the cross

the cross. it's an interesting symbol of our faith. something that was used for torture, humiliation, suffering, and death now represents grace, hope, love, and life. jesus died on a cross some 2000 years ago so that we may have eternal life. He paid the price for our sins. the One who was perfect, holy, blameless took on our imperfections and through His death redeemed us. we are undeserved of this grace, but He gives it so freely. so we live now, with purpose, with joy, and hopefully with passion to make Him known so that more lives would be saved and He may receive glory.

1&2 peter

may and i just started leading a small group along with another couple and we're going through 1&2 peter. basically, peter is writing to a group of christians (mostly gentiles) who are scattered about the northern regions of asia minor. the bigger theme of 1 peter is an encouragement for them to stand firm in their faith since they were being persecuted at that time. this was due to the fact that emperor nero blamed the christians for burning down rome (when in fact it was nero himself who did it).

anyway, the first two lessons we went through were about how we are aliens/strangers/pilgrims/sojourners in the world we're living in. not only that, but we have an inheritance that is in Christ and something great to look forward to. because of that, we should be able to face persecution/hardship with more confidence and hope. for most of us in our small group, this wasn't something we really faced in our lives today, but it was a good reminder of what we are living for every day. our lives are only temporary, so we should focus on what is important.

yesterday, we talked about submission to authority and that we had good conversations about that. how we are ultimately to submit to God, but God has also called us to submit to government and bosses and other people who are in "high positions" than us. the idea of submission though, is one of living a life that is different and representing Christ to those who don't know God, so that they may one day enter into a relationship with Him and give Him glory. it focuses on our character and attitude and being like Christ.

we've only met for 3 weeks now, but it's been a good study and a good small group. we're hoping more and more people will be able to join us and we'll continue to grow deeper in our faith and in our relationships with one another.

sj sharks

out of the 4 bay area teams i root for, the sharks are the one team i don't follow as closely. but, as we are only a few games away from the nhl playoffs, and the sharks barely hanging in the playoff run, it's time to show my sharks some love.

it's been a down year for the sharks as they entered the season with high hopes of winning their division and easily breezing into the playoffs like they've done the past couple of seasons. but, they struggled and their high powered offense wasn't able to score. however, they still have enough talent that they are currently in the 8th seed with 2 games left. the standings are so close that each game matters. one loss could put them out of the playoffs. one more win could almost give them a lock in. they play the los angeles kings for their last 2 games. let's go sharks!

movie review: 'hunger games'

may and i saw 'the hunger games' last night and like most books-that-became-movies, the book was much better than the movie. first some things i did enjoy about the movie. first off, i give the director credit for trying to stay as true as possible to the books (although there are a few things here and there that was changed, but that's always going to be the case when trying to condense a book into a 2.5 hour movie). next, the acting by the lead characters were good. they did a good job of portraying katniss and peeta. lastly, there were some good action scenes and good cgi.

now the critics. my biggest problem was the pacing of the movie. it felt slow and disjointed. they tried to add as many scenes as possible in the book into the movie, but it would only be a short couple of seconds clips that made the movie feel choppy. they tried to add as much as they could into the movie, but didn't really explain everything, so i think if you didn't read the book, you'd be kinda lost. the other thing is that they focused a lot more on the love relationship side of the story than the survival side of the story. both are key elements of the book, but i thought the survival part should have been highlighted a bit more. other little disagreements were with the casting of haymitch and snow (but that's my personal preference) and adding color commentary during the hunger games (but again those are for the audience who didn't read the books). oh yea, and they went with the hand-held jerky camera film style which was a bit annoying. and lastly, the soundtrack wasn't very memorable either.

maybe i'm a bit more critical of the movie because i did like the books a lot and was looking forward to the movie, but i thought the movie was only okay. i would tell people to just wait and rent it when it comes out on dvd. again, good attempt to keep it true to the book, but not that well executed in my opinion.

draw something

the past few days i've been playing 'draw something' a lot with friends. the first time i played, i didn't know that the other person saw the entire process, so i was being very detailed and kept erasing and restarting. ooops. haha. i don't think i'm very good, but it's been a lot of fun trying to draw random pictures and guessing other peoples drawings. it's also been an interesting way to reconnect with friends who i don't really talk to much now. and since i'm more of a 'let's work together thing' than 'i want to beat you' type of person, i like this game more than the competitive ones :)

monta ellis/andrew bogut

the warriors traded monta ellis, epke udoh, and kawme brown for andrew bogut and stephen jackson tonight. on the surface, it doesn't seem like a very good trade for the warriors because bogut is injury prone and ellis has been playing really good ball recently. the warriors also gave up prospect udoh which has shown sparks of real talent. but, it sounded like ellis was ready to leave golden state at the end of the year when his contract was up, so the warriors were at least able to get something out of the deal.

the good side is that bogut, if healthy, is a really talented big man. he is a center that the warriors need. udoh was being blocked by david lee and the whole backcourt of monta ellis and steph curry wasn't really tough to make it work. so, it looks like klay thompson will get more run with a hopefully healthy curry and bogut along with lee.

i heard that a couple months ago, the warriors turned down a curry-rondo trade. man, i dunno why they did that. rondo would fit perfectly with ellis in the backcourt. oh well, i think this season is already gone for the warriors. the thing that sucks is that they are always not good enough to make the playoffs, but not bad enough to get high draft picks. they are basically stuck in mediocrity.

the walking dead

just wanted to say, the last 2 episodes of "the walking dead" = wow! glad they moving the story forward :)

randy moss

randy moss officially signed a 1-year deal with the niners today. i wasn't super excited about this when i first heard about it last night, but i can see why the niners did it. they need an upgrade in their receiving corp and moss, if engaged and healthy, is a definite upgrade. he stretches the field and defenses have to pay attention to him. this would take pressure off crabtree and vernon to make all the plays.

the downside, of course, is that he's had a history of not trying hard or giving up on plays or not fully being engaged the whole game. if his number isn't called a certain amount or if the team starts to play poorly, he might check out mentally. he is also another year older and didn't play at all last season.

still, the niners did only sign him to a 1-year deal. this is similar to what they did last year with braylon edwards. now, that didn't work too well for the niners, but i do have to admit that the organization has had a pretty good track record recently of getting good players. my hope was that they would sign mike wallace and peyton manning, but i really don't see that happening. it looks like their committed to alex smith and reports are that the niners will most likely look to draft another receiver in the first round.

so, after sleeping on it a night, i'm ready to welcome randy moss to the niners. let's see the niners open up the playbook a bit more this season and take more shots downfield with moss!

kony 2012

last week, the 30-minute video of kony 2012 exploded onto the internets. an organization called invisible children released this video explaining their cause to stop joseph kony, a ugandan warlord, who kidnaps and abducts children for his own personal army.

after watching this well-edited video, i was drawn, like many people, to their cause and excited to see and hear young people jump on board in wanting to stop evil. then, after this video went viral, there were reports against the invisible children organization saying that they weren't allocating the money they received in the right way. too much was going towards travel and film editing and for paid staff, while only a small percentage really went towards helping the ugandans themselves. and it was sad to hear those reports.

there are a couple of thoughts from all that went on:
- the internet is powerful. we live in an internet age and you can use the internet to raise awareness just like that. could the Church do something like this? what would happen if all the Christians around the world got on board for something at the same time?
- the invisible children's video accomplished what they set out to do. they made joseph kony famous.
- do research. it's easy to get excited about causes, but there are so much out there. find out which organization really does what.
- do something. one thing i do admire about the invisible children is that they set out to do social justice and have continued to pursue that. what is God tugging at your heart to do?

peyton manning

this morning, peyton manning had a press conference announcing his good-bye with the indianapolis colts. after 14 years with the colts who signed him out of college, they have decided to part ways with one another. it's a tough situation because manning had neck surgery last season and while he has just started throwing the football again, his health is still a concern. not only that, but since the colts have the #1 pick in this years draft and stanford's andrew luck ready to come to the nfl, it's natural for the colts to start thinking of their future and moving forward with a new quarterback.

but, peyton believes he still has a few more years of football left in him and, if he's healthy, he is still an elite quarterback that can bring a football team to the next level. many teams have already been linked as "good fits" for where manning could join. one of those teams is my beloved 49ers.

the niners gm has already said that they haven't talked about bringing in manning, but you gotta believe they should at least consider it. i know it's also a tough situation because the niners had a great season last year going 13-3 and making it to the divisional championship game with alex smith as their quarterback, but he only played okay and it seemed like, to me, that jim harbaugh didn't completely open up the playbook because of smith's skills. yes, alex fits well into the 49ers system and maybe harbaugh is just slowly opening up more and more to alex, but you could do so much more with peyton as your quarterback.

if i was the niners, i would make an offer to manning. i think bringing him in here would take this team to that next level. it would also give them opportunities to many sign another top receiver? i really hope mike wallace would be brought in. that would be pretty amazing. and i trust harbaugh enough that if manning was to possibly get injured, that he can groom the next quarterback whether that be colin kapernick or someone else. so my vote is for the niners to make manning an offer.