rosado no es mi color favorito, pero...

Been round and about lately, busy with mostly school. 3 tests this week + 2 test next week. It's the test week period so I've been having crazy study sessions lately. Like the picture on the left. The day before my calculus test, I didn't know anything. I literally learned everything in the time span between 11 PM Sunday night to 7 AM Monday morning for my 8 AM test. Yes, we pulled an all-nighter for this test. Surprisingly, I wasn't tired... Weird, it's that combo of caffeine and midday naps. I think this sleep schedule is throwing me off so much. I am nocturnal. Quoting OAT, "I used to go to sleep, now I go to Tech." Haha, so true. I've been so lazy this past week, but I am beginning to catch on to the benefits of productivity. I absolutely love the feeling of getting everything done early and just chillin' --- WALE! Lookin at, lookin at, lookin at me~ Hahaha :)

Check it. This delish chicken salad that I concocted and brought from 

home. Eaten with whole wheat crackers. YUM-OHSSSSSSSSSS!

INGREDIENTS: shredded chicken breast, a can of corn, 

almond slivers, mayonnaise, salt, pepper, paprika, honey

Disclaimer: I did not set this up!

One day, J and I come home from CRC and she's sitting on the couch on 

her laptop I noticed that everything on my side of the couch was pink! 

This just proves that I'm sucha girly girl. Almost everything I own is pink 

even though it's not my favorite color. I just like to match all my things, hehe.

I loved my outfit today. I love fashion. I love photography.

Today, I wore my knee-high boots for the second time since I bought them. They were soooo warm in the blistering cold blizzard that hit Atlanta today. Goodness, it was so windy. I wore my new khaki sherpa-lined coat, too :) I went on a little photog outing by myself. I was bored, hehe. Excuse the quality. A lot of it was lost when I was generating this cute little GIF for you guys! I'll post them on my flickr if you want to get a better look!

PASSION 2010

 He is real.

Sorry guys! I've been pretty busy lately so my Passion 2010 experience blog post was delayed. But the wait is over! Sooooo those four days were pretty eye-opening. Honestly, at first I said to myself, "Why am I here?" I am SO not a morning person, so it was REALLY difficult for me to stay awake. No sleep = super cranky Sharon. I went back and watched the sermons online. Listening to the speakers that spoke at Passion 2010, I was really amazed at the messages that they gave. My assigned family group (somewhat equivalent to a small group) met in the morning before the A.M. main session and after the P.M. main session, and the dicussion helped me so much. For me, personal one-on-one talk helps me a lot after sitting in a 22,000 people crowd for 2+ hours because I can ask questions and converse deeply. There was a Brazilian guy named Fernando and a Czech Republican girl named Eva in my group, which was pretty cool! It was really encouraging to see people all over the world come to Atlanta for this conference. I had barely traveled 40 miles to come to this place with a hopeful heart but a grudging attitude. But nonetheless, I have learned quite a lot through Passion 2010.

1) God is real.

     I would say that this was the biggest lesson learned for me. I always had doubts about God and Christianity in general. What if God isn't real? What if this is all a hoax? Am I wasting my life following Jesus? But John Piper's message made God seem so real to me. The principal matter of this message was the fact that God is God-centered. In word of extremity, God is an egomaniac. Yes, confusing, isn't it? If God loves us, gives us grace and mercy, saved us from hell by giving us his one and only Son, did everything so that we could live, then why is God only concerned about His own glory? Because God is the only true pure and holy "thing" in this universe. If God didn't love himself, then it would be unrighteous. Every time we sin, you are choosing that sin over God's glory. And we are so insignificant compared to the infinite and glorious God. In John Piper's words, "our foundation of our salvation is not our worth but God's infinite worth. There is no sturdier foundation." We can only come to the fullness of our joy in His greatness.

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, 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 3:23-26

I had an epiphany. All of a sudden, God seemed so real. What God would not be self-centered on His own glory? But what God gives us grace through His own glory? What God made a sacrifice so precious and of His own for tainted humanity? God's love is incomprehensible.

2) Be fearful of God.

Francis Chan touched on this briefly during one of the breakout sessions. I think a big reason why I don't exalt or revere God enough is my lack of fear of God. Yes, He is loving,caring, merciful and magnanimous. This one-sided God is advertised mostly for the sake of evangelism and discretionary intention for the younger generation. But God is wrathful and jealous God. And I need to recognize that. If I don't trust in God fully, I will be eternally damned as morbid as that sounds.

I think Passion 2010 has really helped me: the Word-filled messages, the family group discussions, the heart-touching worship, the big encouragement of involvement in helping the Word of God reach every corner of the world. When I came back, I couldn't wait to share with my friends what I had learned.

So Jina, my best friend and I, went thrift-shopping the day after I came back. By the way, I got some really cute stuff I'd like to show you guys, but something is wrong with my Bluetooth connection for my phone camera so I can't send the pictures to my laptop. As soon as I fix it, I'll update. Anyway, afterward Jina and I met up with April and had a four-hour-long talk about God at Hansel & Gretel. Crazy, eh? But I loved every minute of it. I am so so so thankful to God that He has given me this opportunity to discuss intensely about God-related things with friends who I had never even dreamed of conversing with about this subject. It brought me great joy to share what I learned at the Passion conference especially to my once non-Christian friend. It is truly amazing to see how much my close friends have grown in Christ.

This blog post is getting long enough. I have updated the rest of the photos from Passion 2010 to my flickr photostream. Oh and it snowed in Georgia today! I took pictures but still can't get them onto the computer :( I'll fix it soon!

-예수님  닮은  예닮

new perspective

OH HAY~ I'm back from my snowboarding trip! It was fun and relaxing up in the Smoky Mountains spending time with family. I am soooooo sore from snowboarding but it was so worth it. I guess pain = fun, haha. And I went to the top of the mountain! My brother totally made me go up there by accident. He thought it was the intermediate ski lift, and we went up to the advanced Black Diamond run. And then he says oopsie like it's going to solve the problem. -__- But it actually wasn't that bad. Or maybe I just got a lot better at snowboarding, hehe. Nonetheless, twas a fun trip :)

1) Umma and me at Cataloochee 
2) Cousin, Me, Cousin, Tim with our boards in line for the lift 

3) View from the top of the mountain (BLACK DIAMOND!!!)

4) My cousin and me on the lift

A few of my favorite pictures that I took from the trip:

Colorful skis lined up against the fence

View from the ski lift. LOVE the shadows of the trees on the 

snow and the foggy-looking snow. Totally eerie but cool!

Sunset from inside the car window on our way back

I love grunge, colors, and shadows. These photos are posted up on my flickr, which I just made an account for. I'm going to try to take more pictures from now on. Get some film for my 350mm Minolta. Get a fisheye camera. Bring my Powershot with me everywhere. I want to start photography again. Anybody want to go on some photog outings with me in Atlanta? :)

Anyway, HAPPY 2010! Wow, 2009 just flew by. I felt like 2009 was the year I grew the most and matured as a person. There have been countless ups and downs, lots of regrets but also lots of good memories, ones that will stay with me forever. I have met tons of new people and lost contact with many. But onward we must go! I'm going into 2010 with a totally new perspective on life. My goal this year is to experience even more new things and work productively toward my future. Don't live in the now! Live in the later! Ha ha ha. I realized that I will probably be married in about ten years or so, which is a scary thing. Sigh, I'm scared to get married. But I know that before I settle down, I want to travel everywhere or live somewhere else besides Atlanta. I'm going to make it happen!

Today, I'm attending the four-day Passion 2010 conference in Atlanta! I'm very excited to see what God has in store for me. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about my Christian walk. A few weeks ago, I met up with my small group for the last time in 2009, and one of my oppa friends asked me how my walk with God is. All I could say was that I was apathetic about everything. I'm just at a standstill, and I just didn't care about God, church, or anything Christian for that matter. I must say that I was pretty disappointed in myself. And during the countdown on New Year's Eve, my stepdad asked me what one of my new year's resolution was. I wanted to say "get closer to God," "do QT's every day," or "read the Bible more," but I couldn't get myself to say any of those things. Why announce it when I can't even believe that I could actually do it? I am a coward. I know that when I say that I'm excited for what God has in store for me for the Passion conference, I'm using it as a "high." But what if it was the beginning of that perpetual high? I am hoping and praying...

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ت

Love all, 
Sharon