Look to the Stars

Well you could pretty much call me the worst blogger ever.  It's been months since I last posted despite the amount of free time I've had when I've done absolutely nothing or repetitively viewed my Facebook page over and over again...like a cow chews its flipping cud.

However, I've decided to try and step up my game a bit and write some more.  (I say that knowing that I will probably make this post and then neglect to write another for a good few months—did you happen to read my three measly haikus of the day?   Ha.  Did I seriously think I would find the time and consistency to write something as nerdy and clever as a haiku every single day?) 

That much being said, I now proceed to my dominant thought.

Have you ever thought about the Moon?  Yes, you read correctly, the Moon.  It's up there, and if you're lucky then you get to see it pretty often when there's a clear night.

As little kids we were captivated by it.  We marveled at its craters and shapes, its brilliant white and the grey textures that made it look so wonderful.  When I was little I would sit down at night sometimes and simply gaze at it, with all its beauty and mystery.  It's a truly wonderful and beautiful creation, the Moon.

You know, it mentions the moon in the Bible.  In Genesis 1:14-19, God creates the Moon, along with the Sun, on the fourth day;

 ¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Now just think about this:  God created the Moon.  And the same physical moon is still right there.   On THE fourth day of Creation, the Bible says that God made the moon to govern the night!  It happened!  And there it is.


Now ask yourself this:  How many things that God made have gone completely untouched since the fourth day of Creation?!  


If you can truly wrap your head around this, it's absolutely incredible!  We know God created the earth because we've read about it.  We know He created plants and pigs and buffaloes and water and vines and stuff.  We know he made crazy things like the Grand Canyon and tiny things like cells and atoms, but how many of those things truly go unchanged through the course of time?  We can look outside and see trees, but those trees weren't there on the day of Creation.  We can see birds and fish and all kinds of incredible animals, but that same bird wasn't winging its way through the skies over the Garden of Eden, freshly made only a few hours ago.  But when the Sun first set over Adam's very first day, there was the Moon.  A little time went by.  Eve was created.  Man had woman, and together they walked and talked with God himself through the Garden He had made especially for them.  And there was the Moon.  I imagine that Adam and Eve and God all sat down together and gazed at it, and God received glory and pleasure at how man and woman were captivated by His Moon.

A little more time passed.  Man rebelled against God, and God, in His justice, cursed them and put a curse on the land.  Thorns sprouted and animals became feral.  Leaves withered and the ground shriveled.  The land was no longer a paradise.  Man would have to live by the sweat of his back.  No more Garden of Eden.  No more walks with God through the mango trees, the sound of cool, fresh water running parallel to your path, with nothing to do but bask in His presence and eat the cool, refreshing fruits on the trees all around you with your wonderful, God-given wife.  All that was now gone.  We threw it all away.

And yet the Moon stayed there.  All throughout History, the Moon has silently risen and set over every night.  Its glory never diminished, and except for a few meteor strikes perhaps, its shape has never changed.

The same Moon God formed with His very words on Day Four.  There it is.  Just outside your window.  As solid and as beautiful as on the very first night it ever rose.  A silent witness to man's every waking....night.  How then can we possibly doubt the Creation?

If you were doubting, or if you're just looking for a good reminder of how awesome our God is, take a nice walk outside tonight. Look at the Moon.  Then praise the God who made it.



ZJK

Face-Hair Madness

Haiku #3, inspired by the crazy awesome beard on my friend's crazy face.

Beard


A carpet of hair
Evenly coats cheeks and chin
Keeps your face so warm

Snotty Business

Here's Haiku #2 in my attempt to post one crazy nerdy haiku every single day...I'll be doing some more serious writing this Christmas vacation...be looking for an upcoming post on Adam and Eve...  For now, enjoy this post inspired by the bridge of my nose...well, not really mine, but it'd be weird to say 'the bridge of your nose'.

Right Between the Eyes


   The bridge of your nose
   Holding your face together
   Unbeknownst to you

Haiku of The Day

It's Finals Week at Sojourn Academy as we're all taking our Mid-Terms in eager anticipation of the month of Christmas Vacation ahead of us.  Before each test, a study period is given, during which it is supposed that one should study.   Being by nature very studious people, high-schoolers naturally tend toward quiet and studious behavior.  Nonetheless, finding myself with nothing to do during one such period, my good friend Stephen Wright and I decided that such a time would be as appropriate as any to write absurdities on the white board.

What we ended up with were a multitude of ridiculous haikus.  (Yes we're nerds.)

 We were so full of ourselves that   I was so tickled with the result of our poems—and honestly, quite satisfied with our workmanship—that I resolved to post a haiku on my blog every day.  I may even make another blog out of this if I can successfully remember to post every day.

(Stephen's mom writes a fabulous blog, btw.  Check her out at http://www.theveryworstmissionary.com/ )  


All that to say, here's haiku #1, inspired by the lack of any concept of a lawn here in Costa Rica...(Okay, that's a lie, but the gardener at school doesn't know how to do anything but chop up the dirt with his weed-whacker as soon as the tiny blades of grass begin to peep out from beneath the soil dirt.  Austin astutely observed that, if we had a groundskeeper that knew how to maintain a lawn, we'd have an awesome campus with green grass everywhere!  What we have now is a few patches of grass accenting ugly tracts of hardened dirt.)

Where the Green Grass Grows


Don't let the grass grow
Eradicate the young sprouts
Ugly hills of brown

Small Roosters: Raising Awareness

Let me begin by saying that it has been FAR too long since I have even endeavored to write a new blog post!  I find that when I'm doing something productive with my life, i.e. going to school, I can hardly find time to write, and instead only find time for other unproductive things, like Facebook and video games.  However, in those seasons defined by unproductiveness, such as Summer, I can only guess that I feel so unproductive that it's a relief when I can manage to take time to sit down and write cool blog posts.  With that introduction, I hope you enjoy this first post since the new school year!  (It's also my last year of high school, I would point out!  I like to think that I'll have more time to do things like write and make music when I'm in college...but I'm probably kidding myself. ;o)  )

***      ***      ***

Small Roosters: Raising Large Awareness for This Tiny Breed.


Small Roosters.  They're closer than you think.  In fact, the likelihood that a Small Rooster exists within a hundred-mile radius of where you live is higher than 70%.  And yet, if you're among 89% of the world's population, you've likely never heard of this small, peculiar breed of fowl.

Born from the eggs of select species of hummingbirds, Small Roosters are seemingly a biological anomaly.  Only about one in every 70,000 hummingbird eggs will develop into a Small Rooster, and upon discovery, the Roosters are almost immediately abandoned by their nest-mates and mother, leaving them to fend for themselves.  (It has been shown in multiple cases that the hummingbirds are not in fact the biological parents of Small Roosters, which has left many scientists scratching their heads as to how the Small Rooster reproduces.)

From the time it is abandoned, the Small Rooster begins a perilous life of wandering.  They will move from place to place in their search for sustenance, and will not learn to fly until at least six months old.  One Californian chicken farmer began to notice that his supply of chicken-feed was steadily dwindling, only to find a Small Rooster had found its way into his feed sacks and made a permanent home among them.  The Rooster was donated to science.

With a breeding cycle that occurs only once every seven years, and being by nature rather reclusive birds, Small Roosters practically lent themselves to remaining undiscovered, and were for centuries a species unknown to science.  Still today, for lack of a more accurate scientific description, scientists can come up with no better name for this tiny bird than Small Rooster—for it would seem by all accounts to be just that.

Most never grow larger than the size of your pinky finger, and yet its bright-red comb, annoying cackle and colorful, arching tail-feathers make the species unmistakably chicken.  Any doubts you might have had are instantly erased when you jump at the powerful cry of this diminutive rooster species.  Don't let its size fool you: Small as it is, its cry reaches a decibel level nearly equivalent to that of an air-horn. 


Small Roosters are so new to science that we still have almost everything to learn about this bird.  Unfortunately, its defining characteristic is what makes it most difficult to study.  The Small Rooster is, after all, small, and thus falls prey to such deathtraps as shallow puddles, small drop-offs, and spider-webs.  Indeed, falling is believed to be the principle killer of Small Roosters, off porch steps, creek banks, even curbsides, but most commonly, straight out of the nest.  In fact, most Small Roosters die within their first month of life, another factor which only complicates the study of these animals.

As previously mentioned, it is not altogether certain how Small Roosters reproduce.  Indeed, all Small Rooster specimens display that chief characteristic shared by all roosters: They are all males.  Though never observed in nature, scientists are left no option but to assume the existence of Small Hens.  (In this regard, science still remains perplexed.)

All this and more has yet to be revealed about Small Roosters, and yet even now they are becoming more elusive and ever fewer.  A gradual increase in the number of homes with porch-steps in the American and European Continents, as well as an unexplainable increase in small, perilous ledges in general, have greatly decreased their population over the last several decades.  Ponds, lakes, and puddles also remain an ever-preasent threat.  However, National Society for Small Rooster Research and Preservation (NSSRRP) is trying to change some of that.  The NSSRRP is campaigning to raise awareness regarding the plight of the Small Rooster.  In several towns across the nation, small, loosely-woven safety nets can already be seen on the sidewalk curbs and at many houses.  In schools all across the country, children are being urged no to jump in puddles, but to look for Small Roosters that might be drowning in them instead.

As more awareness is raised, more people are wondering what they can do to help this tiny fowl.  Well, the good news is much is already being done.  "In fact," says one expert, "There's not a lot that can be done that isn't being done already.  We'll just have to keep doing what we're doing and hope the situation plays out well for the Small Rooster.  I've only ever seen one in my life, and that was from a  distance, like a tiny speck in the sky, but when I did see it, it was a truly magical moment.  Since then, I've given every minute of my life to trying to rescue this species in peril, in hopes that maybe one day, I'll see it again, this time, closer."

As rescue efforts continue, the average age of the Small Rooster population is slowly but steadily increasing.  As more and more Small Roosters reach flying age, their chances of survival increase exponentially, a good sign for the future of Small Roosters everywhere.  Try watching for Small Roosters in your area, or go ask your local Game and Fowl authorities about Small Roosters in your region.

The more we learn, the brighter the future looks for Small Roosters.  Some have even said that if you watch the sunset every evening from the right place, you might see a Small Rooster crossing the horizon, heading home after one more day of Small Rooster life, alone, to its little Small Rooster hole.


   


  

There. That'll Fix It.

No one speaks as we drive to school in the morning. We're all tired. We have to get up at 5:30 am if we want to be able to shower, get ready, have a coffee, pack a lunch, and get out the door by 6:34 on the dot. (That seems to be the magic time, pulling out of our street each day.)  Most of us were sensible enough to get to bed by 9:30 and rack up a full-night's sleep. But I know at least two of us didn't get to bed until 10:30 or later. (I'm like my mom in more than one way!)

As we drive on the four-lane highway into town, the overall slope of the land has us going downhill. We approach Terramall on our right, an enormous mall with a movie theater, food-court, plenty of shops, a pet store, and an enormous outdoor terrace complete with a fountain and plenty of restaurants taking advantage of the wonderful mountainside view. 

The mall is big enough in fact, that the two right lanes suddenly turn into four to accommodate mall traffic and the busses that stop to collect their passengers.

One would think that two extra highway lanes would be enough to satisfy the extra traffic demands on this small stretch of thoroughfare. However, in true Costa Rican fashion, those who regulate such things as these thought an additional speed reduction would be necessary for this 1/10 mile length of pavement. So for a small fraction of a mile, the cars that were once traveling at a comfortable 90 kilometers per hour (about 56 mph) must reduce their speed to a maximum of 60 kmph (about 37 mph). 

As I look right, those extra two lanes sit unused. The mall is closed.  And we're going 37mph.  

Actually, even when the mall is open, we're still going 37mph for mall traffic that does not take up anything close to two lanes.  

This classic example of Costa Rican law at work is one of many images I hope to leave in your mind of the unparalleled body that is the Costa Rican Bureaucracy.

***

Actually, I only want you to know that Costa Rican traffic laws just don't work.

***

So where was I? Oh yes. 37mph. 

Well, to tell the truth, I lied about 37mph. 

37mph is the speed limit. But that's not what we're driving, not 'till recently anyway. That's not what anybody's driving! Everybody's driving 56mph because it's faster, but mainly because traffic laws in Costa Rica don't really apply to how you drive.  


(That...makes sense...right? ...Okay, maybe not.)

It's not like laws don't exist in the Costa Rican transportation sector. They do. In fact, making new laws is one of their favorite things to do. They are just very, very poorly enforced.  (In fact, the incompetence of the Costa Rican police-force as a whole never ceases to astound me.)  That is to say, though the traffic laws written down somewhere on paper might closely resemble North American traffic laws, on the real road, most are practically non-existent.

For example, the law says not to drive on the shoulder of the road, yet as we continue on our way to school, the right lane is occupied by two stopped rows of cars, taking advantage of the broad shoulder that exists there, each trying to have the right of way as they all turn right.

In the faster moving left lane, a jerk who's more important than the rest of us cuts to the front of the intersection and then attempts a perpendicular merge into the stand-still traffic in the right lane.

The highway ends in a T, turning into a 2-lane road (another brilliant Costa Rican feat of engineering), built when there were half as many cars in the country. Cars turning left off the highway immediately encounter another intersection (No like, immediately. Like, as soon as you turn.) that is set at an angle, making it more like a 7-way intersection.

A single police officer reports to duty on week mornings to straighten out this 7-way intersection.

There's a bus that comes every morning that needs to turn left across the second, odd intersection, only to find that his way is blocked by another lane of stand-still traffic. One block to our right is a stop-light, which does little to help the situation, because no one in the country seems to know how to synchronize stop lights. (Also funny is the fact that it seems the traffic light that was meant for our intersection was stupidly located one block away.  But that's a whole 'nother blog post.)

The kind police-woman who is watching our intersection does nothing about the turning bus, which now sits blocking a whole lane of traffic, because he can't turn. The people blocking his way can't go anywhere because of the well-placed traffic light two blocks down.  The police-woman kindly waits until the light two blocks down turns green, and lets the situation play itself out. No one in the oncoming left lane is willing to wait and let the bus in, so he must inch his way toward the solid line of cars until someone is forced to either let him in or be crushed.

We have literally sat for almost ten minutes as a single bus attempts to make the hardest turn of his entire route.  But eventually the bus makes it through, and everyone cheers, but only for an instant, because they soon must resume their fight for the right to drive on the road.

It's chaos.

It's all just chaos.

Even with a police officer present, people are not concerned with the law or about others, but only about getting themselves where they need to go, regardless of the cost to those around them. Police officers rarely serve any purpose in traffic besides acting as miniature traffic lights themselves, which at least allows traffic to move somewhat. But other than that, I look around and see a system in which any "rules" that existed before are pushed to the back of the mind.  They're the elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge.

The problem in Costa Rica is not that we lack rules. It's not that there are no laws here that dictate how people should drive on the roads. And it's not that people aren't smart or simply don't know. The problem is that society as a whole, at least in regards to driving, has no reason to follow any rules given to them telling them how to drive, and that Law Enforcement has no motivation to make them want to enforce the law.

And so as a result, lawmakers resort to very silly, very exaggerated measures to try to solve this problem of total indifference to the law/lack of law enforcement.

It's much like trying to loose weight by going on a cookie diet when in reality your real problem is not that you are overweight, it's that you have a very bad habit of overeating.  If you go on your diet, then not only are you not attacking the right problem, you're attacking the wrong problem the wrong way anyway.  If anything, at the end you'll be less healthy and even more inclined to eat. And you never find out why you're still fat.

Having lived here for seven years, I can't tell you how how perfect of an example this is!

The problem with the laws here is that people don't have a reason to follow them, and police don't have a reason to enforce them.  Legislature likes to look at a situation, pick out an individual symptom of the actual problem, and pound it into the ground.

Take the most recent example of this behavior:

As we pass by the mall at more than 37mph, we now have an new set of eyes that are watching us. At a very specific point, just past the mall, the government has installed two speed cameras that are programmed to take anyone's picture going over 80 kmph. (That's 20 kmph leeway.)

These little guys have apparently been installed at strategic places all over the country, though they must not really be that concerned with catching all the speeders, because our cameras are only trained on traffic going one direction.

The new speed cameras are a living testimony to the efficiency of the Bureaucracy. Upon taking a photo of your speeding car, you instantly receive a $600+ fine.  Following logic, your ticket is mailed to you so that you know you were speeding and have a pending fine to pay.

––Wait, did I say they did things logically? Oh, I'm sorry!  I meant to say that instead of notifying you that you have a $600 fine to pay, they publish your license-plate number once in a government newspaper that nobody buys! This fine begins to collect interest after two months if you don't pay it completely off, which is stupid, because $600 is easily a month's salary for many Costa Ricans. That means that, unless you start buying this newspaper every single day, you will more than likely never realize you have a ticket, and then at the end of they year, when your vehicle must pass inspection, you realize you have a fine for the average American's equivalent of $3000 that the government never told you about!

La Nación, the national newspaper, reported that the very first 16 hours, the government handed out 1,803 tickets.

However, in my opinion, there is no way on this EARTH that  1,803 people a day are going to pay a month's salary for a speeding ticket.

What's more, avoiding the cameras is cheap and easy.  So why wouldn't people do it?!  A simple clear plastic license plate cover is all it takes to prevent a clear picture.  In response, the government imposed a $60 fine for anyone found with an illegal cover on their plates. But if you had to choose between a $60 and a $600 fine, which would you pick?!  


And thus, the cameras will be thwarted. The people with tickets will complain and refuse to pay, and the government will be forced to go back on their plan and start from scratch.


Personally, I think the whole situation's hilarious and hopelessly pathetic.

The problem is that there is no law enforcement. Seriously. It doesn't exist. Traffic police are non-existent, with the exception of those that stand at busy intersections directing traffic. And I doubt they even have the power to arrest someone if they decided to blow the red light! They certainly couldn't chase you down. (Most don't even have working cars, and would never leave their post for a single person.) The only sort of traffic stops are rare and checkpoint-style. And on top of that, people just don't care!

But instead of fixing law enforcement, we've attacked speeding very poorly.

It just doesn't work! Speeding is the least of the country's problems!

Of course, the obvious thing to say is that if you don't speed, then you don't have to worry about it!  But that's not my point.

My point is this:

There is a problem. And we know it. But we're refusing to try to fix it.  Because it's easier to turn a blind eye to the problem than to try and remedy it.  Because we've grown complacent with the problem, and we've resorted to fake measures to adopt the appearance that we want to fix it.  Because to fix the problem would mean less comfort. To fix the problem would mean giving up freedoms. To fix the problem would require sincere effort and a complete change in lifestyle.

So we turn a blind eye, and we just don't fix it.

And in Costa Rica's case (and in a gazillion other countries), it's how it's always been. In the end, the country will continue on how it always had, with nobody enforcing traffic laws, everybody breaking them, and every man driving for themselves.  And it will be chaos. It will all be chaos.

And so I ask, what problems are you not fixing?


ZJK (Ima' start including a nifty signature now! I hope you think I'm really cool.) 

***



*UPDATE*

I've gone back and researched my facts, and it will have to be something I learn to do from now on.  I had heard and mistakenly wrote that 6,000 tickets were handed out the first day.  However, I was not responsible and did not check my facts.  I've now gone back and figured out that, in fact, there were only 1,815 people had received fines for going 20kmph or more over the speed limit.

It also is worth saying that, although my post does satirize the actions of the Costa Rican government, I must retract the statement I made where I said that "No one tries to fix the pressing problems in society."  This is partly true because of our human nature, but I can't fairly say that about every government, least of all about Costa Rica's government. We all like to poke fun at government endeavors that seem doomed to fail, and my point about recognizing problems and not being willing to fix them can still stands and can still be applied to our lives (if not with this example, then with other problems that can be found in our society), but I kind of feel bad saying that these cameras are a weak and futile effort.

Yes, I think there are way smarter ways that officials could have thought of to notify people that they had an outstanding fine, and yes, I still think that a minimum fine of a month's salary for many people is absolutely ridiculous.  However, the endeavor does represent a desire to improve  Costa Rica's traffic conditions, contrary to what I had said before—that lawmakers were essentially trying to rid themselves of the responsibility of fixing the problem.

I must therefore give them credit where credit is due.

According to La Nación, Francisco Jiménez, minister of Transportation in Costa Rica, said himself they know the fines are high-pressure, but that that's the whole point of installing the cameras, to create a very strong incentive for drivers to change their driving habits, slow down, and avoid a strong blow to their purses. 

He was quoted as saying, "At first there are going to be a lot of fines, but as the days go by, drivers will  get used to and start recognizing monitored areas, and from that moment on is when the number of fines will begin to level off."

So perhaps these traffic cameras do not represent such a naïve effort.  But I still don't think they will work. 

ZJK

(You can read the article form La Nación, in Spanish, here: http://www.nacion.com/2011-09-09/ElPais/Camaras--hicieron-en-16-horas-multas-de-velocidad-de-un-mes.aspx

Stagnant Water

Is your faith real?

C'mon. Is it?

How do you know? What makes it real? What makes you sure that the faith you have saves you? Can you tell me right now why? How do you know? When did you realize it? C'mon, tell me!  Just say it!

Do you know your faith is real? How? Why?


Here's a better question: Have you ever even thought about it?

You know what? I'd be willing to bet that for a good part of you, the answer's no.

Don't lie to yourself, now. If the answer's yes, then you know, and you probably already see where I'm going with this. But for a lot of you out there, especially if you're my age, don't fool yourself. You haven't even thought about how you can live out your faith, if it's even there. Or maybe you have, but you've since dismissed it, reasoning that you'll have time later to think about it and make sure things are real. I'll get things under control later.  It'll just come to me. I'm sure I've got faith. I really don't know what else I can do but just keep doing whatever it is I'm doing and just wait. It'll come. I know it will.

If this is your reality regarding, then you know what I mean when I say you feel like your faith is stagnant.

But doesn't "stagnant faith" imply that you can have non-stagnant faith if you want?!  Doesn't it mean that there's something more you could be doing with your faith?! Yes! Yes, it means that your faith isn't at its full potential!

It means you're not living it out all the way.

To have a real, ongoing, give-and-take, saving relationship with Christ, there must be a point in your life when your faith is real, and it's here, and it's now, and it's yours, and you're doing it.  


You've gotta' own it. This realization, the owning of your faith, making it yours, must  happen. It has to!  This is the total idea of the phrase, "God doesn't have grandchildren."  If you grew up in the Church, you've heard, "It can't be your parents' faith! You've gotta' make it yours!"  This always made me so  angry because I had to say, "Yeah, yes, of course.  Oh of course it must be my own faith. Oh yes, it's mine, definitely not my parents'."  but I never knew what it meant!  They never explained it to me!

And you know what guys, I think that this, to this day, is most Christians are still missing. And as far as that goes, let me present my observation/theory:

The average Christian life never moves past mediocre.

 It's TRUE!  MOST people never move past mediocrity! And it's what everyone who has the real deal hates to see!  I know because for all five years of my Christian life, MY faith has been mediocre!  And if you don't know what in the world I'm talking about, then your life has probably never moved past that very first infant-like stage! And that's just not gonna' cut it!

And thus comes my question, "Why?!"  Why is it that for five years I never understood what a relationship with Christ was supposed to be like, and then all of a sudden I just got it?  Why could I suddenly understand the imperative need to appropriate my faith, and make it mine and no one else's?  Where was that feeling for five years? And why does it seem that none but a few other people my age seem to have had the same realization?  

To answer my first question, it's because I wanted to.  Something in me desperately wanted to taste "the real deal", and I didn't have any idea how to do it. I have no idea when this desire hit me, but somewhere along the line, I had to have started taking seriously the idea that the Christian life was just that: A life. A new life. And other than an understanding that I was now supposed to be "saved" and living a different kind of life, I wasn't living any differently. Other than knowing I was supposed to lead a different kind of life, I wasn't living any differently.  

HEllo!

Do we not hear all of our lives that a life of faith looks different than a life without it? And yet, looking at yourself honestly, without being ashamed, ask yourself, is there anything different about your life other than the fact that you go to a Church on Sundays that distinguishes you from the non-Christians around you? 

Maybe you don't swear, but do you still disrespect your parents? Guys, maybe you're not having sex, but are you still looking at porn? Girls, maybe you're not anorexic, but do you lack self-esteem? Maybe you're not a popular jerk, but are you puffed up with pride?

Think about it. Tell me if you don't look at non-Christians and feel like in some small way you're better than them. I know I sure do. That's pride. That's self-centeredness. That's putting other people down for the sole purpose of feeling better about yourself.

The Bible makes it clear that sin is sin! It doesn't make a difference if you kill someone or if you only wish they were dead. It's all the same. You're just as guilty.  

So with that in mind, what makes you different?! 


You see? Some of us truthfully aren't living any differently than a "good person" might that is outside of Christ. And Christ makes it clear that when we have fellowship with Him, when we have a legitimate relationship with Jesus, people will be able to tell that we are His disciples.

But if nobody can tell the difference between you and a good person, what good is that?

Well, in all honesty, I can't say what'll fly and what won't when it comes down to it.  After all, if a person accepts Christ into their hearts at one time, and then continues to lead a "fairly good" life by human standards, showing no real change, but "Christian" nonetheless, who am I to say their decision to follow Christ was worthless? I cannot judge the heart. I'm only human. Ultimately, God is the only one who knows the heart.

However, the Bible does have a few things to say about our faith (fyi, I'm using the words "faith" and "relationship with Christ" almost interchangeably in this post, even though that's probably not correct. Oh well!), and I want to lay two out right here.  In James 2:17 and in John 13:35 we read that

1. Faith without works is dead, and
2. People will know we are God's disciples by our love.

In other words, when we're following Christ, it should be glaringly obvious to others! True faith in Christ produces obvious external signs! It's called "fruit"! You can't be in Christ and have it make no difference in your life. It's just not possible!

And so I say again, if your life bears no signs that you have chosen to follow a path that's different from the rest of the world, then you aren't moving down that path! 

C'mon guys, how many ways can I say it?  It's what we were told at least once a month in Sunday school. It's what we heard all the time in Junior High church service. 

You've gotta' make your faith your own. 

Own it! Dominate it! 

You'll never be able to tell me that your faith is real until it actually belongs to you and you are doing it every single day.

I seriously have no idea how else to put it. 

Your. Faith. Must. Be. Real.  

You. Must. Live. Your faith.

You must make a point to live it every. single. day. Or else it's just gonna' get away form you.

Dudes, there's no other way to put it.  If you accepted Christ a long time ago, but you're just not feeling it, you don't really know what you're doing, you write on important lists that Jesus is your main priority, but in the end your "faith" has always just kind of "been there", then you JUST AREN'T LIVING IT!  


You've gotta' live it. You've gotta' want it. You've gotta' truly, deeply desire the Truth. You've gotta' thirst for it. You've gotta' crave wisdom. You've gotta' want more, and more, and more, and never stop wanting it. 


And so now I want to challenge you.  If you feel like your Christian life has become stagnant, like it's just sitting there, then I want to motivate you.  I want to motivate you to try and want it.  I want you to want the real deal. I want for you to want the knowledge. To want to know your Bible. To want to learn so much more about Jesus than you could have ever imagined! To want to learn somehting about Him every day. To want to get better and better, never stopping. Never being satisfied with "good enough".

To want it. For reals. To strive for it, to try to establish regular habits, and then with time, to see that it's working! To grow.  To grow and grow and grow and never stop.

Do you get me?

God always wants us. He always does.  But He's a gentleman.  If we want to move into a deeper relationship with Him, He wants it too! But if we're comfortable right where we are, and we never consciously decide to move on past the introductory phase and into the real deal, into what Christ wanted for us all along, then He doesn't force it. I'm not saying it won't cut it. God knows. But if you don't ever decide to move on into the best relationship you will ever have in your entire life, then you're cheating yourself.

So,

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Let us throw off all our mediocrity. Let us throw off our fear of what will happen if we actually decide to follow Jesus. Let us throw off every desire to simply stay right where we are, on the fence, gazing out at the green pastures and cool waters that can be ours if we'd only decide to start putting our faith into practice.

Let us read the Word. Let us pray constantly. If you're wondering how in the world it is that you even start living out a life of faith in Jesus Christ, do these two things. Read your Bible, and I promise, even if you don't want to at first, it will change your life. Just do it! Give it a try for once!  And then do it the next day, and the next, and the next. And pray! At first you may feel really silly or uncomfortable just sitting down and praying, but do it! Thank God for everything in your life, good and bad! Give him praise! Ask Him to increase your faith, to help you grow it! To help you desire it more! He won't fail you. He already knows what it is you want and need. Just tell Him!

Read your Bible! Pray! Just do it, and I promise it will work. You won't regret it once you decide to start living for Jesus for real.

Do it. You won't regret it.

Hosanna

Hosanna.  Anybody reading this is likely to have heard this song. It's a great one to be sure, written beautifully, poetically describing God's glory and power to save. But until we sang it today, in Spanish, I had never quite captured its true meaning.

To me this song had always simply been a song of praise. It's a guaranteed tear-jerker, always a heart-mover, and overall a great song to throw in after an especially convicting sermon.  The explanation of the song has always been simple enough: We sing words like "Hosanna" because that's what people shouted to Jesus as he entered Jerusalem. We're just lifting Him up in the same way. We can see in Matthew 21:9 how the people hailed Jesus,

"Hosanna to the Son of David!" 

     "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"  

          "Hosanna in the highest!"

We all know what Hosanna really means.  Or at least we think we do. Your Bible will tell you that "Hosanna" was a Hebrew word that meant "Save" and that it later became an exclamation of praise. So we could say that what these people are actually shouting is, "Praise you Son of David!"; "Praise you Messiah!"; "Save!"
(By the word "Save", they were actually acknowledging Jesus's power to save, effectively acknowledging Him as the Christ or Messiah.)

As we sing the song, we echo the very words of those Jews on that famous day. "We praise you, God!"; "Save!"; "Glory in the Highest!"  In every chorus, that is what we sing, and this sentiment, that God is worthy of praise and mighty to save, is central to its message.

However, as we sang this song today, my attention was drawn to the bridge, and as I listened, the true meaning behind what we were declaring suddenly became very clear to me. I like the Spanish better than the English version of this song, because in it all the poetic qualities of the original are diminished, and we are left to see the very heart of what we're singing.

"Heal me," it says. "Clean me. I want to see Your works with my eyes. I want to love You just like You love me."  

It was like a smack in the face: Heal me? Clean me?  This person is broken! This person is dirty! They struggle to see God in their lives, and they can never love God as much as He deserves, no matter how much they try! They don't have it all together! They're not even close! That person is...well, that person is me.

And I cried. I cried not because of how dirty I think I must look in God's eyes, but I cried because of the person's reaction: They recognize that they are filthy and broken, and yet what is their response?

"Hosanna!"


When I heard these words, I had to cry. My tears were tears of love and tears of joy, because I realized that the debt is paid, and all that matters now is "Hossana, God! Hosanna!" 


When I'm dirty, God, "Hosanna!"; When I least deserve you, God, "Hosanna!"; When I fail to recognize your greatness, God, "Hosanna!"

"Hosanna."

It's all that matters. In your life, in every moment, even in the moments that we feel so bogged down by sin that it seems God by all reasonable standards should not keep His promises to us because we are a lost cause, God has already made us holy. God has already made us worthy to stand in His presence, because it is no longer our sinful selves who stand before Him, but his own sons and daughters, made pure and counted sinless by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so now, having already freely received the most costly gift while we could not pay for it, the only thing we can possibly give back is a life of praise to the One and Only One Who is Worthy of it.

"Hosanna."

Fearing God's Ways...Literally

"God, please help me to make the right decisions."; "God, please let me know what you want me to do."; "God, please help me choose the right path for my future."; "God, let whatever I do be in accordance with your plan."

Have you ever prayed a prayer that at least somewhat resembled one of these? If you were raised in a Christian home, then from the time you were two you probably prayed something like, "God, pwease hewop me to do good."

If you've ever been caught in a situation where you just don't know, or if you're like me and you've caught yourself thinking about what in the world your going to do with your life, then you've probably prayed something like, "God, Give me a sign" or "God, just let me know..."  

I think we've all asked God for guidance at some point in our lives, whether it's because we've hit rock-bottom or because we honestly have no idea what to do! And that's great! We should always seek to make God's priorities our priorities in our lives.

Lately, I've been freaking out about how I'm starting my last year of high-school, and will soon be going off to college!  That idea seemed so simple just a couple months ago. "I'm just gonna' graduate and go to college! No more. No less."  Now it's more like, "Dude, this is that last year I'll be with my family..." and reality is starting to sink in as I realize that, after this year, I'm going to be living my own life, making my own decisions; and in a way, that's flipping scary.

It's not all bad, though. I also think about all the stupid things I'll do with my friends at four in the morning. I fantasize about getting my band together and jamming whenever we find time, buying that drum set that I want so bad, having a job again. I even look forward to things like serving in the Youth Group at church, as a sponsor this time, working together with awesome people like Chad Monahan, or helping out with the worship team, making music to my heart's content.

Maybe these thoughts seem a little premature. After all, I still have a year of school ahead of me. But of all the years, I know that this one will fly by faster than I can say "Smitty Werbenmanjenson."

When I think about how quickly college will descend upon me, two feelings overtake me. The first is that I desperately want to not let the future distract me from the now. The second is that I could do what God wants with my life.

No, let me rephrase that. The second is that I really don't want to do the wrong thing with my life. I'll often think about the things I'd love to do with my life, then only to find myself thinking, "But what if that's not what God wants for my life?"; "What if God has something else in mind?".

Now this especially goes out to other teenagers, but have you ever felt the same "fear" to go down God's path? I always reassure myself immediately, "Yeah, but if it's God's plan then it'll be what's best. And I'll probably really like it!" This is true, but do I really believe that? After all, if I truly trusted God, would I feel any doubt about following His plan? Would I even be worrying about tomorrow? Jesus Christ, God of the Universe incarnate, even takes His time to tell us not to worry about what will happen tomorrow. And yet I, being human, always manage to find ways to do just that. And yet, don't I trust Him?

Let me quickly show you what I had written as my next paragraph. In an attempt to analyze my irrational fear I wrote,

It's not that I'm scared to please God. If anything, I'm scared of the consequences of not following Him with my life. I'm not scared that it won't be "fun", or that He'll make me do what I hate most. Rather, it's that constant "what if?" that keeps...

And then it hit me like a wall of bricks. That "what if" reads, "What if it's not fun?"; "What if I have to do what I hate most?"; "What if I really don't want to do the thing God calls me to?" 

That "what if" is the image of the very fear I was so quick to denounce.

And so it is that I find myself in a conundrum of trust: "I really want to serve God with my life, and I say that I trust Him...but what if?" It seems that no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to overcome that tiny little little voice in the back of my mind saying, "Yeah, but what if?"

You see, in a situation where I have no idea what to do, my first reaction after worrying is to say, "God, please remedy this situation," or "God, please show me exactly what you have in mind so that I can do what you want." 

But what if what God is saying is not, "I want you to do this," but rather, "I want to do this in your life. Trust me." What if in all my worrying and wondering "what if?", I have actually missed the point of it all, that God simply wants me to trust Him? 


I think that in all of life's worries, it is much to easy to take the emphasis off of God, off of His unending grace, His undying love, His undeserved affection, and instead place it on ourselves. Let me explain.

God says, "I want to do this, and you're just going to have to trust me." but we say, "Okay then, what can I do?"; "Give me something I can do, God. I don't want to just trust you, I want to have some sense of control over the matter.  I promise to do whatever you say, but I want to do it. Just tell me."  And while we should definitely ask God what He wants us to do, there are times when all He is asking us to do is to trust Him, and sometimes that's not enough for us.  We are creatures of worry, and we do not easily put our trust in someone else!

Instead of trusting in His plan, I ask Him to reveal it all so I don't have to feel uneasy. Instead of asking God to do simply what He wants in my life, I have to ask Him what it is that He wants me to do. And the answer the whole time is simply, Trust Me.  Do you get it?  Trust Me.  


Trust God, and all the conundrums disappear. Trust God, and I won't have to see His whole plan in order to follow Him. Trust God, and I will be free not to worry about the future.  Trust God, and I will be able to serve Him fully in the now. Trust God, and I can ask God to do what He wants with my life.

For those of you out there who are like me and have trouble trusting God with our lives, God has some words for you in His message to us. Perhaps among the most well-known is Jeremiah 29:11,

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

And for those of us that still have no idea how in the world it is that we begin to trust God (This is me all the way!), the very next verse is especially appropriate! (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 

It's as if God knew exactly what we'd ask when asked to trust Him. If we seek Him with all of our hearts, we will find Him. The next verse says, "I will be found by you." And whatever God promises, we can be sure He will fulfill it. In Numbers 23 we read (v.19),

God is not human, that he should lie,
 not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
   Does he promise and not fulfill? 

God has never, in all of eternity, ever, ever, ever, not done what He promised. And He promises to see us through, and not only that, but to prosper us, if only we would trust Him.  So instead of worrying about what I'm going to do with my life, I think I'm going to trust that He already knows what He's going to do with it. In fact, it's all already planned out. I know. I know because He's told me so.

The Island Life

Costa Rica. A green, luscious paradise. The name is often homologous in our minds with words like rainforest, beaches, paradise, exotic, beauty, and island. And with good reason. We certainly have some of the most beautiful cloud-forests that can be seen anywhere (which are different from [and colder than] rain forests, by the way!), our beaches are second-to-none, and—well, okay, you might find better beaches along some uninhabited coastline in some undiscovered reach of the ocean, but I think you'd still find ours to be pretty good!

By all means, Costa Rica is a tropical paradise in every way. But if your list of things that come to mind matches the one I wrote above, I'll slap ya 'cross the face!

Please, let it be known to all and shouted from the rooftops: Costa Rica is NOT an island!!!

One of the most common questions I get when people ask me about Costa Rica is, "What's it like living on an island?!"  To these people I like to say, "I don't know! You should totally ask someone who lives on one!"

Now, to be fair, this is an honest and common mistake. Another common misconception ( and yes, I've had people ask me this as well) is that we are part of the USA. That is, that though we're not officially a state, we are a US territory. This is also false and further supports the conclusion that many of us in Costa Rica have effectively come to: People think that we live in Puerto Rico.  Now, this at least makes a little sense. Puerto Rico is indeed an island nation, and it is also a US territory, meaning its people can vote and be involved in US politics. We can even do a phonetic breakdown of the two names and find that they are indeed quite similar. However, they are not the same. They never were, and they never will be. Costa Rica is not an island!

I can see that some of you are still scratching your heads.  "Huh'?", you're saying, "But how...I thought...island...", yadayadayadayada.  "Green. Oceans. Landlocked... Does not compute."; "How can a place be so jungle-ey and not be an island? It's like on Madagascar..."  All these things and more you are asking yourselves! And so allow me now to broaden your minds and further clarify your doubts.

*Clears throat*

In order to clarify and erase any further doubts concerning the possible island nature of the Republic of Costa Rica and its relation, if any, to the U.S. Territory of Puerto Rico, a step-by-step analysis will be carried out concerning both of the items in question, with the understanding that, should the results yield contrary to the reader's understanding, the reader will blindly change his understanding so that it is in accordance with the results of said analyses.

Okay, with that done, let's look at the definition of an island:

island: a freestanding kitchen cupboard unit with a countertop, allowing access from all—Wait a second. Sorry, that's not right. Ah, here we go:   

island: a land mass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water.

In the following photo I have clearly marked both Costa Rica and Puerto Rico on the map.

Keeping in mind our definition of an island, let us observe Costa Rica. It is certainly a land mass, and we can see that it is indeed a great deal smaller than a continent! Let's take a closer look at the picture.  Notice how Costa Rica is bordered on two sides by the nations of Nicaragua and Panama, while only the other two are bordered by water! What is this?! It seems that we cannot by reasonable standards call Costa Rica an island.

Let us now go to Puerto Rico: We notice that Puer-to has two syllables, much like Cos-ta, and that in the same way Ri-co and Ri-ca are identical save their last letters. However, any notion that they are the same nation can be dismissed on the premise of their distinct geographical locations. In fact, if you look at Puerto Rico, you will notice that it is not bordered by Nicaragua or Panama. What's more, upon further investigation, you will find that it is not bordered by any country, but is surrounded by water on all sides! And since Puerto Rico is smaller than a continent, we can confidently say that Puerto Rico is an island!

No more need be said on the subject. We have successfully come to the very conclusion that we set out to prove. Reviewing our points we find:

1. Costa rica is not an island.
2. Puerto Rico and Costa Rica are not the same.

VOILA! It is my hope that this post has clarified beyond a shadow of a doubt any misconceptions you may have had about my island life. 

Whelp, I'm Posting. And I'm in Costa Rica.

I'm sitting in my room, listening to K-Love on the speaker set that I had forgotten about, given to me two Christmases ago after a pair of wireless headphones failed to deliver.  My feet are cold, but that's only because I'm wearing flip-flops, something I never used to wear before and only wear now as a matter of convenience, quicker than sneakers and cooler than slippers. Below them is the floor, of course, but unlike the tile in the rest of my house, it's made of wood. It marks the upstairs master bedroom of our new house here in San José, Costa Rica, the beautiful, green country that's been home for the last seven years. Rain is pattering on the corrugated plastic roof that is so very typical of houses down here. Perhaps more typical than the citizens' particular preference in roofing is the rain they're designed to keep out. It rains seven months out of the year here, and then some. You wanna' talk rain-clouds? You haven't seen one until you've seen a Costa Rican October sky.  No, no, not that kid with the rockets, I mean RAIN.  I think if the sky literally let loose a bombardment of cats and dogs onto the unsuspecting city, it would still be quieter than a typical Costa Rican downpour. The thin roofs don't help, leaving you better off to learn some basic sign-language than to try and verbally communicate with one another during a good drizzle.

Could we afford a little less rain? Yes, I suppose we could, but then everything might not be so green. Green. That was my first thought as I entered the country. Costa Rica is to Green as Kansas is to Wheat. It dominates all. Life is everywhere. It covers the mountains make up most of our horizon. It's estimated that Costa Rica has over 9,000 individual vascular plant species. I'd be curious to know what they call the one where they just shove a lifeless stick into the ground and let it sprout and grow into a tree. (We observed this behavior once on a treeless boulevard and had to laugh out loud! They're now full-blown trees.)

We live in the Central Valley, along with about 4 million other people that populate San José. Mountains surround us on all sides, so vision is always limited to a couple miles at most. Just as lively as the 9,000 plants are the people here. The lifestyle is so laid-back it would make you think you were in the United States 50 years ago. In fact, it's been noted that in many ways Costa Rica is almost like a time capsule, with modern technology side-by-side with old-fashioned cultural characteristics. Ticos is what they affectionately call themselves. The name comes from a diminutive they like to put on words. Whereas a foreigner might call a kitten a "gatito", Costa Ricans might call it a "gatico" instead, hence their nickname. (It's a fitting name, as Costa Ricans do not tend to be people of great stature.)

As I wake up in the morning, the sunshine streams through my window. It's an early sunrise here, usually around 5:30. I'll open my blinds and look out at the beautiful mountains all around. To the extreme right of my view is one they call La Carpintera (meaning carpenter), supposedly named after an old woman who use to live up there in a cabin. Straight ahead and a little to the left is one of the tallest mountains surrounding the Central Valley, actually a volcano, named Irazú. On a cloudless day I can see all sorts of radio antennas sticking up from the peak, taking advantage of it's height, but it's more often than not covered in a thick cloud layer. As I look out over the houses, they're stuck together, sharing walls. Someone said to me once (and if you're reading this, I'm quoting you, big guy), "Whoa, those aren't like, shops?!...Looks like a mall!" No, they're not shops. Just my subdivision! 

You know, I love this country.  I love everything about living here.  The laid-back lifestyle, the people, the green, the weather (It likes to hover in the "feel-good zone" there in the low 70s), the language (No, we don't speak Mexican. That's called Spanish.), all of it!  When I'm here it's so easy to see creation and blessings all around. I live just a couple hours from world-destination beaches, rain forests, hot-springs, volcanoes, and that's just the start! When I think about what my life would be like had I never come to Costa Rica, the result is flat-out boring in comparison! I've seen more in 17 years than most people will in their entire lives! One inevitably gets homesick now and then, and that's part of re-adjusting to a foreign culture. However, when I look around at the things around me, think all the things I've seen, all the people I know because I live in Costa Rica, every melancholy feeling can be replaced with a blessing from around me! So I don't give in to those feelings, because Costa Rica is awesome, and I truly love it here. :o)

I love my life.  And I'm glad that I am a missionary kid in San José, Costa Rica.


Here I've decided to include a couple amateur pictures, for the benefit of the reader. ;)

 The view from my window, looking to the left on a very cloudy day. This mountain actually looks pretty huge in real life. (I know. I just went up to my window and checked. It's enormous.) Just to the right and slightly overlapping this little guy would be Irazú, the volcano I mentioned. (Worry not. It's dormant.)

The wood floors of my empty room. You know, for illustration's sake.