Ambassador 520

Joined a small group and we had our first meeting last night.  It's restaurant week so we all went out to eat.  Any group that starts with food is a good group.  :)

Youtube search: Francis Chan Basic Series I recently rediscovered this series from 2011.  I recommend checking it out if you aren't familiar.  Something different will stand out to each person that watches it.  Two of my favorite parts are in the beginning and near the end. There's a part where Francis Chan compares a child/parent relationship to following God, and I may not truly understand God until I'm a parent myself, but he created a pretty good picture.  He told his daughter to go clean her room.  Does he want his daughter to say, "I memorized the words you told me"?  No.  Does he want his daughter to form a small group and study the sentence: 'clean her room'?  No.  He wants her to go clean her room. How often is that my attitude?  Read the Bible.  Study it.  Memorize it, but do not live it.  The Bible says to trust Him to provide for my every need.  Do my actions display my trust?  Or do I worry?  The Bible says to love and forgi

It's been a week since I last posted.  I'm starting to get into the routine of things over here and developing some friendships.  Last Thursday there was a guys night board game night.  We played Betrayal at House on the Hill.  If you're looking for a spooky time, this game is great.  You wander around a house until some event triggers 'the haunt'.  Then one person randomly becomes the bad guy and you have to try and survive/win.  After a couple games of that we switched to Exploding Kittens which is also really fun. Saturday, Tim and I walked around the city in what was one of the first days where it was warm enough to actually be outside.  Pictures are up on Facebook.  Then Saturday night was a birthday party at a gourmet pizza place.  There was some confusion with the reservation so we weren't seated for an hour, but they gave us 10 bucks off of each of our pizzas.  For a party of 16 that's a good amount.  :)  The birthday after-party was another gam

I got a job offer, but it's for a junior position and they are offering me way less than what I was making at my previous job.  30% less.  I was planning on selling my car and getting a new one in Ohio, but I can't afford to do that with this offer.  I'll have to fly back to California, get my car, and drive it out to Ohio.  I emailed them with my counter offer, and my current car situation so we'll see what they say.

I'm settling in a bit here. Yesterday I met up with friends to grab some Chinese food and watch Pitch Perfect 2. The Chinese place we went to had great food, but I accidentally ordered something that was too spicy and had to send it back. They were kind enough to switch my order at no cost. Pitch Perfect 2 is as ridiculous as you imagine it is. My favorite part (spoiler warning) is when the Green Bay Packers show up. :) (end spoiler warning)

I made it to Ohio! I had a mini adventure trying to rent a car.  I thought it would be relatively easy.  Just show up, rent one they have and be on the road.  Well apparently the whole city was having a rental car shortage.  The first two places we went to didn't have any cars available.  So Josh drove me to the airport where there were six car rental agencies lined up in a row.  I started at one end where they told me they, and the two companies next to them didn't have any cars either.  The sixth place I went to was going to turn me away but decided they had a sub compact car for me.  A Ford Fiesta. Unlike the name, this car was not a fun party car.  I'm only 5'9" and my head was hitting the top of the car.  The seat was super uncomfortable, and none of the mirrors showed me any of my surroundings.  In order to hold all my luggage, I had to fill up the trunk, the entire back seat and the front passenger seat. Ford Fiesta: 0 out of 5 stars. But I made

Before I get to Columbus, I'm spending a few days in Indianapolis with my friends Alicia and Josh who were so kind to offer their guest room to me for a few days.  Both of them are very sick, but still wanted to show me around their beautiful city.  I took pictures! This is just outside of their house looking down the street.  It's so idyllic here! The original plan was to build a canal all the way through the state to connect the great lake with the Ohio River.  They only finished eight miles, but now they have this cool canal running through downtown. In the summer this plaza is filled with festivals and markets and people. There were plans to have an eternal flame statue, but when the city calculated how much fuel that would need to keep burning, they decided on this instead. The arts garden is suspended above one of the intersections downtown.  Each window has a view of the street below. I loved these art pieces.  I wish I could remember

I remember back when I was in high school and trying to decide where to go to college.  I was pretty set on Westmont, and didn't even apply to other schools.  Then one day I got a call from a recruiter.  They wanted me to come to their school on the east coast and learn to be a nuclear physicist.  I didn't want to be a nuclear physicist or go to the east coast so I turned them down.  I loved my time at Westmont and I believe I made the right choice, but I sometimes wonder how my life would be different if I had said yes. That brings us to the story of the rich young ruler in  Matthew 19:16-30 . The words and deeds of Jesus had been getting around and this man approached Jesus with a few questions he had.  He considered himself a pretty good person and wondered what else he could be doing.  Jesus told him what He tells lots of people.  "Follow Me."  More specifically, He told him to sell all his things and then follow Jesus.  The man couldn't do it because he

There are some numbers that just have no meaning to a person.  80 quadrillion.  What does that even mean?  How do we contextualize that?  Well, imagine 80 of  these .  As a Californian there's another number that has no meaning to me: -3° F.  My brain says "cold", but really my brain has no understanding of just how cold that is. When I was picked up from the airport that first night it was in the low teens, and I got a taste of the bitter chill.  Thankfully, I was never out in the cold for more than a minute as we went from airports to cars, then from cars to restaurants, but I can tell you now that that is survival mode cold.  It's not toss-on-a-coat-and-play-in-the-snow cold.  It's drive to Kohl's and spend 170 bucks on winter gear cold. Today it's in the mid 30's which isn't as bad, but I'm now equipped with some thermals and a new winter coat.  Bring it on cold!

2 Corinthians 5:20  "We are ambassadors for Christ." Ambassador - n. -  an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country. I think about this verse a lot, and the implications of it.  Primarily, an ambassador does not live in his own country.  He lives in a foreign land.  I can't be an ambassador to California if I live in California.  I don't need to represent what the state is like to the people around me because anyone else living in the state can see for themselves.  Likewise, we as Christians live on foreign soil surrounded by people that do not understand the culture of Heaven or the person of Jesus.  How do we represent those things to the people around us?  Do we have patience?  Do we have joy? Secondly is that people are always watching.  The things I say, the actions I do are all put under scrutiny.  The number one argument against Christianity is Christians, and I don't want to be the cause of s