Well I am off on my first business trip ever… Off to good Ol' Canada, land of the Canadians. I won't have internet access until tomorrow night when I get back!! If you know me, you know how hard this will be for me. Please pray for my strength. And that is no joke…
My surprise is I packed everything and I actually think I remembered it all, even my passport! Cross your fingers.!.!
Well my teeth had no idea what they were getting into this morning.. I woke up to my phone alerting me about my dentist appt. I didn't opt to select a hygenist, last time I do that. I had a fairly new hygenist, could have been there for a year, since you only go every 6 months… But I guess it was war on my teeth. She told me my gums looked good.. Spat out a bunch of numbers as she scanned them. 1-3 is good 4-5 is not good. I had all 1's 2's and 3's… Let the pricking begin… So afterwards she said the reason my gums were so bloody is that I dont floss enough. Not the best thing to say after you told me they were in great shape and proceeded to use 8 different pick tools on them…
Young Life tonight had a pleasant surprise, 7 guys again! We played some intense games of Toe Fencing, and "draw your neighbor pass them in and guess who each picture is".
Personal Note: 13:29
Saw a movie last night and spent the next 2 hours trying to figure out the meaning…
So the movie is about a math genius, also fairly good with computers. His setup in his apartment is a little more intense than my setup at home. But I think it takes place in the late 80's early 90's so I'm ok with it. Max Cohen has all sorts of social issues, he keeps to himself and rarely leaves his apartment. He also has had headaches since he was 6 and looked directly into the sun. There are some unsettling scenes that make you feel like you share the pain with him when he is going through his headache and drug fixes.
He is obsessed with patterns and number threory. He believes that every part of the earth/world can be represented by a number system and can be predicted or explained by patterns that emerge. His obsession is with something called the Golden Spiral… Which is related to the Golden Ratio and Golden Squares (for you math people like me)
"My new Hypothesis: If we're built from Spirals while living in a giant Spiral, then is it possible that everything we put our hands to is infused with the Spiral?"
He applies his theories to the stock market to predict stocks, he spits out 2 quotes, and then it spits out a 216 digit number and crashes. There are a number of more close calls and turns you dont expect. I wont ruin it because i think people should see it…
I guess what I am getting out of the movie is that we can spend our whole lives searching for meaning by having concrete proof of something. Like Brian McLaren said Sunday night, there are millions of complexities to faith and religion. We can argue all day long about facts/theories about our beliefs and others, about our denominations practices and others. But at the end of the day where does the debating get us? More fired up to debate!
I researched online last night about what other people were saying about this movie. I googled "pi movie meaning" and the 4th and 5th results were Christian movie review sites. Some others also had interesting thoughts. I came across this one and I was done… It was the solution/words I was looking for.
"This film is interesting because it starts out as atheistic and orderly, and shifts its tone; that maybe God exists and He could be explained through science; until its stunning conclusion that perhaps God exists, and He is unexplainable. God cannot be put in a box."
No supercomputers, teams of math geniuses, anybody nor anything can comprehend His magnitude. I don't think I can, in my finite mind, comprehend the largeness of God. I can be amazed by it, I can thank Him for it, I can stand in awe of it, but I don't want to waste my time searching for answers like Max did in this movie. My life is too short on earth to be so selfish of my time and gifts God has given me.
I need to stop trying to put Him in a box that I have designed. Even uBoxes.com doesn't have a big enough one to fit one of his eyelashes…
Not really a surprise but I came into work today and $25 came my way for winning the office pool for the Masters Tournament. The money was a surprise, I didn't think we were going to actually pay up. So if you call me this week, coffee is on my coworkers…
A guy at Caribou had no idea what my drink was… That was awesome. Giving me hope that I actually don't spend that much time there.
No headache this morning! Pretty sweet since my house still reeks of oil based Benjamin Moore… I had apretty cool setup in my room. Like I was preparing for an outbreak, sealed off the door and all other openings to the main part of the house… Had a fan set up to suck the air from outside through one window and out the other.. All of that so I wouldn't have a headache from the fumes. I have too much time on my hands.. To set that up and also to spend time to write about it..
I'm done.
No surprises today…
I got my painting done, 4 hours of sniffing fumes. I can easily say I had a monster headache yesterday afternoon and night. Spent a great afternoon relaxing on a couch with my buddy Ben and my Dad watching the Masters Tournament. Life stops for me when the Masters Tournament is being played, kind of like Husker country when Nebraska is playing football. Tiger knew I had to get to church on time so he ended the playoff promptly for me with a birdie on the 1st playoff hole. Thanks Tiger…
I think after seeing responses at the 1-week update video at the Upper Room I have a new thought about the deal. There were some responses about "not expecting anything" otherwise it wouldn't be a surprise. This is true, but I think for me I can answer that one. I am hoping to GROW… I think if I didn't expect growth I would find it hard for me to keep saying surprise me God. I think for me it would be the same thing as asking God to give me a sign about a decision so I know he is there and behind me. "God I feel your calling, but hit me in the face with something so I know you're there!"
I want to be surprised by God, but I want to make sure it isn't just for the sake of being surprised and having a story to tell…
One day late now.. But it is the weekend and I know we all got to bed really early last night.
I would have to say yesterday was one of the best days in a long while. No large surprises, but a few small ones and a lot of time spent with good friends. Started the day at 8:30 AM… Off to the hardware store to get some drop cloths to finish the prep work for the days task of painting 2 rooms worth of trim. Chuck, Cathy and Heidi came over to help out and a few hours later Dave stopped by and lent us a hand as well.
As we were getting close to finishing the first coat, somebody got the idea we should go get iPods. So at Micro Center I was able to help them all out with my technology knowledge. Which, USB cards do I need for my computer, which FM transmitter to get. Its a little geeky to get excited about that I know, but I do get excited. They all came back to "borrow" my music until they get their own libraries up and running.
Good afternoon spent watching the Masters golf tournament with my Dad.. It is broadcast in HD! Can't get that at my house.
BBQ'd with some friends for dinner and had the best conversations of the day. Cell phone etiquette, powerfull movies, and how the surprise me days are going for each of us. Outside and no bugs! This is the time of year! We then walked about 8 blocks to Dairy Queen only to find out the inside is closed and the drive through was open, but we couldn't walk through it. We about hopping into this old guys car, but I think we freaked him out. So the surprise in this is we kept walking around and made it to the Edina Creamery at about 9:58pm with 2 minutes to spare.Wo got our ice cream and the people behind us weren't let in. Sorry Dairy Queen, they have better product!
One small surprise today. I took my Young Life guys to breakfast at Perkins this morning… One of them said their parents gave them extra money and offered to pay for my breakfast!!!
I also realised that many high-schoolers have no concept of tipping. So no worries, I took care of it..
I was rambling to myself about this experiment. I have come to the realization that should nothing happen in the next 30 days that blows my mind, the experiment will be successful.
It puts your life on alert. All of your senses are open to things that happen in a normal day. Getting your gas tank filled for free, seeing a friend at lunch all of these things had I not been on alert of being surprised would have gone without notice. Hopefully at the end of 30 days, this new state of alertness will continue long after the experiment.
No "WOW" moments today. Not surprised I am still sick…
But a few surprises…
I was walking out of D Brians in my office building and was talking to Matt and I saw a hand move from some of the tables outside of the restaurant. It was my friend Courtney! I was surprised to find out she works no more than a block from me! Or I from her, however you look at it. I have a new lunch friend in the neighborhood…
I stumbled across networksolutions.com today looking for domains for something else and had the urge to buy livingrarefied.com. Upon buying that, I couldn't wait to get home to set up my own blog software on my server. Its so geek, but I love it. I will have more control of my site this way, cooler for you all!
I picked up my Dad from the airport tonight. He got in a little early so no dinner beforehand. He asked if I was hungry, being sick for a few days I wasnt starving, but I am not passing up a free meal. He noticed I was low on gas too.. I was planning on filling up tomorrow morning on the way to work. (Prices for Oil dropped a little today!! Was waiting for the right time to fill it up!). So I stopped to get gas and he got out and swiped his credit card for me! Thanks Dad!
Happy Ethan and a happy VW.
![His setup in his apartment]("http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0138704/Ss/0138704/1-5.jpg?path=gallery&path_key=0138704"){kind=link}
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