Stuff That Matters In Life

Regret is wishing you took a different action, after you saw the results of your decision.

I will always remember pushing a Christmas tree into our van. In a moment of carelessness, a branch from the tree ripped the felt on the ceiling of the van. It was a irreparable mistake.

I regret not taking my husband’s advice to strap the tree to the top of the van instead of putting it inside the van.

At the time you made the decision, you cannot know for sure how things would turn out. You always think it’ll work out, otherwise you wouldn’t have acted in that manner.

So I find that it is a waste of energy to regret. We can only do the best we can based on the information and wisdom we have at the time. It is only afterwards that you realize your wrong, but that is obviously the case, but that’s not how life works.

Life is lived by not knowing what’s around the bend.

It’s also no good to blame anyone else for bad results either.

Whenever I want to put blame, I think of Fanny Crosby’s story. At six weeks old, she caught a cold and developed inflammation of the eyes. The family physician was not available, and the man who came in his place recommended hot poultices as treatment. The botched procedure blinded her.

Crosby was never bitter about her disability. At the age of eight she wrote these verses about her condition:

Oh what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see;

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don’t;

To weep and sigh because I’m blind,

I cannot, and I won’t.”

She went on to write some of the best known hymns including “Blessed Assurance”, and “To God Be The Glory”, two of my favorite hymns.

LIfe happens. Let’s not waste time with regrets or blame.

What do you get when you cross a robot with a tractor?

A transfarmer!

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

I love cheesecake. It’s the only dessert that I have a weakness for. That and brownies with milk, but cheesecake is by far my favorite dessert.

Whenever we are lucky enough to get a ‘real’ cheesecake - not from the market, not “low-fat”, not the no-bake kind - I slice it thin, savor each bite, and save the rest for another day. I try to make the cheesecake last as long as possible.

If someone gave me a rich delicious cheesecake and said, “Eat as much as want of this cheesecake. You can never eat it all!”

Well, l’d dig in and devour a huge slice right now. The next day, I eat another piece at lunch, and another portion after dinner.

In a couple of days, that cheesecake is down to the last slice. It’s so good, I finish it off for breakfast. That’s it for that cake, I figured.

Imagine my delight when after dinner, I saw a whole cheesecake sitting on the table! This time, it’s a strawberry cheesecake with sweet whole strawberries, drizzled with strawberry sauce! This one tastes even better than the first cheesecake!

Each time I thought the last of the cheesecake is gone, another one appears! You’d think I would get sick of cheesecake, but each cake is better than the last that I enjoy cheesecake even more.

Paul in Ephesians 3:19 says - To know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge…

How can I know something that surpasses knowledge? To know something that I cannot comprehend?

I think it’ll be like having never-ending cheesecake. I enjoy the cheesecake and have my fill, but each cheesecake continues to get better and better without end. I will never know how much better it can get.

You may experience Christ’s love when He provides for you in a miraculous way, and you think that you’ve seen His love. But that’s not all…

You may experience His saving grace, joy in worship, and peace in times of trouble, and you think you now really know Christ’s love. But that’s still not all…

There is more and more, deeper love that we have yet to experience of Christ’s love. Even if you think you finally got it, you haven’t.

We can Know and yet not Know.

I love this thought because it gives me hope that Christ will never fail me. There is so much more good stuff about Christ that I can look forward to. There are better flavors and richer cheesecakes yet to come.

VBS gets better and better!

Joseph was pursued by a married woman; David pursued a married woman.

Joseph was tempted by a beautiful woman; David was tempted by a beautiful woman.

Joseph was a mere slave; David was a king with a public life to uphold

Joseph probably didn’t have too many women to choose from; David could have any woman he wanted

On paper, who should most likely give in to the temptation to commit adultery with a married woman?

Who actually made the decision to do it?

Joseph is an incredible role model for anyone who thinks it is impossible to be sexually pure in a sexualized society.

Here are 10 highlights from this week of VeggieTales VBS at our church, not in any order:

1. As part of the Bible story theater, the children saw a dramatization of Jesus walking on water. “Wow! Who can that be?” the leader asked the kids. Amazingly, the kids answered correctly - Jesus. “Jesus” is a Chinese guy wearing a white plastic table cloth with some kind of blue cloth strapped around him, walking on chairs with blue cloth draped over them. You gotta have a vivid imagination here at VBS!

2. Our song leader doing the robot and the washing machine dance…

3. A heart-warming appreciation note and a gift card to Applebee’s for me. Thanks, S.

4. Hanging out at church with E, K and others afterwards, eating junk food, doing crafty things

5. Watching a 12-year-old take on a leadership role and doing an awesome job leading the games.

6. Bigger than life Larry - the biggest cucumber you’ve ever seen! Don’t even think about cucumber sandwiches!

7. “What did you like best about VBS?” I asked one of the boys. “The food!”

8. A little girl said, “I’m coming back next year!”

9. Seventeen children prayed for Jesus to come into their heart. I know God will honor their decision and will solidify their decision as they get older.

10. Dean comes through with snow cones for us once again - an annual tradition. Jacob made me one that tasted like it had 50% syrup!!

Oh, and one more - exceeding the number of kids I was expecting. Thank you God for good times.

If you live in Walnut, CA like i do, I’m sure you’ve been stuck at the railroad track more than a few times.

You approach the tracks at 45 mph and suddenly, the red lights starts flashing at the gates. You try speeding up, but you’re too far to make it across the tracks. You are forced to stop at the gates at the railroad tracks.

Very frustrating, especially when the train is moving at snail pace or even stop altogether. We would usually make a U-turn and take a long detour to go around the train.

But 2 nights ago, we decided to see how long a train stays stopped on the tracks. Is it there for 1 hour, 2 hours?

My son, daughter and I were exhilarated after finishing a fun night of Vacation Bible School at church. Lo and behold, on our way home, we were stopped by a train at 10:12pm, according to our car clock.

We were stuck, the first in line at the gate.

The train was moving along fast at a good pace. Maybe we won’t be stuck long.

But then it began to slow down…and down…and down…and it came to a complete stop…

People behind and next to us are starting to make U-turns.The motorcycle next to us waited for a while, then gave up and left too.

“Let’s turn off our engine and wait it out”, we decided. Heck, the night was still young. We weren’t in a hurry to get home. Let’s see how long this is going to be…

We were having fun chatting about random things in the car, playing games on the iphone, having a great time…

Whoa! Another train started to come going the opposite direction of the first train…and it stopped too.

Interestingly, the motorcycle came back to wait! Hmm, what happened to the alternate routes?

Whoa again! The first train started to move backwards! That’s not good…

Fortunately it shifted to forward, picked up speed and moved on out of the way. So far it’s been about 15 minutes.

But that second train is still sitting there in front of us. Now the motorcycle again turns around and left. We wondered if he is coming back again.

Just when I said, “This is terrible. What would happen if an ambulance had to get through to save a life?” - we heard sirens and an ambulance was behind us. It immediately made a U-turn, now a big truck is behind us with glaring headlights.

Also worth noting for the record, we saw a man get out of a car and walked across the tracks.

At 10:35pm, the train started to move. We were finally able to go home.

A 5 minute trip home from church took us almost half an hour. That was exciting…

BTW, the motorcycle did not come back.

It’s bigger than Black Friday.

A Chick-Fil-A is opening 1 mile from my house tomorrow, and at every Chick-Fil-A grand opening, they offer the first 100 customers 52 Chick-Fil-A meals.

I wouldn’t mind a free chicken sandwich a week for a  year.

Would you camp 24 hours for 52 free Chick-Fil-A meals?

The grand opening is 6am tomorrow. At 10:30pm tonight, we went to check out the action in the parking lot.

Some people we talked to said they came from San Diego and Victorville. They got here at 10:30am, and they are numbered 104 and 105. Awww….they’re not going to get the 52 free meals. But the store said there will be some raffles for those over 100.

This family told us this is one of the most popular sites. They’ve been to other grand openings as late at 2pm and was number 40. This is the first time they’ve not been able to make it within the first 100.

But then again, this is a warm summer night, and they said they’ve been to others in the winter.

People got their tents, their air mattresses, their beach chairs, kids playing Four-Square, adults playing cards, watching movies on their laptops, and there is even free wi-fi.

Next time, it would be fun to get some friends together, Tony can play the guitar, William can bring games and play Settlers all night…we don’t even need the 52 free meals to have an excuse to camp out in the parking lot of Chick-Fil-A.

I was not a great fan of Alvin and the Chipmunks, but after the movie, I am now a fan.

The cartoon was not that cute, but the CGIs of Alvin, Simon and Theodore were really cute. We all fell in love with chubby Theodore. I want to take him home and tuck him into bed with me.

Chipmunks probably carry a lot of diseases…but in movies, all animals are adorable.

I put this as one of the sweetest movies I’ve ever seen.

Yesterday, someone engaged me in a discussion about gay marriage.

I searched for the right words to substantiate my views without coming across like a gay basher or intolerant bigot.

Throughout the discussion, I was thinking, “What would Greg Koukl say? How can I be a winsome ambassador for Christ like him?”

I didn’t think I carried the conversation too well when the gentleman first approached me. But later on he sought me out to talk again. I was more “Greg” the second time by asking questions.

This man was not looking for answers. His mind was made up and he was there to accuse Christians as “haters” of homosexuals.

But as Greg often says, we are not here to win arguments. But if we can place a bit of doubt into their position, that is sometimes all we can do.

So my last question to this man was, “Where do you think you will spend eternity?”

I pray that God will work in his life to bring a transformation.

Randy Pausch died yesterday.

In his famous last lecture, he said he had two childhood dreams.

I remarked to my son that I couldn’t think of what my childhood dreams were. Maybe I didn’t any dreams that I passionately pursued.

My son said, “Maybe that’s why you haven’t accomplished anything.”

He didn’t mean it as an insult, and I didn’t take it as such. I agree with him that I have not accomplished anything particularly noteworthy. As I live my “midlife” years, I do look back and wish I was more ambitious.

I grew up with the idea of getting good grades and getting a good job. I was never challenged to accomplish something great, to do something spectacular; I never thought I could change the world.

What did I want to be I grow up? I wanted to be mother and raise good kids.

Perhaps like Randy Pausch, I did accomplish my childhood dreams.

And perhaps I did change the world a little bit.

My mother-in-law makes mochi - yummy!

You too, can make mochi - in 30 minutes or less. Try it.
(you can fast forward if it gets slow…)

A talking animal, a flying human, a house grows out of the ground - these I call miracles. Events that are impossible as defined by our experiences and by what we know of how the world works are definitely miracles.

Are there other types of miracles?

When the probability of something happening is so low that if it happens, wouldn’t they be miracles?

Getting an A on the final if you’ve never attended class or studied all semester, walking away with no injuries after a serious car crash, cured of cancer with no medical treatment - these things hypothetically could happen, but we wouldn’t expect it to happen. And when they do, it’s a miracle.

Do I see these happen? Yes. When business comes my way when I did not solicit it, when unexpected gift money comes in to pay a bill, when I am not totally depressed after a huge personal loss - those are miracles.

What about events that cannot be humanly engineered, and the origin is unknowable, don’t we call those miracles too? The power of the sun, the birth of a baby, the waves upon the sea - we might be able to dissect how they work, but we can never know how they came to be.

Everyday we see miracles of all kinds. Wouldn’t it be ridiculous to say you don’t believe in miracles?

Can you believe I am reading Chaucer when I don’t have to?

My daughter and I were at the library looking at the classics section. She remarked, “I heard Chaucer is really good.”

I don’t remember reading The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I didn’t even know he was a poet!

One of the best things about being out of school is being able to read for pleasure, not for a grade.

So I picked up a facing-page translation of The Canterbury Tales and I am really enjoying it.

I admit, I can understand about every 3rd word of the original. Reading a facing-page translation allows me to get the full story, plus get a sense of the original wordings, a better feel of the tone, and appreciate the rhythm and rhyme.

I just finished reading the first story told by the Knight. It’s an ironic love story with a twist at the end. I love how characters of old are so gallant and chivalrous. It reminded me of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I loved that book. It’s hilarious.

I am now reading the second tale in The Canterbury Tales, told by the miller.

If you have not read these old classics, and if you are not a student, now is the time enjoy them.

A commercial said:

Five years from now, anything can happen…you could learn French…

I don’t know what they were advertising, but it made me think…5 years from now…

Five years is not a lot of time, yet, it is enough time to make a difference.

I can learn to speak another language in 5 years..

There are so many possibilities.

What do I want to accomplish in 5 years?

What do you want to accomplish in 5 years?

Roald Dahl is best known for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

My daughter is a huge fan of Roald Dahl. She has several of his books, not the whole collection.

I actually think some of his themes, especially the short stories for adults, are a little twisted.

If you have not read other Roald Dahl’s books, at least read the short story of The Wonder Story of Henry Sugar.

I don’t know how to explain this story to do it justice.

It illustrates something about the meaning of life, the vanity of riches, the disgust of a selfish wasted life - all that in a simple story of Henry Sugar written so a 2nd grader can read and understand it - truly a great story.

“…so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:5

We were at church and I asked, “Can I borrow someone’s car to take my daughter home?”

Without hesitation, 2 people handed me their car keys.

Later, I asked, “Can someone give me a ride home?”

Again, without hesitation, R got up, and drove me home.

That’s how a church body is suppose to function. That’s what the Bible means by “each member belongs to all the others.”

Serving one another is how the church is suppose to work.

I am very blessed by people at my church. Thanks, guys.

OMG, this will make you groan…

Make sure you get down to #9.

It is said that the ability to make and understand PUNS is the highest level of language development.

Here are the top 10 winners in the International Pun Contest:

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The Stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.

2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. The one turns to the other and says, ‘Dam!’

3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly, it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too.

4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’
The other says, ‘Are you sure?’ The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m
positive.’

5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were
standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories.
After about an hour, the manager came out of the offic e and asked them to disperse. But why they asked, as they moved off. ‘Because,’ he said,
‘I can’t stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer.’

7. A woman had twins and gave them up for adoption. One of them went to a family in Egypt, who named him Ahmal. The other was taken in by a family in Spain; they named him Juan.
Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal.
Her husband responds, ‘They’re twins! If you’ve seen Juan,
you’ve seen Ahmal.’

8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him.
So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to ‘persuade’ them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop. Terrified, they did so…. thereby
proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.

9. Mahatma Gandhi , as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (Get ready…)) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

10. And, finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

I am proud to be an American.

Watching a fantastic fireworks show in Cerritos on the 4th, I am proud to be Chinese too.

We invented the fireworks

I liked this Mary Russell book much more than the last one I read.

Warning: Spoiler ahead.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie King has some deep thoughts on believing in God. Mary is a scholar of theology but did not believe in a miracle even when she saw it with her own eyes. Margery is a mystic with no formal training in the Bible, yet she has a deep understanding of God.

Margery says to Mary, “Mary, you believe in the power that the idea of God has on the human mind. You believe in the way human beings talk abut the unknowable, reach for the unattainable, pattern their imperfect lives and offer their paltry best up to the beingless being that created the universe and powers its continuation.

What you balk at is believing the evidence of your eyes, that God can reach out and touch a single human life in a concrete way…you mustn’t be so cold, Mary. If you are, all you will see is a cold God… God is not cold - never cold. God sears with heat, not ice, the heat of a thousand suns, that inflames but does not consume….you imagine that you can stand in its rays and retain your cold intellectual attitude towards it. You imagine that you can love with your brain.

Mary, oh my dear Mary, you sit in the hall and listen to me like some wild beast staring at a campfire, unable to leave, fearful of losing your freedom if you come any closer. It won’t consume you; it won’t capture you. Love does not do either. It only brings life. Please, Mary, don’t let yourself be tied up by the bonds of cold academia.”

That is deep.

Also interesting in this book is the developing romance between 21-year-old Mary Russell and 59-year-old Sherlock Holmes. I know, it’s a stretch.

But considering Mary is an almost 6 feet tall adventure-seeking feminist trained by Holmes in detective work since she was 15, it is conceivable that she would not be attracted to anyone her own age.

And Sherlock Holmes, a distinguished confident intellectual with a few streaks of gray and a high sense of chivalry, he can be very attractive (look at Sean Connery!)

Mary, talking to her friend Veronica says, “You mean you find Holmes attractive?”

“Oh, yes, heaps of s.a. Why, don’t you?”

We don’t use that term s.a. much anymore - that’s sex appeal in case you don’t know.

Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes got married at the end of the book. It’s not quite consistent with the Conan Doyle Holmes we kno, but it’s an interesting variation.