Physics

It was recently brought to my attention that in a blog from June 2014, that I said I would tell the story about liking friends more than physics.  You can read that blog here.  And so, today I will share that story.

When I moved back to the U.S. from Mexico I was a semester ahead because of not having summer breaks when I was home schooled .  My parents had inquired about going to the local pubic school for half days so that I could do volunteer work with the other half of my days but were told that that was not an option.  I would have to do whole days and take sophomore level Math and English which I had already completed.  Since they knew that making me sit in classes that I had already completed and spin my wheels would be silly, and that they couldn't let me be truant for an entire semester, they decided that I could just take a couple of classes via homeschooling since I had been home schooled in Mexico.  I decided to complete a semester of Economics and a year of Physics during that semester as well as volunteer twice a week at our local food pantry.

During that semester I also began attending one of  the local church's youth group on Wednesday evenings.  This church youth group met twice a week.  On Sunday they would meet for a stereotypical church youth group meeting.  However, on Wednesday evenings it was just time to hang out together for a couple of hours.  We would also watch movies or play sardines together during this time.  As I attended these youth groups and dealt with counter culture shock, and completed my year of physics, I had a realization:  I would rather do physics than hang out with my friends.

At the time, I did not tell people that fact about myself.  I knew that some people would be offended by this, and although I knew I liked to work on Physics more than I like to talk to those people, the brief interactions that I had with them were still valuable to me.

However, as time passed and I became more acclimated to spending time with people, I began to enjoy it more and more.  My senior year, as I became more comfortable spending time with people, I eventually shared with my best friend and my high school guidance counselor that I liked doing physics problems more than I liked spending time with people most of the time.  They both laughed at me knowing that I will always be an introvert and a nerd.

Now that I have explained all of this I would also like to say that I know spending time and interacting with people is important.  I have also begun to learn that some people are better than physics.  And I have also noticed that I become a better and more well-rounded person when I spend more time with other people.

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him." 

Genesis 2: 18

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

When there is Syrup EVERYWHERE (Well, maybe not everywhere, but in more places than you want to admit)

There is syrup on my new lab manual.  And and on my bookmark.  And on my Bible.  And on my desk.  And on my student ID.  And on my hands.  There is even syrup on my pancakes.   How did this happen??  Well, let's rewind.

On the Sunday before the Spring semester, my mom and grandma drove me back to Purdue.  We decided to eat at Denny's, as I had never been there before.  Upon arrival I ordered an omelet.  They asked if I wanted pancakes or toast with my omelet and I replied that I wanted pancakes.  However, when our food arrived I had an omelet, toast, and pancakes.  Because of this, I did not eat the pancakes at the restaurant.  However, I do not like to waste food, so I asked for a box to take my food with me.  When I slid my pancakes into the Styrofoam container, I realized that I did not have syrup in my dorm room.  And although I would enjoy pancakes without syrup, I knew I would relish the delectable golden cakes WITH syrup.  Because of this, I decided that the best course of action would be to go ahead and put the syrup on my pancakes.

After all of this, we headed towards Purdue.  We decided to stop at the bookstore so that I could pick up my books rather than walk back across campus in the freezing rain as soon as they dropped me off at the dorm.  This meant that I now had my book bag, a cardboard box of winter clothing, my laundry tote, my leftover food, my box with new books, my bible (as we were coming from church), and a book for funsies (because I don't go anywhere without something to entertain me), and a bag with some homemade deliciousness my mom had made me.  I knew that I could not carry all of this in one trip, so I decided to reduce the number of packages that needed to be carried by placing my Bible, my book for funsies (that I was borrowing), and my box of pancakes in my box with books from the bookstore since the boxes they use at the bookstore are all the same size and I only had a lab manual and an access code.

Upon arrival at my dorm, I slid my bookstore box under my arm, grabbed an armful of other stuff and headed into the doors.  My mom carried in the other armload and then she wished me well and headed off.

After she left, I began to unpack.  I shuffled the box with books in it around as I had more clothes to put away than anything else.  However, I was using my desk as a table to set stuff down on and noticed a sticky residue.  I wondered where it was coming from, but didn't worry about it too much.  I slid my box of books along the ground and felt a higher amount of friction than anticipated, but again, didn't worry about it too much.  Finally, I picked up my box and felt stickyness on the bottom.  There was so much syrup that had spilled out of the box of pancakes that it had soaked through the cardboard that is thick enough to support an entire semester's worth of text books.  I opened the box, afraid of what I would see.  My lab manual had syrup along the bottom edge of every page.  My Bible had syrup on it.  This was not an ideal situation.

I proceeded to go to the bathroom and get a wet paper towel to clean up my mess.  I wiped the syrup off the floor where the box had been, threw away the box, and began wiping syrup off of each and every page in my lab manual and Bible.  Finally, after I thought I had my entire mess cleaned up, I finished unpacking and organizing.  When I had finished all of this, I sat down at my desk to check my email on my computer.  I saw that had my ID in a weird place and so I picked it up to move it.  And guess what??  THERE WAS SYRUP COVERING THE BOTTOM OF MY ID.  I proceeded back to the bathroom to rinse off my ID and grab one more wet paper towel to wipe off my desk for the second time.

I have now been back for one week, and last night I found syrup on the bookmark in the book that I am borrowing to read for funsies.  On the day of the incident I had very carefully checked the book's pages for any sign of syrup and been very glad when I discovered that it had not been in the path of the syrup, since I am borrowing it.  How I missed the syrup on the end of the bookmark that was sticking out the book is beyond me.  :P  I think though, that I'm finally done with cleaning up syrup.  (I ate my pancakes at the beginning of the week).

Through this experience I've realized a couple of things:

1.) If you're going to have food near books, use extreme caution unless you want to be cleaning up this food for longer than it takes to consume the food.

2.)  Syrup is a little bit like sin.  While Jesus' sacrifice on the cross enables us to have full and complete forgiveness for our sins, and be washed of them, we need to allow Him to convict of us of our sins so that we can repent from them.  Plus, when syrup gets places it's not suppose to be, it's gross and messy.  In the same way, our sin is gross and messy.

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:6-9

3.)  Cleaning up a syrup mess is a process, and so is forgiveness. We as humans are still growing and learning to follow God.  Because of this, we must learn to forgive each other and ourselves just like I had to clean up a bookmark a week after the incident of the spilled syrup.  We will damage ourselves and be damaged by other people.  We will damage other people.  Life is messy (like spilled syrup) and learning how to forgive other people and ourselves is an important aspect of our lives.  Without forgiveness, it would be impossible to maintain a relationship with anyone.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

Matthew 18: 20-21

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

When God's Plan feels Unplanned

Over winter break, I tried to fill out scholarship applications.  However, many applications that I filled out I were the same ones that I had filled out last year and had not received.  I've had multiple conversations with people about the best way to finance my education.  Over this break, I also finished paperwork for a loan.  I was raised with the knowledge that I would have to pay for my own education through loans, scholarships, and work.  People would ask me if I was a 21st Century Scholar.  The answer was no.  The one year that my family made too much money for me to be a 21st Scholar was also the year when I could have become a 21st Century Scholar.  And so, during my senior year of high school, I drew the conclusion that God has another plan for me to make it through my education.  When I applied for multiple scholarships, I hoped and prayed that I would get a big, full-ride scholarship.  And that didn't happen.  I got quite a few small scholarships which enabled me to pay for my first semester without pulling out loans.

Now, I'm going into my second semester and have taken out my first loan.  It is a small loan.  But you know what?  God still has a plan for how I'm going to get through school.  I don't know how it will come to pass.  But I know that if it's God's Will, then it will happen.

I have since realized that continuing my education is not only a intellectual learning experience but also a spiritual learning experience.  Because I do not know what God's plan is, I am learning to trust him more and more with each semester.  It goes against everything in my body to not have a plan.  I have always been someone who plans things out.  I like to have a plan A and a plan B and a plan C and a plan D.....you get the idea.  But now, God is teaching me that He wants me to let Him make plans.  God is revealing to me his plan.  He is doing it one puzzle piece at a time.  He is showing me that when I have faith in Him, and stop trying to solve my problems, He already had the plan and the solutions.  And so, someday, when I'm old and feeble, I'll look back and see what God's plan was for my life.  And I know that it will be better than anything I can imagine today.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

Harry Potter in Real Life

I was going to write a blog about The Hobbit, but as I don't want to give any huge spoilers of such a new movie I decided to blog about Harry Potter as I feel that most people have who want to see this series have already seen it.  This blog will specifically focus on the last book or last movie.  As such, YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED!  THERE WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS OF HARRY POTTER IN THIS BLOG.

For people who haven't seen or read Harry Potter I will give a brief synopsis.  Harry lives with his extended family who are cruel and do not care about him until he receives an invitation to go to Hogwarts, a wizarding school.  Of course, Harry is baffled by this as he did not know that wizards existed until he was told about it.  Through the course of the series you find out about Voldemort, an evil wizard who killed Harry's parents and tried to kill Harry as a baby (obviously unsuccessfully).  Then Harry decides that he is going to kill Voldemort to put a stop to his evil.  However it it not as simple as one may think.  You see, Voldemort (through magic) has divided his soul and put it into different objects so Harry must find each object and destroy it.  Once again, this sounds simple.  However, Harry discovers that he is one of the objects.  As such, Harry goes under the pretense of dueling Voldemort when in reality he is going to go die.  And then, after Voldemort kills Harry, and Harry has willingly died, Harry is alive.  Harry willingly died.  He died to save the world from an evil that couldn't otherwise be defeated.

I really like the Harry Potter series.  It reminds me of this world.  In Harry Potter's world, the nonmagic people are called muggles.  The muggles are completely unaware of the wizarding world.  These battles happen nearly completely unnoticed.  In our world there are forces battling for good and evil that we are most oftentimes unaware of.  In our world we have been saved by the wholly perfect (and holy) sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  He saved us from an unspeakable evil by willingly dying for us (a gruesome and humiliating death to say the least).  He saved us from our own wrongdoings.  And then, Jesus rose three days after his death.  Pretty cool, huh?

If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.

Romans 10:9-10

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo