waking up

Not my will, but Your will.

An old e-mail…

***

On 4/27/05, Elton Lin wrote:

Warren Lain!

What’s happening? Your mom passed me your info – hope you’re doing well.
I just wanted to see how things were going and when you’ll be coming
back. What have you decided about your future? Are you going to be
staying down there? Would you consider coming up here and helping us
plant this church?

That last one obviously requires more info/clarification… let me know
how your plans look and if we can find some time to hang out or at least
talk on the phone. Take it easy man.

Elton

***

Ridiculous.

So I touched one of these last week at my student’s place:

Click

The dog knocked my electric guitar case into this cactus, which kind of broke, so all I could think of was picking it back up in hopes of keeping it alive. It didn’t look like a cactus at the time. It just looked like this green cucumber-kinda thing with some thin, yellow hair on it. So I kind of grabbed it and tried to put it back on its broken stump. Then I noticed that as soon as I had my hand back and moved it, it felt like at least 20 needles had been jabbed into my entire hand, all the way from my palms through the insides of my kickles up to my fingertips. They were smaller than splinters, and really looked like little, bright, yellow hairs. They stuck out by less than half a centimeter… I had to pick them out with my left hand all night. Ouch.

Don’t touch cactii. Don’t buy cactii. But really, don’t touch cactii.

This same student is not gonna be here for two weeks, therefore won’t need my lessons. Goodbye $120. Gimme more students.

My parents came down to the South Bay for some random errands yesterday. I was on my way back from BAAYF Counselor Training in Oakland, so they met me for dinner. I had some Beef Noodle Soup at A&J’s in Cupertino Village. Then they bought me some Chinese market stuff. They love me a lot.

My Dad is pretty brilliant. He interprets the Word like nobody else. I was kind of telling my parents that I needed advice by sharing some stuff about my life here in San Jose… questions I had, steps to take. My dad gave me no such thing; rather, he gave me a spiritual answer. He said, “ask God.”

I gave him some room to explain. He basically told me that all you have to do to be right with God is to call on Him. To receive direction, to avoid missing Him in the middle of your times of temptation or confusion, would God not be there for you when you seek His face?

My dad said that in the beginning, God put two safegaurds in place to prevent the Fall of Man. He said that the secondary safeguard was His command “not to eat of the Tree.” He asked me if I knew the first one. I wondered, “call upon Him?” My dad said, “HIMSELF.”

The primary safeguard for Adam was His very presence. Neither Adam nor Eve looked to God for help. And certainly they didn’t ask if Satan was telling them the truth or not. My dad is crazy.

So, food for thought (then hopefully prayer, then hopefully living)… Now that we have His presence dwelling in us, we have all we need to keep from sin (missing the mark) and waywardness (missing the point).

***

I read this artice on the death of David Crowder’s pastor, Kyle Lake. A husband and father of three, a friend and brilliant teacher died by electrocution while performing a baptism. After seeing such a Godly man die in such an ironic way, one might ask the dreaded question, “Why?” The article, “Does Electrocution Happen for a Reason?” points eerily to what Kyle may have said in response to his own death. He interprets the well-known Romans 8:28 and makes it more relevant than ever to those who suffer.

Oh God, thank You! 10 months later, community is here, and it is happening!