For the gamer in you

This game is a fun alternative to solitaire and it is culturally relevant...

Theology of Saved

"When did you get saved?"

"Oh i was 5 years old and I followed the alter call because my mom encouraged me. I didn't really get it then, but that's when I got saved."

"So what's going on now?..."


Antique Christogram, originally uploaded by | Orthogonal Photography |.

So after my pathetic attempt at creating a dialogue, I present to you my thoughts on the word saved.

While this word isn't limited to protestant or evangelical, it is primarily seen there. I would say from my perspective it is used to say that at some point the savior came and saved me from myself and my sin. While I totally agree with that idea, I think it is very incomplete. It is seen in many worship songs today as well. These songs say that God did this or God did that. I once sinned, or I'm done with that. I find this to be incomplete.

Instead, the perspective of a priest that used to be here at the U of I rings truest to me. He says that

"We were saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved."

This salvation that God gives us is a constant process as we constantly sit on the precipice of forsaking our King. I know there are moments we are presented with that could truly strain our trust with our relationship with God. It requires a strong effort to fight on. I don't mean to challenge the idea of assurance or anything like that today, but I do challenge you to think about the loaded language of the word "saved." Consider the idea that you are being saved constantly from yourself and the evils around you. The Kingdom of God is fighting strongly for you today.

Flickr Love

I flippin' love flickr. It is a fantastic place to share, post, view, comment, and explore photography. I even believe that it is one area where Yahoo has outdone Google. I can spend more time flipping through the beauty on flickr than I can on the dime a dozen applications in the facebook realm.

The site itself is so powerful. The front end, while not pretty, lets you get anywhere you need to be. The focus is on the picture rather than on the website. By searching for effective tags/titles of pictures you can find an image of almost anything. Say you want to see a picture taken by a specific lens or camera; just search for that item. I can learn photo techniques, get tips, and drool over how I want to work on HDR pictures, because they are some of the most fascinating things I've ever seen.

My roommate Michael is studying abroad next semester, and I was able to find pictures of the places he is going. I wanted to see sweet snowboarding pics and found them. This website is truly an artist's haven and I want to be drawn into it.


In general, photography has become one of my top hobbies as of late. I love the art that it is. I do not get a chance to create anything new...instead, I capture that which was in front of me and can alter it. It seems like I get to create the snapshots of God's creation. What an honor that is. I have a few new pictures up as well from Rock for Honduras. Check them out here.

On Hope

Many people are talking about hope these days. We're all very excited by the hope that different organizations, groups, and people are talking about.

It could be Barrack Obama speaking of a hope for a new America. His campaign is hoping to catch the heart of America making himself the voice for hope. He's even written a book on the subject. That has to count for something right?

It could be a company like Google. With their user friendly desire to make their software free, they have caught the eye of the world. They even care about the environment. I even saw an editorial in the school paper that addressed the good nature of Google and how we can really trust them.

It could be any number of 'green' organizations looking to save the world that we have worked so hard to destroy. Many companies have bought into this philosophy (Google, energy companies, California) and are showing genuine concern for the world we live in.

Shoot, even tech can get into the mix. Many an American can assuredly say that they've thought at some point, "Boy, if I just had that iPhone, my life would be easier. I could calendar, email, camera, and internet my life. All while listening to The Shins."

For whatever reason, this topic really struck me today about how much stuff we put our hopes into. I myself can't wait for a future where I have things 'figured out.' I also hope to get a new computer soon (one that doesn't run slower than this will catch on) and let me tell you, I've got probably 3-4 camera lenses/accessories that I want to get. On top of that, I spent plenty of time recently thinking about cars. And don't forget relationships.
What am I getting at with all of this? The fact is, we hope for so much and put our hope into so many things that are just unsure. For those of us who do indeed believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we have something we can ultimately put our hope in that acts as a trump card. Let us not put our hopes in things that are unsure.

I can confidently tell you no matter how much support, money, etc that Barrack Obama gets, he will not solve all of America's problems and heal your hurts. I can promise you that Google is, no matter how friendly they are, a for profit organization that is taking advantage of our willingness to be advertised too. I with some sense of confidence can tell you that man isn't the only reason for global warming, and while we should do our part, let us not hope that we can fix it alone. An iPhone becomes obselete, a car dies, friendships hit rocks, cameras can only capture a picture of the memory, not the memory itself.

So let us move forward from today truly considering what our hope shall be put into. Let us truly weigh the options with faith and not just prudence. It will be hard, but it shall be so worth it...

Late Night of Study

This semester has been a pretty lonely school semester. My classes have been predominantly studied for by myself. Not that this is a big deal, but it makes me sad that I haven't made a huge effort to study with people or get to know my classmates too much. Now I know the semester isn't over, but that isn't I guess what I'm thinking about right now.

It is 1:30 in the morning on Monday and I'm studying my butt off. I've got a hw due tomorrow that I really don't even know how to approach. I guess I have ideas, but I don't know. But where is my mind? Talking to my sister on AIM about theology. What does that mean?

Does it mean that I am just finding that as a way to procrastinate or avoid my school work?
Does it mean that I just prefer to talk about God and how he has moved and is moving?
Does it mean that I should already commit to doing ministry?
Does it mean engineering is a hobby or that theological discussion is a hobby?


I guess these are big questions for me as they are going to help determine my direction in my life. These issues have come up a lot lately and I really would hope to have it settled tomorrow (read: hope = unrealistically hope). Instead, I have a lot of options before me in about 9 months. I will be graduating then, so I guess I'm pregnant with the rest of my life now. It's got a standard gestation period and now is the time that I really need to research what it'll be like to take care of it once it pops out.

Could I be doing some form of engineering discipline in a place where they don't have that but need it to establish infrastructure?
Could I be using my engineering knowledge to teach high schoolers in an inner city area because they need education in technical disciplines as much as rich suburbanites do?
Could I be learning how to council people through their struggles?
Could I be coaching sports and doing sports ministry?
Could I be doing support raising for campus missions work?
Could I be working in an engineering job in Colorado, Northwest, any other place and being involved in a church while ministering to my co-workers?
Could I be working in engineering in Champaign and doing campus missions on the side?

Yea, and that's only a list of options that come to me at this moment. I'm positive there must be others. So instead of dwell on this, I shall go to bed, and hit the grindstone early in the morning, while counting down the days to my second trimester.

And even thinking about that, I guess I kinda do have trimesters set up

End of Spring 08
Summer 08
Fall 08

Each will be different in nature, and each will help me to determine stuff about me and my future...I hope

Good night (or good morning I suppose)

Stealth Peeing

You ever think about when you are peeing at a urinal, and when you pee in the water it makes that sound, but when you pee on the wall of the urinal, it is quiet. I kind of think of it as how James Bond would pee...with a silencer

Running out of Time

Well, I register for my last semester of classes here at the U of I this evening. I've got a few picked out and I'm working on my strategy for the second when the gates open. It is a rather sad and yet exciting thing. I'm super excited that I am but 9 credit hours from graduation and that I should be done in December. I'm sad because there is a chance that I'll leave this place called Champaign (not guaranteed), and I would miss that. I'm also sad because I believe I am a person that wants to live life to the fullest. I want to experience a lot and don't want to leave much to anybody else. The same goes for classes, (This of course excludes business classes) as I have so many I've wanted to take. They vary like night and day and hopefully I will get educated in some things that are relevant to me and my life.

The classes look as such potentially

Senior Design
Human Factors
Engineering Psych
WILD CARD

The wild card class could be many a thing. There is an advertising class, world religions, coaching strategies, the Bible as literature, philosophy classes, manufacturing engineering, and the list goes on. I also really want to not have class Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, which I am pretty close to having. That time that I'll have free on those days will be great for iLife work, reaching out in the dorms, work interview trips, and anything else I can think of. Anyway, college ending...etc :)