Ok, imagine you have won a spot on a game show. You are presented with 3 doors. Behind one there is a new car, but behind the other two are a goat. You pick, knowing you have a 33.33% chance on any door, door 1. Then the game show host shows you what is behind door number 3, a goat, and offers you a choice. You can pick again. Door 1 or 2. Do you stay with your original choice or do you change you answer and why? Yes, there is a mathematical reason.
Some times you just have to wonder, what were they thinking?
The Iowa House has approved a bill changing the name of the Department of Elder Affairs. If the legislation is signed by Gov. Chet Culver, the agency will be known as the Department of Aging -- or DOA. ~From the New York Times.
A couple drove 170 kilometres (100 miles) from South Africa's famous Kruger National Park with a highly venomous spitting cobra in their car, the Beeld newspaper reported on Wednesday. ~From Breitbart.com
MEDFORD, Ore. — An arsonist is on the prowl in Medford for green Ford Escorts from the 1990s. ~From Fox News
TOKYO — Japan now has so many people over 100 that it is cutting costs by reducing the size of silver cups it presents to those who reach that age. ~From Fox News
Say please' at U. S. border nets pepper spray. Canadian traveler says demand for politeness met with use of force ~From National Post
I was reading the news this afternoon (Fox and Drudge Report are my first stops), as I normally do, when it stuck me just how scary our world is. How much fear, hate, sadness, violence and uncertainty we all have to live with. Here are the headlines that made me think of that:
Pilot Had Chance to Land Before Crashing F-18 Into California Neighborhood Jurors in Vegas Toddler Sex Case Begin Deliberating Body Found of Girl, 5, Trapped Inside Car That Sank in Frigid Colorado River Gunmen Ambush Cricket Team in Pakistan, 7 Killed U.S. Says Threat of Mexican Drug Cartels Approaching 'Crisis Proportions' Social Workers Failed to Warn Foster Parents About Teen Who Abused Their Kids Bali Kicks Off Yoga Festival Despite Muslim Fatwa White House Knocks Jim Cramer For Calling Obama Budget "Greatest Wealth Destruction By a President"
We need to face the fact we live in a scary and sin filled world. A chapel speaker recently referred to the Original Sin as making us all "morally insane". It doesn't take a theologian to realize he is right, just a look at the news headlines. The world is morally insane. So the question comes up: What is a Christian to do? I can't personally stop the drug cartels in Mexico, make different religions get along with each other, solve the world hunger problem, or solve our economic problems. So what is a Christian to do? Do I have to accept my own inadequacy to solve the world's problems, do I have to learn to live with the sadness of knowing there are children perhaps in my home town that are being abused and forgotten? What is a Christian to do in a world that is filled with sadness and pain?
First, I would say that we need to remember that what we are going through is not new. Just a glance through the Old and New Testaments will find people that are filled with hurt and pain, some to the point of suicide. Yes, our world is a scary place, but it has been that way since the Original Sin. We many face different trials, but there have always been trials.
Second, as hard as it maybe at times we have to praise God. Read through any of the Psalms of David. David was a man that was deeply hurt, but through all of his suffering he always praised God, and thanked Him for what he did have.
Third,it may seem at times that God has abandoned His world. That He has thrown up His hands and given us and the world over to Satan. But if He really had done that then there would truly be nothing good left in the world. All beauty and goodness come from God, so if you can find even one small thing that is good in this world then God has not abandoned us.
Fourth, ask God to make His pain your pain. I truly believe that God is heart broken by the horrible things that go on in the world. He has promised to love us, and when someone you love is hurt it can be more painful than if you yourself were hurt. In a world of so much hurt, it can be easy to turn your back on that pain, and ignore it, but if God doesn't stop feeling the pain why should His followers?
Fifth, understand that God fills us to be emptied again. I don't mean that God will ever take His love away from us. But that Christians are not an exception to the pain of the world. Just like everyone else in the world we get sick, we feel immense pain, and we die. Whatever happiness you feel right now will sooner or later be changed to grief and heartbreak.
Finally, know that life here is temporary. Heaven is promised to be a place without pain and sickness, but instead eternity with God. Whatever your life on earth has brought you heaven will be so much better. Life without pain and suffering, as God intended life to be. Clearly, Christians are not helpless, there is much work to be done, and an eternal life to look forward to.
Cheers!
Your Literary Junkophile.
This has become one of my favorite songs and applies nicely to this blog post.
Ok, I know this is a strange subject for a 19 year old, unmarried, not even in a relationship, college student, but my chapel speaker talked about it today, and it was really good, so here are my thoughts on marriage.
First off, let me make it clear, that I am not ready to get married nor do I anticipate being ready in the next two years. I enjoy being single, and being accountable only to myself, my parents, and God.
The chapel speaker had three main points:
Use wisdom when choosing a partner. Don't be looking for your "destiny."
Emotions are fleeting, so if that is what a relationship is based on you will be sadly disappointed in marriage.
Above all, look for a godly individual, that has a lot of humility.
I hadn't really considered his first point of not looking for "destiny." He was talking about how we somehow have this idea that there is one "right person, your soul mate" and without that person you can't be truly happy. The speaker was saying that it isn't a matter of one right choice, but between many right and wrong choices. He also said that he thinks this is why some main people get divorced these days. The get married, and then when things don't work out perfectly, they think they must have married the wrong person so they get out the relationship without really working at it. I guess I must have fallen for the idea that there is one prince charming for me out there, because when the chapel speaker said that it made me really think.
The speaker's second point about emotions being a bad guide to marriage I had heard before and heartily agree with. This is one of the reasons I really want to be friends with my future spouse before getting involved romantically. I want to know that there is something beyond infatuation to keep the marriage going when we don't feel "in love" anymore.
I of course knew that I was looking for a godly man, but I hadn't really thought about the humility part before. The speaker's point was that all people are fallen and will make mistakes, and will need to be forgiven many many times through out a marriage. To make a good marriage work you need to be able to say you are sorry, and that you were wrong. That can all be summed up to humility.
By the way, the chapel speaker was Gary Thomas. I didn't know who he was, but I guess he has written a lot of books about marriage.
Cheers!
Your Literary Junkophile.
Here is my favorite marriage seen from a movie. Just for kicks.
I was sitting in chapel today during the worship when something occurred to me. We were singing a song with the words "Glory, be to the Father, amen", and we had just finished a song that had a line that said "Lord have your way in us". This started me think about what exactly we were asking for with those words. These last few months have been hard from the standpoint that a lot of unexpected things happened outside of my control. I feel like I have finally started to come to an understanding with God about it. (By that I mean, I have finally gotten over the fact that God is God and I'm not). But maybe in some way I actually ask for those things to happen.
When we sing, at least for me, it is basically a prayer. So today we were praying for glory to be given to God and his will to be done in our lives. I was asking God to use me for his glory, whatever shape or form that may take, and that can be a scary concept. We ask for God to use us, and then act surprised when things happen, like fires, illness, or other trials. I'm not saying that God causes those things to happen. It may just be the combination of God allowing things and then using it for His glory and some spiritual warfare, since Satan really is fond of attacking those that God is using.
I suppose chapel just made me realize that God really does use people and events for His glory, and that can mean trials and hardship for us (think about Job), but in the end it brings us closer to God.
In church right now we are talking about the Lord's Prayer, that ever present example of how we should pray. I don't think it is a mistake that Jesus says to pray "Thy will be done". Sometimes that seems to be the hardest part of prayer. We have a tendency to ask for some many things. Things we "think" we need. But we are instructed to pray that God's will be done, not ours. Just saying those words and meaning them can be a huge struggle.
I'll end with this: God help me remember all things are used for your Glory, whether they seems to be a blessing or a trial. Help me to ask for your will to be done, and not mine. Amen
Cheers!
Your Literary Junkophile.
Amendment 1: I was feeling a theological mood today.
Amendment 2: I am now finished with my first round of exams! I believe all of them went well.
Well, the last few weeks have been nonstop excitement for me. It seems I finish one thing (test, exam, lab etc..) only to be presented with something else that desperately needs my attention and study. Classes have been going really well. I am taking a heavier class schedule than last semester and loving it. I was getting bored at times last semester, and when you are away from home for the first time in your life bored is not what you want to be.
My favorite classes right now are physics and o-chem, but biology is also very interesting. I am also taking Old Testament, but for various reasons that class isn't very interesting. I'm very excited to be doing a lab synthesis for chemistry lab, thought the time commitment is going to be staggering. As a project in lab my professor is having us synthesis a compound. To do this we have to do lots of research to find the best method, and then carefully (since our grade depends on our success) recreate it. I know it will be a lot of hard work, but basically creating something from scratch is going to be so cool!
This semester I am trying to get more involved with outside activities. I have started an ECD group. The group isn't official yet; I'm planning to make it a club next year. But we have a lot of fun on the weekends, and people here (so far just girls) are soaking it up. I am also getting more involved with the chemistry club. Next week we are going to a local elementary school for their science fair to show off some cool experiments.
I have also started playing on my church's worship team. I'm not playing every week, but it looks like I will be playing once or twice a month. I'm really excited to be doing that, and to be slowly getting to know everyone at church.
Answers to some recently asked questions:
No, I am not nor planning to date anyone any time soon. Yes, I will be home for spring break in March. No, I will not be home for Easter after all. Yes, I have decided on a minor, physics. Yes, the weather in CA is nice. Yes, people here are afraid of the rain. No, I do not own a umbrella (oh wait only people here have asked me that) Yes, I am now on Facebook.
Cheers!
Your Literary Junkophile.
Amendment 1: To find the electric flux take the dot product of the area and the electric field.
Amendment 2: The compound I have to synthesize for o-chem lab is 4-methoxycarbonyl-2-methyl-1,3-oxazole, and if anyone can tell me the structure I will take you out to coffee, my treat, when I get home.
A literary junkophile that is obsessed with Jesus, school, reading, stargate, music, learning in general, writing about life, the universe, chemistry, and anything else that can be used to make a point about nothing at all, and being an all around geek/nerd.
