The Tulip Driven Life

This is a fictional piece that I wrote up. Hopefully it demonstrates the comfort we can have if our parents are believers. Next time I want to write up a piece on a more challenging issue- finding comfort in the death of a parent who isn't a believer. But for now, this. I took one last look at the old man. His beleaguered body lie flat on his bed, propped up slightly by the pillow he always used. He stared vacantly at whatever was in his line of sight from the angle his head was positioned. The white sheet covering his body up to his chest gave the impression he was already dead. But dead he was not- the slight heaving of his belly made the sheet rise and drop with his shallow breaths.                 I stood there, eyes red and heavy, at this point due to exhaustion and not tears. I had long accepted the fact he was dying; now I just wished he would hurry up and go. Everything that needed to be said...

I have experienced disappointment and letdown time and time again. To have a dream crushed, a promise broken, or trust violated leaves one in pieces, wary and without confidence. And the more this happens, the harder it is to hope in anything good again, to hope that our plans will actually come to fruition. This is often how it has been for me. And in this sin-shattered world I know this is how, to one degree or another, it is for everyone. I've often thought about how living in the 21st century in the most prosperous nation ever has spoiled me. No doubt it has, but I also think people living 100 years from now, or 1,000 years from now, who will be far better off than I am, will still experience disappointment and letdown, will still experience that unnerving feeling in the pit of their stomach that resonates throughout their bodies whenever they think about the next great longing that is finally visible just over the horizon, approaching at long last, yet nonetheless looms ...

A little perspective never hurt anyone. That's not true, but having no perspective except your own does nothing but hurt. What is perspective? It is a mental view or outlook, and I am convinced the more we can get outside of ourselves and see the world around us, the less our cultural bias will taint everything we think and feel and do. By seeing the world around us I mean attempting, as best we can, to understand other cultures, at the very least the ones that are pouring into the Great Melting Pot known as the United States. Certainly I refer to different ethnicities and subcultures even within each ethnicity, but beyond that, I also refer to those who are the "rich" of this nation, the "dirt poor," and everyone in between. The way to do this is simply by interacting with people from various ethnicities and backgrounds, cultures and climates. Or, read a book if you prefer. The important thing, however, is to grasp the underlying philosophy of those aroun...

I am listing these, not in order of most impacting or important, but chronologically. To say which was most important would be far too difficult, they have all been invaluable to me. 1.) THE Shocking Youth Message (Paul Washer)  I know several Calvinists who became Calvinists directly from this sermon preached by Paul Washer to 5,000 youth back in 2002. If sermons can be considered classics, this one will be when we look back 15 years from now and see young Calvinists teeming across America proclaiming the true gospel and denouncing the Charles Finney, Billy Graham decisionism that has plagued this nation for nearly two centuries. If you come out of the non-Calvinist, Baptist youth group setting like I did, and if you went to Christian school, this message will especially resonate with you. I had never heard preaching like this when I first heard it. I didn't know there was such a thing. It is an hour long, and I listened to it three times, back to back, i...

So, as many of you know by now, I got sunburnt on Thursday. I was at the beach with a bunch of friends swimming in the ocean, playing frisbee, and hanging out. I had no intention initially of swimming and figured I'd just keep my tank top on the whole time to avoid the sun, but a couple of friends decided to toss me into the ocean. At that point I decided taking the tank top off and swimming would be a good idea. I was having so much fun that I didn't really even think about applying sunscreen. I would have had to dry off (and I didn't bring a towel), then apply sunscreen, then wait twenty minutes for it to soak in, and then start playing again. After about an hour or so in the ocean I dried off a bit with a towel that someone graciously lent me and put my tank top back on. I sloppily applied some sunscreen on my shoulders, thinking that would suffice, but within about ten minutes we started a game of ultimate frisbee, and I couldn't really resist that and didn...