Sunday driving...

leads to church a lot of times. Today we witnessed once again a celebration of faith. Old and young were baptized today. American and Chinese. It blows my mind once more that our God is truly 全知, 全能, 全 everything. Surpassing everything we deem as obstacles or impossible, He makes it happen.

On another note, on the way back with all my windows rolled down I blasted Bizet. I'm pretty sure that the people who heard it or turned their heads when my car passed them thought....question mark?

It's the end of February!!! Where has the month gone???

piano concerts

I went to see Yefim Bronfman perform in concert earlier tonight. Apparently I had seen him in concert before and didn't remember it was him.

I'm disappointed I don't remember it, because he played with so much passion especially for the Tchaikovsky piece. That was particularly fun to watch. As for the encore, he played two pieces by Chopin which almost had me in tears. I was still getting over Tchaikovsky's piece that his mention of Chopin caught me off guard.

Now that I think about it, I also saw Mimi Tung perform VDay weekend. Oooh, she was even more so intense! She seemed to play Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 so effortlessly. TOO good!

I must stop now or I'll never stop ranting and raving. They both were SOOO GOOOD!!!

adventures at the hospital

I got a tip that the ITC department in the UVA Hospital system was giving away old computer hardware. I didn't need anything in particular, I figured it just be something I could toy with. (Geek much?) Anyways me and my friend go looking for the place. Up, down, in, and out countless elevators, stairs, and hallways looking for this place.

So apparently there is a new hospital and an old hospital. We were in the new hospital and ended up in ICU. The lady at the ICU desk was very helpful and directed us to the old hospital, the place we needed to get our swag.

Scattered here and there are random old parts to something electronic. The lady there tells us we needed to be staff or faculty to cop this swag. We leave slightly disappointed but me, not really.

In spite of being here for almost 4 years and knowing almost every corner of UVA Grounds, Cville manages to still have some spots I had no idea of getting around. A couple hours well spent.

bitterness of heart

I've been reading a lot of Old Testament lately, especially the books Moses wrote. I am particularly struck by the passages of Moses leading the Israelites through the desert.

Too many times the Israelites complain of lack of sustenance and cry that they would have rather lived in Egypt and died in slavery than deal with this desert. At the same time I am reminded that these very same Israelites also cried out to God in Egypt to free them from oppression. For such ungratefulness towards God, the Israelites were than condemned to wander the very same desert for 40 years.

I wonder if the Israelites' fights with the people already occupying the land, the fights amongst themselves, and fights with God was to prepare their hearts and minds to fully receive and appreciate the Promised Land. Could it be that this time in the desert also served as a cleansing of the bitterness in their hearts?

The cries of the Israelites remind me of the bitterness in my own heart. The prejudice, the jealousy, the hatred, and countless other offenses that I hold against others and myself.

Why the hardness? Why the bitterness? What ungratefulness do we have towards God? Should we dare pray that we be given our own "deserts" in order to purify our hearts? I wonder if it is the fact that we forget His graciousness towards us that we become bitter.

I pray that we be reminded of our countless blessings. Only His love, His grace, and His mercy can take hold of my heart, our hearts, break it and mold it to be of one that most sings of His glory.

playing in the kitchen

Obviously, I didn't cook all this but I'm pretty sure you can pick out which ones I did. Each dish however has been tied to events and people that I love dearly.

I just started a cooking class. A FREE one for that matter. Already it has opened my eyes to things I had working knowledge of, yet could not explain as to why. Much like Alton Brown does in "Good Eats" kind of explanation. It is AAAHHHmazing!

But in my years of cooking I've realized many things. I will only mention a few because if I were to list it all down, this entry would never end.

I will always eat what people have cooked from their own kitchens. I've come to the conclusion that people who have cooked for others really have put love in their food. If they took the time to make it, I will certainly oblige them. Maybe I'm thinking too idealistically but when I cook, I tend to pour my heart and soul into it and I believe people have done the same when they cook for others they love.

People who cook for money will sometimes lose that love that goes into making that food. Given, they may be rushed to fill an order or just having a bad day, but I feel for the most part the love is lost and quality of food goes with that love. But I'm more than positive if you take them from mentioned situation, it will be goooooooood.

For me to find so much joy in preparing and making food come together, it makes me wonder how God must have felt when He created people. People were the last creations God made and, I dare say one of His greatest creations, in Genesis and Psalm 139 mentions how He made people, ever so fearfully and wonderfully.

If only my love for cooking could match that of My God's love for humanity...Oh, how wonderful is His love for us!

"God is tasty."

Says this lady by Newcomb as she hands me a tract. She had overheard me admitting to a friend on the phone about a cooking faux pas I had committed the night before. Personally I still fault myself for the mistake, given the fact I've spent half my life playing in the kitchen.

God is tasty. Reminded me of the seminar I took last semester, "Sensing the Sacred". We basically discussed and wrote about how we perceived the presence of anything deemed holy.

Funny how this comes up, because as of recently I've also asked many a person what they think God smells like. This also stemmed from the same seminar when we had a guest professor talk about the "fragrance of God".

I wonder how it will be that day when we meet Him face to face. Enjoying His presence for eternity and having every sense fulfilled by Him.

wretched treasures

Shout out to JQ and JY for the title which lead me to write this.

First and foremost, Happy Valentine's Day and 新年快樂!!! Two of my most favorite holidays on the same day this year...WoOoOoO!

So as of lately I've been really thinking about and talking about how Christ came to be with us. He walked among us. He ate with us. He fed us. He healed us. He spent time with us. In the flesh, He did all this. That isn't to say He still isn't doing it, just not this whole human concept of "actual" contact. He still moves, if we believe He does.

As for this whole wretched treasure thing, it was actually a typo gone right in a song we were singing in Large Group. How wonderful it is to know that we as wretched, as broken, and as evil as we are as people that God would still think of us to be treasures! The very fact that He would die for us, for everybody so that we could live eternally with Him. I still cannot fathom how Someone could love like this.

This is truly an amazing love, let my heart never cease singing of it!

The colors we bleed

I bleed red.

But for the most part I've been bleeding orange and some other color for a better part of my life as a student. First orange and black and now orange and blue. Orange is probably going to haunt me for rest of my life.

This past weekend was busy with spectator sports. Pushing through ice and snow to a home basketball game was first off. This was THE game to watch. Wake Forest and UVA were fighting to tie Duke for the number one seed in the ACC. This game did not disappoint, until the bitter end in overtime...We are now fifth.

The pandemonium of Super Bowl Sunday, I daresay, matches that of Black Friday and Christmas Eve in America. These are truly some days that in the event you are on the sidelines observing, make you think...what in the world is going on?

Nevertheless, I too was caught up in Super Bowl Sundayness. And was it sweet! Saints beat out Colts with this oh so b-e-a-u-tiful interception in the 3rd quarter. Mardi Gras came to the Big Easy two weeks early this year.

But in the midst of the excitement of winning and losing, one really has to step back and really appreciate all that goes into such spectator sports. The people working in concessions watching the game on their little screen, the janitors who stay back to clean up the tons of trash left behind, the people who make sure all the electrical stuff work, the medical folks on hand if anything happens to anybody, security for crowd control, and the countless and unsung heroes that make the whole situation come together.

I'm going to keep bleeding red. But for the remaining time I have at UVA, Orange and Blue baby, Orange and Blue!


*sidenote: Duke just beat out UNC at home. Been a rough year for UNC, seeing how they came out on top last year in the NCAA. Tough break.

Psalm 127:1-2

...gave me chills and moved me close to tears. Mmm...how He has moved me so this morning! How many times have we struggled to do so much without His help? Oh, I pray we constantly remember this one...Proverbs 3:5-6!

melting salad pot bowl

Funny story. Korean professor for this class I'm taking was talking about the difference between how early Koreans compared hanja (한자) to hangul (한글). She drew a parallel to that of the English language as to how Standard English compares to African American Vernacular English, a.k.a. Ebonics. She proceeded to give some examples, to which I almost fell over from trying to stifle my fit of laughter. Is she trying to teach me Ebonics?!? She really does not know where I come from...

This however brings me to a matter that I've been trying to reconcile for as long as I known this fact. Being a person of primarily 2 cultures, the issue of how to best utilize and deal with 2 almost constantly conflicting cultures at the right times is always of question.

When do I speak "properly" as opposed to speaking "as I do on the regular"? When do I be assertive as opposed to being reserved? When do I request kung pao as opposed to fried/rotisserie chicken?

The melting pot or the salad bowl? That forever seems to be the question.