Here at last!

Arrived safely back at Schloss Mittersill and been here exactly a week now. Finally getting settled in, as I got pretty sick when coming, and then it was the weekend, so now finally getting into the groove of things. A few pictures to share with you all.

The now wintery town of Mittersill

Currently working out of a sound booth. Really
slick sound board on the right there, should
be learning to get the hang of that while here.

The winter sunsets are really beautiful
if you catch em on the right day

Well got plenty of work ahead for me to get going on. Should get back to my normal updating, waiting for an interesting topic to come to mind. Cheers

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Lessons from Learning Cantonese

Most of you know one of my latest hobbies is trying to relearn my Cantonese (mostly using this site). Its part of my 5 yr plan to hopefully learn conversational Cantonese, conversational Mandarin, then either reading/written simplified/traditional. I'd like to see myself in some type of full time Christian ministry one day, and I think they'd be valuable assets. It'll be a long road tho, so we'll see if I carry it out to the end or not.

One thing if I find about Chinese is that the characters and literal meanings are quite interesting, at times funny, critical and profound. So in Chinese there might be two characters that together mean "smoking" for example, but if you look at the literal translations its quite interesting. If I knew how to write and read I think it becomes even more interesting, as each word is construction with characters adding even more meaning. Heres a few examples:

食煙 sik yeen - "to smoke". Literal translation "eat smoke". haha

小心 siu sum - "to be careful". Literal translation "little heart"

有心 yau sum - "to care for". Literal translation "have heart"

龍蝦 loong haa - "lobster". Literal translation "dragon shrimp". Hm well I guess if you combined a dragon and a shrimp, haha.

On a more political side of things (with the upcoming election), my mom was teaching me that the character that can be used for politician or ruling is 管治, of which the first character has two "mouth" characters (the box). Meaning well, politicans can say one thing, and than another thing later.

One of the profound ones that has influenced me lately is the term for "relax" or to "put at ease". Its 放心 "fong sum". The literal translation for this is "release heart".

Wow - this lines up so much with what it means for us as Christians to trust and believe in God. I get so easily worked up about something - usually when something doesn't go my way. I want it so bad - it eats away at me. Its time like that we need to give up everything before God, lay down our burdens, and release our heart to its Maker. I don't know what's best, He does. I don't know tomorrow, He does.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. -Matthew 11:28-29

Leaving in 72 hours...

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Choice

Lately I've been thinking about choices a lot... the power of them... and also the privilege of them. Its an area of controversy I admit, I don't pretend I have all the answers... but let me intro this a bit:

I often hear people attribute circumstances, situations, relationships and all sorts of things to God. As a Christian myself - I have a firm belief that God exists and is an active part of our world. The question surrounding the controversy then is - how active is God's will versus our own choice?

The extreme positions on either side are both unbiblical:
1. We are simply God's puppets (1 Chron 21:10 for one example)

2. We are the sole creators of our fate (Prov 19:20)

I think at times I've erred by drifting towards either above positions... which leads me to problems:
1. If I'm a puppet, then I can absolve myself of any and all responsibility. God had arranged it that way... God did this... hence sayings like "she must be the one"... haha.

2. If I'm the sole creator of my fate - well then I don't have faith to look for God's work in the world - I only see a web of human choices. Human choices are ultimately sinful too - so this view doesn't allow room for God's redemption in our world.

But there are strengths and things to be said for these two positions too:
1. Bono said "The more you know, the less you believe". Jesus also tells us that a childlike faith is important. Perhaps we need to attribute more things to God - yes we make choices but God is orchestrating all of them in the beautiful symphony of His universe...

2. There positions strikes me as realistic and truthful, but probably because it suits my temperment. I think we should have a healthy perspective of what our choices are, and their effects. I really like the quote: "Watch your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character for it will become your destiny." We do a lot of things and make a lot of choices without knowing it, we should know that we reap the results of those decisions, although God can and often does redeem them in some way.

Ah to find balance...

On a more personal note, I have but 17 days left before I leave for Austria. Its been a ride... part of me feels like I've only come back home (got back Sept 22) and I'm already leaving again. I'm off to www.schlossmittersill.org. I'll be doing computer/music stuff while hopefully auditing some courses. I'm quite excited, but also sad to be leaving family and friends... my home. I guess I made a choice... or did I? :P

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I don't know

To err is human, to moo, bovine.

I have often wondered: as humans, should we ever be surprised to find that we're wrong or have committed some fault of some sort? It would seem doing wrong, or being imperfect (what Christians would call "sin") pervades everything we do. Whether a simple miscalculation when adding numbers, to hurting someone close to me - it seems my very nature to do so.

One would think the resulting attitude would then be of humility. In arguments or disputes we should be unsurprised and quite expecting to find ourselves with at least some fault.

My experience (and I would be as bold to suggest others' experiences as well) is quite different. I tend to assume I am right, and it is others that are at fault. On a deeper level there is insecurity - its not that I'm unaware of my faults and proclivity to do wrong... perhaps in the resultant shame a conflict emerges. I want anything but that shame, so I'll try to become perfect, to always be right - anything to avoid facing the brokenness and sinfulness of myself.

Maybe salvation has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself
Where you gonna go... salvation is here

-Dare You to Move by Switchfoot

I've often gone in search for adventure and battle... I do not need to look far though. Trying to learn this - what does it mean to see myself truely, to accept who I am, and to pour that before my Maker?

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