facelessentity

For the totally unexpected generosity of friends.
For the friends who look out for me.
For the friends who keep me accountable and joyful in the Lord.
And for the friends who are willing to trust me and take me into their confidence.

"If the husband is the head of the wife as verse 23 says, let it be very plain to all husbands that this means primarily leading out in the kind of love that is willing to die to give her life. As Jesus says in Luke 22:26, "Let the leader become as one who serves." The husband who plops himself down in front of the TV and orders his wife around like a slave has abandoned Christ in favor of Archie Bunker. Christ bound himself with a towel and washed the apostles' feet. If you want to be a Christian husband, copy Jesus not Jabba the Hutt."

- John Piper

From an email that Shirin sent to the rest of the team, plus coaches:

"As a report on how sad our lives are, at 9.30pm on New Year's Day, Shirin and Sarah in the moot room find an article on point on (one issue) as an exception to (an area of law) obligations, and scream and laugh hysterically and hug each other. Sarah turns red. And is still laughing.

Happy new year!"

I spent the first half of the year leading the carefree life of an exchange student, and the last half the frenetic life of a mooter. I'm blessed to have both experiences. I've learnt a lot: legal learning, the learning that goes with leading the independent lifestyle overseas, and even a bit more of self-knowledge. I've learnt a bit more about the boy who features most prominently on my Skype history.

But most of all, 2009 is a year where I learnt things that make me cherish God more. A lot of what I learnt was not in spite of the pain I've experienced in 2009, but because of it.

So, my one resolution for 2010 is to pray, and plant, my tears.

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace."

John 1:14-16, as chosen by a dear friend who included this verse in her Christmas message :)

From here, quoting Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest

"We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end.

What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and unperplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process - that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God."

On this date, in the year 1895, Alfred Nobel established the Nobel Prize.

Also on this date, in the year 1095, the First Crusade was declared.

"When you've been gone, you never really come back."

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Although this amuses me the most: