The Cost & Comfort

The Life of Paul

The Cost

2 Corinthians 10:23-28

...far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches

The Comfort

1 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Adoption

Psalm 27:10

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.

The Poor

I'm interested in all types of poverty.

Your Dress Code Makes Me...

Piping Rock Club - Dress Code


Dining Room Dress Code

• Upstairs Bar/Terrace - During the day, tennis or golf attire may be worn. Gentlemen must not wear hats or caps in the Clubhouse. Workout attire should only be worn in the tennis building, exercise room or locker room.
• After 6 p.m. in the Club’s Upstairs Bar, jackets must be worn, but ties are optional.
• Main Clubhouse Dining RoomAfter 6 p.m. gentlemen and boys over fourteen must wear jackets and ties.

Golf Dress Code

• Gentlemen - Traditional golf shirts, tucked in, with collars and sleeves. Bermuda length shorts or golf slacks. Cargo-type shorts and pants are not considered appropriate attire.
• Ladies - Traditional golf shirts or blouses, with or without sleeves. Golf skirts, golf slacks or golf shorts with a minimum length of 18 inches as measured down from the bottom of the waistband.

Tennis Dress Code

All white tennis attire is required on all courts at all times – no exceptions, including warm-ups, sweatshirts and hats. From October 1st to April 30th, colored tennis warm-ups and sweatshirts are acceptable over all white tennis clothes. Collared shirts for men’s play. Improperly attired players will be asked to leave the courts.

Squash Dress Code

All white tennis wear including sweatshirts, warm-ups and hats are required for all matches in tournaments throughout the year. Colored warm-ups and sweatshirts are acceptable over all white tennis clothes. Protective eyewear is required of all players. In addition, we ask that you have two pairs of sneakers (proper non-marking sneakers) if you wish to mix squash and tennis.

Croquet Dress Code

All white attire (“tennis whites” are customary) is requested, and is required for all tournament matches. In addition, croquet players must wear tennis sneakers or similar lightly treaded shoes without heels or with soft rubber heels (such as “topsiders”) to avoid damaging the playing surface.

In Your Ear

Song of the week:

Vespers (All Night Vigil), Opus 37 - Sergei Rachmaninoff

This was bliss in the midst of drudgery.

ReversesreveR

Sanford Meisner championed a closely related version of Method acting which came to be called the Meisner technique. Meisner advocated fully immersing oneself in the moment. He taught actors to achieve spontaneity by understanding the given circumstances of the scene and through exercises he designed to help actors invest emotionally in the scene, freeing them to react honestly as the character. Meisner described acting as "living truthfully under imaginary circumstances."

Interesting. It seems like, in our image-conscious society, real life is "living disinegenuously under real circumstances."

my eX came bcak toi me :) :P !!!!!!!!

Aside from work and church I've been in the netherworld of business school admissions. It's a zoo. It's a crazy, animalistic, ridiculous zoo.

BusinessWeek MBA forums are a bit of a virtual stomping ground for people like me who are going through this b-school process.

The first message I saw today:

• "My ex came back to me after I got into Wharton :p"

Thanks Timothy_Smith!

Harvard is coming out with final decisions for Round 2 applicants. Here are some recent posts on the Harvard thread:

• "I tried to take a nap and kill time - but i couldn't even close my eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  Good luck with yoru sleep P :)"
• "my GF told me she will leave me if i dont get HBs or Stanford :)- She is a b*tch!"
• "Although i was admissted toi columbi and wharton, she wants Stanford and HBS only - :) :)"

Ladies and Gents, these are your future business leaders of America. They...

• overuse emoticons :P
• cant splel or punctuatte; correctly
• capitalize incorRectly
• and use too many exclamation points!!!!!!!

And my dearly beloved University of Pennsylvania: What the heck are you doing?

You are admitting all the wrong people to Wharton - people that should get in aren't, and people that shouldn't be getting in are. I am sOO disappoitned in you!!!! >:{} But I'm sure you don't care - you have no soul or conscience, you only have revenues and profits.

*Note: I did not apply to Wharton - I got plenty of it in undergrad

Africa Reflections 4 - Theology

Theology and doctrine are extremely important to me. Few other things in this world, whether material, ideological, philosphical, etc., cause a deeper emotional response than theology.

I rejoice in biblically sound and God-centered theology. I feel angusish, anger, and even...hatred, toward unsound, man-centered theology. I believe God reacts the same way.

In America, dealing with conflicting theologies has been somewhat straight forward. With those that I agree with, I read/teach their books, listen to their sermons & attend their conferences. With those I disagree with, their books stay off the shelf (Read @ B&N / borrow, but don't buy) and their sermons stay off the iPod. And then, I may mention their names (Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyers, T.D. Jakes, etc.) so that others don't get misled by them.


In Africa, I pondered this conflict somewhat differently. We visited various organizations with varying theology. I had to ask:

• How similar must our theology be in order for us (me / church) to be willing to partner with that organization?
• Where must we agree, and where can we allow for some disagreement?
• Does the work of saving lives, helping the impoverished...supercede a the necessity for theological alignment in some areas?

There are a lot more questions to ask, but those were a few.

My temporary personal conclusion is that, given the reality in Africa*, we can partner with organizations that:

• are evangelical (excludes Mormons & JWs, but includes various denominations - Pentacostal, Lutheran, Baptist, etc.)
• but specifically not affiliated with the prosperity & self-help Gospel (Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyers, Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, etc.)

So I am essentially saying that there are instances where the work being done by the organization supercedes some areas of theological misalignment, but not all, when it comes to potential for partnership. Therefore, partnering with an organization is not necessarily an endorsement of their theology, but it is an endorsement for the work it is doing.

So...a couple of personal lessons / reminders:

1) Keep your theological gun clean. By that I mean, we must always guard our life and our doctrine. There are no exceptions or excuses to compromise on teaching, preaching, defending, right theology and doctrine.
2) But don't use it to shoot at everyone, everywhere, all the time. Just some, in the right places, at the right time.

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*"given the reality in Africa" - at least from my understanding based on a week in Kenya and Uganda, no single denomination / theological camp is the only organization serving a given major constituency. For example - Lutherans, non-denominational Christians, and prosperity-Gospel ministires all help orphans. So, our decision to not work with prosperity-Gospel ministires doesn't mean we abandon helping orphans entirely. However, there aren't that many ministries present that we have the 'luxury' to shop around till we find one that believes everything we believe.