Finals

Two more to go! Two more papers to finish and it is officially finals season!

Don't get me wrong, I am not excited about finals BUT I am so sick of papers! Finals will be kind of a break!

Last night was the play. I had so much fun! As part of my role I got to go absolutely crazy for the last fourth-half of the play.....It was awesome! The audience seemed to like it, so that's good. After the play I took more pics with Asian girls than I think the average man will take with all women, of all races, in his entire life! What can I say...Pimp'n all over the world! It's more like...

Asian Girl- "I need to get a picture with this crazy white guy!"

Man I'm funny!

I will write more next week....I really don't want to write any more this week!!!

Later
Typeless

LOTR

This week has been, and is, the most work filled week of the semester. For the first time in nearly 4 months I am having to be a student! With this onslaught of homework bearing down on me I made the wise decision to watch the whole Lord of the Rings series. No, not one of the movies...all 9 hours of them!

Hey! I spread it out over two days! So negative!

As a Christian you often hear of how God is able to take our bad choices and missteps and use them for His glory. Point proven! Just kidding. Last night I think I prayed one of the most heart felt prayers I have prayed in a long time...if not ever. This prayer, which I will say was a "good" prayer (for all of you out there who rate them), came after watching The Return of the King. I shed tears during this prayer. That has to add at least 2 points to my score...probably the 2 points that you subtracted from the prayer being inspired by a multi-million dollar motion picture.

In all honesty, the prayer was not inspired by the motion picture but rather by my own failings. I have to tell you, I love Jesus so much! When I say this I must clarify that this is not the super-spiritual young man, formerly known as "pastors son", speaking. This is the broken, flesh indulging, flesh hating, torn prince of the Kingdom of God speaking. No longer will I say "I love Jesus" to convince anyone of my sincerity or to appear as a "legit" Christian. I have been broken much and have fought too hard to care what appearance I bear for the Christian realm to criticise. The love of which I speak is one that has been mixed with the failings of my flesh and is fueled by the cravings of my spirit.

This love would not be pure in your eyes. This love would make you shiver. This is love given by a prostitute to her maker. A love poured out through the tool of her seduction, criticized by all who look on. My love is not pretty. My love is not cleaned up. My love is not consistent in my action.

But it is mine! It is mine to give to whomever I wish.

My choice? I chose you, Jesus Christ...He is the only one who would take this love- him and all the other screw ups who can appreciate true love.

True Love. Question Mark.
What is true love? Is it the "perfect" love? Is it the cleaned up, present it with a ring, love? Is it the take me home and show me to your parents love? If it is....God is not my "true love".

My love is not perfect. My love is not cleaned up. My love would make your parents cringe..."that boy cries too much...he doesn't have a job!?". And I certainly don't have enough money to present it with a ring! Unless, Jesus likes Cracker Jacks.

Good thing true goes further than pretty and perfect. I do in fact have true love. I do in fact have integrity. I am an honest enough man to tell you, Jesus, that sometimes I don't feel like I love you. Sometimes I question you. Sometimes I don't want anything to do with you! Sometimes you make me so mad! Sometimes I prostitute myself to another. Sometimes I even enjoy my sin! Let's face it, if it wasn't enjoyable it wouldn't trip me up. Sometimes, through my actions, I say that your grace isn't enough.

But I'm here. I will always be here! I will be me. I will not pretend to be anyone else...ever again! I desire all of you. I want you! Every day I crave you more! Every day I become more like you. I can't go a day without you. Your grace is enough! You are enough! Someday I will live this out. I am trying so hard! But someday...

This is what my love is. You find it beautiful. You find it perfect. You find it true. That is what I love about you. You love mankind. You love the raw, broken, sincere, truthful cries of your creation. You love genuine people- messed up people. I worship you for this. I worship you in truth....the truth of all my crap, all my failings, all my misconceptions....all of me. The true me!! With that, me, I will worship you! You desire nothing more than that! Nothing else pleases you more.

Jesus, you are my true love.

Lord of the Rings....Love of my Life

Lines

The first installment in the BABCD series, Spitting Game, is being postponed yet another day. In its place I would like to share with you some lines that will hopefully spark some interests. All of these lines carry with them great stories and great lessons...they all come from my trip to Thailand.

There is something freeing in confession. Confession is sort of like the ax that strikes off the chains of past sin, leaving in their place nothing but the cool winds of healing. These are not that type of confession.

These are my confessions.....
- I went to a strip-club/prostitution ring (and it wasn't a planned missions trip)
- I got hustled for $60
- I got pissed (No, I was not mad....I was pissed!) after being hustled


Perhaps the greatest thing America has lost, and is in desperate need of, is innocence.
- I took part in the world's largest water fight
- Thai girls love me....at least they love me when they are rubbing paste all over my face


The fish became the bait....of death
Run to higher ground
Wreckage
Rebuild



These three sections give you a taste of my top Thai moments (unintentionally in order). Please ask me about them when I get home...I'd love to tell you!

Thailand

Spitting Game

I am currently working on the blog post "Spitting Game". It will be posted tomorrow.

Thailand

I just wanted to inform everyone that I will be returning to Hong Kong tomorrow. These past 7 days have been some of the most exciting, fun, beautiful....

I was burned like none other on the world's most beautiful beach, Koh Phi Phi.
I took part, got soaked, at the world's largest water fight.
etc.

I can't wait to share some stories and pics with you over the next couple of weeks. Just a reminder: Bowling Alley...will continue this Sunday.

Grace, Peace, and Love
Brandon

The Bowling Alley Condom Dispenser

Intimacy with God.

What does that even mean!

In a culture that is bombarded by distorted images of Love and intimacy how in the world are we supposed to know intimacy with God? I mean, if we can't even get a clear picture of what it means to be genuinely intimate with another human how are we supposed to be intimate with a God we can't see?! This is especially hard for those of us who are single, those of us who come from broken homes, and/or those of us who have come out of broken relationships. This is truly a battle that Christians in today's day and age are going to have to choose to fight. That's right...CHOOSE to fight! The truth is we have no idea what it means to be intimate with God but we sure do pretend like we do. How frequently do we go before God time limit-less and say, "I just desire to sit here in your presence. I don't have anything to ask of you; I just want to know you"? How long are we willing to serve God without "feeling" anything? In all honesty, we come before God presenting our requests (which is biblical) only (which is not) and we are "feeling" chasers! We want to get some goosebumps, some assurance our life direction is OK, etc. We very rarely seek to truly know the God whose services we are seeking or who gives us our direction. God forbid we don't feel something at church or that the service goes over our allotted time frame!

We are seeking a quickie encounter with "god"! When I say "quickie" I am referring to individuals having a quick sexual encounter. This evening I had a really good conversation with Joel which touched on a lot of topics. One thing that was brought up was the idea that in the US we, meaning guys, are bred to "spit game". Although this is quite a humorous when considering myself, when taken in another context this is really profound. The American church is breeding people who can spit some mad game. I am telling you, we talk some mad stuff! I mean, we place ourselves on the "super sexy" pedestal, we tear others down, we produce some good hits, we have the nicest cribs for God; we're doing all right! The tragedy is we don't know God! We've been primping in the bathroom and working our stuff on the dance floor, while all along God was sitting on the couch waiting for us to just come and lay in His arms. We are missing the point!

We are a self centered church. We spit game. We strut our stuff, often at the expense of others. We preach on what God desires based on what we desire. We have missed the point.

Have you ever wondered why they put condom dispensers up in bowling alleys? I mean, these things have got the funkiest types of condoms in them, ever! Just a question I've been asking, I guess. I'll ask it a couple of more during the course of this series.

Have you ever wondered why we seek the pleasures of God, the quick work of His miraculous power, but we get mad when we are called to wait on Him? Why are we so desiring of a "quickie" spiritual experience with god but we wont seek His face to just know Him? Here's a couple or thoughts.

Maybe it is because we will see who we truly are. Maybe it is because we will be scared at God's will for us. Maybe we will see that God desires for us to bring life and light to a prostitute far more than He desires for us to be wealthy. Maybe we will come to find that the Holy Spirit is living on skid row and not in our churches. Just maybe...

We do not know what intimacy means. I do not know what intimacy means. I do know however, that I want God to be worth more, and more real to me, than a 50 cent bowling alley bathroom condom experience! I want to know God! I want you to know God! Let's interact, let's dialogue (comment button) as we truly seek God and seek clarity on what it means to be intimate.

Part 1: Spitting Game (Sunday the 15th)

Intimacy

Yeah Right!

There is this commercial airing in HK now. It goes something like this.

Dude and Babe are in a park
Dude busts out some fast food burgers
Dude also busts out some fast food drinks
Dude and Babe sit down
Dude takes out a pair of head phones
Dude and Babe share the earphones, one per person
Music comes in
Dude proceeds to "activate" the phone
Phone lights up the table like a candle
The light reveals this message...
Happy Anniversary

Babe is OK with this!

Are you stink'n kidding me! That is perhaps the most unrealistic commercial ever! It is more fake than a Victoria Secret commercial...and that's saying a lot. Here is how it would go in real life.

Dude and Babe are in a park
Dude busts out some fast food burgers
Babe laughs and asks "are you serious?"
Dude begins to sweat bullets and answers "Yes..?"
Babe leaves that broke butt Dude in the Park...
With his phone and both ear phones!
Game Over. Happy Anniversary my butt!

This past Saturday at church Janice, one of the pastors, was talking about intimacy with God. While she was speaking I had this great illustration that I believe really defines how many, if not most, of us approach God. That will come tomorrow. I just wanted to wet your appetite with that little commercial which really illustrates intimacy quite well (seriously...and sarcastically)...and I didn't want to write a lot! Honesty is the best policy you know!

Here is the title of tomorrow's blog.

The Bowling Alley Condom Dispenser (it was the illustration I got...give me a break!)

Dumb Marketing!
Unless it is aimed at broke butt guys

Busy-ness

The Avalanche of work has begun!

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the ridiculous amounts of work that have started to shout for attention.

International Business
1. Analysis paper on international event/decision/etc. (not to difficult...I hope!)
2. Group Project Business Plan

Global Marketing
1. Business Plan/Analysis for Hong Kong Disney Land (Group Project)
2. Presentation of analysis

Literature
1. Presentation tomorrow morning (shouldn't be bad)

Entrepreneurship and New Venture
1. Business Plan for Competition
2. Presentation of Plan

I leave for Thailand on Thursday! Woohoo!
I return on the 14th of April.
All of these assignments are due in the following two weeks! BOOOO!

Anyway, I am indeed leaving for Thailand on Thursday. Please be keeping Joel and Myself in your prayers as there has been some violence there as of late.

tropical paradise (stress free for 8 days!)

p.s. More thoughts to come tomorrow!

The Lonely Generation

Last night was a blast! After a personally challenging time at church, meaning I was going before the Lord with some serious, self defining stuff, a group of us set off for a night of fun. Let me just say that I am going to be acquiring "Legend" status really soon in the HK dance world.

Nuff said.

At around 4-something in the AM, following my amazing "performance", we headed over to McDonald's "cuz a brotha gotta eat"! As I was standing in line to order, what would be two sausage-egg mcmuffins and a hash brown (it was early in the morning), a girl and I struck up a conversation. I found out some really interesting stuff about her.

Her name is Gene. She has two more years left in High School. She appeared to have been drinking that night (she seemed kind of "out of it"...wasted maybe?). She attends a boarding school in Hong Kong. Her parents live in Hong Kong. Dad is a University Professor. I think Mom is an attorney. She was sent away before to attend boarding school. She likes living at school. She doesn't really like living at home. She was going to stay in McDonald's until morning when she would go to the Rugby 7s tournament. etc....

Did I mention that she still had two years left of High School!

I was able to ask Gene some pretty challenging questions about her feelings on being sent away to school and some stuff about her feelings towards her parents. She seemed sad. She seemed broken.

Coming to you as a member of Gene's generation, as someone who has seen the broken and has been broken, I am calling all men and women of God to be Men and Women of God. Stop pursuing the material, stop pursuing fame, stop pursuing wealth, stop pursuing fashion, stop pursuing a self made god. Start loving, unconditionally! Start modelling forgiveness. Start practicing discretion. Start living a life of Grace and Mercy. Stop being unapproachable. Give your life for others!

Why don't we live like this as a lifestyle?

We are a selfish people! We create "God". We decide what is important to Him and what really doesn't matter...based on our lifestyle, what we deem as wrong, and fueled by our pursuit of power. We are clear in our accusations but mute in our mercy. There is a hurting world that needs the REAL God. Not the man-made, "We'll believe this and that...but not that!", or the "Homos are going to Hell....but living together and getting it on is OK, if it's between a 'man' and a 'woman'" god we've been shoving down their throats. There are real people with real hurts! This isn't make believe. This isn't Hollywood fiction! Stop driving by with condemnation and stop the freak'n car! Get out! And show someone LOVE!!!!!!!

There is a girl out there that you can mother! There are millions of boys (not just in age!) that are in desperate need of fathers. I don't care if you are only a 20 year old reading this. You can be the arms of a mother or father for someone! Someone sitting alone all night in a McDonald's. Someone who feels better living away from "home". Someone who is lonely. Someone who was eating pancakes. Someone named Gene. Someone named Brandon. Someone named Cindi. Someone named JESUS

..the broken are allowed to break in order to mend the wounds of the broken to come! Strike up a conversation one night in a 24 hour McDonald's, after a night of dancing, and you might just see...the face of God.

The Lonely Generation