The Sheer Magnitude of Eternity

God wants my time. I do my absolute best to keep Him in everything I do, and in everything I plan on doing. He doesn't need my time though. After all, I cannot possibly learn Spanish, read more, do more artwork (drawing and painting), get better at my chosen career, and work on this blog simultaneously. Funny thing is, God's creation does all of that, and so much more, at exactly the same time. So, while there's lots of things I can do, God can do all of them, and does, at the exact same time.  I know that time management experts have tips and tricks for multi-tasking, but God didn't really design the human brain to be like that.
I am currently reading about God's design of the human brain, in this book: Welcome to Your Brain. It's a bit like a neuroscience for beginners book - which is perfect for me. Something that the book has made fairly obvious - we have powerful brains. But, as I'm typing this blog, my brain is filtering out the other noises and sensations going on around me. It is not mentally, or for that matter physically, possible for me to start working on a drawing and typing at the same time. If I tried to write with one hand, and draw with my other, I'd end up drawing letters and typing words that were in a given shape. As a trifle example: erfcxs is the shape of a circle, typed counterclockwise. Some of you have seen my handwriting. Imagine how much worse it would be if I tried to write something while focusing on also typing something. Eesh.
It's possible to focus our attention in some cases on two things at once, but even that we don't do very well. I imagine that's why dietitians recommend against eating while watching television. The TV has our brain as a captive audience, so we don't really pay attention to how much we're eating, and tend to over-eat more when we do that.

Imagine a life where you could literally do everything you wanted and experience everything you wanted. That's God's eternity for us. If we want to learn more about computer science, we will have plenty of time to experiment and get better at it in eternity, so long as it supports His purpose. I wonder if God has an intranet in heaven... heh. If we want to get better at drawing or painting, we'll be able to learn from the great masters that also believed. Not that we would necessarily need to, the presence of God and His knowledge and ability would certainly be better at teaching us how to create than even the most esteemed of all human creators.

Though I imagine we could learn the history of languages easily while in Heaven, I doubt we will need to learn different languages. My imagination tells me we will all speak a new or different language in Heaven, God's language, and we will all understand each-other implicitly. Language is a barrier to understanding - one that God would have no problem destroying. The Holy Spirit communicates with us regularly in ways that we easily understand. So, once we're surrounded by it and embraced in it, I bet we all understand each other without any need for a translator.

Eternity and our eternal home, Heaven, are too big for human minds to comprehend. The God that made the universe - something so infinite we cannot possibly study all of it - also prepares our homes by His side. Some people I know consider spending time with God a waste of their time, mostly because they have a broken relationship with God. I say that spending time with God is the best use of my time, and that no matter what I'm doing, God is doing it with me too. So, it's better to do something for Him, and do so to glorify Him. I'm human, so I suck at that. But, Jesus came along to make it so that even with my inability to be a perfect saint, my Home in Eternity still waits for me.

Happy St. Valentine's Day

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.  1 John 4:7-10 

Each holiday we celebrate, whether religious in origin or not, should serve as a reminder to us all that God wants us to remember Him, and that God loves us.  On a day intended for celebration of love, it seems fitting to turn to God first.  God gave us marriage so that we could know a fraction of His love during our mortal lives.  God gave us courtship so that we could understand what it's like to desire love. God even gave us sexual attraction so we could understand physical love (though - we have to be careful not to step into lust).

I've briefly researched the history of St. Valentine, and though it's not certain whether or not it was in fact one man - February 14 is now celebrated as St. Valentine's day.  He represented the Godly idea of supporting being in love, the act of loving, and love as a general term.  God so loved the world He gave His only Son.

Love, of all things, has significant importance in a relationship with God and Christ.  When we reach our eternal home, we will live in a spirit of undeniable and incredible love. Jesus died for us, because He loved us and wanted us by His side in eternity.  I think it's a good idea to say Happy Valentine's Day to anyone you'd like - God wants us to be His valentine - but not just on St. Valentine's day.

Goodbye Facebook

I disabled my Facebook account.  Apparently it takes approximately two weeks for it t o go away completely, but it's already not possible to find me on Facebook, at least from what I can tell anyway.  Facebook has really done two things for me.

1) Invaded my privacy
2) Allowed me to play games with friends (and people Facebook calls friends).

In learning more about what God wants for my life, I've come to a pretty strong conclusion that Facebook actually does not fit into His plan for me.  Sure, it's supposed to be a good way to stay in touch with people.  In all reality, it's turned into more of a single sign-on platform, and less of a rich communication medium, than I would prefer.  Might I go back to Facebook some day.  Maybe - but if I do you can guess I won't be accepting friend requests from anyone other than my closest friends and family.  There's a higher chance that I won't even get back on at all.  Facebook has done a very good job of distracting me from other goals I have, most of which revolve around being a good Christian, none of which Facebook has really progressed.

There is one case where I was a little sad to turn of my Facebook account.  After many years, I reconnected with a childhood friend through Facebook.  Hopefully he'll see this - and know that I don't want our communications to stop just because I'm not on Facebook any more.  I'm not concerned about sharing my e-mail address on this page - so leave me a comment if you need it, and I'll do my best to get in touch with you.

God seems to have inspired me to leave Facebook behind.  I didn't even really hesitate when it came to hitting the deactivate button.  It's something I've been considering for a while, but haven't really followed through on until tonight.

It's going to take a bit of God's strength not to give up and turn my account back on in the next day or two.  I know that I don't need Facebook in my life, but the temptation to run right back to it because it's "easy" is pretty strong.  I guess it's kind of like the dark side of the force.  The quick and easy path... heh.

Hopefully the people I care to stay in touch with the most already know how to do that.  If not, hopefully we can find a way to connect without Facebook.  Time will tell, I suppose.

Adios

I've got someone from Mexico working on my team right now and he's helping me to brush up on my otherwise abysmal Spanish.  Learning something this completely out of my comfort zone has certainly been teaching me a little bit about myself, not the least of which revolves around humility.  His English is way better than my Spanish, so there's no doubt who the teacher is in this case.  It's not me.

Something I've come to consider as I spend time with a new language is something simple that doesn't even require a translator.  In this country, and many others for that matter, adios is a word that we hear frequently but don't give much additional thought to.  After all, it's pretty commonly known that this word translates to "goodbye" for most of the understanding we have in this country.  However, a different saying that we don't run across as often in the USA is "vaya con Dios" - "go with God".  Notice something about that... the only thing different about "Dios" and "adios" is the letter A.  And, if my understanding of the Spanish language is correct, "A Dios" could literally translate to "with God".  So, I have to wonder if it makes any difference to live in a country where God is such a fundamental part of the daily secular language. Always.  I have to imagine that in Spanish speaking countries, a person would hear the term adios either directly or indirectly dozens of times a day, if not more.  If anything, I think it serves as a subtle reminder that we are always with God.  God never stops watching us and being with us.

I explained my understanding of this concept to my wife a few days ago using Skype as a metaphor.  Imagine for a moment that you have your parents tuned in to watch your child playing.  Certainly, as grandparents, they would definitely enjoy even just watching, because by watching they are still taking part in this experience.  However, how much different is the joy that the grandparents receive when the grandchild on the other end reciprocates the involvement in the activity.  Instead of just knowing that Grandma and Grandpa are watching if the grandchild actively engages with the grandparents, then the connecting bond grows that much stronger.  It's no different for our relationships with God.  His "webcam" is always turned on, and He is always watching us as we take part in our lives.  He enjoys watching us, with no doubt.  But, when we actively engage our interest as part of His interest, this is truly when the purpose of our creation - Love - abounds.

The next time someone says "bye", "see you later", or any other saying similar to "adios" - put the phrase "adios" in your mind.  Then remember that Dios and God are one and the same.  See if you start thinking about your time with God a little differently.  I know I have.

Dare to Dream

God called Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to action.  I studied the man's life as an elementary and middle school student in quite a bit of detail - something about him fascinated me.  The idea that someone so resolutely and passionately believed in peaceful resolution to even the most serious conflict intrigued me.  As a figure of memory in American history, most people probably remember what he did for African American civil rights. One of the main reasons he accomplished so much in the time that he did relied on his faith.  I find it interesting that he managed to move the hearts of so many people, and did so without directly referencing God, yet also the entire time managed to do God's work.  He's the face of Civil Rights that I hope we remember today, as we face new and different struggles in our nation in terms of bigotry, hate crime, and discrimination.  His ministry was certainly one of love.  And, though Dr. King was certainly as human as they come, he proved to me that a Christian life can, indeed, be a life built for Good (with a capital G).

We have many reasons to be thankful for the life of Dr. King.  However, as Christians, one of the things we can be most thankful for is a wonderfully accurate depiction of a Christian man deeply rooted in his faith, wishing to bring Good to people all around him - black or otherwise.  We can turn to the Bible to better understand Jesus, His Disciples, His Works, and God's Word.  We can turn to people like Dr. King as an example of how to follow what the bible teaches us.

I pray for the future of this country, and that it can return to being one of the nations that others respect.  I hope that we can remember one of the most respected historical figures we know was also an extremely devout Christian.  I strongly believe that Faith alone can guide us out of some of the dark places we are heading as a nation.  However, as individuals and families, regardless of our nation, know that God is still in control, and still has a plan for the way everything is unfolding.

I have a dream too - that someday, once I'm called home, people just like Dr. King will be waiting there for me with a grand smile on their face.

Creativity

God made me into the kind of person that puts the left side of my brain to work quite frequently.  As a software engineer, I create solutions to business problems.  Software, though very technical and logical, has a creative element that many people overlook.  Most, if not all, of the software engineers I know dabble in some other kind of creative expression.  Many of them dabble in many forms of artistic expression.  I find myself not very different.

The great thing is, God created me to be creative.  And, in being creative, I understand just a little better what it means to be a creator.  Obviously, I don't have any idea the kinds of things The Creator is fully capable of.  But, I do understand that creativity lends to further creativity.  One person could write a story, and inspire a painter to paint a scene from the story.  Many movies are inspired by books, many books by paintings, paintings by music, and all kinds of other creative cross-references that logic itself can't dictate.  But, God understands all of these creative underpinnings.  After all, he created the universe to include creativity, which I think helps creative people understand Him.

Most recently, I've been undertaking the task of re-invoigorating my art skills.  God gave me at least a little bit of natural predisposition for artistic rendering (drawing, and more recently, painting) so I've been making it a point to sharpen those skills as time allows for it.  I've learned a couple of things as I start to draw and paint again.  First of all, God has an incredible eye for detail.  If I were going to create an image that contained all of the hairs on a human head, (without a camera) that'd take me a good long while.  And God did it 8 billion times.  Or, at least he made the rules that make it happen 8 billion times.  Second of all, God has great plans for his creations.  When I work on an artistic piece without anything planned, it usually turns out sloppy and otherwise a poor example of my skills.  If, however, I have a plan for a piece I work on, it turns out much better.

God planned His entire creation - which includes you and I.  He designed us, engineered us, and made us into the perfect representation of a unique soul.  God has great plans for us.  So, it's important for us to have great plans for ourselves, knowing that God will support them.  We just need to be sure that our plans aren't selfish, but instead glorify His will.

It Matters

The most important thing of all you can give of yourself is time.  Period.  I realize that you can help others with your money if you have lots of it (or even if not).  I realize you can help others with your non-monetary objects, if you have them to give.  However, God wants an open, loving, and interactive relationship with you, which most of all requires time.

I was reminded of this over the past weekend when I saw my sister.  She uses my child as a story for her peers, and will again once she finishes learning to be an elementary teacher.  Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my wife went to a party that the daycare threw to celebrate the day.  For the next couple of weeks, my child said "Mommy came. And <Friend's Name> Mommy Came."  My child, who hasn't left the toddler years - and is in fact still early in them - noticed when people were there with her.  Even a simple gesture like taking part in a party matters.  Lots.

When spending time with God, remember that your time with Him matters, too.  God loves you very much, and loves to hear from you and to see you grow into spiritual adulthood, just like we as parents like watching our children grow into adulthood.  Also remember this.  God is always present.  It's where the term omnipresent comes from.  No matter what you're doing, you can be excited that God is doing it with you, because He loves spending time with you.  My child loves knowing that nothing (except God) is more important in our lives.

Do you know that nothing is more important that Him?  I mean, really know it.  You may strive to make that true in your life, but is it?  I'm guilty of putting human interests before God interests much too often.  But, the great thing is, God loves seeing that too - and He'll help course correct us when we need it.  We'll come to self-realization about what's good and Godly, and what's not.  As we "grow up" he'll be right there with us the whole time, partying with each success we find, and holding our hand when we fall down and skin our spiritual knees.  I've got lots of scrapes and bruises that God needs to kiss to make them feel better.  And, in time, I know He will.