From my wife Brittany:

Randy Pausch. Greg Mortenson. Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

As you are probably aware, within the past 5 years, these 3 individuals have all arrived on the international stage for their heroic work – Pausch for showing us how to live through his “Last Lecture,” Mortenson for building girls’ schools in Taliban-threatened Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Ali for risking her life as a female politician in the Netherlands willing to speak out about violence against women among her fellow Muslims.

All 3 of these people have also written bestselling books, all of which I highly recommend.

I don’t know about you guys, but when I reflect upon these individuals, I get inspired. To me they are proof of the cliché that a single person can make a huge difference in the world if they have the passion to persevere.

And perseverance is a big part of it. In The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch states:
The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

Now, anyone in the world who has done anything has certainly encountered brick walls. I’m sure all of us have, too, in work and in life. And personally, as a Christian trying to discern God’s path for myself, I do believe that certain brick walls ARE there to keep us out and push us in another direction.

But, that said, oftentimes we find naysayers or extenuating circumstances or simply our own self-doubt that seems to tell us to give up on our dreams and let the course of least resistance play out.

And we all know that if we always listened to those negative voices, we would probably not be where we are today. I know that I would not be in Philadelphia. Greg Mortenson would not have built his girls’ schools. Ayaan Hirsi Ali would not have written her books. And, in a recent example I just read, the Please Touch Children’s Museum would never have moved to its new and improved location in Centennial Hall if its leadership had listened to certain elements in city government.

So, how can we know when to give up on something and when to pursue it vehemently? Well, for me, this is where faith comes in. And I just read a great book about this topic that I actually found through TSA’s War Cry magazine. It’s called “Direction” and it provides 6 questions you can pray about and ask yourself anytime you need to make a decision:
Is this aligned with the character of God?
Is there an obstacle or opposition?
Is it God-sized?
Is it requiring steps of faith?
Is it stretching, growing and strengthening me?
Is it requiring me to adjust, prune and realign my life?

The author states that your answer should be “Yes” to all of these in order for you to take that step you’re asking about. Including to the question of opposition . . . provided it is the right kind of opposition, the kind that does not come from God, and not the kind that is simply the consequence of our own sinful actions.

But the author’s main point is that actually there “ISN’T a perfect will for every decision of life, but rather a ‘way’ for us to walk in. And when we walk in this way, God moves in and through us to accomplish His purposes . . . He causes His will to be done in and through us as we grow in our relationship with Him and walk each day in His way.”

Sometimes I think it would be great if my decisions were always clear-cut, but we as humans have free will, and one of the beauties of that is that we must step out in faith, and trust that God will work out His purposes in our lives.

I’d like to close with a famous verse from 1 Corinthians 13:
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (– 1 Corinthians 13:12)

In the meantime, all we can do is to strive to love and serve one another, and pray that God would give us His vision to see what needs to be done here on earth. There is great power in pursuing the right dream with passion and perseverance, and in doing this, a single person can definitely make the world a better place.

I visited Russia recently on a cruise and as part of the trip we got to meet with WWII veterans. Hearing what they had to go through during the war I just had to write it down and pass it on to anyone who will listen. The war has left so many dead that, in the former Soviet Union republics, virtually every family was touched by it. Many families lost their fathers and mothers to the war. Others were wounded or captured. The list is long. This is a small attempt to preserve their stories so that we may remember the burden of war.

Raissa

“As soon as the war started, I volunteered for the army. I wasn’t drafted, I went of my own will to defend my motherland. I was sixteen years old. First, they placed me in a nursing school to learn how to bandage the wounded. After a month of training I was sent to the front – to Stalingrad. I arrived there when the city was under siege. Above us the Germans were flying bombers. They dropped bombs, railroad tracks, barrels… anything they could to shock the people below. When I arrived, the city and everything around me was on fire. It all burned. The tanks burned, the buildings burned, the wheat fields burned, even the water burned. A large oil tank spilled into the water and it burned. Imagine me, a little girl of only 16 years being there. I was scared and confused. I simply sat down and cried.”

“There were many wounded. My task was to find those people who were alive and to get them to a field hospital. Mostly, I had to drag them across the battle field on top of a trench coat. When I said I was little, it wasn’t just age. I’m not very tall, nor very muscular. These guys I had to drag across the field were tank operators. They were from Siberia. They weighed up to a hundred kilograms (200 lb.) and I was all alone trying to get them to the hospital. When a tank was shot and there were wounded people or survivors inside, they would open and close the top hatch of the tank. This is how I found them. I remember trying to climb a tank and having trouble doing so. The man inside was also very heavy and I couldn’t have lifted him out of the tank if it wasn’t for a couple of men inside who helped me. He was severely burned. His hip was shattered. When we finally got off the tank, we sometimes walked on three legs, sometimes walked on our knees and sometimes crawled our way off the battlefield. I did get that man to the hospital though.”

“At some later point, our army was surrounded and I was captured along with many others. The Germans brought us to a barn where they kept the POWs. They didn’t care of you were a man or a woman. They just pointed me toward a cot padded with raw wet hay. That was my bed. In the morning, an angry german woman came with an angry german shepherd. She brought us out to work. She would sick the shepherd on us and keep it within centimeters of us on the leash. I was afraid. It seemed that the dog would just devour us. The woman was just as angry. She made us carry buckets full of wet sand that weighed forty kilos (80 lb.) each to the road that the germans were building. Just so that we wouldn’t die, the germans fed us an awful mixture. They would take flour and dump it into water just enough to make the mixture look glue-like. That’s what we would eat. We were constantly hungry. Many of us were swollen from hunger.”

“Eventually, the germans put us on a train headed for Germany. We were riding in a wooden car and a few of our guys would knock out the planks in the bottom of the car and offer anyone willing to jump down onto the train tracks. Of course, the train was going at full speed and it was very dangerous. Not everyone jumped. I did. When I landed, it was very scary, I was between huge train wheels and the train cars were passing overhead. I tried to lie motionless until the last car passed. When I stood up, I was free from my german captors but I was deep behind enemy lines. The Germans occupied everything around me. But what can one do? I somehow had to survive…”
[Raissa did not go into detail about her life within enemy territory.]

“The Russian army eventually liberated the territory where I stayed and I once again joined the front. I made myself a promise to go all the way to Berlin, to Reichstag. I went through Poland, Czech Republic and reached Berlin. When I finally stood at the Reichstag, I bent down to the ground and picked up a piece of shrapnel. With it, I scratched on the wall of the Reichstag: ‘I will remember’. And I remember until this day.”

A good friend of mine has sent me a very interesting article that I wish to share. I’m going to post a small preview here. For the rest please follow the link:

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it’s Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.

It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding – as you can – the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.
But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

You know, I really get discouraged when people (sometimes atheists, sometimes agnostics) state that religion is unreasonable and men of faith go along with that presupposition without challenging it. Of all the debates about God’s existence, only a few get down to the very core of whether it is reasonable to begin with, to believe in God. Granted, I do not have a vast amount of theistic knowledge to claim that I know otherwise, but from the literature I read and from scripture itself, it is evident to me that we must use our minds along with whatever else drives us to believe: “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” – Mark 12:30.

Just this evening I received the newest issue of Newsweek (April 9, 2007 – yes, I know, apparently they come out a week early), and it has a huge article on the topic of God. Obviously, with the advent of science, our world view has been drastically expanded and altered. It is expected that a sharp, reasonable mind will question dogma, whether secular or religious, and uncover inconsistencies. But since when did that make the truth less true? Just because Newton did not discover the relativistic laws of gravity does not mean that his conclusions about gravity as a force are false. Religious dogma, just as scientific dogma, requires correction at times. Does a scientific discovery that the world is round necessitate dismissal of God? Science is full of special statements, called theories, that are built on the premise that they are not exact because they are human interpretations of the world around us. Certain religious claims are just that – theories – interpretations of the word of God. Religion and science simply deal in different realms. Traditionally, religion has been slow to recognize its own inconsistencies so maybe that is why it gets a bad rap. But I keep seeing more and more evidence that just like science it is a self-correcting entity that is very firm and true at the core and is still expanding (and correcting) at the fringes (in no small part thanks to science!). And by the way, science also has its share of inconsistencies, except that here we call them “paradoxes”. Regardless, I fail to see the merit in the claim that just because human interpretation is fallible, we must discard an entire discipline.

I should also say that I fail to see how atheistic claims are in any way more reasonable (in regards to God) than theistic claims. As Geisler and Turek, very acutely, point out, atheists rule out a theistic force at work prior to examining evidence for a case. So that when they look at a case, they can only come up with theories that do not involve a deity. Hearing some of these theories, I cannot help but wonder how such knowledgeable and intelligent minds can come up with such garbage! Here again, Geisler and Turek have a great example.

Let’s say you wake up one morning and go to the kitchen where you find…

More »« Less

I hear people say now and again that we (Christians) must be delirious to think that we talk to some invisible immaterial God and that He actually talks back to us. Has anyone ever taped a single conversation? How can we prove that what we hear isn’t just a figment of our imagination? Granted, it is rather difficult to describe something that another person hasn’t experienced. For example, I would have the same trouble describing my feelings standing at the top of the Grand Canyon to someone who hasn’t had a similar experience. Does that invalidate what I say? No at all. I sometimes wonder why people are quick to accept my description of the Grand Canyon (which is just as personal as a message from God) but who conclude that I have a couple of screws loose when I start talking about Heavenly things. Well, let me say here that if you are one of the people who aren’t willing to give me the benefit of doubt then the rest of this post will bring you nothing of value. Please stop reading. However, if you are like me, who consider other people’s experiences to be genuine and think you can learn something from other people then read on.

(As a side note, I think it is actually ridiculous not to trust other people’s experiences. I wonder what people think when they create their online profiles and put down things like: “I am someone who is up for trying anything once.” Maybe then skydiving without a parachute is for them. I will certainly rather stay on the ground and learn from their experiences, having never experienced that myself. Yes, that’s a silly example but it drives my point home. I believe I can learn from the experiences of those who have gone through drug addictions to never try drugs myself; I think I can learn from people who’ve been treated unfairly by their peers or their supervisors and never deal with those people… you get the point).

What’s it like?

Have you ever had one too many coincidences in your life? If not, then this is going to be difficult to imagine, but I am assuming that I am not the one lucky person on this Earth to have seen improbable things happen in succession. You may have heard the same phrase uttered by several unrelated people on the same day. Or maybe you are working on a project and you know you won’t meet the deadline but then something strangely fortunate comes along and you’re done just in time. You get that big break just when you need one. What if I told you that not all coincidences are just coincidences? Would you believe me if I said that when you stop and think about life-changing events in your life, you may notice a thread? This has been my experience in life. Right things happen just at the right time that take my life in a direction I never imagined (and more importantly, better than I have imagined).

More »« Less

Here are a couple of funny parody videos of those Mac vs. PC commercials. Except in this case we’re dealing with Christ vs. Christ Follower. Now personally, I’m not convinced that this distinction is really true or even necessary. At the same time, I think the videos make a good point. What is important in a Christian life? Too often we get so caught up in displaying our ‘Christianity’ that we miss the real point. Follow Christ, let your Christian life be visible not through your bumper stickers or a Christian mp3 collection but through your deeds and morals! Enjoy (click on the numbers above the video frame to watch the next video)

Welcome to my corner of the internet. I am glad you found me and I hope you take some time to browse through the various topics and pages that this blog contains. I have decided to make something special out of my first post. Here’s what I have in mind…

Just like you, I learn about this world through experience. Most experiences are good, some are bad but in either case there is a lesson to learn. What I learned I want to retain and share with all of you through this page. This will be my neverending post as our learning experiences are also neverending. With every word comes a story and with every story comes an experience that has influenced my way of life. Please feel free to share your stories and experiences as I share mine. And by all means, keep coming back to this page because this page will never cease to grow in content.

More »« Less