So I started reading Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper and it’s pretty interesting so far.  One of the points that caught my attention was what he defined as a wasted life.  He says, “God created me – and you – to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion – namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life…The wasted life is the life without a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples.”

I found this interesting because it really made me think if I enjoy and display his supreme excellence in all spheres of my life.  I find that I sometimes will display his excellence without enjoying it.  However, the  joy in glorifying him will pour out from within me and display it for others to see.  There are still a lot of parts of my life where I can do a better job in having a passion to glorify God.

As I read more from this book, I plan to share more about what God is teaching me from this book of how to not waste my life.

In today’s society, everything is about doing as many things at once in the shortest amount of time. When we do this though, we tend to forget to stop and appreciate the things we enjoy most in life. It’s getting close to finals time for many and the pressure and stress makes it tough to just stop, but sometimes we need that break. I want to encourage you to take at least 5 minutes each day to just stop everything you’re doing and relax. I personally like to go outside, pray and just enjoy the weather. You’ll definitely be more refreshed and less anxious. So slow down, take a break, enjoy life!

We will also be having Legacy Movement merchandise!

We are excited to see you all there!

info: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=149860889875&index=1

This weekend I got a chance to go to Fresh 2009!  It was awesome seeing people coming to know God during this event.  The music was awesome!  The whole was about “crazy love” a message Francis Chan speaks about a crazy love we should have for God.  An introduction to his book is below.

Learn more about TNB by checking them out at facebook.com/thenehemiahband or follow them at twitter.com/thenehemiahband

The Nehemiah Band

Break of Dawn CD

John, Mike, and Gilbert

TNB and Legacy

About two months ago I found out Charity Water and wrote this post “Any September Birthday’s out there?”

Charity Water is about a man named Scott Harrison who wanted to do more for his 32 birthday than just recieve gifts. So instead, he asked everyone instead for $32 to help bring fresh water to Kenya. One year later, Charity Water is encouraging all September born people to instead of recieving gifts for themselves, to encourage their friends to give $33 to support this cause. As soon as I heard this, I was convicted and stressed. I’ve always recieved gifts for my birthday and it was hard for me to imagine not getting anything.

Tomorrow I will be turning 21, and I’m asking anyone who wants to give me a gift to instead give $21 to Charity Water. My goal is $210, so only 10 people.

DONATE HERE

$20 means one person can get clean water for 20 years.

$250 means two families of six can get clean water.

$5,000 means clean water for a community of 250.

Good Day LA did a story last week on Comfort Zone Camp, a camp for children ages 7-17 that are grieving over the death of a loved one.  The mission of this camp is to provide grieving children with a voice, a place and a community in which to heal, grow and lead more fulfilling lives.

I really appreciate what this organization is doing for these kids because I know what it feels like to lose a loved one at that age.  At the age of 12, I lost my father.  I didn’t know what to feel or how to respond to peoples’ questions of how I was doing.  My friends did their best to comfort me and support me, but it wasn’t the same because they didn’t share a similar experience.  I am lucky that I have a Father in heaven that took care of me and comforted me in my time of pain, but how do other kids cope with this tragic loss.  This is why I decided to write about Comfort Zone when I heard the story on Good Day LA.  Comfort Zone aims to create that environment where kids can have fun and break the isolation death often brings.  With other children who are going through the same thing and a great staff that helps these children with daily coping skills, Comfort Zone Camp is a great place for grieving kids.

I had another blog before with a bunch of friends, but the blog kind of died. While I was reading it over again, I found some interesting posts that I posted. Some of them I don’t even remember posting, especially this one, the one that stook out to me the most. This is a story I heard in church more than a year ago:

A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his 5 year old son waiting for him at the door. “Daddy, may I ask you a question?”
“Yeah, sure, what is it?” replied the man.
“Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?
“That’s none of your business! What makes you ask such a thing?” the man said angrily.
“I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” pleaded the little boy.
“If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said, “Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?”

The father was furious. “If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you’re being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday and don’t have time for such childish games.”

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even madder about the little boy’s questioning. How dare him ask such questions only to get some money.

After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $10.00, and he really didn’t ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy’s room and opened the door. “Are you asleep son?” he asked.

“No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy.

“I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier,” said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took my aggravation out on you. Here’s that $10.00 you asked for.”

The little boy sat straight up, beaming. “Oh, thank you daddy!” he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at the man.

“Why did you want more money if you already had some?” the father grumbled.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied.
“Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?”

—–

Earlier this year I read a book called Purpose Driven Life that also had some great wise quotes about time and love.

“Relationships, not achievements or acquisitions of things are what matters most in life.”

“When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you will never get back. Your time is your life. That is why the greatest gift anyone can give someone is your time.”

“The best use of life is love. The best expression of love is time. The best time to love is now.”

I recently read an article by John Ortbery called The Life You’ve Always Wanted, which talked about slowing your life down.  I really resonated with this article.  I’ve really rushed through life and I’m learning to slow things down.

We all live in a hurried world; we buy things that will helps us hurry, we order fast food, and we try to get to places as fast as we can.  The problem with having a hurried lifestyle is that it can keep us from living well and have us rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.  Ortbery writes that “We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.”

Here are some symptops to a hurried lifestyle:

• Constantly speeding up daily activities: wanting to be in the fastes lane on the freeway, wanting to be in the shortest line in the grocery market to the point that we keep track of the person who would hav ebeen me in the other lane
• Multiple-tasking: out of the desperate need to hurry, we find ourselves doing or thinking more than one thing at time, for example, in car, we don’t just drive, but we also drink, eat, talk on the phone, etc.
• Clutter: we have a bunch of books that we say we’re going to read, we buy time saving gadgets that we end up not using
• Superficiality: the need to feel like we need to understand everything–even the smallest thing–minutely and exactly
• An Inability to Love: Love always takes time and time is one thing hurried people don’t have
• Sunset Fatigue: We’re just too tired and too trained to love people whom we have made deep promises with

I am guilty of constantly speeding up daily activities, having a lot of clutter, and I find myself constantly rushing through things.  So, this summer I will try to slow things down, clean out my closet, set time in solitude (away from a hurried lifestyle), and actually live life!

Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Youth encouraging other youth to lend a helping hand in their communities is a great idea, right? That’s what Dylan Mollway thinks, and his thinking has taken him pretty far. The 18-year-old Punahou senior, along with friends Aaron Jomo, Monica Arnold, Landon Nagata and James Petranik, founded Go Green Generation earlier this year, a non-profit dedicated to this very cause which is already making its mark in the Island community.

In fact, on Memorial Day (May 25) Go Green Generation has partnered with a California-based company, The Legacy Movement, to present “The Legacy Showcase,” a concert at the Japanese Cultural Center benefiting the Hawaii Foodbank. Featured performers include Ten Feet, B.E.T., Danny Carvalho, Brittney and Joshua Mendoza, Jasmin Idica, EZLiving, All Time HI and Last Minute. In addition to the entertainers, there will be a Legacy Movement T-shirt booth, product sampling, silent auction and food stations. The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the JCCH Manoa Grand Ballroom. Sponsorship packages are available and individual tickets cost $10 in advance or $12 at the door. Purchase tickets by calling 778-1754 or by emailing legacyshow-case@gmail.com. Special edition “Legacy Showcase” T-shirts are for sale online at http://www.thelegacymovement.com.

Young Hawaii natives turned California residents make up The Legacy Movement, a company whose mission is to inspire other young people through fashion to start legacies of their own and do things to impact their communities in a positive way. The Legacy Movement creates and sells inspirational apparel, featuring bold, artistic designs with meaningful messages about the environment, donating to charity and more.

“Brian Chung designed the T-shirts (for the concert), he’s the head of Legacy Movement,” says Mollway. “He’s coached me for how to handle my team and how to inspire. He has done so much for us. We would not be where we are without him. He’s 21 or 22, a sophomore or junior in college.”