Sketchbook

Come Awake

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:42:33 -0700

"Are we left here on our own?
Can you feel when your last breath is gone?
Night is weighing heavy now
Be quiet and wait
For the voice that will say:

Come awake,
From sleep arise
You were dead,
Become alive
Wake up, wake up
Open your eyes
Climb from your grave into delight…
Bring us back to life…

You are not the only one
Who feels like the only one
Night soon will be lifted, friend

Or Perhaps, More Accurately, I'm Trying To Make You Sing

Thu, 10 May 2007 19:26:08 -0700

Andy: hello.

David: yeah, is Andy there?

Andy: uh...this is he.

David: this is David Crowder calling for the interview that was scheduled today?

Andy: oh. Yeah. Great. Um sorry...I didn’t expect you so soon. Let me...give me a second to get things set up here.

David: no problem.

Andy: yeah. Made a few changes around here and my typical setup is kinda, you know, technology’s a killer right?

God of Destruction?

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:12:38 -0700

I like it when things make sense. I need to understand. And I realise that in this world we need to have faith to live, and faith to realise truth.
However, sometimes I look at the Bible, and what I read makes me do a double take.
Most recently this has come up in the context of the topic of "Destruction".

We serve a God of Love.
The Cross is all about Jesus coming to us, shouldering our burden, our sin, our shame... before we even knew him.

Facebook - Voyuerism - Intimacy

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 20:48:16 -0700

When I'm bored at work, I look at facebook.
I don't really have anything else to do. No one has given me anything to do - and I don't think its appropriate, at the moment, to go and ask all the busy people if they have anything for me to do.

But as I've spent a lot of time on facebook, I've noticed some disturbing trends.

These have all been highlighed by a recent chain-note that's been circulating called "Friends with Benefits".

Green Spaces

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 19:29:15 -0700

I wrote this about a month and a half ago.. sitting on a strip of grass by Victoria Habour in Tsim Sha Tsui. Its a little disjointed, but I've decided to keep it as it was when I wrote it (apart from minor edits)... because its more raw:

Beijing

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:37:48 -0800

I'm going to kick this off with:

God is Good!

I have the job. In Beijing. Some of you may know about it - but basically it seems to be something between a paralegal and a trainee solicitor position.

The line is a bit blurry because the firm employing me is an American firm - who usually don't take trainees...

So what they're doing here with me is a little bit unorthodox...

Work

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:53:21 -0800

“I have no fear of drowning
It's the breathing
That's taking all this work…�?

“Why did you stop writing?�?

It's a good question. I haven't posted on my blog for a while… I guess I've felt a little lost.

Let me expand on that a little. Things change from moment to moment, like storm clouds chasing clear patches on a bright-sunny-wet-and-wild day. One moment I feel that I have direction: I see signs I recognise; I catch a glimpse of a landmark in the distance; pieces of the puzzle fit together and the whole puzzle has meaning. Hope breaks like sunshine over my life.

New Deep

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:56:25 -0700

"I'm so alive
I'm so enlightened
I can barely survive
A night in my mind
I've got a plan
I'm gonna find out just how boring I am
And have a good time

Cause ever since I tried
Trying not to find
Every little meaning in my life
It's been fine
I've been cool
With my new golden rule

Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
And talk is the same cheap it's been

Is there a God?
Why is he waiting?

Here's to Hope

Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:45:04 -0700

I sit in my room and I sort through my music. The room is dark, lit only by one naked lamp, which is casting warm, stark light across the contours of the room.
My curtains are partially drawn, and outside a thunderstorm is raging. Blue-purple-white light flashes across the sky, smeared with torrential rain, applauded by concatenations of thunder.

And inside, my soul feels at peace.
It's the first time that it's felt this way for quite a while.

A New Chapter

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 23:17:01 -0700

"I worry,
I weigh three times my body,
I worry,
I throw fear around

But this morning
There's a calm I can't explain
Rock Candy's melted
Only diamonds now remain

… And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will wait to find
If this will last forever
And I will pay no mind
When it won't, ‘cos it can't
It just can't
It's not supposed to…

Was there a second of time I looked around?

Mid Life Crisis

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 08:05:24 -0700

I don't quite know how to phrase this, or where to start.

I have a passion, and its so big and vague that it scares me - and when I mention it to others - I usually get a condescending look in return.

Everyone wants to change the world.

I want to change the world.

Its all I've ever really wanted to do - but when I mention it to people, they nod, and then ask for specifics.

Going Under

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:02:28 -0700

Right.
Exams begin in three weeks.

I'm just writing this post to confirm what most of you have probably already surmised from my lack of activity...

I'm going to become a hermit and live with my law books...

I'll see you all in just over a month.

Prayer would be greatly appreciated.

Signing Out

- James

Sometimes

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 06:00:31 -0700

I wrote this just the other night... I just thought I'd post it.

"The sky was fading to peach as the day approached evening. Pale afternoon sunlight filtered through the autumn haze that fell across the countryside, painting the rocky hills and the sparse, sub-topical forests that coloured them, with subtle highlights. In a narrow valley between two craggy, forested hills, wandered a dusty, winding road. It wound through a village, mostly deserted. Some of the houses were ruined, there was a small stone well in one corner. A few chickens wandered inanely amongst the abandoned, rough hewn houses, over the collapsed segments of ramshackle rock walls, amongst the greenery growing lethargically from the sturdy stone foundations.

Graffiti

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 05:55:36 -0700

I've been hit!

Thanks for the tag Jenn.

FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD

1)Receptionist at my Mom's medical practice in Auckland, New Zealand
2) Internal Redecorator at my Mom's medical practice in Auckland, New Zealand (Read: I painted and got paid for it =) )
3) Paper run... I had to get up at 5 AM!
4) Volunteer at Mother's Choice Orphanage in HK.

I wish I had all the answers

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 14:55:07 -0700

And I’m still waiting for the words to break these chains
And I still pray when I look in your eyes
You’ll stare right back down
Into something beautiful…