In my weakness

I've been thinking for the last week about the issue of trying vs. grace. Many people say that Gd wants you totally surrendered to Him, which I fully agree with. A lot of people say that what that means is that we need to quit trying and just give up.

I believe that. We do need to give up and recognize that the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us.

However, I don't think that means we shouldn't be trying our best and giving our best. I think that sometimes people talking about God's all-sufficiency can be an excuse for laziness.

The Bible doesn't say "His strength is made perfect in our laziness," it says, "His strength is made perfect in our weakness."

If you have a natural ability for something and you just choose to not use it, you still aren't weak! You are just ignoring your ability and being lazy.

If God has blessed you with a talent or ability, it is your responsibility to use it to your best ability, and then when your strength is all used up, then you're actually weak.

So it's not a matter of not trying.

It's a matter of giving your all, but realizing it's still not enough. But you still have to give your all or it doesn't work.

That's just what I think. But if you think about it logically, it seems to make sense.

Competition

Julie and I have an ongoing joke that I can't beat her at anything. It started before we were dating, when we were both working at Alliance Redwoods. Actually, I already liked her, but she didn't know yet. We found out that we both liked playing foosball and that neither of us ever lost. So we played foosball. She beat me. We've probably played 20 foosball games, and I've only won 3 times. Once was in a best of 3, so I still lost the match, and the other times were in a best of 5, so again, I still lost.

I haven't even tried playing soccer or basketball with her. There's no question she would beat me, since she played those in HS and/or college.

My team did beat her team in water polo at ARCG last year, but we weren't dating yet. I need to get her back in the water. I'm pretty good in the water.

She beats me at video games.

One time in South Africa, we were playing 3 flies up with our friends, and she punched me in the sternum so I wouldn't catch the ball. It hurt so bad, I fell on the ground and rolled around.

She caught the ball.

So we have this ongoing joke that I never win. It's not really a joke. It's more like a fact.

A week and a half ago, we went mini-golfing. I have never been golfing (real golf) in my entire life. Julie's family goes pretty often. I figured she would kill me at mini golf.

I won. She almost came back and beat me at the end, but I held on and won.

So when I saw Garfield this morning, it made me laugh. Oh that's another thing about me and Julie--both of us actually read the comics. Weird.

Anniversaries

I just read three blogs about stuff that happened 1 year ago or 12 years ago or whatever exactly to the day. Both Nathan Edwardson and Zach Tanksley had blogs about their own birthdays, children's birthdays, or anniversaries.

This reminds me of 2 things:

+27 years ago today my parents got married.

I am thankful for that, because I now exist as a result.



+Also, I am reminded of the fact that I always can figure out what I was doing exactly a year ago, within a few days.

A year ago today (more or less) I was in the hospital getting stitches in my face. Well, technically it was the 25th, I believe, but it was Friday afternoon, and since it's the 23rd and Friday afternoon, it's pretty close.

Anyway, I had crashed a bike and needed 8 stitches in my face. I couldn't get it wet for a week. My face was covered in scabs. It sucked.

I feel much better now, but I still have scars on my legs and on my nose. I got some more scars later in the summer from jumping out of trees and crashing into other trees 20 feet lower.

Those are all the scars on my body.

The End.

Alcohol and Passersby

I've had to use rubbing alcohol to clean things twice in the last 24 hours. I really like the way it makes the air smell. Maybe I should go to the hospital and talk to people. The bonus for them is the conversation, the bonus for me is that I might get to smell rubbing alcohol.

___________________________

Today on my way to class at the JC (the last one of the semester), I was watching people on the sidewalk. I always talk about how Jesus cares just as much about each person we drive past as He does about us. For a few months now I've been aware of the fact that when Jesus sent out the disciples, he told them to walk everywhere. In our day, we might try to contextualize it and drive everywhere. But the truth is, when you're walking, it takes a lot longer to pass someone than it does when you drive.

When you walk, you're conscious of the fact that someone is a person with a life, and not just a body moving along a sidewalk.

So today, I took the time to pray something unique for each person walking down the sidewalk. I didn't have time to stop, and that would have been awkward if I just slowed down and stopped traffic, rolled down my window, and asked people about themselves.

But prayer is a great thing. I don't need to know a person's needs for God to meet them. I want this to become a habit of mine when I am driving alone.

It's cold tonight. I think I will go get some coffee.

Would you say you have a plethora of goings-on? -or- What is blogworthy?

Usually when I write a blog I think, "this isn't really worth blogging about, but oh well, I'm going to write it anyway." In the past, I would always point out that my blogs weren't really worth reading, and while I still think so, usually people just told me they liked reading them, so I stopped caring if people like them or not. It's not about readership for me, but about writing for the sake of creating.

Anyway, right now I feel like there is a lot that is blogworthy. My last blog was about my trip to Big Sur. That trip was actually a trip to see my sister Lauren graduate. I will post some grad pictures soon, probably (no guarantees, though).

Since then, a few cool things have happened. Last Saturday was Spring Clean, which is an event all the churches of Windsor (the town we live next to) put on. Actually, the Santa Rosa churches started doing it a long time ago, and the Windsor churches do it the following week.

Basically in this event, the churches come together to bless the community by doing maintenance projects at local parks. The city and county governments love it because a lot of work gets done in a short amount of time (7:30 am until noon, followed by a lunch put on by the county regional parks department).

My group was made up of people from our church and one other church. We were working in a small park about the size of one house. It just had one huge oak tree that was a few hundred years old. So we planted some shrubs, put down new bark to beautify the park, and helped install a drip system for the landscaping.

At the BBQ afterwards, I met a pastor named Scott. Scott told me that he and a few other pastors want to see something happen for all the young adults in the city.

Apparently none of the churches have any sort of young adults' ministry going. So, today we had a meeting with the pastors of 3 churches, including my dad and Scott. Scott has a daughter who would help out, and the other pastor brought his son, Jonathan. So we're going to try to get a bunch of other young adult leaders from the other churches together, and start dreaming.

This could be the beginning of something really great.

_________________________

Also, on Saturday, I got really into planting and cultivating trees. So, my brother and I cut down some shoots that were sucking water from our redwood trees at church, and then I planted 2 Japanese Maple trees. They had been 2 inch shoots in our front yard, so I pulled them up and put them in a pot. I think one is dead, but the other seems to be OK.

_________________________

Well, if anyone needs me, I'll be running around like a madman trying to get my JC classes finished, get my licensing finished (for the Christian and Missionary Alliance), grow trees, read books, make art, record and write music, lead worship, plan young adults stuff, start a multi-church gathering, listen to the new Death Cab album, and hang out with my friends and girlfriend (all of which I have done or worked on in the last 4 days!)

Big Sur

Last week I went to my sister Lauren's graduation from Azusa Pacific University. On the way down to LA, I got to go camping with my amazing girlfriend Julie and awesome brother Andrew. I guess I am using adjectives for people right now.

We spent one night in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, and one night at Morro Bay State Park. We also visited Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, Limekiln State Park, Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, and some place with 1200 elephant seals (I forget the exact number, but it was something like that).

It was a great trip. We saw 3 waterfalls, including one that goes straight into the ocean. And, I think I saw a California Condor, but I'm not sure. Here are some pictures. These are the ones that I think are the most popular on facebook so far, and some that I just think are too cool to pass up.

By the way, don't use these without my permission. I was lazy and didn't watermark them, but still. Don't do it. It's illegal.

Look, but don't take!

First is a picture of Andrew in front of McWay Falls, which goes straight into the ocean. Then, there is a picture of Limekiln Creek, then one of Morro Rock in Morro Bay (the 3 pillars on the right are smokestacks for a huge powerplant--to give you a size comparison for the rock).



Here are some from Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, where we stayed the first night. The first one I was inside a tree that was missing its entire middle at the bottom. The second one is called "Fern Gully." I loved that movie in second grade.



Next, we have a weird license plate we saw, a picture of Julie and I at the Falls, and a picture of the cove where the falls was (in real colors, so you can see how almost tropical the water was there--this was north of San Luis Obispo, and it still looked like the tropics).







This next one was pretty fun to take, the one after that is of the elephant seals molting. I like it for some reason. The one after that is of a house in Morro Bay. I love how the editing came out on that one. I might post a whole blog of different versions of that picture.





Here are some cool ones also from Morro Bay: Julie in the trees, a boat I liked


Here are some more boats I liked, and Morro Rock at Sunset:



I highly edited these (well, pretty much just contrast on the first one and vibrance on the second one), but the texture and color are very cool on both, i think. They both are from Morro Rock.



I'll post some grad pictures next.


All images copyright 2008 by Josh Ratiani. Do not use without permission.

Economic Stimulus for the Kingdom of God

I just found out that I will receive my Economic Stimulus no later than May 16th. That is because I have direct deposit. If I didn't, I wouldn't get it until July 4th at the latest. Here is a list from the IRS about when you can expect to get yours.

Also, here is a blog by John Piper about what a great idea it is to invest your stimulus package in the Kingdom of God.

So find a church, non-profit, or needy person and give away some or all of your free money. You don't need it. At least you don't need it like other people need food and water to keep living today.

Applesauce -or- things i'm learning

Right now I have a craving for applesauce. I don't know why. It's 1 AM. I'm 23 years old. I am male. I have no valid reason for wanting applesauce. I am not a baby. I am not pregnant. That means I should not want applesauce, and I should not have random cravings.

On a more serious note, I've been learning a lot of cool stuff lately. 2 weeks ago now, I had the chance to go to the Thrive Conference in Roseville at Bayside Church. Bayside is a pretty big church (around 10,000 people), and Lincoln Brewster is the worship leader there. The conference had a bunch of great speakers (Miles McPherson, Brennan Manning, and my hero--Francis Chan), and some stuff I wasn't as big a fan of, like beach ball volleyball during a general session and a concert by Israel Houghton (which I skipped). Lakewood Church and Joel Osteen's sermons and books are Christianity Lite (in my opinion). In fact, they're misleading and false.

But anyway, I went to some great seminars, like 2 on how to be a more creative person. This was not just dealing with artsy stuff, but on how to be creative in ministry leadership and conveying that vision to other less visionary people. I felt very affirmed in the ways in which I think and the ways in which I convey that. Also, I learned that I can do some things better.

Another seminar I went to was by Francis Chan about how he preaches. I don't preach currently, but I know I will be in the near future, and I do teach in other ways. So that stuff is good to think about.

At one point he said, "At some point, every preacher has to decide if he wants to be a good preacher or a powerful preacher." He mentioned that Billy Graham is a powerful preacher. I love that. Either we can try to be good at what we do or ask to be powerful through the Holy Spirit.

That is true for worship leading. Most people who are easy to follow in worship aren't great singers or great musicians, but simply have a real spiritual gifting (the emphasis being on the Spirit, not the gifting, as my friend Clurie recently pointed out).

Also, they gave us a free book called The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham. I have only read a few pages, but so far, it's great. Billy Graham mentions that he was not a very good communicator. His teachers in school said he was so shy he wouldn't give answers, even when the teacher sent him to the principal's office because he wouldn't talk. It's cool to see how he acknowledges that he was a powerful communicator and not a good one. (The book is written by other people, but contains quotes from him and others who know/knew him).

The last seminar I went to was about how churches can develop strategic partnerships with community organizations such as public schools, Child Protective Services, and secular non-profits. The guy who spoke was from Capitol Christian Center.

I disliked Capitol Christian before that. Their youth leaders were really rude at Alliance Redwoods last year, and they rolled up in 2 hummers with their church's name on the side. I thought that was a huge waste of money and really unjust.

At the conference I learned that the hummers have video games and flat-screen tvs, and the purpose is to take them to inner city high schools in Sacramento so that the kids have something to do other than get in fights.

So my understanding of Capitol Christian's hummers was changed. I still think it's lame that they were so awful to the ARCG staff last summer.

The general sessions were also great, especially Francis Chan's. Of course, I love all things Francis Chan. If you want to know what he talked about, buy his new book Crazy Love. We're going to use it for our Young Adults Group this summer at church. Or check out his podcast (Cornerstone Simi Valley).