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j-fen

I am here for Friends

About Me

"No no no, I went the other road. Six figures, doing business with leadpipe cruelty, mercenery sensibility. You know... sports, sex, no real relationships. How about you - how have the years been treating you?" -Grosse Pointe Blank
Although i'm getting used to the city life, there will always be a part of me that longs for the Iowa countryside. The land that allowed a young mind to run free with creativity before the t.v. took over. The place where green meets blue and the smell of hard work is all around. This adventure called life is an interesting one.
good morning. (the old route to work)
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt "Citizenship in a Republic," Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
"The one who authenticates his life message is the one whose strength lies in his willingness to be VULNERABLE. Vulnerability is the willingness to put oneself in a position where one could be taken advantage of by others, or where one's shortcomings and weaknesses may be exposed. The Lord told the Apostle Paul 'My power shows up best in weak people.' (2 Cor. 12:9 NLV)"
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket safe, dark, motionless, airless it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." The Four Loves C.S. Lewis
"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God, your playing small doesn't SERVE this world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in EVERYONE, and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Nelson Mandela-
Others, Lord, yes others,
Let this my motto be;
Help me to live for others,
That I might live like Thee.
--Charles D. Meigs
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My Interests

I'd like to meet:


My Blog

questionaire

The "mother ship" back in the midwest interviewed me with this questionaire for their campus-wide newsletter, so I thought I might as well post it here as well in case it's an encouragement to someone...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:58:00 GMT

Wisdom and Counsel

up yet again for the 3rd sleepless night - and not enjoying it. Might as well write some things down.Here's a definition I came up with tonight that hopefully i'll be able to expound upon at another ...
Posted by on Tue, 13 May 2008 07:06:00 GMT

kids...

My good friend Joel's wife Kari posted this story on her blog and I had to share it for two reasons 1) it's absolutely HILARIOUS (even more if you know Joel and and his expressions), 2) I'm quite prou...
Posted by on Tue, 06 May 2008 06:56:00 GMT

oh my soul!

I don't know about you, you might wake up every morning and feel like singing like a songbird. I don't. Okay, anyone who knows me probably thinks I do, and I do a lot. But not always. Sometimes I have...
Posted by on Mon, 05 May 2008 08:35:00 GMT

chairs

I'm going to flashback for a second (quite different than flash dancing). Friday night I fell asleep to one of my all time favorite movies: Phenomenon. It doesn't contain the action or comedy that ten...
Posted by on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:35:00 GMT

Whats in a name

Another sleepless night and I argued myself out of writing this during the night while the brain waves were over-active...hoping I would actually fall asleep. Instead I'm writing it now. a friend ...
Posted by on Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:27:00 GMT

still learning

to pray in my prayers. The book of Job is a most marvelous composition. The narrative in the words of Job: "Even today my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. If only I knew...
Posted by on Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:06:00 GMT

more worship

"But the rich man began to scratch his head, and it pleased him not.  And the Lord said to him: 'How can you say, 'I have kept the law and the prophets?' For it is written in the law: 'You shall ...
Posted by on Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:32:00 GMT

worship

Ralph Waldo Emerson:"A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates ou...
Posted by on Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:46:00 GMT

dancing upon injustice

Recently asked question: "What does the line 'Dancers who dance upon injustice' in the song 'Do You Hear the Mountains Tremble' refer to?"I am gaining a new perspective on worship through my study of ...
Posted by on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:21:00 GMT