From your fellow homo sapien

This semester I'm meeting my science requirement by taking an anthropology class and I have to say I have found it surprisingly interesting. I've examined real human skeletons and replicas of early primate skulls. With pride, and to my surprise, I admit that I did not feel the least bit queazy when handling what was once a live human. The only part of the class that annoys me is the belief that we share a common ancestor with the pan troglodytes, aka the chimpanzee. They have yet to identify this common ancestor, which I think is a massive, gaping hole in their theory. The more I study the intricacies of the human body and how scientific theories leave so many questions unanswered, I am reminded of the power of God and the never failing truth of His Word.

This Made Sense in My Head

It's funny how I can get so worried about the future and let my fear of the unknown occupy my thoughts. I somehow think that I must do something or pray a specific prayer in order to know God's plan for my life. Surrender is such a simple word, but so hard to do. It's easier said than done. I think our sinful nature holds on to what little control we think we might have over our lives and we can't fully surrender to God, we can't really seek Him wholeheartedly. Not on our own at least. So we can't surrender our entire lives over to Christ without recognizing our incompetence, and in turn surrendering our problem of surrendering. God's plan is going to happen no matter what we do or how much we freak out. It has nothing to do with us and everything to do with His glory. I waste so much time agonizing over choices I have to make in life, trying to figure out God's plan. But if I just follow Him with no questions asked, I'll see His plan begin to play out right before my eyes over a conversation in a Starbucks down the street from my house.

Prego a la Thumb

Spaghetti dinner has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

    So, my mom recently purchased a vegetable cutting device that slices food into thin circles with ease. For the first encounter with her new kitchen utensil, she cut up some zucchini for our evening meal of spaghetti and garlic bread. As she grew used to the cutting device, she felt comfortable enough to cut the vegetables without using the safety guard. With one swift glide of the blade, she sliced off the tip of her thumb into a perfectly cut circle like a raw zucchini. Attempting to appear as if she was not panicing, she calmly asked my little brother for help after realizing a band aid wasn't keeping her newly deformed thumb from bleeding. Blood was spilling all over the floors and counters next to the spaghetti dinner she had just prepared. Our kitchen looked like a scene out of The Blair Witch Project with towels soaked in blood next to bowls of spaghetti. 
    My dad then took her to the emergency room where they found out the wound was beyond needing stitches with all the skin that was lost. The doctor started to give her thumb a series of six shots before cauterizing the wound. Her thumb was still bleeding incessently and she was squeezing my dad's hand while enduring the shots. The doctor suddenly looked over and said, "Are you alright, 'dad'?". My dad's face had gone completely white and his lips colorless. He thought he was fine until he turned his head and the room started spinning. Between a lack of food and my mom's severed thumb gushing blood, my dad nearly fainted and the doctor came close to dealing with two patients in that room. Needless to say, it was an eventful night of gore and disturbingly red spaghetti, and I was excited I actually had a story to blog about.

Oh, Rancho Cucamonga

    Winds that fill your pool with leaves and blow your furniture into the neighbor's yard, the occasional rain that reminds you that there really are four seasons in a year, and the bright sun the remaining 92% of the time. Just three days ago, we dealt with our never-failing winds, the following day we got to enjoy a little rain, and today it looks like summer in November. I love how Kristin captured our bi-polar weather in her photographs of the past two days and the emotion and feeling a simple weather change can bring.
    The rain can instantly make you want to drink a cup of hot coffee and sit in a bookstore, at least that's what it does to me. Something about listening to the rain dance across the pavement and watch it paint a picture in my window is soothing and romantic. I wish it rained more here in Rancho Cucamonga.

The Ironies of a Youth Leader

    It's easy for people involved in the church to assume that they must first grow in knowledge, spirituality, and maturity before taking on any kind of leadership role, but if we have that mind set, we will never be ready to take on the task. If anything, it is all completely backwards. You take on a leadership role, thinking you're "ready", and through the course of your serving, your imperfections and places of inadequacy are revealed to you more and more every day.
    The young girls in my youth group are so much more encouraging to me than I am to them. As I get a little older every day, my struggle with pride and doubt grow and my faith is easily shaken. I am bombarded with people who think they are smarter because they don't believe in God and have theories and beliefs based on scientific evidence, and anyone who believes in anything else is outrageous. A remark with the slightest bit of intelligence causes me to have that lingering hint of doubt in the back of my mind. With every passing Wednesday night service, I feel less and less worthy of being a youth leader.
    At the most recent youth group night, we studied a sort of 'heavy' topic. It questioned the strength of our faith if we were to be put in a society that killed people for believing in Jesus. I was scared to admit my honest answer, that I really don't know what I would do in that situation. The girls in my small group responded with a longing to grow in their faith and serious compassion for those that live like that today. Their answers encouraged me so much and I think I walked out of there that night more changed than they did.
    I think most leaders go into the youth ministry with an honest intention of wanting to serve the youth and encourage and strengthen the students, but we quickly realize the students will have an impact on our lives just as much as, or more than, we will have on theirs.