I Chose . 2

Yeah, this is the same one you'll see on my bulletin.. But I'm posting thies so EVERYONE can see if they so choose.

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This one should keep us all thinking.

I chose #2, now you pick one.


This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC.

There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist.

His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester to prove that God couldn't exist.

His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic.

Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him because of his reputation.

At the end of every semester on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!"

In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "Because anyone who believes in God is a fool".

If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that He is God, and yet He can't do it."

And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces.

All of the students would do nothing but stop and stare.

Most of the students thought that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but! for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up.

Well, a few years ago there was a freshman who happened to enroll.

He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about his professor.

He was required to take the class for his major, and he was afraid. But for three months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said, or what the class thought.

Nothing they said could ever shatter his faith...he hoped.

Finally, the day came. ! The professor said, "If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!" The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.

The professor shouted, "You FOOL!!!

If God existed, he would keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!"

He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleat of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away unbroken. The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man, and then ran out of the lecture hall.

The young man who had stood, proceeded to walk to the front of the room and shared his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God's love for them and of His power through Jesus.


You have 2 choices:

1. Delete this and never look at it again.

2. Pass this along to your Christian and non-Christian friends, giving them encouragement we all need every day.

When you choose option 2, you have chosen to STAND UP.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different:

This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking..............

Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell.

Isn't it funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Isn't it funny how everyone wants to go to heaven provided they do not have to believe, think, say, or do anything the Bible says. Or is it scary?

Isn't it funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow Satan (who, by the way, also "believes" in God ).

Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand! jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Isn't it funny how the lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but the public discussion of Jesus is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Isn't it funny how someone can be so fired up for Christ on Sunday, but be an invisible Christian the rest of the week.

Are you laughing?!

Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.

Isn't it funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

Will YOU pass this on?

I did.


For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. -- John 3:16


I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. -- Philippians 4:13

JESUS LOVES YOU!

Love Thy Neighbor

These are just a few passages I found. I'm not sure why I'm posting them. More for me than anything else. (Copied from an online concordance tools. [Link] )

Zechariah 8:17 (New King James Version)

17 Let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor;
And do not love a false oath.
For all these are things that I hate,
Says the LORD.

Matthew 22:36-40 (New King James Version)

36 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

Romans 13:8-10 (New King James Version)

Love Your Neighbor

8 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, You shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law

And after my little search on the subject, all I keep thinking is: "I'm trying, God, I'm trying." The boys and now girls in the neighborhood are making it exceedingly difficult to love them. It's approaching summer again, and with summer comes LOTS of free time. Free time to do nothing but smoke pot it seems.

I'm not a fan of smoking, drinking, or dugs. But if you want to do any of them, that is your decision. Your body is a temple, how you choose to keep it is your free will. So long as you are not inflicting your decisions on others. (Smoking in public, forcing others to inhale your garbage. Getting irresponsibly drunk, acting lewdly towards people outside of your group and reckless driving. Getting stoned on someone else's property!)

I live in a four unit apartment building. There's a yard in back and a bit of a yard in front. Nice areas if they weren't infested with ants and or fleas. But for the local kids who want nothing more than a place to hang out, it doesn't matter what bugs may get on them. In groups of four or more, they are constantly hanging around our property.

This didn't bother me AS much before, when there sole problem was there LOUDness and usually in smaller groups. But now they've taken to smoking their pot almost daily. I have to walk back there to throw out the trash or do laundry. I don't want to have to see them. It's getting to the point were it's safer to do this crap when it's dark, by then these fools are home or elsewhere.

I try very hard not to hate anyone. I may get angry or annoyed, but those are passing emotions. But the longer I stay here, the more my hatred grows for them. I want to cry or scream, I hate them so much. Scream cuz they are trying what little patience I have. Cry cuz I don't want to hate anyone.

I feel as useless as when I was in school, with the idiots who felt the need to tease. Becaues, though they're not saying anything to me (all the time anyway), I feel as bad as if they had. Though reputation of my bullying ability goes before me, I know there is little I can do to make them go away. What could I say? Mom tells me to say nothing out of fear of retaliation to us or her car.

"Lord, help me love these people like You love these people." I've long since forgotten where I got that from. Probably a church service. I used to repeat it daily when I worked at the bookstore. Well not daily, but on days where we seemed to be swamped with idiots and lazy students who wanted us to do their shopping. Y'know, people who try your patience even at the best of jobs. I think I may have to say it again, hourly, everytime I see or think of them. Or maybe repeat it like standards.

Lord, help me love these people like You love these people. Lord, help me love these people like You love these people. Lord, help me love these people like You love these people. Lord, help me love these people like You love these people. Lord, help me love these people like You love these people...

God, musta seen my anger level was growing too high. He had Chrissi email me a funny about neighbors. Lord, I wish my worst problem with neighbors was inappropriate garden displays.

Well, I feel a little better.. But I'm still stalling til the kids leave before moving laundry... I think my next door neighbor is "watering" the grass now (to scatter the kids of course). I'll take ants retreating to inside our apartment over them pot heads. Ta ta for now... Hopefully I'll be in better spirits next blog.

Just.... Yimenies...

Oy, what a weekend. Overall good, but geesh, there were some "interesting" moments. Moments that make ya wanna scream, curse, or just go "ugh". And I'm sure I did a lil of all.

Friday's clean sheet day. Y'know the one day a week ya put on clean sheets. Well, I thought, I'll flip the mattress today too. It needed it. It hadn't gotten done in a while. So, I thought, why not. Not a fun task under better circumstances. Realy not fun in my tiny room. With no help, cuz like I was home alone, I attempted to slide the mattress off the bed and then walk it back on to slide it down the oposite way. There was no room to turn it around and just flip it like normal people might.

One "foot" on, one "foot" hanging off the box-spring and the damn mattress gets stuck against the light fixture on the ceiling. Okay, so this wasn't the brightest of plans. Meh, too late now. I give it a gentle tug to get it unstuck. Nope... Another bad idea, but again. TOO LATE.

~glass shatters~

The light fixture broke and the pieces rained down all over the box spring, the carpet, and for a second I thought my head. First checked my head, then the mattress. Both glass free, I slip on some shoes, that were thankfully really close by, and move the mattress out of the room and now glass zone.

After picking up as many of the big pieces as possible, I started shouting out the colorful language. This thing couldn't just have broken.. Oh no, it had to shatter. After much grumbling, I pulled out the vacuum cleaner. No way was I gonna try and pick up the tiny pieces any other way. Hears my real irritation. I'd just vacuumed the whole apartment the day before!!!

Now I'm exhausted, cuz I had to lift the box spring up to make sure nothing was stuck to it or hiding underneath. But at last all the visible glass is gone, the box spring is back on, and the mattress is again on the bed. The mattress never got flipped, cuz I was too tired to try it again and plus I didn't want to shatter the actual lightbulb which had survived the first attempt.

Throughout the bedmaking, I kept finding more glass... So the vacuum wasn't put away til I was COMPLETELY certain anything that would pop out and hurt us was gone. Thankfully, the rest of Friday went on uneventfully.

Saturday, on the other hand, was a different story. The plan was to go to San Diego to visit Chrissi's (and kinda mine) friend, Christopher. I can't even recall last time we saw him. All I do remember is constantly teasing him.. We both did. He's just soooo easy to tease.

Anywho, we left at like noon something. I was waiting for Mom and the one and only gate key to come home, otherwise we woulda left earlier. But c'est la vie. It never came home, nor did she, so we left. Traffic was ummm... there. Yep, yep, shoulda left earlier. Anywho.. Getting there, not counting traffic, wasn't too bad. Hey, I even managed to stay awake for almost all of the ride... Actually, I don't recall nodding off once.

We got there, and after the usual moments of "long time no see" awkwardness and a quick greeting of the parents, we all headed out to eat lunch. Cheescake Factory. Mmmmm... I don't really need to add to that, except it was so darn funny. I ordered a salad..the lunch size even, and it turned out to be a GIANT salad. I mean there was two meals in there! We all ate like half our lunch, so we could have room for the cheesecake we'd already picked out while waiting to be seated.

Beyond well fed, we all went to Seaport Village. It was soo nice there! Lotsa lil shops, nice view.. Just a lovely little atmosphere to the place. Wish I'd remember my camera. It was fun... Christopher was far less dorky than we recalled. He was growing up... Awwww....

A dull trip to a mall followed... A trip my feet sorely regretted... We took our Cherry Lemonades and headed home. Chris lives on the farthest side of San Diego... This led to scary fun later on the way home. One wrong turn and we nearly ended up in Mexico! We had no clue we were heading 15 minutes in the wrong direction til we saw "Next Exit Last US Exit". Sufficiently freaked, we did get off the freeway and got correct directions.

Okay, I confess... I did start nodding off on the way home... I tried to stay awake as much as possible though. We headed to Chrissi's place and her mom took me home. I still say overall it was a fun outing.. Sucks that the directions weren't clear for our return trip... Caused a lot of unnecessary unhappiness.

Sunday was spent louging around. This woulda been great except we were supposed to go do errands. Le oops. So, yeah, it was an "interesting" weekend. Full of laughter, tears, aggrivated yells, and screams. Yes, I'm a dork. And what do you think you are? Reading this waaaaay too long blog of mine.

Note: This damn thing took three tries to post. Myspace kept wigging on me!

Wasn't that fun?

Well wasn't today fun. No really... I love getting next to no sleep, court house hopping, and lets not forget the biggie... breaking and entering... Yep, gotta be my favorite.

Alright, now most of the time I keep rather stupid sleeping hours. This morning, I had planned to go to sleep after doing the dishes at 5am.. Yeah, I know, I'm weird to do them so late. Anywho, I got done and I was soooo hot. Normal person might have showered to cool off and get clean. Well unless I am litterally melting, I take my showers in the morning. Plus Mom was using our one and only bathroom to get ready for work. Couldna gotten in her way.

I got distracted... In waiting for my body to cool down, I was reading Pride and Prejudice... Got to chapter 36/37, btw, after only starting it last Wednesday. I got sooo involved into reading, that even while nodding off I kept trying to finish the chapter. By the time I did get into bed, it was like 845am. Later than planned, but still managable with at least a 4 or 5 hours of sleep... So I set my alarm accordingly...

Two hours later, I get a call from Mom. She needs me to run an errand or try to... Joy, so much for sleeping... My fault, I know, but still. Okay fine. Two hours later, I've showered, gotten ready, and gotten a ride to the dreaded court house.

We were on our way out when I did something I haven't done in ages... I locked myself out! Of course I've got the only gate key, so I really do need to get in and get them keys. In a very non Hudson Hawk manner, Dad and I get the screen and window open and I ally-oop into the window... Almost knocked over a five gallon bottle of water too. Yep, good times... Well that's one way to start off our adventures, right?

The dreaded court house.... We can't find the room number. The building is funny.. I mean several room numbers were missing... Anywho, we go back downstairs to a impatient lady who tells us we're at the wrong court house... Joy. So we emptied our pockets (metal detectors) for nothing. Okay, fine. We went to the other court house. There's a line just to get in!!! Again with more metal detectors... Then at last a line to wait in at the correct room... When I got up there it was all in and out easy peazy... Whew, thank God for small favors.

Outing ended with lunch with Dad. I was thinking about a meal out with him... I like those trips. Dad and I do a lot of talking then. All and all, not a bad way to end the outing/adventure.

Lessons learned:

Mail in all court house business whenever possible.

Double check for everything before leaving your home. (which for the record I usually triple check.. We'll call it sleep deprived, okay?)

Lock windows before leaving, cuz it wasn't too hard to get in. (which admittedly was good for me in this case)

Anywho... Got home and started cooking for dinner... Mom showed up. I've left the B&E out of the retelling of the story to her... Don't think she'd like that part. There was some more visiting with all three of us (well when I wasn't cooking). And yeah... That was my day.

(I do think it's funny that I broke into my place and then went to the court house.. obviously they wouldna known or cared.. it's just funny to this lil nerd in me. )

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Comment(s):

Hahahahhahha... You shoulda just told her about the B & E... Then took a picture of her reaction... =))

Posted by Melissa Tian on 07 Jun 06 Wednesday - 1:48 PM


LOL!

"Hey, Mom, I have a confession to make...."

"Okay, but why do you have that camera?"

Actually, she hates getting her picture taken, so I'd never get the shot.

Posted by Relaya on 07 Jun 06 Wednesday - 2:00 PM

No More Hospitals, Please

It's been a rather long year of hospitals. I'm getting quite sick of them. Four occassions to visit the hospital that come to mind. Two of them really sad. And two of them started at the emergency room.

End of last summer, Mom and I spent as much time as we could in the hospital visiting her father. Well some of it was in a nursing home type place. But towards the end, there was a sad and depressing visit to the hospital.

Some months back, we made a visit to the hospital again. This time it was my Mom's Uncle Paco. That wasn't a happy visit either. He was already gone, mentally, by the time we got there. Just a body on life support. It was hard to watch the relatives holding on.

Last month, my Dad had to be brought into the emergency room. And no this trip did not have a sad ending. He did have to stay and have a surgery, but he was released after a week. He's recovering nicely, I think. Thank God.

This morning (EARLY morning), it was my Mom's turn to be rushed off to the emergency. Yes, she's fine now too. In fact, they released her 4 hours after she was brought in. But this time was a bit scarier. Paramedics were called. In retrospect, we coulda waited for my Dad to take her. But she was scared, I was scared. I didn't know what to do. They took off, and Dad came moments later and took me too her. Everyone's fine and dandy now. Well sleep was an issue, but nothing that can't be fixed.

I'm starting to hate hospitals. The smell. The constant noise. Seems someone is always crying for help and not getting it. So if anyone else gets sick, can ya wait a while? I really need a break from hospitals.. Most especially emergency rooms. Or y'know, if you HAVE to go in, can you at least go someplace where it's entertaining? Not one trip was anything out of Grey's Anatomy or ER.