About Adam

Below is mostly copied from my Facebook profile as of the date of this publication. You can also see something along the lines of the below in the desktop view of my Facebook profile in the about section.

I am in love with my wife, whose internal beauty, in my eyes, outshines the beauty of anything or anyone in this world outside the divine. Under God, she has captivated my heart.

My Personal Life

I am in love with my wife, whose internal beauty, in my eyes, outshines the beauty of anything or anyone in this world outside the divine. Under God, she has captivated my heart.

My Ministry

My former professional ministry included but was not limited to being a part-time youth minister for over 4 years. While it was my favorite job ever, I needed to stop it in order to spend more time with my wife and on my career in preparation for future children. My last task at the church as assigned by the executive pastor was to find my replacement. I have preached at that church once since then and miss it very much. I hope to someday be in full-time ministry, with assets built up via business in order to at least primarily be self-supporting of my living expenses.

My voluntary ministry has included over 20 mission trips, ministry to the homeless, moderating the Wheaton College Alumni Facebook group that I started (i.e. debate within the group on spiritually integrated topics), helping others with travel hacking, and maintaining & further building the following pertinent websites as well as engaging in related dialogue:

1. https://www.ministrymiles.org/

2. Low Income, Frugal, & Homeless Helpful Information Central

My Professional Work

I am a full-time real estate agent Mon-Sat, which takes up the vast majority of my working hours & is often overtime hours by itself. On the side, I help my company acquire credit card points, cashback, & other perks. I also help them apply points & other perks towards varied expenses including hotels, flights, rental cars, etc.

Personality type and communication:

For those that don't know me, I'm a unique blend of intensity, serenity, and levity, depending on the situation! My interests and activities are equally as diverse, from art, to research, to water sports, to hunting.

I'm a Myers Briggs ENTX (Extroverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiver/Judger). While a natural ENTP, I've slowly become a cross of an ENTP & an ENTJ over time as I've seen the benefits of planning etc. As a natural ENTP, I prefer for folks to be very direct with me. For instance, if anyone sees any error on my part, I appreciate people telling me plainly whatever they believe that I'm doing wrong or could do better, whether a moral issue, a spelling or grammatical error, or otherwise (Proverbs 9:8; 27:6). I tend to be rather direct with others as well, so please don't ask me something unless you want the truth! ENTP's are also known for being nonconformists, challenging accepted cultural norms with experience, research, and other data accumulated over the ENTP's lives. I value functional utility over cultural conformity to a higher degree than most, which is at times met by opposition and misunderstanding, particularly among the more ethnocentric. I'm a Strong's SAI (Social Artistic Investigator).

At times I delay responses to non-functional emails, mail, or messages. Please attempt to exercise patience with me and not take offense. This is one of my major vices. Please attempt to understand that I try to favor what I need to do outside of social media (such as my work) over Facebook, mail, and email, and do not always get back to people promptly via these mediums regarding non-functional matters. If I take too long or never respond, it's probably not anything about you and there's probably nothing wrong with what you said so a call or text would be appreciated.

Memory

While my long term memory is not too shabby, my short-term memory is one of my lesser faculties, which means you'll see me taking more notes and relying on my notes more than the average person. You'll also see me doing more texting than someone like my dad whose short & long term memory are excellent. My memory makes for some interesting re-introductions when I don't remember someone's name or face. Another example would be where I made a B+ in biology at CNU due to the memorization component whereas I had a 100 the first half of the same semester in Physics prior to slacking off in the 2nd half in light of the fact that the difference between 100 and a high A means nothing on GPA whereas the stronger focus on biology did. My weaknesses are matters that I seek to appreciate more in light of the reality of the heightened dependency on the Rock of my Salvation necessary to make up for my gaps (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

Quest for Truth:

As a natural ENTP, I love to ask the question "Why?" and am on a constant quest for objective truth. I believe that study, intentional experience, and critical thinking regarding commonly held cultural values is very important in arriving at Truth, meaning, and Love (Agape). It is easy to overestimate the logic inherent in thought and action, while underestimating other factors. It is easy to be blinded by normative experience and status quo bias (naturally denied most often as they occur) among other things. Despite my relatively dogged attempts to counter such bias with diverse research and experience, I am too often blind due to these and other reasons in many regards.

Truth apart from relevance is of minimal consequence, which leads into my last and most important segment.

Philosophy and Life Pursuits:

While my tendency is to chase after pleasure, which I certainly do, I have seen from experience that true joy does not come from such things. The pursuit of instantaneous gratification merely whets your appetite for more. The nations with the highest rates of depression are among the most affluent. I have become convinced that man was born to serve, in a world where suffering, selfishness, meaninglessness, and apathy are integrally related. True joy is found in true Love, a concept rather foreign to our broken world. While I am not an ascetic, I feel that pleasures that come with meaning are far sweeter than those that are arrived upon more artificially. As an example, bracelets that orphans made and freely gave you out of their poverty, tying them onto your wrists themselves as tears wet your face, are far sweeter than those acquired while shopping, reminding you of precious souls and joy-filled experiences that you hope to never forget. At the end of my days, the pleasure, power, money, etc I spent time chasing after (which I certainly do!) will matter little, while the moments of joy, looking into the face of an orphan who loves me, and some of the moments of pain, tired after long hours of work on public health amidst heat rash in India, might be cherished. While I say this, it is very difficult to live in light of its reality, yet the quest for Truth, peace, meaning, freedom, hope, Love, God, etc. (interwoven with the grace of God in these and many other capacities) compels me, despite my failures and inadequacies, to seek it still. In this, (and in so many other ways!) I am blessed beyond what I could ever hope to deserve! In a world chasing after ephemeral things that will never satisfy (Ecclesiastes 2), the Love (Agape) of Jesus is so much more full of Life (1 John 4:8, John 10:10, John 14:6, Philippians 3:8)!