A new page

Hm has factors of 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12. Must be a flexible year? :P

I always longed to sing this song on the right occasion, funny how fitting it is for how I actually feel right now. I find it such an honest song - yet uplifting, ah to not cop out on life! I am the second man now...

Click to listen: http://www.allantan.net/Switchfoot_TwentyFour.wma

Twenty Four by Switchfoot

Twenty four oceans
Twenty four skies
Twenty four failures
Twenty four tries
Twenty four finds me
In twenty-fourth place
Twenty four drop outs
At the end of the day
Life is not what I thought it was
Twenty four hours ago

Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And I'm not who I thought I was twenty four hours ago
Still I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You

Twenty four reasons to admit that I'm wrong
With all my excuses still twenty four strong

See I'm not copping out not copping out not copping out
When You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now

And You're raising these twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts
But I wan to be one today
Centered and true

I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
You're raising the dead in me
Oh, oh I am the second man
Oh, oh I am the second man now
Oh, oh I am the second man now
And You're raising the dead in me

I want to see miracles, see the world change
Wrestled the angel, for more than a name
For more than a feeling
For more than a cause
I'm singing Spirit take me up in arms with You
And You're raising the dead in me
Twenty four voices
With twenty four hearts
With all of my symphonies
In twenty four parts.
I'm not copping out. Not copping out. Not copping out.

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Swing of things...

I've almost been here at the Schloss for one month now. Its been good so far, although I have my moments of homesickness for sure... So what have I been up to? I find the list getting long, one thing is I don't want to be overambitious, yet the Schloss is a place where lot of opportunity comes a knockin'

Coursework - Just finished a course on marriage/family/sexuality, and starting Biblical Exegesis tomorrow. The prof teaching is an amazing jazz pianist who I'm working with for music/worship stuff. Going to feel weird, haven't been in school for a long time.

Worship Stuff - Got a chance to work with a really cool program called mediashout.com which basically replaces using Powerpoint for song lyrics, scriptures, songs/pictures etc. Also since my arrival we're starting up having 2 worship teams to rotate for Sunday services. Its cool, my team has a Bulgarian dude who's doing some lead guitar, I'm doing rhythm guitar and vocals, a Brazillian gal is playing piano and a Vancouver gal is singing with me. Also we're switching to daily chapel this week, so we'll have 20 mins of scripture/prayer/singing every morning now.

IT - Since coming here theres been enough tech support stuff to do around here. There hasn't been anyone to fix up stuff in awhile, so a lot of little things, so-and-so can't print, some MS Active Directory user admin, hoping to do some work with revamping the Schloss' online registration and setting up MS Exchange server here.

Extracurricular - Hmm well I have about 6-7 books I'm reading right now... yeah I'm one of those who can't stick to one book, rather its like food, I like to choose what I'm in the mood to 'eat' each day. Notably, reading Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan), The Christian Imagination (GK Chesterton), Life Together(Bonhoffer), Emotional Intelligence(Goleman), and Hind's Feet on High Places(Hurnard). Also started German classes today - I figure it'd be cool since I'm here longer to actually learn some German. Wanna learn? Found a good tutorial site by BBC here. Hmm hoping yeah to learn some jazz piano, improve guitar, read more, eh my usual list of hobbies.

Fun Stuff - All work and no play makes Allan a dull boy. Hoping to go skating/sledding (attn Canadians, we're the only ones who call it 'tobogganing', which frankly is just a pain to spell :P) soon. Its too warm right now, but they have a 14km sled run here! Man that blows my mind. Also got a chance to take a day trip out to Venice, Italy just two days ago, I'll have some pics up soon. But yah just getting to know people here, which is much of the fun.

So that was sorta s brief summary of what I'm up to... I miss you all lots! I feel very far away.. so maybe knowing what I'm up to makes me feel like I'm more connected or something... or something... take care everyone!

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To think about it...

Wandering through the library here at the Schloss you come across all sorts of interesting books (this one happened to be signed by author and originally gifted to one of our OT profs here), randomly picked one up and came across this quote:

A human being's highest achievement is to let God be able to help him.
-Søren Kierkegaard

Yeah I really like it. I tend to fall into a mindset of thinking I have to do this and this, I need to change myself in this and this way, etc. When really after one becomes a Christian, the highest achievement may be making ourself available for God's help. This may include not having a hard heart, willingness to change, openness to God's sovereignty, etc.

Really interesting wording though, "let God be able". "Let" to me means some level of consent. Now "be able" means to suggest that we have some say in what God can do in us. Consider in Mark 6 (link), it is that our amount of faith can limit what God can do in our lives.

Consider the Isrealites during the exodus and the quote rings even more true. What did the Isrealites need to do? Part the Red sea themselves? Make their own manna? No - they needed to let God be able to help them, and to this end they often failed.

I hope I aim for the highest achievement

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Imagine

A quote that has always impacted me is:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

We all find ourselves in different circumstances, and being human we believe certain things are possible and certain things aren't, given our circumstances. Herein lies the power of imagination. For God, what is impossible? So why is it that we only perceive reality with such limitations?

Imagination

noun 1. The faculty or action of forming ideas or images in the mind. 2. The ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful. (Oxford Compact)

We've been given the gift of imagination - the ability to conceive of a reality unlike our own. There are those dreamers and visionaries who are able to imagine great things that could be - and even sometimes those things once imagined come true.

I still struggle with understanding how much stock we should put into the things we can imagine. The struggle being:
a) If humans are sinful, then our imagination are sinful as well. We consider that the human heart is deceitful - thus we should be very cautious in our imaginings?
b) If God has redeemed us and given us a new heart and Spirit - well then perhaps its about time we started really exploring our imagination. In Genesis 2:19-20(link) we are seen that part of God's job was to use his own creativity and to name the animals - that we were included as part of God's creating process (throughout the Bible we see that God was keen on doing things, and then naming them). So if we really submit ourselves and give our imagination over to God - it may be our strongest ally.

Lately I've been leaning towards b) more. Been reading up on some G.K. Chesterton (this book) who's a Christian author, musician, etc you name it. He is a strong supporter of using our imagination, and the important of stories and fantasy.

I get a feeling that modern Christianity seems to suppress imagination, or is at least quite wary of dreaming/fantasy. I'm inclined to think that creativity cannot exist without imagination. I'm also inclined to think we were created to reflect God's creativity - hence why humans pursue arts/music/other types of expression really.

Hm just thinking of this now - if our perception of the world is very limited, then how else would God expand our perception other than through expanding our imagination? So what I mean is suppose you observe some situation - isn't our perception affected by our belief in God, what God can do, what we can do, what hope is there, etc etc? Isn't this some sort of spiritual vision/imagination?

Maybe the great visionaries of the past and present simply imagined more...

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