Back to 8th Grade

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of giving a presentation to an 8th grade math class. The woman who teaches the class goes to my church. The whole idea of it came out of the fact that 8th graders often find much of algebra stupid because it seems like there is no good use for it.

Basically what I did was go in and share with them a bit about a project I am working on. This included pictures, videos, and most importantly, a math problem that I actually solved for this project. It was a much more complicated problem than anything they had done before, but every concept in it was one that they had already learned such as systems of equations, the Pythagorean theorem, FOILing, and a finale of the quadratic equation.

I had a great time, and they were very excited and involved as I went through a problem that seemed nearly impossible to them. I basically went through the whole thing on adrenaline, and then kind of crashed energy wise an hour after getting back to work. It was, without a doubt, worth it.

Tidbits from February

Lest any of you think that I (or my blog) have died, I wanted to get one post up here during February. Basically this is just a compilation of things going on in my life.

• Perspectives continues to go well. It is quite a bit of work, but is absolutely worth it. If missions is important to you, I highly recommend trying to take it. Chances are that there is a location near you.
• In home group we are currently studying Genesis as part of a study of the Pentateuch. While studying Genesis 2-3, I was struck by the fact that the passage seems to always lead to cross-gender bickering -- which in itself demonstrates the fall. Why do we tend to focus on chapter 3 so much more than chapter 2?
• We finally filled the third room in our apartment, the one Mark vacated back in November. It was the master bedroom, and we now have a young, Christian, married couple living in it. It is certainly different than an apartment full of bachelors, but thus far it has worked out quite well.
• I have decided that I really need to start getting myself to bed "on time" more consistently. On that note, goodnight!

Prayer

A major topic last week in Perspectives was prayer. I want to share a few things about it that particularly stuck with me. First, something that the speaker said:

The quickest way to kill a prayer meeting, is for one person to say a long, meaningful, theologically profound, and poetic prayer. After that, everyone else will be too intimidated to pray. Lots of short, one-sentence prayers that build on each other work much better to bring a group together in prayer.

I cannot recall exactly how many times I have heard people say that they are too intimidated to pray with other people. Even when I have convinced someone like that to come to a prayer meeting, they often come away feeling like the experience just confirmed that their fear that they aren't good enough at praying to pray in groups.

Second, this is a quote taken out of one of the readings. Specifically, it is from "Prayer: Rebelling Against the Status Quo" by David Wells.

To pray declares that God and his world are at cross-purposes; to "sleep," or "faint," or "lose heart" is to act as if they are not. Why, then, do we pray so little for our local church? Is it really that our technique is bad, our wills weak, or our imaginations listless? I don't believe so. there is plenty of strong-willed and lively discussion -- which in part or in whole may be justified -- about the mediocrity of the preaching, the emptiness of the worship, the superficiality of the fellowship, and the ineffectiveness of the evangelism. So, why, then, don't we pray as persistently as we talk? The answer, quite simply, is that we don't believe it will make any difference. We accept, however despairingly, that the situation is unchangeable, that what is will always be. This is not a problem about the practice of prayer, but rather about its nature. Or, more precisely, it is about the nature of God and his relationship to this world.

Unlike the widow in the parable, we find it is easy to come to terms with the unjust and fallen world around us -- even when it intrudes into Christian institutions. It is not always that we are unaware of what is happening, but simply that we feel completely impotent to change anything. That impotence leads us, however unwillingly, to strike a truce with what is wrong.

Are you guilty of that? I know I am. I doubt there has been a single community I have ever been in for which I failed to spend a lot of time thinking about the shortcomings. Often I have even spent a great deal of time expressing these feelings to at least one other person. Yet how much do have I spent praying for God to bring about change? Usually very little if any. How would our Churches change if we really put as much effort into prayer as we put into our complaints? How would this world change if we traded all of our complaints for prayers?

Perspectives

On Tuesday I begin taking Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. It is a 16 week class, complete with homework and tests, all about Christian Missions. I have been aware of it since sometime in college, but have never had a good opportunity to take it. Now it has come to Santa Barbara, so I jumped at the chance to take it.

The first week was quite good. I cannot do the topics justice in just a few sentences, but here is one of the thoughts that really struck me: In the Bible, God's blessing and God's purpose are almost always found together in the lives of followers. Often we have a tendency to divorce these things. On one side, this leads to a "health and wealth" gospel. On the other, it leads to seeking out the things of God on our own strength, and letting the pursuit of the things of God become more important than the pursuit of God himself.

Passing on my Childhood

One of the things my family always does around Christmas is to decorate gingerbread cookies. Last year, since I knew I wasn't going to be home in time to do it with my family, I did it on my own with friends from Church. This year I made them again, and decorated them with two different groups.

The first I did with the Palladinos. At four and six years old respectively, Diego and Sierra were old enough to enjoy it, but it was quite an adventure. I think that they ate more candy than they put on the cookies -- and it would be a mistake to say that any of their cookies were low on candy. Their results weren't fancy, but they seemed very proud of their creations.

The second group was with the Kennedys. At fourth grade and sixth grade, Amanda and Tarin were capable of doing a bit more sophisticated patterns on the cookies. A substantially percentage of their candy ended up on the cookies. I think this was largely due to the fact that they felt they needed excuses to eat the candy. For instance, if two chocolate chips were stuck together, or if a cinnamon candy was the wrong shape or size for their purpose, or making sure that a thick layer of frosting didn't harden on the knife.

Early on, Amanda and Tarin got into a competitive spirit about how many cookies each had decorated. I had made three giant angel cookies (over twice the size of the next largest cookie shape). Amanda was the first to decorate one, and informed Tarin that it counted as three cookies, thus putting her well in the lead. Tarin was quick to counter with a point that Amanda agreed to: "No, it needs to count as one cookie so that when Mom tells us we can only have one..."

Gift Exchange

Last night my home group had a Christmas dinner. As part of it we did a white elephant gift exchange. The first gift opened was the holiday edition of Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. It has some useful advice in it such as "How to get rid of carolers" (answer the door wearing a towel). As things got more and more frantic in the gift exchange, the joke came about that one of the tips in the guide was "How to survive a gift exchange and end up with the gift you want." I ended up with the guide, and I have a feeling this won't be the last gift exchange the book ends up in this Christmas...

And so this is Christmas?

Yesterday I was driving somewhere, enjoying the warm weather with my windows down, while listening to Christmas music. Something about that just didn't seem to fit. I guess that's just part of Southern California.

Thanksgiving Finale

After all of the chaos and stress of having my return flight canceled, I would have thought that the story was over. Now, I could mention the extra opportunities this gave me, like the extra two days with my aunt, uncle, and cousins -- or getting to enjoy a dinner with Liz and Dan. That stuff, however, probably isn't all that interesting to read about, so I'll skip ahead to other things.

After getting a few days of snow in Seattle on Sunday and Monday, it warmed up enough for the snow to start melting, so that it could freeze over again as ice all over the roads. While this may be normal in Minnesota, in Seattle they have more trouble dealing with it. The news Tuesday morning recommended that people stay home if at all possible, or, if that was not possible, to allow as much as four hours for a normal commute, time which we did not have. Fortunately we got lucky and the thirty minute drive only took us an hour.

Once at the airport I checked in, and they informed me that although I had a reservation, there was no seat available for my flight from Seattle to LA. Somehow that didn't surprise me too much. I asked what else they had available, and the women cautiously started to suggest something. The way she was saying it prepared me for the worst. I began to mentally prepare myself for a long day at the airport, if not a few more days in Seattle. What she said surprised me:

"If you don't mind, we could put you on the direct flight to Santa Barbara. It will get you in at around 11am instead of 3:30pm."

It stunned me. I gladly accepted and then began to wonder how she possibly could have thought that I would have preferred two flights with a two hour layover in LA. As much as I love airports, and LAX in particular...

The rest of the trip was comparatively smooth.

An Inconvenient Snowfall

As stated in my last post, I am in Seattle a bit longer than I had expected to be. Some of us were planning to go to a showing of An Inconvenient Truth tonight. I've been wanting to see it, and it seemed like the opportunity was there.

Well, tonight it started to snow, so we've decided that the truth is, it is too inconvenient for us to go see the movie. Instead of seeing the movie, we are going to practice the message of the movie by not driving to go see it.

Thanksgiving Surprises

This year for Thanksgiving I flew to Seattle where my Aunt and Uncle were hosting my parents. By design, my parents were unaware that I was going to be joining them. To make it a little more exciting, I haven't been with my parents for Thanksgiving since 1999 when I was in High School. It certainly took some doing, but the surprise element was successful, and it was pure joy the moment that I revealed myself to my Mom in particular.

I was, however, on the other end of a surprise too. About an hour before I left for the airport to fly up to Seattle, I printed out my itinerary from a flight reminder email (Does travel actually slip some people's minds?). It was at this time that I noticed my itinerary was a bit different than it had been when I bought the tickets. See if you can spot the error:

Wednesday:
SBA -> LAX
LAX -> SEA

Sunday:
LAX -> SBA

My return flight from Seattle to LA was missing! They did, however, still have my flight from LA to Santa Barbara. All I needed to do was get from Seattle to LA on my own... I started hoping that this was just an error in the email that was sent, and called up Orbitz, where I had purchased the tickets. The women on the phone was polite, and told me that she needed to call up American Airlines, where the ticket package was from. I soon envisioned that the following was going on:

Me - On hold with Orbitz.
Orbitz - On hold with American Airlines.
American Airlines - On hold with Alaska Airlines (the operator of the actual flight).
Alaska Airlines - Looking up the information.

Eventually they got back to me and informed me that my flight had been canceled. I thought that it was considerate of them not to trouble me with little details like that, nor automatically schedule me into another flight with the potential to conflict with my schedule. In any case they were helpful enough to inform me of the few options available on the day before Thanksgiving. The two choices closest to my original date were leaving Saturday morning, or Tuesday morning...

To those in Santa Barbara, see you on Tuesday.

Of Soups and Cars

On Thursday my home group had a potluck dinner before our study. Everyone was supposed to bring either a soup or a salad. I chose to bring a soup. I came home from work a bit early and made a pot of soup. I then realized that I had a very hot pot full of soup that I really didn't want to spill inside of my car. I placed it at the foot of the passenger seat of my car, then proceeded to drive as gently as possible to home group. At the first light, I wanted to turn right. There were several opportunities when I could have made it, but I didn't want to accelerate as fast as it would take, so I continued to wait.

I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be ironic if of all the times I'm out driving, I had a collision while I'm specifically trying to avoid any extra bumps?" Then it happened, someone rear ended me as I sat at the stoplight. Fortunately it wasn't hard at all, but it was enough to make me worry about the soup... and then the back of my car. I put on my hazards, then got out and talked to the man. I got his contact information, and took a look at my bumper. It was hard to see in the dark, but I could tell there were at least some minor scratches. There clearly wasn't any massive damage to the rear of the car, so I went on to home group.

Once I got to home group, I was able to take a better look at it. I drive a Saturn, so some of you may wonder how Saturn's dent-resistant paneling held up. Now that I have had some experience I can say with a degree of certainty that it does not dent. No, the paneling breaks. I am now the "proud" owner of a few holes in my bumper.

Goodbye Mark

Mark, one of the men I share an apartment with, is moving out over a little thing like leaving town. Anyway, it means that unfortunately, less than a year after we moved into this place, we are either going to need to move yet again, or find a new third person to move in with us. I am greatly hoping that it will be a new roommate, because I'm not much in the mood to move again.

James 3:1-12

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

We studied this in my home group last week. Also, as is the custom in my Church, we received teaching on it on Sunday. As a result, I've been thinking about it quite a bit over the last week or so.

• How often have I let a few words spoken in haste deeply affect my thoughts and actions?
• How often have a deeply hurt someone or destroyed a friendship by words spoken in anger?
• How many times have simple words of encouragement been all I needed to accomplish something I never thought I was capable of?
• What paths in my life have been shaped simply by the challenging words of someone I respected?

I can think of so many ways that simple words have shaped my life for better or worse. I probably never would have done LAUP if it wasn't for the challenge and encouragement of several friends. I can think of too many friendships that have been deeply hurt by stupid words that I never should have said ... or that they never should have said - usually some of each. It is only by the grace of God that any relationship is ever able to outlast the power of the tongue.

Almost Humorous Conversation

I'll should qualify the title a bit. The conversation could have (but didn't happen). If it had happened, it would have been funny.

Setup: A close friend of mine in Santa Barbara just got engaged. He is also a big Cardinals fan. I talked to him on Saturday, at which point he was engaged and the Cardinals had won the World Series, neither of which I yet knew. If I had known about the Cardinals winning the World Series, it is quite possible the following conversation could have occurred:

Me: Congratulations! (Meaning the Cardinals)
Joel: Thanks, but how did you find out. (Thinking I meant the engagement but not knowing how I could possibly know yet because they hadn't told much of anyone outside of their families yet.)
Me: Um... isn't it public information?
Joel: Really?!? I didn't realize.
Me: Come on, it's all over the Internet.
Joel: ... (Confused silence)

Career Fair

Last Friday I had the privilege of being one of two Toyon representatives to the Harvey Mudd Career fair. I enjoyed the experience of the other side of things. By the end I was sure of one thing. The way I had approached career fairs as a student, I never would have considered hiring myself.

Faster than a Speeding Bicyclist

Yesterday while I was biking home, I passed one of those traffic displays that tell you your speed. I was in a 25 MPH school zone, and the readout currently said "Your speed is: 45." I glanced around, to see where this reckless driver was. There wasn't a moving car around anywhere. I suppose the logical conclusion is that I was biking at 45 MPH...

Sri Lanka in the News

This happened in Galle, Sri Lanka. As you may recall, that is the town in Sri Lanka I was in for three weeks last year. While I was there, it never seemed like the sort of place where something like this would happen.

Philippians 1:15-18

It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

I've been thinking about this passage recently. I've realized that quite often Christians (myself included) complain about how other Christians (or Churches in general) are pursuing the gospel. In my experience, the concerns are rarely about something as blatantly sinful as false motivations, yet we worry as if these groups and individuals were undermining all of Christ's power.

I find Paul's response, however, to be quite surprising. Rather than be upset or worried, he rejoices! Even though the preacher may be evil, what does it matter if Christ is shaping the evil for his own good? I think that there is something quite deep here, and that the Church would grow much closer to Christ if we understood and practiced this principal.

There are quite a few little details that I could hash out, having to do with things like this, but I'm not aiming for this to be a book, nor even a sermon, so I will let this be enough.

Change in Theme

As you probably noticed, this blog has a new look. This is because the blogging site is now in the beta of some major changes (remember, Blogger is part of Google, so long, usable betas are the norm). Anyway, I could have stuck with a nearly identical layout, but when I looked at some of the new, pre-packaged layouts, I liked this one better. The primary reason is that the text fills the whole page now, although I also like the way it organizes the archives into a tree structure. There are also some other nice features included in the beta on the editing side, but you won't notice that by reading my blog. My guess is that most of you won't really care about the minor changes, but perhaps will find it strange that this makes two posts today, when most of the time I've only been writing once every week or two.

The Circle of Life at Mudd

Last weekend I visited some of the people I still know at Mudd. This year's seniors were the freshman my senior year, and it was wonderful to just spend time with them and see how they're doing. I had some good conversations with each of the three that I know particularly well. Even during the short time I was there, it was clear that they have grown a lot, and have picked up on the importance of loving each other, as well as younger students. It made me realize just how cyclic love is. My freshman year some of the seniors really poured themselves into loving us. Our senior year we did what we could to pour love into the freshman. Now, as seniors, they are doing the same. Praise God!