My First Semester: How do you feel?

As headed back to college on Monday, I was excited to go back yet unprepared in many aspects to restart my busy life after the lull of the holidays.  As I return to college, I do not feel completely ready to both learn more things and put in to practice the things that I learned last semester, especially the life lessons that I have outlined in my previous two blog posts.  I think it is important, especially in the life of a young person like me, to continuously look for life lessons.  This normally comes by good and bad experiences.  As R. G. LeTourneau once said when reciting a certain billboard: "I got my good judgment from my experience, and my experience from my bad judgment".   So as I look for lessons in my own life, especially those made fresh by the college experience, this is one principle that has really stuck out to me:

Feelings are not as important as we make out in today's society.

Now let me clarify myself, I am not throwing feelings out the window.  We should not attempt to make others feel bad or find feelings somehow undesirable.  Nevertheless, feelings play a much larger part in our lives than they should.

A few years ago, on the drive back from my weekly piano lessons as a student teacher, I would catch a certain podcast on the radio by Robert Jeffress.  This pastor presented a certain picture of persistence in a particular podcast.  One of his quotes was particularly eye opening for me: "It is much easier to act yourself into a feeling, than to feel yourself into an action."  Now that quote sounds like a mouthful at first, and it took my a while to truly understand it and take it to heart.

In my previous blog post, I talked about hard work and motivation.  When I look at these two concepts in today's world, their biggest enemy is one's feelings.  In a sense, our feelings rule our lives.  All around us, we are bombarded with advertisements and objects that offer us positive feelings.  We are offered positive and beneficial feelings through financial security: the latest electronics, sexual experiences, and the biggest and best possessions.  This attitude that our life should cater to our feelings is in many ways antithetical to hard work and motivation.  As a result of this attitude, when presented with a task of any size or shape, we often fail to go through with it because we do not feel like doing it.  We do not feel like doing our homework, we do not feel like being nice to that guy, we do not feel like spending our time and energy investing in others, we do not feel like working on our relationship with God.  However, if we look to our feelings to govern our actions, we usually end up accomplishing nothing.  And this is where I find the quote previously mentioned so applicable to today's society.  "It is much easier to act yourself into a feeling, than to feel yourself into an action."  The fact is, we often rely on our feelings to motivate us to action.  Yet when this becomes our mode of self-motivation, we seldom get anything accomplished.

Contrast the futility of being felt into action with the power of acting oneself into a feeling.  Start working, and motivation will soon come to work harder.  For those of you that have been on mission trips before, isn't it right after a mission trip when you are most fired up and ready to help people?  Assuredly, it is after the mission trip is done that you feel that you have been lacking in the actions department.  Many a time have I been fired up to help others after a fulfilling Church mission trip.  This illustrates my point perfectly.  Sometimes, when the feelings do not come, you just have to follow Nike's slogan: "just do it".

This whole idea of feelings being insufficient for action has a great correspondence to the greatest quality in our Christian faith: love.  Here is another quote by one of the greatest Christian minds, C. S. Lewis: “Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”  As Christians, we are clearly called to love others.  However, our cultures view of feelings often gets in our way.  We often wait for some butterfly feeling in our stomachs before we do something.  However, as Lewis points out, this is not the Christian view of love. The Christian's idea of love is a constant desire for another person's good, something that can never be produced by feelings, thereby proving the futility of feelings as a motivating force.  And now an excursus into some theology, Christians, we understand the futility of feelings and realize that this power to be motivated to good deeds is ours through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Recently, I have been reading through Colossians, and this stuck out to me: "May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy."  (Colossians 1:11 ESV)

So what does this have to do with school?  As I head back on Monday, I am challenged to put these ideas into actions.  They are ideas that I have learned, yet in many ways, they are still ideas.  Putting these things into practice is much more importance.  And now to quote another smart man, Mark Driscoll, "it is not just about information but transformation.". My feelings are always present, and seldom ignored.  I hope to come to a point where I will not be controlled by my feelings, but act myself into a healthy way of life.

My First Semester: Hard Work and Self-Motivation

My next two things that I learned in College are not mutually exclusive, so please forgive me if I overlap several times.

Hard work: Difficult but necessary

I really don't want to talk about this one.  I really do not feel like working to write this section of my blog.....

These are the things we say to ourselves all of the time.  Some things may be worth doing, but we do not want to take the time to work really hard on them.  Yet the reality is, humanity goes nowhere when hard work is absent.  It has been said that "we stand on the shoulders of giants".  This is phrase is largely true.  Our lives are benefited everyday from great minds such as Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford.  However, this phrase could be changed to something like this: "we stand on the shoulders of some giants, yet more importantly on the heads of many stacked ants."  Now, I am no professional at making new quotes (that last one may have hurt some ears in the process), but my point is, while we are benefited from the great work of really smart people, we also have benefits from many hard workers whom we have not heard of before.  Like these said ants, the hard workers before us have little control of how we use the benefits provided by them, but we nevertheless benefit from them.  Hard work, I am realizing, is not only a healthy way to run your own life, but a healthy way to protect and benefit the lives of those who come after you.  It is easy to get caught up in feelings, but the fact is, sometimes you have to "just do it".  I may have a term paper that is due in two weeks, and I may not feel like doing it, but in the end, working hard at it is the only way to solve the problem, unless, of course, you want a really bad grade.  Although motivation may be hard to come by, expecting things to get done without hard work is an unrealisticmindset.  And if you are searching for motivation, take this advice:

Self-Motivation is overrated
So far, I feel that college has been one of the most productive times of my life in many ways.  I am around brilliant professors who have a firm handle on their professional, spiritual, and intellectual lives.  I get to meet people from all over America and from other countries, giving me new perspectives.  Through lots of hard work, I am one eighth of the way towards my college degree.  That is a primary reason why I look back on my first semester of college with satisfaction.

There are a lot of self-help books out there that aim to motivate the public to gain some self-motivation (kinda ironic, huh?).  As I think about college, I was seldom motivated by myself.  I was motivated by teachers, tests, homework, and grades.  For me, motivation seldom comes through myself.  Sure, I may have the occasional off-day where I have a substantial amount of self-motivation, but most of the time, I fully understand what I should be doing yet am unmotivated to do anything.  However, motivation and prodding from others is generally beneficial.   For example, take one of my goals I had for Christmas break: doing some more blogging. However, as I said before, self-motivation is hard to come by.  Solution: write a very rough draft, send it to an English major friend at LeTourneau, and get some other friends excited about your upcoming blogs.

I say that others-motivation is much more beneficial than self-motivation.  There are 2 reasons why I think this: (1) We often have a natural tendency to be lazy and (2) it is easy for us to boss other people around.  Of course, the counter to this is that we do not like to be bossed around, and can get very angry if someone rubs us the wrong way.  When motivating others and being motivated by others, the motivaters need to be careful with their words, and the motivated need to develop a thick skin at times.  If both the motivator and the motivated can do this, the self-help book economy may not be supported, but humanity will get things done more efficiently and effectively.

P.S.  If you haven't noticed yet, I am a little of a productivity freak.

My First Semester of College: Context, Context, Context

I have finally finished my first semester of college, and have not been on the blogosphere for quite some time, so I knew it was necessary to start up again over Christmas break.  Since my first semester of college was a really great learning experience, I am going to share a few thoughts over the span of a couple blog posts.

Context, context, context

Language, literature, learning, and life happens in a certain context (yes an engineering major just made an alliteration).  This may be the biggest reason why understanding and relating to others is so difficult.  This has a definite application to literature which I experienced this past semester.  In my Classical Western Literature class (a.k.a. Comp 1) we read books written by people such as Homer, Virgil, and Aeschylus.  In many ways, these books were confusing to me, but they started to make more sense after my professor explained the ways in which the author's context dictated his writing, and how the author's writing influenced his context and culture.  Similarly, when trying to get a grasp on the Bible, knowing the context helps immensely in understanding the meaning present in the Bible.  Context both unites people with common time periods and/or locations yet at the same time separates people with contrasting time periods and/or locations.

I notice this effect of uniting and dividing most notably in the area of sarcasm.  Sarcasm is quite possibly the best way to measure how well you know someone.  Just about everyone has been in a situation where sarcasm is used, but instead of providing everyone with a laugh, it leads to confusion and/or pits people against each other.  Think of this example: your good friend makes an allusion to a previous joke or situation, and while you totally understand the reference, no one else has a clue what he/she is talking about.  Granted, we often use sarcasm on a whim without thinking, but misunderstanding through sarcasm can be explained in the nature of sarcasm.  Sarcasm implies a shared context between the people involved, and those outside of that context do not understand the language that is being used.  It is an easy example of the role context plays in our lives.

Coming back from college has been essentially a journey back into the context that I had been a part of for the first 18-19 years of my life.  Unsurprisingly, that context has changed in many ways and I do not play the same role that I used to play. This is not a bad thing, but rather the natural result of being gone for 4 months.  This has definitely taken some adjusting; sometimes I almost feel out of place since I have been gone from my Dallas context for so long.  I now understand why my older friends are sometimes so anxious to get back to school, the context in which they feel the most at home.

It takes much work and initiative in order to re-involve oneself in a previous context.  With my family, it takes a lot of talking about the events that have taken place in their lives and mine over the past 4 months.  It may seem redundant and awkward at first, but in the end, it is necessary in order to do life with your family and old friends again.  Even though you may have been great friends before, it is often necessary to "get acquainted" once again, or else your relationship may end up shallow, something that I try to avoid in my life.  In a nutshell, getting back into the swing of things at home is a lot of work (I really wish my transition sentences were this good while I was still in composition.... Check back in later for my next post).

9-11-11

This afternoon I want to share with you a few elements of the 9-11 memorial chapel that occurred last Friday at LeTourneau.  Corey Ross, the dean of students, led the 10:50 am chapel while many students and faculty shared their memories in a video.  Mr. Ross described the events of the day in a very engaging manner.  Personally, the event became real to me in a way that had not happened before.  We prayed for peace, justice, and our enemies. We thanked the firefighters and police force present in chapel. Near the end, a student played Amazing Grace on the bagpipe while we walked out to the mall (grassy area, not shopping center).

On the way out of chapel, each student present at the chapel service was given a gift. I don't remember the exact number, but LeTourneau had made over 2,200 flags, one for each person who died in the terrorist attacks. Each flag represented the soldier's country, and some flags had the names of the soldiers so that we could pray for them. These flags and names served to remind those of us at chapel that this event ten years ago was not only America's problem, it was a problem for the whole world.

So there we stood in silence, listening to the bagpipes playing, watching the flags keep coming and being placed in the ground.  The sight was beautiful of all of the flags was sobering, yet beautiful.  Once every flag was put in the ground, the only thing then separating us from lunch or our classes was a singing of the national anthem.

Here are some of the pictures of all of the flags:

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At LeTourneau, there is a bell tower in the mall. On that Friday, instead of ringing every 15 minutes, it rang every ten seconds, once for each person that died in the attacks. The bell did not stop ringing until after 8:30 that night. Again, I do not recall the exact number, but that day the bell was constantly vibrating in sound for more than 9 hours. It was a sober reminder of the suffering of many inflicted by a few individuals.  It was a sober reminder of the fragility of us humans, and for me, it was a startling realization of how much we need God.

I end with a picture from the previous week.  As you may know, the wildfires had been raging in all of Texas.  The combination of dry weather, heat, and strong winds can be explosive when a stray spark breaks loose.  In the end, this meant troubled breathing and loss of possessions by many people.  It is just another sign and reminder of the distress in our world today.  Dr. Lunsford, the president of LeTourneau, had a different perspective on the smoke that he spoke about during that memorial chapel service.  The haze reminded him of the black smoke that took place ten years ago.  Dr. Lunsford said that it was almost like God was holding a divine memorial service in memory of 9-11.

Herein is where the controversy starts.  9-11 was a terrible day for humanity.  Inevitably, God steps into the subject manner.  He is discussed in a variety of different ways.  Some people say it is religion's fault. Some others say it is the Muslim's fault.  Still others claim suffering proves either the nonexistence, flawed morality, or impotence of God.  Nevertheless, people continue to turn to Him in times of suffering.  The truth is that we have a choice, everyday.  We can choose to follow the ways of death, or the ways of life.  We can choose to follow darkness, or follow light, realizing that God is just; He lets actions have consequences.  Bad behavior produces bad results.  Humanities collective hurt is self inflicted.  The terrorists need Jesus just like the rest of us.  These are the ideas we should learn from these sad events.  This is what I thought of as Corey Ross spoke about 9-11.  I am sure that God is heartbroken over these events of ours.  He smells the smoke too.

So today, think of these things, and remember our other hurts that have been prevented by the bravery of our armed forces and firefighters.  John the Baptist once said: "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven." - John 3:27

Everything we have is a gift:

Life

Liberty

And the pursuit of happiness

I am sooo smart......

Two days ago, on Wednesday, I was about to head out from my dorm and into my first lab.  It was a Manufacturing Processes lab.  Of course, right before I am about to leave, I realize that it is pouring outside, and so I go into a frantic search for my umbrella.  I have no idea where it is, and I really need to get to class, so I give my Mom a quick call, to make sure they did not accidentally take it home with us.  To make a long story short, I had to run through the rain to get to class.  When I got back, I received the following email:

gee... what's that red thing hanging on the middle of the closet hook in the attached picture...


with the following picture:

Of course, two days before, I had posted all of these photos on Facebook and  http://timwright12.blogspot.com/2011/08/college-move-in.html.......oops

College move-in!!!

This weekend I moved into LeTourneau University!!!!  Here's some pictures....

Me leaving with a full car.

and then I get my servants to unpack....

you know there is only so long that you get to be nice to your brother.

I'm banking on the fact that I will not roll around too much...

I never realized it before, but I made green my accent color.

Possibly the two most important things in college: music and books.

Installing my Dad's old blue lamp that he used when he was in college

It is absolutely the best lamp EVER!!!!!!

and some other random pictures of different parts of my room....

My new home for the next 4 years.

Showing my Mavs pride!!!!!

My roomate and his family, who came all the way down from Minnesota.

And time to say goodbye!!!  :(  I will miss them dearly, but I must say I am excited and I love LeTourneau so far.  :)

Facebook Slavery conversation

The following is a conversation I had over a friends facebook status, and looking back on it, gave me some curiosity on this subject.  I am Tim, and the friend is Timothy.

Timothy: people who say the confederacy (civil war) was racist are stupid and uneducated, and make me thoroughly angry

Tim: The south believed in slavery, didn't they?

Timothy: while technically there really isn't anything inherently wrong with slavery, they actually didn't. but the southern economy was built on slavery at the time, so instead of total abolition they wanted to phase it out, which is actually the plan the constitution was written with if you look. also, total abolition didn't work out well for the slaves, the only people who really benefited were northern factory owners who wanted cheap labor they could pay a less than livable wage. the slaves' quality of life went down and the south had an economic crash

John: 1. why isn't slavery inherently wrong? 2. but the south wanted to secede, so even though the constitution talked about slowly phasing it out, and they were leaving the jurisdiction of the constitution, isn't it possible they would have ke...pt it going?

I don't like it when people say the South was racist either. Especially since an awesome and Godly man like Robert E. Lee fought for the south.

Tim: treating another race as if they were subhuman doesn't seem right

Timothy: slavery has nothing to do with another race at it's core. at it's core slavery is simply someone working in exchange for food and shelter, and part of the agreement is that they become property. sure, sometimes it's forced, but there isn't anything inherently wrong with it. for christians, all the bible says about slavery is to treat your slaves well

John: see above, and the south wanted to secede because the north was trying to work around the constitutional form of government for their own benefit. the general consensus of people in the south was that slavery needed to end. so it would have been phased out
John: but aren't we supposed to treat others as we want to be treated? i'm pretty sure no one wants to be a slave.

Timothy: that's actually not true. at one time, the largest source of slavery in the US was indentured servitude, which was a mutual agreement. and being a slave doesn't mean you get treated badly. a lot of slaves were treated very well. instead of money they got food and shelter

Tim: Aha, the definition problem. The world at large today seems to think of slavery as the forced kind, and never of the voluntary kind. And I am pretty sure that being it isn't being property as opposed to just being the master of someone while you are providing them with food and clothing. If you become property, can't they just keep you as a slave for the rest of your life?

Timothy: yes they can, or they can sell you. but it's a modern idea for being "property" to be so awful. there's nothing so wrong with it. the only issue with slavery is if the slaves aren't treated well, which in the US a few hundred years ago, almost never happened by the actual owners. almost all of the slaves that were treated badly were treated that way by other supervising slaves when the masters weren't around

Tim: is that modern idea invalid? If become property, I wound second John, who would want to be a slave if you couldn't make a desicion to not be one for the rest of your life?

Timothy: see, the way you phrase it, it sounds terrible. but think about it this way, in exchange for a little less freedom, you never have to worry about food, shelter, or a job again

Tim: aha, but the way you phrase it makes it wonderful, is it really just 'a little less freedom'? seems like a lot to me.

Timothy: depends on the master. the only real restriction on the freedom of a slave would be how much the master trusted them

Tim: but shouldn't the amount of freedom be part of the agreement in the first place? and if the master disobeyed the agreement, who would be their to defend you if you were just a piece of property?

Timothy: no one. you have to understand though, it's not in the best interest of the master to mistreat a slave. say you bought a $100,000 car, would you smash the window just because you could? same principle, and price back then in today's money

Tim: so your saying the slave would revolt if his master mistreated him?

Timothy: or depending on the treatment not be able to work as well. it's been proven that the best workers are happy ones.

Tim: and what would happen if the slave was slothful and didn't get work done, but was still happy? just thinking this stuff through

Timothy: well then they aren't fulfilling their end. i'm not saying it's a perfect system, but it's not as bad as it's made out to be

Tim: yes, I do agree with that statement, but I think the thing that most people disagree about with the 1850-1950ish era is the racist thinking that accompanied many of the slavery in that period. For example, you have blacks in many cases denied simple rights just because of the color of their skin. Most of the black slaves were taken right out of Africa without any say and were forced to be slaves, which is a different thing than voluntarily working for someone in exchange for food and shelter.

Timothy: actually, when they were picked up from africa they were already slaves. the other africans had enslaved them, then sold them to traders

Tim: hmmm... no one's ever told me that before, so I don't know what to say, but regardless, there was still nothing voluntary about it, no matter who's fault it was.

Timothy: this is true. like i said, not a perfect system, but still not as bad as made out to be

Tim: ok, (I'm enjoying this interesting conversation :) So even though there are things that weren't that bad, isn't it ok to be angry about the not so perfect parts of it? I mean, even if mistreatment by masters was uncommon as you stated, shouldn't we speak out about the injstices of it?

Tim: When there was injustices?

§    Timothy: is there any point? will it change anything to complain about the past? also, if you're referring to black people today and the complaints they have against slavery of the past, they honestly have no claim. their ancestors hundreds of years... of years... were slaves, and a few of them were mistreated. in fact, american slaves were lucky, because 90% of african slaves went to south america, where they died almost faster than they could be brought in. so in exchange for some labor and sparce mistreatment, they were brought to a country where they now enjoy more freedom for less tax than anywhere in the world last i checked. so what claim is there to complain about the past? in the end, no group was worse off for it.

Tim: I guess I was talking about speaking out of slavery in the past when it was still around. And, just to be clear, was the racism around that period wrong?

Timothy: you mean is it wrong to be racist? yeah, in a way it is. at least that's my opinion.

Tim: in which way? please elaborate

Timothy: judging someone by their genetics is silly, especially if it makes no practical difference. then again, racial profiling, which is often referred to as racist, is absolutely right, and a very useful tool, because different groups behave differently

Tim: by racist I meant treating one race as less than human. there we go again with our definitions, racial profiling is not racist, it is using someones physical characteristics to lower crime or to catch a criminal

Timothy: exactly. but yeah, racism is pretty wrong.

Tim: then, back to before, the racism back in that time was more the problem than anything

Timothy: yeah, quite possibly. but it really is a non-issue when talking about slavery

Tim: yea, but racism was the reason for the enslavement oftentimes, that's the wrong part, not slavery (system of voluntary servitude) itself

Timothy: what makes you say racism was the reason? that's crazy. economic practicality was the reason

Tim: sorry, I guess what I mean is, no matter if it was economically practical or not, that doesn't change the fact that slaves were made so involuntarily, which was the wrong part. Greed is not any better than racism. Sorry, I have to go now, but good and interesting stuff

Timothy: right. good talking to you. think about the fact that the slaves were enslaved by their own people though, not by the end consumers

Slavery and the Bible

Slavery and the Bible- Why does God's book contain it and why does it matter to the way that we look at scripture?


Most people who are fairly familiar with the Bible know that it talks about slavery.  Unfortunately, this fact isn't really discussed very frequently. This is unfortunate because the question of slavery is very near and dear to many people's hearts, especially our brothers and sisters of African descent. Since this subject is not often discussed, I believe many start to doubt the legitimacy of claiming that scripture is the word of God. After all, if the Bible really does condone the same type of practice that was prevalent earlier in our country's history, then do we have the right to reinterpret these verses, and therefore other verses in the Bible that we have other reasons for not believing?  I wondered this myself at many points in time; I knew this question had to be answered. When I investigated the issue, I found some surprising and comforting answers, and I hope to share them with you.
Let me first share two verses the would condemn the practice of going to places like Africa, kidnapping someone, and bringing them back as a slave.  In Exodus 21:16 (and Deuteronomy 24:7), the Law of Moses says that someone who kidnaps someone in order to sell them is to be put to death. Obviously kidnapping someone is a very serious thing. This idea is also echoed in 1 Timothy 1:10, where it is mentioned along with many other serious sins.


So if the Bible condemns kidnapping, then why does it still talk about slavery? Again, this is a very obvious question that needs to be answered. A shallow reading of the Bible will not do here, we need to look deep to find the answer. When I think of the Old Testament Laws, the cleanliness laws and the sacrifice laws come to my mind.  But there is actually another major part of the Law, in the context of the theocracy of Israel: how to deal with criminal acts.  There are many interesting tidbits in the Law, but it provides some insight into the system of slavery in the Bible. If you read Exodus 22, you will find a basic law code for different types of wrongs.  In verse 3, it states that if a criminal is not able to make restitution, he should be sold for his theft.  This portrays a very different system of justice than our current system in the United States.  Instead of paying a fine and possibly going to jail, the criminal has to make restitution.  If restitution is not possible, he is to be sold into slavery, in order to pay for his crimes, instead of becoming an unproductive person by being thrown into jail. Therefore, it seems that slavery was part of an ancient penal system, unlike the slavery of recent years that was primarily based on race.


In the the New Testament, you will find 2 or 3 places in Paul's letters where he encourages slaves to obey their masters.  In 1 Peter 2:18-25, Peter encourages slaves that, if their masters are being harsh,  "if when you do good and suffer for it, and endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God." Peter maintains that this would be "suffering unjustly" (v. 19), which obviously does not give a good name to slavery.  Paul encourages masters to treat their slaves fairly.  Many people claim that this automatically makes the Bible pro-slavery.  However, as I mentioned before that is not the case, as the Bible speaks out against kidnapping. In this case, the Bible is dealing with something that happened to be present in the culture.    Paul's focus seems not to be overthrowing a current system of tyranny (although it seems he thinks that it is wrong), but encourage slaves and masters to do everything they can to give a good name to Christians and the gospel.  In fact, a whole book of the Bible, Philemon, is about Paul pleading with a master to take back a useless runaway slave, yet treat him as a brother in Christ and not as a slave. 
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." -Jesus


* I got much of my information from the following book:
North, Gary.  Tools of Dominion.  Tyler: The Institute for Christian Economics.  p. 111-206

Technology- Part 2

This is part 2.  Part 1 can be found here: http://timwright12.blogspot.com/2011/04/technology-is-it-always-blessing-to-our.html

Another aspect of the failure of technical communication with face-to face communication is the difference of emotions. When one is contacting someone through technical means, emotions and tone of voice are never known. Because of this, much drama has been caused. An email can be sent to an acquaintance and not be proofread, and this will cause confusion because something that is not meant is said. Too often, Facebook posts can inherit this same problem. Something between two people may be said sarcastically, yet this is only known to them and not to the rest of the world. I have personally seen sarcastic comments on Facebook and taken them literally, only to be confused for no reason.

Alternatively, many things that one would never say in real life are very easy to say through an email or Facebook post. Unfortunately, I have learned this the hard way. Many times, there has been a subject that I am not man enough to speak to the person myself. Instead, I shoot an email when I know I will not see them for a while. However, when I do this, me message always comes across harsher that I meant and devoid of emotion. The Golden rule should be rephrased this way, “Do not send an email unless you could tell that person the exact same thing to their face.”

With all of this information, you may ask, “what am I to do with it?” While we do not need to live like Quakers, we need to be increasingly aware of our attentions. The technology companies look to make money, and they are entitled to do so, no matter how many social problems it may cause. Because of this we need to ask ourselves some penetrating questions. Are we focusing in on our own little world instead of the people around us? Are we substituting intimate, productive family time for a text conversation that is second rate communication? And most importantly, are we sacrificing our relationship with God because we have pointless conversations with good friends? There is a reason why the Bible says that every word we speak we will give an account of on the Day of Judgment. If only we realized the treasures in heaven, we would be more careful of our time spent on earth, and how we use technology responsibly.

Technology- Is it always a blessing to our personal and social lives?

In February,  I attended the Heritage Competition at LeTourneau University, where I will be attending in the fall.  Part of the competition for the scholarship was an essay.  It is not very long, but I thought it would work well as a blog post.  It talks a lot about the seldom-heard disadvantages that technology can bring.

In the recent years, the world has seen an explosion in technology and digital information.  10 years ago, a gigabyte of information on a computer was considered unnecessary, yet today a gigabyte isn’t enough even for an 8 year-old’s mp3 player.  Terabytes, which are equal to 1000 gigabytes, are quickly becoming the new standard.  10 years ago, the smallest cell phone was the size of a 6-inch subway sandwich, and this only made calls.  Now, the ever popular iPhone is a tenth of the size of the first cell phone and functionality wise is just short of the computer.  Within the next couple of years, video chatting such as Skype will become commonplace, even while walking along the streets.  As you and many others can see, these technologies provide us greater power in information than ever before. 

We have experienced a great revolution in the world of data and music.  With 3g networks, Wi-Fi and Google, tons of information is at our finger tips.  We can find the nearest restaurant, where our friend is, or even that a group of Unicorns is a cornucopia.  Technology has enabled us to keep our whole music library on our iPods.  With 64 gigabyte players, more than 4 days of music can be stored on a single device.  And unfortunately, humanity has mirrored this fact, and we spend ever-increasing amounts of time listening to music in public.  Instead of taking in the sights and sounds of an early morning run, we choose to stay in our own little world of music.  Even listening to a CD in a room with the door shut cuts one off from his family; parents and siblings cannot even yell to get your attention.

Probably the greatest thing that technology does is keep us more in touch with people.  Email, texting, and Facebook allow us to keep in touch with any person with text.  Well-loved relatives from far away are available at the push of 10 or 11 buttons.  Video chatting even allows us to look at that person’s face, which provides even greater advantages. One of the greatest advancements we will see is video chatting.  Through Skype, and Facetime on the iPhone, we can see people we love face to face, even on a mobile device.  Through the years, this technology will become ever more flexible, and soon we will be able to use it all of the time.  However, as Spiderman points out, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. 

The fundamental premise is this: face to face conversations while in the same place are ultimately the best mode of communication, and these technologies are just substitutes that will never fully live up to face to face communication.  With this premise in mind, we begin to see some of the social aspects that are diminished with the use of technology.  Too often teenagers are disengaged with their families at the dinner table because of a texting conversation with their best friend.  They will spend hours talking to their friend on the phone about a difficult situation at school or some drama, yet ignore their parents who are right down the stairs who would be the best help.  Too often we fall into these traps that diminish our relationship with the people around us.

Check in later for part 2.  :)

My Day at the Toyota Driving Expectations.

Before I tell you a little about last Sunday, let me share a few stats with you.

• Motor Vehicle Crashes are the number one cause of death for teens
• Teen drivers are involved in fatal crashes at over twice the rate of the rest of the population
• Teens represent 6% of all drivers and 16% of all crashes
• Driving at unsafe speeds is the most common error in fatal crashes
• The leading cause in death for ages 16-20 is automobile crashes
• 58% of teens killed in automobile crashes were not wearing seat belts
• Finally, 20% of 15-20 year olds will be in a crash within their first year of driving

I learned these things at a defensive/smart driving course I attended last Sunday afternoon called Toyota Driving Expectations.  In these stats, you will notice that car accidents are never mentioned, only car crashes.  The people at Toyota did this because they were confident that most crashes were not acts of God; they could be prevented.  Hence they were called crashes.  The course was pretty cool, and I learned quite a few other useful things, a few of which I am going to share.

One of the main things we talked about was a contact patch.  Say you covered a tire in paint, and set the car down on the concrete, then picked it up again (you feel really strong today).  The paint that is imprinted on the ground would be the contact patch; the bigger the contact patch, the more traction you have on the pavement.  Your tires should be pumped up to the right pressure because this affects the contact patch.

As you can see, the contact patch, as illustrated by the lower part if the first picture, is significantly reduced when your tires are not inflated correctly.  When correctly inflated, the combined contact patch of all four tires is 1.3 square feet. 

This second picture shows how much the contact patch changes when you make a turn.  Most of the tire is still touching the   This is why skidding is a whole lot easier when you are turning, as only part of the contact area has enough friction to be adhesive to the concrete.

The fun part was the driving.  With an instructor, we got to stop on a dime and do different slalom courses.  We also got to skid to a stop while turning, testing out the anti lock brakes.  While doing the slalom courses in particular, I learned something very important.  When you are in any situation, always keep your eyes looking ahead.  Don't stare at the think you are trying to miss, it doesn't work.  Just keep your eyes where you want to go, and use your peripheral vision to avoid whatever obstacle you may be trying to avoid.  I was amazed at how much this helped.

Defensive driving was another topic of the afternoon.  The main formula put forward was P = R ≠ T, that is, Perception equals reality but not necessarily truth.  The driver next to you may look like they are paying attention, or look like they are sober, or look like they are in a good frame of mind, but are they?  Defensive driving sometimes means anticipating an answer of 'no' to the previous question.  There are many ways to be a defensive driver, such as leaving room to move and being aware of your surroundings.

Probably the biggest tool for safe driving is focusing.  After all, the number one safety feature is you.  Over half a million people were injured in 2008 in car crashes because they were distracted.  We live in a world filled with distractions, and this is not limited to texting.  Even calling someone on the phone with a bluetooth headset uses some of you cognitive faculties that take away from you concentration on the road.  Once I was driving home from reffing a soccer game, and I just looked down for one second to turn on the AC, only to look up and stop quickly to prevent from rear-ending the car in front of me, who was turning into a strip mall.  The next time you think about doing something 'productive' while driving, think again.  While it may feel good to get something accomplished while driving somewhere, it may turn out to be a very unproductive thing as it relates to your safety.

Homeschooling Questions- round 2

Here are a few more questions that people have.  By the way, see if you can tell which one is from a guy, and which one is from a girl.  It's funny how different our brains work.

Friend #1
"Um, definitely how you schedule your day."  This has changed over my life.  Before my senior year, my Mom, being the orginizational expert/fanatic that she is, made and printed out my day-by-day schedule using some computer software, where I would check off things once I did them.  This year is a little different.  I know when things are due for my college and co-op courses, and I have to plan when to do the homework myself.  For the three courses outside of home, I have to follow their schedule, and plan accordingly.  For the courses at home, my Mom has given my deadlines for modules/decades in physics and history.
"Also how those state test things work." - Well, don't mean to make you jealous, but I did not have to take any taks tests.  However, I have taken the stanford test twice, to get an idea on how I stack up against everyone else.  Most of my homeschooled friends do take a test like this at sometime.

"Um, maybe just your everyday workings and how you structure units and stuff like that" -  As far as structuring units goes, I am ignorant.  My Mom is the expert planner.  Basically she justs looks at the curriculum that we are using, and plans it out equally throughout the year/semester.

Friend #2
1.) "Do you feel a seclusion from others, or missing out on things such as sports or dances, etc?" - Well, as far as sports, I have always been a low-key player.  By that I mean, I have played recreationally, and I am competitve, but not competitive enough to go really far distances and work super hard to get really good at a sport.  Sometimes I think I might have played school sports if I went to public school, but I am sort of glad I played recreationally.  Ok, now to dances.  In the modern sense of the word, I have only been to one dance, and that was at Mo-Ranch, and quite possibly one of the most awkward moments in my life.  I can't say that I miss out on dances.  In the broader sense of the word, I have had more than my fair share of dances.  For those of you that don't know, I swing dance and English Country Dance (ECD).  I haven't done as many this year, but in the past I have been to a ECD practice about once a month, and recently swing dancing once every couple of months.  I have also been to several balls for ECD, and they are lots of fun.  The main difference between these dances and your modern dances is that the ones I go to are a lot more social.  At your typical school dance most people are paired off with another person, and you dance with them almost exclusively, while at the ones I mentioned, you try to dance with many people, and you focus on friendship and fun more than romance.

One thing many people do not realize is that homeschoolers aren't necessarily secluded from others, per se, but just do their socializing in different situations.  On fridays I get together with a bunch of homeschoolers to hang out and do whatever.  I am not in constant social contact with others like I would be at a public school, but I do not necessarily feel secluded.

2.) "Do you feel that being home school affects your family dynamics, like in has it brought your family together?" - I would definitely say that it has brought our family closer than we would have been otherwise.  It definitely does help to be around your parents more.  This is a big reason why we homeschool.  That being said, I will say this.  Not all homeschoolers have really close families.  From what I have observed, the people I have asked questions to have closer families than many homeschooled families.  Like anything, just doing one thing different, like homeschooling, doesn't automatically make every aspect of your life better.  you still have to work at it.  But I think homeschooling absolutely gives families a better oppurtunity to be closer.

3.) "Do you feel you are a step ahead of those who attended public school?" - In some ways, yes, in other ways no.  Because of the way homeschooling works, I have had the advantage of being to go more or less at my own pace.  In many ways, I have been able to spend more time on the things I enjoy and will need more later in life, and less on things that would not be as important.  There isn't a certain number of English or Math or science or language classes that I need to take.  Of course, I can't just slack off, as I need to pick courses that makes sense on my transcript.  On the other hand, there are certain general knowledge things that I am not aware of.  But I think that happens with most people so I am really not that much different that someone else.

4.) "Do you feel it will harder for you to acclimate in college?"  Good question.  Many times I have wondered about that, and I thought that it might be harder for me to accmilate.  Actually, the other night, we were talking a little about it, and my Dad stated something I hadn't thought of before.  This year, I am taking my fourth and fifth dual-credit college classes at Quad C (technically, Collin College, but I'll always think of it as Quad C).  So as far as handling a college workload, I may have a little of a head start because of the college courses I have taken.

Homeschooling Questions- round 1

So I know that many of my public-schooled friends wonder what it is like to be homeschooled.  I asked the people I contacted this question: "If you had any questions about what it is like to homeschool, what would they be?"  These are some of the responses I received.

- "How many hours a day do you spend on school work?"  Its hard to tell exactly (I get distracted very easily), but this year I would say I do 7 to 8 hours of work every day from Monday to Thursday.  Fridays are lighter for me, but I still do work, and do work on the weekends too, just like most other people in the universe.

- "How often do you go to other places to learn?"  This year, from Monday to Thursday I go somewhere during the day to learn.  I have two classes that I take at the community college, a computer class on Mondays and Wednesdays, and a Intro to Engineering class on Tuesday.  On Thursday, I take a literature class at a co-op.  Co-ops are the most popular place that homeschooled kids go to learn.  At co-ops, the parents of the kids/youth that go to the co-op teach classes.  For example, my Mother was an engineer, so she teaches science classes at co-ops (you do not have to every year, you do get paid to teach).  She teaches me my science classes, while I usually take literature classes at co-ops, where the teachers are more fluent in that subject.

- "I know if my parents were also my teachers I would get really tired of them, do you?"  Haha, good question to ask.  Well, besides the classes I mentioned before, I do advanced physics and 20th Century History at home.  In Physics, I read the textbook, do the problems, and do the tests pretty much on my own, unless I have a question, in which case I will ask my Mom.  In 20th Century History, I do pretty much the same thing, I read about the events in the decade, and read some kind of literature that corresponds with the decade.  At the end of each decade my Mom will ask me questions about the decade.  So this year, I haven't been really tired of my Mom.

Of note is the fact that a parent's involvement with a homeschooled kid's studies can very from household to household.  Some people like to have their kids watch videos like they were in a class.  Although my brother is learning through this way occasionally, I rarely did this.  Personally, I can be a loner sometimes, so I enjoy doing things by myself and on my own.  I have studied my sciences pretty much on my own, while my brother, a little different learner than me, will probably take the sciences at a co-op.  I can assure you that my mom helped me a lot more when I was younger.  Back to your original question, I guess I do tire of my mom.  Yet I tire of doing chores, tire of doing things around the house that need to be done, and sometimes tire of my mom encouraging me to do something when I want to be lazy.  It's easy to tire of someone's attributes to their personalities, in fact it is human, but I can't really complain since my parents have provided me with a house, food, education, and other things.

Please feel free to comment if you have any more questions or comments.  I want and would love to know what people think, positive or negative!

The Unity of Christians

One section of scripture sticks out to me is Ephesians 4.  This section talks a lot about the unity of believers, which is a key element in my thinking and in this blog.  This passage states that the unity of Christ is this:

One Lord- As Christians, we claim that Christ is our Lord.  This means that we understand that we are to be led by God, and that Christ should be Lord over everything, and penetrate every part of our lives.  We are called to submit joyfully to His direction.

One faith- We all are unified in the faith we have in Jesus as our savior and Lord. We understand that faith is the most important thing, it is a gift from God (look a little earlier in Ephesians) and that by faith we can please God and be made righteous.

One baptism- Many people get confused over the meaning of baptism in the new testament. The word baptize literally means to immerse. Sometimes, it means to be immersed in water, but we are also baptized through the holy spirit, as Jesus does (Matthew 3:11). Once we believe on Christ, we are immersed into the communion of God's people.  It is ultimately through this act that we have what verse 3 calls the Unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, which comes from the peace we have with God through Jesus.

One God and Father- Our creator, who knit together our innermost being, and knows us by name, and is everywhere. He is the One True God, sovereign over his creation. Through his purpose, as mapped out earlier in Ephesians 1, he has brought all of history up to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

When Christians get in certain debates about whatever the issue of the day is, we often forget about this bond that we do have with each other.  We let our emotions getting in the way.  Too often we become swayed by every wind of teaching (check out verses 14-16) and we lose focus on Jesus, who we should keep our eyes on.  This disconnect is seen in the ever-increasing number of denominations in the world.  Instead of doing the hard thing and working through our disagreements, we further separate ourselves into little groups of people who believe the same on almost everything.  However, there is a limit to this, as ultimately, there is not other person in the entire world who has the same views on everything that we do. 

So what am I not saying?  I am not saying that doctrine and theology is not important, for these things change the way we view the world. I am not saying that all Christians should unite into one denomination. Denominations often strengthen one another by challenging each other.  However, we should be willing to discuss it in a very open way and bear with each other in patience and love.  We must be careful, as we can also go to the other extreme, and not care at all about what we believe.

So in conclusion, wherever you go throughout life, and whatever other Christians you meet, remember that you are all part of the same body.

The Next Step: Purpose of my blog

Okay, so up to this point I have just been reposting facebook notes that many of you have seen before.  This is not all I planned to blog about though.  I have a vision that may be a little crazy, and I need some collaboration with many people to make this work.  I will post on a variety of subjects, anywhere from faith, to life in general, ways we live life, to theology, and many things in between.  Some things might be two-sided, others just interesting (I won't discuss dull things).  Before I tell you how I will carry these things out, let me tell you a little bit about myself and my variety of acquaintances.

I am 18 years old, and will be heading off to college next year.  I have been blessed with great friends and family. I am homeschooled, and enjoy it a lot.  There isn't much I would trade for this way that I have been brought up.  I have many homeschooled friends through Co-ops (places where homeschooled kids can take classes which are taught by Mom's / Dad's of other kids), Swing and English Country Dances, and other little networks of friends, networks like any other person has.  My public schooled friends come mostly from my church.  I attend a Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) that my parents have been going to since they got married.  I attend many of the youth retreats, weekends, choir tours, and other events through the youth group.  I am also heavily involved with the choir (I was elected president for this year).  I have grown up in this church and love it very much.  As you can tell, I am heavily intertwined with my church.

I have a great family also.  Again, I am blessed, particularly with the strength of my close relatives, who are blessed also.  All four of my grandparents are still alive and healthy.  My Mother's side of the family all live in Texas relatively close, and my father's side of the family lives up north.  I have good relationships with all of my cousins, and again, I feel very blessed to have the family I do.  While all of this info is important to knowing me, I want to tell you how diverse I believe my friends and family are, and how that relates to the purpose of my blog.

When my Mom and Dad married, Mom was Catholic and Dad was, well, not.  His parents were missionaries in Africa for a few years, and they have attended different churches including Missionary Alliance, Presbyterian (EPC, I think), Baptist, and nondenominational.  So am I in a sense the product of two people with differing religious views that found agreement and compromise.  Theologically, as much as I try to avoid labels, I have conservative influences among many of my homeschooled friends, and more liberal influences among my friends at church, which happen to be public schooled.  By the way, I am by no means generalizing, and not trying to pit one group of people against another.  Politically, both sides of my family are pretty conservative.  Lots of my closest friends at church are more liberal politically than I am.  I have had many interesting discussions with friends about abortion, gay marraige, government, and global warming, and other interesting subjects, including life in general.

To sum it up, my acquaintance's views are very diverse.  My grandparents were charter members of the creation museum and are interested in the young-earth creationist movement, yet I have church friends who are on the other side of this debate.  I have a few close friends that are vegetarians, and some who hunt regularly.  I have a friend that struggles from depression, and others that seem happy all of the time.  I know people who are very conservative politically, and others who are very liberal.  I have discussed a wide variety of things with my youth pastor, and we disagree on many things.  And to a great extent, I find that both sides often have very insightful views into many things. Sometimes it disappoints me that the two sides of any debate, mostly among Christians, do not take the time to discuss things calmly, not just on spiritual things, but life and other things.  As far as not-so-controversial things go, I love the diversity of people and personalities and I hope to celebrate that also.

So in light of this, I am going to try something that might turn out to be a little crazy. Before many of these posts, I will personally message people from both sides, and then make a blog on it. Oftentimes, I will not come to an obvious conclusion, even though I could easily do so.  Hopefully, I can represent different opinions fairly, and provide interesting posts on interesting subjects. 

If you would like to help me with this, either comment on this post and tell me that you would like to help, or email, or facebook message or whatever so I can get going.  All I will do is message you and ask for your views on a particular subject, you do not have to do very much work.  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Everything follows

This was originally written as a facebook note on September 22, 2009

Last Saturday, I went to a Rangers game with Blake and my family, and there was a MercyMe pregame concert. Josh Hamilton spoke before the concert. He started off by asking everyone if they heard about his incident in January. He talked about it and said that things were going great until he put his relationship with the Lord off to the wayside.  He then got into trouble, and his alcohol addiction got the better of him. The theme of his talk was that our first priority in life should be a relatioinship with Christ. I pondered those words but never truly realized what he meant until now.

I have had a darn lot of school going through these first couple of weeks, including lots of late nights doing random things and procrastinating only to find that I was way behind. I recently got a new phone, and I have been using the calendar to plan my stuff in advance, but I always fall short. I have a couple short devotionals for the morning and I try to pray at night but too often I just skim over them just to check them off the list. I was not whole heartedly doing it. I would always ask God for help one day and think I could do it all on my own the next. I never truly dove in, and I have been struggling with what all of the problems in the world are because of. These days Christians argue about everything from Abortion to Death Sentances to healthcare and everything in between along with the rest of America. We are trying to find truth but often avoid the only source of truth - God. That is when I realized, like Josh Hamilton said, everything fell apart once he walked away from God. That kind of ties into the story of Peter walking on the water until he took his eyes off of Jesus, his source of strength. We CAN get through all of the hard times, but their is one thing we need to do. Only one thing. Keep our eyes on Jesus.

Guys, we need to wake up, we say that Christianity is a relationship with God and not a religion, but are we living that out? Do we talk to God every day, and rely on him as our refuge and strength? Do we have a true relationship with him? Or do we just go through the motions? Are we truly trying to conform to Christs image or trying to conform Christ into our image? We all fight against saying "Jesus take the wheel." I believe that this is the biggest crutch to Christianity, that people are complacent and go through out their daily lives and do not strive for their relationship with God. Isn't it funny how we say we do not need God, and then when things go wrong we blame him? Maybe it is our fault that everything is falling apart because we walk away from him.

By definition, Christian means Christ follower, how can we follow Christ if we do not even know him? How can we support a politician if we do not even know what he supports? It is the same way with Christ. St. Augustine said that he believed that the true mark of a christian was a desire for knowledge about him. Do you know what Jesus is about and what he supports?

Dr. Lewis's sermon was about how people long for amusement, but do not realize that they want adventure. We spend lots of time watching TV, listening to music, and playing games for amusement. But we long also for adventure. True adventure comes when we truly believe that Christ Jesus can change lives and when we let go and ask us to use him in the world. You want to be real? Emptied inside? You want to be someone someday? How do we do that? We need to lay it all down before the King.

Have you ever noticed that the most exciting times and fulfilling times in life are Choir Tours, Mission Trips, and Celebrations? Do you know why? Cause we have Jesus time, we go out and do the work of Jesus. That is when true fulfillment comes. When we are close to the Lord and have a relationship with him.

In the end I want to say that your life follows from your relationship with Christ. When we follow God and pursue a relationship with him, and follow his will and speak with him, then everything else in life will fall into place. I can not speak of how much this means. This is what will change the world, the LOVE of Christ and a relationship with him.

My life song right now is Whatever you're doing (something heavenly) by Sanctus Real http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZayut9i45M

I am not tagging anyone. I believe that people who need to see it will. Feel free to comment in ANY way you like. If this resonates with you, tell other people about it. I am not going to try and get you to read something that you do not care about. But the only way this will get out is if you spread the word. I am going to let you make that decision.  As a side note, when I originally wrote this, the right people did end up hearing this message.  Coincidence?  I'll let you decide that for yourself.