What is Loneliness?

Loneliness is not the absence of faces, but rather the absence of intimacy.

What is money?

What are your thoughts about money?  Comment and let us know.

Posted via email from Brian Chung

Blogs I Read

Here is a list of blogs that I read from people that I know:

Dylan Chun
Pam Chun
Jenna Fu
John Kim
Edison Lee
Larissa Marks
Steve Marks
Family Marks
Christianne Wa
Julia Wong

Lesson 11: Our Competitive Selves

I've been reading this book called Compassion by Henri Nouwen and Donald McNeill who are suppose to be legit. Anyways, out of all the chapters that I've read, chapter 1 has spoke to be the most when Nouwen rights about our competitive selves.

Nouwen points out that when we look at ourselves, we have to recognize that competition, not compassion, is our main motivation in life. When I first read this I didn't relate to it because I didn't think I was that competative of a person. But then, Nouwen continued by saying, "Our whole sense of self is dependent upon the way we compare ourselves with others and upon the differences we can identify." As soon as I read this, I said, "that's me," I gain a lot of my value based on how I am in comparison to others. And it is upon these positive or negative distinctions that much of our self-esteem depends.

I don't want my value based on how I compare myself with others. I don't want my self-esteem based on that either. Rather I want my value to based on God.

"To receive a new self, a new identity, which depends not on what we can achieve, but on what we are willing to receive is the mysetery of the Christian life." I want to freely recieve from God and accept his love.

Quotes that have been speaking to me

"What you can't let go of controls you, masters you and you become its slave. Own nothing, but be owned by only Christ & you will be FREE..." JMA

"Life is a beautiful thing, cherish every moment every friendship, never let unforgiveness get between u & the one u love, live w/ no regrets" JMA

"When Satan reminds us of our past, we should remind him of his future."

"When you forgive someone, you set the prisoner free, to find out the prisoner is you." KV

"FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real"

"FAITH = Full Assurance In The Heart"

"BUSY = Being Under Satan's Yoke"

"If you don't know what the truth is how are you going to fight the lie?" NV

"If God doesn't give you a miracle, you are a miracle of God for someone else." NV

"The worst place you can ever be is believing that you don't need Him, thank God we need Him."

"I don't know what tomorrow holds for me, but i know who holds my tomorrows"

Lesson 10: You can truly love others only after you've learned to love yourself

WOW, so I looked back at this old blog that a bunch of people in my class use to write in and I found some AMAZING stuff.

Here's an excert from a post from my friend slyvia:

From the sermon "Life and Love" by Kris Vallotton.

"Every time someone loves you more than you love you, you will sabotage your relationship with them."

"You sabotage relationships with people you really value ... Everybody whom I wanted to like me, like I had a high value for them, I would be afraid that if they got to know me, they wouldn't like me, so I would build a case against them before they had a chance to build a case against me, so I could reject them before they had a chance to reject me ... The problem is you don't love yourself."

"Do you understand that Jesus said, 'Love your neighbor AS you love yourself'?"

"I can't love you more than I love me. You say, 'Well, yes, I can.' No, you can't. Jesus said, 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' I can't give you what I don't have. If I possess it in this temple, it works on me before it ever works on you."

"People like us that have these struggles, we're really good givers. But what can't we do? Receive. Why? Because receiving means that I will have to let you give to someone who doesn't deserve. And what happens when someone who doesn't deserve it gets stuff? Then they begin to self destruct, because then you just gave a guilty party something they shouldn't have."

Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz writes "And so I have come to understand that strength, inner strength, comes from receiving love as much as it comes from giving it. I think apart from the idea that I am a sinner and God forgives me, this is the greatest lesson I have ever learned. When you get it, it changes you. My friend Julie from Seattle told me that the main prayer she prays for her husband is that he will be able to receive love. And this is the prayer I pray for all my friends because it is the key to happiness. God's love will never change us if we don't accept."

About a 2 years ago, I thought I loved myself, but since then, I realize that I have a long way to go to truly loving myself and learning the greatest lesson that God forgives me. I can't wait for that to change me and for me to find happiness through it.

Lesson 9: It's okay to have expectations, just don't let the expectations weigh more than the friendship

I realized that the closer I get to be friends with people, the more expectations I have on them. I have expectations for them to be there for me, I expect them to respond to my emails, I expect them to respond to my phonecalls, and sometimes I can have unreasonable expectations. In college, I've had many arguments with friends, especially my roommate, where I have gotten mad at him for not meeting my expectations. Sometimes the arguments and frustrations would get to a point where I wouldn't talk with my roommate for days--that's when I let my expectations go over the friendship, which is not good. I find most of the time I have expectations because I want there to be evidence, I want there to be proof that I am cared about and loved by my friends. Yet, people aren't perfect, and I can't expect them be. People will never meet my expectations and I can't let that get in between my friendship and relationships that I have. I need to trust that I am loved and be okay with that.