Bella

Normally I don't do something like this...at least I don't think I do. Go see this movie! Bella is currently playing in Champaign and Savoy and is definitely worth the 92 minutes of the film and the 6-9 dollars you will pay for it. It is a fantastic story that entraps the human condition and what it is like to rise above our sinful nature. In a completely un-overt spiritual film, I believe God's heart speaks loudly. It is an absolute beauty. Don't go scouring for plot or trailers though. The internet is full of spoilers, and in my opinion, some of the trailers ruin the plot. I'd say don't even watch the official trailer. I went in with no expectations and that's what made it so beautiful for me. I think everything played well into a substantially climactic end and just beautifully worked together. The music is fantastic. It just oozes fantastic artwork in my opinion.

GO SEE THIS FILM

Recent Photos

I've never had a flickr account before, but I have tried it and these are some pictures I've taken recently with my roommate Mike's camera

Quad Cam

Ok, so this is definitely my third post of today, but I just can't help but show you all this wonderful item. This is the Quad Cam. The University of Illinois has a camera placed atop Foellinger Auditorium that you...YES, YOU...have the opportunity to control. It can pan and zoom very accurately. You can even snap a picture. Creepy...

This is awesome...

Blog Reading Level

I stole this from Amy and was somewhat surprised at the rating of my blog. Go check it out yourself. It is a site that will identify the reading level of your blog. I'm not sure of the criteria they use, but I'm down with it.

Get a Cash Advance

Culture Shock

So, whilst watching Ninja Warrior recently, there were some intense changes. The reason for these changes most likely falls on the shoulders of Makoto Nagano. He is the man that in Sasuke 17 achieved Ultimate Victory. This lead to a complete overhaul of the courses used in the program for the 18th competition. So, that puts us at watching Sasuke 18 on G4 the other day.

Now that we're caught up, we are watching Stage 3 of the competition where 2 instances of different culture revealed themselves.

The first was when a competitor failed on a section of the course. He graciously said that the section had gotten the best of him. In fact, I paraphrase him when I say he thought he trained enough, but his failure on the day of the competition shows his training clearly was not enough. He said this even though the obstacle had be redesigned.

The second was when Makoto disqualified himself from the course because he broke a rule. In fact, the officials hadn't disqualified him because either his mistake wasn't caught or they were going to allow it. He would have most likely completed the stage had he allowed himself to continue along.

So, what do these two instances say? They show a culture of intense respect and honor. My feeling is that here in the States, people would have a far bigger problem with losing. In fact, we would blame our loss on the course. It's not our fault the course changed. Why should we be penalized? And in the case of the self-disqualification, it seems like that took such guts and honor to do. If we can get away with something, we do it. The phrase, "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying" is an indicator of the American attitude towards victory at all costs. I even consider a guy Terrell Owens or other professional athletes with historically bad attitudes and can't imagine a similar outcome.

So that's the culture shock. We in general in America seem to be more concerned with victory than honor. It makes for an interesting conversation for sure

The Lord's Prayer

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

When Jesus of Nazareth gave us a prayer to pray, he gave us a "formula" about what we need to think about when talking to God the Father. It seems like there is such depth to this prayer. Some of it doesn't even strike me while reciting it in a group.

For a long time the passage

Thy will be done.

stuck out to me. It was powerful. It talks about what God wants. We should want what he wants. It is super simple really. We are asking that whatever he wants should happen. There is such power in that simplicity.

This weekend, while at Mass in Evansville, the first phrase I wrote

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

really hit me deeply. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the animosity that I hold towards others. In little ways, big ways, what have you. Sometimes it affects the relationship, sometimes it doesn't seem to. It just really strikes me that in Christ's prayer, he is saying we must ask for forgiveness...but there is more. This might be intensely obvious, but it still strikes me that we just don't forgive those who trespass against us. It doesn't say that "Forgive us our trespasses and we'll try our hardest." No, in fact in the language used here, it suggests that God will forgive us as we are forgiving others...not that they are seperate actions.

Matthew 5:23-25 says,

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift."

This is God's way of doing things. We are to forgive and accept forgiveness. This is one of the central messages of the Gospel, FORGIVENESS. We must forgive. What sort of animosity are you harboring? Pray about that. Who are you holding things against? Ask God to take it away. I know for myself, this is one of the toughest things I am wrestling with. How can I remove such deep feelings? How can we truly

forgive those who trespass against us.

Notice Anything?

Check out the front page from Friday's Daily Illini

And for the awexomeness of it...The sports front page from today's DI

Yea, we beat #1

So, the Fighting Illini did indeed fight for their 8th win of the season...against #1 Ohio State, at the Horseshoe. What a fantastic game. I watched it with my family and I was so ancy. I was at the last occurance of Illinois beating a #1 in a major sport (the 2004-05 season of basketball against Wake Forest), and while that was exciting, this sucka was just as incredible. We won't end up as #1 after the win, but man, was it awesome. It still feels like it didn't happen. So, go Illini, and this is gonna be a fun week for Illini sports. AND I'm going to the Northwestern game next week too!

Now, that brings me to a discussion I had earlier this week with some friends. These friends of mine and I go to Murphy's Pub once a week on Wednesday's to share a beer and conversation together. The topic of Ron Zook came up as being a fantastic recruiter but a ho-hum, even downright dreadful coach. His decision making processes were questioned and he got blamed for things in Florida and that was carried over to here. Well, I disagreed. This is partially becuase I just like to be contrary, but also because I really believed in the Zooker. I insisted he makes pretty good decisions, and many compared him to Jim Tressel at OSU and his far superior ability to manage a game. Whilst I think players and their lack of execution are a huge thing that adds to a team losing, but I do agree that coaching makes a difference. All that to say this...

Even though the Ohio State players didn't execute at times, I believe Ron Zook out-coached Jim Tressel. There, I said it. On a fourth and inches, the Illini were going to punt and Tressel called a timeout. Zook called his bluff (at the urging of Juice Williams) and went for the first down. They got it, and a few minutes later, the entire city of Columbus (save for a few people in orange) were downtrodden.

VIVA ZOOK!

What does it mean to 'fear God?'

Today I was on the main quad and Brother Jed was there. I've been around for this campus preacher before. I've never been an intense fan of his, but he is definitely better than some of those that have come here. While taking some time to listen to him and talk to some of his audience, the question of what does it mean to "Fear God?" It seems like there was a guy in the audience who was very confused about why we should fear a God that loves us and cares about us. That question interested me. I presented to him the analogy of God as a father...

Our own parents protected us from things because they knew better than us. It isn't like they wanted to keep us from everything and stifle us, but they wanted to make sure we'd be safe. This is the same way with God. It seems like the phrase God fearing should be God respecting, especially for the world we live in now. My roommate Evan provided me with a list of scripture on fearing God, and it was really fascinating. While not exhaustive, the list shows that (as I suspected) the majority of the scripture that talks about fearing God comes from the Old Testament. The language is not used in the New Testament nearly as much. So, it seems like the way we see God also changed from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Perhaps now that more of his character (specifically the grace portion) seems to be more revealed, our fear turns into a respect. Those are kinda the thoughts on my mind right now...

Monthly, Weekly, Daily? Mae Lyric

I flippin' love Mae...as you might already know. But it must continue to be known. I don't know if I can periodically blog about a lyric, but today I can...

" When does this physical meet with the spiritual" - Reflections

This lyrics gets me because, as I've gone along, specifically this year, I've felt the physical world around me intertwining with the spiritual world within and around me. I've felt like they cannot be disconnected. It is a very holistic perspective. The idea that we cannot separate our physical life from our spiritual life. I see it when my emotional health suffers and I get sick soon after. I see it when a friend describes their rough time this weekend and seeing the physical aspects totally un-separated from the physical, so much so that the spiritual battle they were feeling manifested itself physically. This seems like a place to camp for a long time. When do our lives become so intertwined that we can't tell the difference? It seems like the line is becoming a lot blurrier.

Basic Needs

As humans, we have basic needs...

Obviously these fall into different categories.

We have a need for food. It sustains us physically. While we can go without it for a while, ultimately not having it will end us.

We have a need for water. Again, we can go without it, but dehydration is a very legitimate way to die.

We have a need for shelter. The elements of this planet are very strong. There is no way to 'fight' them. We must instead ward them off. This is done with shelter, and without it, we're gonna die.

Those are the needs they teach you about in grade school. There are other ideas like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

I feel like in the case I laid down, there is another basic need. This need is to be loved. The sad thing about this need not being met is that it happens far more than the others. However it doesn't need to physical death. Not being loved compounds on itself though, and can kill somebody emotionally. It ends up just as sad as physical death, and I would argue, at times sadder. We try to meet this need with false sources of love. On top of that, I think we try to have our love need manifested in other forms. (This is kinda off the cuff...I think I believe some of it though) We want to say we need to have it all together so people will love us. We say we need the iPhone so we can be cool and people will love us by talking to us. We say we need to be in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex because ONLY that will meet our needs. (I wrestle with this one, because I think there are certain needs met by someone of the opposite sex being a significant other, but I don't think many of those needs can't be met by strong friends in the same sex) So basically, I'm saying we need to be loved. Let's be the ones to meet other's needs

Let us go forth and love...