Faithfulness...

Real quick post. I just want to tell of how awesome God is. I can't share the details of the story, but basically I was studying down in Koerner Library on Saturday night and around 8:45-9pm, I felt the urge to pray for a friend of mine. Didn't know why just felt like I needed to pray and but I just did anyway. 

I prayed general things for this friend that were based on my own knowledge of them. Within a few minutes, Ephesians 1:3-10 popped into my head. It's not even a scripture that I read a lot or anything, but felt drawn to it. So, I began drafting an email because it seemed obvious to me that God was saying something here.

As I prayed through Ephesians, I had a few meditations and specific things that I felt like God wanted to encourage this friend of mine with. They weren't special knowledge things (i.e. things that I didn't already know about this friend or what not), but the timeliness of the words seemed apparent to me. What I mean by "timeliness" is the need that they should be said now. So, I wrote. I wrote about God's "silence" and the fact that we've been blessed with "every spiritual blessing in Christ." I wrote to encourage them to believe that God did speak to them and other things to that effect.

After I was finished writing, I went over the email like four or five times because I was actually doubting myself. Was this me? Was this God? I finally decided that whether it was God or not, they were encouraging words and I just prayed that they would be timely. That my friend would be in a place where those words would be well received and helpful, rather than pithy.

The next day, I found out that they were very well received and that there was a "story" to tell now. Today, I got an email from my friend telling me that they had been with a friend that evening and got into a conversation about God. My friend went home discouraged and feeling as if God was silent and confused about the "silence" of God in their life. I sent the email right about that same time and when they got home, they received it.

Wow! Isn't God cool? I was talking with my roomie Steven Hettler and we joked around about how even in this high-tech society of texting and wireless, blah blah blah, God is still better at networking events of life and ultimately of the heart. Exciting stuff. Not only now are they encouraged because of God's faithfulness to them, but I'm encouraged that I'm not just a dude full of hot air pithy religious things to say :).

"I'm from Taiwan"

I kind of feel like a stupid American right now. For the past few years of working up in Alaska, a large amount of Taiwanese come on cruises and visit the beautiful fjords of the Inside Passage. Also, a large amount of other nationalities. When us bus drivers are loading our passengers in the mornings, we have to check passports since we go into Canada for our trips typically. No big deal.

Here's why I feel like a stupid American. On more than one occasion, I would look at somebody's passport and it would say "Republic of China" on the passport. Politely, I would acknowledge that they were "Chinese" and mark it down on my paper. To which, many times I would here the retort (once forcefully), "I'm from Taiwan." In my ignorance, I really didn't understand and all I cared about was that the passport said China.

As I've been studying Chinese history in-depth for the past month, I feel like a complete dolt now. China has a rocky enough history as it is, full of death, revolution, and tragedy. I, being an American, who barely even knew what the Taiping Rebellion (20 million deaths), Boxer Rebellion (22 million deaths), or Great Leap Forward (20-43 million deaths, guess they lost count) was before this month, had no clue the severity of the difference between Taiwan and China. By the way, the mass deaths in china that I just mentioned: 1) Occurred within the last 150 years and 2) isn't even all of the deaths. Let's talk about WWI, the Sino-Japanese War, WWII, the Cultural Revolution, etc. Jeez...

To put it simply, ever read about Mao Zedong and the Communist Revolution of China, circa 1949. Yeah, not a pretty thing and before that happened, China was: the Republic of China. Now, it is the People's Republic of China, this occurring after the Chinese Civil War (hello!). And the losers of that war, now known as the "Republic of China" are all living in what we know as Taiwan. So, um... yeah... I have to wonder what those poor Taiwanese people must of thought of me on my bus. "Stupid American."

this is what a master's degree does to you

I'm sitting and chatting with a friend on the "interwebs" and they basically talk about one thing that deals with Christianity, Scripture, or Bible interpretation and I just go off on whatever their topic is...  dumping info on them. Great... seminary has turned me into a boring old man... :-p Pretty soon, there will be hair growing from my nose and ears profusely. I'll keep telling the same stories over and over again just hoping that somebody will listen to me.... ahhh

Moving Back

I'm moving my blog back to here for the time being.

As much as I like graphical appeal of iWeb, it is extremely inconvenient as a blogging software, because it takes so much time to update the darn thing. I really want to revamp my site and make it look nice, but I don't have time to do that. I'll just go back to my blogspot account for easily being able to update until I can revamp my site. So, redirect your RSS feeders and I'll move back to www.alexfritz.com after I can get up to Alaska.

new page

check out www.alexfritz.com... I'm running new stuff there... i may find a way to integrate blogger.com stuff to my other site, but that'll have to wait till I have time.. :)

Flawless

Perfection. Holiness. Sinlessness.
Whatever you call it, it sounds slightly absurd. No matter who you are though, most reasonable people will say something along the lines of “Well, nobody’s perfect.” To which, we all hardly agree because if that weren’t true, then that would mean there is something extraordinarily wrong with each of us. At least, more so than the “wrongness” we already have to deal with.

I’ve grown up around a diversity of church traditions which have had their own soapboxes and pet verses that they tote around some of which are more absurd then others. Some churches are actually very much focused on perfectionism of the Christian. Many others are focused heavily on the imperfection of the believer and the need for grace. Now, I’m not bringing this up because I want to argue which is a better approach or whatnot, but I do have a severe problem with churches whose overarching weekly encouragement to the congregation is, “Here are all the things you suck at that you need to change... you dirty rotten sinner.” But I digress...

No, I’m more interested in this idea of perfection. Christians torture themselves because they are not perfect (even though they know that “nobody is perfect”). Strange. Any normal human being with a logical mind would see that one course of action isn’t viable and would then be able to accept the reality of that. Not the typical Christian. We know we can’t be perfect and then make ourselves feel like garbage for not being perfect. Now, I know I’m harping and in reality it’s perfectly reasonable for us to feel guilt for faults or else we would be serial killers. However, in many Christian circles, there is definitely an unhealthy level of focus on our imperfections.

I’d be interested to know how many of you have ever written a list of characteristics you want in that special somebody. From what I’ve seen, ladies are particularly prone to this, but written or not, we all typically have these lists in our heads. Expectations. Requirements? The gatekeepers to our heart perhaps? It’s actually an activity that has been encouraged heavily in the church or at least in the circles I’ve run in. Books like “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” or whatnot. They encourage people to take part in a very unhealthy activity, but have disguised it as “wisdom.” What am I talking about?

Perfection. Flawlessness. A bunch of neurotic people roaming around looking for the “one” for them. Am I the only one completely struck by the absurdity of this?

As I was watching Gattaca the other night, the quote “They’ve got you looking so hard at the flaws that that is all you are able to see” came out during the movie and this really struck me. In the movie, Uma’s character, Irene, snags a little bit of hair from a comb in Vincent’s desk drawer and has it brought to an analysis center so that she can find out whether Vincent (Jerome) is a genetically “pure” enough candidate to be with her. When I saw this I was blown away, because this is exactly what we do now, but without genetics.

Instead, we spend all our time with somebody looking and watching carefully for an imperfection. I know not all of us do, because I have many friends that are much more healthy in this area. However, those of us that are a product of the “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” school of thought have fallen prey to a sickening disease which would normally be considered sinful: fault-finding. And just like Jerome/Vincent said in Gattaca, then all we see are the flaws. There’s a healthier way, a more balanced way.

XA Reunion

My Crew
Originally uploaded by phritz.

Well, as many of you know... I made the trip down to Mobile, AL while I was in Alabama visiting family this past Christmas.

While I was there I managed by some miracle to successfully get a large number of old Chi Alpha folks to come hang out with me at O'Charleys. It was so good to see everybody together again for a little while and to catch up. We all are so busy in our lives, but it's so good to know that we can come together at anytime and it's just like old times again. More or less...

I had a really wonderful visit to Mobile and it made me miss the place if you can believe that. I typically am quite happy not to live in Mobile. I think that since it wasn't summer time, that tended to help make me more amiable toward the place.

To me personally, there is nothing in this planet that can be any worse than Mobile, AL in the summer-time... OMG! It's like 100 degrees and the second you step outside you're pouring sweat. I despise it. The only thing that I found to be worse was Lafayette, LA in the summer time. I'd rather cover my body with duct tape and have it violently ripped off.... uh, well.. maybe not that bad, but that's an interesting mental picture, right?

Well anyway, I had a wonderful time and I miss everybody so much. I can't wait to see you guys again next winter. Until then, I guess I'll just have to enjoy myself up here.

Can I get an Amen?

Can I get an Amen?
Originally uploaded by AnomalousNYC.

Found this photo on flickr. Really interesting character this guy. Attacks consumerism (fine with me), but is a bit unclear what he IS advocating for. It's worth a look into. The link here takes you to flickr where you can read a sample of a rant/sermon of his. Pretty challenging.

Aside from all that, it's a pretty cool photo.

Snowy Vancouver

Snowy Vancouver
Originally uploaded by phritz.

Would you look at this beauty!!! I love snow... I just hope we get more snow... better snow, this stuff was wet and icy... I don't know what it is about snow, but it makes me feel so good when it snows... maybe it's like an idealistic vision for me of like happy times...

Car Troubles

Car Troubles
Originally uploaded by phritz.

Woke up on saturday and started the car... I go check under the hood because of the shaking... and wouldn't you know, some animal had chewed through four of my spark plug wires.