Fresh Start + Moving to Tumblr

After over a year of slumber, Synonyms for Optimism has been revived! Moving the blog to Tumblr at the link below:

http://synonymsforoptimism.tumblr.com/

Hope to see you there!

First-Rate Community

The topic of community has been popping up all over the place lately. I've heard multiple sermons on the importance of community, discussed it with my Life Group, and contemplated the issue in the context of my home church friend circle.

The basic layout of what was discussed during such sermons, is that God is triune -- comprised of Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit. There is plurality, as we can see, for example, through the Greek word for God, Elohim, which is used frequently in Genesis and represents a plurality of the same kind. Okay, definitely strange, but we get that. The point that I never considered is that, due to their being both one God and separate entities, they experience an eternal community with one another.

In addition to this, humans were created out of the overwhelming love that exists within the Trinity. It overflowed, and God created us in His image so that there could be more beings to experience the glory that is community. He doesn't need us to be there, as He already has the most incredible, unmatched friend group in Himself, but He wanted to share that beauty with something else.

I sometimes struggle with this idea that we were made for community, but that's because community is often warped and twisted by the infiltration of lies, greed, gossip, selfishness, what have you. I also value privacy and "alone time" to recharge, because I seem to fall on the introverted side of the spectrum.

This weekend I went on a road trip to San Jose with some friends from my Life Group. Our group fluctuated throughout the trip, landing between five and nine people at all times, but it was so strange -- no matter the size, we had this incredible community. Looking back on the trip, I realized that conflict was virtually absent, and people were more honest and open with each other than I'd experienced in a long time. And that's saying a lot, considering that my Life Group has grown tremendously in being open and raw with one another.

We cooked together, people let me borrow their clothes and shoes to go running, we squished into cars and didn't fight over shotgun even once, we let people borrow money and made the plans as a group. The outcome of this was a trip that was miraculously action-packed and relaxing simultaneously. I honestly don't know if I've ever felt that so perfectly before.

The part of this that has been hitting me the hardest was what this experience of real community did to me. I felt more like myself than I have in ages. I was me at the core -- giggly and hyper, while still deep and serious at times. I had such quality conversations, yet got to be my silly self throughout the trip. I laughed so much, was outgoing and spoke my mind, and I felt like my insecurities went out the door. I felt beautiful -- not in a physical way per-say-- because I was being who I was created to be.

Now that I'm home, I'm reminded of all the issues I usually face and how self-conscious I tend to feel. I know now how dire it is for me to create community around me, and be myself at all times so that others can be their true selves as well. I don't want to care about what people think, and being free of that for a weekend was more than enough of a sample of it for me to realize that I need to be in that state as often as possible. God made us all incredible in different ways, and we need to let our guards down and be those people, whether or not others will accept that. Because until we are those raw selves, we can only be as beautiful, deep or fun as humanity can devise. Why would we want that second-rate version of such things, when we can have community, beauty, depth and fun of God's unmatchable design?

[via we<3it]

Satan's pretty brilliant.

It makes sense considering he was once an angel, resilient and ready to do God's bidding.

God is always going to be stronger, triumphant over Satan, but because of free will, Satan is allowed to give it his best shot to turn us. And we are given the option of succumbing.

It can be difficult to talk to those who don't believe in Jesus, and I know I often find myself editing out over-the-top religiousness because I don't want them to feel uncomfortable. I want to tell them about what God is doing in my life and how amazing things feel when I'm truly seeking the Lord, but at the same time, I know that until they experience a taste of it themselves, they can't really relate to what I'm talking about. Maybe I can explain it in terms of first-kiss butterflies or post-workout highs, the feeling of reaching the top of the mountain or trying new food that you end up adoring. But nothing, not even those things in combination, can emulate how it feels to feel God working in your life and seeing His plan unfold.

But when someone first accepts Jesus, they have that moment where it suddenly all makes sense and they cannot believe they ever lived without His guidance. When I first decided to truly follow God, it was because I felt His presence, felt him "speaking" to me, upon reading Psalm 139. I felt that believe in Jesus was merely a belief, and that since all this stuff happened so long ago, I didn't need to pursue anything in the now. Instead, I felt God's stir inside of me of "I am present, current. I am now. And I want a relationship with you." I love when I am lucky enough to get to see that change in someone else.

I think that Satan's most brilliant plan though, is keeping Christians at a state of complacency. So many people label themselves as "Christian" but spend the weekend getting wasted, cheat on their taxes, don't take the time to say "I'm sorry," and never, ever talk about God. They still melt at a cute story of God's provision, perhaps, or say grace at an extended family dinner, but that's the extent of things. And if Satan can keep Christians in that state, they won't be telling their friends of what God has done, and will continue to live a life that causes those who don't believe in the faith to dismiss Christianity as hypocritical and pointless. What's the point of having the label of "Christian" if ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CHANGES?

The thing with hypocrisy is that since all people sin and mess up, every single Christian is a hypocrite on a daily basis. We cannot escape that. You may have you lost your temper at work yesterday, or find yourself gossiping about your professor, and the reality is, we all mess up in those ways every single day. But the point is, we need to be seeking God every single day as well, getting the support and strength we need to downsize on how much we err.

Jesus was radical. Extremely radical. Whenever someone at RockHarbor teaches on a parable and puts the story in the context of the times, I am amazed at how bold and revolutionary Jesus was in everything he did. The last thing he is, is boring. And the last thing he would ever do, is sit back, secure in some wishy-washy, label-centered version of faith, and do nothing to change this broken world.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but those who don't believe in Jesus usually don't have a problem with Jesus. He was completely loving, and did what he said, practiced what he preached. They have a problem with his followers.

As Christians, we need to try our best to support each other, because complacency will always try to sneak back in. In American culture, that's Satan's best plan of attack for us. We don't really have persecution, visible demonic presence, physical war on our own soil. He snakes his way into our media, our materialistic lifestyles, and jabs at us through money, appearance, and breaking apart strong friendships and having us rely totally on Facebook and the like for our relationships. Satan doesn't have to fight, he just has us forget.

Don't let each other forget!

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." - Matthew 15:8

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." - James 4:17

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" - Matthew 7:21

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." - James 1:22

Time for a Movie Metaphor

Last night I watched part of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring with some friends, and I'd forgotten how good that series is. I'm not a huge LOTR book or movie buff, but I've always had a soft spot for fantasy -- and high fantasy with Christian undertones has a nerd-shaped place in my heart.

It seems that each time I watch something that has a dual meaning, different aspects of that other interpretation stand out. Last night, I was fixated on the ring as temptation. And through that, two issues came up:

[1. The nature of temptation itself]

[2. The line between fighting and giving in to temptation]

At first, Frodo is oblivious to the power of the ring. It's just a simple gold band that Bilbo Baggins held onto and that Gandalf wants him to protect. It's nothing tempting. Yet to Gandalf, it's an insanely desirable object. He can't protect it, because he'll too driven to use it.

What this made me realize is that as Christians, we often have difficulty "understanding" someone else's issues, because what's tempting for one person may seem like an easy thing to conquer. And we push others away by claiming, "It's just a ring!" when it's an endless ocean of issues for someone else.

At the same time, I feel the movie gives us a glimpse of temptation and giving in from God's perspective.

Whenever a character in LOTR becomes tempted by the ring, we see a glint in their eyes, and a shift in the state of their heart. They become mesmerized by the ring and either force themselves to snap out of it, or they allow the greed and selfishness to pierce their souls and twist them into something similar to what Gollum became as Smeagol.

I always liked the fact that Gollum's name changed after he became overpowered by the ring -- it reminds me of the way God renames Biblical figures when they choose to live their lives for Him. It's so eerie to think of being renamed the other direction, as with Gollum, yet it happens all the time. The "good girl" can become the "party animal" or the "slut." The "dedicated student" can become the "lazy pothead" or, on the other end of the spectrum, the "workaholic."

But as we see characters change and cling to the ring, we feel so terrible for them. We don't hate them for it, but we hate that greed within them. We root for them to turn away, and we see that all they have to do is put the ring down. It doesn't look like a huge task, but the inner war is raging, making them blind to how much better they'd feel without that ring. They may not even be able to pinpoint what their problem is, while we see the gleaming, golden ring as the obvious issue.

We need God's help to pinpoint the rings in our life and convict us to put them down. We need to step back and see ourselves reaching for that ring, and stop ourselves before the faces of our souls contort and our hearts harden to God's desire to intervene. And lastly, we have to help our friends recognize and step back from their rings, understanding that we, too, have been in their place.

[photo via we<3it]

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the New University published my other two articles in this week's paper!

One is about my caffeine addiction, and the other is about the Noah's Ark discovery.

I am so thankful that they've been giving me the opportunity to write for the masses outside of blogging and twittering :)

Sorry that it seems I've been M.I.A! I've been writing articles for the UCI newspaper, New University. My first article was just published today and you can read it here.

I hope to spend a great deal of time this summer looking for places to write in cyberspace and blogging more frequently. I have less than four weeks of school left, so that time is coming soon :) I have a lot of ideas saved up, and I can't wait to write away!

Happy Sunday