Damn dog...

I finally have an excuse for weird sleeping patterns... I've been sleeping now in shifts of like 4 hours, because that's when my dog wakes back up to pace around and howl... he misses my Mom. Other than that, I love living alone. I enjoy the solitude, and not having my Mom nag me about this/that...

Yesterday, went to church early as usual for choir and then stayed afterwards for practice. There was some pretty big news... apparently, our board of deacons/moderators has asked our interim Senior Pastor to take a one month paid leave. No reasons were given with the announcement, except... "Don't ask why..." Sheesh, politics. Not that I'm surprised... the waters have been stirring for awhile.

My old roommate Dave and I used to every once inawhile kick around conversations about the relevance of "church" in modern day life... what purpose does it really serve? People go to church for a lot of different reasons - they go because they grew up there... to socialize with their ethnic/cultural community... out of guilt... etc. People also have a ton of reasons for NOT going to church, and I respect that too. Oddly enough, when people talk to me about their reasons for going/for not going to church, seldom mentioned is God or other spiritual reasons.

It's unfortunate that a lot people think this way, because I really believe that wanting to know God/not wanting to know God should be the central issue of whether or not a person attends church. It's sad to say, but churches themselves are often guilty of creating reputations/experiences that push people away from God, rather then helping them to draw closer.

Of course, I also think that your average person could care less about God or other spiritual matters. American culture has become so hyper-consumerized, that beyond our physical/physiological needs, most people rarely give thoughts to other matters. I think it was Maslow's hierarchy of needs that described that physical needs is our most base desire, yet once those have been fully met, people will also seek to fulfill other needs... hence, the role that the Church should be playing in society. Don't get me wrong, I believe that churches should also play a strong role in social justice and helping people's physical needs... but if it isn't addressing it's main purpose of ministering to people's spiritual hunger, there's something very wrong...

Like I wrote in my lesson a few weeks ago, everybody will come to a point in their life where they will have to wrestle with that spiritual hunger. When the distractions of our daily life aren't as present; when we're not at work, at school, driving on the freeway, or playing around on our computers... when disappointments and pain come to the forefront, people will have to reckon with themselves the questions of "What is my life really about? Does my life have a purpose? Is there nothing else really to life, but eating, sleeping, working, and dying?"

The Church (ie, the universal Christian church) needs to be there so people can find the answers to those questions.

But yeah, I sympathize with people who have had bad experiences at church. I really do... I wish everyone I knew who needed a good church could find one to go to, just like I always direct folks who are church looking to check out Jubilee or Lighthouse. Sadly, I think my church is only for the hardcore, people who are willing to suffer sacrificially for their faith in helping to build up CBC into something better than it is right now. God willing, I'm on a mission to make CBC my own Jubilee or Lighthouse, hahaha. Now if I could just jack... er, borrow, King's Fools and Pastor Wayne Ogimachi... haha. =)

Yeah, I've thought of leaving my church plenty of times - after all, plenty of people I knew growing up already have abandoned ship for calmer waters - but in the end, I decided that staying was not just for myself, but for others as well, especially the kids that are growing up just like me - raised in the church, approaching that age of reckoning when they start to really question, "Am I here because my parents bring me here every week, or do I really believe in what's being taught here?" Like I've said before, I think at this pointin my spiritual growth, I'm obligated by love and by faith to put out a greater effort to minister to others than just myself. People whose faith is younger / brand-new are not obligated in that same way... hence, the reason I point them to Jubilee or Lighthouse.

Ha, I go off and sermon-ize a lot, eh? Too much on my mind.

Anyways, Siobhan and I cooked dinner for Josh and Val yesterday too... we managed to duplicate our old AACF staffer Christine Nakano's recipe, Auntie Taka's chicken. Mmmmm... it was REALLY good. Basically, it consists of small nuggets of chicken rolled in panko and deep-fried... and after it's been fried, you dunk it in a cold mixture sauce of shoyu / sugar / crushed red pepper / garlic / slice green onion. Also had rice and a mandarin orange / rice vinegar salad. A lot of fun... Josh and Val got to tell us some more horror stories about family during this period of planning for their wedding. Since I'm one of the groomsmen, I'm going to go with Josh later next week to pick out tuxes.

Fun...

Josh and I lost our Taboo re-match with the Shiv and Val. Damn, so close... stupid game. I swear, they got all the easy cards. I can't believe I'm now at the point in my life where I'm playing "couple's board games". Lord, I'm getting OLD... hahaha.
posted by G at 3:53 PM   |

in?scrip?tion (n-skrip-shun)n.
1. The act or an instance of inscribing.
2. Something, such as the wording on a coin, medal, monument, or seal, that is inscribed.
3. A short, signed message in a book or on a photograph given as a gift.
4. The usually informal dedication of an artistic work.
5. Jeremiah 31:33