Hello friends,
Greetings from Austin!
I moved into my new apartment on Sunday! We had such a messy apartment, but after a lot of late-night cleaning and organizing our apartment is now looking like a real home!
Of course, currently, I sleep on a bed without a bed frame, so I got that going for me. š
In fact, I had to stay up late the first night in order to set up a work desk so that my coworkers wouldnāt see me be ratchet on the ground in our daily update call.
The transition from the past couple weeks living with working adults to living with students is interesting, as most of them during my workdays are enjoying their last āfree daysā of summer playing video games and hanging out (FOMO is real š¢) before Zoom university starts. But Iām excited!
Though weāre in different life stages and I donāt understand the zoomer memes, I canāt wait to live life-on-life with them, as I see a lot of potential in connecting, challenging each other in faith, and growing through our similarities and differences.
(left: roomie #1 modeling the big boy eggplant I bought for meal prep
right: roomie #2 cooking fried rice for me during a busy workday #blessed)
On another note, if youāve ever experienced the ācalm-before-the-stormā vibes, where life is about to hit you with everything, the storm hit me this Tuesday and Iām still weathering through it all. āļø
Software engineering deadlines and ministry responsibilities fought for my attention, my anxiety was magnified at work, and I ended up pulling an all-nighter on a work night in order to prepare for a training session for the church. š«
Exhausted and beat up, even as I process through these low points, Iāve felt them to be necessary and humbling. š³
Like muscles that are torn and overloaded with lactic acid in order to become stronger, I can see myself growing in my faith as Iām stretched thin.
I remember crying out to God during my all-nighter. I found myself refocusing my attention on Him. And there were many moments I prayed for His grace, as I knew that was the only thing that would sustain me through the day.
In those times where I felt most helpless, humbled knowing my life canāt be lived on my own resolve, I found Godās strength and glory most exemplified.
The testimony of life is pointed towards Him alone.
As I finish out the tail end (hopefully) of this storm, though I would never want to go through some of these anxiety-inducing experiences ever again, I canāt wait to look back in hindsight on these days.
I know this refining of fire right now is preparing me for a future moment of glory.
āFor I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
āRomans 8:18 (ESV)
Thanks for checking in on this update. It was a doozy doing this late, so apologies itās not as full of pictures as usual. š
As I shared, Campus Missions Week, the welcome week we do for college ministry, has been ongoing, and itās been a blessing going through the ups and down tidings of sharing faith and connecting with others amidst a pandemic.š·
Hereās a couple of pictures of us throughout the past several days:
(The bois chilling as I struggle to set up a Bluetooth speaker for our ādance partyā tabling)
(PTerryās with the gang after a fruitful day of connecting with campus š)
(Prayer walking Jester dorms in order to prepare for the class of 2024 š)
Also, Iāve continued to work on my personal website as a form of (workaholic) rest, and I think the style is much cleaner. Though Iām still not confident enough to share to the public fully yet, hereās another sneak peek š¬:
With that, on an encouraging aside, I donāt know where yāall are in life or whatās going on, but keep pushing through!
Whether itās fighting the fight or running the race in whatever area of life, I believe in you. No matter what you accomplish this coming day or week, thereās always someone out there who loves you just the way you are.ā¤ļø
Anyways, stay safe my friends, keep it savvy, Iāll see yāall in the next update š
Weekly Collections
Faith
āSo, the first thing that changes is that a new chapter is added to your work life: eternity. Mark that: a new chapter. Itās the last chapter, which means retirement isnāt ā whatever that is. Youāve got a new chapter added to your life calledĀ eternity.
The second thing that changes is that this bread becomes your supreme treasure. This bread, when you eat it and discover who he is and over a lifetime discover more and more of how deeply nutritional this is for souls that were made for God, all other values go down, down, down as he goes up, up, up. Thatās a huge change.
So, what happens then? You stay in your job, most of you. First Corinthians 7:24:
In whatever condition [or job] each was called, there let him remain with God.ā
Staying where you are is ordinary, normal, steady-state Christianity, and something about everything in that job changes. Thatās carefully said. Iām tempted to say everything changes. I will say that eventually. But what I mean when I say it is this: something about everything changes.
Christ dominates your mind as the supreme treasure. And if things look bleak in work or at home, you remember youāre going to live forever. So, you go to work not dominated by the desire for the bread that perishes or for the fear of losing it. You go to work knowing him, trusting him, treasuring him, being satisfied in him with your heart set on making much of him. Thatās how you go to work now. Heās dominant in your mind. Heās dominant in your heart. And every aspect of your vocation becomes a way of magnifying him.ā
āHow Does Christ Change How I Work? | Ask Pastor John
Entrepreneurship
āThe products on Benedettoās list shared a theme: TheyĀ solved non-existent problems.
He started off with a pair of chopsticks that snap onto the bottom of Apple Airpods.
More than a year later, Benedetto has cranked out 187 āunnecessaryā inventions. Among his hits:
The Cuisine Curtain: A cloth that attaches to your nose and covers your mouth, allowing you to āeat in privacy.ā
SuperSolar Shirt: A t-shirt with a built-in charging solar panel.
Chip-Xractor: A suction device that retrieves the last chip from a Pringles can.
The Mixer Mask: A face mask that doubles as a beer receptacle.
AĀ belt buckleĀ that doubles as a bubble wrap popper.Ā
He says 2 of these deals per month comfortably make up a full-time living.
āIām more like a marketing studio than an influencer,ā he says. āI make a standalone campaign around one specific item, rather than smiling with some gummy bears that make your hair grow.ā
Heās only recently experimented with parlaying one of his inventions ā a coffee table that doubles as a jigsaw puzzle ā into a sellable product. AĀ KickstarterĀ for the project has raised nearly $100k so far, 10x his initial goal.
āThe key to this whole thing is just having fun and remembering itās all a big joke,ā he says. āBut at the end of the day, I still have to take it seriously enough to pay my bills.ā
āThe man who has created 100+ pointless inventions | The Hustle
Productivity
āMonday Musings | David Perell
Weekly Reflections
Mental Model
āIf you want to supercharge your learning, the single most effective technique weāve uncovered for absorbing new concepts comes from the famed Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman.Ā The Feynman TechniqueĀ ensures you understand what you learn. It includes the following four steps:
Choose a concept you wish to learn about.
Pretend you are teaching it to a childāa sixth-grader, specifically. Write your explanation down or say it out loud.
Identify any gaps in your understanding that might show up when you try to simplify the concept; go back to the source material to find the information you need.
Review and simplify your explanation again.
It works because writing out a conceptĀ in language a child would understandĀ forces you to understand it at a deeper level. Sometimes we use jargon and complicated language to hide what we donāt understand. The Feynman Technique lays bare the true extent of our knowledge.
Similarly,Ā asking better questionsĀ is a route to faster learning. The most mundane questionsāthe ones a sixth-grader might askācan sometimes teach us the most because they require an explanation that digs into the details.
How do you know if youāve truly learned a new concept? Feynman proposed a simple alternate test:Ā try to rephrase it in your own language without using its actual name. For instance, describe what enables a dog to run without using the word āenergy.ā
ā(Mental Models: The Best Way to Make Intelligent Decisions)
How to apply the mental model:
Follow the 4 steps above.
Learn to ask better questions.
Verse of the Week
āTeach me your way, O Lord,
that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name.ā
āPsalm 86:11
Challenging Quote
"Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them."
āAristotle
If you guys have found the newsletter to be helpful, I would love to hear from you on whatās been good, any suggestions for improvement, and anything else youād like to see!
Please donāt be shy to let me know and thanks in advance!