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Moving Tales December 14, 2008

Posted by David Hiran Watson in About Me, Everyday Life.
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So I finally moved my computer monitor from the garage to my room! Yay! Um…I suppose I should write a bit of back story, especially why this is a yay moment.

For those reading this who don’t know, I moved (again) on Nov. 29. I had finally (and permanently) moved out of my parents’ place mid-August to a 3-bedroom place. For the first month and a half I was the only one living there, and then my former landlord’s step-uncle moved in as a superintendent. A young couple then moved in to the third room in October. At any rate, things were pretty good at first, but then soured with the super, and he turned out to be fairly difficult to live with. After thought and prayer, I decided to move out and make November my last month.

The place I’m in now is a townhouse and I’m actually rooming with a friend of mine and his mom. It’s a nice place, and definitely a much better atmosphere than the old place. (Side note: I never realized before how much the presence/absence of Christ changes the atmosphere of a place.)

Back to my moving tale: while at the 3-bedroom place, I unpacked some stuff – mostly my bed, and my computer and speakers. I was even using a garbage bag for my everyday clothing, instead of hanging them up! In retrospect that made it easier to move, although it did not do much for contributing to a sense of belonging or finality of moving in. In this new place, it has been a couple of weeks, and I have not even unpacked half of my items! I have set up my bedding, and (a step further than before) hung up my everyday outerwear, although I am still using a garbage bag for the rest of my clothing. Coming back to the monitor, when I moved, I had stored some things a week earlier in my friend’s mom’s garage beside the townhouse. On the 29th, I moved everything into my room, except my computer monitor. This is why the monitor being moved into my room, and actually set up on my desk, is a big yay moment.

Now if I can only keep this momentum going, and actually speed it up…

DH

How He Loves December 8, 2008

Posted by David Hiran Watson in God, Lyrics, Music.
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Title: How He Loves
Artist: John Mark Mcmillan
Album: The Song Inside the Sounds of Breaking Down

Verse 1:
He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realise just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me

Pre-Chorus:
And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Chorus 1:
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves

Verse 2:
We are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way…

Chorus 2:
He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves

DH

From The Inside Out December 3, 2008

Posted by David Hiran Watson in God, Lyrics, Music.
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Title: From The Inside Out
Artist: Hillsong United
Album: United We Stand

A thousand times I’ve failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I’m caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing you praise

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart, in my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

DH

Circle of comfortability December 3, 2008

Posted by David Hiran Watson in Daily Life-Walk, Faith, God, People, Relationships, Social Justice.
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So, as I wrote in Ways to deliberate, yesterday I had a book study on Dream: Have You Caught God’s Vision? (here’s the Amazon link). The chapter we covered is called The Velvet Touch, and talks about the people we tend to shy away from, and the subjects of inclusion and exclusion. While the book is geared toward men, this chapter applies to all people, and challenges the reader to look at how and why Jesus was so inclusive in who He associated with and ministered to.

The fact is that Jesus was EXTREMELY counter-cultural to the establishment of His day. I think that is something as Christians we tend to forget, for we have become used to the wedding of church and state that occurred for many decades and (I think) is still ingrained in western Christendom’s psyche. Perhaps the degree of ingraining is lessening, but we still do not en masse view Jesus’ message the way the 1st century Jews and early Christians would have.

Some of the things we tossed about during the discussion were the types of people each of us tends to shy away from, and also the various reasons why we exclude. Reasons such as: a focus on a person’s inabilities as oppose to his/her abilities; a failure to look beyond the external and see that person as a person – someone who has hopes and dreams and likes and dislikes and a personality; fear of rejection or judgment from others if we’re seen associating with this person; and the list goes on.

A couple of points of hope we ended on were that firstly, recognising the tendency to exclude within us is the first step to changing (think Step 1 in a 12-step AA program). Secondly, our responsibility is not to just recognise when we are being exclusive, but when others around us are, and even point it out to them. This should be done in love and with gentleness, but should sometimes be done nonetheless. The person who is excluding another may not even realise they are doing so, and may appreciate it being pointed out to them in a supportive way.

DH

PS. I may post some more on the idea of Jesus being counter-cultural. If you’re interested in hearing more, and especially if you’ve never heard Jesus being described that way, check out The Meeting House and specifically the sermon series The Irreligious Christ by teaching pastor Bruxy Cavey.

Ways to deliberate December 2, 2008

Posted by David Hiran Watson in About Me, Daily Life-Walk, God, Relationships.
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I’m not sure what to write yet…I think at times I just like typing – it’s very soothing for me. I think I know what I’ll write on – the book study I was a part of today. But first, that initial sentence might seem a strange way to start a post, and you might be wondering why I did not just delete that sentence once I knew what to write on? I think the answer to that is partially related to who I am and what this blog is to/for me.

For those who know me, I am someone who hides aspects of myself, and will open those areas up only when I feel completely comfortable. I suppose we are all like that to some degree or another. For myself, mostly because I have felt burned in the past when sharing and expressing certain areas of who I am and my personality, I tend to express those areas only when I am by myself or around individuals/small groups I feel safe in. You could say I have been operating under the “once bitten, twice shy” principle in these areas.

When I started this blog, I wanted to use it to express myself. I quickly came to a point where I was filtering in my mind what I would post on, and that filter was set to only allow subjects that did not ‘expose’ those aspects of myself I wanted to hide. I believe I mentioned something to this affect in a previous post, but I have consciously decided that I don’t want to intentionally filter out those aspects of myself, both in my posts and (more and more as I’m able to by God’s grace) in life interaction.

This is my lengthy way of saying that the initial sentence is tied to one of those aspects. In particular, it is one of the ways I walk with God. I will talk out and express what I am feeling or thinking as part of the decision-making process. For example, if God tells me to go to a location, and I do, I will usually say out loud, “Ok Lord, what now?”. Or if I am in the middle of an activity and I get hungry, I might say out loud, “I’m starting to feel hungry; should I go eat something?”, and deliberate from that question. The point is that I, for some reason, feel more comfortable to deliberate out loud even if it means saying out loud all the thoughts and feelings going through me, akin to a running commentary.

So I don’t have time now to post on the book study – have my church’s worship team practice. I will try and write about the study later tonight or tomorrow.

DH

Reflection on my day… December 1, 2008

Posted by David Hiran Watson in Daily Life-Walk, Education, Faith, God.
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Today has been a hard day; I am definitely still battling depression or at the least, depressive thoughts. Ever since going to uni, back in 2001, I developed and battled depression. There have been good and bad times, highs and lows, and I must say that 2008 on the whole has been both a high and low year. It has not been the lowest year I have had, but it has been one of the highest. Looking back on this battle, I am amazed at the faith God had and has produced in me. The process is still continuing, but throughout the battle I have never stagnated or backslid from God. In fact, He has been the o/One I have consistently turned to. It is like having a friend who is always right beside you. I did not always “pray” in the traditional sense, but I would instinctively talk to God whenever my mood changed or I was stressed or trying to figure things out or, in general, needed to express myself. I have to say “thank You” to God for His faithfulness!

Coming back to today, I was quite down and out this morning. After meeting with my counselor I some new perspective on the jumble of thoughts and feelings racing through me. The rest of the day has been a time of God ministering to me, giving me back my hope; hope that He is in charge and holds me in His hand. I love how God knows exactly what you need and gives that to you. Even that last sentence God reminded me of through His ministering: I was checking my email just before writing this post, and a friend of mine had sent me a forward about how it is God’s job to supply my needs according to HIS riches, and to make me happy. The forward was not saying that God is some kind of genie, but that as His child, it is not my job to try and keep myself happy via things or other people. Instead, I need to trust God and let Him take care of me.

DH