Interesting...

To be a human is to want to live for a purpose. What is the meaning of it all? Think about it. Comment if you feel so inclined.

Hello again. Long time no post.

So, long time no post :( Sorry to those few out there who have been on the edge of their seat waiting for this next installment. Sometimes my motivation for writing and posting wanes because I am overwhelmed by the shear amount of stuff (ideas, considerations, questions, enlightenment) swimming around in this big head of mine. It's a scary place in there, trust me. 


Some of you might be wondering what I've been spending my time doing. Well here goes... While I've been offline these past couple weeks, I've been filling my time with...

• Reading and researching the world of user experience and information architecture, both nerdy topics, but very much a cross section of some of my favorite topics (people, technology, psychology, design & business).
• Designing site requirements to revamp a website.
• Attending parts of a weekend conference held in Jacksonville, FL, but viewed by me, in So-Cal via webcast on Living a Life for the Fulfillment of God's Eternal Purpose
• Helping my friends move out from their home across the street into a temporary storage unit & their mom's place before eventually moving into their new home in the next city over.
• Continuing to figure out how best to reach more people online who might be seeking God and His Word. 
• Trying to help my dear mama choose paint colors for redoing the entire house. A task to great for just a single individual, lots of hand holding required. 
• Catching up with old friends who are starting new stages in life... Two of which are starting business school this fall. One doing a dual masters program at the University of Michigan and the other starting a journey into business academia with a PhD program in marketing at Havard Business School. (In cases you' might be reading...Congrats to you both. :))
• Planning a trip to the Bay Area, hopefully this coming weekend. 
• And of course, the usual... reading and enjoying the ministry of my two favorite Christian authors - Watchman Nee and Witness Lee

More enlightening and refreshing posts to come. Signing off until closer to the end of this week. 

Nothing beats face to face...

Cute pic right? Well, I'm using it to represent my sentiment concerning face to face interaction...it's just too precious and so necessary for developing into a normal, healthy human being. Hands down, face to face is still the best way to communicate with new friends, old friends, family, colleagues... people in general. Yes, sometimes it can be a bit awkward, especially when you are clumsy like me and tend so how manage to spill food on yourself every time your in public. At other times, it can be frustrating, especially when you just can't spit out the right words at the right time to express the exact thought you have in your head. However, the joy of making a friend, meeting up with someone for the first time or in a long team and just really connecting just can't be beat. Even with all the technology in the world and all the continuous buzz around social media, nothing can replace the face to face.

No social media is not a fad. (Watch the video if you're still not convinced.) And I am not a social media hater. However, it will never replace the joy, or the necessity of meeting people face to face.



Yes, this video is totally crazy, a little bit scary and kinda makes me want to hide out for a while and unplug myself from all the chaos. Even for me, a Gen X/Yer, (I'm not sure really where I fit in..the end of Gen X or the beginning of Gen. Y), who is expected to be a tech savvy, up to date, early adopter of all this stuff, it's all just a bit, a huge bit, overwhelming. I can't imagine what it's like for the older...well you know... the more mature generation of folks like my mom, who still has difficulty figuring out how to get all her mother's day photos off her digital camera. It's no wonder since for most, including myself, by the time we figure out how to use the technology of today, it's obsolete. This whole change in the world of media, communication, technology is happening way too fast at an impossible rate to follow.

So what can we do? We can either hide from it all and hope it goes away, taking the ostrich mentality. (But let's face it. It's not going away anytime soon.) Or we can embrace it to enhance our face to face interactions and our care for others in our "network". Social networking is just a tool to enhance our real personal relationships, rather than a time-sucking virtual leech that replaces our real life relationships and interactions. You decide.

P.S. In my real life network, I made two new friends, who are not yet my Facebook friends. :) This may not sound so significant, but think about it. Unless you are in school, starting a new job, moving to a new city, when was the last time you made a friend? That's supposed to be the refreshing part.

Existing for Existence.

Do I live to exist or exist to live? I would say most people live to exist. We work, we eat, we drink, we breathe for the sake our existence. Without these things we simply couldn't exist. But then what? More work, more eating, more drinking...? What is the purpose of our existence? Is it just to exist or is there something more?

That's a lot of questions that I won't attempt to answer in completion, but am thinking about. It's this paragraph from the Life Study of Exodus, written by Witness Lee...

For us to live for Christ, we need to exist. Without our human existence we cannot live Christ. But today those in the fallen world care for nothing but their existence; they do not care for the purpose of their existence. To exist is one thing, but to exist for the divine purpose is another thing. The purpose ordained by God for our existence is to live Christ, to live God out, and to have God's testimony. But the people of this world have only their existence; they have no purpose. Eventually they make their existence itself the purpose of their existence. They know nothing but existence. Satan picks up the existence of human beings or of human living and uses this existence to usurp people so that today the whole world cares only for existence, not for God's purpose in existence.

Wow! To say that we exist for our existence is quite enlightening, rather deep and pretty bold. Not sure how to respond, except that I would like to declare that I don't want to exist just for existence sake, but to exist for the divine purpose. How about you?

When is a good thing, simply TOO much? (continued)

After a weekend of dwelling on this post, off and on, I haven't really come up with anything particularly brilliant to add, except that knowledge (in the form of information in this case) really belongs to, well... the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It really doesn't have anything to do with the other tree, the tree of life. 


Interesting contrast right?
The tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil vs. the tree of LIFE.


Despite the common concept and understanding, I myself often times included in this, it's not about good vs. evil. It is about knowledge vs. life. Are you interested in knowledge or life? Knowledge can never satisfy, but life can because He is the life (John 11:25). Actually, the more knowledge we have the more dissatisfied we are. Think about it? Either you keep pursuing it to the point that the need for knowledge consumes you and you are enslaved to it. Or, as you are pursing it, you realize that it is a hopeless cause because can never know the purpose of everything until we know Life, the person that is life.

When is too much of a good thing, simply TOO much?

The paradox of information and technology is that in an attempt to make our lives easier it is in fact making it more and more difficult to find exactly what we are looking for. Today, human beings are creating more information faster that we can organize and consume it. You'd think a plethora of information would in fact be a good thing. However, what is the point of all this? What is the motivation for human beings to seek so much information. It is just the desire to know? Is it the need to create? What is it?

As I've been considering these things and in my frustration of not finding information I need, and not being found when I have information to share. In the end, I have the realization of the following concerning man (in the plural sense, in the way it is used to capture mankind):

1. Man has a vacuum that can never be filled with information or knowledge. Otherwise all of us would be already exploding.
2. Man desires to create, communicate, share. (I like to believe that this is because we were created in God's image and according to His likeness" Gen 1:26.)
3. Man is limited. We simply are incapable of knowing and understanding everything.

well... let's dwell on that for a bit.

to be continued...

Phenomenon:groundswell

After hunting local bookstores on and off for a couple weeks, I finally got my hands on a copy of this bright green book. Although, I know I'm a couple years late in the game, it was published 2 years ago, I thought it might be nice to reflect on some of my considerations concerning the social phenomenon, known as the groundswell, that is affecting pretty much the core of how we communicate, connect with others, share information, and define our relationships.
I've read half of it so far and it has been quite intriguing, of course not in the same way as the chapter 9 of Life-Study of Exodus, (you really can't beat Zipporah calling Moses a "bloody husband". You pretty much can't find anything out there that comes close), but none the less pretty compelling.

So what exactly is the groundswell?
It's a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institution like corporations.

So why is it relevant? Well for you, for me, and for most of the population out there, it is affecting the way we connect with people, what we do online, how we find information and how we share information with those we care about, (or those we don't even know). Just think Facebook... how many pieces of useless information can you gather from your "friends" at any particular moment you sign in, and yet despite not sharing information of great intrinsic value...on any given day, somehow I find myself spending at least sometime everyday to check on what's going on in my "network" because I value the relationships.


Isn't it ironic that at the end of the day, after all is said and done, it is the innate human need to connect with others (God put that in us) and to share and speak our thoughts, considerations and findings (also God created) that is the driving factor in the groundswell. So does that mean God indirectly created the groundswell? Think about it...

Anyway, for me, it's especially relevant as I continue to consider how to pick up technology by the tail (referenced from chapter 8 of LS Exodus) in the midst of this social phenomenon and use it for the advance of God's purpose. How can we tap into the groundswell, listen to it, talk to it, energize it and embrace it for the spread of the Word and the ministry? Also, I just find this stuff kind of fascinating because I am just a big nerd who loves reading about what exactly makes people tick. It's the psychology and business major in me that screams "yay!", "wow!", "fascinating!" as I am reading through the case studies and market research that are presented in this book.

However, as I'm reading more and more, I can't help but think how much the principles presented in this book align with so many principles revealed in the Bible concerning how to build up the Body of Christ. It is through the operation of each one part that the Body builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:15-16). It is through the functioning of many members that the Body can move and act according to God's desire. It is the fellowship (connections) and flow (of information) through the speaking that keeps the Body supplied, healthy and active.

It pretty amazing in the age of the groundswell to see the impact individual human beings cooperating together can have on large corporations. How much more can we who share the same divine life as our Father and with one another cooperate with the Lord and coordinate with one another as the Body of Christ to defeat the enemy?

Digging Deep...

Psalm 42:7 - "Deep calls unto deep."

In my quest to read through all of the Christian literature available for free through Bibles for America, I've come across a basic, but extremely profound and enlightening chapter written by Watchman Nee called "Deep Calls unto Deep".

Some quotes I highlighted:

The only thing that touches us is something that has issued from the depths of others.

If nothing comes from the depths, the help we receive is just superficial.

If we want to render spiritual help to others, (which I believe every genuine Christian does) something must issue from our depths.

Only deep calls unto deep. 

When deep touches deep, deep will respond to deep.

Though I am having some difficulty figuring out how to express what I've  read, I do have the sensation that I have touched something that came from the depths of a person that knew the depths of God's heart and lived a life that matched it.

As human beings we all have the desire to be deep beings...hence the phrase "dude...that's deep", "digging deep", etc. However, how deep am I, no really. In the light of reading such a chapter, I have the realization that even though everything may appear okay on the outside (my "leaves" so to speak are green and flourishing) there may be a lack of depth underneath the soil, the part that is just me and the Lord.
"Lord, deepen my roots and my hidden life with You."

Check out the recognition of Watchman Nee on the Congressional record in the Library of Congress.

A link to my heritage

China : A Fight For Faith

I am thankful for the Lord's sovereign arrangement.

Sometimes, I wonder how my life would (or more like wouldn't) be if my grandparents were not able to leave China for Taiwan during the communist revolution. Or if my great grand father hadn't met the Lord and His recovery in a dynamic way in the Shandong province of China, (where they live off of noodles and dumplings...YUM), the same hometown province as Witness Lee. (Thought I'd mention this since, for whatever reason, Chinese people are big on hometowns.) Or if he hadn't given his life to follow the ministry of the age. Would I even exist? Probably not.

For whatever reason, the Lord's sovereignty, mercy, and love towards me, I was born at the right time in the right place to a family that loves the Lord. Praise Him!

Stiff Neck..:(

Yup that's right. For the 5th time within the last two years I have managed to some how give myself what most people would call a stiff neck, also known as a major pain in my neck in the physical and literal sense of the terms. It's a muscle spasm that won't away, limits your peripheral vision, makes you a robot of sorts and drives you absolutely crazy. So needless to say having a stiff neck in the physical sense is at minimum not fun at all and at the opposite extreme completely debilitating and demoralizing. 


So how can this be applied to us spiritually, after all the purpose of this blog is to offer some spiritual refreshment in the middle of the day no matter what the season, even a stiff necked season. 


What better way to find out the spiritual significance than to look to the Bible... so I did a search for verses in the Bible reference a stiff neck. Depending on the translation, you get roughly 15-20 results of verses that reference a stiff neck in relation to to rebelliousness and stubbornness of God's people, the children of Israel. Actually though, we are the same in nature as they are and we should have no trust in ourselves. Rather we need to continually come to the Lord and receive Him into our being. And for this we need some flexible, pliable, supportive necks that match our Head. 


So what exactly are the functions of the neck anyway? We don't really think about these things until it it stops functioning in the proper way. But for the most part the neck...

• Attaches the head to the trunk, or the rest of the body. (Wow...very significant if you look at in from the perspective of the Body of Christ. The neck is what connects the head, Christ, to the body, the church.)
• Supports the head and facilitates its movements (also significant, since without the neck the body can't move or support the head. God needs us for His move.)
• It is a conduit for: the respiratory, digestive and nervous system (That means our neck can affect our breathing, eating, feeling/sensitivity.)
• It accommodates the larynx, endocrine glands (It also affects our speaking and proper growth.)
• Conducts arteries, veins and lymphatics to/from the body to/from the head (Finally, it affects the circulation and fellowship of the body to the head and the head to the body)

I know I could be totally off in these things, but I think there may be something here. (The Lord cover me. I'm not preaching this as a doctrine or anything.) However, it does seem to me that our spiritual "neck" so to speak is very much related to our relationship with Christ our head and the His body, all the other believers on the earth. What we need in our spiritual life is a neck that is beautiful and flexible. This is a matter of our transformed (or our being transformed as we speak) will, which is submissive and obedient to the Lord. If we have such a will, there will be no pain for the Head or the Body...and wouldn't that be nice? I can't really remember, where I got this stuff, but I'm hoping that it is something that has been constituted into me from the ministry of our dear brother Witness Lee. Anyway...may the Lord soften our "necks" for His purpose and my physical neck also, unless it is working out something for His purpose. 

Be simple like these pandas. Eat Eat Eat.

So the other day, one of my beloved friends forwarded this pictures to me via email. These pandas were rescued from the wilderness after the earthquake in China...and now look at them... they are totally eating it up...LITERALLY eating it up, and oh so cute doing it.

This got me thinking, at least more than usual, about how simple life can be when we stop all our doing and remember the basic necessities of life - eating, drinking, breathing. Ironic, no... more like how purposeful on His part that this is exactly what the Lord Jesus wants to be to us. He wants to be our food, drink and breath, the very things that keep us alive and allow the life in us to grow.

So these pictures coupled with a very specific fellowship I received from an older brother recovering from surgery has somewhat gotten me to stop and consider. When tragedy or difficulty come our way, (i.e. major earthquake, surgery, illness, and worst case scenario death of a loved one) we shouldn't look so much at the debilitating aspect of it all, but more like an opportunity to STOP all our doing, trying, thinking, planning... and simply depend on Him.

Dependence though we grow up hating the thought of it, actually is quite enjoyable. I mean look at these pandas depending on these lovely Chinese rescue people...don't they look happy and satisfied. I'm sure this is much easier than living independently out in the jungle having to roam around to find your own bamboo to chew on. Maybe we, mostly speaking to myself, can learn something from these cute cuddly creatures and learn to depend on our Lord at all times and for all things.

A wonderfully refreshing message I read in the Life Study of Exodus can be found here. Or you can also DL and listen to Witness Lee talk about it in the Living Stream Ministry program Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. "The female life is a dependent life."

de·pend·ence

   [dih-pen-duhns] (with my own commentary included) –noun

1.

the state of relying on or needing someone (Christ as everything to us. Jehovah God who is the Great I AM) or something for aid, support, or the like.

2.

reliance; confidence; trust (on Him): Her complete reliability earned her our dependence.

3.

an object of reliance or trust.

4.

the state of being conditional or contingent on something, as through a natural or logical sequence: the dependence of an effect upon a cause.

5.

the state of being psychologically or physiologically dependent on a drug after a prolonged period of use. (We can be addicted to Jesus and His Word, rather than with so many other things out there)

6.

subordination or subjection: the dependence of Martinique upon France.

I'm just a thorn bush... but a thorn bush in resurrection!

So as I continue my journey through Exodus with the Church in Irvine, I've discovered that my capacity for reading CAN be increased, especially reading concerning the ministry of Witness Lee. Actually, growing up I hated reading, but after 4 years of college and 2 years post college at a Bible school with an intense assigned reading requirement, I've really learned to love it. You might even say it is a daily nourishment to me :) I guess that the Lord meant when he said "Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Matt. 4:4 His Word really does nourish us, but I digress...

Ok back to Exodus, according to message 7 of the Life Study of Exodus, the very God in the thorn-bush, the One who called Moses, was the God of resurrection and because this is the God that indwells us, we can declare that we are in resurrection. I know, I know, you may think that this sounds crazy but if a = b and b = c, then doesn't a = c. Follow me here... so if the God of resurrection dwelt in the thorn bush as typified by the burning bush that was not consumed and we are the thorn bush, then that means the God of resurrection dwells in me. And if this is the case, then that means that I too am in resurrection with Him. Therefore, I can declare boldly in faith that I am in resurrection because my God is the God of resurrection.

The more we speak this in faith, the more this will become our experience. My God is living, is yours? My God is in resurrection, is yours? I am in resurrection, are you? Declare it and it'll become yours too! I love my God of resurrection. :)

My personal goal... having a mid-day refreshment.

So... I've set some personal goals for myself related to being and staying refreshed the best I can. One of the best ways, I've found to do so is by taking some time in the middle of my work day to do some personal reading for spiritual enlightenment and refreshment. This is how I figure... since I work for a non-profit that distributes the Bible and Christian literature for free, the best thing I could do was read all of the stuff that we offer...imagine that.

Current reading list from two of my favorite Christian authors, Witness Lee & Watchman Nee (Yes, that is really their names, and yes these are pretty legit.) Oh and a clarification... By current reading list I mean books that I am currently in the middle of. How often I touch them and how long I have been in them vary quite a bit. But let's face it, some books, like the Bible are always going to be on my current reading list:
-How to Enjoy God and How to Practice the Enjoyment of God - Witness Lee
-Life-Study of Exodus - Witness Lee
-Life Study of Isaiah - Witness Lee
-Basic Elements of the Christian Life, Vol. 1 - Witness Lee & Watchman Nee
-oh and the Bible of course. - God, with the help of some divinely inspired men, God-breathed, Inspired by the Holy Spirit

A couple other books I've been wanting to sink my teeth into:
-Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies - Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
-Domino: The Book of Decorating: A Room-by-Room Guide to Creating a Home That Makes You Happy
-The Song of Songs - Watchman Nee
-The Prayer Ministry of the Church - Watchman Nee

I know this sounds like a completely random mix of things, but well I think we are all kind of mixed up sometimes. But coming back to the refreshing part of it, well a refreshment is by principle just a little bit here and there.

Dictionary.com
re·fresh·ment (rĭ-frěsh'mənt) n.

The act of refreshing or the state of being refreshed.
Something, such as food or drink, that refreshes.
refreshments A snack or light meal and drinks.

and Google search - define refreshment turns back:
- snacks and drinks served as a light meal
- activity that refreshes and recreates; activity that renews your health and spirits by enjoyment and relaxation; "time for rest and refreshment by the pool"; "days of joyous recreation with his friends"
- The action of refreshing; a means of restoring strength, energy or vigour; A light snack or fresh drink without alcohol

Regardless...I do feel a bit more refreshed. Don't you? Alcohol free, but spirits high. :)

P.S. If anyone out there is actually reading any of this, please let me know if you would like a copy of any of the titles above and I'll try my best to get one to you.

Welcome to my blog - Seasons of Refreshing

Hi there :) Welcome!

You may be wondering who? I am, what? I'm doing and why? I've choosen to call my blog "seasons of refreshing". Well here is my attempt at answering...

Who? I'm Carolyn Chu, just an average girl who loves the Lord Jesus and His Word. I'm Diamond Bar bred, a Cal Berkeley graduate, a former marketing strategist at a large tech company, and most recently a graduate of a 2 year Bible school program...Oh and I love to eat :)

What? Currently I'm working at a non-profit called Bibles for America. But, I'd like to be, through this blog, a factor of refreshment in your life.

Why? Everyone needs a little refreshing (lit. cooling, reviving, relieving) here and there, whether it is from work, school, family, or just life in general. What better way than to refreshed by the Lord, who is ever new and always fresh.

Acts 3:20 - So that season of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send the Christ, who has been previously appointed for you, Jesus (New Testament Recovery Version, published by Living Stream Ministry)