Shared ramblings/ findings

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The 7 Habits of People Who Place Radical Trust in God

The 7 Habits of People Who Place Radical Trust in God: "

iStock 000005657754XSmall The 7 Habits of People Who Place Radical Trust in GodI read a lot of biographies and memoirs about inspiring people who place radical trust in God. (By “radical” I don’t mean reckless or imprudent, but am referring to the difficult, very counter-cultural act of recognizing God’s sovereignty over every area of our lives. More on that here.) From He Leadeth Me to God’s Smuggler, Mother Angelica to The Heavenly Man to The Shadow of His Wings, these true stories are about people from all walks of the Christian life: Catholic and Protestant, consecrated religious and lay people, men and women. And yet they all have distinct similarities in their approaches to life and the Lord.


I found it fascinating to see what common threads could be found in the lives of these incredible people who place so much trust in the Lord, and thought I’d share in case others find it inspiring as well.


1. They accept suffering


One of the most powerful things I’ve read in recent memory is Brother Yun’s story of being a persecuted pastor in China, as recounted in the book The Heavenly Man. After facing weeks of torture, including electrocution, starvation, beatings, and having needles shoved under his fingernails, he was thrown in a box that was four feet long, three feet wide, and four feet high, where he would stay indefinitely. The day after he was put in this mini cell, he felt prompted to pray for a Bible — a ridiculous idea, considering that many people were in prison at that very moment for being in possession of such contraband. Yet he prayed anyway. And, inexplicably, the guards threw a Bible into his cell the next morning. He writes:


I knelt down and wept, thanking the Lord for this great gift. I could scarcely believe my dream had come true! No prisoner was ever allowed to have a Bible or any Christian literature, yet, strangely, God provided a Bible for me! Through this incident the Lord showed me that regardless of men’s evil plans for me, he had not forgotten me and was in control of my life.


Now, the less saintly among us (cough-cough) might have reacted to that a little differently. Had I been tortured and thrown in a coffin-like cell, my reaction to receiving a Bible would have likely been more along the lines of, “Thanks for the Bible, Lord, but could we SEE ABOUT GETTING ME OUT OF THIS METAL BOX FIRST?!?!” I wouldn’t have even “counted” the Bible as an answered prayer since my main prayer — reducing my physical suffering — had gone unanswered.


Yet what I see over and over again in people like Brother Yun is that they have crystal clarity on the fact that suffering is not the worst evil — sin is. Yes, they would prefer not to suffer, and do sometimes pray for the relief of suffering. But they prioritize it lower than the rest of us do — they focus far more on not sinning than on not suffering. They have a laser focus on getting themselves and others to heaven. In Brother Yun’s case, he saw through that answered prayer that God was allowing him to grow spiritually and minister to his captors, so his circumstances of suffering in an uncomfortable cell became almost irrelevant to him.


2. They accept the inevitability of death


Similar to the above, people who place great trust in God can only do so with a heaven-centered worldview. They think in terms of eternity, not in terms of calendar years. Their goal is not to maximize their time on earth, but rather to get themselves and as many other people as possible to heaven. And if God can best do that by shortening their lifespans, they accept that.


The Shadow of His Wings is filled with jaw-dropping stories of Fr. Goldmann’s miraculous escapes from death during World War II, which begs the question, “What about all the people who didn’t escape death?” Fr. Goldmann would probably respond by saying that God saving him from death was not the blessing in and of itself — after all, every single one of us will die eventually. The blessing was saving him from death so that he could continue his ministry bringing the Gospel to the Nazis. He eventually died while building a ministry in Japan, and presumably accepted that God would bring good from his passing, even though there was undoubtedly more work he wanted to do.


3. They have daily appointments with God


I have never heard of a person who had a deep, calm trust in the Lord who did not set aside time for focused prayer every day. Both in the books I’ve read an in real life, I’ve noticed that people like this always spend at least a few moments — and up to an hour or two if circumstances permit — focused on nothing but prayer, every day. Also, they tend to do it first thing in the morning, centering themselves in Christ before tackling anything else the day may bring.


4. In prayer, they listen more than they talk


I’ve written before about my amazement that really holy people seem to get their prayers answered more often than the rest of us. I’d heard enough stories of people praying for something very specific, then receiving it, that I started to wonder if they were psychic or God just liked them more than the rest of us or something. What I eventually realized is that their ideas about what to pray for came from the Holy Spirit in the first place, because they spent so much time seeking God’s will for them, day in and day out.


So, to use the example of a famous story from Mother Angelica’s biography, she had a satellite dish delivery man at the door who needed $600,000 or he was going to return the dish, thus killing all the plans for the new station. She ran to the chapel and prayed, and a guy she’d never met randomly called and wanted to donate $600,000. Her prayer wasn’t answered because she had a personal interest in television and just really, really wanted it, but because she had correctly discerned God’s plan that she was to start a television station on this particular day.


5. They limit distractions


Of all the amazing stories in God’s Smuggler, one of the lines that jumped out to me the most in the book was in the epilogue, when the authors talk about how Brother Andrew’s work has continued in 21st century:


“I won’t even consider installing one of those call waiting monstrosities,” he exclaimed, “that interrupt one phone conversation to announce another.” Technology, Andrew says, makes us far too accessible to the demands and pressures of the moment. “Our first priority should be listening in patience and silence for the voice of God.”


Far too accessible to the demands and pressures of the moment. That line has haunted me ever since I read it. I love technology, but it does come with a huge temptation to feel a general increase in urgency in our lives: I have to reply to that email! Respond to that comment on my wall on Facebook! Ret-tweet that tweet! Read that direct message! Listen to that voicemail! Here in the connected age, we are constantly bombarded with demands on our attention. Periods of silence, where we can cultivate inner stillness and wait for the promptings of the Holy Spirit, are increasingly rare.


One thing that all the people in these books have in common is that they had very little of this pressure of false urgency. It’s hard to imagine Fr. Ciszek coming up with the breathtaking insights about God’s will that he shared in He Leadeth Me with his iPhone buzzing alerts every few minutes, or Brother Yun seeing the subtle beauty of God’s plan in the midst of persecution while keeping his Twitter status updated on a minute-by-minute basis.


6. They submit their discernment to others


People who have a long history of watching the way the Lord works in their lives notice that he often speaks through holy friends, family members and clergy. If they discern that God is calling them to something, especially if it’s something big, they ask trusted Christian confidantes to pray about the matter and see if they discern the same thing. And when others warn them not to follow a certain path — especially if it’s a spouse, confessor or spiritual director — they take those indicators very seriously.


7. They offer the Lord their complete, unhesitating obedience


One of my favorite parts of God’s Smuggler is when Brother Andrew got a visit from a man named Karl de Graaf who was part of a prayer group in which people often spent hours of time in prayer, most of it listening in silence:


I went out to the front stoop, and there was Karl de Graaf. “Hello!” I said, surprised.


“Hello, Andy. Do you know how to drive?”


“Drive?”


“An automobile.”


“No,” I said, bewildered. “No, I don’t.”


“Because last night in our prayers we had a word from the Lord about you. It’s important for you to be able to drive.”


“Whatever on earth for?” I said. “I’ll never own a car, that’s for sure.”


“Andrew,” Mr. de Graaf spoke patiently, as to a slow-witted student, “I’m not arguing for the logic of the case. I’m just passing on the message.” And with that, he was striding across the bridge.


Despite his initial hesitation, Brother Andrew discerned that this was something that God was calling him to do, so he learned to drive. It seemed like a complete waste of time, an utterly illogical use of his resources, but he was obedient to the Lord’s call. I won’t spoil what happened next for those of you who plan to read the book, but let’s just say that shortly after he received his license, it turned out to be critical to the future of his ministry (which eventually brought the Gospel to thousands of people behind the Iron Curtain) that he know how to drive.


I often think of how Mr. de Graaf responded when Brother Andrew was scratching his head about this odd message: “That’s the excitement in obedience,” he said. “Finding out later what God had in mind.”



Obviously we can’t grow closer to God by aping the actions of others, but I find lists like this helpful as a starting point for reflection on my own spiritual progress. I hope you found it helpful as well!




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Google Docs gets an Android app, lets you capture text with your phone's camera

Google Docs gets an Android app, lets you capture text with your phone's camera: "



Google's had a mobile-friendly version of Google Docs available for some time now, but it's now finally gone the extra step and released a dedicated Android app. That will of course let you access and edit your documents on your smartphone, but the real standout feature is the ability to capture text with your phone's camera and have it instantly made editable thanks to some optical character recognition. Google notes that won't work with handwriting or some fonts, but it promises it will get better over time. Hit up Android Market to try it out for yourself.

Google Docs gets an Android app, lets you capture text with your phone's camera originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAndroid Market, Google Mobile Blog  | Email this | Comments"

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Coffee Joulies: Keep Your Coffee or Tea Hot For Hours

Coffee Joulies: Keep Your Coffee or Tea Hot For Hours: "

2011-04-25-CoffeeJoulies.jpgWhen I first saw this, I thought for sure it was a belated April Fool's joke. Over-sized metal coffee beans that can keep your coffee at perfect temperature for hours without reheating? Yeah, right. But believe it or not, these magic beans are real.



According to the product's Kickstarter page, these beans will cool down your scalding hot coffee to an acceptable 140° Fahrenheit and then hold it around that temperature for as long as five hours.
How is this possible? The creators of the product, Dave and Dave, have developed a substance they call "Phase Change Material" that is designed to melt and absorb excess energy until it reaches 140°F. At that point, the material begins to release the stored energy, thus maintaining the temperature of the coffee.
Dave and Dave reassure us that their joulies are perfectly safe. Not only is the heat-absorbing material itself "100% edible food-grade magic," but each bean is coated with food-grade stainless steel. They say the beans can be run through the dishwasher and can be re-used indefinitely.
The project is currently 6 days away from their Kickstarter deadline, but they've already surpassed their fundraising goal by leaps and bounds. Reading between the lines, it sounds like the joulies will cost about $50 for a package of five and the first round will be shipped out within 12 weeks after the Kickstarter fundraiser ends.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Termites eat millions at a bank in India

Termites eat millions at a bank in India

Termites chow on Indian currency: A bank in India opened a vault to find termites had eaten through millions of rupees, Friday.

It was an all you can eat buffet at the bank.
An army of termites munched through 10 million rupees ($222,000) in currency notes stored in a steel chest at a bank, police in northern India said Friday.

The bank manager discovered the damage when he opened the reinforced room in an old bank building on Wednesday, police officer Navneet Rana told The Associated Press.
"It's a matter of investigation how termites attacked bundles of currency notes stacked in a steel chest," he said. The money was put in the chest in January.
The termites had damaged bank furniture and documents in the past.
The police have registered a case of negligence against bank officials in Barabanki, a town 20 miles southwest of Lucknow, the Uttar Pradesh state capital. In India, police register a case before opening an investigation.

Abandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculptures

Abandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculptures: "

Project
Spomeniks

Photography
Jan Kempenaers

Link
jankempenaers.info

Abandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculpturesAbandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculpturesAbandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculpturesAbandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculpturesAbandoned Soviet Monuments are amazing architectual sculptures"

One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco

One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco: "

186 One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco

Thirty five years ago I had yet to be born, but artist Scott Weaver had already begun work on this insanely complex kinetic sculpture, Rolling through the Bay, that he continues to modify and expand even today.

I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. I also have many friends and family members that collect toothpicks in their travels for me. For example, some of the trees in Golden Gate Park are made from toothpicks from Kenya, Morocco, Spain, West Germany and Italy. The heart inside the Palace of Fine Arts is made out of toothpicks people threw at our wedding.

257 One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco
343 One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco
434 One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco

Full article.


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Thursday, April 21, 2011

An Honourable Photoshop Master- BaoJun Yuan

An Honourable Photoshop Master- BaoJun Yuan: "

Baojun Yuan is a member of China Senior Photographers Association. He is highly respected by Chinese people. Why? In the past nine years, Mr. Yuan has repaired more than 2000 old photos for residents for free. Course it is not surprising enough if you have no idea about this great man. Mr. Yuan is 76 years old now. He didn’t know Photoshop until his was 60 years old. Mr. Yuan learned repairing skills from a teacher and was soon skilled in it. Considering that repairing old photos is too expensive for most of the residents to afford, Mr. Yuan himself bought a computer and a scanner and began service people without any charge. In his words “my teacher just taught me how to repair the photos, but he forgot to tell me how to charge”.
Let’s have a look at Mr. Yuan’s works with respect.



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