10,000 hours

Blueberry yumminess

When I think about something I want to be really good at, I find myself trying to determine how many hours a day I should spend on that task in order to reach 10,000 hours. Apparently, that's the threshold one must cross to become a true expert at a particular skill. Yet I don't think I could ever sacrifice enough to become an expert at one thing... although, after 30 years I'll probably hit that many hours in baking. At least my grandkids will benefit from all the practice.

Education and War

A little discussion that I took part in this week has got me thinking about whether higher education means people are less likely to engage in violent conflict. I am sure studies have been done on this, but I decided to do my own bit of data analysis.

I compared the number of violent conflicts (by geographical region) since 1990 to the average years of schooling reached by adults (by geographical region) and found a distinct correlation (-.7935). The negative sign means that the more years of education, the fewer number of violent conflicts that occur in a particular region. 100 countries were represented in the education statistics - notably many in Africa were missing. However, the state of education in the missing countries does not vary greatly from most of the rest of the continent.

What does this mean? Educated people are probably much less likely to engage in violent conflict. People need teachers, not weapons.

Sources:
Education info from UNESCO via NationMaster.com (http://www.nationmaster.com/red/graph/edu_ave_yea_of_sch_of_adu-education-average-years-schooling-adults&b_map=1&b_printable=1)
Conflict info from PRIO (http://www.prio.no/CSCW/Datasets/Armed-Conflict/)

Curse the lying desert skies

Cool breezes and a gray blanket give respite; whispers wander through the airs, a scent of dust and moisture.

Unfulfilled promises leave me wanting.

In summary

"Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference - so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked.... I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity."

-Frederick Douglass

Good News

My aunt does counseling, and she recently told me that often she'll ask the people who come to see her a question. "What is the gospel?"

When she told me that, I started to think what my response to such a question would be. I suppose I don't often meditate on that. I spend more time on less important things. So tonight on my way home (during a 45 minute drive) I started to try to tell the gospel to myself.

First, I said, "Jesus died for us." But that implies prior knowledge of Jesus. So then I said, "Once there was a man." And then I thought, well, that doesn't really mean anything if you don't know why. Next was "Once there was a nation." Nope, it's bigger than that. "Once there was a world - no, a creation." And then I laughed.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth..." Yeah, that's a good place to start. Man, God has an awesome story to tell us.

Excuse me while I rant

I'm irritated. Dan says I can't go on fb for a week, and I think I'll agree with that restriction*. Tonight, Sunday night, all anyone can talk about is "oh no, higher taxes, health care, blah blah blah." It's... pathetic. I am ashamed of the so-called Christians that are making this such a priority.

You know what? In two weeks, followers of Christ will be celebrating the singular, most important act in all of creation. One might argue it is The Act of creation - that we were made so that God might show us His exceptional, unfathomable, eternal love through one sacrifice. Everyone needs to hear about it! Nothing else matters compared to Christ's Resurrection.

So why the hell are so many people wasting their time getting all whiny about junk that is utterly insignificant compared to, well, anything?

Jesus died for you, for me, for mankind (and womankind if you're finicky about that sort of thing). How about we talk about that instead of, I don't know, health care.

*Every time I am tempted to go on fb the next two weeks, I will instead read my Bible.

The one where I get use my mommy instinct

My brother stayed the night at our place last night, and this morning afternoon (we were lazy) Dan and Jay and I went for a little hike at the Superstition Mountains. It was so green, the air was cool, the sky cloudless. The walk was pleasant, not too challenging.

We were just coming around the bend for the last stretch of the trail, when we saw two older couples up ahead. One of them started walking towards us and said, "Do you want to see a rattlesnake? There's one ahead, only a few feet off of the trail." We all thought that sounded cool. It was far enough away to be safe, and none of us had seen one in the wild before.

Jay hurried ahead, and Dan and I followed. We came to the other couple, and Dan and I saw the snake sliding away under a bush. But Jay couldn't see it from where he was, so he stepped off the trail with another guy who wanted a look as well.

"Good idea, Jay," I said. "Go closer to the killer snake."

He just laughed and started looking for it. He was standing right next to another bush, with the other guy behind him, for about ten seconds when we heard a very loud rattle come from that bush. I have never seen two grown men run so fast!

When he got back to the road, we could see the second snake hiding under the bush while the other one slid past behind it. Jay and the other guy had been only about a foot away from the hiding one. Two rattlesnakes! Jay (of course) complimented me on the astute use of my natural instinct to warn him about approaching deadly animals.

Dan reassured him that if needed my mommy instinct would have taken hold, and I would yell, "MOM SMASH!" then promptly kill the snake with the power of my fists.

Philanthropy

Sometimes, I think that if I had a ton of money to blow, I would put it all towards scientific grants. But not just any science - no, ridiculous studies that no one would ever fund otherwise. Like, testing the hypothesis that the speed of light has not always been constant; or testing what the effect of a cat in near proximity really is.

The Mystery

I was thinking this morning, and after reading that interview yesterday, that we do not see enough miracles today. [By we, I mean rich Westerners.] That's not to say God is not performing them. Oh, He most certainly is. I just mean we so often do not leave enough room for Him to do so.

There is a profound and inexplicable transformation that occurs after we begin to allow Christ to rule us, and I think it is under-appreciated and little recognized, even by ourselves. Why would anyone give up their sinful nature willingly, other than through the power of Christ? Why would anyone even recognize that their nature is sinful? Do we really look at ourselves and our fellow believers and acknowledge what Christ alone has done? I know I forget all the time.

And then there is the more familiar sort of miracle, the kind where your jar of rice just doesn't seem to go empty when you have no money but there are kids to feed; or when the sick are suddenly healed although they were on the brink.

All of these metamorphoses - from sinner to saint, from empty to full, from dying to living - surround us, and ought to be an integral part of our existence. Yet do we even allow them to happen? Or do we just go ahead and take care of everything ourselves?

We make all of these rules and laws to keep ourselves good, moral, safe, protected; but do we allow God to instead lead? Do we actually allow the Holy Spirit to move and guide us, so that God may work in the world and that others may see His glory and power?

Strife

Do you know what really bothers me? Disagreements. People arguing and fighting and being competitive. Maybe it's because my parents never fought. Maybe it's because I don't know how to have normal social interactions. Maybe I'm overly-sensitive (ah, that's it).

Anyway, I think everyone should get along. Especially Christians. With Jesus and the Bible, why would we ever disagree? Unfortunately, we all seem to have trouble getting along. We argue over stupid, pointless things that have no bearing on the Eternal Kingdom.

Now as for me, I have the urge to rebel, to grasp onto the musings of the iconoclasts, to seek out the uncommon, new ideas that offend the status quo. I read liberal newspapers and magazines, I spurn politics, using it only as fodder for purely intellectual discussion (read: not arguing or debating), I wish I had more non-Christian friends, I love science and trust logic.

Unfortunately, so often while defending my viewpoint [Jesus is all that matters], I end up in one of these arguments I so dislike.

I've been praying lately about loving my fellow man and not disagreeing just because I feel like it. If I am led to correct, so be it; but I think that before I can rebuke and correct, I must first love.

Titus 3:9 - "But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."

What does this mean to me right now? Just because someone thinks something I don't like about something that doesn't matter, doesn't mean I need to speak up. Just keep my mouth shut, and looooove.

Plurals

I like using proper Latin plurals for English words.

Unfortunately, most Americans neither know nor care about Latin or grammar, so it's card to enforce said rules, especially the more archaic usage (as in the case of formulae, which is written as formulas now, with the exception of upper-division math texts). I thought about putting rules for plurals here, but you can see them here instead.

Romans 12:3-8

"...so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

I noticed a new trend among mega-churches last year, and it really bothered me:

Window decals and the branding of church buildings and congregations like some commodity. Some church initials and logo plastered right next to a picture of an apple, and suddenly the body of Christ has been transformed from a bunch of people to a building and its "members."

At some point, some churches decided it would be a good idea to advertise via the window sticker. Whether they wanted a piece of that prime real estate so often reserved for politicians and elementary school honor rolls, or they wanted to boost numbers, or it was under the assumption that it was a good witnessing tool, I'm not sure. But whatever the reason, I have to wonder what that looks like to others, especially non-believers.

To me, it appears that one church, one congregation, is putting itself forward. It's like the pinkie toe is saying, "Hey, check me out! I have a bookstore and a coffee shop and exciting worship!" and has forgotten that it's really a very small completely dependent part of a much larger body.

But going to the verse I quoted at the top, I think that as a part of one body, one Church, it makes more sense advertise the whole thing (if I'm going to advertise at all), and perhaps highlight the pointless nature of this branding. So my project will be to get as many bumper stickers/window decals from as many churches as possible and put them all over my husband's car. [No worries, he's a willing participant.]

Side note: I'm thinking of printing up the above decal, but adding a verse to it - maybe Romans 12, maybe 1 Corinthians 12, maybe something else. I'd like your thoughts on that front as well.