A Night on the Town

Fall 2005 with friends from American University

Metro Musings ii

On the train to work this morning, I was reading Conversation 1 from a small book titled "The Practice of the Presence of God." I was inspired to write the following poem:

Practicing the Presence of God

What does it mean to practice the presence of God?

Shall we always walk in humble obedience?
Should our heads hang low conscious of the weight of His glory?
Should our hearts sing with unspoken praise at the works of the Creator?

Yes, yes and yes.

The presence of God is indeed
a humbling, weighty, and joyful place.

It sustains us in times of deep and mournful trials,
It surrounds us in the midst of dangerous toils and difficult passes.
But most of all it is the evidence

of our relationship
our ongoing conversation
our painful walk and glorious journey

with Christ our Father and our friend.

The Big Apple Digest(ed)

Click here to see the pictures!

So I had a great time in New York. I took the bus from DC straight to Penn Station where my friend Yao's girlfriend Monica picked me up. We headed to the Empire State Building for a look of New York at night. Then back to their apartment and a hello to Yao.

Saturday Monica and I tried on Marc Jacob shoes in Bloomingdales and pretended we had enough money for the furs. I don't think the sales staff believed us :) We met Yao for a walk in Central Park which was by far the best part of the day. Then Yao went back to work and Monica and I went to Union Square and The Strand - a great New York bookstore. That night we all went to Monica's friend's birthday party out in Queens. Monica is Polish and so are most of her friends. We had a great time drinking, eating, drinking, telling jokes, drinking...until 3 am. That's a party!



Sunday morning, the three of us were too lazy to do much of anything. We finally dragged ourselves out of bed to the local deli for some amazing New York bagels. Then back to the apartment for a quick nap after all that rigorous eating. Finally we managed to drag ourselves into the city (they live in Queens) for a meander down Fifth Avenue. We stopped at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, and managed to avoid a run in with the police outside of Madison Square Garden where they were trying to maintain order after a Knicks game. A fight almost broke out and it was so cool to see masses of cops swarm across the street to break it up. I wanted to hang around and watch but Monica and Yao were dragging me away. Then back onto the bus and home, home, home again I went.



The weather was cold but New York was fun and I had a great time with Monica and Yao. We've already made a list of things to do for when I come back which hopefully will be soon!

Click here to see the pictures!

Start Spreading the News...

I'm leaving today. I'm gonna be a part of it...New York, New York! So this afternoon I'm headed to New York City for the weekend. I'm visiting a friend there and I'm a little nervous. I'm not a huge fan of New York and the last time I was there, I didn't enjoy myself at all. I'm hoping to change that situation by this trip this weekend. It should be fun. I'm taking the bus from DC up to New York and my friend Jessica told me that they have great movies on this bus line! Goodie! I'll post pictures when I return.

New York or Bust!

Meditation on the Journey

Last night at my Journey small group we explored the topics of meditation and memorization as related to the Scriptures. We did a simple meditation exercise on the verse "Jesus wept." My initial reaction was to the word wept as images of weeping, heartbreak, intense pointed pain, tears, sobs, a body wracked with grief came to mind. Intense, large scale emotion. In contrast, the images of Jesus as the most compassionate, in control, strong, healthy, omnipotent God came to mind and the two words seemed incompatible at first blush.

So why did Jesus weep? He was a man and his best friend was dead. And yet Christ knew of his death and waited four days to come and still he wept? Doesn't make sense to me. Then I thought of why do people weep. For joy, for sadness, out of frustration, out of accomplishment.

Perhaps Jesus was weeping because he lost his friend. Perhaps he also wept because of the lack of faith he perceived in those that were at the scene.

Perhaps he wept in anticipation of the miracle that God the Father was going to perform in front of him. Perhaps he wept because he could see the thousands of people that would be "raised from the dead" in years to come through salvation.

Perhaps he wept at his impending death. Perhaps he wept to show respect, to join with the culture, to join in fellowship with those who were mourning.

All we know is that Jesus wept. And that is comforting.

Lent Anyone?

Today is Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. In the Catholic faith tradition, this is the time to "fast" or give up something in preparation for Easter. This year I have decided to give up television. I hope to fill the time getting more into the Bible and spending more time in prayer and devotional activities. I also want to have more time in general and think that letting go of TV for a while will help in that way.

The only shows that I think I will miss not seeing are the Oscars, The Amazing Race, and a new show on TLC called "Little People, Big World". Tivo anyone?