26th

I love Australia. For those of you living in Australia, you would know that Monday the 26th of Jan was Australia Day - the one day of the year where we become all patriotic - faces tattooed with the Australian emblems, miniature blue flags attached to our car windows and super-sized ones draped down our backs as capes. We get together with good mates, go for a swim, have a barbie and then relax underneath the stars watching the fireworks.

Our true colours are shown on this day - and I must admit - our good and not so good colours are exposed. I love our sense of mateship - we look out for each other. But then there's our rebellious side - excessive drinking, unruly and aggressive behaviour.

But all in all, it's just a great day where we come together as one nation to celebrate being uniquely Australian. Jono's got some photos that I'll link to when he uploads them to his Picasa.

The other morning I was looking for my shoes, and after looking for a good ten minutes, I finally found them in an odd place:



Mum seems to do some weird things sometimes :p

Tonight was our first night back at youth, and it was great - we spent the night just praying pretty much - speaking out what we are believing God for this year. I like the idea that we are laying a foundation of prayer to build upon this year.

So what am I expecting from God this year in our youth ministry? I'm expecting that He will challenge us to go beyond ourselves - beyond our own desires, our own inhibitions, our own needs - and serve those around us. God wants to raise a generation of selfless warriors who will fight the good fight no matter what the cost may be.

And I want to be one of those warriors. A warrior that will lay down his life for the greater good. Warriors have a cause to fight for, a kingdom to defend, a master to serve. That cause, that kingdom and that master is Jesus.

Seek and obey.

What's happening to me?

Words are pretty powerful things. And it's really easy to throw them around at times, without considering the effect they may have. In Ephesians 4:29, Paul gives us some guidance about the words that we use:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (NIV)

Now that's a pretty bold thing to say. Don't let any unwholesome talk, but only that which is helpful to others? I think Paul has good reason for giving us this piece of advice.

I was hanging with some mates on Thursday night - let's name them Tom and Jerry. We'd gone out to Spencer Village to enjoy some asian cuisine, and in the car on the way home Tom and I were joking about an incident that happened to Jerry almost a year ago. At the time we were completely oblivious to the fact that this was a pretty soft spot for Jerry, and our joking made him quite upset because it reminded him of the difficulty he experienced at the time.

We'd become a bit flippant with our words. We'd forgotten how our words can either build up or tear down... and tonight our words had torn down our good friend Jerry's spirit. We apologised to Jerry for the things we'd said, we hung for a bit longer and then we all headed home. Tom and I felt pretty trashy about what had just happened.

This whole situation could have been easily avoided if we were more careful with the words we said. If we'd considered if what we were saying was helpful for building Jerry up, according to his needs, I think the conversation would have taken a different route. And it made me realise that Paul tells us this to encourage us to use our words to the benefit of those around us. If we spoke to benefit others, then we wouldn't slander or gossip or ridicule. If we spoke to benefit others, then we wouldn't whinge or complain or speak negatively.

I must be more particular with the words that I allow to come out of my mouth, and I am working to become more sensitive to those around me.

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On a side note, I found a book at a mate's place that brought back some memories:



Gotta love learning about puberty.

Too casual?

Made to love

The human body is a pretty amazing piece of work. I'm constantly fascinated by the beauty of it, hence choosing to study and work in the medical field. I love learning about the functions of the body - from the organs right down to the cellular level. However, over the years I have found that this knowledge can prove to be a bit burdensome - mainly due to the fact that you're constantly trying to diagnose any slight abnormalities you notice with your body.

Yeah, the knowledge has come in handy at times - such as when I had flu-like symptoms for a day, followed by a few red spots on my chest. At this point alarm bells start ringing in my head and I think to myself 'oh no'.

Chicken pox.

Not much fun when you're a 19 year-old. Not much fun for a 19 year-old in the hot, sweaty, humid weather of summer. I still shudder at the uncomfortable week and a half I had covered in spots. Ugh. (If you are past your teens and are yet to have chicken pox, I highly recommend you get vaccinated - it's nasty!)

But that was one time when the knowledge has been a privilege. Then there was that time that I needed to pee on the hour for a day - my mind races to diabetes. And that other time when I had an ache in my lower abdomen - I'm thinking appendicitis. And when I had a watery red eye - conjunctivitis?

I may scare myself silly sometimes with my over-the-top diagnoses, but I am thankful for the understanding of the physical side of the human body. This week though, circumstances have been reminding me about the emotional side of our human body. The side that we can't physically see, that isn't tactile - the side that we feel.

It's amazing how God made us physical, spiritual and emotional beings, and each of these areas are satisfied in different ways. The physical health of the human body is maintained by the body itself - such as eating the right food, exercise and having enough time to rest. My spiritual health is maintained by God and my fellowship with Him - the Holy Spirit sustains my spiritual fervour. And interestingly our emotional health is influenced by others. God made us emotional beings so that we would be reminded that we need each other. He didn't want us to live this life independently from other human beings.

And lately I've been challenged to live for more than just myself. I awoke on Saturday morning feeling convicted not to waste my day off work on myself - feeding my own desires, doing what I want to do because I've got plenty of time to do that during the week. But I wanted to spend my day blessing others - as a demonstration of my love for them - to show them that I need them in my life and appreciate them.

DC Talk hit the nail right on the head when they wrote the song Luv is a Verb. Because that's exactly what it is - it is a doing word. Let's not talk about how we 'love' others, but let's just act it out, you'll find that people appreciate it more than you think.

I will be an instrument of righteousness.

Bah ram you

Jesus wants to save Christians - the book I'm reading at the moment. It's by Rob Bell, the guy that created the Nooma series. I've only read a chapter or so, but it's been pretty good so far.

The book seems to be working from Genesis through to Revelation, telling the story of mankind - the ups and downs. So, obviously the book starts at Genesis, and the story of Cain and Abel is briefly told.

Rob makes a significant distinction between Cain and Abel - the book of Genesis tells us that Cain 'worked the soil' while Abel 'kept flocks'. Cain was a farmer, and Abel was a shepherd. A farmer is settled, finding a comfortable place where his crops will reap a successful harvest and staying there for extended periods of time. A shepherd is nomadic, moving from place to place - wherever there is food for his flock.

And this reminded me of a question Jonny posed at me last night - hypothetically speaking, if God called me to pack-up everything and move to another country, would I do it?

Doing so would mean I would have to leave my career, my friends, my family, my house, most of my posessions.

And I find comfort in these things. I find security in them. My response to the question was that God would have to work on me, to remove my dependence on these things. I guess in a way I've become like that of a farmer - I've found a good spot where I'm comfortable, and I'm reluctant to move.

How would Jesus classify Himself? As a farmer or a shepherd?

Well, He already classified Himself as a Shepherd (John 10). And this is reflected through His ministry - Jesus didn't stay in one place - He moved around, from town to town - going to the people who needed Him. He wasn't tied down by His desires to own a nice car, or have a huge house, or to climb the career ladder. He was nomadic - moving to where He needed to be to minister.

I believe we are all called to be shepherds that are not tied-down by things of this world, but move freely to do God's work. God, help me to be a shepherd that will put aside my own agendas, and lay down my life for You and Your sheep.

I will deliver you, and you will honour Me.

My friend's man cans

Man cans. The ultimate emasculating feature, kinda like the opposite to chest hair. For those of you who haven't seen the Solo ads on TV, here is what I mean:



So we were at Cottesloe beach last night and I challenged Jono to scale one of the limestone walls (the one behind Asher):



It was probably about 10cm above our own height. I climbed it and was waiting at the top for about two minutes for Jono. And in that time, two other people had offered him a lift up.

Poor Jonny, I hope he's got his can of Solo handy.

We took the longer route to Cottesloe so we could go through the city, just for something different. Jonny asked me to snap some photos and I tried my best, although apparently I was constantly missing great photo opportunities.



There was a warm breeze, making it a very comfortable night at the beach.



The bell that is costing tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars to save from collapsing. It's pretty ugly. I reckon just let the thing fall and invest the money elsewhere!



At the end of the night, Jono suggested we go and get bubble tea. He just can't seem to shake the Asian-ness. We all had a good time. I'm falling more and more in love with weekends. There's nothing like a busy week at work and then relaxing with some mates.

Just chill.