I am trying to update this blog from my cell. Right now I am setting up for the Route 66 while listening to a mariachi band play. Welcome to San Bernardino

What's New

Not much, that’s what is new (wait a minute, is that a title to an NPR radio show?).

So here we are, August is almost over and I will be turning a quarter of a century old next week. The economy is still in the toilet, more planners are being laid off, job opportunites are decreasing and moving when I graduate is looking more like an option. More importantly during my Bible reading this morning I was reminded that God is still in control.

As a sinful human we desire control. What do we have when we think we are in control? Security. Control is not the issue. We need to feel secure. Control is just one of the many ways we try to feel secure. Many of us struggle and don’t move forward in our relationship with God because we think we have to give up control. Doing so scares us so much that we are often afraid to cooperate with Him. But we only want control because we long so desperately to feel secure.

In Isaiah 38, the scripture mentions "O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security" . When the closeness of God’s presence becomes your security, you will find freedom to move forward in your relationship with Him. When God becomes your security, you won’t have to demand that God do what you want. When God becomes your security, you won’t have to withdraw from Him because of fear that you might not get your way. It is much easier to obey when you trust that God has your best interest in mind and you let Him be in control.

There is hope for those who want out of the battle to be in control: learn to possess His presence. The psalmist did and you can too: "God is my strong fortress" (2 Sam 22:33). We can experience God as our security: "He provides them with security, and they are supported; and His eyes are on their ways" (Job 24:23). When you make the Spirit your security, you don’t need to demand control. You can rest from the pressure to control when the closeness of God is what reassures you. When you let yourself enjoy possessing the Spirit, the need for security is being met another way.

There was also a verse that I found recently that I think applies to the type of work I do (except for the shedding innocent blood, unless you count that spider I killed in the office the other day)

Jeremiah 21:12 Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Well those were the thoughts running through my head this week, and as the title to this blog states, this is what it’s all about. Feel free to post comments.

Remember,

Ο Θεός είναι στον τομέα του ελέγχου

-Jeremiah

Vacation Photos

So I thought I would post some of my vacation photos

So it has be 4 months since my last post and a lot has happened since then i must admit. The first quarter of Grad School began and ended with me acing all the classes, meeting lots of new people both in school and from various activities, and recently taking a well-deserved cruise along the Mexican Rivera. I am looking forward to seeing what 2009 has in store.

As I approach Christmas I am looking back and thinking of how 2008 has changed my life. I finished my undergraduate work in Urban and Regional Planning. I finally had in March my first full time job in the private sector only to be laid off from it along with several others one month later and then Returning to Loma Linda soon after. I also began to realize that the economy is beginning to hit my field the hardest so i made the tough decision because of economics to put off law school at Loyola Marymount and instead go to Grad School at Cal Poly. I must say that i made a good decision. So that pretty much sums up 2008 for me. As we say in Greece Eftikismenos o kenourisos kronos

It's hard to believe

Greetings Again. As I continue to try to find full time employment it amazes me how bad the economy is right now. I did a brief survey of my graduating class from Cal Poly and currently there are only 10 out of the 40 of us who graduated that actually have a full time job in the planning field. Believe me, all of us are looking. I also found out there were 4 others from my class that were actually laid off from a job like me. And to think this all started with the mortgage companies offering sub-prime mortgages to those who should have never received a home loan. I sometimes wonder how people think that since they are making $10-$12/ Hour that they can afford a $300,000 home. A simple calculation would tell you that this is not financially responsible. The mortgage companies are also to blame as well. But I think that they can not be completely at fault. It is the fault as well of those who failed to do the calculations.



Anyways, this is something that I have been thinking about recently. Auf Wiedersehen

My first blog

So this is my first blog. Wow, pretty impressive. Now what? I figure out something to post.