“go, sell, leave..”

“sometimes following jesus seems too easy” is the phrase that’s been reverberating in my head after yesterday’s sermon. tom spoke at urbana (and since i’m certain his testimony sounded familiar, i’d venture to say it was at the last urbana), and today he spoke at church.

the part of his testimony that he (re?)shared:

in high school he was quite the star, nicknamed “the celebrity” bc of the rare days he’d actually show up at school (he was traveling to various unspecified gigs). “all the asian parents said, ‘why can’t you be more like tom?’ and all the asian mothers said, ‘why can’t you date someone like tom?’” (hahah…so. asian.)

he went to harvard, with the intent of making a lot of money after graduation, but then he felt called to be a campus missionary. senior year when he was back home and having a new yrs’ eve talk with his parents about the future, he told them about what he wanted to do, and they had a 4-hr fight that ended with his mother saying emphatically, “if you do this, i will kill myself.” he said that as he left home, his parents got down on their knees with their arms outstretched and palms raised upwards, begging, “please don’t do this. our lives are in your hands.”

after he made that decision, his parents didn’t talk to him for years (his mom apologized near her deathbed 7 years later). but he also testified to God’s grace and how every time he’s had to give up something for God (including a $130,000 career when he went to silicon valley at some point in between), God’s blessed him a hundred times over (a witness to mark 10:29)

his testimony was interspersed with a message based on mark 10:17-30, with him drawing parallels between the rich young ruler and asian americans (and our various forms of “gold” e.g. financial security, success, family etc.).

he points out that in vs. 19-20, there are only 6 commandments that are listed out. specifically, they’re the ones that have to do w/ relationships; the ones we tend to think of when we think of lives well-lived, i.e. what makes a “good person.” but what are the 4 that aren’t listed? those that deal with our relationship with God.

if you have 2 hrs to spare

last night rick warren hosted a forum b/t obama and mccain (one after the other, so not a debate). here’s the transcript; here’s pt 1 of the forum, with obama (who went first) - the related videos on the side will take you to the rest.

(i haven’t watched the whole thing, but obama seems much more at ease in discussing his faith than mccain does. not that this is how we should pick a presidency, but mccain’s the one who’s supposed to be depending on the evangelical vote, no?)

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

i know you already know this, but…phelps just won his 8th gold medal (and a cool million from speedo to boot)!!

(haha, over the past week i’ve come to know his body better than mine (based on the repeated analyses of his physique): 6′ 4” height;  legs of a 6′ 0” man; torso of a 6′ 8” man; 6′ 7” wingspan; size 14 feet, double-jointed (ankles?), “hands the size of dinner plates” etc.)

ahhhh! i’m so excited for him. my whole family was screaming at the TV for the last relay.

man..in these games alone, everything from setting 7 wr to winning by .01 s…one night he was tied for most number of gold medals won in a career (9) ; the next night he was tied for most number of gold medals won in a single olympics (7), and the night after that he beat all that (8, obviously).

i know for those who don’t really keep up with swimming, nbc’s coverage of him must have seemed exhaustive to the point of obnoxious (esp since phelps doesn’t really seem to say much in interviews other than “uh..i’m at a loss for words” haha..but course they interview him after every race and for the longest amount of time compared to the other swimmers), but seriously, this guy is the greatest athlete everrrr.

and it’s easy to root for him: i think a french newspaper commented on how he was a gentleman after the 4 X 100 free relay - he congratulated the french anchor (bernard) even though bernard had been trash-talking the american team + the nyt has written a couple of articles comparing him favorably to spitz bc michael’s a teamplayer, “one of the guys,” “ebullient” etc. while spitz seemed dour after his historic moment and his teammates kind of hated him.

hahaha..ew

so TIME apparently found this important enough to report: matthew mcconaughey is planting his newborn son’s placenta.

hot potato

after my mom gave birth to my brother & i, she didn’t wash her hair for 30 days bc chinese wisdom says that your hair follicles (pores?) open up after you give birth so if you take showers before they close up, you’ll be more susceptible to headaches later on in life (uncle daniel says a white coworker didn’t follow this advice and now has a lot of headaches.) but ew. i can’t even go a day without washing my hair, much less 30. yet another reason to adopt, hah.

seahorses and sea dragons are good to boil in some sort of concoction that’s supposed to make you taller. but they’re also illegal in the u.s. bc they’re an endangered species? apparently you can still get them in canada - for $450/lb (although once the existing supply runs out, they can’t import any more).  haha, good thing my brother doesn’t know what’s in the stuff he’s drinking.

empty

my cousins left yesterday (they were here for ~1 week). i wish i’d had more time to spend with them without worrying about mcats, but..yeah. they’ve moved closer to us, so we’ll probably see them a bit more often (now a 6 hr drive as opposed to 18 hrs). it’s been more than 2 years since i last saw my aunt and uncle - the last time was christmas of my senior year, and -surprise surprise - i was working on something then, too (college apps).

it’s weird, this label of family. a couple weeks back i was talking to yj about my definition of being close to someone, and it involved various kinds of “knowing” (e.g. knowing what the other person would say about any given situation; knowing the intimate details about their lives etc.). i don’t know my cousins all that well (by the aforementioned standards), and they know me even less (i’m particularly closed-mouthed about myself bc i know that whatever i say to them will either get back to their parents, my parents, or my brother). still, though, there’s a comfortableness that comes naturally with family that’s always a pleasant surprise to experience.

to borrow the old cliche: melting pot or salad?

gymnastics men’s won bronze! it was nice to see chinese & indian guys on the team.

although conversation that ensued:

mom: haaaah? (a chinese way of saying “what?”) an indian is on the american team?

me (a bit irritated at the incredulity in her voice): yeah, so? indians can’t be american? i’m american.

mom: no you’re not. you’re chinese.

me: um. culturally. but i’d still consider myself an american.

mom: well too bad other people in the marketplace won’t. you’ll always be chinese.

sigh. i don’t know if this is true. i wonder if she’s right or it’s just the way the older generation automatically and intractably thinks. am i being naive?

question - why are the men’s gymnastics guys like 27-28 yrs old, but the women are like 15-16?!!

heck yeahh!!

dude, michael phelps. both his races so far have been so freaking dramatic! (400 IM - breaking the world record by a lot even though for the first 300 or so he was pretty close to both laslow (sp?) and lochte (who’s pretty good-looking btw); 4 X 100 free relay in which the anchor (lezak - 32 years old!) beat the trash-talking french team by .08 of a second or something ridiculously small like that and about 5 team having gone faster than the world record.)

videos are on nbcolympics if you didn’t catch it live. it’s still exciting!