grateful for Christ

For a long time I thought that Christ’s command not to worry essentially implied that what humans call “responsibility,” God considers faithlessness.  That is, if I am taking steps to bring about a practical end, and those steps are not explicitly directed by God in some way, then I must not be doing right.  Through [...]

This weekend I went into downtown Portland at God’s prompting because He had something for me to do. I may have missed my first opportunity by not heeding His prompting to stop my car and talk to a person, but God graciously granted me a second chance as I was walking near Portland’s waterfront.
Now, [...]

Sometime in the last week or so, God gave me a quick, sky-view of Portland, with the emphasis on the people that are out-and-about every day there.  The meaning had something to do with going out and speaking with them.  As far as I was able to tell, He wants me to go to the [...]

After meeting with my thesis advisor I have come to a decision about my thesis.  Eight weeks is not enough to do it well.  I had my reservations about taking more time on it because, in the past, that has been more of a delaying/procrastination tactic.  This time it is all a matter of practicality [...]

My senior thesis, which I was originally supposed to complete in the fall semester of 2006, is finally underway.  I took it back up recently after having totally abandoned it sometime last winter.  Since I have a new and improved topic combined with an actual desire to write it, it should be a piece of [...]

You will notice that I haven’t said too much about myself or my life.  A year ago when I had this website up I did it intentionally for reasons that I won’t go into here.  However, what about now?  How personal should I get in such a public forum as a website?
I could write daily [...]

I assume most of us tend to take our daily schedules for granted.  We wake up, say a quick prayer (maybe), race off to work and come home afterward, fix dinner, take care of household business, and, if free time exists in our lives, we fill it with entertainment and hobbies.  Next comes bed and [...]

As I sat outside in my parents’ porch swing (which is actually on the lawn) this afternoon, I suddenly noticed texture.  No, I’m not an infant just beginning to explore the world; I mean that I noticed texture as something indicative of God, namely His great variety.  It occurred to me that, while textures do [...]

I have no words to express where I am today.  For some reason, I felt the need to put that fact in writing.
Listen to God.

There are countless ways to hurt in this world, and everybody has experienced their own flavor of pain.  When we have experienced or are currently experiencing a particular brand of ouch, we run the risk of invalidating the pain of others.
A person suffering from a physical ailment might not take a person seriously who suffers [...]