please watch this video if you have time:
tim keller speaking to google employees at google headquarters
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Far From Heaven
My pastor had me write a mission statement for my life. I thought it to be really useful, and think that everyone should do one.
Mission Statement: I have a passion for being honest with people in everything that I do because honesty is at the heart of being genuine and “love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9). I want to tell those who Christians don’t think can be reached the good news that is actually good news through prayer and patient love that does not seek results.
One of the greatest events in my life occurs when either my music is on random shuffle and plays exactly the song I need or when I watch a movie that is able to articulate my thoughts clearly. Doesn’t that sound trivial? I think more than half of everything that I’ve written has been a result of either listening to a song or watching a movie. So this is of course written off the movie “far from heaven,” which is an extremely depressing look at a couple in the 1950s.
I am one of the last people left in my dormitory at Emory. I have been on-call this weekend so I was forced to stay for spring break for the weekend. I’ve been meaning to sit down and write something but I guess I had to watch a movie to force me to do it. Not going to lie, it is kind of scary being all alone in this big dorm but I’m not sure if that’s because it is actually scary or because I am feeling alone recently. I had to think twice about whether I should write that because it is always difficult to be honest with others because it means you have to be vulnerable. The verse on Wheaton College’s wall pushes me to be more open, “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16). The movie for me portrayed pretty clearly what a big struggle is for many people. None of the characters in the movie were able to reconcile what they loved and what they wanted. That is not very clear so I’ll give an example. A black male in the 1950s wants the best life for his daughter but also has an inherent love to stand for equality among blacks and whites. White people stone his daughter and black peole throw rocks at his house. Because of his love for his daughter he leaves his dream and goes to another place so that his daughter can have a better life. All my life Christians have told me that the choices that I make are black and white. There is a right choice and a wrong choice, one that will glorify God and one that will satisfy my own desires. I’ve found that a lot of times we come to a decision and we don’t know what the right decision is and I wanted to pat myself on the back and let everyone else know that it’s ok when we aren’t sure.
I also thought it would be important for me to remind myself that though it looks as if we are far from heaven and that this world looks even more broken every single day the kingdom of God is in us. “you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17) This is good news.
Mission Statement: I have a passion for being honest with people in everything that I do because honesty is at the heart of being genuine and “love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9). I want to tell those who Christians don’t think can be reached the good news that is actually good news through prayer and patient love that does not seek results.
One of the greatest events in my life occurs when either my music is on random shuffle and plays exactly the song I need or when I watch a movie that is able to articulate my thoughts clearly. Doesn’t that sound trivial? I think more than half of everything that I’ve written has been a result of either listening to a song or watching a movie. So this is of course written off the movie “far from heaven,” which is an extremely depressing look at a couple in the 1950s.
I am one of the last people left in my dormitory at Emory. I have been on-call this weekend so I was forced to stay for spring break for the weekend. I’ve been meaning to sit down and write something but I guess I had to watch a movie to force me to do it. Not going to lie, it is kind of scary being all alone in this big dorm but I’m not sure if that’s because it is actually scary or because I am feeling alone recently. I had to think twice about whether I should write that because it is always difficult to be honest with others because it means you have to be vulnerable. The verse on Wheaton College’s wall pushes me to be more open, “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16). The movie for me portrayed pretty clearly what a big struggle is for many people. None of the characters in the movie were able to reconcile what they loved and what they wanted. That is not very clear so I’ll give an example. A black male in the 1950s wants the best life for his daughter but also has an inherent love to stand for equality among blacks and whites. White people stone his daughter and black peole throw rocks at his house. Because of his love for his daughter he leaves his dream and goes to another place so that his daughter can have a better life. All my life Christians have told me that the choices that I make are black and white. There is a right choice and a wrong choice, one that will glorify God and one that will satisfy my own desires. I’ve found that a lot of times we come to a decision and we don’t know what the right decision is and I wanted to pat myself on the back and let everyone else know that it’s ok when we aren’t sure.
I also thought it would be important for me to remind myself that though it looks as if we are far from heaven and that this world looks even more broken every single day the kingdom of God is in us. “you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17) This is good news.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Lehman Brothers
It started with the alluring color green. Green has always been my favorite color and so it was not surprising that I was drawn to Lehman Brothers who uses green as their main color. Seriously though, for some odd reason I always felt like I was going to end up at Lehman Brothers so I have to take you through my journey of how I got there or rather how I was taken there. I posted a week ago after my interview about the lessons I learned in order to show that I wasn’t bluffing. It has been a wild ride and test of my faith in Jesus and it was no coincidence that every verse I’ve read in the past month has been related with faith (see the bottom for all the verses that have had significant impact on me in the past 2 months).
It has really been an amazing journey, to interview with many investment banks, to go where few Christians have gone before, and to get rejected many times. I believe that God really wanted to push my faith to another level by making it my last interview so I had no other option but to rely on him. I remember the night before I was going to my Lehman interview in New York I had not taken a rest for months but I just stopped what I was doing and went outside and laid down outside Dobbs Hall on a picnic table for over an hour. I lay there with my ipod and I just remember telling myself, I will remember this moment for a long time. It was the first time I had really trusted God in this whole process because I knew that everything was leading up to everything else. I flew out to New York the next day and every single person that I had interviewed with was a perfect fit for my personality. I have always known that I have a pretty polarizing personality. It was so obvious that God had just set up the perfect group of guys for me to interview with. One of my interviews consisted of speaking to a guy about poverty in New York and China and what businessmen can do to change the world for one hour (the interview was supposed to be 30-45 minutes). I was supposed to find out within a week, meaning you usually finding out before one week but I knew that God was going to make me wait the full week to make sure that I remembered that he was in control. During that week I went to church and Jocelyn reminded me that it was meant to be because the person that spoke at church was named Rabbi Lehman. It was even more hilarious when I received a rejection letter during the week I waited. I sat there after I got the rejection letter from Lehman in utter confusion… what had I done wrong? I thought God wanted me here? After 10 minutes I e-mailed the recruiter and said, “sorry about the confusion, but is this for the equity research position at Lehman Brothers?” She responded in 2 minutes and said, “please disregard this message as it was sent in error.” Who sends rejection letters in error?! It really showed me that if God wants to get you somewhere even rejection cannot thwart his plan. I found out on Tuesday, a week after my interviews, that I was accepted and I was so happy in the end because I realized if I had been accepted into any other positions I would have taken it right away and missed out. It is hard to remember in our small perspective that faith is at the center of everything just as Jesus is at the center of everything but it often takes crisis to remind us. I am much more excited for the summer now because I know that it is only by God that I go. May we seek God and find his will for us.
He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
Mark 4:40
"Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
Mark 5:34
Ignoring what they said, Jesus told the synagogue ruler, "Don't be afraid; just believe."
Mark 5:36
22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:22-26
20Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness." 23The words "it was credited to him" were written not for him alone, 24but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Romans 4:20-25
Faith is being sure of what is hoped for and convicted of what is not seen
Hebrews 11:1
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
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