The Invitation

Country:   Guinea

Program:   Education

Job Title:   Secondary School Physics Teacher

Staging and Training:   July 2, 2012 - Sept 16, 2012

Dates of Service:   Sept 2012 - Sept 2014

And Guinea,

with their 1st round pick in the 51st PC Draft,

have chosen your's truly!

Sayonara, suckers!

Book No. 14

14. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by DA Carson

My dear friend Younice sent me this recently as a gift, personally signed by DA Carson! Of course, this was while the Hunger Games craze was going on, and my sister had a copy. So tempting. Who am I kidding, I tossed the Battle Royale-copy aside and dove straight into Younice's book.

I love people who can present a question and get to the point in a concise manner. The Difficult Doctrine could have easily gone a few hundred pages, but Mr. Carson did a fantastic job in driving home the message while explaining it thoroughly (I did, however, have to reread a bunch of pages). The book itself is 84 pages, but don't let the thinness fool you. Hot dang is it full of pow! His book effectively:

1. Explained why God's love is so difficult to understand/accept
2. Presented the different aspects of God's love without the use of the word
3. Broke down major misconceptions/distortions of this doctrine (many of which I thought to be true)
4. Helped me to understand the need for both Arminian and Calvinists view points (its a great book for people wrestling with these topics)

As the title suggests, its not for the weak-hearted. An excerpt:

We are Jesus' friends if we do what he commands. This sounds rather like a definition of of a slave. Certainly such friendship is not reciprocal. I cannot turn around to Jesus and thank him for his friendship and tell him he is my friend, too, if he does everything I command him. Strange to tell, not once is Jesus or God ever described in the Bible as our friend. Abraham is God's friend; the reverse is never stated.

 - The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, page 41

Eurotrip, Potential Ideas

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Recommendations, suggestions, and critiques are all welcome. One place in particular I really want to visit is Cyprus, but I don't think it'll be viable.

I'm always open to inviting people who don't annoy me.

Women and Questions

Last week, I was working with a female doctor who I would consider to be middle-aged. As any man with an IQ greater than a wet rock's would know, I know that there are certain questions you usually shouldn't ask a woman, such as:

• How much do you weigh?
• How old are you?
• Are you on your period??
• When is the baby due?
• Your sister's cute, can I have her number?
• What's your bra size?

I thought I was safe until I realized there's a whole other category of questions you shouldn't ask older women. You're probably rubbernecking to see how bad I crash and burn.

"Do you dye your hair?"

My lame attempt at complimenting her that her hair looked nice and healthy.

"How old are your children? (Twelve and fourteen) Oh! I didn't realize they were that young!"

In hindsight, I can't find any way to defend this comment.

Thankfully the doc is good-spirited and told all of the female nurses what I had told her... she offered to pay my tuition for Charm School.

Books No. 12-13

Apologies for not updating diligently. These were from last fall.

12. Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

Friend wanted me to pre-screen this book for him a couple of months ago (he has yet to ask for this back). The author isn't a great writer, but his story was too compelling to let it bother me. Much of the book is about the son of a Hamas leader who struggles with his Muslim faith in light of all of the violence around him. His firsthand account gives great insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict you can't find in a textbook. And his testimony is the icing on the cake. I laughed, I cried, I learned... It's a NY Times best seller for a reason.

"This is not a God who is seen, but a God who is heard. The contrast with the idols is very clear--the idols are seen, but they don't speak. The one true and living God is not seen, but He is heard."

- Words from the Fire, page 14 

13. Words from the Fire by Albert Mohler, Jr.

Bought this at the local Christian book store at a discount. If you don't know, Mr. Mohler is the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky and a well-known Reformed Baptist. I'm usually more interested in the NT since it's easier to relate to Jesus and Paul, but Mr. Mohler's book caught my attention with the book jacket: "In a society prone to self-interest and resistant to the notion of authority, the Ten Commandments are widely misunderstood or simply ignored." Guilty as charged.

Mr. Mohler provides a refreshing perspective to the Ten Commandments by reminding us of its relevance thousands of years after they were written. Each chapter is dedicated to each of the commands, each individually convicting and piercing. If you want to find things to repent about, read this book.

Don't Drop the Soap

What I do at work in the ER and what happened to me yesterday:

23 year old healthy, handsome, and strikingly beautiful Asian-American male presents with severe, constant, non-radiating pain located in the tailbone since 0500 yesterday. Patient states he "dropped the soap" in the shower, went down to pick it up, and hit the faucet. Patient has positive head trauma when he smacked his head on the floor of the bathtub afterwards. Patient denies any trauma to anywhere else. Symptoms now associated with ecchymosis. Symptoms are worse with quick movements, sitting, hitting bumps while driving, using accessory muscles (e.g. coughing, sneezing, urinating); symptoms are better when standing. Patient denies any other complaints at this time: no fevers, chills, headache, hematochezia, dysuria/hematuria, or nausea/vomiting/diarrhea.

One of my more graceful moments..