So whaddaya do when the little guy starts reenacting those Old Testament Bible stories you read to him?

My two brothers were going at it, one was David, the other was Goliath. After some prodding, things went so far as the younger releasing the imaginary stone and hitting the giant in the head, causing him to fall forward onto the ground, dead, from the couch upon which he was standing.

He never went through with the post-attack beheading. I think he'd been trained too thoroughly in nonviolence for that.

Things I'd Like To Do

There's lots of things to get done during Christmas break. Sleep. Organize. Apply. Work. Read. I want to get some songs ready to demo when tt got here. I want to write a little computer program. I want to get some plane tickets in order. Ski.

I don't know about you, but I make lists that are rather unrealistic in their length and difficulty. In a perfect world, when I was super-efficient, got up at 6 a.m. (when I could sleep in) ... then I could maybe get everything done.

Sure, like that's going to happen.

It ain't a perfect world, I'm very inefficient at home, and there's no way--no way--I'm getting up at 6 a.m. when I can sleep in. Not even for Christmas.

So keep making those lists, and keep trying vainly to complete them. There are worse things in the world.

Christmas --> Heart?

I think I posted this last Christmas, but there's a secular pop music station that plays nothing but "Holiday Favorites" from Thanksgiving until Christmas. You get secular artists singing a mix of secular and sacred Christmas songs. I like to listen because I get to hear a variety of Christmas songs sung by people that I don't hear very often. Like Mariah Carey singing O Holy Night. Wow.

But something about that, and about how much Christmas is ingrained in our culture that is by and large unspiritual doesn't seem right.

You read C.S. Lewis, and you're like, "Yeah, I totally get that." It makes sense, and you love the fact that a Christian makes so much logical, intellectual sense, even in the face of the famed father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. (I'm currently reading: The Question of God)

But what's the point of articulately defending the Christian worldview?

You ask those secular artists singing It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Joy to the World, and I'll bet 90% of them (or more) believe in God. Most of them, likely, agree with Lewis in principle. So what?

We're immersed in Christianity but it's like we're covered with a water-proof bodysuit. It's not getting through. There's a complete disconnect between the head and the heart.

Lewis took his worldview to its logical conclusion. Believing in God led to believing in Christ, which led to surrender and service to Him. Ok, great, that's how it's supposed to work. But many people don't take it that far, it's like they don't think about it that deeply.

I love when Lewis articulately goes off about this "nonsense" of Christ being a great moral teacher. Of course it's nonsense. He claimed to be God, which precludes Him being simply a "really good guy". He's either God, an evil man, or a crazy man.

Yet so many think of Him as "great teacher." Or they do think of Him as God, but it stops there. But that doesn't make sense! Not if you think about it.

Arghh.

I'll take "d" anyday--a guy I met at school who seems to have honestly struggled with his (lack of) faith--over apathy. I think everybody thinks about life questions to some extent, but it seems like many just stop and put it out of their minds, never honestly thinking it through.

That is a problem!

How about this, though, too. How about "Christians" who are in the same boat. They've been fed "it" since they were small and they drift along with the flow, never really thinking it through. Is that any better?

A Happy Night

Last night I told mom as I was bout to leave that I didn't think I'd be home late because I was going to be out with "older people."

One of my aunts invited me and some others to get together and sing Christmas songs for the evening. She pulled out a bunch of old school songs and we sang them, along with a 2nd Chapter of Acts (EG, I do need to borrow a CD or three from you!) song and a cool arrangement of Sing We Now of Christmas. A lot of fun. A taste of next week, when AHQ briefly reunites.

In addition to the party organizer, another of my aunts was there, she being great with child. I planted a seed early on in the evening about going out to PV (an all-night greasy spoon) after the singing died down. Most of the people at the little sing-a-thon were definitely not going to do something so crazy. They were either working the next day, leaving early the next day, needing to tend to family, etc.

Well, I convinced my aunties to come with me. The party organizer decided she would which put pressure on the pregnant one. I told the pregnant one that if she didn't come, we might never have an experience like this again in our whole lives, or at least not until we were both old and all of our children had grown! She decided to come.

So much for not getting home late. But I'm unapologetic.

Experiencing Joy

C.S. Lewis called those moments of intense longing for something more, "Joy." But he made an additional comment that sheds some light, perhaps, on the struggles of Christians to experience it.

He says that if you're walking, lost in the woods, and you happen upon a signpost pointing you toward the road, there will be a considerable clamor as you excitedly examine it. But once the road is found, with periodic signposts pointing toward the destination, they become less extraordinary and exciting.

I'm not sure how to process that, honestly.

Better Than Fruitcake

Really, I like Christmas letters. They're interesting and informative. All the better if they include a picture.

My only problem with them is that they force you to sum up the last year in two pages, and this almost invariably requires an overly upbeat, everlastingly optimistic tone that tends to imply a bouncy, year-long ride of perpetual happiness.

But maybe that's their place.

Note: not saying that all Christmas letters have this tone.

Looking Back

I had a rough week this week. What's troubling is that I can't seem to separate my circumstances from my feelings. When things are going badly I feel bad and forget about--or, perhaps worse, don't feel like--engaging God "in the midst." But that's precisely the thing that will allow me to face the music with grace and give me perspective on things.

Not everything went bad this week. It got over, after all.

No, actually, the bad included issues with our research (we had to quit for a week or two over Christmas and we've still got some serious questions to resolve, and there's a deadline coming up in January and we don't know how long it will take to get these problems licked), issues with the IAC (more work than I thought), and issues with graduate applications (specifically getting letters from profs).

The good included prayer meeting, basketball, making a breakthrough at the IAC, communicating with my profs, sitting around today, and hearing a new CD. See there was a lot of good too.

Oh, I'm reminded of something. Let me gush a bit.

Faithful reader and far-flung friend, tt, has a sister that sings with a Gospel Echoes ministry team. They recently released their first album (the above-mentioned new CD), and on this album is a Brent Lamb tune, More Than Enough, that his sister sings.

Wow. The album is worth getting just because of that song! And it's a good album besides that. But she just shines, with a beautiful, smooth sound, perfectly in tune and wonderfully enunciated, that convinces you that Christ indeed is more than enough for anyone who has major problems, or even minor ones. That includes me, with my work issues.

ChrI(E)stmas Cheer

An IE Christmas tale

By Tamara Wilhite

Yes, Virginia, I’m an engineer.
No, I don’t drive the trains near here
I design all the toys you hold dear,
Just like the computer sitting here

I can make the digital camera go click
And I know what makes it tick
I design the little things that go inside
Where all the data goes to hide
I make the parts that make your toys beep
Just as my friends designed your brother’s Jeep

Some special engineers know a bit more
Both how to make it and to get it to the store
Someone must piece each piece together
Someone must tell them how to do it better
That person, not average engineer,
Is someone special -- just like Daddy here

An industrial engineer
Which I am, too, dear.
I do not just assemble the toys Santa gives
I advise his building them up where he lives
Anyone can ask dear old Santa for a gift
IEs will give him a nice mechanized lift.

So he doesn't slide down chimneys without care,
Won't risk back injuries, won't dare.
IEs help Santa get his toys built fast
Designing so they'll last and last and last.
They’ll help him plan his route to every home
It’s faster than if we let him randomly roam

That’s how Santa makes the toys each year
And gets them to the kids like you right here.
Isn't that nice for Daddy and me to do?
Now go to bed, for I have work to do.


This is from an Institute of Industrial Engineers newsletter. Gives some perspective about what IEs are about. From what I've gathered, however, the stuff about designing the things that go inside a camera and designing computers isn't particularly representative of what IEs do. But all the stuff about ergonomics and productivity and quality--that's Industrial Engineering.