TheTruth: Beauty blinded, Faith failed

As I reflect on all the heartache I have caused from the many relationships I have had with women, I see and understand this cause was from my lack of identity (in Christ) and lack of awareness (of my own weaknesses) as a man. Even more, I have caused the greatest heartache on my Lord. I will always praise Him for my salvation, and pray for the salvaging of the many broken hearts.

"Your beauty reminds me of Adam, of his fall.

And why he let himself down, and why he let others down. 

This is not your fault, but of mine since I am a son of Adam.

Like him I have fallen, many times.

But to God be the glory because Adam was rescued.

God our Father recovered me, just like Adam."

TheTruth-140807: Actually, ALL things ARE possible with God

My Beloved,

A known, yet often misinterpreted verse in the Holy Scriptures is:

Mark 10:27 - "Jesus looked at them and said,
'With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.'"

This does NOT mean that God is like our genie granting whatever wish we may have. We fail in understanding the truth about God our Father. The context surrounding this verse is summed up in Matthew 6:33 - "But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." God is our God in knowing what is best for us and will bless us with all the possibilities when we obey Him. Otherwise, we have greater faith in ourselves than in God which results to trying to make all things possible with man (including self). And, this contradicts the Truth (of what is said in the main verse here).

Similar verse:  Matthew 19:26

Look at the verses surrounding this main verse. The verses before set up the main verse as the climax where even the disciples of Jesus are mind-boggled with the question, "Who then can be saved?" And, Jesus our Lord does not leave us pressed in confusion, but pulls us out with clarity in the following verses.

Take a keen look after the main verse, see Peter's response: "We have LEFT EVERYTHING to FOLLOW YOU." In the Book of Matthew (or Matthew's version in chapter 19), Peter questions Jesus again with a selfish tone asking, "...What then will there be for us?" Jesus replies with a similar answer to Peter as to the young rich man who Jesus just spoke to in this passage. Basically, from verse 21 He says, "...you will have treasure in heaven." (See Matthew 6:19-24.)

Even angels know this from reading Luke 1:37 !

Our Lord reminds us of the importance of giving up everything to follow Him in order to receive eternal life with treasures in heaven (i.e., in the words of fairy tales, to live happily ever after).

To sum all this up, I would rewrite this verse as such: "All things are possible with God when you follow Him."

*I am using the New International Version in citing verses.

Walking through a Neighborhood Dream

My Dearly Beloved,

I was walking this morning, bright and early, from the Metro (i.e. subway) station to my new apartment and realized , surprisingly, of how delightful I felt strolling through this dream-like neighborhood. Instantly, I had flashbacks of times when I walked through neighborhood nightmares. The drastic comparison in my head helped me to appreciate my simple walk.

This neighborhood that I now walk through to get to work and home is an ideal resemblance of where I would like to live. As I reminisced on neighborhoods that I have lived in growing up as an army kid, I have lived in quite a few places which each had its own "voice". Some neighborhoods were villages surrounded by farmlands, some were laid-back, rural hoods in the city outskirts, some were bustling blocks in urban cities, some were vibrant communities in the suburbs, and some were gentrified in downtown capitols. Sadly, some were neighborhood nightmares (i.e. projects and ghettos).

As I continued enjoying my walk, I had to take some photos of what I liked about this neighborhood. It was peaceful, clean, and fresh. There was a pedestrian crosswalk and recycling bins in the back alleys. Cars were parked properly on the curb, yards were clean and green with flowers and a few bugs, old people were out taking a walk, streets and sidewalks were smoothly paved with no potholes, and the list continues.

The last time I remember walking through a neighborhood where I felt this was a world I loved living in was in a small village surrounded by a farming community in Europe. My dream neighborhood is to just live in a place where people care about everyone in their neighborhood. There's no rush to live life to the fullest, but there's also no laziness and living without purpose.

This is not to say that I know the people in my current neighborhood care about each other, but I strongly believe that the people here must have some kind of likeness in which they all want to live in a beautifully, well-maintained community of nice houses and respectful living conditions. The spirit and atmosphere of an environment says a lot and this is the "voice" I'm referring to.

My dad would always say that people are the product of their environments. As I struggled with his saying I heard mentor say that people can't always change their environments, but people can choose where they live. My stroll concluded with a smile and this thought:  "Make moves...until the place you wake up in moves you."

Marital Success! #20140703: Tiny, intense conflict resolved

Yay, we resolved our conflict!

It started with me when I was looking out my window at work and noticed the storm approaching. Since I commute to work by the Metro (i.e. DC's subway system), I knew I needed to leave promptly at 4pm to miss the storm if I didn't want to arrive home soaking wet. I sent an instant message to my wife over gChat that I was headed home and shut down my work computer.

As I started walking home from the Friendship Heights Metro stop, the rain began slowly. I could feel the big drops of rain as one slowly dripped from the sky like a faucet that had just been turned off. I picked up my pace into a jog as the sky became darker and even bicyclists where riding faster. As I passed one of the intersections on my way home through this residential neighborhood on Military Road, I heard someone yelling my name, "Gordon,..., Gordon!" I was hoping that I was just hearing things, but I glanced quickly back over my right shoulder and saw my wife, Danelle. "Just great!", I thought annoyingly.

I stopped jogging and waited for her as she ran towards me from across the street. She pulled out this small umbrella and excitingly said that I could join her. I knew it was enough especially for this storm that was about to pour at any second. And sure enough - the rain began to pour. I shouted, "Danelle, we need to run!" We both started running as small branches started to fall in front and back of us, which we managed to dodge. Then she stopped running. I looked back at her being a little upset and shouted that she needed to run.  She ran again for a moment and then said she needed help with her bag. Then she said she couldn't run because she had sandals on. Needless to say, by the time we made it to our apartment building we were soaking wet.

Danelle was laughing and made the situation humorous. I was not in the mood for jokes and softly expressed that I was angry. She didn't understand why and began to explain to me that I didn't have to wait for her. "Yeah right", I thought. We walked into our apartment and she continued to explain how none of this was her fault and I shouldn't be angry at her. We took off our wet clothes, put on some dry clothes, and continued to our normal routine at home. I got on my laptop and she went to do something in the kitchen.

Shortly after I starting writing on my laptop, I began talking to my sister. Danelle came by me a couple times, brushing up against the skin of my shoulder and giving her usual sign of needing attention. After years of experience, I knew she wanted to talk more about this conflict we just had. I hung up the phone with my sister, went into the kitchen, and asked Danelle what was up. She said she wanted to have resolution over what just happened. I began to explain that I'm not mad anymore and just needed a little bit of time to cool off, which I did. This moment of being angry for being caught in the storm's downpour was nobody's fault but my own, yet my feelings were real and I needed to let myself relieve my anger gently by having some me-time. I continued to explain to her that I was not angry "at" her until she became insensitive to my feelings and continue to neglect my feelings by adding humor in my face. I included other options that I could have chosen to prevent myself from being angry at her, but all of those options (like pretending that I didn't hear her while jogging home) would receive the consequences of her telling me throughout the evening of how I just left her in the rain, how I didn't care and a branch could have injured her, or even how she had some feeling that I ignored her to keep jogging home. Furthermore, she would now have another story to tell her friends about how careless I was towards her. As I explained this to her, she recognized the depth of our conflict, acknowledged my feelings, apologized for being insensitive to me, and verbally applauded me for knowing her.

We hugged, kissed, and said "I love you" to each other. We both became happy that we came to an understanding from a gentle conversation and saw good fruit from our years of marriage counseling over conflict resolution. What started as a small conflict could have easily became a great marital disaster. Yes, conflict resolution in marriage is extremely difficult in the beginning. But with time and practice, it gets easier and brings forth a wealth of happiness.

Toasting to Dr. Schutz this evening and praising God for him. :)

Shaping Minds #20140620: Ivory Towers

My Dearly Beloved,

Every now and then, it is good to sharpen your mind with some perspective outside of your own. My wife and I believe one of the best ways to sharpen your mind and stay keen on the intellectual development of the world (or growing of society) is through watching documentaries.

I learned about this movie theater in Washington, DC called "E-Street Cinema" during a last minute desire to watch a movie before our move to Friendship Heights. I wanted to see "Edge of Tomorrow" at the Regal in Gallery Place, but the timing didn't work for us. So, my wife said we should go to E-Street Cinema and we did. When deciding on a movie, my wife pointed out that this movie "Ivory Tower" is a documentary. I LOVE documentaries. At last, this became my 1st documentary that I watched in a movie theater. Pretty awesome!

Anyhow, my wife and I really enjoyed this movie. At the end of the movie, I was joking around and saying that we should stay a little through the credits as we might see some extra clips like we do with comic movies. Well, God put the joke on me. A theater director came to the front and announced that a panel discussion would immediately take place now that the movie was over. Anyone who had questions or comments were encouraged to participate. Next, four people who were a big part of the documentary came up to the front of the theater and the dialogue between the panel and the audience began. "How outstanding is this!", I thought. Can you imagine having Ironman (if he were real) approach the front of the stadium seating in the movie theater to answer any questions on how he saved the world? That would blow my mind! Hahahaaa...

After the great discussion and listening to questions and comments, Victoria Sobel, one of the cast and panel members, was selling t-shirts to support her organization's mission and taking photos with people. This is making history and I was so honored that I could get a picture with Victoria. She's awesome!

 

Of course and naturally, I strongly recommend that you go see and support this documentary. I just *liked* them on Facebook. If you're near by the Cooper Union in NYC, I urge you to understand Victoria's organization and movement more. After all, I definitely believe what Peter Cooper believes: education should be free to all.