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My favorite moments with Lauren

Now that I’ve been a dad for almost 7 months, it’s time for some reflection.

Having a child has been a true learning experience for me. The most difficult part for me was to find out way to connect to my child emotionally when verbal communication is so insufficient.

From the books I’ve read, Lauren as of now does not understand the meaning of the words I say, only the tones I use when saying them. Imaging talking to someone who has no idea what you are saying, and can only infer from the tune of your voice the meaning and intent of the conversation.

The lack in amount of information exchanged between Lauren and me does not mean the quality is any less. Some of my favorite moments occurred where no words are necessary.

I remember early on in Lauren’s life, one of my favorite things to do is to put her to bed. I usually swaddle her with a large blanket and rock her until she’s asleep before putting her on her bed. I can feel her body relax then her breathing becomes rhythmic. It was such a peaceful moment. Lately, I’ve also enjoyed watching her when she’s asleep. She truly sleeps like an angel. Her whole body is relaxed, and she sometimes has a faint smile on her face. I hope she can sense that I’ll protect her with all I have, and that she’ll always find a safe harbor at home that’s giving her that peacefulness later in life.

Another favorite moment was when she was about 5 months old, I was bottle feeding her, and she just stared into my eyes and held my gaze for what seemed like a long time. It’s the first time I thought I made an emotional connection with her, as she understood that I’m the one who she can count on, and that I love her unconditionally.

Yet another favorite moment happened recently, I just came home, and Lauren was playing. The moment she saw me, a big grin broke out on her face, and the room seemed to be lit up. It’s a moment of pure joy for me. She seems to be smiling a lot nowadays, and it seemed to brighten the day of whomever she meets.

I thank God daily for moments like these. Where I gain so much taking care of Lauren. I’m looking forward to more kinds of “moments” as she grows.

PICT0778  PICT0774

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Purpose Driven Life article by Mallcom Gladwell

As you may already know from my previous posting that I studied The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren in my bible-study group. It was a great book, has lots of practical advice for practicing Christians.

As you may also know, I’m a big fan of Malcolm Gladwell. He was the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, two of my favorite books.

Now I just found out that Malcolm Gladwell wrote a New Yorker article about Rick Warren and his church. You can find the article on Malcolm Gladwell’s site, it’s called The Cellular Church

This articles digs deep into three main areas:

  1. Rick Warren the person and pastor
  2. The Purpose Driven Life
  3. The Saddleback Church – the cellular church

From what Gladwell has written, I gathered Rick Warren is a fascinating pastor. He leads one of the largest churches in the US, likes to give hugs, dress casually for his sermons, learned a great deal from Peter Drucker, follows and improves upon Charles Spurgeon, and sometimes borders on audacity.

The extraordinary success of the Purpose Driven Life is not coincidental. It’s Rick’s conviction, his ingenious way of marketing it to the other churches through his prior-established relationships, and the way the book is designed to be studies in small groups. It’s both surprising and inevitable that the books has sold 23 million copies. The new story of how Ashlee Smith was able to convince Nicols – a convict to let her go after sharing the Purpose Driven Life with him was also mentioned in the article.

The Saddleback church today has twenty thousand members and occupies a campus of 120 acres. That is a huge church, compared to my church, which has around 300 people with couple of acres of land. The amazing size and growth of the church was the main focus of the article. The idea of having small tightly-knit cells as an unit has been done elsewhere. Rick Warren actually made it work better through his unique blend of pragmatism and understanding of management principles. He actually rented the Anaheim Agnel’s baseball stadium to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Saddleback church.

There are a lot more information in the article, mainly from academics trying to put what Rick Warren has accomplished into perspective. There are some sections that in my mind are not dubious intention, such as section 5, I did not see the relevance of Christian Smith’s study to Warren’s success.

Anyway, this article definitely makes an informative reading, especially for someone who has studied The Purpose-Driven Life, or someone who wants to know how to grow their cell group or church.

Please share your opinion under the Comments section.

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我的家庭

这一篇文章是位教会团契所写的。在此与大家分享。- JY

我的家庭

我们家有我，我先生，还有将要到达的baby – 小妞妞。

我上海人，18岁时来美国念书，经过漫长的求学生涯后，先在北卡的一家银行工作了1年半，随后在2001年来到湾区的一家信用卡公司工作，至今已有4年。我平时喜欢看书，看电视，尤其喜欢漫画书，别人都说我童心未泯。

先生是北京人，随父母在90年来到美国，在东部上学，毕业后去新加坡工作了2年，1999年底来到湾区，现在在一家超市做电脑工作。他也喜欢看书，平时最大的爱好是摄影。和我恰恰相反，他性格比较稳重。

我们俩结婚一年了。是在中华归主海沃教会认识的，在神的祝福下相爱，结婚。。。而且现在又有了我们爱情的结晶。

我们因为认识不到1年就结婚，所以婚后要化不少时间来适应对方，比如我经常说他太一本正经，他也说我作息时间不好好安排。。。时常有一些小小的摩擦，可是我们彼此都遵循神的话语，互相体谅，改变自己以前的一些坏习惯。现在我们每天晚上一起祷告和沟通，分享自己的心情，过得越来越幸福。

自从我怀孕以后，先生更是体贴照顾我，把一切事情处理得井井有条，分担了我的家务，还为我们baby的出生准备好一切。大家都羡慕地对我说：“你先生一定是个好爸爸！”

在未来的日子里，我们还要成为以身作则的父母，神会给我们更多的功课和磨练，生活会有很大的变化，有很多现在还想不到的事会发生。我们会继续求神带领我们全家走合他心意的道路。希望大家继续为我们全家祷告。

感谢神的赐福！

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Spiritual Journal

Yesterday during our weekly bible-study, we went over Chapter 39 of The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren.

BTW, if you haven’t read it, and if you are a Christian, I strongly recommend studying it. It’s full of advice on goal-setting, and practical ideas on becoming a better Christian.

Anyway, in this chapter, Rick talked about having a journal to record one’s spiritual journey, and sharing one’s life experience with others.

It’s a pure coincident that I just happen to be listening to Jim Rohn’s The Art of Exceptional Living for the past week as well. In it, Jim also recommend to keep a personal journal of things he learned along the way, and he suggest everyone keep a personal journal so the valuable lessons in life does not get lost.

I’ve decided to keep a spritual journla myself. If at all possible, I’d like to share with you the extend of my spiritual journey, and hope it may be useful and even inspiring to you as well.