Casting crowns.

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, during the 2009 Miss USA pageant, was asked whether or not she believed all states should legalize same-sex marriage. The obvious leader for most of the pageant, she was put in a difficult situation. Now if this was a cartoon, this would be the part where a little devil Carrie and a little angel Carrie show up bickering on either of her shoulders. She knew what answer would satisfy judge Perez Hilton (asking the question), and certainly one little deviance from the Bible – the stronghold of her worldview – couldn’t hurt. She might even reason that the fib was a necessary one, to garner her crown and title, in which case she had even bigger opportunities to serve God.

"Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not"

- Jeremiah 45:5

I’ve been contemplating the difference between God-centered ambition and self-centered ambition lately. Is it wrong to do things for your own benefit? What makes something self-centered? It is possible to do something for both God and yourself? J. Oswald Sanders writes:

“No doubt, Christians must resist a certain kind of ambition and rid it from their lives. But we must also acknowledge other ambitions as noble, worthy, and honorable. [Jeremiah 45:5] provides a warning for sorting out the difference. When our ambition carries out a burning desire to be effective in the service of God – to realize God’s highest potential for our lives – we can keep [this verse] in mind and hold [it] in healthy tension.”

Seeking goals that benefit you isn’t a sin…necessarily. But where do you draw the line?

Before Carrie could answer Perez, she first had to answer a question within herself, “Do I want to honor God more, or wear that crown more?” She had to answer truthfully to honor God, because God never gives us a temptation we can’t handle (1 Cor 10:13), so there is no excuse for sin. Had she chosen to “white lie,” she would compromise her integrity and obedience to God, revealing her intentions to be self-centered.

"It is motivation that determines ambition’s character."

Ms. Prejean ended up answering truthfully, speaking against same-sex marriage, while acknowledging it as her choice among other choices. “I did not want to offend anybody,” she commented in a later interview, “but I think with that question specifically, it's not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct…[winning] wasn't what God wanted for my life that night.” And God’s plan for her is being revealed as a better one.

You see sometimes God has a plan for you that's better than yours, and in obeying His word you'll find it. She’s gained more attention for that decision than she would have had she compromised and won Miss USA…which ended up going to…um…I forget.

Loss for words.

#3 He doesn’t know why it happened. My fingers drag across the slotted brown table, contemplatively. He wants answers. My gaze is to the table now, gripping it by the little holes, shutting out external chatter and waiting to be inspired with something to tell him.

#2 Things are beginning to crash on her once again. It doesn’t matter how much she braces herself, one little detail is enough to send her reeling into it all over again. Sympathies provide a shoddy cushion, and, over the phone, troubled silence is not so distinctive from the negligent variety. Say something.

I’ve been meditating on 2 Corinthians for a while now. The passage seems to grow in profundity the more I have these vital encounters.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Instance #1 happened about a couple weeks ago. My pastor, while in the Philippines, had congestive heart failure. He’s probably the closest person to me that’s been that close to death. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so hard. Not just for me, but for everyone in my church, and then some. At 64, he continues to affect a remarkable amount of people internationally (hence, the trip). All those nights I stayed for dinner -- I lament how much I didn’t realize I was in the presence of such a hero of faith. Everyone in the youth started texting, calling, and e-mailing reminders that at 8:00pm, no matter where we were, we would drop what we were doing and pray for Pastor Ed. It was in that time, on our knees, feeling the corporate presence of so many pleas to God, that I began to feel that comfort Paul the apostle talks about.

I think the reason I’ve struggled to say things lately is because I haven’t been listening enough. When I dig into my head and heart for some words of consolation, I try to do it by my own history of trials. I often wind up in a dead end, but I know that even if I had some poignant and trying story to share, it would only help so much. To give supernatural comfort, you need to know supernatural suffering.

That’s on the cross.

“For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too”

To know Christ, to know the sufferings he endured, is to know the salvation he offers you. Salvation not only at the first moment of faith, but also in the face of life’s daily obstacles. For in finding Christ’s sufferings, you find his comfort. And in finding his comfort, you finally find the words to say.

Oh, and Pastor Ed is doing well now. But he'll have to cut out the chocolate and lechon for a while.

If He didn’t…

If He didn’t rise,
They’d be right you know.

If He stayed in bed,
If He stayed dead,
If Christ didn’t rise,
I’d be screwed.

If He didn’t rise,
I would’ve wasted too many hours,
Waking up early, trying to pay attention, giving money,
And the worst part about it,
Is that I forgot to get the receipt for my taxes.

If He didn’t rise,
The Bible would be a sham,
And they’d be right.
Do you know that?

I'd think to myself,
The church is evil,
There probably is no evil,
If there's no evil, there's no good,
And then why on Earth --
No, why the Hell should I help someone else,
Who couldn't help me even more?

If He didn’t rise,
Prophets would be schizos and swindlers,
The disciples a bunch of dimwits,
Paul would be a tool,
And Jesus would be either a con-man or a lunatic,
Wait, a masochist...definitely a masochist.

If He didn’t rise,
Jesus wasn't God.
And you’re still in your sins.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only,
we are of all people most to be pitied.

<3 Zac.

Celebrity Trivia. Who:

Is a fresh young actor born in the 80's?
Has 2 syllables in his last name?
Has a brown boyish haircut?
Also sings and dances?











You guessed it: Me.

Oh, and Zac Efron too...but I mean we're basically the same.

I'm the one on the right.

You're either thinking one of two things right now: 1. Ugh! How dare he think he's on the same level as my hubby Zackypoo. 2. Does he really expect people to believe that just because he lists off a couple coincidences?

Ah but there's more where that came from. Let's see...we both have 3 syllables in our first name, and we also both have a second first name (Julian Charles, Zachary David). We've both seen the movie Hairspray!, we've both enrolled in school before...we both have top and bottom sets of teeth -- I mean, really, I could go on. Still not convinced? Maybe it's because despite the impressive amount of the similarities, it's still dwarfed by the innumerable amount of the differences.

So how can people chunk religions together? (c'mon, you didn't actually think this was to make a point about two prominent teen hearthrobs like Zac and me, did you?). English journalist Steve Turner puts it pretty nicely (and sarcastically):

"We believe that all religions are basically the same...they all believe in love and goodness. They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation."

Some come to think that because by third-hand experience they notice similarities in different religions, that they're all "basically the same." Even if Zac and I have similar dashing features, the very core of our physical definition - our genetic makeups - are different. Then as things trickle down into our phenotypes the discrepancy just grows, so in the end similar eye-color is pretty trivial. Likewise while there are commonalities like, say, the application to treat others as you would want to be treated, they come from completely different mindsets and world views. And that's what a religion really is, a view of the world, isn't it? Well, at least that's what it used to be.

XOXO 143 637,
Zac-- I mean Julian Efron....I mean Leong.


p.s. something for Zeitgeist fans to think about.

just wanted to let you know.

"do what makes you happy, and forget the rest"

"make love, not war"

these statements are polar opposites.

they come from polar opposite mindsets.

neither of which are practical.

and so neither of which are actually applied.

well, some did. but they're all dead.

either dead because they didn't stick up for themselves, or dead because they didn't listen to anybody else.

just wanted to let you know.

Love is Not Easier

I was inspired to write on the topic after reading Jared Wilson's entry with the same title. It wasn't long until I realized that I simply couldn't have iterated it any better. He writes:

Many of us have this weird idea that Jesus loosened things up. Some of us think that for centuries emerging from the Old Testament Law, everything was rigid and difficult, and then Jesus showed up with his peace, love, and good vibes and just told everyone to love everybody.

Why do we think it's easier to love people than it is to just be religious?

I'm not sure people who think and speak that way really even know what love is.

Maybe the reason we don't all, in the spirit of unity and rainbows, just set aside our differences and love each other is because it's really freaking hard to do that.

Just as an example, Jesus said that if you lust after somebody, it's the same as sleeping with them, and if you hate somebody, it's the same as murdering them. Where in the world would we get the idea this makes things easier? It's a lot easier to not kill somebody than it is to not hate them. It's a lot more difficult to not lust than it is to not have sex.

And it's a lot easier to follow some rules everyone can see me keep than it is to truly, actually love people.

Anybody can be on their best behavior. But to love someone who hates you? That takes Jesus and his cross.

I had to memorize a lot when I was younger.

My Sunday School teacher was always giving us verses to memorize, rewarding the first one who got it with a bag of Kellog’s Fruity Snacks. That was incentive enough for me; plus I wasn’t very good at sports, so this was about the only kind of competition I could win with my friends.

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”– Joshua 1:8

My strategy always involved first retreating to the far corner of the room, the one boxed in by a bookshelf and a couch, with just enough space to fit my scrawny frame yet keep out anything that would hinder me from victory....sweet, cherry-flavored victory. Next came chunking the phrases, attaching each with some nonsensical, mnemonic picture like a Bible glued onto a tongue or something. This, done with the eyes closed and a lot of mouthing completed the process.

I didn’t even know what the word "meditate" meant. This isn’t meditation in the sense of mental silence, quite the opposite in fact. This is meditating on a thought kind of like how a cow eats grass, consuming it and regurgitating it over and over until the grass is finally digested through the cow’s whopping four stomachs. That’s because when you do that, eventually it just...clicks.

The verse explains that the purpose of meditation is for you to know what God wants by memorizing His word, so that when you're faced with conflict, you'll know what to do. Then the verse goes on to say that by doing that, you'll prosper and be successful. There's a logic to it, like a soldier memorizing attack patterns so when it comes time for battle he'll know how to win. God maps these things out so you'll succeed.

To a smaller degree that's exactly what I was doing. I was saying those words over and over, thinking about what they meant and letting them resonate to the point where I didn't have to think about them anymore. So, in the heat of the moment, my mind stayed focused to conquer my task and acquire the coveted gummy trophy.

This verse is probably one of the most concrete in my repertoire. Funny how I never realized I was applying it. Even in my immature ways and off-center goals God designed it so I’d make this particular one stick, so that when it came time to grow up and put away childish things, to stop fighting for artificial fruit, and seek real fruit in my life, I would know how.