The Title

When I first got this thing started a couple weeks ago, Mandi asked me what I was getting at with the title. I told her that it was kind of a double meaning. Since I'm in grad school, I'm seeing stars in the cartoon sense of someone who gets whacked in the head with a bat or other hard object and doesn't really know what's happening. I'm also seeing stars in the sense that I work as an astronomy TA and we get the cool job of playing with telescopes and taking pictures of the night sky with the fancy camera/computer combo and seeing things that you wouldn't think were visible from downtown Knoxville.

You know, it really is amazing how much is out there if we look past our little section of Earth. We're such an insignificant part of what this whole universe is. If you've ever been out to the Rockies, or way up north and away from the cities, to see how many stars are in the night sky really is awe-inspiring. I would imagine that the Murphy's down in AS probably have some pretty impressive views at night. Maybe I'm wrong about that. All that to say that all you really have to do is look up to see the splendor of God's creation. And to think that He can create things that are so magnificent and vast and still think about us as an individual and care more about us than anything else. And if you need any other reason to think that there is a God that created the universe, I would think that seeing something as complex and huge as a galaxy would give you reason to think that everything is all just down to chance and a big explosion.

I can't say that the big bang isn't how God brought everything in to being. You know, I find it strange how so many things appear to need to be argued over when comparing things in religious views and science. From a personal viewpoint, I think that there is a complete harmony in them. Now, there is no way to know how God went about doing everything. But from what we do know, I find it very hard to believe that it's all just chance and probabilities and we're all just lucky to be around because the genes and evolution just happened to spit us out. I would recommend reading the book "The Case for the Creator" by Lee Strobel if you would like a look in to these issues. Strobel is a former atheist who is a reporter, and he writes his books is this manner. He simply goes to leaders in the fields of science (biologists, cosmologists, astronomers, chemists, etc.) and asks them questions regarding why there is proof in these fields of God. It really is a well-written, clear and concise book that covers a lot of ground. He has a number of other books that follow in this vein if you would like to check them out as well.

This is a good week for TV. There are 4 Champions League games on tap from ESPN2/ESPN Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. Before my next section, I will apologize specifically to Luke Dockery since he is the only true baseball fan that I know of that reads this.

Personally, I'm tired of hearing about baseball. Who wouldn't be after 162 games. Is it really necessary to play that many games? I guess I hate baseball for the fact that they call it the World Series and it's just a bunch of North American teams. If this wasn't such a self-serving country they might try playing someone from another part of the world before they call themselves world champions. I mean, at least get Central and South America in on it and call it the American Series or Western Hemisphere Series or something. Plus, they never sprint to first base. They just jog regardless of how close a play it will be, or that perhaps from running hard they might force the fielder in to making a mistake. It's just 90 feet people, I think you can attempt to out-run a throw for the amount of money you make. Soccer, on the other hand really is a World Cup with a true World Champion since there are 2 years of qualifying games from essentially every country in the world who play their way in to the tournament that they must win over the course of a month in order to be the champion. Maybe I'd respect the sports in NA that call themselves world champions if they switched it to something that's an actual representation of what goes on. Therefore, the return of "House" on Fox (Tuesday @ 9/8 Central) is most welcome after a month of boring baseball action (or is that inaction?). Can you tell how much I despise baseball? Now, I'm sure the people that like baseball will tell me that I just don't understand the intricacies of what goes on in the game and don't really see the great duel between the pitcher and batter. That's ok. I'm sure people who don't like soccer don't see the skill in the touches, the ability to pass a ball 50 yards with your feet, the intelligence of the runs off the ball, or the difficulty in shooting the ball in to the goal when you've got 4 people kicking at you, pulling you down, and a goalie sliding in to your feet. Oh well, I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Impressions

First of all, I'd have to say that the next time I go to a concert, I'm taking a pair of earplugs. I can't handle about 2.5 hours of incredibly loud rock music. Don't get me wrong, it was a great concert, with awesome bands and a good message...it just had my ears ringing for about an hour afterwards. I'd have to recommend seeing them if you get the chance however. They also had one of the best CD deals I've ever gotten for new CD's which was 2 for $10. Not a bad deal to add to an $18 dollar concert that lasted 3 hours. All in all, a good evening.

Concerning the title of this post, I attend a bible study on Friday nights. It's a study that's designed to increase our personal study in the bible and encourages us to become stronger in terms of personal goals and objectives for study, prayer, and sharing of our faith. I believe that all of these things are good things to focus on and look to improve since we should be wanting to do all of these things of our own accord. However, I can't say that I agree with or completely understand everything that is said there by the leaders.

Take tonight, for example. The main message was one about excuses; excuses that we make that affect our personal relationship with God. Now, we were given 4 main excuses that are commonly used for missing personal study or not attending something such as church or a bible study; these being lack of time, family, work/school and hobbies. I realize that the reasons of being too "busy" and hobbies are things that should not keep you from improving your relationship with God. We all know that "busy-ness" is not something that really hinders us as we waste more than 30 minutes a day doing random, unimportant things. And if hobbies that are simple interests take more time in your life than it takes to read a few chapters of the bible, then I don't exactly know what you're doing with the rest of your time.

Despite agreeing with these two, I have a hard time understanding the other two. Of these, I would guess that the "excuse" of work/school would appear to fall in to the same category as being busy. However, I also know that in Colossians 3:23 we are told "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men." I'm not sure, but I don't think God wants us to just stop working at our jobs or school to sit and study his word all the time. And if we're working at something diligently as if for him, is that not in itself a form of worship and obedience? I understand that if you continually claim school/work is keeping you from meeting together or personal study that it is not a good thing, but I don't understand how it is something that should be looked down on every time. There are times when you really are genuinely busy, whether it's with tests, homework, a thesis, being a graduating senior, starting a new job without flexible hours, or any number of things. Does not meeting together like you had been make you less of a follower or a sinner? I don't think so. And I believe that God would put us in those situations for a reason. And if we're there for a reason, why should it be considered sinful? I have a hard time accepting that reasoning.

The same holds for family. The well-known story of the man wanting to bury his father in Matthew 8:21-22 was mentioned showing how Jesus expected to be followed over your own family. I take this to mean, however, that since his father was not a disciple of Jesus and apparently had no intention of following (since he didn't come along with his son), that he should not worry about the fate of the "dead" and instead concern himself with learning of Christ in order to better understand. This view comes from the interpretation that the father was not yet dead, and that the son was wanting to wait for his passing before following Jesus. I'm guessing that most of us (meaning people that I know reading this thing) come from good Christian homes. Frankly, I am often able get more out of being at home with my parents or out in Searcy with friends and having discussions with them concerning spiritual matters than I do in weeks here in Knoxville by myself, or even in this devo group.

I guess that I resent the idea that it should be considered a sin because they put something like family or supporting themselves ahead of a bible study, or even personal study time occasionally. I understand the view that was being put forward that was focusing on the fact that if it becomes habitual, it is indeed harmful. I completely agree with that. I can't bring myself to accept that they are never valid excuses and should always be discounted and avoided at all costs. I know that if I have to choose between being with my family for a weekend or going to a bible study with some cool guys on a Friday, I'm going to choose being with my family. Does that make me less of a Christian, or a poor example to non-Christians, or a disobedient follower of Christ? I certainly don't believe so.

Tomorrow, the church I attend is having an event called "Trunk or Treat". I'd never heard of it before, but essentially they will have car trunks filled with candy and have a lot of the neighborhood kids come by and have their own kind of trick or treat. Should be pretty neat. We're also supposed to have some kind of Halloween party with the young people that are around my age from the church. The only downside is that they are requiring a costume. I did have a stroke of genius in that department, although my attendance at this event is severely hampered due to the new project I learned I have due in 2 weeks just the other day. My brilliant idea for a costume came to me just the other night. I thought it would be pretty funny to dress up in a tacky Hawiann shirt, get a camera and a baseball hat, and be a Japanese tourist. I wonder if that's just completely wrong...

Why Worry?

You can tell that today is a homework due day in the classes that I'm in. My friends and I are sitting here frantically writing random equations down hoping that the grader will be to the point where they don't care to carefully read through what we've written and just arbitrarily give us some points for the problem. It has been referred to rather frequently as the "fog of war" approach to homework. Throw down all sorts of stuff and they'll just assume you know something and give you some credit. It works amazingly well, and it's not like any of the teachers here know who you are from anyone else. I think this has been possibly my most un-educating years of higher education. I couldn't tell you half of anything that's gone on for the past 2.5 months of classes. Based on my mid-terms, I couldn't tell you 60% of anything that's gone on. I don't know if that's a reflection on the classes I'm taking, the teaching quality, or my ability as a student. As far as I'm concerned, nobody really understands statistical mechanics, and well, nobody in my class understands solid state mechanics, so we'll just blame the teachers for their inability. At least I'll feel better until I get these homework sets back.

Does anyone know if it's legal to put out "decoy" flags in capture the flag? Cause I'm pretty sure that qualifies as a spirit of the game foul. I ask this, because we were playing last night using the yellow milk-jugs with glow sticks placed inside. Since our team dominated the first round, we were planning on doing the same the next. When one of our team members caught a glimpse of something glowing, we naturally assume that it's the flag. One of our team runs around to get the defenders attention, and I make for the flag. It's in a tree, I get it out, and wondering what happened to the bottle it was in, make my way back to the base. About 30 seconds later, the other team comes out with our flag and promptly states that I took the decoy flag and that they have in fact won. I've never played with decoy flags before, but I certainly think that it should be illegal. We'll put it down that the final score was indeed

Yellow Asian Kamikaze's - 2, Poor White People - 0

Tonight is a concert with Kutless as the headlining band. It's probably the first (rock) concert that I've ever gone to if you discount those ones that they have at big church festival things where they bring in bands to play for the teens and stuff. I think it should be pretty cool. They're an awesome band if you like Christian rock, so check them out if you're in to that kind of music. That should at least improve this week.

As a note about food, stir-fry with Hoisin sauce sprinkled in, soy sauce and some rice to mix in with everything works wonders for a dinner. Just ask mandi about it, and she'll tell you how to cook some mean stir-fry. Off to class. Blah.

Memories

First off, this post is dedicated to Paul Murphy since he apparently hates being commented on in anything titled memories.

So I went back out to Harding this past weekend. It really is strange going back there and seeing the many different things that are there. It's not like it's been that long since the last time I was there. Probably about 2 months, but the changes over the course of the past year and a half are really quite substantial. For starters, the Heritage is a completely different building. There are waterfalls in the lobby, spiral staircases to the second floor, and a large metal globe in the center of everything. Not to mention that it actually looks like a nice hotel now and not just a pathway between the student center and the (Charles) White Dining Hall. There is a new fountain (was this really necessary?) by the Admin that is (overly) elaborate and huge, the dorms are all being renovated to eliminate community showers, and the front lawn now has another pathway that is crossing over it.

I accepted all these things as change and didn't really worry about how old it makes me to know that the science building new wing really is 3 years old and that the circle with a road blocking sign pointing out Harding that goes from in front of the caf onto race is a piece of crap in an already congested intersection. Then I go off to frisbee and I recognize about 7 other people that are playing (adam williams and I counted). It's also amusing to have a majority of them looking at me like they think that I have no clue how to play frisbee. But what really got me was when Burr was commenting on a particular persons catching style. I made the (usually) always funny joke that it reminds me of how justin baines would always jump to catch a disc regardless of whether it was 2 inches or 10 feet off the ground. Those feet just had to come off the ground. In days past, that would have had everyone laughing and joking about it. This time, I think that adam laughed. And that was it. Everyone else had this look of, "What are you talking about?" Sadly, I too have become "old", and part of a Harding from a different time and place.

There are things that are still the same. Doc still tries to act menacing while teaching his class all about the joys of organic, but the grimace and glare usually just come across as a goofy grin. Justin Bland is still at Harding University (as a student). #1 Super China Buffet is one of the best all-you-can-eat chinese places around, and construction on the road to Little Rock is (not) farther along than it was the first time I visited about 8 years ago.

I guess that change is inevitable. It makes you realize, however, that there are things that are important, and things that are not so important. In the end, will anyone really care that you spent infinity hours at harding park and behind harding academy honing your frisbee skills? Will anyone know that you did in fact own the new physics wing of the science building the first year it was in use? Maybe it was that performance/presentation/speech/club that was quite possibly the finest thing that the students at Harding University could witness in their lifetime that people will remember for a few years? Or is it the one person who will remember you for a lifetime because in their time of need you reached out and touched them?

For your viewing pleasure, with the World series quickly reaching an end (thank goodness), the return of House Tuesday nights on Fox is quickly approaching. If you've never seen the show before, watch it. And become addicted. Just like myself, paul, mandi, stoner, mandi's suite, and countless others are...

Making a mockery of...

So after the deep thoughts of yesterday, I feel the need to lighten up a little, at least to start off with. For some reason, getting this thing has made me think a lot the past few days. In addition to just being tired of school and so therefore letting my mind wander around to whatever it wishes. But at any rate, we'll start with some laughs.

One of the (few) highlights of year one in the graduate program here at UT was grading students web projects. Now, the highlight wasn't the grading part, but being on the lookout for some of the most mind-boggling discoveries about our solar system and universe that you've never heard of. Really, I think that I learned more about what really goes on outside of this little planet reading over those than I did from just exploring science myself in the 22 years before-hand.

For instance, did you know that there are, in fact, billions of stars in the solar system? I had no idea. But it's true. They had sources that cited that very fact (or so they said). Or that scientists use infra-red light to study objects because we can't see visible light? I tried changing all my light-bulbs to the infra-red variety since I have apparently been missing out on a lot of life up until now. A well known quote that was attributed to Dan Quayle from the source I was looking at said, "It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." Reading that sent me in to a panic. So where are we now then? What have I been thinking all these years? How many of my elementary school science teachers lied to me? Ok, so that really didn't happen. But the quote did. And the "factual" statements presented were also made with the intention of getting a good grade on a significant project for the student's astronomy class. Do people these days just not care what type of effort they put in to anything anymore?

Given these few examples (and believe me, there are many, many more), I have to think that people just don't care to put effort in to anything that requires time and personal sacrifice. It's easy to "commit" to doing nothing. It's easy to do things when you don't have to put your face on it. When all you have to turn in is a faceless paper with writing on it. Whoever has the misfortune to grade it will never be able to tell you from your average Joe. So why bother taking the time to make it something that's a respectable representation of who you are as an individual and student?

If we take this approach to life, however, oh man are we going to be embarassed - not because God will sit there and publicly mock us, but because we will feel bad all on our own for having nothing to offer the one that saved us. When we see God and we're giving an account of ourselves, and the best comments that we can come up with are that we know that "billions of stars are in the solar system" and that "we can't see visible light", I think we'll wish that we had put in the time to get our facts right. We need to do everything as if we were doing it for God, whether it be the note to the family that is hurting to committing years of your life in the mission field. Neither of these acts is better than the other, and they both need to be done. It's the manner with which they are done that makes them worthwhile or not.

I guess I figure that in the end my "web project" is going to be my life, and God will be my grader. Will he sit there wondering what was going through my mind to make me waste so much of my talent and ability that the best I can give him is a D-level report with incredibly impressive (wrong) discoveries and endeavors? Or will he say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." I hope it's the latter, but if I don't make the effort right now, I won't make the effort later. And by that point, it's all too late.

I don't know if that made any sense to anyone. I guess it's a bit of a stretch, equating web projects with life. It makes sense to me though. For anyone that is in to music or looking for something new to listen to in the rock area, the new album by Skillet entitled "Comatose" is an excellent choice. If you're searching for something more mellow, Mainstay's album "Well Meaning Fiction" is a good recommendation. At any rate, the weekend comes quickly...

The First Time

So there I am, sitting in my 3:40-5:00 Tuesday class, bored out of my mind. What do I do? I pull out the laptop and start reading the Murphy's blogs. Why? Because I get more out of reading them than I do listening to the professor? Maybe. Because the blogs are more fun to read? Definately. Then I go to Facebook. Running commentaries on pictures, notes and one sentence conversations that carry on for days at a time. I send a message, post on a wall, read the updates of the friends that I have. And then it's 3:50. Another hour and ten minutes to go.

I get to thinking, what is it about going on facebook and reading these blogs that's so interesting? It's not like you really are carrying on a conversation, or involved in the pictures that you see, or part of the experiences of people thousands of miles away, but it's still exciting every single time to see a new note or a new picture or a new entry. What makes this such a big thing? Is it because you feel a part of what's happening when you read those things? Yeah, I guess. Is it because it takes you away from where you are and puts you in places that you would rather be? Of course. But mostly it's because I miss seeing those friends on a daily basis and it's good to know what they're up to.

Then something we talked about at church hit me. I wonder how often God feels that way. I mean, it's not that he doesn't know what's going on with us...but how often is it all one-sided, where God knows all about us through our facebook/blog, but we know nothing of what's going on with God?

We all know what "friendships" that are all take are like: "Hey buddy, I need ____" or "Can I borrow ____" or "Would it be alright if I just take _____, I'll get you back later". And we all know how it feels to be the "buddy" in that type of situation. How does God feel? "I promise I'll read my Bible if ____", "I'll do work in the church once ____", "I'll give of my time and money as soon as ____". I know I'm guilty of being the "friend" that only takes. And it's not like God asks that much of us. I mean really, how long does it take to read a few chapters from the Bible? 15 minutes? 20 tops? To pray/talk to him (besides at a meal)? How hard would it be to say no to eating out for one night and put that money in the plate Sunday morning? Is it really that difficult to volunteer for an activity that the church is needing help with? Is it too much to ask to talk with someone about Christ that is clearly needing help?

I guess that I don't like the idea that I'm doing to God what I can't stand to have people do to me. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happens. Does that make God regret being our friend? Thankfully, no. But I can guarantee that we will regret it if we don't make the effort to know Him. I know I will regret being a person that doesn't make the effort to change things for the better in my relationship with Him. And in the end, isn't changing to be more like Christ what being a Christian is all about? Or is it all about whether you should use instruments in church and how many people you can have on a committee.

You know, I have to thank Josh M. He really was right about how writing out stuff makes you kinda figure out what it is you're thinking. On a non-involved note, if you're free anytime tomorrow afternoon between 2:30 and 7 PM EST, turn on ESPN2 or ESPN Classic for some excellent european soccer in the UEFA Champions League. Quite possibly some of the best players in the world on display tomorrow for Chelsea vs. Barcelona.