Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Talked to another cop today

Currently my cohort is on break and I am staying with some friends in San Diego. Yesterday I was doing some paper work and walked out to my car, which was parked across the street. As I walked out I noticed that a police car had just pulled up and a cop was walking to a nearby house. Without thinking too much about it I walked to my car and started looking for some missing paperwork. While in the process, I saw the cop walking towards me. When he got to me he asked "are you living in your car, we got a complaint that you are." My first thought was - not this week.  I smiled inside as I said no, and that I was staying with my friends across the street. Since then I have become increasingly amused by the event. My car does not have a back seat, but an outsider can not see the bed inside. Since arriving I have not moved, or been near my car. I could understand someone reporting that it had been abandoned, but I am reminded once again how sensitive America is to people sleeping in their cars. 

Today an article was published in the APU news paper about me (Living 'Less is More' - www.scribd.com/doc/48015464/2-2-2011). It all started two weeks ago when I met a pastor at a conference who asked during dinner where I lived. Turns out he has a daughter that is a journalism major at APU. I am still a little amused that I ended up on the front page of the news paper in such a short period of time. When she first asked if she could interview me, my mind flooded with all the possible consequences of agreeing. In the end though, I realized that I am committed to living a bigger life than I can control. In other words, if I want to be in control of my life, it will have to be very small. In the end, I can only be true to what I am committed to, and let the events unfold around me. I am amazed how many waves I have made by the very simple act of letting go of my best interested and investing in the hopes of another instead. In truth, I am scared how many people around me are amazed by the choice. It is as if people are afraid they will lose their life if they dare love, and so they never live it... which means they lose it by default. If you have not read the last post, I recommend it, although I would like to clarify that the "wanter" is a voice in our heads.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

A Broken Wanter

As a young man I listened carefully to the lessons of old men & women. Their advice reflected the Bible's teaching, however my wanter vehemently disagreed with both. Now the wanter is the little compass inside each person that tells them what will make them happy. I found it hard though to believe that the one who made me, and the wisdom of age were more right than an unknown voice in my head (I'm a smart one that I am). Disturbed by the disagreement, I looked to see how happy the people who had flawlessly carried out the demands of their wanters were. To my dismay, I found them to be like butter spread over too much toast. The few who had reached the end of their wanter's imagination had fallen into misery, and many times thought it better to die then endure their pain. At the other end of the scale, I witnessed many people in compleate poverty overflowing with joy. After this I become hyper aware of all the people around me, carefully carrying out the demands of their wanter's, moving towards the jagged rocks that destroyed the people before them. But if the big red compass guiding me was wrong, was it possible to be happy? I dint know, but I veered from the course set for me. My wanter had a full out fit! It promised me I was missing my hearts desire and foolishly throwing my hopes to the wind. Although scared I soon learned a very profound lesson... my wanter is not omnipotent. In fact it had been dead wrong, and I could safely ignore its complaints.

I wanted my wanter to want the right thing, and soon I learned it could. When I stopped following my wanter, it started following me. Let me say that again because its important, when I stopped following my wanter, it started following me. I did this by denying my wanter a great many things it demanded, and instead chose to align my life with the advice of a higher calling and the wisdom of age. At the crux of this act was changing my ultimate desire, which meant removing myself from the middle, and filling it with God and his love for other people.

Be clear that this is not the same as marrying God for His money - or in other words placing Him next to the center of our lives so he will bless us. We can only move towards one of two opposing directions. At first I moved towards God by moving away from myself. This may be one of the more radical things a human can do, because it defies the most unreasonably trusted voice in our heads. Just understand that using God to serve our selves is not the same as serving him. If we serve Him will it will cost us everything.

This thinking is crazy because I am voluntarily taking a course of action which does not benefit me. Why then am I so happy? It is because the path that appears to offer life, gives death, and the path the appears to give death, gives life. I lost my old self, but something much better replaced it. Consider the following words, they are stated by Jesus in all the Gospels at least once, sometimes twice (hint, hint).

Luke 17:33 "Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."

People demand the freedom to want, but become slaves to their wants. I am free, and I live in joy. I am not suggesting the Buddhist approach of turning off our wanters. I am suggesting that we need to be smarter than our wanters. A wanter is like a warm fire on a cold night. The problem is that both endlessly demand more. The fire will always want more wood, and the wanter will always demand more gratification. If a person caters to the desires of a fire, it will soon consume their stash of wood and begin to die. When this happens the person grows cold. They must travel into the cold night to gather more wood for their fire. When they come back they dump all the wood they have gathered on the hungry fire, and must soon return to the cold night for more. The person spends an exhausting, cold night gathering wood for a fire they rarely enjoy.

In real life, we know that a fire will always demand more. Despite its hunger, we slowly feed it our stash of wood, so the small fire will keep us warm throughout the night. However, people bulk at the idea of curbing their desires. They agree its probably a good idea to sometimes compromise, but to disobey the wanter? Instead, they tirelessly forgo the enjoyment of what they have to get more. They end up with so much, they rarely enjoy any of it because they spend so much time taking care of it. Both a fire and our desires promise to give more if we feed them, but both fail to deliver beyond a moment.

Our wanter will always demand more, and is a willing slave master.
Our wanter's default settings lead away from joy and peace.
The path to joy and peace is counter intuitive.

Our wanter is an important sense that gives us information, but can easily be fooled (like our other senses).
We can teach our wanter what it should be leading us towards by looking at the bigger picture.

.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

PS

I forgot to mention in the last post that I locked my keys in my car yesterday. While walking away from my car I realized that I dint have my keys in my hand and thought "wouldn't it be funny if..." but they weren't in my pocked either -- so I went back and longingly stared at the keys resting on the driver seat of my car - it wasn't funny, but its all part of the adventure. My first thought was, "I hope the APU security can brake into cars." They said they couldn't, and instead gave me the phone number for a lock smith. While walking back to my car I had my second thought which was "I bet I can brake into my on my own car." So, on the way back to my car I walked behind the cafeteria and found two long pieces of wood broken off of a pallet. With the help of a little paper I was able to pry the driver window away from the car body with the first piece of wood, and slip in the second piece in to unlock the car with a spike I had taped to it (tape provided by a very nice security guard). The highlight of the experiences was two girls that drove by while I was in the process of jamming pieces of wood between the car window and the frame. As they passed I heard one exclaim loudly to the other "is he braking into that car?" I was, but they never called the police or campus security which makes me glad I don't own an expensive car.

Also, perhaps unwisely I tried drying out some sliced sausage today. Although it's the type of thing moms don't like, I left the sausage in my car overnight, and laid the slices out on a piece of cardboard the next morning. When I got to campus I put my little plate of goodness on the dashboard. Although this type of thing is frowned apon in America, its not terribly uncommon in foreign countries. In the end I just wanted to see if I could pull it off, knowing that at worse I would spend the evening somewhat miserable. After an afternoon in the sun they were reasonably dry so I had a few. I had slight stomach ache for a few hours, but it went away after I ate a pomegranate. I don't think I will make a habit of drying meat out on the dashboard of my car, but I now know it can more or less be done -- and I want to assure any readers that I would never attempt to do something like this with raw meat.

The Good Times Continue

Two weeks ago I parked my car on a side street for the night, just to see what it was like. Because I didn't want to roll the windows down, so I tried leaving the vent on low overnight to bring in fresh air. That turned out to be a mistake. I woke up around 7am to a stuffy car and quickly confirmed that the battery was completely dead. The street was level, so I first tried to push-start my car. After successfully tweaking my back out, but failing to start the car, I sat in the middle of the street with my little house, waiting for someone to drive by. Since it was Sunday morning, there was not much traffic. After fifteen minutes a mother drove by in a van, to my great relief. She was willing to stop long enough to tell me that she was in a hurry, and couldn't help, but that there were a lot of nice people in the neighborhood. She then left me in the middle of the road, with a number of biblical stories running through my head, but I have no idea what was awaiting her. A short while later, a guy drove by and helped bring my car back to life within a minute.

Last weekend I attended a "Break Through" conference, put on by the Association for Christian Character Development (accd.org). Although there are some articles online criticizing the training, I can say from personal experience that it is excellent.  Aside from the great insights I gained last the weekend, I was referred to a family near Azusa, willing to let me park in front of their house. Last night I joined them for a Bible study held in their house, and hung out with them and their kids afterward. They are amazing people and I look forward to getting to know them.

I am learning to take joy in whatever circumstances I find myself in. It is scary to wonder where I will be tomorrow, but learning to let go, and dwell in the present, has allowed me to experiences more amazing moments than I ever could have by trying to plan everything out. My encouragement to anyone reading this is to remember that unexamined formulas blind a person to the joys of life. Living a purposeful (and adventurous) life requires the traveler to look up from their map and consider where they are going, what alternatives exist, and where they want to be going. Life is short, and should only be lived with eyes and heart wide open.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

One Month!

This morning I was woken up by a very nice cop around 7am, who immediately recognized me. He even commented on how I have less stuff in my car now. This made me smile, because it alludes to all the interesting experiences I have had over the last month. I will say though, that being woken up be a polite cop is no problem at all, if they are rude it sucks.

Since today is the one month mark, I went to the Food for the Hungry site. Originally signed up to sponsor three children, but went back and added one. Bellow is there pictures and information.


Pedro Alfonso Cacao Chocooj
This is the first child I added so I forgot to copy the information about him, but I remember that he is about nine years old, likes mathematics, and enjoys playing soccer. 


Rebecca is nine years old. She lives in Uganda with her parents, who are peasant farmers. In school she likes drawing, and her favorite activity is jump rope.



Sarmin is eleven years old and lives in Bangladesh with her parents. Her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife. In school she loves to study the national language. Outside of school her favorite activity is running.


Yeri is also eleven years old. She lives in the Dominican Republic with her father who is a Farmer, and her mother who is a housewife. In school her favorite subject is social studies. Outside of school she loves playing with dolls.


At times living in my car has been a frustrating experiences. It is very good to finally see the faces of why I am doing it.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Redesigning the Car

Thursday night I drove up an isolated road leading to a reservoir dam and a fire station outpost. I parked on the side of the road half a mile from the fire station hoping for a semi isolated night. The next morning several service vehicles drove past, all slowing down as they did. I was just waiting for the cops to show up, but in the end I left before any of that happened. This was the last in a long line of experiences that motivated me to spend, Friday transform my car into something a little more covert.  The previous traveling circus design had my bed level with the windows which allowed me to store stuff underneath. It was also the only way to fit my bed in because the back seats stuck up even when folded down. However, this design puts me and a large portion of my stuff in plane view. I spend the afternoon paring down what I actually needed in my car, and taking out the back seats. I arranged the remaining stuff so that it fits bellow the windows and is covered by a black piece of fabric, which makes my car almost look normal.

Bellow are a few pictures of the project:

Before the redesign:






After the redesign: 



At the moment I am staying in a church parking lot, but Im hoping this improvement will help me avoid the attention of the cops when I am staying in public parking lots. It is also nice to have a car that looks half normal.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

A day in the Mountains

Last night I spent a little time on Google Maps and found a road leading into the heart of the mountains. It is a seven mile drive from the gym, but I enjoyed the solitude. By the time I stopped, I was several thousand feet above L.A. It was a beautiful scene, and since I was above the smog I got to see stars for the first time in a long time. There was a sweet mountain breeze blowing into the car all night. The next morning I woke up to an amazing sunrise dancing over a sea of fog covering L.A. Although I will not be able to drive that far on a regular basis, going into the mountains was a good break.

I continue to look for creative ways to cut costs, but I am still humbled to think how rich I am. According to the World Bank (the go to for this sort of information) 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 per day. So far, my total average per day spending (not including car insurance, maintenance or school) is $12. This means that while living out of my car, and minimizing my food costs I am still one of the riches people on the plant. I don't think America fully understands what poverty is.

For the last few weeks I have been reflecting on James 1:23-24:
"Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." (NIV). - The problem with America is that we encounter the great pain of other people, but forget about it as fast as possible. Either through a sermon, a video, or an experience we are reminded of how much we have. We then say, "wow I feel really convicted, I need to change the way I live" - and then five minuets later casually ask our friend if they want to go eat a $15 dinner at a restaurant. In five minutes we forget that 50% of the world lives on less than $2.50 per day, and go spend more on one meal, than they spend in six days.

Don't forget as soon as you turn away from the mirror, that you are not on earth to have a picnic, but to run a race. While we are not responsible for winning the race (victory is God's responsibility, because the burden is too heavy for us), we are responsible for running.