Namesake

it was 4 years ago when i first took up the habit of randomly posting thoughts on the internet. after a few months of spilling my guts over cyberspace, life got busy in college and there were simply too many things for me to decide whether it was "post-worthy" or not, so i stopped. in retrospect, it would have been nice if i had kept an auto-graphed record of my life, even if it did not contain little details from the milestones of my soon-to-be-past college years. too many thought-provoking and worship-inducing events and words occur within 24 hours to be fully captured in a blog, but i will try my best to produce at least 1 paragraph in summary of my daily experiences with the Lord's kindness to me. This is in effort to:

1. like i said, keep a general record of my life for myself and those dear to me
2. help me digest my thoughts and discern my intentions by communicating it in words to you
   
3. encourage you, if some things strike a chord in your mind or mirror your experiences
4. for you to encourage me and have more information about me to pray for me (thank you in advance)
5. stir up conversation when i see you in person. i do want to see you, i promise.

so here goes.

my name is Beland Isaac Huang. if you don't know me, the only thing in my name you would pronounce rightly is probably "Isaac." "Isaac" means "he laughs," because Abraham and Sarah had a good laugh when God told them they were going to have a kid at age 100 and age 90. I'm not sure if my parents laughed when their prayers for a second child were finally answered 10 years after my older sister was born, but they appropriately named me Isaac in appreciation to God's gift. that's a really really really humbling thought for me.... i was God's gift to my parents and an answer to countless prayers?! did they know that i was going to grow up to be a big sinner?

Beland, pronounced [bei 4 lan2], was a name given by name father with a very special meaning to it. [bei] literally means "shell." at one point, shells were the currency for ancient chinese societies, which is why [bei] denotes the meaning of "treasure" or "precious thing." No, i was not named after Mammon. My dad had been saved by the Lord at a young age and by the time i came around his relationship with the Lord was one who has "tasted and seen." My dad named me after the very gospel that saved him and his whole family from eternal punishment:

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves" - 2 Corinthians 4:7

[lan] is the color blue. In many cultures, the sky, or, the heavens, is often associated with Divine presence and loftiness. If you look up at the sky during a good day, you will notice that it is blue. in addition to that, my dad brilliantly referenced [lan] to the robe of an Old Testament priest. One of the layers of the levitical priest's ephod was commanded by the LORD to be blue. apparently, my dad had thought through of all this and wrote a short poem about [bei lan] prior to my birth. i don't think he had much of an idea that his son would be telling people about how he was named on a virtual space, almost 22 years later.

[huang] is my family name, and it simply means "yellow." No, we were not named that because one of our ancestors had jaundice nor because we lacked courage in the family. Yellow, not purple, was the color of royalty in chinese culture. ok, maybe not yellow yellow... perhaps gold-ish yellow. either way, there were many Huang emperialists in the past. funny thing is, my family did not live up to that name. my parents are poor missionaries who have no affiliation with any earthly power or ruler to grant them riches to live by....their apartment in Taipei, Taiwan is nothing like the forbidden city or solomon's palace in terms of its beauty and architectual genius... but my parents serve the King of Heaven and i believe He will reward them with untold treasures in eternity. please pray for their missionary work in the prisons and juvenile delinquency centers in Taiwan.

there you have it. that's an introduction to my name... and the legacy of ministry that my parents are passing on to me, which has been sovereignly unfolding within my lifetime. by the mercy of God, I have not lived up to it and don't think i ever will.... but by the grace of God, He saves and transforms sinners from earthen "filthy" vessels into "honorable vessels" (2 Tim 2:21). I don't think that in my dad's mind he expected himself to fill the shoes of Paul's ministry when he read 2 Corinthians 4:7, but he did believe in the gospel and God's power to grace, so he named me after this ministry to remind himself... and now that i'm at an age of understanding... to remind me of God's power.

therefore, the proceeding posts of this blog will be dedicated to describing and presenting the things of the Kingdom of God... at least this very small portion of it that surrounding me.... my life. the treasure has been found and purchased, now let's see how this treasure will validate itself to be of the supreme value, even though it is placed within the most unworthy of containers.