Sunday, September 23, 2007

You Might Be An Engineer If...

I found this list here. Almost every engineering student at Western should be familiar with it already, but here are some signs that you might be an engineer (or an engineering student).

You Might Be An Engineer If...

  • You have no life - and you can PROVE it mathematically.
  • You enjoy pain.
  • You know vector calculus but you can't remember how to do long division.
  • You chuckle whenever anyone says "centrifugal force".
  • You've actually used every single function on your graphing calculator.
  • It is sunny and 70 degrees outside, and you are working on a computer.
  • You frequently whistle the theme song to "MacGyver".
  • You know how to integrate a chicken and can take the derivative of water.
  • You think in "math".
  • You've calculated that the World Series actually diverges.
  • You hesitate to look at something because you don't want to break down its wave function.
  • You have a pet named after a scientist.
  • You laugh at jokes about mathematicians.
  • The Humane society has you arrested because you actually performed the Schrodinger's Cat experiment.
  • You can translate English into Binary.
  • You can't remember what's behind the door in the engineering building which says "Exit".
  • You have to bring a jacket with you, in the middle of summer, because there's a wind-chill factor in the lab.
  • You are completely addicted to caffeine.
  • You avoid doing anything because you don't want to contribute to the eventual heat-death of the universe.
  • You consider ANY non-engineering course "easy".
  • When your professor asks you where your homework is, you claim to have accidentally determined its momentum so precisely, that according to Heisenberg it could be anywhere in the universe.
  • The "fun" center of your brain has deteriorated from lack of use.
  • You'll assume that a "horse" is a "sphere" in order to make the math easier.
  • The blinking 12:00 on someone's VCR draws you in like a tractor beam to fix it.
  • You bring a computer manual / technical journal as vacation reading.
  • The salesperson at Circuit City can't answer any of your questions.
  • You can't help eavesdropping in computer stores... and correcting the salesperson.
  • You're in line for the guillotine... it stops working properly... and you offer to fix it.
  • You go on the rides at Disneyland and sit backwards to see how they do the special effects.
  • You have any "Dilbert" comics displayed in your work area.
  • You have a habit of destroying things in order to see how they work.
  • You have never backed up your hard drive.
  • You haven't bought any new underwear or socks for yourself since you got married.
  • You spent more on your calculator than on your wedding ring.
  • You think that when people around you yawn, it's because they didn't get enough sleep.
  • You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon
  • You've ever calculated how much you make per second.
  • Your favorite James Bond character is "Q," the guy who makes the gadgets.
  • You understood more than five of these jokes.
  • You make a copy of this list, and post it on your door (or your blog!)

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Faith, Hope and Love

We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3


I found this passage the other night and it peaked my interest. In these verses, Paul is greeting the church in Thessalonica and makes a point to encourage them in their "work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope". The trio of faith, hope and love appear in many different places in the Bible, but I found the way Paul pairs up work, labor and steadfastness alongside the three very refreshing and a bit encouraging.

I think it's good to be reminded that while we walk with Christ, it is not through Him alone that we begin to have faith in Him or hope for the future, let alone love for others. It takes work on our part in order to achieve these things. We must be active in our faith, hope and love. We don't always have faith, but we need to work at it and take a step when it feels like the world is falling out from under us. We don't always want to love our neighbor, but we have to keep loving when we don't feel like it, because love is more than a feeling. Hope wanes in the night, but it's when it begins to fade that we need to grasp onto it the most.

Like anything else worth accomplishing, faith, hope and love take work and time. But remember that we are not alone. Through Him, all things are possible.

Monday, September 03, 2007

What Every Christian Should Know #6

Here is #6 of Keith Giles' monthly series, TOP 10 THINGS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD KNOW (But Probably Doesn't). Interestingly enough, this one correlates perfectly with what the Xperience is doing this year. Giles talks about how he and his wife planted a church a few years ago and they decided to create a "house church". This is almost exactly what our ministry is doing at Western right now. You have to believe me when I say that this wasn't planned at all and I just randomly picked today to update my blog with this bit of his series. Here's a snippet:

When we first told our friends what we envisioned doing, many looked at us as if we had three heads. To be honest, I felt like I was insane whenever I tried to explain it to people. It just seemed so crazy and so "out of the box" to me, because no one I knew had ever done this before. I had grown up in the traditional church. I had been licensed and ordained in the denominational church. My entire Christian experience was totally connected to the modern, organized way of doing church. To step outside of that structure in order to follow our calling seemed uncertain at best, and downright terrifying at worst. This was what it felt like to be a pioneer, loading up the buckboard with supplies and heading West into the great unknown with only your family, a few provisions, and a lot of faith.

There are times when people say that we have left the Church. In fact, more often that not, whenever I hear someone refer to those in the house church movement, it's to say they have "left the Church". This illustrates one key misunderstanding that I'd like to clear up.

If you have surrendered your life to Christ and have an ongoing, daily relationship with Jesus, then you ARE the Church! This means you cannot leave the Church. You can decide to worship in another way, or in another place, or outside the walls of an established, organized expression of the Church, but unless you break fellowship with other believers, or turn away from your daily walk with Jesus, you cannot, and you have not, "Left the Church".

And another:

So, if you ever feel called to change the location of where you worship, or if you feel the need to change churches, or perhaps even to join a House Church, please never forget; You ARE the Church! Church is not a meeting you attend or a building you gather in. You are the Church as long as you have surrendered your life to Christ and you daily seek His face and follow His teachings. If you gather with other believers, in a gymnasium, under a tree, in a home, by the beach, etc., then you are the Church and you can never leave it, unless you completely turn away from Jesus and abandon the Faith.

One of the most amazing things I've discovered in leading a House Church has been in realizing that we are called to be the Church and not to attend one.