it’s a beautiful day…part 2
Why part 2? Cause of this previous post. ’nuff said.
Did any of you get to go and enjoy the great weather we had in TO today? Absolutely gorgeous. Spring has come! 
To make a great day better, spend it having a great lunch at Peter Pan with your mom, take a stroll around downtown for an hour, and have your design project completed! Speaking of which, come check out the cumulation of the past 7 months of documentation, failed testing, wrong parts, late nights at Bahen, and slacking off next Tuesday! My design partner, Nicola, and I will be showing off what we’ve designed and built at the annual ECE design fair in the basement of Sanford Fleming from 6:30-9pm on Apr. 3. So come out and check out what we and the other ECE students have concocted.
It’s a beautiful day, the sky falls
And you feel like it’s a beautiful day
Don’t let it get away
grace
It’s been a while since I’ve been on here. Haven’t posted since Urbana (‘cept for the post about the annonymous offering, could not not share that, if you know what I mean). But yeah, just been a while. Part of the reason for that is because it’s been an interesting 2 months in my life.
It’s been interesting because I’ve kind of entered a new transistional period in my life. The reason for that is I’m not going to be graduating this year as originally planned. I screwed up my first semester, failed a course, and long story short, I’ll be back in school for another year in September. Now, you may be thinking, “that sucks, that’s too bad,” and yeah, I guess it does suck a little, but really, it’s just another learning experience, I’ve just got to learn from this and keep going. People have been saying I’ve taken this pretty well (one friend actually seemed to take the news worse than I did when she first heard), and I guess I have, but what else can you really do? Getting down on myself, feeling depressed, or just complaining about it is going to get me nowhere. I’ve got to keep going and know that good things will come from this.
As I said, this has been a learning experience for me. One obvious thing I’ve learned is the importance of discipline, not to slack off. But another thing I learned was unexpected: grace, getting what I don’t deserve. If you’ve ever talked to me about my parents, you may know that they’re really good parents and I’ve been blessed so much by them. But with this whole school thing, I’ve just learned how lucky I am to have parents like them. When I first told them about my failing the course and repeating this year, I wasn’t expecting them to yell at me or anything, but I also wasn’t expecting their response. I was half-expecting that they might say something like, “we’re disappointed” (which is one of the worse things you could ever hear from a parent), but they didn’t even do that. What they said just floored me, they said, “we’re still proud of you and still support you in whatever you do.” Wow. They’re still proud of me? What do they have to be proud of? I screwed up, didn’t put in the effort, did what they’ve taught me not to do, and they’re still proud of me? It was a glimpse of what it’ll feel like standing in front of God and hearing the words, “well done good and faithful servant.” Totally don’t deserve it. Grace, pure and simple.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
last beautiful autumn day?
It’s 2am, and I’m still up…why? I don’t know, I never seem to go to bed before 1 these days.
Interesting weekend. Thanksgiving dinner at CCF on Friday. Great times. Good food + food for the soul. Very unproductive Saturday. Went out for lunch with the parents and my grandma before she heads back to HK. Very yummy dim sum. Weird one minute hail downpoar during the lunch. Small group that night. Awesome night of sharing. So blessed to have this group to be supported and encouraged by. Beautiful Sunday. Especially after teh cold snap we had last week. Good hot chocolate from a new place across from the AGO. Very friendly owner, Renee. He even gave us a free tart each! Definitely going back. Delicious experimental supper with Giz: eggplant & chicken. First time for both of us with cooking eggplant, but came out pretty good. Worth repeating for sure. Ended off with school work with Nicola at Bahen…fun times…psyche! (90′s kid anyone?)
Been really struggling with my laziness lately. It hasn’t been just not doing what I need to do (namely school), but just not caring either. Been sharing (or I guess complaining) with lots of people. Sorry if I talked to you about this and sounded very self-absorbed. Thank you for the patience to listen and thank you to those who have prayed for me. This weekend, started to turn around a little. On Friday, talking with Andrea, hearing how she’s handling her busyness at work, having the right attitude: it’s all for the glory of God. Something I desperately needed reminding of. Wish I could say I started working hard after that, but as I said before, very unproductive Saturday. Got back into school mode a bit today. A good start, but not a great one. Hoping I can build on this for the rest the year. All for you Lord, for your glory.
none live for themselves?
So, my parents and sister are back home now (in the best place to live in Canada, 
). Just saw them last night as they made a stop here in TO before heading home. Can't believe my sister has already finished a year of university. Man I'm getting old.
Speaking of the end of the school year, this always seems to be the time when everyone (in university/college at least) seems to be pondering where they are going. A lot of people I've been talking to, or from reading their blogs, seem to be asking, what's next? What am I going to be doing for the rest of my life? Or as John Mayer puts so eloquently, we all seem to be going through a "quarter-life crisis." I know I've been thinking about this again this year. Should I work after I graduate? Get my P. Eng? Should I apply for teacher's college? I don't know. It's all up in the air right now.
There is one thing I do know for sure though, whatever I'm doing, it will have to be for the service for God and for other people, not for myself. This is my purpose in life is and hence the name of my blog, "none live for themselves." I picked this phrase up from a book I read last year, The Vision and the Vow by Pete Greig. It's an excellent book about Greig's journey in the years following the words he wrote in The Vision and the challenge he gives us all. Throughout the book and specifically in one chapter, he talks about The Honorable Order of the Mustard Seed, which was this secret society formed back in the 18th century (by a German teenager no less) with one simple purpose: to live for Jesus Christ. All of them wore a ring with a Greek inscription literally saying, "no man liveth for unto himself" but Greig used the non-gendered translation, as have I for my blog, "none live for themselves." So I've adapted this as my single purpose in life and I have a long ways to go. But I sincerely hope and pray that this be my passion and that everything I do will not be for me, but for service of God and the service of others.
none live for themselves
