Can you handle it?

I've been on lent, from NBA, so no watching, no gaming regarding NBA, not even checking the scores. I've gotta say its been pretty rough, i stoped them and now left with all these free time, and realise NBA was a big part of my life. Now i'm free, but now i get bound by another game. So stupid. Sometimes i wanna destroy myself for being so stupid. Today there was an article on the kids in uni and how they're more narcissitic than their previous generations, its also has to do with self indulgence and everything. Seems our parents have been so focused on giving us positives and trying to build our self-esteem, we're becoming big headed bunch. So sometimes i wonder, i tell myself alot of positive things, especially we christians. Cos we're a special bunch, chosen by the Father, sons and daughters of God, working for his glory, chosen generation and all that. Which is all good, but we run alot of risk of giving ourselves the glory and become bloated with self-esteem. Not to say that we continuosly tell ourselves that we're not good enough and dumb, but sometimes it could get to the point where we become self-centred.
Iunno, maybe its paranoia, but sometimes i wish i had another me that could kick my ass, to keep me in check, always reminding whose the real big boss, always reminding me when i feel prideful.
main character from Fight club would be an example, tho his split personality is teaching him and leading the way, i want more of a kicking and discipline personality. That could just say straight out to me, ur wrong and ur being prideful. its wierd, we're told not to put ourselves down so much, i sometimes find i go the other extreme. Time for a reality check.

back to the basics, God is faithful

so the week before last week, i was sick and took 2 days off work. last friday was the time to put in my working hours on the computer, all of our hours we keep track ourselves and later our manager approves them, but realistically we can put anything we want so long as its not outrageous. So i consulted a few people about how i should put my hours since its the first time i had to take a sick leave and my manager wasnt there, i've heard from some peeps that interns dont get paid for sick days, and some other peeps say we should, i asked one HR guy and he suggested i play dumb and just put it as regular as if i worked. Now if i dont get paid for sick days, thats a loss of 200 dollars. So i was thinking what i should do, then i thought what would Jesus do, its cliche but it works, tho i dont have the bracelet anymore, i dont need it. So I put down two days worth of sick days. And now i get the pay cheque, not only did i get paid for those sick days, there was a year end bonus which we didnt think interns would get (cos we were under the impression it was only for regular emplyees) and it comes to about 200 dollars. So PTLs, he works so faithfully. It's crazy how simple obedience leads to cool blessings. Let this encourage y'all to trust and obey.

Borat

So I went to see Borat...I forgot how long ago, but it was before the xmas break. Man its been a while, anyways been meaning to blog about this for a while, but never had the motivation to do so, today was talking about it with couple of church friends, so it was a nice reminder. People who don't wanna see Borat because of the crude humour, I would say they're getting too caught up on the crudeness to risk missing a chance to open their eyes. But if its not worth it then its up to you. I went with the expectation of being offended, as i saw in the trailors that it has clips about christians too, so obviously he would make fun of them, but I just wanted to see how could he portray the typical christian. But actually, I wasnt offended for the jokes he made, I was more offended at the behaviour of certain "christians", or so they refer themselves as.
Anyways, the whole point is Borat goes around the US portraying himself as this guy from Kazhakstan, (cant spell). And he does all these things and try to learn the American culture. So there are a few things i observed which in one way or another challenged me to analyse further my behaviour as a christian.
He came to the states, and his supposed culture taught him that to greet someone, you would go and kiss him on the cheek, so while he landed in the states, he went on the subway and set forth in kissing people and introducing himself, everyone was very violently rejecting his gesture, thus causing alot of commotion, one guy was running for a good stretch from one side of the road to another to avoid touching him. This reminded me of when Jesus and the Jewish people back in the days, this is how they greeted each other, they focus on touch, as this brings people closer. This conscious effort to reach out to people made them show their love to one another. He came, showed love and the American, "the more culturally advanced" rejects this kinds of behaviour. When's the last time when I just went to up my friend and hugged them, whens the last time i used my actions to show my love instead of just words. We're so out of "touch" pun intended, that we dont know who and how to touch anymore. You kiss your wife becuse u love them, u kiss your kids because you love them, why dont you kiss your neighbours then? Why dont you kiss your enemies? This made me think.
Second point, when he goes around the states, he was quite strange in his behaviour, so people rejected him, especially the people that consider themselves as tolerative people, people of higher class, higher education that knows how to treat people well, rejected him and his culture, but the people that accepted him and welcomed him are the lower class, that are also the rejects of their society, the poor, the homeless, the ghettos, the prostitute. These people knows what its like to be rejected by their society, so they share the same sentiment as him, therefore easier to accept him. Do I truly know what it means to be rejected by society? Can I truly accept a "outcast" from society and befriend and love him? This made me ponder
Third, he goes to this high class house in the southern states to leanr fine dining etiquette. Along with the host, also as dinner guests is a pastor and his wife. So I'm just gonna assume this household is also christian, and they were willing to open up their home to this kazak reporter, personaly i dont kno what their moitive is, but its commendable. Half way through dinner he calls the local escort service and invite a prostitute to this house. So as you might imagine the master of the house was quite embarassed and furious. What amazed me and embarassed me is the pastor couple, get this, they stand up and said they have to be excused and they TOOK OFF!!!!!! Here is this man who claims to follow a messiah who dined and welcomed prostitutes and sinners, but what does he do??? He RUN AWAY, and that pissed me off. It would've been the perfect opportunity to welcome and sit with sinners and show them what the love of Christ is about and they leave. WTF!?!?! This made me angry
And finally, there is a basic plotline to the movie, so if you wanna watch it and havnt and dont wanna know, stop reading this paragraph and jump onto the later one. So he bsically saw Pamela Anderson and fell in "love", so he sets off on this journey to find her. Half way through, his manager took all of his belongings and leaves, he was left with nothing but the cloths on his back and a chicken, live, in his bag. He slept outside what appears to be a christian conference centre, and in the morning he goes inside and find them worshipping, there were some making fun of people speaking in tongues and stuff, which might be offensive to some, but the point is, from then on, he gained faith and strength to continue pursue his goal and he made a commitment to go to california with "Mr Jesus" and take Pamela back. What this part portrayed is a rebound from the bottom, the protagonist goes through some trials and this part is where the protagonist rebounds from his low point in the movie and everything begins to get better. It pleased me that the movie decided to use the church as a rebounding point, where he gets "saved" and gets his strength, determination and will back, even if his goal is something of this world, but the process is essentially the same, some might say its cliche, but then again, i'm still happy that the fact that christianity can be portrayed as the way to be saved.
So there it is, my own little learning from Borat, please dont judge it by the trailors, you'll miss something, look past the crudeness and the grossness to find the true lessons in the movie. God used the movie to speak to me, he might do the same to you. But if you know you cant look past the grossness and the offensiveness then dont watch it, its better to not learn the lesson than tempt yourself and fall into sin.
peace and blessings