The art of finding the best seat on an airplane

If you travel on airplanes frequently, SeatGuru.com will be useful to you. You can see what aircraft each airline has, and which are the best seats in each aircraft. It also details what amenities each airline puts in a particular airplane (audio, inflight entertainment, meals, etc.). I'm glad I chose Air New Zealand for my honeymoon flight, as I can be sure I'll have my own TV screen. Not surprisingly, Singapore Airlines is on the cutting edge of flying pleasure, by offering things like wireless Internet inflight.

Confessions of a car salesman

While looking into buying and selling a car, I came across this revealing article about the life of a car salesman. Apparently this writer on edmunds.com was asked to go undercover and become a new and used car salesman for a few weeks to see what it was like. The results will definitely make you think differently about car salesmen, car dealership managers, and car dealership owners.

Vocabulary redefined, part 2

Another example: sacrament.

Before: things in church rituals that we go through, not really sure why

After: a (the?) manner in which God's grace is given to us, usually through the bread (wafer) and the wine (grape juice) that we receive in communion and also baptism. Not limited to this, as I think it's any way that God gives us his grace; our lives can be sacraments to each other, for instance.

Vocabulary redefined

One of the things that seminary has done to me is to cause me to redefine some of my vocabulary. An example: liturgy.

Before: something done in a Catholic church (or similar), very structured, in Latin, boring

After: singing, any kind, but in worship to God and for God. When people sing benediction to each other at my old church in San Jose, that is liturgy to me. It is singing that we incorporate into the rhythm of our lives in order to remind ourselves of the hope and joy we have in Christ.

Particular perfection

An interesting excerpt about marriage I read today:

I've never forgotten a nervous bride-to-be asking an older friend, "I love Richard with all my heart. But how do I know that later on I won't meet some man who has lots of qualities that Richard does not have?" Her friend replied, "Undoubtedly you will--lots of them! But the point is that they won't be Richard!"

Perhaps a slightly different spin on it is that you aren't looking for someone perfect when you want to marry, but someone perfect for you.

τετελεσται

How interesting it is to learn Greek as a reader of the New Testament.

τετελεσται:

• τε - reduplication prefix, done in the Greek perfect tense
• τελεσ - Greek perfect tense stem of τελεω (which means "I finish, fulfill"; the noun version is τελος, which means "end, goal"); perfect tense is translated in English using "has been (done)"
• ται - 3rd person singular ending, or "he/she/it", depending on context

So a literal translation of this word would be "he/she/it has been finished/fulfilled"; or in Jesus' case in John 19:30, "it has been finished" or "it is finished".

My Life Matters

I heard the news the other day that a friend I knew from college had recently passed away. He died from a heart attack; he was 31. I didn't know him all that well and hadn't talked to him since college, but I knew he was a good man. A man of God who truly passionately loved the Lord and longed to bring His kingdom to this world.

The thing is I always imagined him to be the type of guy to die in a "blaze of glory"; like he would be martyred by some military soldiers while helping the poor and oppressed in some faraway country. Dying of a heart attack just seems more senseless compared to that. I guess I think that way because I have this pride-humility tension inside of me. I do not want to boast in myself but sometimes I can't help but want my life to matter. There's nothing wrong with that, but sometimes it's easy to get caught up in the idea that the best way for your life to matter is to become recognized, to become famous, to become revered and honored by people. This is nothing new, but I think the way my desire for this is expressed is through a more spiritual (for lack of a better term) form; by becoming a recognized "defender of the faith". My thinking goes, "if I become a great pastor, or a great missionary, then people will know about me and historians will write about me, like they did with Jim Elliot." With this kind of thinking, it's easy to feel like a life didn't matter if that life ended because of a heart attack at the age of 31. Obviously this is not true, because this kind of thinking is based on pride. What I long for my thinking to be, is that because I know I am loved by God, my life matters. I live a life of obedience and God chooses when I go to be with him. And I know that's how my friend lived his life. I know his life mattered.

To go along the lines of my Spiritual Discernment professor's phrasing: O God of all grace, grant me this grace I pray, that I would know my life matters because I am known and loved by God, and that would drive me to live obediently all the days of my life, however many they would be.

MLK's Giant Triplets

This post would probably be more appropriate during MLK day, but I overheard this today, so I decided it was worth mentioning. It's interesting how we associate MLK only with combating racism, when he was about much more than that. Case in point: he refers to racism, militarism and materialism as the "Giant Triplets". Americans certainly don't believe that the last two are as bad as the first one.