Author: Glen

Seven Things We’re Thankful For

Thanksgiving is coming, and we’re getting thankful in advance.

This has been a great year for Paula and I–we’ve had a lot of fun changes to process! Thinking back, here are seven things we’re thankful for:

1) Were thankful for five wonderful years of ministry to the students back in Springfield, MO!

2) Were thankful for a safe and fun move west (and especially for the friends we were able to visit with as we drove across America).

3) Were thankful that we now have the honor of representing Christ to the worlds future leaders at Stanford University!

4) Were thankful for the many relationships God has granted us with Stanford students, both grad and undergrad (nearly 25 so far). Pioneering is often much, much harder, and we’re grateful for how easy God has made it for us!

5) Were thankful for living in such a wonderful apartment across the street from campus. The best thing about it our proximity to students: Kevin, who is pursuing his masters in engineering, can bike from his dorm to our apartment in about three minutes!

6) Were also thankful that God has provided us with what is quite possibly the most vibrantly yellow car on the planet! Weve got a few nicknames for this irrepressibly perky vehicle, including The Curious George Mobile and The Happy Car.

7) And finally, were thankful for friends like you who support us, pray for us, and show concern for us and for our ministry. Thank you and thank God for you! We wholeheartedly echo the apostle Paul, How can we possibly thank God enough for all the happiness you have brought us? (1st Thessalonians 3.9, CEV)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some things just don’t mix…

In a thoroughly disgusting incident, A customer in an international hamburger chain outlet in western Sweden lost his appetite when he discovered the restaurant’s toilet seats were being washed in its dishwasher alongside the kitchen utensils. (source)

Yuck. Some things just don’t mix.

Reminds me of James 3.10–12, And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! Does a spring of water bubble out with both fresh water and bitter water? Can you pick olives from a fig tree or figs from a grapevine? No, and you can’t draw fresh water from a salty pool. (NLT)

Whew–What A Whirlwind

Just a quick update on our lives…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything on this site (although look over at the Chi Alpha @ Stanford site and you’ll realize that I’ve been quite active online).

Still, this is the site that bears my name and all…

Here are a few little tidbits:

  • I voted today. It was worthwhile, but it really wrecked my schedule.
  • I have a bone to pick with the California political system: what’s up with statewide referendums? Don’t they defeat the purpose of a representative democracy?
  • And why do we use plurality voting to select public servants? There are much better ways!
  • I broke the 10,000 mile marker on our car yesterday. I’m getting quite familiar with California’s interstate system…
  • Also yesterday I had a chance to meet with a really neat pastor named Paul. He has eleven children. All by the same wife. Who still looks like a model (his words). Wow.
  • While I was meeting with Paul, he gave me a free ticket to a remarkable cave in Volcano, CA called Black Chasm. Creepy name, gorgeous cavern. I was the only person on the tour when I visited the cave, so it was really cool. If you’re ever near Volcano, you should really try to visit the cave–it’s well worth the time and money.

Anyway, I’m still working at raising our full missionary budget (hence all the miles on the car and the meeting with said pastor). Keep us in your prayers!

Incidentally, I am giving about two hours a week of ministry time on Stanford’s campus. We’ll be having our sixth meeting of the year this Wednesday (Paula will be speaking), and we’re expecting around 20 students to show up. Roughly 1/3 of them will be Singaporean graduate students.

Home, home on the web, where the bytes and the binaries play…

You might find this interesting: some of our very own have websites!

Jimmy Lim’s website is You ALWAYS Sing the First Line of a Blues Song Twice

Shaowei Lin’s website is BananaWorld

Paula and I share a site: Glen & Paula Davis (although it’s more of a professional than a personal site)

Anyone else out there with a home on the web?

Legal Rights Are Rooted In Divine Laws

Michael Novak has an interesting column arguing that it’s in our national self-interest to realize that there is an intrinsic connection between the widespread sense of religious conviction in America and the freedoms we enjoy.

Specifically, Novak argues that Christianity provides a unique foundation for the concept of individual rights. Read all about it

(I should mention that it’s in the context of an anti-ACLU polemic).

Becoming Wise In College

I just ran across a very interesting article, How To Become Educated Despite Going to College (yet another entry from the engaging J. Budziszewski

soul assassin free download

).

In this dialog, the fictional Professor Theophilus recommends the very real Student Self-Reliance Project from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (read a somewhat hostile evaluation of ISI’s aims).

They have some absolutely extraordinary guides to books and scholars that you should acquaint yourself with–and these are books and scholars who don’t often make it onto your classroom reading lists.

Judge With Right Judgment

J. Budziszewski has a fascinating article over at Boundless about what it means to “not judge.”

“Zack, where Jesus instructs his disciples ‘Judge not,’ what do you think He means?”

“What is there not to get?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“It means don’t judge. Don’t make judgments. Don’t sit in judgment. Stop judging people.”

I laughed. “It’s a good thing you don’t write dictionaries. ‘Judging’ means several different things. Wouldn’t it be good to know which one Jesus was talking about?”

“He didn’t say, so He must have meant all of them.”

“In that case, you’re guilty.”

“But I told my friends not to judge. I condemned their judgmentalism.”

“Didn’t you judge that Anton didn’t mean what he advertised? Didn’t you judge that Cleo wasn’t trying to be sleazy?”

“But I wasn’t, like, sitting in judgment.”

“Sure you were. You judged them ‘innocent.’ ”

doesn’t that just make you want to read it all?

Stanford Is The Fourth-Coolest University In America

Hey–how come we’re only fourth?

According to Seventeen magazine, Stanford is the fourth-coolest campus in America. What I want to know is–how in the world did we fail to attain the number one spot?

In any event, the Stanford Daily has a somewhat tounge-in-cheek (yet appreciative) response.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the original article online. Here’s the Stanford Daily’s summary:

Stanford revels in its rep as the best of the West, and even more important what other school can boast its own campus mall! the article said. Stress relief is big on this campus of notorious overachievers: Students are aggressively casual, the most popular for-credit sport is windsurfing, and almost 20 percent of those who go on to graduate drop out for a semester or two along the way (part of a formal policy called stop-out).

The magazine described the campus as looking like an upscale taquera, and praised the warm weather, the suburban setting that feels secure and the proximity to San Francisco.

The magazine also included a picture of bikini-clad bikers, noting owning a bike is practically required.

The University was even noted for the quality of boys on campus. As for boys ever see the hunks snapped in the tabloids with Chelsea Clinton before she graduated from here? Hope she left some for the rest of us. Boy-girl ratio: 48:52.

One Hectic Week: 1700 Miles in 7 Days

Glen runs all over creation!

Glen answering students' questions at Rock Your Campus

On a personal note, last week was one of the most hectic I’ve had in a while. In the last seven days I’ve put 1700 miles on my car!

It started off with a trip up to Dunsmuir, CA to meet with a pastors’ gathering, and it was constant motion from then on.

The weekend didn’t provide a single bit of respite–if anything, the pace picked up! Saturday morning I taught a workshop in Davis, and then I preached in Burlingame Saturday night, in San Bruno Sunday morning, and attended a missions banquet in San Jose Sunday evening.

Glen and Paula with some Stanford students at Rock Your Campus

Yikes!

By the way, the top picture is of me conducting the workshop at Rock Your Campus which I titled “Reasonable Answers to Honest Questions” and I helped students process topics ranging from capital punishment and just-war theory to the levitical code and the existence of suffering. It was fun!

The bottom picture is Paula and I with some of the Stanford students we brought to this ministry training event.

USC Prof Dallas Willard On Christianity

University of Southern California philosophy prof Dallas Willard was just interviewed by Relevant Magazine.

He had some interesting things to say: I encourage you to read the article. One excerpt which I thought was particularly relevant to us at Stanford: You know, what we need to do as Christians is to learn to think carefully and well. And that means, as Paul says, try all things, put everything to the test. But you know, were really quite lazy mentally as Christians. We dont feel, I believe, that God is really on the side of thinking or thinking on the side of God, and as a result, we dont discipline ourselves to think. Now, I must tell you there are a lot of young Christians who are coming through the universities now who are good thinkers. I think were really going to see a change in the future on this. J.P. Moreland has a wonderful book: Love God With All Your Mind, which is a beautiful expression of the right approach to these issues. Then we dont have to worry about modernism or postmodernism, or anything else. We just put everything to the test. (read the whole thing)