back in black

So I am now back in the US after 6 months in Europe, and what a relief it is to be back! Not only because I am working again and get to see my fiancee often, but I forgot how free we are in America! If someone wants to do something here, they can, and though it has its disadvantages for the victims of hedonism, freedom is a blessing for the rest of us.

I am thinking about how to integrate the Christ-like principles I learned from life there into life here with a different mindset and practices. Like having to see how much I have depended on material possessions for my security and peace of mind. When the ability to affect the state of these things was lost by leaving the country, I had to trust in the Lord, and I realized how difficult it is.

I have also come to see how prosperous our culture is, and even myself. Though I have never lacked, I never saw myself as rich until I visited countries where poverty means something different. I think it would be more striking to visit southeast Asia or Africa.

I have also been convicted about the extreme waste that we as North Americans support for convenience sake. Though the Bible doesn't say too much about this, I can't help but feeling guilty for using so much and throwing away more. A friend of mine just started working for 1-800 GOT JUNK and he was telling me how much almost new stuff he sees ditched every day. I think it says something about a culture when we can hire people to not only deliver new things, but to also take away the things we don't want to trash them simply because there is an excess. It used to be that things were consumed when there was a want or need. Now, consummation is an addiction, maybe even an a god

Should Christians be setting different trends? Why?

my camera is broken. sorry no more pictures of Holland and the Corrie Ten Boom Huis.....

I am excited to come back to America, but I am enjoying my 11 days in Holland. I am getting a lot of course work done for Tyndale, and having a great time with Ariel's family.

Les Sept Laux

The last post's pictures were taken on the mountain in the far left of this first photo right above the guy's head. The French Alpes are beautiful and it has been a privilege to stay here for the past 6 months and traverse all over them.






Sort of bizarre seeing this here but really neat at the same time.

steel mills and toyotas

Grenoble- from the Bastille. What a view! I was wondering why I kept getting sick, but then I realized that it might have been that entire steel mill I breathed in. If you look closely you can see it floating around in the sky.
Harriet, Joram, Rebekah and I some others went up a mountain. It was quite a view also though I wouldn't recommend hiking in snow without snow shoes. There is also Mont Blanc (the tallest mountain in Europe) in the center of this photo.
I think this picture clearly shows the steel mill. It is between the tops of the mountains and the tops of the hills.
This might not look like much, and it wasn't much...room, that is. We were all four crammed into the back of a Toyota something. I think it was too skinny for production in America. Normally they tell you how many airbags they put in your car, but they were telling us how many cars they put into their airbags. WHAT?!?!?

spelling lesson

I guess "Eiffel" is spelled like that and not this "Effiel."

I am embarrassed but this is what I get for learning a second language. I have forgotten the first, which is a problem because I can't write in the second yet either.

What is even more embarrassing is that I was corrected by someone for whom English is a third language.

Thanks Joram.

Chasing Shadows

I have been thinking about how we prefer suck on the wrapper of life than eat the candy God provides. When we are given an opportunity to store up candy for the future, we more often opt to chew the wrapper for taste right now. This sounds a bit ridiculous in this context, but we often do this in our spiritual life. God promises us every good thing that we could possibly want, but the attainment of these good things does not come 'til the future. Like the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of our future inheritance in Heaven, God has given us shadows of future glory on earth. These come in the way of relationships, places, possessions, entertainment and food. All these things will be present in Heaven in some perfect way for us to enjoy in the presence of God, but attaining them requires present sacrifice and difficulty on earth. Because God is good, He has given us true joy in sacrifice and every spiritual blessing in earthly trials, but why do we settle for the shadows?

Why do we spend our energy searching out satisfaction in present relationships, entertainment, or possessions? These things are just shadows of our future hope and glory. My shadow tends to be the places I find myself. I like to make them comfortable, without stress or tension, and friendly. Sometimes God chooses to bless me with these things, but more often than not, I will have to wait 'til heaven to experience the perfect place. I can spend all my time trying to find or create or fix this shadow, but it will never work. Well, it might, but when life is dead and gone, I will have to forgo the words, "well done my good and faithful servant." Instead I would get, "Well done on the shadow chasing, you can now enter the shadow you chased......... the shadow of the blessing you would have obtained if you sought first My Kingdom." I know that I don't want to be caught chewing short-lived sweetness from a plastic wrapper when I am called on to enjoy it's contents.

ok, ok, I'll post pictures of Paris.and berlin

ok, well i do do more things than just hang out here in Europe. This is a picture of me and a few young kids i was watching with Mike for a church event in Germany. Don't let their sweet little faces fool you- they were vicious. the three yr old in the pink could formulate sentences that would baffle Shakespeare.
Mike and I were posing on the red carpet when these Serbian girls asked to have their photos taken with us.

This is the famous Sony center. That big white thing is a roof that is situated over a bunch of skyscrapers. Pretty cool.
Paris
The Notre Dame Cathedral
Effiel Tower. Never ask someone to take your picture WITH THE EFFIEL TOWER and assume they are going to do a good job. And WHY is my spell corrector telling me that Effiel is not a word.
You won't see this shot in National Geographic. The Effiel tower is not as big as it looks.
The cool thing about Paris is that all the buildings are like this. And everyone wears black and doesn't talk to each other. So the black against the light stone and the erie silence is unnerving. I think they speak Spanish in Paris. I stopped for directions three times and every time they couldn't tell me anything because they only spoke Spanish. WHAT?!?!? NO COMPRENDO?