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.

The Bear Hunt

This year has flown by. I can't believe that yesterday was Christmas day. It seems that as you get older the years seem to pass faster and faster. I am resisting the urge right now to get all sentimental and reminisce on the year that was - I'll leave that till next week :p

Christmas day we spent at my sister's new place in Beckenham, and of course there was way too much food and as a result I spent most of the afternoon feeling bloated. Fortunately, I was still able to bust out a great beat on Guitar Hero World Tour playing drums. I was sucked into that game for a good few hours.



Hutch and Beau were dressed for the occasion also. Hutch spent most of the afternoon eyeing-off our food.

I noticed the other morning that the badger is still enjoying digging-up our lawn on a daily basis:



The badger doesn't seem to be leaving on his own, so we (and by we I mean Dad) will have to take some action against him. I think we should bait him into a cage and trap him. If he's cute, we'll keep him.

It made me think of some lingering issues in my life - issues that I haven't taken any action on. I guess I've kinda just hoped they would disappear. But issues don't seem to do that, do they? I remember a preacher at Planetshakers compared problems to bears - they always seem to track us down, no matter how fast we think we can run or how well we think we can hide. They are highly proficient at seeking their prey. There's no easy way out with bears - we need to sleigh it - kill the problem or issue that we're having.

Doing so may require humility .. or courage .. or perseverance.

Most of all, we need Jesus - without Him we're fighting bare-handed. If we ask Him for help, he will provide the tools we require. It may not be an easy fight, but we will be victorious.

This reminds me of a book I saw in Borders last week that I recognised from primary school - The Bear Hunt.

"We're going on a bear hunt, we're gonna catch a big one. I'm not afraid! Are you? Not me!"

Lord of the Flies

March flies... a painful pest known to be ever-present at various picnic locations. We had lunch at Canning Dam after Church on Sunday and invented a new game called whack as many march flies as possible and then put them into the march fly collection bottle. It was a real hit (no pun intended). Before we commercialise it, I think the name would have to be reconsidered. But I can safely say that I was a pro at the game - whacking around ten march flies, compared to everyone else's three. They seem to be attracted to black people and their black jeans (but who wouldn't?).



All in all I think we collected around about twenty march flies. Sunday was really the first time in a good while that everyone has hung out as a big group. It was promising.



We tried spitting on the X's on the bridge below ... Susan had the best aim! I couldn't spit with accuracy even if my life depended on it.



I baked some cookies tonight to give to the elderly couple - Mavis and Leslie - living next door as a Christmas present. After writing the Christmas card, I thought I'd just better ask mum to see if she'd already given them a card (otherwise it would be a bit strange receiving two cards from the same family). I was then told that Mavis is a Jehova's Witness and didn't celebrate Christmas.

Spew.

I guess I'll just take them to work tomorrow to share.

I caught up with Jono today after he finished work, and as expected he told me that he had a great time in Singapore. It made me realise that a lot can happen in five weeks, and somehow the last five weeks has been quite challenging in many ways. It's been draining - both physically and emotionally, sometimes uncomfortable, many times enjoyable and ocassionally unbearable. But at the end of it all I can safely say that I am alive and well, blessed beyond my means and surrounded by God's love. Three years ago last week I chose to walk this path, and I'm in this for the long haul.

Rain, hail or shine, I will keep running.

Over it

I finally came around. I'm so over Facebook. It's cool how you can share photos (probably the reason why I kept it for so long) - but I'm now just at the point where I don't care if Jane (I'm making up names btw) wrote on my wall, Frank wants to be my friend, if Sue replied to a thread or if Tom is watching TV.

Seriously, how do people get addicted to it? It's so superficial ... but moreso it's just plain boring! So I took some action and closed my account. I won't be so in the loop, but I will survive.

I went for a walk the other day and was surprised that someone went to the effort to liven up the alleyway at the end of my street.



I wonder if the plants will actually survive.. chances are every dog walking through there will pee on them. If I was a dog I probably would :p I'll make a point of walking that way tomorrow morning and see how they're going.

I started my new job last Thursday - it's going pretty well. I'm trying to adjust to the different workflow of the lab, making a few errors along the way =/ but I'm getting into the swing of things thankfully. Tomorrow is day number four, and I'm hoping I can get through a day without making a boo boo (although even the experienced people make mistakes so I shouldn't be so hard on myself). The people are really nice though, and the close proximity to home is definitely a bonus!

Our neighbour tells us that a bandicoot is using my car as a shelter at night, which I'm cool with I guess, just as long as it doesn't turn into some crazy Jumanji scene where my car is hijacked by a bandicoot and monkeys. It explains the random holes in the lawn - I thought it was dad's poor attempt at irrigating the lawn. Dad thought it was the magpies scratching up the grass searching for beetles.

I must be off to bed soon, I'm quite tired after working hard today.

Be diligent in my search.