Frustration

So we're in to the final week. Classes ended Tuesday, and my final for stat mech is on this coming Wednesday. I spent about an hour and a half in the car today driving back and forth between ORNL and my apartment. While at the lab, I realized that I had a flat tire. Just my luck. Plus, today it's reaching record cold temperatures (I think that tonight's low is supposed to be around 15 degrees with wind chill close to 0).

I came back to campus in the hope of gaining some insight for our final next week at a class meeting where a teacher was supposed to try and help us out. The teacher ended up coming late and not doing anything more than sort-of reading through some homework solutions that he had already given us. Not exactly the most beneficial hour and a half of my life.

I guess that for some reason I've just been in a bad mood today. I don't exactly know why. Little things that normally wouldn't bother me have gotten me all out of whack. I don't even know what would bring that type of attitude around. I went hunting later because if there is anything that I have a hard time dealing with it is getting angry and being quick to take it out on others. I found Psalm 37:8 which says "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath- it leads only to evil." I can attest to that statement. It never does any good being angry about something and proceeding to take it out on the person that you perceived to have wronged you. God works in the complete opposite way: referencing Nahum 1:3a (when was the last time you read that book? It's been a while for me) which says, "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power..." It's impressive the number of times that God's anger is referenced in the OT.

At church last night we had a real interesting talk regarding a little referenced section of scripture from 1 Chronicles 11:22-25. The title of the talk was "How To Kill A Lion On A Snowy Day". If you read the passage, you will understand where this comes from. The enemies in this passage (The Moabite men, the lion, and the Egyptian giant) were compared to three enemies that we commonly struggle with (the flesh, the devil, and the world respectively). These distinctions were made based on the following:

The Moabites: These are the descendants of Lot that came about because his daughters made him drunk and slept with him and conceived a child. See Gen 19:30-38. The sinful nature of how these people came in to being is what referenced this group as being a sin of the flesh, or inner struggle.

The Egyptian Giant: Egypt, at the time, represented the world. You can remember how often the people complained of having left Egypt even with all the suffering they had to endure while there. They wanted the earthly pleasures (good food, homes, relative safety, etc.) instead of taking what God wanted them to in the Promised Land. The world is often easier, possibly even more exciting, and definitely the way everyone feels compelled to go at one point or another.

The Lion: The devil himself is represented as a Lion. Simply read 1 Peter 5:8 which says that "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

It really is intriguing to apply those schools of thought to the passage and then see how this man was able to defeat these enemies, but how it can be used to encompass something much more meaningful than simply an animal, 2 mighty men, and a giant.

I'm going through this in a very round-a-bout manner, but during the course of this talk, he mentioned a name that I have heard many, many times; and I'm sure that you all have as well. That name is Methuselah. He was the son of Enoch. Now, our speaker put an interesting spin on this, as well as addressing the naming (which has always been important) of the son. He inferred that due to the passage in Gen 5:22 that Enoch had not walked with God until he was 65 years old. Everyone can remember how Enoch is one of 2 men to not experience death since God simply took him away (Elijah being the other one if I remember correctly). However, he had a life changing event that occurred when he was 65, and that was the birth of his son, Methuselah. Methuselah in turn became the grandfather of Noah.

Now, if you read in Gen 7:11, you will find that Noah was 600 years old when the rains began. Adding up the years before, you will see that at this point Methuselah would have been (you guessed it) 969 years old. The exact age the Bible says that he died at (Gen 5:27). Now, you may wonder why the speaker, and now myself, are making a big deal of all this age stuff. Do you know the meaning of the name Methuselah? I sure didn't, at least until last night. The name means "His death shall bring". What shall his death bring? The flood of course.

I use this as an insight to my own extremely visible, painfully obvious shortcomings. I have no patience with people when I feel that I am in the right and they are in the wrong. I have no sympathy for those that I feel have no reason to deserve it. I certainly don't give any benefit of the doubt to people that I think have obviously gone in other directions and show no signs of ever wanting to change their school of thinking. I can't give someone a couple hours. God gave the whole of the earth 969 years. It's strange, how sometimes a lesson or a talk with someone can really hit home to an area that you are personally going through.

In one funny (and yet terribly sad) news story that I saw the other day...I have to say just go read it for yourself. And get them out of the SC...it's too good a state for her. Send her to Texas or something. Maybe the part of southern California that will break off and become it's own island. Who knows. Go here to get the story.