Joyous Happy Day!

Once upon a time, I had a computer. In fact, I had it for all four years of college. One day, that computer died. Actually, I guess the hard drive just got worn out and pretty much stopped spinning, thus making it incredibly difficult to recover the information stored on it. Very sad. Well, I never threw out that old hard-drive, always hoping that someday I would be able to recover all the wonderful little things stored in its bits and bytes. Tonight I was able to connect it to an old computer (minus its hard drive) and copy a considerable amount of information onto floppies before it died again. Very exciting. I'm hoping I'll be able to get a little more off it tomorrow after I let it rest tonight.

Part of the reason I'm excited about this is because of various bits of information, pictures, homework, etc. stored on the computer. Mostly, though, its because I now have a copy of various papers, stories, and poems I wrote throughout high school and college. Not that any of them are especially wonderful, but there's something I like about being able to look back and see what I was thinking and feeling. And, to be honest, some of them I definitely like. Maybe I'll find somewhere to post them online. Then, if my computer crashes, I'll still have access to a copy. :)

Taking responsibility

Ok, here's the situation. Let's say that you have some sort of job. I'll take an elementary example: your job is to count how many of your classmates want milk each day. You take your job very seriously because you don't want someone who wanted milk to have to go without, and you don't want to order milk you don't need and have it go to waste. One day, you are the last to get into your classroom in the morning. You aren't late, but you were just a little slower than normal. You come in, only to find that your friend Hephzibah has already taken the milk count and given it to the teacher in your name. Now you have a dilemma:

1. For one thing, you know that Hephzibah is an intelligent and responsible girl, and she probably got the milk count right. However, you know if she didn't, the teacher will still hold you responsible. Should you
• Re-take the count yourself and risk offending Hephzibah or
• Let it be and risk taking the blame if she messed up?
2. Another thought running through your mind is the issue of authority. In some sense, it seems like Hephzibah usurped your authority by taking over your job without even asking. In another sense, she has usurped the teachers authority. The teacher choose you to take the milk count, not Hephzibah, and by taking the milk count herself, Hephzibah is not following the order of leadership ordained by the teacher.
3. You also really want to be responsible and not slack on your given job. If you give this job over to Hephzibah (she continues to do it before you have the chance), are you failing to obey the authority that has given this job to you?

I realize, of course, that these are not likely to be the actual thoughts of an elementary student who's job is to take the milk count. I will admit, though, that there have been several times when I have had thoughts similar to these. I also wonder, though I've never been married, if these thought sometimes are echoed in the struggle for power between a husband and wife. It seems there are often marriages where the wife has reached for the authority which God ordained to be the husband's, and the husband chooses just to give it up without a fuss. Clearly, that is not right. I think the situations I am in are generally less clear cut, however. The authority granted to me in various jobs and situations is certainly not specifically laid out in the Bible.

This is something that I've been trying to figure out for sometime. The problem is, if you try to maintain the authority that you think you've been given, huge conflict can occur. In the example above, if you tell Hephzibah that she needs to stop taking the milk count because its the job the teacher gave you, she may well refuse to believe you. She could say things like, "Do you think you are the only person here who is smart enough to take the milk count?" or "You don't have the right to tell me what to do (or not do)." or "The teacher never really gave you that job." Or, if you tell her that you are going to be held responsible for her mistakes she may refuse to believe you. What then? How can you resolve this conflict AND do the job that you are supposed to do?

Add to this the complication that maybe you ARE mistaken in the teacher's wishes. She told you at the beginning of the year that she wanted you to take the milk count, but it's not in writing. Maybe she changed her mind. Maybe Hephzibah really is better at it any way. Or, to change the situation a little, maybe you are class president, and it is traditional for the class president to take up the milk count. However, the teacher just asked Hephzibah to take the milk count. A job that you think should have been yours was assigned else where. What now?

This blog is getting longer and more convoluted than I intended. I think my question comes down to this. When I struggle with things like this in real life, what sin do I need to watch out for? When I try to be responsible, am I doing it out of pride? Maybe there is something I should be more concerned about than the responsibility? When someone takes a job or responsibility that I think should be mine, whether "fairly" or "unfairly" what should be my response? Is there a way I should pursue getting that job back, or should I just let it go? Or does it vary? Pursuing the job will likely result in conflict, which most often is caused by (or leads to) sin. How can I personally avoid sinning here? I know I can always work on my attitude, but assuming I'm right there, is there a way I can lovingly tell someone to allow me to do my job?

Hopefully this makes some sense to anyone who might read this. And, if anyone who reads this has any brilliant ideas on how to react to these sorts of situations in a godly way, I would welcome the thoughts. :)

Truth

The other day my roommate and I went on a looooonnnnnggg trip. We left on a Saturday, ended up in in eastern half of North Dakota, and got back on Wednesday. I suppose that we averaged about 4 hours of driving a day. Which isn't bad compared to some people, but I, for one, was very tired of being in the car. To pass the time in the car we listened to a couple books on tape, both of which, through some odd coincidence, turned out to be by Agatha Christie.

For those who have never read a book by Christie, allow me to sum up the basic plot of many of her books (and of one of the ones we happened to listen to):

1. Crime is committed
2. Crime is discovered (generally in the form of a dead body)
3. Detective arrives on the scene, too late to prevent the tragedy but determined to find the perpetrator.
4. Through physical evidence and interviews with the suspects the detective complies a list of eclectic and nonsensical clues and questions that don't seem to fit together at all, such as:
1. The clue of the open door
2. The clue of no foot prints in the flower garden
3. The clue of the duplicate daggers
4. The clue of the girl with anxious eyes
   
5. The clue of where the body was
6. The clue of the chauffeur being sent away when guests were expected
7. The clue of the South American cigarette
   
5. The brilliant detective manages to fit all the bizarre clues into their proper places and arrives at the correct conclusion of who is guilty.
   

Then, by another strange "coincidence" my roommate and I had the opportunity to look at the Creation museum under construction in Glendive, and the two in conjunction started me thinking.

In a crime, no one would argue that there really is one person who is guilty of the crime, and the others are not, not matter how the evidence looks. In a novel, the detective always seems to be able to find that guilty person by correctly arranging the facts of the case. For example, the South American cigarette found by the body makes it look like someone from Chile is the criminal, until it is realized that the cigarettes were planted to confuse investigators. There are almost always at least two ways to look at any piece of evidence. The lack of foot prints in the garden may be because no one has walked in the garden for a long time, or it may be that someone recently smoothed it to erase their foot prints. The same fact, two interpretations. There's no lack of possible interpretations. The problem is to find one that fits ALL the facts of the crime.

In my mind, the debate between Creation and Evolution is much the same. They have, for the most part, the same evidence (though, unfortunately, both sides sometimes ignore evidence that they don't like). Both see "billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth" as Ken Ham says. One side says the animals lived and were buried slowly, over billions of years. The other side claims that most of this happened in one catastrophic event. Both have certain lines of evidence that they favor to support their side. The second side sites fossils that clearly were formed in times of catastrophe while the first side asks, "If it all happened at once, why do we never find fossils of dinosaurs with humans or even other more highly evolved mammals?" I admit that I believe one side over the other, but in all honesty, I must say that to this point, neither side has done a good job of putting all the evidence together in a way that makes sense and is consistent with all known facts.

Is their truth that can be known in this area? Undoubtedly. Indeed, perhaps some already know the truth, as detectives sometimes do, even before they can prove it. All that remains, then, is to collect and compile the evidence in a way so that the judge and jury can see what the detective sees and will convict the proper criminal.

We need a Hercule Poirot in the study of origins.

T-shirt quilt, part 2

Here's the finished front side of the t-shirt quilt. The whole thing is nearing completion. Now I just need to figure out how to join front and back and all that stuff. :)

Why I love teaching

The other day a class came into my room in a rather thoughtful mood. I asked one what was wrong, thus starting what ended up to be a 30 minute long conversations about life and death and God and parents. I won't include the details here. Suffice it to say that they are getting it! They are starting to think about things -- good things, not just the latest movie or video game. They are starting to try to apply what they are learning. I know nothing more encouraging as a teacher than to see your students really start to understand what you've been teaching. This is true whether it is a math concept you've been trying to get across, a certain way they are supposed to play a character in drama, or the ideology behind evolution. Of course, it is most exciting when they start understanding spiritual things and when you start seeing a resulting change in their lives.

I have to say that, as a teacher, there are lots of frustrating things, sorrowful things, and down right annoying things that your students do or say (or fail to do and say). But it's those "ah-ha!" moments with the students that make it all worth while.