|
jonfu
|
read my profile
sign my guestbook
Name: Jonathan
Birthday: 12/7/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: FIGHT ON! ~USC- GO TROJANS!
I love God and I love people. I think those two would explain my passions in life. Other than that, I love playing guitar, tennis, golf, and hanging out with people.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Dentistry
Message: message me
Member Since:
3/23/2003
|
|
| 1 year down and only less than 3 years to go! whoo! i just finished my first whole year at USC. congrats to the 2010s.
| | |
| I have to admit. Life has been quite stressful lately. I feel like the Lord is bringing me back to teaching me about patience and trust; patience because dentistry is about being patient with your projects and trust because there are so many things out of my control. As it is, I like things to be under control. Reality strikes and the fact is that things can never be under my control which many times truly sucks. But sometimes it's reassuring to know for a fact that God has it under control; I just have to remind myself of the places He's brought me to and the situations He's brought me through. I am assured that I'll look back on this time and see why God has me (and my family) where we are...much like the old Footprints poem where the man looks back at the steps He's taken with the Lord and asks God why there was only one set of footprints during the hardest times of his life. The Lord responds saying that He had carried him during those hard times.
If you could, would you pray for my mom as her tumor markers have gone up a little lately (not to an alarming level however). For those of you who don't know, my mom has been battling breast cancer for the last 7 years (4 years since recurrence).
| | |
| We finally started Head and Neck Anatomy...the class most health
professional students probably have thought about the most. When we
first opened the cloth that covered the body, I heard gasps, 'oh my
gosh,' 'wow'... About 10 minutes later, most of us were okay although
there were a few people standing by the wayside.
Something about seeing a dead body for the first time strikes feelings/thoughts/emotions that aren't usually conjured. I've dissected cats, frogs, pigs and performed surgeries on cats but I have never touched a cold dead human. Before we began dissecting our body who we named 'Ingrid', I looked up her cause of death and her age. She lived to a long 90 years of age, and she passed on because of heart complications. While she lived a long life, I have no idea what her life was like or what she accomplished and I never will know. All I had in front of me was a biologically dead body. Yet, without a doubt, I knew that 'Ingrid' is/was more than just the body that I saw in front of me. And without a doubt, we will all end up on that table where our body will lay dead. No more ATP production, no more muscle contraction, no heart beat...
It sounds morbid, but it reminded me of what life is about and what it's not about. It's not all about success, money, sex, fame, personal glory like the world makes us believe. Instead, it's about 'true-life', love, hope, humility, giving, sacrifice. When I end up on that table I hope I could say that I have vested into things that last- things that will last into eternity.
After today, I was more convinced of my faith in the living God. I think everyone who really thinks hard about the complexity of anatomical function and design has to somehow conclude that someone or some being designed it. Just as one marvels at a Ferrari, we should marvel at a human body - even a dead one- and ask who designed that?
I'll end my entry here with a verse that I read today...for God is..."the God who GIVES LIFE to the dead and CALLS things that are not as though they were." (Romans 4:17 with emphasis). God GIVES life and HE only CALLS things into being which of course includes us.
| | |
| I just started reading John Piper's book called "The God Entranced Vision of All Things." In this book, Piper details the life of Jonathan Edwards and what he preached. Essentially, Piper aligns his theology with Edwards'; that God created us that we would find our our FULL pleasure and satisfaction in God alone.
Here's a paragraph to digest on:
"This is...the difference between the joy of the hypocrite and the joy of the true saint. The [hypocrite] rejoices in himself; self is the foundation of his joy: the [true saint] rejoices in God....True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the sweet idea of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of God. And this is the spring of all their delights, and the cream of all their pleasures....But the dependence of the afections of hypocrites is in a contrary order: they first rejoice...that they are made so much of by God; and then on that ground, he seems in a sort, lovely to them."
Are we those that say "thank you Jesus for loving ME..." and stop there or do we continue on by saying "...that I can delight in your perfect and glorious self for all of eternity"?
I think most of us think that God has it in for us to suffer - I mean, just look around the imperfectness of this world. But that is not what God has it in for us; He has made it that we can enjoy Him. However, to enjoy Him takes some deep contemplation alone; is God indeed glorious, worthy...is He good?
That God is indeed GOOD is where we should begin. I think we much too often focus on US that God's goodness doesn't seem very good at all.
Let's encourage one another to live passionate lives for God for He is good! The only way to show others who don't know this GOOD God is to show them that God is indeed GOOD in our lives and let that resonate with all of our being even if it means that we must sacrifice our comfort zone.
| | |
| Some good words from Rick Warren:
God's Word give us this sober
advice: "It is better to spend your
time at funerals than at festivals. For you are going to die, and you should
think about it while there is still time. Sorrow is better than laughter,
for sadness has a refining influence on us. A wise person thinks much about
death, while the fool thinks only about having a good time now."
Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 (NLT)
Death reminds us that life is temporary.
Death reminds us that life is a trust. Death reminds us that life is a test.
Death reminds us that this life is not all there is, that this planet is broken
by sin, that we were created for something much better, and that we must make
sure we get to know God while here on earth.
| | |
|
