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walking to chinese
why is everyone staring?
forgot to tie belt

much work little sleep
tired head meets table top
"thud thud thud thud thud"

A cool story that I hope gets read atleast once

One of the abc's of Christianity is God's unconditional, boundless, in-exhaustible love. Along with this love comes a never-ending supply of grace. Grace is simultaneously the easiest and hardest thing in the world for me to accept. Easiest, because by definition it is given, not earned. Hardest because it's just so... so...

well, here:

Saturday I was looking at my sin, and the fact that I sin over and over again. And when I sin, it is in the full knowledge that "I am now going to disobey God's command and rebel." I willfully choose to believe the lies of Satan over the truth of God. After seeing the odiousness of my sin, and knowing it was not close to the full extent of it, I questioned God. I doubted that his love could cover it. I told him, 'If you could forgive me, you really are God. I mean, only infinite grace could cover my sins.' But I still doubted it was forgiven. Maybe justified... but... forgiven?? Restored?? Loved??

Saturday, I graded papers like crazy but at 7:30 I was going to go to my friend Hien's house to watch The Two Towers. This struggle (what I knew to be true about God vs. what I felt was true) came to a climax as I pulled into the driveway of her apartment. I sat in my car, and told God that I would believe his grace, but that I wanted to see it played out in a tangible way. I wanted to see that God's grace wasn't just a change of mind, but something that occurs in reality, externally to me, which operates ON me. But after sitting in the car for a few minutes I said, "I got to put this on hold, my friend is going to wonder what I am still doing out here. I will believe you, but please demonstrate to me that your grace is real and this isn't just going on in my head." So we all had dinner, and started watching the movie.

2/3 of the way through the movie I heard a low rumble outside and thought the shades were tinted a little redder than normal. I got up and peered between the shades: lo and behold, my car was about to get towed! I dashed madly outside, ran down the stairs and futily attempted to argue with the guy as to why he shouldn't tow my car. After several minutes of Aristotelian rhetoric and flawless logic (props to Logos) he still wasn't budging an inch. My car was as good as towed.

And then the lesson in grace began. Hien came down the stairs and spoke I think, 2 or 3 sentences to him. I saw the guys face; it immediately softened, and the impossible happened: he let me go. He went from a hardened "So sad buddy, I'm towing you" to "I'll let it go this time." I was dumbstruck.

So, I found a place in a nearby neighborhood that I thought looked safe and legal, and walked back. But I saw the tow-truck waiting, and drive off as I got back to the apartment. The rest of the movie, thoughts were going through my head like "what if the tow-trucker man is gonna look for me where I parked, and tow me anyway?" Etc. Stupid, stupid thoughts. I still didn't think my car would be safe. But when it was all said and done, my friend drove me to my car and it was just fine.

I wonder if this was a microcosmic analogy to my entire life:

Sin. [Park illegally.]
Consequences. [Tow truck man gonna tow me.]
Try to prove my innocence and justify myself. [syllogisms. reductios. you name it...]
Doesn't work. [He's still gonna tow me.]
Apparent doom ["uh oh"]
Jesus. [Friend steps in.]
Forgiveness. ["I'll let it go this time"]
Doubt forgiveness. ["Darn guy... bet he'll look for me and tow me anyway."]
Forgiveness. [Car is still there.]

The analogy breaks down in many places but the whole situation had a big impact on me. Sometimes God loves us through our brothers and sisters in Christ, that is how he showes us grace. In this case it was my friend going to bat for me. It was a really direct answer to my prayer, and it taught me something important about His love.

Christ Child

Another Christmas card, for my dad, while ago

Collage

Ye-eun sent a bunch of the photos she took at the wedding, and these were some of my favorite. Not a bad photographer eh? Notice my little sister's face, when Josh is kissing Paula :) heh heh heh. Man... that was a great wedding...

...

It has come to my attention that I can occaisionally be an argumentative jerk when commenting on other people's blogs, and I apologize if I have offended you.

Thai Night

Last night I went to my friend Yada's (top left, playing the dulcimer) Thai Culteral festival. It was totally great, good food, good music & dance, and incredibly colorful. These are a few photos I took. Moderate telephoto w/a shutterspeed of 1/30 can be tough to hold steady but I thought these turned out alright

I'm on a role today...

Here, an old Christmas card from days of yore.

God works in the details

So, two strange things that happened to me recently

1)
At the Detroit airport, I was waiting in line for a hamburger. I really really REALLY wanted a bacon hamburger. So did the guy infront of me. It turns out that they used up the last bit of bacon they had for his hamburger. So, a little angry, I settled for a regular hamburger that cost $2 less.

fast forward 3 hours.

I get back to the state college airport tired and needing a ride. I spot a Taxi, and I ask him to take me to my apartment. We get there, and the fare is 16.05.

I have just enough to pay it. Suddenly I don't feel so angry about the bacon anymore.

2)
My advisor and I were asked to cook up a measurement system to attach to a glider for recording sonic booms. My advisor randomly orders some streamlined tubing. Turns out, with the least effort imaginable, it perfectly fits (like a glove) this oddly dimensioned microphone coupler I needed to mount on it. Saves me boatloads of time and frustration. This sort of thing does not happen.


[insert Doxology here]

Haiku

So many red lights,
When driving North Atherton.
Must I hit them all?

Highlights

So, I recently finished up a sketchbook, and here are some of my favorite excerpts. If you have a particular favorite, I would like to know. I am interested in which of my styles and which of my subjects is most interesting for other people. They were all done without any references, except for the tibetan boy, which I was looking at a magazine for. Also, two of the pictures were not from the sketchbook, I just unearthed them while rooting around on my computer looking for scans. Ok, have a nice day

Man and Wife

So, they did it. Paula and Josh tied the knot. And man... I thought I was gonna be bummed about it and I was trying to be excited about it, before hand. But actually, it really was the coolest thing ever, I had nothing to worry about! Man... my sister was just soooo happy, and she was absolutely luminous. It's crazy, I have never seen my sister so gorgeous, I think that is what being loved must do to a person, it makes them more lovely. If there is one thing that makes me like Josh, it is that: he loves her sooo much.

Well, aside from my sister getting married a few other great things happened in my few short days at home. Fed mentally, spiritually, and physically by my wonderful parents. Also my Pastor, Doug Busby. Hung out with my great friends John Lang, Matt Petersen, and Craig Pope. It was so good to see them, John helped out a ton for the wedding. My friend with the bright little face, Ye-eun, was home, and it was a pleasure to see her. She used to live at our house but is becoming quite the artist at the Art Institute of Chicago now. Saw my friend Neal Fryett, who continually kicked my butt on the SPU and Logos track and cross country teams. Not that I'm bitter against him. We both hate running now. But he still made me run naked across a field that one time... grrrr. Atleast it was at night. Hmmm who else did I see. Briefly ran into Ben and he seemed to be doing well, holding his new daughter (of the lovely name "Ophelia grace"). Also, Davis, though I didn't talk with him much, he seemed to look well. Bumped into Katie, who is a really interesting person. My fantastically talented cousin Myron composed an arrangement of "maybe I'm amazed" for a string quartet in the wedding. Wow. Oh man, also my little sister, and her fiance Jacob, that guy is such a stud I can hardly believe it.

I am right now sitting back and wondering how I ended up in the company of such great people. I'm not bragging about how great my life is, I got plenty of problems. It is God's gift of grace to me, not something I deserve. And the gift doesn't just extend to my interactions with people in Pullman - here at Penn state, I have been surrounded by wonderful Christian friends that I don't deserve, have one of the best advisors I can hope for, and a relatively good idea of where I am going. I can not figure out why God is so good to me, when I am such a screw-up so often, but then I think that he must really delight in us and that is a great and encouraging thought.

zhege zhou-mo wo jie-jie he ta de nan-peng-you jie-hun!!!!

This weekend my [older] SISTER's GETTING MARRIED!!!!

Top: Their good, taken-by-ultra-photographer-Mark-LaMoreaux photo
Bottom: Their unflattering but humorous photo taken by me

Horse copy

Inked this up this morning. It's real small and it is a imitation of a great work by a Chinese artist. The original piece is amazing, has another horse in it, and I'd have a link to it but because it was on a playing card, I have no idea who the real artist is.

The smartest orange ever... (evolution proven!)

I found this inside one of the slices of an orange. Tell me it doesn't look like a brain. (Without lying)

Life

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." Ro. 8, 1-2

satan says...