to propose somewhere other than her house. Since the plan was to do this indoors, I had planned to take her to a nice museum in Manhatten. God had other plans.

DATE: October 28th, 2006. TIME: approx. 3:15pm. LOCATION: Central Park, New York City.
The rain ended in the morning, and it turned out to be a beautiful autumn day with a nice breeze. We never made it to the museum. Instead we went for a walk in Central Park, something I've never really done before. And we came across bow bridge, one of the most beautiful cast iron bridges in the world. [Side note: We were actually looking for this spot because its my favorite place in the park! It took awhile for us to find it...]. It was overlooking the lake, with the 5th avenue skyline in the background. I thought to myself.. this has got to be the place. So I said "Glennis, I want to ask you something". I pulled out the ring, held my breath, got down on one knee and said... "Will you marry me?" ... And she said "Yes! I will marry you". This is all very special to me... the right place, at the right time, under the right conditions... and most definitely, the right girl. :)

Glennis and I have known each other since childhood. We have been good friends for many years. I spent a good 7 years of my life praying for her... just praying. She has been, and always will be the most special girl in my life.

We started dating on August 13th this year, after some careful thought and prayer. Yes, after only 11 weeks, we got engaged. Dear friends... when you know, YOU KNOW. It does not require a set number of years of dating to know that someone is the one. The formula for a successful marriage includes... 1)having your lives focused on God; 2)being best friends with each other; 3)and being totally in love with each other! ... Everything else is secondary.

So, there's a wedding coming up, but I'm not sure when. I've never been engaged before, so this is all very new to me. But I do feel blessed. There are some things that I can only dream of happening... this is one of them... yet it's not a dream. God has been faithful in so many things. It is He who orchestrated everything, and it is He who deserves all the honor and praise. May it be so... for as long as we live.

 

It's 3:30 in the morning and I have all these thoughts running through my head. So I figure  writing them down somewhere will help me fall asleep. If none of the following makes sense, at least now you know why...

For those of you who prayed for my evangelism workshop this past weekend, thank you!! It went (in my humble opinion) phenomenally well. I showed a clip of the Evangelism Linebacker and now the kids are going around tackling each other (oops). Despite two students falling asleep (both were in the first row too) and a major typo in my handouts (instead of the title of the workshop being "Got Jesus?" I had written "God Jesus?" which sounds like I'm questioning the divinity of Christ!), in general I felt that people got the gist of why its important to share our faith, and the basic knowledge of how to do so. Plus, we got into some great discussion, and I just had fun sharing my thoughts/experiences and hearing theirs too. PTL

So part of the reason why I can't sleep is I've been thinking of this question: What is racism? Awhile ago, I was hanging out with a friend and I mentioned that I was attracted to Asian guys, specifically ABC's. And he responded, "that's so racist." I was a bit taken aback, because I never thought of it as a racist comment or feeling. I always figured that being ABC myself, someone who wasn't one may not totally understand where I'm coming from or be able to connect with my family and such.

At the retreat I just came back from, there was a korean speaker (this was a Taiwanese-American retreat, btw) who was simply fantastic: totally funny, engaging, and gospel-centered. One of the reasons why he was so great was because he used so many culturally-relevant illustrations...talking about "parents who embarass you on vacation by their outfits" and "the deadly combination of stinky tofu and kimchi." At one point he was doing a pretty good "white guy" impression (coincidentally just as the white pastor of one of the participating churches walks in). We were all rofl. I can't do him justice, but he was hilarious and his jokes reminded me of this Russell Peters clip.

So it brings me back to the question of racism. Was it racist for the pastor to tell jokes about "hokey white churches" or for me to have a general affinity for ABCs (don't get me wrong, if a guy looks like Matt Damon, I'll be taken!)? Personally I don't think so, but I can't explain why. But maybe I'm wrong, and if so I'd like to change....

I'll write more on this topic when I get some sleep...but first, any thoughts?
Ok, back to bed.