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jiggin4god
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Name: Alan
Birthday: 6/16/1984
Gender: Male
Interests: Living By Grace in Christ, Family and Friends, anything related to Tennis, Mariokart, NBA, College Football, Playing tricks on people :)
Occupation: Student
Industry: Hospitality
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
7/19/2002
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| Soft Power
I love going back home to Orange County. I love the familiarstreets, the solitude of the Yorba Linda Hills, my childhood friends,my dog, and the great food. Most of all though I love myparents. The two human beings whom I always have and can alwayscount on to love me with no ulterior motives.
One of my favorite pastimes when I go home is the one on onelunches/dinners that I have with my Dad. We engage in hoursof banter about politics, philosophy, theology, and other lifeissues. My Dad is pretty well read and has a knack for asking therelevant questions, especially when it comes to theology. Ourfrequent discussions keep me honest about what I think I know, which I greatly appreciate.
One of the biggest questions he has goes something like this. "Why did God reveal himself through Jesus? It seems a littleunfair because there are people who have not heard of him. Moreover, there are a lot of barriers to that singular belief that is'necessary' as a requisite to enter heaven. Couldn't God havefound an easier way? I wish that God would just appear and tellme to follow him. I would do it then...but I have a hardtime believing that Jesus is the only way...it's not like I can see himor hear him."
While I was doing some article reading online today I stumbled acrossthe concept of hard power vs. soft power in international relations thatI learned during my highschool extemp days...but it took on a newmeaning for me today. It gave me an answer to Dad's question.
As the almighty Google search engine explains to us via answers.com:
"Hard power is a concept which is mainly used in realism ininternational relations and refers to national power which comes frommilitary and economic means.
It is used in contrast to soft power, which refers to power that comes from diplomacy, culture and history.
Hard power lies at the command end of the spectrum of behaviours anddescribes a nation's ability to coerce or induce another nation toperform a course of action. This can be done through military powerwhich consists of coercive diplomacy, war and alliance using threatsand force with the aim of coercion, deterrence and protection.Alternatively economic power can be used which relies on aid, bribesand economic sanctions in order to induce and coerce.
One of the best examples of hard power is the 2003 United Statesinvasion of Iraq and its mutual control over much of the world. Nationslike the United States can use their known military potential to forceother nations in the world to follow their actions or respond to theirwishes."
If you want a more thorough explanation on the exercise of hard powervs. soft power in international relations, you should take a gander atJoseph S. Nye's: Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.
Whereas hard power like sanctions or military aggression cantemporarily force another nation into submission to your will, it isshort lived and is often met with retaliation. Soft poweron the other hand comes in the form of philsophical, cultural, and historical persuasion. When a nation takes the moralhigh road and sets aside its own temporal interests for the sake of theworld, other nations follow in accord because of the deepabiding sense of willing moral compliance. Such a nation has then successfully wielded lasting power: soft power.
This concept is one that God understands. God can (and has in the Bible) come in a supernatural form, bop peopleon the head (see Saul on the road to Damascus) and force hisrevelation on them. In God's case however, this would be anexercise of hard power. If you met God face to face, how can younot comply to his will. In the face of the One who controls life and time,what option would you have. I guess you can openly defy him, justas an indignant developing nation can scoff at the economic andmilitary leverage of world superpowers like the UnitedStates...but the average person would not for good reason (besides thefact that doing so would be morally repugnant).
Instead, God undertook the ultimate act of sacrifice that dripped thesweet nectar of soft power. Jesus left his throne in heaven tobecome a man, was misunderstood, lived a difficult 33 years and yetremained sinless, only to hang on a cross to be crushed by the wrath ofthe Father in order to slay sin.
In that act of selflessness, God did not coerce us into action for him with force, but made it possible to charm us into heart felt, deeply abiding love and obedience. As Nye would say, only soft power has lasting effects because it does not require continued input and effort. Soft power breeds self compliance, rather than grudging acceptance.
God's revelation is perfect in that it breeds obedience and devotionthat self multiplies, not a grumbling mass of humanity that groansunder his heavy law. Through that obedience, we are healedand have the ability to forgive and ultimately, are given the right tobe welcomed into the presence of an eternal God.
I for one am glad that God did not make it "easier" to find him byappearing supernaturally to us in a blaze of glory. In such acircumstance, we could not choose to seek him and obey, but would beforced into compliance. Jesus didn't come to be exalted, but tosave his children from their self inflicted demise. He didn'tcome with a big stick, but rather, a cross.
"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10:45
Thanks God for blessing me with a Dad would makes me think and does not allow me to just take things on face value :O). PS: Thanks. Happiness abounds where once there was only joy. | | |
| Life Update
The last few months have been very eventful in my life. I would
rather not delve into details...so here are some highlights about my
life:
- Starting my 6th week of work at Clorox. It has been great so
far. I really like my boss and coworkers and the work is getting
pretty challenging. The hours are great and the environment is
laid back, but high quality is still an everyday must.
- Started as an Agape counselor at CFC (our church highschool
group). I am the 7th and 8th grade guys small group leader.
I'm not sure I am ready for the task, but I am really looking forward
to the journey. When I was going through highschool fellowship I
remember there being a need for more volunteers. Many kids would
feel like they weren't getting enough attention and would leave with a
less than favorable view of Christianity. I wanted to help
make sure that this didn't happen where I could.
- I'm living in Emeryville now with Derrick Wong and Billy Wang (who is
moving in this week). Come visit us sometime. We'll have a
housewarming party one of these weekends after Billy gets up
here. The apartment is great :).
- Last but certainly not least, to quote a friend: "But the best part
is finding something you hadn't been looking for and discovering that
it is more than you could have hoped to find."
PS: After much searching (and all you tennis friends can attest
to this), I have found what will be my holy grail for the next few
years. The Yonex RD TI-80. It plays very similarly to the
RDX 500 midplus that I had been using, but it puts a lot less shock
into the arm. I get ridiculous topsin off of both wings and it is
capable of hitting a mean kickserve (though I have yet to develop
one). The search is over (until I break the two I have):
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| Here is an insightful article I found on Breakpoint (A website
run by Charles Colson: Former advisor to Richard Nixon during the
Watergate scandal who found Christ during his time in prison)
Venturing into Silence
By Joshua Birk
7/12/2006
A Counter-Cultural Risk
Silence paralyzes modern man.
Take out the iPod ear buds, turn off the cell phone, unplug the
television, and we just might be able to hear it—that crippling hush
that frightens us. As Henri Nouwen writes in Reaching Out, “When we
have no project to finish, no friend to visit, no book to read, no
television to watch . . . and when we are left all alone by ourselves
we are brought so close to the revelation of our basic human aloneness
and are so afraid of experiencing an all-pervasive sense of loneliness
that we will do anything to get busy again and continue the game which
makes us believe that everything is fine after all.”
Silence paralyzes us because it is during times of silence that we are
most often reminded of our deep-seated loneliness. Thus, we avoid
something superficial in order to avoid something more visceral. But
why does loneliness repeatedly accompany silence?
The loneliness comes from a void within us. It is like a deep hunger or
desire. C.S. Lewis said that for every desire there corresponds
something that can fulfill it. We hunger, there is food. We lust, there
is sex. We are lonely, there is company. But human company does not
seem to dispel all loneliness. It does not fill us in the way food
fills our stomach. Human company provides only part of the meal, like
an appetizer. Why? Because we were created to be in the all-fulfilling
company of God. Yet Adam and Eve sinned, and that relationship was
severed.
Our deepest longing now is to restore that relationship, to end the
loneliness. Despite our innate knowledge of this, we have not
wholeheartedly embraced it. That is why in the quiet we become
children—with little defense to the startling realities that surround
us. We do not fully understand why the world is as it is, and that
mystery looms over us. It is an intimidating feeling not to fully
understand the answers to life’s profound questions: Where did I come
from? Why am I here? What will happen when I die? So we seek others for
answers to these great questions. And we hope that the answers will
salve the loneliness.
The quickest and most palatable answers come from pop psychologists and
pop culture. All we need to do is plug our ear phones back in or flip
on the TV and the “experts” will tell us what we want to hear. Yet deep
down we know these answers are like cotton candy. They are sweet for a
moment, but then dissolve an instant later. And we are left wanting
something more substantial.
But if we remain hungry for a solution to loneliness, it is not because
we lack access to something that will fill us. In fact, God has given
us unlimited access to spiritual food and spiritual drink. If we remain
hungry, we do so because we choose to starve ourselves. We refuse to
feed ourselves on quiet reflection and instead choose to gorge on
senseless clamor.
Noiselessness is so unsettling because a place without noise is like a
room without light; and we are afraid of the dark, terrified of the
answers that might pounce on us. We dread them because they cast doubt
on what the “experts” of secular culture have taught us. And we like
what they’ve taught us — we are to live life as we see fit. After all,
pure love is so esoteric. Instant sensual gratification is much more
tangible. Humility does not reward. Pride brings attention. These
answers to the questions of life are attractive. They do not even
require a change of action. The other answers, however, are scary
because they conjure up notions of objective moral standards,
accountability for actions, and, most frighteningly, an eternal God.
What makes them even more foreboding is that they seem to well up from
the very depths of our soul.
Yet the “expert” responses give us a sense of instant fulfillment. They
are like music to our ears, so we plug in the iPod again and turn up
the volume. We’ve discovered a passing panacea.
Deep down, though, we are reminded that pop culture’s company is
superficial. It never engages us in a meaningful manner. Nouwen
reflects, “Our world is full of empty chatter, easy confessions, hollow
talk, senseless compliments, poor praise, and boring
confidentialities.” Thomas Merton, a monk, knew this well. In his book,
The Springs of Contemplation, he explains how the more he drew himself
out of the world, the better he understood it. The less he listened to
what it offered, the clearer its proposition became. He drew out of the
world and nearer to God.
It is this very action that tempts us to outgrow our immaturity. Do we
dare move away from shallow comforts toward the true Comforter? If so,
we begin the journey from “loneliness to solitude.”
We are to examine our loneliness, and realize that the Lord is the
ultimate comfort. At the same time, we acknowledge that only in heaven
will the desire for perfect company be filled, while on earth the
Lord’s company brings us closest to that heavenly state. This divine
knowledge equips us to see our loneliness not as a field to be
abandoned, but as a spiritual garden to cultivate into solitude.
Solitude of heart enables us to hear the voice of the Lord, even when
noise surrounds us. We can learn from Samuel, who was still a child
when he heard the voice of the Lord. By living in the temple, a place
of hushed reverence, Samuel learned to be quiet before God’s presence.
But we need not live in a temple to realize Samuel’s deep peace. We
need only to drown out the incessant chatter of today’s culture, and
move from “the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the
outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the
fearful clinging to the fearless play.” Our inner solitude, our
knowledge of an eternal comfort, endows us with true peace. Our souls
find the eye in the storm.
The journey from loneliness to solitude, then, begins by taking the
risk of venturing into silence. It is both counter-intuitive and
counter-cultural. Yet it makes perfect sense to a God who loves to
speak in whispers to make sure we are listening.
So beware the church that prioritizes entertaining its members with a
“relevant” mix of loud music, amusing skits, and video clips. Beware
the need to keep a television in the car, the bedroom, and the bathroom
(a place of solitude if there ever was one). Beware a culture that
teaches us to avoid meaningful conversation by putting on our headsets
whether on the subway, shopping for groceries, or eating in a
restaurant.
And the next time we’re tempted to pop in those ear phones, let’s
instead embrace solitude. Only then will we be able to come before the
Father and receive words of wisdom to shatter the silence, comfort to
dispel the loneliness, and a peace that passes all understanding in the
midst of solitude.
Joshua Birk is a Wilberforce Forum intern, working as an editorial
assistant with BreakPoint Online. He is a philosophy major at the
University of Michigan. He really wants an iPod, but instead embraces
solitude on the way to class. | | |
| Read this testimony. It was very impactful for me:
Let me know what you think. | | |
| Only Human
I have been home for about 10 days since coming back from Europe.
It has given me a lot of time to think. I've also had a lot of
good conversations with my mom and dad and some quality Bible reading
time. This time off has been good for me to sit down and reflect
on the last year and what God has taught me.
One of the big lessons that I have learned this last year is how weak I
am. Not just me, but the human will in general. This
runs in stark contrast to the conclusion that secular American culture
has generally come to. It seems like the holy grail of many quality pop
culture shows and movies is the inviolable strength of the human
spirit. The solutions of self help gurus like Dr. Phil tell us to
simply look within to find the strength we have all been looking for
but could never find. One of the didactic messages of The
Da Vinci Code movie seems to be the transcendent power of community and
being able to overcome anything if only we do it together.
While the values of community and stories that display the strength of
the raw human will should be commended, I find it hard to swallow these
types of messages as any form of holy grail.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have an unusual natural
attraction to scary movies. Since college I have come to terms
with the fact that watching scary movie after scary movie is not
beneficial and only fills your head with junk. Still, I would be
lying if I said that there weren't some inherent natural
attraction...more like curiosity within me when it comes to a good
scary movie. In my opinion, the scariest movie is not one that
deals with ghosts, insane murderers, or ill intentioned aliens.
In almost all of these movies, it is a hero or set of heros being
hunted down, or fighting against a villain (or group of
villains). The scariest movie is one where someone who is
supposed to love you turns and becomes your enemy. This is the
reason why a movie like The Shining is so wickedly scary. The
idea of a father who is capable of coercion into hunting down his wife
and child is a scary idea indeed.
This does serve to illustrate a point about human nature though.
Within each of us is the potential to willfully think and do terrible
things...if we are provoked or tempted. The ability to willfully
tap into the limits of vengeance, lust, etc. is the scariest thing I can imagine.
In such instances we are basically bringing death upon ourselves. I used to
think that I was above willfull ill intent...especially since I was a born again
Christian. That is until I felt the feeling of being
betrayed...and lashed out. I thought that I was above losing my
patience over petty things....until I was put into situations this
summer where my patience was really being tested by people I knew well
enough to not feel embarassed by lashing out. Even the most
patient and forgiving among us has lost it at some point.
For anyone who watches or reads the news with any frequency, it is also
clear that there are those who are willing to take this feeling of
indignation to extremes like physically assaulting the object of their
ill will or even taking a life. While I may not know what
it feels like to be in the shoes of another person who has been wronged
deeply in a specific way, I do know that the way that human beings are
capable of retribution cannot be right in God's eyes (including my own
tendencies toward vengeance).
It is profoundly difficult to not lash out and sin against another
person when we feel like we are being wronged. It is only
human to seek justice. That is why after a year of experiencing
times when I felt like I had been wronged by different people in
different situations (sometimes being strong enough to not sin,
sometimes not), I felt new found respect for Christ as I was reading
through Matthew during the long stretches of bus ride through
Europe. The temptation for him to sin in the form of indignation
toward others who mistreated or betrayed him is beyond anything I can
understand from experience, yet he did not sin. The task of
living the life of a human being without sinning to be eligible as a
sacrifice for all sin is a tall task indeed. I dread the thought
of seeing where we would be if all we had to rely on was the strength
of the human will come judgment day if Christ had not been the ransom
for our sins.
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