Growth

It's an interesting thing, growth. I would say that most people want to grow. But I would say that many people probably dont grow as much as they could. I think part of the problem is that there is often a hard part in growing that people often want to avoid.
The way muscles grow is that when you do solid exercise, you actually break down the muscle fibres which then grow back larger and stronger than before. It can be uncomfortable, those few days after a solid gym session, but after the pain, the results are worth it. You are stronger than before.
I think that growing as a person is similar. An integral part of our growth is the breaking down part. It might be changing your opinion on something, it might be a stern rebuke by a friend or even just a subconsious change. Either way, there is some kind of breaking down of perceptions, or attitude or actions. Sometimes you dont even notice it and other times it is so horrible that you dont think you can stand up under the pain.
I guess this is where often people do not want to grow. They see that they might need to accept they were wrong about something, or whatever and choose not to do so. Many people would take this as admitting that your actions were flawed before. People do not want to admit that something they have done was flawed. Instead of growing, they remain where they are.
Often it isnt that straight forward, you might put your foot in it or whatever and hurt someone. Accepting that you have done them wrong and apologising is part of that breaking down. You have realised you have hurt someone and in the future will be more careful. Those future actions are the growth that has occurred.
There is also the other side of the coin in which you kind of have hardship or whatever thrust upon you. It is no fault of your own but I believe that people can still certianly grow through that. For example, when I was growing up, my parents got divorced. Certainly no fault of my own. I could have used that as an excuse to run amok and refused to grow from it, or I could choose to grow as much as I could.
I think the decision to grow or not is often a consious one.
Hebrews 12:7 "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."
I guess my point in all this is that even though things might not go the way we want some of the time, people may hurt us or whatever, we know that God is using it to make us into the people he wants us to be. When you face pain or hardship how do you respond? Do you shake a fist at God and say how dare you? Or do you use it as an opportunity to grow?

I may have not been thorough enough or generalised too much but there are some thoughts on the matter. Feel free to comment.

Christmas and so on

Hi All,
Since the season is upon us I thought I would let you know what I am up to. Friday of this week the office goes for lunch and pretty much doesnt come back. Sometime Saturday I will drive up to Mum and Terry's house and hang out with them that night. Sunday morning I am going to go to church with my Dad and step-mum Helen. I wish they would go every week but at least I can encourage them on Christmas day. That's right Dad if you are reading this!
After church I will go with Dad and Helen to Helen's daughter's house to watch their kids open their presents. From there we go to her son's house. I say a quick hello and then go back to Mum and Terry's house for Christmas lunch. I hang out with them that night and then go home the next day most likely.
How do I feel about Christmas? Well, to be honest I have mixed feelings.
I am happy to be able to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus but am saddened that people most often dont even think about him, let alone have him as Lord of their lives.
I feel sad that I would love to have a family (wife and children) of my own to celebrate it with.
As for the rest of my family, well to be honest I feel like the Lee (my surname) element of both parents Christmases is really low. Last year at my Helen's family's christmas that I came along to, there was my Dad, my bro and I (3), and on Helen's side there were roughly 20 at a guess. Some I hadnt ever met before. Similarly at Mum's as well, there were the 3 of us and about 15-20 others. Dont get me wrong, I love both my step-parents and their families, they are all really nice and friendly people, but sometimes I dont feel like it is our Christmas.
I dont go 'home' for Christmas (or any other time for that matter), I go to Mum and Terry's house and Dad and Helen's house. Do you notice the difference? As for my place in Wollongong, I dont know if I call it home either. I guess I am truly in a place where heaven is my home and Christmas is a time in which I long for home more than any other time in the year.
The obvious plus side to this is that I am probably quite able to do overseas mission work and not get homesick so much that I cant do what I went there for.

After Christmas I will probably hang out in Wollongong. Dont know about NYE. I might see what Leigh (my step-bro) and Maya (his gf) are planning. After that I have another week off work and will be getting ready for CMS summer school. The week after that will be summer school. I am looking forward to that heaps. It will be great to hear a week+ of great bible teaching and spend some time lying in my hammock. Ohh yeah!

Being that I have taken a couple of weeks off from Friday 23/12 till Monday 16/01 I wont have access to the internet. Just letting you know!

Napoleon Dynamite

Napoleon - Well, nobody's going to go out with me.
Pedro - Have you asked anybody yet?
N - No, but who would? I dont even have any good skills.
P - What do you mean?
N - You know, like, num-chuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

Weird Dreams

The topic of dreams is often quite an interesting one. When a person says in a group "I dreamt..." often others have had a similar style of dream. This often leads to interesting tales by people of what they dreamt about.
I dont claim to know much about dreams but from my experience I would put them (or their constituent elements) in 3 categories:
The first category would be related to what may be going on in life. So, if you are working on a big project at work, you may find yourself dreaming about it. Also, if, like me, you like to read a part of a novel before bed, you might dream about stuff related to it.
The second category I propose is related to your fears and desires. Sometimes you could dream about overcoming a fear or alternatively, find yourself running around in dream world trying to get that desired thing but always having it slip out of your hands.
The third category is just plain ramdom. All the weird stuff like places you have never been etc. Basically all the stuff your brain just makes up from scratch (or at least it would appear so).
Most of the dreams I remember have all 3 of these things in them. I guess what I have found weird is that previously I used to have a 'recurring location that I had never been to' dream every few months. But lately they have been every night. I have one near the ocean, one on an airport runway, one 'random overseas locations' one but I have never been overseas, one island paradise one, the list goes on.
I had one the other day when I was in some kind of maze that some evil people put me and my friends (not actual individuals I know - that was just the vibe) and they set all sorts of traps and challenges to kill everyone off. But because I was some kind of special dude I kept surviving somehow. It was quite strange, but I have been reading the 'wheel of time' books before bed each night and the same thing happens to the main character.
Last night I had one where I was kind of country hopping around the world but kept running into the same lot of people but there were a bunch of mean people too who kept wanting to take some item of value from me. Kind of weird.
Why do I write this? Well, I dont know. I dont know if there is any real point in interpreting dreams. That being said, it is interesting to see how different people dream about. I think it gives you a bit of an insight into them.
I am pretty sure the bible says it is not cool either. Maybe because people take their interpretation and run with it in the wrong direction. Not sure....

Things to do in Sydney when your alive

I guess it has been a while since the last 'what I have been up to/will get up to' post. So here we go...
Last weekend was our evening service end of year party. It was quite good with people putting in alot of effort to dress up. The dress up theme was to wear something you probably wont ever wear again. I wore the black and white Jester's outfit I made for the previous year's black and white ball. As much as I think the outfit is a tailoring masterpiece (I made it) it isnt the kind of thing you are going to wear...anywhere. If you have seen the movie/musical 'An American in Paris', James Dean's character wears it to a black and white ball.
Sunday afternoon one of the youth group kid's parents invited all the youth group leaders over for afternoon tea. It was quite nice and the sticky date pudding was brilliant!
Since then, Monday night I had a few ppl over (in lieu of role playing, not enough ppl could make it) for a movie. We watched 'War of the Worlds' which I hadnt seen and enjoyed quite alot. Tuesday night was the last bible study of the year. Next Tues we have our bible study end of year party combined with the girls bible study.
Upcoming events are JBS on Friday. I think it is my 3rd last JBS ever. Well, maybe apart from special one offs we may have next year. Saturday morning is our company's Christmas party (both Sutherland and Wollongong offices). It should be ok. I havent been to one before but I am pretty sure they are pretty good. It's in Audley which should be nice provided the rain holds off.
After that I am going up to Sydney to Prospect to have lunch with some old friends from my Church in Blacktown. That should be really good. I havent seen them for almost a year. It's pretty hard to find time to meet up with everyones busy schedules.
As for Saturday night/afternoon, well I am not sure. It is likely something will present itself. If not I will prob just hang out with my mum and step-father and brother at their house in Newington.
Next week is our office Christmas party on Wed night. Should be ok. See how we go...