(no subject)
I Want Will Call!
If you have ever bought tickets online, then you know probably have experienced some issues; either with the site itself or just mental breakdowns from not fully understanding this new age of technology. The latter is something I went through.
It's about eight o clock in the morning and I'm trying to buy tickets online at ticketforce.com. I have never bought tickets online before so this was a new experience for me. The only experience I have is simply just being on the internet and filling out various forms to gain access to stuff. In fact, the only reason why I had to register for the site was because they did not allow "anonymous" people buy tickets. That is completely understandable--you can use your credit card on the site.
After filling out all the information, I proceed to buy my tickets. Huffing and puffing over the extra fees, I buy the tickets and move on to how I want to receive them. I choose "will call." Will Call lets a person grab the tickets at the box office where the concert is. I did not trust the mailing services so that is what I went for.
I move on to the next screen and it then states that I need my billing address to match my credit card info. That totally makes sense but at 8 o clock in the morning, it did not click in. I hit the "back" button to get my Will Call option and it kept bringing me the same info. I was so confused. I was thinking that it was asking me for my address to bill me at for my purchase. I'm thinking "Wait, I'm buying them now, why am I paying later?" There was skepticism on my part of the site as a whole since I had never been on it so that did not help.
I call my Mom and she tells me that they are asking for my billing address to match my credit card info to make sure the card is not stolen. Wow. Foolish me. Completely slipped my mind. It is amazing how the brain can forget stuff in the state of confusion and frustration.
Where's My Flowers?
I think there are a fair amount of things I could say about Valentine's Day that are good and bad. I'm not going to get into them but I will say one of my personal, yet somewhat embarrassingly best parts of Valentine's Day is the flowers. It's not something I do often, but I enjoy giving flowers to a girl. To see the smile on their face lights me up a little. Of course, some aren't so appreciative but I can't blame myself for trying.
I thought of giving the Juice it Up females some flowers but I couldn't leave work to do it. Thankfully, my manager told me to get them flowers so it sort of worked out. Although it seemed like I didn't want to do it because she told me to do it but I'm not concerned about that. What bugged me was that the girls from the other food courts began pestering me wondering where there flowers were. I'm all for giving flowers to girls but I can only do so much. It was hopefully all in good fun but still, I'm only one man, with one bank account. I guess next time I'm going to have to settle for even cheaper flowers so I can get everyone some. Then again, I'm graduating. I learned one thing today, if I give something to one girl, the others will pester me. Next time, I will expect this.
Bus Chatter
Public transit is one of the best opportunities to share the Gospel with people. You might disagree with me and I would understand why. For the most part, many people who take public transit do not take for extensively long trips on the same route. With that in mind, it would be difficult to lead someone to Christ in one trip. The way I am learning to think about though is that we are supposed to lead people to Christ and therefore, any amount of time of showing who God really is, is one step closer. It is not our job to get people saved, it is the Lord's. It is our job to show people however and that may take many people to do it. It does start with someone, however.
On the bus, I met an man who looked like he was from of asian descent. He looked over at me and I gave him the "what's up" gesture with my head and he reciprocated the gesture. Next he asks me, randomly, if I play basketball. I said yes and I explained some of my background and he explained some of his. Listening to him, I noticed he was not hearing me very well and thus, our conversation was a little scattered. But because he asked me a random question, I was going to ask him a random question. I asked him if he went to church at all and he said he went to Buddhist Temple. He believed that whatever anyone believes is fine as long as they are trying to do good and learn from their mistakes. I agreed with the last bit of the sentence but the problem with everyone's definition of good is that it is relative to a given person. We see it with racism, the Holocaust, etc. People's perception of good is all different and that is because there is no standard. Obviously, the standard would be Jesus. He lived our life perfectly. There's no one better to follow.
The conversation was pretty short. It was about ten minutes before I had to get off the bus but I learned something--he is one step closer to finding Jesus. Even though he did not find Christ on the spot, it was exciting to know that, with the help of Jesus, he was one step closer now. When I first asked if he went to church, I was nervous. I wasn't exactly afraid of asking him, I just have problems with approach. Thankfully, the Lord helped when he asked me the random question. After a pause after the basketball conversation the Lord said to me "He asked a random question out of the blue, why can't you ask him a random question out of the blue?" God being God, he knew that would make perfect sense to me and therefore I reacted immediately. After that, it was smooth sailing. That is not going to happen all the time though and so I have to be ready for those times where I'm ready to share.
What it made the burden lighter was that I knew I could not do anything to make that man accept Jesus. All I could do was lead and if he found Jesus, then praise God. If not, someone else will lead him.
Working the Patience
Tonight we went to go ice skating. My roommate was not completely sure where the rink was so he looked up on Google Maps to find the location accurately. Moments later, I hear him say "easy enough." I'm thinking two things can happen at this point: He will forget or the route is about two freeways and an exit. Here's something about roommate, he forgets quite a bit, does not pay attention unless he deems its important. Needless to say, he did not write the directions and we got lost. I was frustrated because he knows how he is and I know how he is yet, he did not acknowledge it. I simply had to sit back in my seat and breathe and realize that although I had a right to be frustrated, I could not explode on him. I just kept talking to God trying to figure out how this happened. He just kept telling me "You'll get there." By the Spirit, we got on the right street to get there but it was such a test of patience for me.
If you have ever bought tickets online, then you know probably have experienced some issues; either with the site itself or just mental breakdowns from not fully understanding this new age of technology. The latter is something I went through.
It's about eight o clock in the morning and I'm trying to buy tickets online at ticketforce.com. I have never bought tickets online before so this was a new experience for me. The only experience I have is simply just being on the internet and filling out various forms to gain access to stuff. In fact, the only reason why I had to register for the site was because they did not allow "anonymous" people buy tickets. That is completely understandable--you can use your credit card on the site.
After filling out all the information, I proceed to buy my tickets. Huffing and puffing over the extra fees, I buy the tickets and move on to how I want to receive them. I choose "will call." Will Call lets a person grab the tickets at the box office where the concert is. I did not trust the mailing services so that is what I went for.
I move on to the next screen and it then states that I need my billing address to match my credit card info. That totally makes sense but at 8 o clock in the morning, it did not click in. I hit the "back" button to get my Will Call option and it kept bringing me the same info. I was so confused. I was thinking that it was asking me for my address to bill me at for my purchase. I'm thinking "Wait, I'm buying them now, why am I paying later?" There was skepticism on my part of the site as a whole since I had never been on it so that did not help.
I call my Mom and she tells me that they are asking for my billing address to match my credit card info to make sure the card is not stolen. Wow. Foolish me. Completely slipped my mind. It is amazing how the brain can forget stuff in the state of confusion and frustration.
Where's My Flowers?
I think there are a fair amount of things I could say about Valentine's Day that are good and bad. I'm not going to get into them but I will say one of my personal, yet somewhat embarrassingly best parts of Valentine's Day is the flowers. It's not something I do often, but I enjoy giving flowers to a girl. To see the smile on their face lights me up a little. Of course, some aren't so appreciative but I can't blame myself for trying.
I thought of giving the Juice it Up females some flowers but I couldn't leave work to do it. Thankfully, my manager told me to get them flowers so it sort of worked out. Although it seemed like I didn't want to do it because she told me to do it but I'm not concerned about that. What bugged me was that the girls from the other food courts began pestering me wondering where there flowers were. I'm all for giving flowers to girls but I can only do so much. It was hopefully all in good fun but still, I'm only one man, with one bank account. I guess next time I'm going to have to settle for even cheaper flowers so I can get everyone some. Then again, I'm graduating. I learned one thing today, if I give something to one girl, the others will pester me. Next time, I will expect this.
Bus Chatter
Public transit is one of the best opportunities to share the Gospel with people. You might disagree with me and I would understand why. For the most part, many people who take public transit do not take for extensively long trips on the same route. With that in mind, it would be difficult to lead someone to Christ in one trip. The way I am learning to think about though is that we are supposed to lead people to Christ and therefore, any amount of time of showing who God really is, is one step closer. It is not our job to get people saved, it is the Lord's. It is our job to show people however and that may take many people to do it. It does start with someone, however.
On the bus, I met an man who looked like he was from of asian descent. He looked over at me and I gave him the "what's up" gesture with my head and he reciprocated the gesture. Next he asks me, randomly, if I play basketball. I said yes and I explained some of my background and he explained some of his. Listening to him, I noticed he was not hearing me very well and thus, our conversation was a little scattered. But because he asked me a random question, I was going to ask him a random question. I asked him if he went to church at all and he said he went to Buddhist Temple. He believed that whatever anyone believes is fine as long as they are trying to do good and learn from their mistakes. I agreed with the last bit of the sentence but the problem with everyone's definition of good is that it is relative to a given person. We see it with racism, the Holocaust, etc. People's perception of good is all different and that is because there is no standard. Obviously, the standard would be Jesus. He lived our life perfectly. There's no one better to follow.
The conversation was pretty short. It was about ten minutes before I had to get off the bus but I learned something--he is one step closer to finding Jesus. Even though he did not find Christ on the spot, it was exciting to know that, with the help of Jesus, he was one step closer now. When I first asked if he went to church, I was nervous. I wasn't exactly afraid of asking him, I just have problems with approach. Thankfully, the Lord helped when he asked me the random question. After a pause after the basketball conversation the Lord said to me "He asked a random question out of the blue, why can't you ask him a random question out of the blue?" God being God, he knew that would make perfect sense to me and therefore I reacted immediately. After that, it was smooth sailing. That is not going to happen all the time though and so I have to be ready for those times where I'm ready to share.
What it made the burden lighter was that I knew I could not do anything to make that man accept Jesus. All I could do was lead and if he found Jesus, then praise God. If not, someone else will lead him.
Working the Patience
Tonight we went to go ice skating. My roommate was not completely sure where the rink was so he looked up on Google Maps to find the location accurately. Moments later, I hear him say "easy enough." I'm thinking two things can happen at this point: He will forget or the route is about two freeways and an exit. Here's something about roommate, he forgets quite a bit, does not pay attention unless he deems its important. Needless to say, he did not write the directions and we got lost. I was frustrated because he knows how he is and I know how he is yet, he did not acknowledge it. I simply had to sit back in my seat and breathe and realize that although I had a right to be frustrated, I could not explode on him. I just kept talking to God trying to figure out how this happened. He just kept telling me "You'll get there." By the Spirit, we got on the right street to get there but it was such a test of patience for me.