So, I go away for a few months and come back to see . . . what the heck? How come the blog entry titles are no longer linked (and therefore a different font color and size)? They’re simply the bold version of the type for the blog body...which depending on the font you use, sometimes make it seem even smaller? How do I change the formatting of individual blog entry titles? When I was using Xanga regularly, Xanga used to improve with time, not get simplistic and worse, design wise. Grr....guess it’s my fault for being away for so long.

Just something I want to share. As Pastor OJ taught Simone and me in the 2+ years of one-on-one Bible study, there is no such thing as a wasted word in the Bible. Recently, I started re-reading and studying the book of ROMANS, and just as OJ did when he went through EPHESIANS with us, I have been trying to truly comprehend every word and ask “what is it saying?”

So, in a simple opening of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we find more than just a letter’s standard greeting in Paul’s words in ROMANS 1:1–7.

Beautiful, isn’t this? Just as in this greeting, there is Truth in every morsel of the Bible. Not one word is wasted.

For those Christians out there, never stop reading and studying God’s Word. Never let this world’s ways lead you to believe that you no longer need to be refreshed in our Lord’s enriching guidance through the book which He made certain we would have. It is (and should be) all we need. Enjoy your reading!

So this is the quintessential example of why I should not be blogging my thoughts—shotgun style—in the middle of the night and in the midst of angrily doing office-work.

I am sorry if I offended or hurt anyone with what I said in that post. The “disappointments” I felt and the things I wrote of were not directed at those whom I count as friends at CCCNJ. Those friends, and especially my mentors there: we will continue to be friends and hopefully can keep in touch for many, many years. We will miss them dearly in not being able to worship together on Sundays.

The “disappointments,” however, are a generational issue. What I wrote about is probably typical of most immigrant-based churches (English Ministry (E.M.) of Korean churches, for example) and the issues of the English generation that comes out of the main congregation. There is an inherent disconnect between the two generations and congregations, and while we seek to worship God in the same place of worship, the various physical and spiritual needs are different. So long as the English congregation is considered the subordinate congregation, the needs—most importantly, the spiritual needs—will not be met adequately.

Odd. Over the years that I (and later, my wife and I) have been attending CCCNJ, we’ve seen people come and go. I always wondered when people left, why there wasn’t some sort of...I don’t know...send off? Or, maybe a “hey, where’re ya headed off to?” or “why are ya headed off?” Something like that, I guess. Of those who’d mentored me over the years there, many have left for a host of reasons, some personal and some church-related. But, as far as I knew, no one ever seemed to approach them about it, or seemed perturbed at the movement of those leaving.

Now, I think, I know the feeling. You just kind of go. And, that’s about it.

After a few weeks or months, some people might scratch their heads and say, “hmm...what ever happened to [so and so],” and that would be pretty much it. I guess that’s the way it is.

So, yeah. I guess this is it.

A colleague who has been gruff to me for a long time now — despite training her in what she does as well as providing various forms of assistance since she was hired — was at the fax machine (which sits outside my office) several times today. All afternoon. She would walk up to the machine, stare at the read-out screen, stare at the paper she had inserted in the fax position and, frustrated, leave. For 2+ hours, she kept coming back to the machine, hoping that her fax had been sent. Alas, no.

Knowing that she would not appreciate my help (she had not been responding to me at all and brushes aside my usual “good mornings,” etc.), I held my tongue, including any offer to help. After the 2+ excruciating hours, however, I could not help it, but wanted to stop this madness.

At 4:30, when I saw her go to the fax machine again, I asked, “are you trying to fax something?” She hesitatingly said “yes.” But, as I got up to help, she grabbed her paper and walked away, saying (with obvious disgust in her voice at having to interact with me) “um, that’s alright, thanks.”

What I had noticed earlier and what she failed to do all this time was to HIT THE SEND BUTTON!

Early this morning, a colleague and I were discussing our socialistic-fueled approach to fixing the U.S. economy. Granted, we were smart enough not to name it socialistic or anything akin to that political idea—Americans are too myopic to grasp the advantages of some sort of socialism without going insane about the perils of governmet control and referencing doomsday scenarios by name dropping the likes of Marx, Lenin, Stalin or Mao.

Anyway, instead of just giving billions to corporations to keep them afloat, the government should require that each company partaking in this charity (read: socialism) promise not to lay off any of their employees and promise to overlook their desires to make a profit for the next year as WE ALL ride out this recession. After all, how will the economy bounce back if more and more people are laid off? We will never bounce back if companies take the charity offered by the government with one hand while with the other handing out pink slips to their employees so that the company can continue to make a profit. Yeah, I know, this is capitalism and it’s dog-eat-dog so who cares about employees, right? If companies have been able to dupe the government into keeping them afloat at the expense of their employees, so what right? They’ve found a way to win!

Somehow, all of this sounds insane....but it’s the current reality. Can someone—perhaps someone much more intelligent than me—explain how all of us will continue to function like this?

. . .

Well, this brings me to the “funeral” part of this blog. Beginning later on this same morning, the company I work for began laying off 10% of the staff. My department was hit curiously deeper than others: 40% of our colleagues were eliminated in one unceremonious act. The irony is that I work for a non-profit, but the rationale for the cuts was “to maintain the [profit] margins” — [um, care to explain that?] (that’s a topic for another blog/rant).

By the grace of God—who has quite an interesting sense of humor—I was spared the ax . . . this time. It was like attending a funeral today in the office. I can’t help but think this funeral was bigger than just a company or a city, more like a country or an entire world.

Merry Christmas
• wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas celebration •

from the fullness of His grace we have
all received one blessing after another
JOHN 1:16

Office? Cubicle? Neither yet both. The Coffice.

Every single day, I see things—scenes of life, living portraits of people in their every day lives and/or simple views of my own daily life—which I want to capture in photography. And yet, even carrying a camera with me sometimes, I don’t. That’s about to change (I hope).

Day 1 | “Muji”
Canon Powershot SD500

On Saturday night, I started my version of the popular Flickr Group Project 365. Take as many photos per day as possible, but post one photo taken each day for the next year. 365 days, 365 photos. My own rule is that I can take up to 5 days to “catch up” with my postings (as opposed to the 3-day “rule” on Flickr). While I want to make sure I’m serious about this, I also must account for my crazy busy regular schedule and increasingly responsibilities of my “real” job.

Day 2 | “Shroud”
Canon Powershot SD500

So, here are the first 2 days, from last Wednesday and Thursday, November 12 and 13. Click them to follow to my Flickr account, where you’ll find details and descriptions of the shots and where the rest of the series will be posted.

It’s been a long time. Life—work, baby—has kept me from reading your blogs and writing my own thoughts during this momentous time in U.S. history. But I must say this, at no other time in my life have I truly grasped how incredibly important the United States was to the rest of the world. On my FB page, I posted the following comments:

After having followed the presidential campaign closely for more than a year, I am firmly convinced that the election of Senator Obama would send a powerful message of renewal and hope not just to the US, but to the rest of the world as well.
R.G., Heidelberg, Germany

Have you voted yet? We are all counting on you....
N.R., Oxford, UK

I have never experienced such incredible desire from outside the U.S.—as evidenced from news coverage from around the globe—for change in America and how that change would benefit not only Americans but the rest of the world.

My parents, after 35 years of living in the United States, their distaste of everything George W. Bush and anything Republican has caused them to vote for the very first time. They are proudly and loudly proclaiming their vote for Senator Barack Obama.

Whether you were for Barack Obama or John McCain, now more than ever, we need to put differences behind us and work together to rebuild a better, stronger (and not just in being able to start wars type of way) America that leads the world by examples of kindness, solidarity and peace. Senator McCain’s concession speech was an incredible example of grace, one which I admired greatly from one who lost such a drawn-out and combative election. One would have hoped that that John McCain had shown up at any time during the election campaign: he might have had a better chance.