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JoeJoPotatoe
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Name: Josiah
Country: United States
Birthday: 8/25/1988
Gender: Male
Interests: You alone will be my passion.
Second tier: Running, playing the trumpet and bass, XC and Track & Field no more...studying King Kong
Reading: The Word, John Donne, Carl Rogers/Jung, Joseph Campbell, Gleitman
Expertise: being broken
Occupation: Student
Industry: Psychotherapy
Message: message meEmail: email me
AIM:  joejopotatoe
Member Since:
7/18/2003
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| DANG what is going on with this world!?!
February 27, 2007
Congratulations! It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been
selected to attend the American Psychological Association's Summer
Science Institute. It will be hosted by the Psychology Department at the
University of California, San Diego from Friday, June 22 to Sunday, July
1, 2007. Just 32 students were chosen for this honor from many
applicants. Applications were submitted by students with exceptional
qualifications, so judging was difficult. We think you will be in
excellent company.
yadayada...
Within
five minutes of reading that e-mail I was already anxious about my ability to
perform amongst some of my craziest peers from around the country. I am also certain that nothing that I possess got me this spot--I was really fortunate to get a letter of rec. from a ridiculously influential professor in psych; and I'm sure that all he had to do was write "let josiah be", and the APA would comply. And so self-uncertainty lives on =).
hHAha
when I told my dad, he asked me incredulously, "can't you just enjoy
this for one day?" I said, "no." hahaha, he also commented, "...as He has
given you much, much is required of you." It's true for Spiderman, and it's true for followers of Christ.
So I'll be in Southern California yet again this summer!
It was interesting to see how Abraham "interceded" for Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18). What were his intentions, and were they pure? Was he pleading with God for the righteous to be spared, or for the wicked to have a chance at changing, or just for his nephew Lot and Lot's family? In the next episode of Abraham's journey (Gen 20), his faith wanes again as he tries to pass Sarah off as his sister. So how did that previous encounter with God effect Abraham's relationship with God? He still held some doubt and lack of faith, he still had a clearly human and worldly way of rationalizing, and his self-protection/interest remained.
How familiar this is for us! We question God's mercy and His justice when we hear about Darfur, Katrina, human trafficking, AIDS, et cetera; as if we are unconditionally loving, righteous, compassionate, and all-knowing. Even when God answers our prayers and we feel like we've gotten to level five hundred intimacy with Him, we get tripped up by some philosophical whim, scientific study, despair in the world, or our own despair. Can God not hear the "outcry" of our world?
| "And
not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. |
| For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? |
| But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. | | In the same way the Spirit also helps
our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the
Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; |
and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." - Romans 8:22-27
Yeah. God wins.
I trust Bloc Party with my love life:
And you told me you wanted to eat up my sadness.
Well jump on, enjoy, you can gorge away.
You told me you wanted to eat up my sadness;
Jump right!
Baby, you've got to be more discerning;
I've known never known what's good for me.
And baby, you've got to be more demanding;
Jump left! just kidding!
and Soren Kierkegaard (!!!) will cap it off for my brain tonight:
"The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But
we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be
unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we
understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New
Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act
accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be
ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian
scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself
against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians
without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the
hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the
New Testament."
  Great Fun  | | |
| I remember back in high school, being totally oblivious about the college application process, and not feeling any pressure to inflate my application with standout credentials and extracurriculars. I think that that ignorance gave me a sort of "purer" motivation for getting into the activities that I did. Boy, did we love Westmoor Running. Nobody cared about what kinds of external rewards we'd get for investing so much time and energy into that wild man's sport. I love how matt calls cross country runners "monster beasts". =) But dang, now in college we're stuck in this convolution of competition, all business and seriousness, and resume bloating. And I can see my own mentality and motives changing--though joy and interest are included in that, a lot is due to being aware of the demands of grad school. I struggled with missing "westmoor things" throughout last semester, and I thought that I had come to embrace all that Cal had to offer and had gotten over my high school identity; but it's safe to say that nothing will ever feel quite like running for Westmoor did. Haha part of me probably just wishes I were fit again...like Palisades sand mountain climbing-type fitness. Thank you Westmoor Rams. Thank you Coach. Thank you ignorance, and thank you innocence.
But we know that God calls us to places far greater, and that faith and prayer are integral in this. We need to intertwine our loves, our passions, our fun, ambitions, and dreams; into a lifestyle, an activity, a career, an offering--and this intersection is where our heart and mind are truly at, it's where we're most suited to serve God and others, and God wants us to prosper there; to the point of implosion!
So whether for light or for ashes,
all of us burn for something--
the greatest risk, the greatest wonder. "No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Cor 2:9, cf. Isaiah 64:4
I'm still rooting for Jim & Pam, but I think I'm gradually falling for Karen...
She's amazing: "Call of duty! Yeaaaaah!"
Her real name, Rashida, means 'righteous' in Arabic.
She is dating Jim in real life.
She was once engaged to Tobey Maguire
and...she went to Harvard.
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| 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 -- Pastor John spoke about this passage on Sunday:
1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3being manifested that you are a
letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the
Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of
human hearts.
4Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.
5Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,
6who also made us adequate as
servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for
the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We aren't necessarily led to extrapolate Paul's statements to encompass
"letters of reference" in applying to schools, research positions,
summer programs, etc.--he was talking about how false teachers were
forging letters from the original apostles to discredit him--but
regardless, part of me definitely does invest a lot in attaining human
approval, and also self-acceptance. We'll see if the letters from two
of my professors last semester are influential enough to get that APA
summer research program spot. oiyg.
Much of my motivation for "killing myself" this semester, as my mother
calls it, comes from a real desire to delve further into my field of
interest, and to help people with the things I learn and experience;
but some of my urgency does come from a pressure to impress future
schools, internships, panels, and all the like, with my commitment and
experiences as an undergrad. Another factor for my intensity this
semester would have to be my parents' and their parents' life stories--they all had to
pay their own way through college and grad school, and they basically
built everything we have from nothing; with faith in God all
throughout. I do feel spoiled for having my path fully paid, and I think it'd be irresponsible if I didn't utilize all the resources
and opportunities I have available to me here and now.
"I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his
activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will
occur after him?" Ecclesiastes 4:22
My dad always likes to point to my inferiority complex derived from
high school as my drive for pursuing certain activities. I always felt that being among
the best at westmoor didn't mean much on a state or nationwide scale;
and I think that that mindset has transferred even to a place like
Cal. I constantly find some rationale to devalue the things I do and
accomplish by comparing it to a hypothetical elite--my specific
thoughts these days are along the lines of: even if I succeed here,
there are still ivy league psych majors who will trump me for summer
research/grad school admission. Hm, I guess that even if those weren't irrational fears, but actual possibilities, I'd still have to ask myself: what power do I have over such variables?...I need to find my joy, and my sense of
adequacy in all that Jesus is; and in what God has given me.
"Trust in the LORD and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the LORD;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it."
Psalm 37:3-5
But here are some of the incredible activities that I've been blessed
with the chance to participate in, and tell me what could possibly be turned down...
- OASES tutoring orange group!
- Crisis support hotline
-
URAP Sleep and Psychological disorders Laboratory
-
IV/EBCB/going back to CIBC to do sunday school?
-
and triumph! I got approved to increase my maximum semester units
I think that as long as I remain aware of where God is leading me with
the gifts and opportunities that He's given me; and stay focused on serving Him, not only with my plans for the future, but with every encounter and occasion; that I'll come out quite all right. =)
We lift up our lives,
living sacrifice;
give it all, at Your call.
We need You.
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you." Psalm 32:8
Couldn't find anything exciting to upload, so here are old vacation pictures!
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| Whaaaa my interview for this research apprenticeship is tomorrow morning at 10:30! Please pray for me to have calmed nerves, and that I'd have confidence while trusting wholly in the Lord. Five people are getting interviewed...I wonder how many spots are actually available.
>_< gwargh! severe brain constipation to the point of implosion!
your subtleties--
they strangle me...
cheers for Genesis 1-2:3!
God has a plan for you, God made the way for you, God is calling you --» Respond, be courageous, be grateful, be responsible, be prayerful, and trust in Him.
How simply laid out! God made us in His image, meaning that we were endowed with all the abilities and authority to thrive in and to rule over this world--we were even commanded to do so! But we fall and we flail; despite all the reassurance and mandates that Jesus empowers us with, and even with God's pervasive love and shield as our forerunner and backup.
But You, O LORD, are a shield about me,
My glory, and the One who lifts my head.
Psalm 3:3
I'm falling down
--tumbling after You--
I'm overwhelmed,
tripping over simple truth.
In all I've found,
there's nothing that's more beautiful
than what I've found in You.
But to conclude:
It's a Propeller Hat Revolution!
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| In Christianity, the incarnational view posits that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. Now there is always much debate about who Jesus was and is, but I'm simply going to discuss the significance of Jesus being the divine personification of both man in human form and the Son from the Trinity. Many authors and theologians stress the fact that Jesus was born to save humanity through His death and resurrection; but Jesus' prominence extends even beyond His act of saving grace on Calvary and rising from the grave. And so this emphasis is far too narrow, and it abbreviates what Jesus' life means for us today, and in everyday. We must also examine how Jesus lived and how He calls us to live--consequently compelling us to live as genuine followers of Christ rather than passive believers of an end result termed heaven.
This incarnational perspective is relevant to us because it provides Jesus as the perfect model for how we should live, and it empowers us to actually conform accordingly. When we view Jesus through this lens, we see a God that desires to connect to His people--to empathize with us. Jesus allowed Himself to be lowered from heavenly places and to become like a created being--like us (Phil 2:5-8); and He did this in order to relate to us in the most intimate way, thus enabling Him to reach us in all our darkest, broken places and to bring us out from them. Jesus came to destroy religiosity (Luke 11:42, Mark 3:1-6); to feed, to heal and bring justice--to make things right (John 6, five thousand fed, woman at well, adulterer, Zacchaeus, just to name a few); to encourage caring, giving, Loving (Matt 22:36-39); and He conquered the soul sickness known as sin to empower us to live in this way. Jesus associated with the most rejected members of society, proving God's lack of partiality; and we're commanded to love even the least of these (Matt 25:31-46). Therefore, we get the most lucid example of witnessing and evangelism directly from Jesus; and these things should become our lifestyle as long as we submit to Christ's Lordship. It's worth reiterating then, that Christianity is not religion--it is a relationship and it is life. Wow, what can stand in the way of Jesus's love and all-encompassing nature? Jesus is truly Life!
"Hymn to the Only Begotten Son": - O only begotten Son and Word of God,
- Who, being immortal,
- deigned for our salvation
- to become incarnate
- of the holy Theotokos ever-virgin Mary,
- and became man without change;
- You were also crucified,
- O Christ our God,
- and by death have trampled Death,
- being One of the Holy Trinity,
- glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit—
- Save us!
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