Fish With Trish

At the conference, I met an incredible woman named Trisha Ramos working at the booth for Way of The Master ministries. Even though I was only able to talk to her for a few minutes, I could tell that she is so on fire to spread the gospel. Trisha encouraged me to share my faith and tell other people the good news. She even gave me a few tracks to get me started. Check out her website: www.fishwithtrish.com

Here we are in front of her booth:

Beauty From the Heart Conference (my recap for girls)

(Note: This post is written for girls.)

Encouraging. That's the number 1 word I would use to describe my experience at the Beauty from the Heart Conference. Even though we drove four hours to get there, it was completely worth it for me, and I'm so glad I went. To give you a taste, I'm going to share my notes from the first session given by Hannah Farver because it kind of set the tone for approaching the topic of Beauty from the Heart.

Session 1: Physical Beauty

• Ideas of what's beautiful change over time and culture.

Hannah showed pictures of "celebrities" from decades ago. Man, they look very different from today's celebrities, but at the time they were acclaimed by society as "beautiful". Today, our culture says tanned and thin are in, but Asian girls use whitening lotion and, at one time, African girls were force fed by their families because being fat was considered "beautiful". This led to heart diseases and other health problems. I think that's very interesting considering the current eating disorders in America that are the opposite of that but also lead to health problems.

• Beauty doesn't satisfy anyone.

She read quotes from 3 top actresses and models who were all unhappy with the way they looked. Even though the world acclaimed them as some of the most "beautiful" people in the world, they were still insecure and unsatisfied.

• Beauty doesn't last.

Four pictures were displayed: one of Elizabeth Taylor from when she was a top star in her youth alongside a picture of how she looks now and another set of Audrey Hepburn as a young woman and Hepburn years later. The difference over time is startling. When they aged, they look similar to many of the older women I know today.

• God chose your genes.

God made you the way He did for a purpose. You look the way you do because it pleased Him. After Hannah read from Ps. 139:14-16 where the Bible says that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made", she said that she had heard this verse all her life but she wondered why she still had problems with acting like she believed it. She ended her session by asking,

"Why do we still have doubts that we are wonderfully made?
Why do we put so much weight on the world's beauty checklist?
Why do we compare ourselves with models and actresses?
(And this one was the most convicting:) Why don't we care about what the God of the Universe thinks of us?"

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As you can tell, it was a very good talk. The following session was my favorite, and it answered those last questions Hannah asked. It was the cornerstone for the entire conference. Really, it was about the cornerstone for all of life.

It was about the Gospel.

Check out: www.beautyfromtheheart.org, and stay tuned...

I'm in Dallas

Today I'm attending the Beauty From The Heart Conference in Dallas. I'm very excited!

Why didn't we learn?

I just read the latest World magazine which featured an article on Tienanmen Square because today is the 20th anniversary of the event. Even while depicting the horrible atrocities, the article drove in the point that one of the worst days in China's history became a turning point for the growth of Christianity in China. The number of Christians in China has skyrocketed from just a few decades ago and continues to grow today. Some commentators point to the Chinese people becoming disillusioned with the system of democracy as part of the reason for the rise. Perhaps the Chinese placed their hopes in democracy to save them from an oppressive Communist regime which would thus solve the problems in their lives. But they realized on that day when their emboldened protests came to a bloody and violent stop, that a new government system did not hold all the answers. Only Christ could make things right.

Further on in the magazine, I read another article about an exhibit in New York on “French literature during the Holocaust.” It talked about the corrupt horrors committed in France and the feeling of Antisemitism that still haunts humanity today.

My question is, “Why didn't WW1 and 2 start a Christian revolution and revival?”. After experiencing all of that evilness at the hand of men, why didn't we learn like the Chinese that the only hope in the world is Christ? Why does it seem like Christianity in America has taken a downturn since the mid-20th century? Why did we find, a couple decades later, a generation of rebellion?

When I was little, I hated hearing the news. It was just too scary and I wanted to stay in the happy, innocent world I knew where the worst problem was how to get back at my annoying brother for teasing me. I hated those glimpses of a bigger world that only seemed to have troubles and more troubles. My view was that everyone was sad and depressed because no one knew how to fix anything right. But now that I'm older, I see more clearly not only how naive I was, but, ironically, I also see how my childish perception caught much of the truth of reality. The world does have a lot of problems, mankind can't solve them, and people are scared. But I was ignorant of the fact that I don't need to be scared.

Now, by seeing this senseless violence, I better understand the extent of how depraved our world is. And I think it's right to understand that because in the midst of human hopelessness, Christ shines brighter. He is Sovereign. He is all-powerful. He is our Answer.

Enabling Comments

It's the beginning of June and time for a change. Under the encouragement of some friends, I've enabled comments for Hastings Haven. I disabled comments near the beginning of this blog, and recently I've been thinking about allowing comments, but was hesitant for two reasons:

1. It might become another way to spend too much time on the computer.

2. I should write for an audience of One.

But here's what I've decided (at least at this point).

1. I told one of my friends this first reason, and she said that comments are one of those things that are not bad in and of themselves. Rather, as she noted, "It's all in what you make of it". I think that's very true. So I'm going to give commenting a chance, and if it does end up being a time distraction, I'll disable them again.

2. I think everyone should always do things for an audience of One. But I still have so very much to learn, and as the Body of Christ, we can help each other grow stronger. As long as comments are used to "build each other up" (1 Thess. 5:11) and don't tear one another down, I think that comments can be used to edify and encourage.

With all that said, you are welcome to comment! Even if you just want to say "Hi", I'm always happy to hear from you.