Languages

Languages are interesting. I am not smart enough to think about everything that is involved when we speak to one another, or read, or listen to the spoken word, or whatever. I simply don't have the energy or the capacity to develop a "philosophy of language," or whatever you want to call it, that some of my friends can -- a philosophy about how words transmit information, and about whether this is a learned or an inherent behavior in us, and so on. All I know is that, for whatever reason, I enjoy speaking Spanish and I really don't like French. Maybe that kind of thing is just a matter of taste, or maybe I simply associate my experiences learning and speaking Spanish with the language itself, and the same with French. Probably. All I know is that I am not totally alone in preferring certain languages:

"Even now I cannot fully understand why the Greek language, which I learned as a child, was so distasteful to me. I loved Latin, not the elementary lessons but those which I studied later under teachers of literature."
--Augustine's Confessions, I.13

So if Augustine can get away with it, so can I. :) I do think it is important, however, to understand both the limitations and the amazing potential of language when we read the Bible. I was thinking about it today when reading Ecclesiastes, because sometimes (especially in Biblical poetry) a verse in the NIV can be really different in the NASB. The verses I was thinking about today are Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:

"Now all has been heard: here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (NIV).

"The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil." (NASB).

I was reading this verse in the NIV today and something really jumped out at me. It was kind of cool actually -- it donned on me that the words "duty" and "this" are singular, while TWO things are listed as being the "conclusion of the matter." That is, THE duty is actually two things, namely to fear God and keep His commandments." There is one duty - one thing that you and I should strive for each and every day. But that singular thing is two things.

This same idea comes up in the introductory chapter of John Piper's book Desiring God, where JP talks about the opening line of the Westminster Shorter Catechism: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." He notes that there is a (singular) chief end of man, but that this end consists of two things - to glorify God AND to enjoy Him forever. Piper basically bases his entire book on the observation that glorifying God and enjoying Him are the same thing viewed from two different perspectives: thus, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

I think God plays with plurals like this in order to get us to look at ideas - and I think I might start looking for it more. One other example I can think of off the top of my head is in Galatians 5, where Paul is discussing the fruit (singular!) of the Spirit -- which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. One fruit, nine characteristics.

Anyways, that is just something to think about. God means to say that fearing Him and obeying His commandments are not two separate things, but one thing, expressed in two different ways with two different terms. It would be worth it to sit down and think long and hard about how that is true. At the very least, it got me thinking today about languages because this same observation is a lot harder to make - at least it is more subtle - when you read the text in the NASB. You would need to see the singular in the phrase "this applies to every person, " which could refer to the "conclusion" rather than the fearing of God and the following of His commandments. It is still there, but the idea that is (probably?) in the original languages comes across better in certain English renderings than in others. To know for sure, of course, you would need to look into the original language to see where all the pronouns point. Anyone else have any examples of this type of stuff?

Ensenada

Here it is, folks: the long-awaited Ensenada post!! I will try to put in lots of pictures for Daniel: I suppose it can't hurt to make my blog more "approachable". This post is kind of long, but I am really abbreviating things, so just take your time if you want to read through it.

So... as you may know, I was asked on late notice (four weeks or so ago) if I would be able to join the high school group at my church on a mission trip to Ensenada, Mexico, to build houses. After moving a couple of obstacles out of the way, I was free to commit to the trip, and we left town on Sunday the 17th of February.

The first thing that you should know is that the head coach of the UW Football team, Tyrone Willingham, was on our flight from Seattle to San José. Pretty awesome. We went on, of course, to San Diego, but I believe this was a crucial development for the success of our trip. Go Dawgs.

Once in San Diego, we got our vans and secured our luggage, and then made for In-n-Out Burger, a favorite California burger joint.



Being properly fueled, we then proceeded to drive across the border and into Tijuana. If you have ever made this trip you know what an amazing jump this is from wealth to poverty: there is an immediate dropoff. We experienced a moment of silent prayer as we drove through Tijuana, and then we made our way to Ensenada.

Our team worked with a ministry called Yugo. What is cool about Yugo is that they work through local ministries -- the families that we serve build relationship primarily with a local pastor and congregation, rather than with a parachurch organization or with a group of high schoolers who may never return.

We had approximately 38 students and 12 staff make the trip, and the group was divided into four teams. On our first full day there, two of the teams went to one build site, and the other two teams went to a second site. I was on Team 4 (Team BONESAW), so the first day we went with Team 3 and put in a long day of work on a house for a very needy family. Our family consisted of a mother and her four-year-old son, Angél: the dad had passed away very shortly after Angél's birth, and so they lived with the Angél's grandmother. Both of these dear women are believers, which is somewhat odd for the families typically served by Yugo, but it was a great gift to us. It is amazing to see what sweet fellowship can be shared by Christians even when there is a significant language barrier. Here is Angél:



On the second and third days there, we split up so that half of the teams went to churches and did Vacation Bible School with little kids, while half of the teams stayed on the sites to work on the houses. On day two, my team stayed and put up drywall and roofing, then on day three we played with kids all day. It was pretty cool to work as a team, and we were blown away by the generosity of our family, who provided a meal for our entire team each day. It was said that each of these meals was worth about a months' wages for the family, which I think is probably close to the truth. It is hard to understand the depth of this.



Above is Ricardo, our build leader. He was a stud, and by the fourth day we had completed the house, and we were able to present our family with a new place to live. We dedicated the home to the Lord and prayed for the family, and were able to hand the keys over. "A Father for the fatherless and a Judge for the widows is God in His holy habitation; God makes a home for the lonely..." (Psalm 68:5-6).

On our fifth day in Mexico we went to a migrant camp several miles south of Ensenada. Camps like this are for the poorest of the poor, most of whom are coming from South America looking for a better life in the North. They sign their lives away to work in the agricultural fields, trying merely to provide food for their families. They live in converted chicken coops. Still working with Yugo, we were there mainly to help local pastors try to build relationship with the locals. I snuck a couple of pictures of their homes:




I am realizing that earthly poverty is far more the norm than the exception in this life, but the down side of this realization is that stuff like this is hard to internalize. I am still not sure how I am affected by this kind of poverty, and there were several others on our trip who were struggling with the same thing. Why am I not moved to tears when I see this? It is hard, for whatever reason, to truly be affected: maybe because it is truly hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven? I feel like my heart, while softening, is hardening at the same time. I am not sure if that makes any sense, but I need to think and pray about this. A lot. No man can serve both God and wealth. Maybe Christ actually means it when He says we should use our wealth to make friends, who will then recieve us into eternal dwellings (Luke 16)? And what does He mean when He says that "none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions" (Luke 14)?

After visiting the migrant camp we went to La Bufadora, where there is a pretty cool (natural) waterspout. Then we went back to Yugo for the last night, where we washed one another's feet. It was a neat experience. God is good.

"Come over here!"

"They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them; and passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." -- Acts 16:6-10.

My friend and pastor Matt Chapman shared this passage with me last week. It is interesting that the Holy Spirit specifically forbids Paul and his companions from doing things... we tend to think of Him only as empowering and urging us towards specific goals. I am not sure why we think that: God is not a machine - a set of cosmic rules. Rather, He is our Father, directing us where we ought to go and guiding us away from the things we ought to avoid.

I did not get an interview at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. If you read my previous post you will see that God directed events to this effect, leading me away from what in MY wisdom would have seemed a fantastic opportunity. God wants me somewhere else, and the first step in getting me there might be through tutoring.

Read this.

A few days ago my close friend Jeff sent me the contact info for a tutoring position at Lakeside School in Northern Seattle. He had found the position, hoping to work as a part-time tutor while still in school, but he was unable to work the mid-day hours they were looking for, so he sent me the job. It turns out that:

(1) This job pays between $45 and $50 per hour
(2) They need tutoring help in General Chemistry and General Biology
(3) The job is at Lakeside School, where Bill Gates and Paul Allen went to High School, considered by many the best private school in the whole of the Northwestern United States.

I went in today and interviewed for the position; I have another meeting with more school staff on Friday morning. This will only be a part time position if I get it, and it will only last for two months, as I am essentially only filling in for a regular tutor. But it will certainly pay my bills for the time that I have it, and, as I understand it, this school has a fairly limited and exclusive tutor list... once you are on it, parents or students can contact you freely for help in your subjects of strength!

What this will force me to do, at the very least, is to learn introductory chemistry and biology inside and out. I already know them, but I will really need to know them. Whatever else my furure holds, that knowledge can't hurt. If the Spirit led me away from SBRI, is He leading me to Lakeside?

Providence

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for a man to direct his steps." -- Jeremiah 10:23.

In the past year I have begun, more and more, to look for meaning in the events of my life. Not that I never looked for meaning before this year, but as I grow older I am seeing God mold and shape my future before my very eyes. By God's mercy, having been stripped of much of the control that I thought I had over my life, I am finding more and more that I am the man in Proverbs 19:21 --"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand."

"But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than man. Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man's words? For God does speak - now one way, now another - though man may not percieve it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword. Or a man may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in his bones, so that his very being finds food repulsive and his soul loathes the choicest meal. His flesh wastes away to nothing, and his bones, once hidden, now stick out. His sould draws near to the pit, and his life to the messengers of death." -- Job 33:14-22.

I want to perceive when God speaks to me! The easiest way to do this is to be absorbed in His word. "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know the one from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." -- 2 Timothy 3:14-17. But like Elihu says, God may speak to us in many other ways. I want to listen to Him in quiet moments of prayer, in the counsel of others, in fellowship, and in my circumstances.

Here is a quick story of how God has shaped my last few weeks: interspersed will be some pictures of my trip to Ensenada, so that I won't have to put them all in my next post. :)

A few weeks ago I applied for a post-bachelor fellowship at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. This is a program that would have paid me money to get a Master's degree in Public Health. As I was waiting to hear back about my application status, however, I was given the opportunity to go to Ensenada, Mexico to build houses with my church High School group. The catch? I would potentially be in Mexico without communication, just when I would need to be checking my emails.

Fortunately I made a quick inquiry at the Institute, and found that I could (probably) arrange for my status email to be sent a bit early. It was. I was given the age-old polite let-down, "we still think you have great talent, etc." I was disappointed, but the Mexico trip was a go, my future once again uncertain.

So I went on the trip. It was great, but sobering. We built houses for widows and poor families, we were confronted with a poverty that is essentially alien to Seattle, and we got to experience a much less materialistic culture. I played with little kids a lot. I even turned off my phone for the whole week and didn't have internet access: not to have to worry about my application status at all was nice. When I got back to the States, however, I was overjoyed to see that I had received a voicemail message from the human resources guy at the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute! He wanted to see if I would be available to interview for a postion as a Lab Technician in Patrick Duffy's Lab, doing research with Malaria. He had called me on Monday -- we had left on Sunday -- and I didn't get the message until Saturday.

So I called the hr guy back on Monday. He wasn't there. No biggie - I tried again on Tuesday... same thing. Then Wednesday, then Thursday. Finally, on Friday, I spoke with him, and he said that they were almost done with the hiring process for the position. If they had not filled the position by Friday afternoon or Monday, they would call me to schedule an interview.

Sooooooo...... I really don't know what God is doing with this. But I want to listen. I may get a call to interview when Monday rolls around, but I also may not. All I know is that if I had not been in Ensenada, I would have simply answered my phone and scheduled an interview. If God doesn't want me to work in a Malaria lab and doesn't want me to study International Health, what does He have in store for me?

Mysterious Ways...

The phrase "God works in mysterious ways" is never actually in the Bible. But I think it is absolutely true. Why God works things the way that He does is a mystery to me - indeed, His ways and His thoughts are far above yours or mine. Check out Isaiah 55!

So... I have a quick story. I think that God often does little things in our day that cause us (force us?), if nothing else, to be reminded of Him. My car, for instance, has a nasty habit of dying unexpectedly. Sometimes it dies at stoplights and sometimes on the freeway, but it always needs a few minutes to cool down and then it is good to go. Well, last night I was driving to the UW from Kirkland, and my car died on the 520 floating bridge. This is the second time this has happened in the past few months: first it happened going Eastbound, and last night Westbound.

What is amazing is that each time I have been able to coast to safety without hindering traffic at all! Here is a picture (courtesy of google maps) of where my car first died a couple of months ago, and where I was able to coast to safety at the service station:

Now here is a picture where my car died last night, and where I was able to pull to the side:

Weird, huh? Irritating as it was to have my car die again last night, it actually turned into an opportunity for me to stop and thank God for allowing me to be able to pull to the side of the road. I was then able to thank Him for the gift of even having a car at all, and for the many other blessings that I enjoy every day. God used this little detour in my day to remind me to be thankful. How easily we forget to give thanks in all things! (Ephesians 5:20)

In the next couple of days I hope to post about my trip to Ensenada, Mexico with the Crossroads High School group... Some pretty cool stuff happened that I want to write about. And God used the trip to really affect my circumstances back at home, too. More to come.