i do believe i lost some of my sanity back there.

obamamania.
that's what they're calling it.
endless media coverage. strange fascination. eloquent speeches.rallies that draw crowds by the ten thousands. the europeans certainly like him. change. new America. likeable America? "carrots and sticks."

***

my title has nothing to do with this blog by the way.
hello? *rolls eyes* do i ever make sense?

unpredictable, but vanilla. coherent randomness.
please don't define me.
HE defines me. only HE can.

i'm confused. i'm confusing. i'm not trying to be poetic here. :)
LYN

omg, i need to go to bed

still pretty wired... and it's 1:12am. that's what i get for getting a chai tea latte at 9ish, i guess. you'd think the caffeine would've worn out by now, but i guess not.

anyway... wow. a very interesting day today.
after work, "Vee" (^_^) and i checked out prospective apartments. we basically just drove by the neighborhoods and judged the "books" by their covers. out of the nine we surveyed, we crossed out six. some of them were shady looking and once Vee says "ummm..." it's pretty much over. hahaha. there's no way we're living there dude. :) yeah, we'll leave this matter up to God. **but God, can we please have the one in SR, the first one we looked at???** teehee.

then we spent, hrmm, three and a half hours at a house i seem to have trouble getting out of. :D i swear, whenever i end up at their house, i can't seem to leave. it also seems like time goes by really quickly in there. one minute it was 10pm, and then the next it would be 1230am. gah! is there such a thing as spending too much time with people? coz i think there's no such thing. i can never get tired of hanging out with my big bro and *yay* my big sis. :D he, with his "serious" face that cracks me up. seriously, i don't think i can look at him when he has that "face" on. and she, with her really endearing OCD and undisputed mastery of the red/white/silver-berry. sighs. i love these people.

ok, i'm winding down a little.

<3
/\/\
O O
> o <
\___/

LYN

unfinished thoughts

A sister/friend prayed for me today... without me having to ask. :) And not suprisingly, I felt a lot better. But then I got to thinking, why didn't I pray for myself? Why did I let myself wallow in my semi-depressed, semi-apathetic state? Why do I always wait for things to pass, instead of bringing it to God as soon as I feel down/defeated/restless/kinda off, etc?
((three hours later))
Sighs. I still haven’t figured out what the answer(s) is/are to those questions.
I guess praying is just something I need to do and keep doing. Yeah… for now, that’ll be my answer. I will keep thinking about that though.


"No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him." -- 1 John 3:6

Ok, I'll post my thoughts on the above verse sometime later. I can't seem to finish writing it. :)

***
Ok, before this blog becomes unfinished forever, I better tackle the very difficult task (for me, anyway) of completing a thought "on paper."

Regarding the above verse: so.... does that mean that Christians are perfectly sinless? Uh, no. I can testify that that statement is absurd and completely false. :D

The beauty of studying the Bible (as opposed to just reading it) is that you learn to interpret things properly. PB always stressed looking at context: exegesis and hermeneutics. Another thing that JJ brought up is the translation. The original text of the Bible was written in Hebrew or Greek. It's important to keep this in mind because some things get lost in translation. For example, in 1 John 1:5 and 1:6, the word "darkness" is used, but looking at the original Greek, the two words do not describe the same "darkness." The one in verse 5 is actually referring to "the spiritual or moral darkness as a consequence of sin " whereas the one in verse 6 refers to "darkness that is the essence of sin."

Anyway, translation is important. :)
So for the above verse that caught my eye from the first epistle of John, chapter three... at first glance, I was like "HUH???" Didn't the same John just talk about the fact that "if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us?" So what is the apostle really getting at? Ah, well... according to David Guzik, it is important to note that the verb used in the verse is in the present tense. Which I guess in Greek implied "habit, continuity, and unbroken sequence." So when John wrote the above verse, he was referring to a habitual, lifestyle of sinning. It's the stuff you know is not right and won't please God but you do it... again and again and again. And it's not just the doing it over and over and over that makes it wrong... it's also the attitude that we have when we're confronted by the temptation of committing that sin. Do we think "well, God is going to forgive me anyway so might as well?" Do we think "it's just one more time... i won't do it again?" OR do we come to Jesus' feet to confess the sin AND really fight hard and die to ourselves so we don't keep sinning anymore? Like PS said, it's all about the condition of the heart. Are we living a sinful lifestyle and totally not feeling guilty about it? Or are we allowing the Holy Spirit to take over our hearts to win those inner struggles against our flesh?

It's not that Christians are perfect and sinless. Oh trust me, some of us need A LOTTTT of "molding and shaping" and probably some spanking from God. ;P
But if we truly love God and we live in Him and know Him, we will strive to have victory over our own flesh, our own sinful nature. We'll try to be holy as HE is holy.

***

i'm still up because i'm scared

after watching "the dark knight," i thought of calling two people. but since it's past 1am, i thought i shouldn't. but dude, i'm creeped out... and i feel a little disturbed, spiritually. on my drive home, images kept flashing in my head of the joker... bits and pieces of his menacing and taunting "smile" and all of his explosive, goosebump-inducing scenes. that movie is DARK. i've never been so creeped out by a movie. and i've never been left so speechless... i walked out of the theater with trina and all i could gather to say was "i have to use the restroom." i didn't even know whether to clap or sob or just keep staring at the screen during the credits. but it was AWESOME. heath ledger was SPECTACULARLY GOOD. he played the joker really well. there was almost something in the joker's character that made me... like him. that's partly why i'm creeped out. he's insane, he's ruthless, he's so screwed up. but wow, a part of me likes him... which is so disturbing.

anyway, i don't know what time i'll actually fall asleep. i'm a little wired still... and i'm probably going to continue thinking about what i had just watched. i haven't decided yet whether i like the movie or not. don't get me wrong. it was REALLY GOOD. but like in korean language, there's a difference between choayo (something is good) and choa haeyo (i like that something). we'll see...

good night.
oh, come on, "why so serious?"

:D
LYN

i'm no kate moss... so, no, i can't fit through a freakin needle

waahhh... **here comes the whining**... i feel like i gained weight. :( i shouldn't have eaten ((enter list of ridiculous non-nutritious stuff here)). and to have done it for four straight days! gah! and when was the last time i went to the gym? ((thinks)) oh, it was only yesterday. but that was after not having gone for a total of **ready for this?** six freakin days. THIS is what happens when i get semi-obsessed with my weight. seriously. some people don't understand the pressure women face these days. have you all seen the dove commercial about how they help out with educating little girls on how to view themselves positively??? yeah... at this day and age, we need makers of soap and shampoo and what not to tell our kids they are beautiful. because now all they're growing up with are images of really super tiny people who are supposedly gorgeous. we're bombarded with society's beauty standards through media and sometimes, even worse, our own families and friends. and then we end up starving ourselves, feeling guilty because of that one cookie we ate at lunch, spending countless hours at the gym (this is not fun when there's no guy to gawk at), blaming ourselves for not having that self-control. i say "we" but i mean "me". who am i doing this for? i say that i just want to be fit and healthy... but really, there's this other voice inside of my head that tells me that i'm not pretty enough or skinny enough. it's hard to not listen. so i obsess about it and plan the week ahead with countless exercises... but for what? it feels a little better afterwards but the voice is still there. it takes all of me (and a lotttt of Jesus) to not take it to the extreme. to not have the voice take over. it's a struggle but i'm fighting on. i love food too much to give it up. :D so shut up, other voice. i'mma win this fight... sometime... somehow.

four truths, two lies... (this blog is all about meeh!)

let's see if any of you really know me...

i run funny.
i tend to drink alcoholic bevs too fast.
i've read the whole Bible once.
i've moved five times since i graduated college.
i've finished one other book since i read "the shack."
i sleep with the lights on.


***

randomness.
i like food, but i hesitate to try unusual or exotic food. (let's just stick to chicken, please.)
my two biggest pet peeve are flaky people and people who are chronically tardy.
i don't like crying in front of people. and if you cry in front of me, i will make tons of stupid jokes and talk incessantly. don't expect anything else.
when i run, i pick a spot in the distance as my stopping point but usually when i get there, i don't feel like stopping so i do the process all over until i'm done with my run.
i have yet to finish the seven books that i've started reading within the past year.
i like doing repetitive stuff. i don't like doing repetitive stuff.
i'm fickle.
you can talk to me about anything. but i'm pretty sure by the end of our conversation, it will be nothing like that anything that we started with.
i like reading editorials. occasionally i find really witty ones... and i think about how great it would be if i were witty AND able to write well.
i LOOOOOOOVE kit kats. i ate most of the kit kats at work from our "general store."
i don't laugh at jokes that aren't funny.
i always try to be honest about everything.
i consider myself really skilled at reading people's body languages. so i can tell when you don't want to talk, don't want to hang out, don't want to share your food. but that doesn't mean i'll let you not talk or hang out or share your food. OK?

alright, that's it for now.
go back to whatever you were doing.

LYN

snacks and authorities

Random-ism. I can eat snacks all day. Well... nowadays, the thought of ballooning up like the axiom inhabitants (from the movie Wall-E) creeps up and makes me not want to, but technically, I can eat snacks all day. I grocery shopped with one of my favorite people today (PAIGEEEEE!!!)... and I bought all kinds of snacky stuff. Yup, they're all sitting on the floor of my room and I'm really tempted to eat 'em all... but I just brushed my teeth and... I really, really shouldn't because it's almost my bedtime. :D

OK... moving on...

I've been thinking about what was said about the government from the Tuesday small group's Bible study. PB referred to Romans 13:1-7 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%2013:1-7;&version=31;) and explained that God instituted the government for the good of the people. Without any governing authorities and their laws, the world will be in total chaos. The government was established to serve the people... but because we live in a broken world, we see corruption, greed, selfishness, and in some cases, a disregard to individual's rights, in certain governments.

So what do we do about that?

Ah, the apostle Paul tells us to "submit to authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience." Hmm... but don't get it wrong. Even if we are told to submit to our present government, we still bear allegiance to God. So when do we draw the line on this submission? When do we say "ok, um, Mr. President, you've crossed the line there. We stop following you now and... yeah, um..yeah." (I imagine being stutter-y when I find myself in front of a really powerful man.. hello? He has control over nuclear bombs and stuff.) A more important questions is, how do we draw the line? How do we show our allegiance to God when our government has strayed from Him? We can sign petitions, we can protest, we can pray earnestly, we can shake our heads over the sunday newspaper, we can blog about it, blah blah blah. GAHHH!!! It seems like we can never do enough. All I have is the hope of that one day when there will no longer be any presidents or prime ministers or kings or whatever... There will just be Jesus who will reign over all and I won't have to worry about these stuff anymore. When we won't have to compromise our religion anymore for the sake of being PC or risk being called intolerant or judgmental for our beliefs. I can't wait for that day... I look forward to submitting to that One Authority.

inside LYN's brain...

Have you watched "Paris je t'aime?"
Well, my brain works like that movie. Short, random stories popping in and out of the small screen in my head. :) I imagine many short trains instead of one long train of thought.
Anyway... here's my random thought of the day...

You know when people say "what would Jesus do?" Well... in the case of Election '08, what would Jesus do? Who would He vote for? A friend said to me that we'll never have a candidate that God would endorse. Because this candidate won't even get past the primary. So that got me thinking... I want to see changes in our government. And I see change embodied in one candidate. I think you know who I'm talking about. :) But he's not necessarily someone Jesus would vote for. I mean, he's stirred controversy when he (according to some conservatives) "distorted the Bible." (Please see it for yourself and form your own opinion on this. Read it: http://santitafarella.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/the-text-of-barack-obamas-speech-on-religion-june-25-08/). He also has very pro-choice records on abortion and has opposed a constitutional ban on gay marriages. But it's not like the other candidate is any better. I swear, it's almost like we just have to choose the "lesser evil" or something.

Anyway, so really, what would Jesus do? Don't tell me this... that's He'll do the right thing. That's still vague, isn't it? What is the right thing?

Well, I'll close with this. DO YOUR RESEARCH. BE WELL-INFORMED. GO OUT AND VOTE. STAND FOR WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. With our vote, we help form the path our country will take in the next four years. Wouldn't you want to be part of that?