PAINFUL REMINDER

I've been reminded more and more the last few days that the term "my own strength" is really little more than an oxymoron.

JUST THROWING IT ALL AWAY

The song Throwing it All Away was one of the most well-known hits by the band Genesis. You probably know the loose guitar riff at the opening, before the silky-smooth voice of Phil Collins comes in, "Need I say I love you, need I say I care..."

I had my haircut at Luigi's the other day. It turns out that I've been throwing my hair all away, according to the nice lady who cut my hair. I figured since she is in the hair industry, and also because no one else has ever really given me any advice to combat losing my hair, I would listen to her tips. She probably knows more about hair than I do.

Apparently, I use too much shampoo (I should only use a dime size, when I usually have gone with close to a toonie size), I shouldn't use a lot of gel in my hair, I shouldn't be rub-drying my hair, and cool water is better than hot water for rinsing out shampoo. She also recommended that I get a creme to use rather than a gel.

Going bald is something I'm pretty scared of. There aren't a lot of things in life that I worry about, but this one, for whatever reason, really bothers me. I know that God designed me with this appearance specifically and intentionally, and He sees nothing wrong with it. He's more concerned about the inside anyway. But I sometimes struggle with the idea of losing my hair. Though most of the time I try to make light of it, it still gets to me at times.

If nothing else, I hope to get married before going bald. That way, I can prove to my kids that, yes, Daddy really did have hair at one point.

THE WONDERS OF FACEBOOK

Mark Zuckerberg must be the "Big Man on Campus". The guy who created an online directory network for Harvard students has watched his creation, Facebook, become the biggest phenomenon on the Internet among young people across North America. If ever he decides to sell the rights to Facebook, Zuckerberg (who is only 358 days older than I am) will make a ton of money, and probably will be set for life.

I've been on Facebook for over a year now (way before it started to get really big- I'm a seasoned veteran), and it's interesting to watch how new features are added to make it more and more "exciting" for students. There is a lot you can do with it, which is probably why a lot of people find it addictive. I admit that I check my account pretty much every day, and almost every day I hear someone mention Facebook, or I hear/read some reference to it. Even national publications and websites refer to it. One of my favourite websites, SI.com (Sports Illustrated) gives you the option of "sharing" articles with your Facebook friends.

Facebook is cool because you can post pictures and leave comments for friends. You can join interest groups and "poke" people (whatever that means). You can discover long-lost friends from high school or even elementary school. From a ministry perspective, I think there are some neat opportunities to advertise outreach events, or even to mobilize/gather contacts of students on campus. In fact, I somehow attained national notoriety among campus staff (okay, maybe that's stretching it a bit) for some of the ways I used Facebook. The Hinz was excited and pointed it out to everyone, so when I showed up at staff training in December, a few people referred to me as "the Facebook guy".

I think there are several drawbacks to Facebook though. When the whole "mini-feed" thing came out this past fall, it opened up a whole new dimension of opportunity for stalking. You can easily find out what other people are up to and what is going on in their life without contacting them. The fact that you can be on an entire network of thousands of students means that you can at any time look at random people's profiles to see what they did on the weekend, and even keep their pictures for yourself. Today I was talking to friends who had heard instances of people recognizing faces in their classes without knowing where specifically the familiar face would be from, and it turned out that the faces belonged to random people that they had stalked on Facebook. Yikes.

I really think that it's a commentary on where society is going. We think we "get to know" our peers by looking up their hobbies, musical interests, and weekend habits, rather than spending time with them in person. Do we really though? Shoot. We were created to have relationships. It's how we were designed. But I don't think this level of interaction is as healthy for maintaining solid friendships. I understand if it's a long-distance thing, but honestly, I'd rather have conversations on the phone (and I hate talking on the phone), or better yet, in-person, than carrying them out on Facebook walls.

Perhaps the most ironic thing about Facebook is that it was designed for students, yet when students are asked what some of their biggest distractions from studying/causes of procrastination or time-wasting are, Facebook is hands-down the top choice. I wonder how much it would affect my studies if I was just starting out in school.

I think I've ranted enough on Facebook for now. It must be time to go check my profile, to see if anyone poked me.

REST

This seems to be a topic that keeps coming up in my life. I observed this blog and noted that my frequency of posting comments certainly dwindled to a measly five posts in the month of January. This indicates that a) the novelty of blogging may well have worn off, or more likely, b) last month seemed to be incredibly busy (and honestly, I feel as though January flew by at the speed of a Boeing...wait, are those fast? I guess when they're up there, they move pretty quickly).

I'm constantly reminded by the people around me to pace myself, to set good boundaries, to not say "yes" to everything that comes my way, and to not compromise the non-negotiable things in my life for the sake of doing more things and taking on more challenges. I even pass these thoughts off to other people around me, to remind them of the same things. We're in this thing called ministry, inspired to run a marathon, not a sprint. I think that at times this year my pace has picked up without me knowing it, but the downside of that is that often I reach into my reserves and attempt to coast through on my own strength, my own "wisdom", my own ideas from past experiences, rather than immediately surrendering and giving control to Christ, the rightful commander and supplier.

I don't feel burnt out or stressed by any means, and I'm not even sure what that would look like if that were to be the case. Boundaries and rest are important, and I've learned a lot about that this year, though I still have a lot to learn in this area. This year has been one full of learning for me, and I'm so thankful that God, by His grace, continues to teach me new things and remind me of the important things through ministry experiences. I'm excited for the next few months, and I really believe a lot of great things are on the horizon. The key is to continue to take the time to rest- not solely because I have to, or because I should if I want to stay effective, but more importantly, because God designed rest as a good thing. A guilt-free thing. Something that is an intricate aspect of delighting in Him, of a lifestyle of ongoing worship.

I'm glad that I can post something like this on a Monday.