Current Affairs

A lot of things have been changing for me.  I just recently got accepted at a local university, which took some doing, but I think is well worth it.  I'm thinking of re-entering the workforce, but trying to find something more suitable for me.  I recently came across a great free e-book, that John Piper had published, and I haven't had the chance to finish reading yet called "Disability and the Sovereign Grace of God".  John Piper said that he put this publication together to help pastors with their congregations, but I took interest in it for personal reasons.  In other news, I've recently been taking an online placement test to find out how much Math this degree in Computer Science would really require.  Half of me feels like I'm punishing myself, since this is not my favorite subject.  The other half reasons that I've been avoiding this for some time, and it was going to catch up with me, sooner, or later. Besides that, I don't lack the intelligence, or the will to learn things that are difficult, or don't come natural to me.

  "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." I Corinthians 13:11

  It wasn't until I was an adult, in college, that I faced my fears, and lack of confidence that I recieved from a bad teacher in grade school.  As a kid, I never really understood why I had to go to this institution called school, were I would be made fun of, and couldn't seem to grasp the concept of fractions.  Why was any of this important?  During that time, either a teacher read the book, or my parents let me watch the cartoon called "The Phantom Tollbooth".  This book helped me unpack why learning is important. Later on, in my last semester at college, with Math Finals looming, I re-read the book in a few days. I wish I could say that I passed that last test, but I didn't.  I had to go back, and finish the C.L.E.P. to fulfill the requirement for Mathematics in my degree.

  Why am I talking about any of this?  Good question.  It is here in the present where I am making choices to think, and act differently, that I have to continue going through the mineshaft of numbers.  The campus I"m admitted to, actually has statues of the men, who were responsible for creating "Texas Instruments" a well known company for those calculators most of us either relish, or cringe to think of.  If any school can help me love a subject that I've always hated, this one probably has the greatest chance. 

  I know a lot of what happens next, is entirely up to me.  Whether to pull out another loan or not.  So far, I've elected "not".  Really think through the options, and make sure that I'm sure that Computer Science will be a good choice for me.  Having gone so far with creativity, I feel like I'm limiting myself if I don't know the language of numbers and symbols. To my credit, I haven't forgotten everything.  "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally= Parantheses, Exponents, Muliplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction","rise over run", and "F.O.I.L." to name a few.  Memorization has always come easy to me, but remember how to locate things, and how some of those aforementioned formulas work is a little challenging.  I agree with one of my brothers, "if you don't use it, you lose it."  In any case, using the analogy of life from the "Phantom Tollbooth", I feel like I am in "Digitapolis".  I mean if you think about it, "Dallas", and "Digitapolis" both rhyme, start with same letter, and end with the same letter.  I know they're not the same thing.  Just saying.  If you wanna hear something even cornier then that, I live in "Addison", where people just keep coming.  Just kidding. 

  "...but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

   Its time for me to put childhood fears behind me.   "The Phantom Tollbooth" is just a kid's book.  The Bible is actually the Word of God, and worth having more of my trust in, then a simple children's story. I love the phrase that I see emblazened as a mission statement for the school that I hope to enter into "Fearless Engineering".  I like that. I respect it. There really was a time when I wasn't afraid of anything, and would be willing to go out and do something great for God.  These days are different. God is giving me the courage to do something I'm afraid of, and it's really not that big.

  "Time is a gift, precious and rare, and take it and make of it all you can, use all..
    Eyes are a gift, given to you, given to give you the world to see, the world...
    Life is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need...
    There's no hope too high, Milo."- "The Phantom Tollbooth" MGM Studios

  It would be a shame to not love God with all my mind, by not allowing Him to recieve glory even in trivial things like calculations and, as my friend Brian says, interpellations.