no man is an island

No man is an island, entire of itself. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
- John Donne

Being involved in mankind is intimidating, because when you get involved (like John Donne points out) you realize that everyone is ultimately connected to each other and we are responsible for one another. For too long I have been using the cop out of fear to justify my lack of knowledge and involvement in the injustices and brokenness of this world. I am afraid to show mercy to the poor, spend time with hurting children, to witness the pain of dying people because I know that I will get my heart involved and it will break and be wrecked. This fear is what has stopped me from going on the many mission and outreach opportunities that have come my way. Selfish, I know.
This past week and a half has been a huge wake up call for me. Redeemer held a Social Justice week and as I sat there listening to the facts and seeing the images I couldn't help but feel so incredibly guilty. What I have done to show Christ's heart to those who need to see it the most?
So many times I felt helpless, hopeless, and my heart wrenched for the world. God was tugging at me, and I have realized that I am not satisfied and never will be just to sit back and do nothing. I want to touch people's lives with love, I want to make a difference in this world. I know that it won't be easy getting involved but I also know that God's powerful presence is with His people when they seek to do His will.
I forget who said it but this statement hit me pretty hard. "God breaks your heart so that your hands will be more willing to serve."

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear, then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I

- Isaiah 58

Bono said, "Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Get involved in what God is doing, because it's already blessed."

More than ever it is evident what God is doing, His heart is with the hurting, His heart is with the poor, His heart is for the dying, and that is where mine should be also.

Jack Bauer my hero

Maybe I am a little enthralled by him, or maybe this is a completely normal reaction...

tetris - good for the brain

According to Richard Haier, et al. prolonged Tetris activity can also lead to more efficient brain activity. When first playing Tetris, brain function and activity increases, along with greater cerebral energy consumption, measured by glucose metabolic rate. As Tetris players become more proficient, their brains show a reduced consumption of glucose, indicating more efficient brain activity.

riddles

Try these out and see if you can answer them! I'll post the answers later.

What row of numbers comes next?
1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221

A woman has 7 children, half of them are boys.
How can this be possible?

I cannot be felt, seen or touched;
Yet I can be found in everybody;
My existence is always in debate;
Yet I have my own style of music.
What Am I?

The word CANDY can be spelled using just 2 letters.
Can you figure out how?

There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?

I soar without wings, I see without eyes.
I've traveled the universe to and fro.
I've conquered the world, yet I've never been anywhere but home.
Who am I?

In a major league baseball game, a pitcher faced only 27 batters. Every batter he faced, he struck out. He allowed no hits and no runs, yet his team lost 4-0. How could this be?

welcome Ree!

My dear fellow dormie and friend now has a blog! :)

www.reejoys.blogspot.com

would you rather...

I know we have all had the 'would you rather' discussion at one time or another.

Would you rather be able to fly or be able to breathe underwater?
Would you rather be lost in the artic or the desert?
Would you rather need to sleep at least 12 hours a day or need no sleep at all?
Would you rather be unvincible or be able to feel no pain?
Would you rather drink skim milk or pond water?

Typically, it is fun to be able to think about which one we would choose, its not like it would ever happen anyways. However, a couple of weeks ago we had this convorsation and this question came up:

Would you rather to love and lose or not to love at all?

At first the answer seemed pretty straight forward, of course you would pick to be able to love. After all the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return. But on second thought, would you still want to allow yourself to love even though you knew you were going to lose them? It is safe not to love. Sure you will miss out on a lot, but you would also save yourself emense heartache.
Tonight at our devos it was pointed out that fear is the opposite of love. I can definately see why. If I would know that I was going to lose a person I love, I would become afraid to love them.
Love is a choice, every day we make a conscience decision to love the people around us. We are given the choice not to love. This aspect of love makes it so dangerous. You hear of so many married couples getting a divorse or long-time friendships becoming hogwash. Can people fall out of love? Can true friendship just fall to pieces? In my opinion, No. Somewhere along the line there was the decision not to love. We can control how we love, who we love, and what we love. We have control over this aspect in our lives - kinda scarey to think about eh?
However, the fact that we can choose to love gives it aspects that are so much more special, strong, and admirable. This makes love the greatest thing on the face of the earth. Love is able to conquer all because it is not based on feelings like the other 'emotions' we experience.

That is why I would choose to love and lose than not love at all.

why michael hates toby...

Tonight I went on youtube and watched numerous clips from the show 'The Office.' I laughed, I cried, I laughed until I cried...

another year is dawning

Wow, what a great year.
The year of 2006 was a lesson on change. This past year I left home for the first time and embarked on the experience of Univeristy. When I graduated from grade 12 I was a pretty confident person, I knew what I wanted in life, thought I knew who I was, and going to off to Redeemer was just the next step.
God threw me for a loop or two and this past year was nothing like I expected. These loops turned out to be big learning curves. I have grown so much in every area of my life and I have realised that I will never stop be amazed at what I have yet to learn. That being said, I look forward to what this coming year holds, it's sure to be interesting to say the least! Life is never dull around here.

Highlights of 2006
- surprise trip to Niagra Falls for my 19th birthday
- the Banquet
- Mike taking me to a Delirious? concert
- the many hours on the tractor this summer which allowed me to memorize the lyrics to all the country tunes
- painting the fence, not so much a highlight but it is what my summers days consisted of so it's kinda imprinted on my memory.
- our first family vaction in 6 years to Kingdom Bound
- defeating my fear of heights and rollercoaster by going on Superman
- being a camp counsellor at camp Adonai
- star gazing on the night when there was a meteor shower
- surviving the Senate Budget Meeting, 21 hours, longest meeting of my life!
- going to the Christian Farmers dinner with Liz
- the mouldy wrap fight with Ree and all that entailed, except for the huge goose egg on my noggen
- beating the guys (dorm 34) in the first snow battle of the season
- all the great late night discussions
- The Office marathons and laughing until I cried while watching them (I'm on withdrawl)
- the Christmas break that involved Dance Dance Revolution, endless chocolate, lots of snow, the Sound of Music, winning my fist game of Monopoly, many games of Wizard, 24 hour flu (not so nice), literally jumping into the new year and the almost detrimental face masks. It was great.