C’est la vie!

I am in Paris with my family! As we clumsily make our way through the busy, beautiful cobblestone streets, I cannot help making observations on parts of Parisian culture that contrast with what I have grown used to in Canada.

1. Every building in Paris is epic. Loser buildings simply do not exist. So beautiful and so much history!

2. Alcohol costs about as much as juice or pop. Bubble tea is super expensive. Yeah, we would know.

3. People don’t order hot water to drink. We’ve tried… Multiple times!

“hot water please!”
… (confused look)
“uhh l’eau chaud?”
… “mineral or still?”
“uhh… Never mind. Wine please.”

4. Most things are eaten rather plainly:
Bread without butter
Pasta without sauce: “uhh does this come with sauce?” “…ketchup? Mustard?”

5. Musicians on the streets… And on the metro! Accordions, saxophones, and french rap make for some pleasant transit ambience!

6. Traffic laws and lanes… Do not exist! For pedestrians, there is no blinking red man… Only a green man and a red man! This makes crossing the street rather stressful. No dilly dallying, because there’s no telling when the light will switch! AND the cars that are turning will go, even when it’s green go man.

7. People are well-dressed ALL THE TIME. I saw this lovely lady biking through a busy intersection… She could’ve been posing for a photo shoot, she looked so lovely and graceful! No sweatpants or hoodies to be seen. You can tell who is a tourist by their new balance sneakers. even children are impeccably dressed!

8. I always thought it was just a stereotype, but yes, people do walk around holding baguettes under their arms! You can sometimes catch someone taking a bite out of their baguette as they stroll through the streets.

9. Coffee is pretty much always a shot of espresso (or two) in a teeny little cup. You get a packet of a sugar with it and milk only if you order cafe au lait. No takeout cups here, coffee is meant to be enjoyed sitting outside a cafe overlooking a busy street on a glorious summer day!

Haha that’s all I can think of for now. I’m sure I’m missing a lot, and there are definitely some more funny miscommunication stories from our time here :) but it’s time to sleep… Louvre tomorrow, then Versailles the next day and then meeting up with a pair of Lau’s and Lynda !!

Salut! My head is bigger than the Eiffel tower!

Hootichu? The Lord teachu!

The last week was an amazing gift from God: precious time spent with brothers and sisters in my year. For our graduation trip, we stayed at a beautiful cottage right on a lake. Every day, woke up to this gorgeous sight:

 

It was so good… canoeing, attempting to fish, jamming, cooking epic meals, jamming, asking ridiculous questions, laughing, dancing, speaking like middle aged asian men, eating 6 meals a day, staying up late, getting up early, playing ping pong, hot tub, sauna, dominion, completed a puzzle, day trip to Ottawa, touristy sights, lounging on the couch and chatting, sitting at the dinner table for hours, dance party, filming memories, absurd theories on combatting illnesses, campfire, howling at the moon, devos by the lake, repeating the same inside jokes over.. and over… and over… and over again

I think the best parts were the big family meals, praying & sharing in the dark during the spectacular lightning and thunderstorm, and just being able to be super silly with each other.

I leave this community with so much sadness, but also with many thanks and praise because I know God will use these men and women to bring Him so much glory! 

Joy that does not waver due to external circumstances…

Tears tonight because it was the last time in a long time that I’d get to worship with my KCCF family. Still, a really good reminder that God is God, regardless of where we are at and how we feel.

Byes are not forever within the church of Christ! 

Isaiah 41:10

“…fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

I’ve been clinging to these verses lately. How comforting are these words: “I am with you…I am your God”!

Also, this verse is cool because here, Isaiah prophesizes Christ’s work on the cross many many centuries later! check it: “I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” What does this mean? Cross reference it with Romans 8:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

:D Thank you, Lord for upholding us with your Righteous Right Hand! And for your living and breathing Word! 

Just discovering Sara Bareilles…

What a beautiful voice!

Ben Folds and Sara Bareilles, Baby it’s Cold Outside

Sara Bareilles, Yellow (Coldplay cover)

How to cultivate thanksgiving

I’m feeling particularly optimistic today and just wanted to sprinkle some love on the Internet world :) I felt like writing and this is the result. 

The idea of thanksgiving is one that is still in my mind, even though I failed hard at keeping up with sharing 3 of my joys every day. I don’t know what it is, but it’s one of those lessons that God keeps nudging me to remember: give thanks in all circumstances! Even in my positive psychology class I have been learning about the positive effects of gratitude.

According to my textbook, gratitude is recognizing that you have obtained a positive outcome from someone else who has done something that was:

a) costly to him

b) valuable to you

c) intentionally rendered

My textbook also tells me that people who kept a weekly gratitude journal were superior to others in terms of the amount of exercise undertaken, optimism about the upcoming week, and feeling better about their lives (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

It’s funny because my assignment due tomorrow is to write a letter of gratitude to someone who has impacted you for the better. I really didn’t believe that doing this assignment would have very much of an effect. It can be hard to be thankful, especially when you ain’t feelin it. But if you put your mind to it and DECIDE to reflect on the people in your life who have impacted you positively (or in my case… have an assignment due the next day where you must do said exercise), eventually, the gratitude will come, trust me!

Anyways, you don’t have to do assignments like these every day to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving. Apparently, a Japanese form of meditation known as Naikan involves asking yourself three questions daily.

1. What did I receive?
2. What did I give?
3. What troubles and difficulties did I cause to others?
   
   I added a fourth thought to meditate on daily: 
    
4. There is one holy God, completely supernatural and set apart from anything and anybody. He alone has the right to be praised, to have glory, to have power. Nothing happens without His permission; He is sovereign. He is the ultimate Creator of all things in existence that we can see, as well as things beyond our human perception. He created all of life, including you and me, and decided to adopt us to be His sons and to do good works.
   
   Even when we rebelled against Him, denying Him as Lord and God, He did not give us up to the right punishment we deserve, which is death. Being completely holy and completely just, God cannot simply allow rebellion to go unpunished. So He sent His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect life and die the worst possible death that we should have died. Because Jesus is God and completely perfect, His death is an acceptable atonement for our rebellion against the Lord.  
   
   Jesus’s resurrection from the dead signifies that He is God and has conquered the death penalty that was ours. Through believing in Him as Saviour from our death and Lord over our lives, we obtain the inheritance that was predestined to be ours since the beginning of the world. You see, it was in God’s perfect plan from the very start! He allowed Adam to sin in the Garden of Eden. He is allowing us to go through this time riddled with uncertainty, brokenness, sin, doubt, darkness, hurt, sorrow…. the list goes on! He allows us to go through this because it is through trials like these that we learn perseverance.
   
   Don’t lose heart! Although this lifetime has its bumps in the road, we have hope because the world as we know it is passing away. Jesus is coming back a second time, bringing with him a new earth and a new heaven, which will be rid of the sin and darkness that plagues this current earth. In the meantime, we truck along and the Spirit develops in us perseverance, joy, love, peace, patience, self-control, kindness, gentleness. These are the evidence of our faith in Christ; these will be fully perfected in us when Jesus comes again.

Number 4 is the biggest, most constant, most significant, most amazing reason for us to be thankful in all circumstances. That God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

life as I know it: read (or not) the following with a British accent →

sssylvia:

1. “Also, one dow jeung please”
   ”MO DOW JEUNG MOM DOW JEUNG MO DOW JEUNG”
   (note: accompanied by violent hand shaking)
2. “That’s why those girls were running! Way to tell us” - English boy re: getting sled for ice slide
3. Going on the ferris wheel and realizing then that we are both terrified of…

Biggest dog in the world... →

This article is so heart warming. He sounds so friendly! Magnificent is a great descriptive word for this guy. I want to hug him!!

Brooke Fraser covers “Violet Hill” by Coldplay