Positive > Normative

Note: There’s some religious mantra or “Christianese” in there. Feel free to ask questions.

The message was basically the Christian version of an introductory Asian American class. The interpretations at times seem a bit of a stretch. There’s some truth to it too though, but take some of these cultural principles with a grain of salt. The term “Asian American” covers many ethnicities.

Asian Americans have a shame based culture meaning that a single mistake can make us feel broken and unforgiven. The way we communicate often comes across as passive-aggressive meaning that we indirectly criticize someone for their actions. We act and perform to get approval from others and we feel invisible and rejected if we do not feel valued. First generation Asian Americans experienced degradation and racism. Performing at high societal standards is the “solution” to not have these experiences. But how does God judge success? Why are you in college? Is there something unique you can offer to the campus?

Our nets in Luke 5 are the blessings in life. The method to receive these blessings for us are doing many extracurricular and pursuing a “practical” major. “This person who has a good major and high pay is living the good life” is our way to indirectly communicate our definition of happiness. When we let down our nets, we take a risk. We tell people what we “shouldn’t” be doing. The enemy, Satan, wants to keep these hard topics to discuss in secret. We keep them in secret, because of the assumption that our actions are not redeemable. However, Simon shifts from his own cultural identity to God’s community. His occupation as a fisherman was not just a job, but the culmination of expectations with his family. What are the nets that you have to try to get the good life?

Hating others encourages disunity and brokenness. This hatred is contrasted with the gospel which means “good news” and provides freedom and joy. Freedom and joy can seem like imaginary words. The only way to receive this eternal freedom and joy is if we invest everything in Jesus. Without Jesus, where is our major going to take us? Were you indirectly or subconsciously raised to hate a specific race or personality?

Honoring our parents can mean making lies or hiding truths, but we are not genuinely honest with our family. We decieve our parents by not including the details of our lives, which is still lying. Keeping parents happy does not always mean honoring them. It allows us to be politically correct with each others. Practice having hard conversations when the stakes are low. Let your parents know who you are.

I have a final in eight hours but whatever. My tolerance to not rant is getting close to its limit. You know how everybody is studying for finals and freaking out? Yeah…I don’t get it. I have yet to freak out about any of my finals. Sure, there were times where I studied for hours and lost a little sleep, but I don’t see why or how people can stay up all night to study.

College obviously isn’t just about the grades we get or our GPA when we graduate. Granted, that’s what many people come to college to do, but it isn’t essential for the ideal “college experience”. I believe getting an education is also about HOW WE LEARN AND THINK. If you’re an avid reader and learn by reading the textbook, shoot don’t go to lecture if you get the grade you need. If you learn by listening or discussing about your classes, don’t miss a single lecture or discussion, even if you think it’s pointless to go. Find a way to be nerdy even if it makes you look like a dork. Your body will thank you later when we don’t have to bitch and complain about sleepless nights, because shoot, we studied that stuff BEFORE FINALS.

It might not be my right to judge others about studying hard right? After all, it takes lots of discipline and a work ethic to sit down and “get to business”. People also might be taking classes that are much tougher than mine. Well, my classes in college aren’t particularly tough right now. Econometrics, Variance Analysis, and Financial Management aren’t too hard right? Last year, I took Math 21C, ECS 30, Workload English, and Microeconomics in one quarter. In high school I took three AP classes (Stats, Calc BC, and Physics). We were on the semester system. We had three days for finals. We took two each day. That’s not so bad, is it?

Now, I might be “preaching the choir”. What’s the point? I’m saying finals don’t make or break the rest of our lives. Sure, if we get a D instead of a C in a class, it could make the difference between getting into the first graduate school of our choice, but why do we need to glorify or idolize going to that graduate school? We can always choose a different path for our lives the next couple years, and sometimes nothing is better than living in the moment. Of course, I’m not one of those naturally “smart” people. Being “smart” is different from being “gifted” anyway, and everyone has natural talents/gifts. I got a C- in Animal Science 1. I got an F on the lab final, which was worth 23% of our grade. Did I freak out that I wasn’t going to pass? No, I just studied for the last midterm. In some of my other classes, however, I’ve done pretty well in. I just know how I learn and how I think. That’s it.

Lastly, don’t worry about every single little detail on the final. It’s tough to memorize all those facts in our brains. Don’t freak out when there’s a small detail about the chapter that MIGHT be a multiple choice question on the final. I can’t memorize to save my life. That’s why I’m a Managerial Economics major as opposed to something Biology related. I can analyze and critically think pretty darn well. Go to whoever is writing the final, the professor or the TA. Go to review sessions and office hours for like two hours. That will get your work done most efficiently. You can literally learn what is on the final just by being there and reminding yourself of all the concepts taught in the class. Then after the review session or office hours you can get freaking frozen yogurt or something instead of studying or typing a paper or studying for a final for 4 hours straight taking “breaks” every half hour. There, you saved two hours of tiring your brain out.

Oh yeah, random verse that somewhat applies to finals. Heh.

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

Luke 18:9-14

I’ll go ahead  and summarize first and then give any more opinions or connections to the message. It’s been a while since the message so I might’ve forgotten like half of the content. It seems like the center of the message was focused on the contrast between the Pharisee and the Tax collector.

The Pharisee compared their level of “righteousness” to others. It’s in our nature to do this, because we’re social creatures. She observed that in the Pharisee’s short prayer the word “I” is mentioned five times. That type of prayer implies self-centeredness, thinking the prayer is just about ourselves. Imagine a conversation like that. It’s pretty much one way and comes across as narcissistic. Self-centeredness is a sign that we’re talking to ourselves instead of praying to God. At that point, you’re just self-motivating yourself that you are the best and if you can put your mind to it you can do anything. Right… Oh yeah, there were three signs of non-verbal communication that was one of pride rather than righteousness which are standing near the front by himself, comparing himself to others (burglar vs. himself), does not ask for anything, and is a longer prayer.

The Tax Collector’s prayer was short, had a guilt-like tone, and was also scared of God’s justice or lack of forgiveness. The tax collector admitted he was wrong, a sign of humility. Tax collectors at the time I think were considered traitors, because they collected tax on those who lived in Judah even though the Romans receieved the money. That Tax collector, who is insignificant and not likable, did a proper confession and is going to forgive the tax collector and not the Pharisee.

A couple reasons why confession is difficult (at least for Tatiana):

1.) Pride + confidence hide that what we are doing is wrong

2.) Confession can seem to lead to more hypocrisy. Even though we try to follow these high moral standards in the Bible we’ll always fall short. We can choose to be ignorant and hide our hypocrisy, or we can confess and confront our hypocrisy.

For me, pride gets in the way often. In many cases I won’t notice it (thus hidden hypocrisy). However, I get really stubborn, which is one reason why confession can be particularly difficult. I’ll more likely chase what I want (work experience, social connections, good grades, casual relationships) rather than what I need spiritually (deep relationships, empathy for others’ well being, passion to prevent injustice). I don’t practice confession too often as I’m not very disciplined in prayer, which serves as a catalyst for confession. I feel that my thoughts about myself at school and at home are good enough to know my identity. It’s actually through reflection, meditating, or hard conversations with others that we potentially can become more self-aware of our flaws.

Mark 10:35-39, 10:42-45

I’m going to do some commentary on Justin’s style of public speaking. I was sleepy so I had to find ways to stay awake. Umm…he used rhetorical questions to make his point clear. Too many of them though, people might second-guess the overall message you’re putting  out. He used his experiences as a Bible study leader to validate his point. I also noticed he was trying to pull up his sleeve by extending or raising his arm. Justin, I don’t think that was really working cause the sleeve kept going back down. There were a couple of analogies to make the Bible verses easier to relate to. He used celebrities and community service to make his point. The only problem I noticed over the last two weeks is that the messages aren’t really scripture focused. It makes sense, because these people aren’t seminary students. However, that lack of focus on scripture means there’s room for gray area between Christianity and good morals.

Self-entitlement has been a weakness of mine. I am an opportunist and individualistic. I feel that I earned what I worked for instead of realizing the people in my life that helped me through the hard times. I think the main point of the message was that we have unreasonable expectations of what we think is ours. We expect all the objects we have to work or not get stolen. We expect our cellphone, car, and laptop to work. We expect our bikes not to get flat tires or get stolen. We expect to eventually graduate in college, which brings the implicit assumption that we expect to pay back our loans or our parents to pay for us.

I like the distinction between a doormat vs. a bridge, because I like the details (and occasionally technical terms or semantics). I think the main difference between the two is that doormats wait for someone to ask for help. What does that imply? These doormats cannot say no and are more likely to get burnt out, because they oblige out of obligation instead of joy. Jesus was what Justin called a “bridge”. Jesus had a purpose. Jesus lifted people’s spirits up and made people feel important. He was really humble and sacrificed a lot to serve others. Some Christians say that we cannot sacrifice from our own will, because our love to others is limited. God’s love is infinite. The application is to think about what we are called to give up.

I’m getting slightly annoyed by all these “bigger picture” message. I’ve been hearing too many of them lately. I noticed a big separation between what I learn in class and the message I hear in Intervarsity. My classes are detailed-oriented, have derivations/proofs, and have technical distinctions or definitions. Then, I hear these messages about these broad themes or virtues. I don’t really get convicted by these “bigger picture” messages. That was like junior year for me. Now these types of messages are mostly reminders. I don’t really know what to give up yet. There’s too many things to count. I’d rather not give them up. They’re too important to me. They allow me to function. Oh gosh, now I’m almost starting to sound like an addict. I’m dependent on people or objects instead of God who I’m supposed to trust. Meh…if anyone needs help giving up on something, I might tag along. I might even think of something to give up. Who knows.