What Are You?

Lucy always saves her hard questions for bedtime, usually after the Bible reading, and the praying, and the singing are finished. I can’t recall how we got on the topic, but last night we talked about ways to answer the question, “What are you?” Of course, the obvious answer is: “I’m a person.” (This question is usually followed by, “No, I mean where are you from?” and then, “Where are your parents from?” with the goal of determining your race or ethnicity.) I told her that she could say she is both Japanese-American and White, or European-American. Lucy instantly responded, “Wait, we’re white? Who’s white?” (I was a little shocked, then I explained that Caroline’s ancestors are Scottish and English so that makes her European-American.)

Come to think of it, I've had my own moments of confusion in conversations about race and ethnicity. I attended the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing in April. I had a great time, met tons of people, and had many enjoyable conversations. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I had inserted an unusual level of awkwardness into around a dozen conversations. Several days after the fact, it dawned on me that when people had asked me about my background they didn’t want to know about my undergraduate education. I saw two other Asians at the Festival--out of a crowd of around 3,000 people--so I guess I would have asked about my background, too.

Two Unexpected Highlights

I pulled out Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring (yet again), and I was struck by two passages from the first chapter, “A Long-Expected Party.” As the years pass, I don't rush through as quickly to get to the action.

“The fireworks were by Gandalf: they were not only brought by him, but designed and made by him…They were all superb. The art of Gandalf improved with age.” (I hope that, like Gandalf, my art--chopping vegetables? skipping rocks?-- will improve with age.)

“Many young hobbits were included, and present by parental permission; for hobbits were easy-going with their children in the matter of sitting up late, especially when there was a chance of getting them a free meal. Bringing up young hobbits took a lot of provender.”

A few months ago we started buying provender at a place that Mark Mikasa calls “Costco-land."

Visual Absurdity at Work

There are many strange sights in and around our building. We have a main elevator that doesn’t usually work, a service elevator where one must press “5” to exit on the fourth floor, and other oddities. Here are a few images to give you a flavor of the absurdity we see every day. (My favorite is the “No Smoking” sign next to the Liquid Nitrogen tank.)

Glorifying God Following a Day of Trouble

John gave a sermon on Psalm 50 with an emphasis on verse 15: "call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." Unfortunately, I'm much more likely to call upon God and less likely to glorify Him. In light of this, here's a partial list of times that God has delivered me:

1. Once, at the bus stop on the corner of Jefferson and Normandie, a teenage gunman started shooting from across the street. The abuelita a few feet away from me was hit in the leg, but the ambulance came quickly and she was okay, all things considered. The other seven bullets missed all of us standing at the bus stop.
   
2. The first summer after college, we returned to the neighborhood after our first year away at fancy colleges. After bowling one night, two guys with shotguns robbed five of us on our way home. Everyone was okay and we only lost around $8.
   
3. On April 29, 1992, the day of the Rodney King verdicts, our boss closed down our offices at 54th and Crenshaw a bit early. I hopped on the bus, around 4:00 p.m., rode to USC and got off the bus without realizing that the L.A. riots had started.
   
4. I was robbed a couple of other times, once on the way to work at USC, once when Reid and I were jogging home, and once on the bus. People said they had weapons, but they didn't use them.
   
5. In high school, a van drove by at a very slow rate as my friends and I stood outside of the auditorium after rehearsal. A guy leaned out of the window and yelled something at us as the van passed by. I was mad, and in high school, so I flipped them off. The van backed up and I said, "We've got trouble." My friend Wing added, "Right here in River City." A guy in a white shirt and baggy jeans jumped out of the car, looking angry. "Hey, it's only Tim," he said. It was a gang banger, but, fortunately, it was my friend Victor.
   
6. Also, it might sound small, but I made some really good progress on a writing project for work today. Caroline and I prayed about it on the way to work this morning. We sought the Lord, and He answered us.

God delivers us from all of our fears!

Parables

Susan (Cho) Van Riesen has said some memorable things over the years, but I particularly remember two things that she said as a student and as a young InterVarsity staff member. First, she said that she had conversations with God where she would say something and He would answer. (My thoughts about interacting with God were revolutionized!) Second, she said that life was full of parables if we had eyes to see them. I was reminded of Susan's words during our recent vacation with the Parks family.

Parable #1

Two days before we left for Big Sur, our packing lists were set, but we were not sure what to do. Fires raged out of control in the area and sections of Highway 1 were closed to traffic. The campground was open, but smoke engulfed the coastal area. Should we travel to Big Sur only to be evacuated? Would the smoke make camping miserable? Should we change plans? We spent several hours disappointed and anxious about our ruined vacation. We desperately needed a few days in some kind of wilderness. The next day, when we decided to abandon hope of camping in Big Sur, Richard called us with amazing news: their friends had offered their condo in Mammoth to us for 5 nights, completely free. The condo had comfortable beds, a beautiful view of the mountains, and, our kids' favorite part, cable TV.

Parable #2
As we drove along Highway 395 from Mammoth to Tioga Pass, Caroline pointed out the results of a recent fire. On one side of the road, a wide swath of trees stood completely blackened. The fire had jumped the road and burned many trees on the other side as well. We looked to the left and right and noticed a pink ground cover that we first mistook for fire retardant. Looking intently, we saw that everywhere the burn area was covered in lovely pink flowers.

Sometimes God reveals mysteries and sometimes He just makes things as plain as day.