Author Archives: thecharalife

Rice

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Last week, I briefly visited my alma mater – Rice University! I didn’t have too much time to take photos (and of course, it was very humid, so my available picture-taking time was rapidly diminished), but I did have a short jaunt to a couple of my favorite places on campus. At least, on the north side of campus.

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It’s a special day for me to talk about Rice, as the memorial service for one of the students at my residential college there (Brown) is taking place today in Dallas. This student, who unexpectedly and tragically passed on Monday, was one of the few people I knew of at Rice who could bridge gaps and truly make friends with anyone he met. He was an enthusiastic photographer, and I often caught up on Rice or Brown events by looking through his photos. I only knew him as an acquaintance, so my heart goes out to his family and friends who had grown to know and love him deeply. Continue reading →

Leave Me Astounded

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The Planetshakers band, from Melbourne, Australia, were our worship leaders in church this morning, and wow, it was absolutely dynamic! The worship leaders seamlessly ushered us into God’s presence and I think it’s been one of the best worship experiences I’ve ever had. We had the opportunity to worship with some of the music from their new album, Endless Praise, and the song that stuck with me the most (literally playing on a loop in my head all day long) was Leave Me Astounded. It was such a beautiful reminder that when God’s magnificent presence fills our lives, we can only be astounded and amazed at His unspeakable glory and love.

Hope this bit of joyspiration starts off your week well!

Happy July!

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Happy July!

Today officially marks the second half of the year…and it came so quickly (in my opinion) that I’m still a little shocked I was flipping my calendar over to this month last night. Well, with this new month come new things: namely, my new website!
I have finally moved over from my original simplechara.wordpress.com site to my own, self-hosted site: thecharalife.com!
Over the past few months, I’ve wanted my blog to be an avenue for joyous encouragement for anyone who might come across it – hence the name “the chara life”. As I talked about in this previous post, chara is the Greek word for “joy,” a virtue that is unfortunately seen less and less in our chaotic society today. I had the wonderful opportunity to study joy in my personal devotions in May, and from that study I’ve found that joy isn’t only a virtue – it’s truly a lifestyle that one pursues. And so, thecharalife.com was born, as a space that aspires to be chock-full of as much inspiration – whether it be hilarious, thought-provoking, smile-inducing, or calming – as possible.
Each week, I’ll be posting new content (I’ll explain more on the different features as they come), hoping that they’ll offer as much joy and inspiration to you as they have to me.
I hope you’ll join me on what’s sure to be a wonderful and lovely journey! I’ll be living and learning along the way, so it’s sure to be an exciting ride.