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| David and Goliath.
then Goliath, a Phillistine champion from Gath, came out of the Phillistine ranks fro face the forces of Israel. he was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet tall! he wore a bronze helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds. he also wore bronze leggings, and he slung a bronze javelin over his back. the shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver's beam, tipped with an orin spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds. an armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a huge shield - 1 Samuel 17:4-7
this guy was a beast to say the least. he was so big that it took a good three verses to describe what he's like. he was so incredibly scary that the israelites were "terrified and deeply shaken" (vs. 11) but his taunting and his challenge..
i loved what one of my youth and my co-counsellor said when they worked on this bible study together for our youth group. goliath was more than a physical giant. he was a spiritual giant as well. no, i don't mean that he's a spiritual giant in terms of his faith... like Abraham or Joseph etc. obviously not. but he was a giant that defied the name of the Lord. he was a distraction that caused the israelites to take their eyes off of their God. he was effectively a temptation, a trial or a season in life... something that challenges our faith and may potentially steer us away from the Lord...
i loved David's response, and this is the pivotal passage for this entry...
David talked to some others standing there to verify the report. "what will a man get for killing this Philistine and putting an end to this abuse of Israel?" he asked them. "who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the Living God?" - 1 Samuel 17:26
what a bold statement. the entire israelite camp are shaking and hiding in their tents thinking of what to do. and here's a young man, who wasn't recognized by his brothers, stepped up and made such a bold statement. try to imagine what you'd think if you were one of the israelites who just overheard what David said. you'd probably laugh your head off. or maybe your heart is full of sympathy because you know that this kid isn't going to back off. which means he's going to take on Goliath's challenge and take him on one-on-one... and will be crushed within seconds... and brings defeat to the entire camp of isarel...
here's something else that we discussed in our bible study at Bethel, our wonderful high school fellowship. just what exactly gave David the guts to make such a bold statement?
David was fully aware of the power of the living God. he was aware of what the Lord has done for his nation. he was well aware of what the Lord is capable of doing and has done for the israelites...
the ten plagues.... the passover lamb... the deliverance... the splitting of the red sea... the drying of the jordan river... the collapse of the wall of jericho... the extended daylight for battle etc...
his God was the God of miracle, of power and of justice. his God was the same as before... and will always be the same. David was well aware of that. why weren't the isralites?
Joshua and the Israelites.
i want to draw another example from scripture to conclude my point...
Then Joshua said to the Israelites, "in the future, your children will ask, ' What do these stones mean?' Then you can tell them, ' This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so that all the nations of the earth might know the power of the Lord, and that you might fear the Lord your God forever." - Joshua 4:21-24
joshua encouraged his people to build some sort of a monument where they've just crossed the jordan river, where a miracle just happened. he wanted others to remember what the Lord has done for them and who the Lord is to them. these stones are not only reminders of God's faithfulness and omnipotence, but they are also a declaration of his faithfulness and power to those that wasn't there at that time...
back to our lives.
there are so many defining moments in our lives. these defining moments are like the stones the israelites have placed as a reminder of what has happened. these defining moments are like paintings that we can revisit from time to time in remembrance of an event, or a revelation, or even of your transformation. there are so many defining moments in my life. i know that for a fact. but here's a harsh reality. how often do i remember them? not frequent enough...
my pastor's been preaching on a series at our church something along the lines of "God in all circumstances". i believe that God has given us many different tools to "fight", "endure" or perhaps to "enjoy" different circumstances in life. we go through different seasons but the Lord has given us different tools to survive and growth through each and every single one of them. and i believe one of the most powerful tool that he's given us... is our memory... or perhaps our experiences... our past... those defining moments... those stones... those painting...
when i'm faced with situations that challenges our faith, all i do is panic, or surrender to whatever that's challenging my faith. i'm no different than the israelites at the time of David and Goliath. but one thing that i've been reminded of comes from the response of David. he rose up to the challenge because he was well equipped to do so. and the most important aspect of his "well equipped-ness" was the fact that he was fully aware of the presence of the Lord. he knows what the Lord is capable of doing because he's heard about it from his ancestors or perhaps even experienced it first-hand. if his God can bring ten plagues and struck down the first-borns of all the families and spared those that believed in him, then why can't strike down goliath also? if his God can bring down pillars of fire to protect the israelites from the egyptian army, why can't he do the same with goliath?
David knew God can. and because God can, he can also...
bringing it all together.
in case i haven't explained it clearly enough, here it is. David was well aware of those "defining moments" from the history of israel. these were proofs of God's faithfulness, power, justice and love towards his people. David was empowered by these defining moments. Those were reminders that he had nothing to fear and will fight whatever is trying to defy the name of his God, or to challenge his faith and his God...
i'm sure we've all placed many stones in our lives. i'm certain that i've had many defining moments where the Lord has revealed a little bit of himself to me, or taught me something, or changed me somehow. but the whole point of these defining moments isn't so that we can live them and forget them. these are more than pictures at an exhibition, where once you walk past a certain painting, it somehow escapes your mind...
in the same way, our experiences with the Lord shouldn't be forgotten. they are to be experienced first and then translated into our lives somehow. we need to live out the things that we've learned through an experience. these stones are nothing more than stones if they don't mean anything to you...
if we forget about the experience and what the Lord has taught us, these stones merely define moments in our lives, but are not defining moments in our lives...
but if these experiences lead us to the Lord, reminds us of our relationship with him, transforms our lives, and empowers us to live out our faith, then these stones represent a defining moment...
do you see the difference here? if there are no meaning behind these experiences, then they're nothing but moments in our lives. but if these experience mean something to you, then you'd do something with and about these experiences. these experiences are defining moments in our lives. to conclude, i would like to draw a quote from a book that i have yet to finish...
"but even the strength of my intentions is not an accurate indicator of whether or not i will take the time to act, to put my faith to work, to be the difference that christ has empowered me to be. defining moments are only as good as the lifestyles they translate into" - Looking for God
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| it's been awhile since i've last blogged. i have to admit i really miss it and so i've decided to come back to it. i'm actually on a three day/two night softball leadership retreat. it's been really nice to be away from "home" and things that i've been used to for the past little while... and take sometime to enjoy friendship that God's given me... and to think about something that's been on my mind for a couple months now...
i love school. i really do. i truly believe that i learn so much about God and his character through learning about the human body and how it functions. i've talked about this before and i really think that there's so much to learn from how God has created us... and that our human body can reveal so much about what God is all about. afterall we WERE made in his image...
one of my favorite class this term was biomechanics. in this class we essentially discussed how each part of your lower limb moves through the human gait cycle... or simply put... how you walk and what actually happens when you walk. through our many early morning lectures we learned about what different joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones etc. are doing while we're walking...
The Illustration.
we, as christians, often illustrate our spiritual relationship... or journey... with walking. we often teach and learn about what it means to "walk with God"... what exactly does that look like anyway? have you ever wonder about that?
one of the things that i've learned from the past (which you can read from my old blog entry about my trip to Mexico in 2006)... and from a couple other sources... is that God is always with us. that's a given.
ur God is omnipresent. he's everywhere...
God's in front of us... he's our counselor, our guide, our example, our light;
God's beside us... he's our friend, our company, our lover;
God's behind us... he's our refuge, our strength, GRACE...
that's how i often depict my God and how he's working in our lives. and i still think of him that way. but one thing that opened my eyes is the following idea...
God is IN us... his spirit lives within us... he works within us through the spirit... he doesn't only work OUTSIDE and AROUND us... God is working within us...
The Question.
when we walk... how often do we actually think about how we walk? how often do you think about what your ankle is doing through different phases of your gait cycle? or how your subtalar joint pronates to allow certain actions to occur throughout gait? or when your gastroc muscles start to contract? or perhaps why certain ligaments and bones have to be tighten-ed and aligned for proper gait?
the answer is... we don't. walking is somewhat an innate thing. it's something that most of us were born and raised to do... we stumbled... we fell... we crawled... we stumbled... we got up... we stumbled some more... and eventually we got up and learned to walk everywhere...
The Science.
many studies have broken down the walking pattern into sections. first of all there're three big sections known as the development, cyclic and decay. development is when you start to speed up to normal walking speed. the cyclical portion can be broken down in many different ways. the model that we studied extensively is broken down into the follow phases...
contact - when your heel of same foot hits the ground --> the opposite foot toes off
midstance - when opposite foot toes off --> observable heel lift of the same foot
active propulsion/terminal stance - observable heel lift of same foot --> opposite heel strikes
passive propulsion/preswing - opposite heel strike --> same foot toes off
swing - can be further broken down into early swing, midswing, late swing
different joints (i.e. subtalar joint, ankle joint, 1st ray joint, knee joint, hip joint, pelvis... just to name a few of the "big" ones) are in different positions and going through different motions at each of these phases of gait. different muscles, ligaments, and bones are contracting, relaxing, tightening, aligning and turning to ensure that these motions are achieved by these joints. it amazes me how intricate the process is... to absolutely blow your mind... i've decided to pull examples from each of the phases to prove my point...
contact.
shock absorption is crucial in this phase to protect our body. shock absorption is achieved through different joints adopting certain positions.
midstance.
in order to keep your toes on the ground, there are certain conditions that need to be met. certain muscles are firing (i.e intrinsic flexor muscles) to keep the toes plantargrade (i.e. "holding onto" the ground), the plantar fascia works in a reverse fashion (i.e. reverse windlass mechanism) "pulling" the toes towards the ground, certain bone alignment, bone structure, along with ligamentous structures prevent the foot from "collapsing" or "falling apart"...
active propulsion/terminal stance.
certain bones of your feet must adopt a "perfect alignment" or in "closed-pack" position. your foot must convert efficiently from the mobile adapter (i.e. shock absorption) to a rigid lever, so you can toe off properly. this is achieve by MANY different mechanisms via muscles, ligaments and bones...
passive propulsion/preswing.
enough energy must be stored up in certain muslces (i.e. gastrocs etc.) in the previous phases in order to "pop" the heel off the ground and initiate toeing off...
swing.
enough energy must be stored up in your hip in order to advance or "swing" a limb. this force and energy is conserved... meaning that once you initiate it, it "regenerates" itself until you "disturb" it and prevent it from transferring that energy...
The Idea.
this is just a slight glimpse into what the human gait cycle is about. so what is the whole point of all of this?
i think the idea of walking with God is such an appropriate illustration of our spiritual relationship with God. what God is doing in our lives is just like the human gait cycle: without spending time learning about it, we don't really know how it works... but we just know that it does... but we have experienced it... we do it out of habit... but we just don't know how...but when you pause, learn and process... then you'll slowly realize just how intricate his work is in our lives... or realize that he's ACTUALLY working in you...
even before you read this entry, or even before i learned about the gait cycle and all the different actions of the joints etc, i knew how to walk... or i was walking already. God is always working, even when we're not aware of it... or before we care enough to spend time to learn about what he's doing in our lives...
i challenge you to stop, take a step back, quiet down, and learn about what God is teaching you before you take your next step. i gurantee you'll be blown away...just like how amazed i was sitting through EVERYDAY biomechanics class...
God is walking WITH us... every STEP that we take...
Happy Walking!
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Noma 6½-ft Self Shaping Tree @ $199.99it's been awhile since i've blogged. i have to admit i'm pretty rusty with this whole blogging thing. bear with mre. this is something that was revealed to me a couple months ago and i was reminded of it again today. so cool. so i wanted to write it down and share with you...
the tree
christmas. the christmas tree has become a symbol of what christmas is all about. it has become an essential piece of "furniture", a "must-have" in my house holds, during this season of celebration. i was watching tv a couple months back and they were advertising for this particular product. i was trying to look for the link to this commercial on youtube, but i was disappointed that youtube failed me (for once) and didn't have it. anyway. in the commercial two little kids were talking about how they use to put the christmas tree together as a family. and then it showed a clip of how the two kids fell asleep because it took so long to put the tree together. very cute scene. little kids fast asleep on the couch, one leaning on the other, while the parents are quickly putting the tree together before the kids wake up, or maybe before Santa shows up, or maybe before their in-laws show up... whatever. you get the point. and then, the little girl (pretty much the narrator of this commercial) was saying how now they don't have that problem. because at $199.99, there's no more waiting. you just go to this particular store, pick out this particular tree, remove the bag... BAM!!!!! the tree has memory wires and it shapes itself. no more spending hours and hours putting together that bulky ol' christmas tree from decades ago. why? because now at $199.99 you can buy a pre-put-together christmas tree. at the price of $199.99 you can forget about the process of putting this tree together... at the price of $199.99, you can ALSO forget about the REASON for the process of putting this tree together...
the season
jeremiah 29:10
"the truth is that you will be in babylon for seventy years. but then i will come and do for you all the good things i have promised, and i will bring you home again."
the israelites were exiled from jerusalem to babylon. their homes were destroyed and they've been "captured" and removed from their own land. they now live in the land of babylon, a neighbouring country. in jeremiah 29:4-23, jeremiah's writing to the peopel of israel that's been exiled. and he's reminding them of God's promise...
the truth is they WILL be in babylon for seventy years (which means they WON'T get home until after seventy years). keep that in mind...
the reason
if you're a consistent reader of my blogs, or if you know me well enough, you'll know that i'm a firm believer of "seasons". this idea that God brings us through different seasons of life. i'm certain that you've heard enough about the whole idea that God brings us through different seasons because it's necessary for us. it's true. but here's something else that i've been learning...
so many times, i find myself looking forward to next season rather than embracing this season. i find myself wondering what the next season will bring... what God has planned for me... who i'm going to meet... where i'm going to be... how i'm going to spend my summer... who i'm going to date... who i'm going to marry... will i get married... where i'm going to work... when i'll die... ok that's enough. you get the idea. some of these sounds far-fetch and ridiculous. truth of the matter - they are! i was once "accused" of being a man who lives "in the past and in the future. rightfully so. that's exactly who i am and what my tendencies are. definitely something God is changing and is chistling away. i find that i like to know what the end result is like rather than going through the process and actually enjoying it...
just like the christmas tree. we just want the tree. we don't want the process... the hassel... the frustration... but you know what? we forget WHY we put that tree together. we forget that in putting the tree together, we get to spend time with our family...
i find that that's how i am with life. i just want the tree up in my living room. i wonder what God has to teach me. i wonder what the outcome would be. and because of that, i'm neglecting the process. and i'm neglecting the opportunities i get to spend with him. i'm so caught up with the product... that i forget about the process...
the passage
the jeremiah passage that i post earlier is wonderful. i was sharing today at church in our small group discussion how i've always been taught the two verses AFTER this verse... jeremiah 29:11-12... "for i have plans for you. plans to propser you and not to harm you etc." those verses are valid. and they're true. and they're comforting. BUT, God was revealing to me something even COOLER about this passage...
"the truth is that you will be in babylon for seventy years. but then i will come and do for you all the good things i have promised, and i will bring you home again."
the truth is you WILL be in babylon for seventy years... BUT then i will come and deliver you...
i never realized that God didn't "deliver" them instantly. they must first go through seventy years of being exiled... being captured... being foreigners in a distant land. that's the season they must go through. God was urging the israelites through Jeremiah to settle in babylon at start their lives there (vs. 4-7). he was telling them "yo, you're gonna be here for a good chunk of time. you might as well make the most of it.". THEN, after seventy years, God will bring them back to jerusalem...
putting it all together
God's promise to the israelites was that he would deliver them. true and valid. but please do realize that God's promise was ALSO that they MUST live in babylon for seventy years. that's the process they must go through. and that's the season they must go through. God's with them through this season. and he wants them to live and live to the full. he wants them to worship him with their lives...
you might be going through seasons that you just want to get it over with and step into the next one. don't you worry. God has promised to deliver you and bring you into a new season. but he also promised that you MUST live in babylon for seventy years. you MUST live in this season. don't forget though, he's always here for you. he'll carry you through any and every circumstance... if we let him (sounds arrogant? well that's how we act towards God all the time)...
i believe the value in putting together the christmas tree is not really the end product. it's not really about having that tree perfectly set up and placed in our living room so our guests will be in awe of how wondefully it's been put together. the value in all this is the process and the opportunity to spend time together with our families...
we must first live in babylon, before he will bring us back to jerusalem...
you've got seventy years. so enjoy the process. embrace the season. live it. most importantly... remember the process... is a chance to spend time with Him.
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| i had a chance to write for an online christian magazine - Wrecked for the Ordinary. it's something that i've written before on this blog but do go ahead and check it out... and check out the rest of their articles! it's pretty awesome. here's the link...
http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com/category.asp?category=adventure&filename=the-futbol-the-father-and-idoes-god-really-need-our-help
God indeed doesn't need me. but he'd chosen me again and again. and i'm eternally grateful for that...
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| I was lonely
You came waltzing over to me
And Your eyes they saw right through me
And You heard each one of my cries for help
And You came to rescue me
I was broken
Every prayer that I had spoken
Reached Your ears and all my tears weren’t cried in vain
You carried all my pain
And put me back together again
i absolutely love music. i guess what i truly love is how music can "alter moods and talk to you". it's amazing. i love it when my God speaks to me through his wonderful creation of music. tonight was no different. i randomly pulled up a cd that i bought awhile ago on tour because it was cheap and started listening to it. and here, i stumbled across a song that wonderfully sums up what i've been dying to blog about...
school's been insanely busy. if you haven't heard yet, i'm currently going to michener institute for applied health sciences in toronto. i'm completing post graduate training in chiropody, basically a foot specialist. so must of my courses are biology based. things have been really crazy. but God is still teaching me lots everyday... even sitting in lectures...
beware... this could potentially be a nerdy blog entry. but trust me, it's worth it. it was quite a revelation to me that i "smiled out loud" in class...
louie giglio had convinced me that you can certain find God inside your body. well i mean, i knew that all along. i just wanted to find some authoritative christian figure to support my entry. all jokes aside, it's true though. i seriously think that God had drop hints within our body to remind us of how great and how amazing he is and how small and helpless we are. you think life is ironic? try taking a look at your body and how it works...
why the weight?
i don't know how many of you guys actually know that when you're a fetus in your mother's womb, your toes are actually pointed in a different direction than they are now. your feet eventually rotates within your mother's womb before you're born. this is an example of torsion... or laymen terms... twisting... of your bones. there are several other bones that we've been learning in anatomy class that undergoes torsion. one is your femur (thigh bone), along with your tibia (shin bone). these are just some of the examples that under go torsion during growth. you're probably thinking, ok, this ain't going anywhere eliot. just wait... here it is...
it is necessary for kids to crawl, to stumble across the floor, to eventually learn how to walk but still tripping over themselves, to finally walking bipedally, to mastering how to walk and where walking becomes a second nature. weight bearing activity such as crawling, walking, and from what i believe... falling... are all essential components to the torsion of your bones. in other words, crawling, falling, stumbling, wobbling and walking... are all essential to the growth of your bones... in other words... to the integrity of who you are physically...
i think you're starting to see where i'm going with this. a lot of times as people, especially believers, we often ask God WHY?!. we love that question don't we. we don't understand why things are so hard and why we have to go through certain seasons and stages of our lives. it sucks sometimes when we feel like we're slowly crawling along and barely getting by. sometimes we feel like we're stumbling and tripping all over the places. sometimes we feel like the weight... is simply too much to bear...
but did you know that weight bearing activity is the EXACT thing that your bone needs to develop properly? did you know that weight bearing activity eventually DETERMINES whether you can walk properly or not. did you know that if your femur (thigh bone) isn't at an angle of 105-120 degrees at the head/neck and doesn't have an antertorsion of 10-15 degrees... then you can't walk properly? without the tibial torsion of 20 degrees, you also wouldn't be able to walk properly...
you see God knew exactly how many times we'd stumble and fall growing up as a baby. but those are the exact amount of weight bearing activity we must go through in order for our bones to develop properly. in the same way. God knows exactly what we're going through right now and he knew long time ago. he also knows that you need to go through such weight bearing seasons of your life so that your "bones" will grow strong... that is your FAITH in HIM will grow stronger and stronger... and eventually becomes the backbone of who you are... having FAITH in my God through difficult seasons of learning and trials... will become a second nature to me... just like walking...
nothing but the blood...
bleeding is such a simple phenomenon to most of us. or should i say how often do we PAUSE and think about WHY and HOW we bleed? so here it is. when you first cut yourself, these are some of the processes that your body goes through to react...
1) vessel spasm - there are changes in your vessels and the recruitment of different cells to ensure you're not losing any more blood and activate clotting...
2) formation of a platelet plug - your platelets react with the broken vessels (specifically its collagen fibres) and becomes activated. a series of events happen and a clot is starting to form...
3) blood coagulation - a whole cascade of events that happens basically to ensure clotting is happening and a mesh of fibres is now covering the wound with platelet cells
4) clot retraction - the body actually removes unnecessary serum out of the clot to bring the cells together to close up the wound
5) clot dissolution - all the cell debris (basically the garbage) and the fibres are now dissolved through a reaction and BINGO!!!!! you've got a clot!
what's amazing to me is that not only do we bleed, but there's a whole CASCADE of reactions that happens to ensure that we're ok and heals our wound. God never promised that we wouldn't get hurt. we don't get hurt because he hurts us, although i believe he has the power to do so. but we get hurt because we're sinful... and because we're STUPID. it's true. God never promised us that we wouldn't cut ourselves while trying to fight our way through life instead of following his path. we always want to take the short cuts and end up in the thorny bushes. no bueno! but guess what, not only has he created us to bleed. he has also created us to HEAL! it really amazes me all that he's put in place in our body to remind us that he's there... don't worry... it's gonna be ok... he's in control... and your wound will heal...
bringing it all together...
i hope these two examples had blown you away. forgive my poor communication skills. sit back and ponder the two examples that i've just raised. think about how amazing our God is. he KNOWS what you're going through. he KNOWS it's not easy. but guess what, he also KNOW that it's what's BEST for you right now. and you have to know that... he's in control... and that he's put everything in place that's necessary for growth and healing. he's just that amazing. he knows... and he's watching over us...
You watch over me in the darkest valleys
You watch over me when the night seems long
You help me to see the way before me
You watch over me; You watch over me
Always faithful
To be leading, at this moment
Interceding for Your children
Though I’ve wandered astray from Your infinite ways
You’ve never left me alone
You watch over me in the darkest valleys
You watch over me when the night seems long
You help me to see the way before me
You watch over me; You watch over me
Take my frozen heart; awaken me
Never once have You forsaken me
You watch over me in the darkest valleys
You watch over me when the night seems long
You help me to see the way before me
You watch over me; You watch over me
Even though I walk through this shadow of death
You will guide and defend me
You’ll guard and protect me
Even though I walk through this shadow of death
You will lead me home
- You Watch over Me - Aaron Shust
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