zacfoo.com

hello

i live, don't be disappointed. :(

i'll write something soon.  my life has been great lately: i've been very busy.

another semester down

okay, i'm done again.  finally, summer has come.  this semester was a blur. so much went on.  sheesh, i don't even like thinking about it all.

yay, SUMMER!!!!!

Superman (or Jesus?) Returns

Upon watching the teaser trailer for the new Superman movie coming out this summer, a certain phrase caught my ear as I was taking in all the cool visual effects:  "my only son".  huh?  did i hear that right?  so i played it again and just listened to the voice track.

Voiceover from Superman's dad: "Even though you're being raised as a human being you are not one of them.... They (all the humans) can be a great people, Khal-El (Superman's Kryptonite name), they wish to be. They only lack the Light to show the way. For this reason, above all, their capacity for growth, I have sent them you: my only son."

Okay, here it is.  **Aarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!  NOOOO!!!!! This nation is going to hell in a handbasket, and Hollywood is bringing us to the gates of Hades!!!!  How blasphemous!!! Let's boycott 'em till they bleed Red Vines!!!**

No, no, no.  You misunderstand.  Superman has always been, to quote a totally legit religious journal, "The American Pop Culture Movie Messiah". Read it.

Even from the original days on TV with Adam West.  Oops, that's Batman. Make that George Reeves.  Not to be confused with Christopher Reeve.  From Wikipedia: "Because of the similar surnames, people sometimes surmise that George Reeves is related to Christopher Reeve, an actor who would later portray Superman on the big screen. The similarity is coincidental: the two are not related, as the last names differ in spelling. Nor is there any relation between him and Steve Reeves, the actor/bodybuilder
from the same era; nor any known relation to a character actor named Richard Reeves a.k.a. Dick Reeves, who appeared in several "Superman" episodes. George Reeves changed his last name from Brewer when entering show business."

"Here he is to save the dayyyy!!"

Now that that's out of the way, here's the big fish to fry:  Do you believe that it is blasphemous to consider Superman a Christ figure?  My take: no.  Yours? (You really ought to read the journal article in full, and then comment)

i'm not complaining

but i feel horrible.  no, it's not the weather, because it could have been had i not been taking my meds.  yah, meds.  hate them.  stupid Zyrtek. :(  it's all your fault.  slight nausea, massive headaches, some dizzyness, high fatigue, big time drowsiness.  hate. hate. hate.  oh, and a 99.5 temperature.  so i have a fever too.

i'm off it. no more. i hate this stuff. i'm calling up the MD soon and letting him know.  maybe he can help me out. grrrr.

school is killer

yah, it is.  killer. i need prayer.  i just don't feel like really putting my heart into my schoolwork now.

so, i was translating 1 Thessalonians 1 from the Greek New Testament last night and at the same time I was listening to the new Casting Crowns CD on my ipod.  well, i came to verse 9 in my traslation: "For they themselves report concerning you of what sort of entrance we had to you, and how you turned to God away from idols to serve the living and true God..." and at the same time that i was translating that verse the song "Set Me Free" came on which tells the story of the demoniac of the Gerasenes from Mark 6.

It hasn’t always been this way
I remember brighter days
Before the dark ones came
Stole my mind
Wrapped my soul in chains

Now I live among the dead
Fighting voices in my head
Hoping someone hears me crying in the night
And carries me away

Set me free of the chains holding me
Is anybody out there hearing me?
Set me free

Morning breaks another day
Finds me crying in the rain
All alone with my demons I am
Who is this man that comes my way?
The dark ones shriek
They scream His name
Is this the One they say will set the captives free?
Jesus, rescue me

As the God man passes by
He looks straight through my eyes
And darkness cannot hide

Do you want to be free?
Lift your chains
I hold the key
All power on Heav’n and Earth belong to me

You are free
You are free
You are free

I can't describe the incredible feeling i experienced right there in my seat at B&N.  WOW!  The combination of all my senses and faculties - thinking, writing, hearing, emotions - brought this great, overwhelming sense of awe at how God can work in ANYONE'S life, from demon-possessed people to idol worshippers, and radically turn their life around and bring them into a loving relationship with Himself.  God is so cool!  Thanks.

the others

In case you wanted to know:

Evangeline
Phoebe
Levi
Timothy

my first daughter

As long as I have my future wife's consent I think I'm gonna name my first daughter Evangeline after that angelic, beautiful creature in Uncle Tom's Cabin.  She made me cry; a hard thing to do. Such a wonderful, wholesome, good, generous, loving, accepting, inclusive, happy, joyous, touching figure that has had such a profound impact on my life needs to be commemorated in a special way.

I find it very difficult to express my inner self.  What I truly feel.  Of course, you say, "you're a guy. Guys aren't supposed to be in touch with that."  Guess what, I am.  To a certain degree.  And furthermore, a lot of guys are "in touch".  They just hide it under a lot of testosterone and, for some extreme cases, chauvinism.  Yet I, when attempting to express myself, usually botch it up big time and say things that are very different from what I wanted to communicate.  Stuff that gets me in trouble; stuff that raises more questions in the hearer's mind than answers.  So, naturally, it's best to leave certain things unsaid.  Unless you have an especially sympathetic audience; namely, one who has already accepted you for who you are and won't judge you; and then you can get away with a bit more stuff. That is, until you're married, and then you can let it all hang out.

So, I probably won't tell you all the ins and outs of why Evangeline is my number one choice.  But that's prolly because I don't have it all sorted out yet.  But, on the flip side, I don't need to have it sorted out.  It's a nice thing to have a feeling for something that you can't really express in words.  It just is.

the big one

just passed 10,000 hits to this site.  It's about time...  This blog has been up for almost 2 years now.  Of course I haven't posted that much, but still...

I'm happy.  Here's to 10,000 more happier readers!

Not anymore

Okay, I'm sorry.  I really don't know how I write.  I know what I mean, but not everyone else does.  That's the hard part about writing.  I wish it were easier.

This is what I'm gonna do. Stop writing about controversy. Stop talking about all this God stuff.

God loves you.  I love you.  But I don't really know how to say stuff sometimes.

A Better Place

The world is now a better place. 

Slobodan Milosevic is dead.  The non-Serbians, et al. can rest easier tonight knowing that the man responsible for attempting to anihilate their entire people group is gone and can no longer be a threat to their lives. 

I really want to feel no sympathy for someone called "the Butcher of the Balkans".  Even though Christian love calls for me to love my enemies, I find it really hard to even consider his death the loss of a soul to hell.  I want to think that this man lost his soul, or sold it to the Devil, a long time ago.  To think of what he did, for no certain purpose other than hatred, is disgusting. *shiver*

This is where the rubber meets the road, especially for believers who were the target of Milosevic's wrath:  Ought we to love even someone like this?

The bad part about it is that he never was convicted of the crimes he committed against humanity.  But those who lived through his reign of terror can rest assured that he now stands before the Judge of the universe, who shows no partiality or ability to be swayed.  He alone is perfectly just, and He will rule rightly.