Sin

I was getting breakfast with a friend who's really intelligent, and kind of new to the idea's of Christianity. He asked the question "Doesn't it kind of seem like a big excuse, i mean Christ dying for your sins so you're no longer responsible"

The answer is no.

Even though our sins are forgiven, they have very real and devastating consequences. They hurt us and the ones that we love. Sin must be nipped at the bud, and stopped at its earliest sign before it can corrupt. As the Lord said to Cain "Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

So often, I personally have a very complacent attitude towards sin in my own life. I've seen the very real effects of sin not stopped, and the gospel takes on new meaning for me when it warns so strictly of the consequences of sin.

God hates sin. If we are to Love God, we must hate sin to. We should grieve sin in our world, but more importantly we should grieve sin in our Church. It is important however, that we Love sinners, for we all have fallen short of the Glory.

Caught Sleeping

This past weekend there was an attack by Satan, and i was cought sleeping.

It reminds me of a couple things. We need to be intentional about EVERYTHING we do. We need to hold each other accountable, and constantly be looking out for the spiritual needs of each other and our churches.

Christ's bride isn't you, its the church. Our spiritually isn't individualistic, its corporate.

attacks can come at any time, so be ready.

One of my fav. poems

One of my favorite poems is "As I walked out one evening" by W.H. Auden. On first reading the poem, it sounds pretty depressing, but my favorite thing about the poem is the realization that humanly we can't love as well as we think we can. But, we do the best we can. here's my favorite part:

O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.

-mike

Christany Jargon and Beauty in small things

My buddy kyle called me out/encouraged me to a)post on my blog more and b) keep up with the photo a day thing, which i started gun-ho last week with one photo and then abandoned. The biggest problem is sometimes I can't wrap my mind around how to capture all the beauty I see, but kyle encouraged saying thats the trick of the whole thing, you've just gotta take some extra time and try. With that being said, there's two more photos up on the photo-a day site.

This weekend has been beautiful. The leaves are all in full gold and red splendor. I Had a great time yesterday biking some of the magnolia trails with a study group of guys. Except a day-ending injury for Andrew, it was a fantastic ride. "The enchanted forest" is one of my favorite little sections of trail up there now.

Church was really good today, Kirk had a great sermon. He talked about how even little things are Holy to God. It made me think a little of the photo-a day project. He encouraged us to take some extra time and enjoy life, enjoy a cup a coffee or your lunch, or a glass of wine. He also really encouraged us to read and know scripture, so we can really tell when people say things when they're true. the whole sermon was based off of Jemimah 29. If you want to listen to it, you can on the church's website.

He also said something about false prophecy that made me think a little bit. I might go on a rabbit trail here, so bear with me... or don't, whatever. All the time people are talking like "God told me to do this" and "I felt like the spirit was leading me to do this." I don't want to say the spirit doesn't move in us and God doesn't speak to us, but I do feel like we should take extreme caution saying God told us something, and its not just what we want, or what we thought. Sometimes i think of the commandment in exodus 20:7 "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name." Sometimes I wonder if when we use God's name, if we're not using it to empower our words or choices instead of really glorifying Him. Or maybe we just want to sound "holier." Anyhow, thats that thought, now on cyberspace. Be careful when using christiany jargon.

"whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."
-1 cor 10:31

Photo-a-day

My friend Matt had a great idea to take a photo a day and post it online. The idea is simple, just take a photo a day. The exercise is to help you think "how can i capture this beauty, share it with others." Some people are incredibly gifted at this, I haven't thought seriously about photography since high school. I'm hoping I get some good pictures. Anyhow... My photo-a-day album is going to be online Here.

I'm also going to put a little sideshow on my webpage (which needs updating).

Also, Because I'm such a super-amateur at photography, I'd really appreciate comments on photos, what you like, what you didn't like, what I could do better (either in taking the photo, or post processing). I have a copy of Photoshop at school, so i might try to get into that a little bit...
peace!
mike

Photo Download

I made it back safely!

i just uploaded pictures HERE:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2286988&id=12702301&l=3ce8604ed5

sorry, i did not do a fantastic job of taking lots of pictures!
-mike

Last day

Today was our last day in Rome. If you find a restaurant you like, I highly reccomend returning. Todays lunch and dinner we returned to some of our favorite spots and got the VIP treatment. We spent most of the day running around town picking up souvineers and shopping which was a fun experience. I went into Armani and prada for the first time in my life and looked at some 1500$ driving shoes... Hmmm. Anyhow, Rome has been great but I'm excited to be returning home. Se everybody soon!
-mike

Spanish steps

Todays session at the conference was the best yet with a couple very interesting talks. I had my best lunch yet at a place near our hotel under some vines. It was very afforadable and I had pork, and a delicious salad plus some dried meats! (meal photos to come). This afternoon we walked to the Spanish steps and took a nap... Now we're off to the gala dinner at the palazzo brancaccio (which I underestand is a point of interest).

At some point I plan on seeing the Spanish steps? Thanks again for all the tips I've gotten via blog or facebook.

Oh, I should note that when travelling in Rome watch out for extra charges on your meal such as service charges, sitting charges, and charges for things like the bread they put out on the table. Yesterday we totally got Ripped off...

Bikes, gardens, the pope

After falling asleep in a presentation about combining the Reynolds avegeraged navier stokes equations with large Eddie simulations, I decided to get out... I went to st peters, but did not feel like standing in the huge line...
I also checked out this huge park/garden which was very nice, and found a bike shop so I could check out some sweet itiialin bikes. I sucessfuly used public transit a lot, which made me feel good but there was still quite a lot of walking today and after my run this morning my legs are pooped... Maybe I'll try fitting a nap in before dinner.

Chao!
Mike

Moses

I forgot to mention the conference is held in a building connected to the st Peter in chains church which houses michaelangeos Moses. I walked over and saw it the other day and it's pretty incredible. What's even more incredible is the .50€ machine that lights up the statue of a photo op...

I think the gala dinner tommorow is in a place of interest also, I'll have to look that up...

Ceaser shuffel

I started this morning with a run that was supposed to take me to the collesium, around the forum and old paltine hill, and back north around the panthenom, however I seemed to carry too much angular momentum around the forum, took a wrong turn, and ended up much to far south (off my map). I. Kept running untill I eventually hit the tiber and was able to get myself home. The run was great but a lot longer than I had planned for. Now time for conferencing! Chao!

Day 3

Last night we checked out this trendy restaurant about a 1 hr walk from where we were are staying. The Meal was amazing, I had a seafood salad followed by monkfish covered in purscutto finished by a piece of terrimastout (yes stout, they used beer instead of expresso). We got pretty lost on the way back but it was a good experience. The goal for tonight is to try to learn the public transit system a little more effectivly.

The conference is going well, our talk was well recieved, and there have been a few interesting talks... But overall many of the talks are poor or unrelated to my interest...

Off to dinner!

Rome: first impressions

Romans are very friendly and warm. The food is fantastic but expensive. Europians are, in general better looking than Americans. The weather is great and the city is beautiful. So far I'm not a fan of the major sites I've seen, they're all a little ruined by mobs of people with cameras and fanny packs. But I do love walking the alleys off the beaten path. Time for dinner and night life, I'll keep you posted!
Mike

So much for an early night and a morning run

After meeting some beer enthuisits, making it an early night was vetoed by a tour of Italys small but growing craft beer culture. Most of today has been filled with lectures. I've seen a couple good ones but am reminded about how bad engineers are at presenting information.

Rome, day 1

We've arrived in Rome! The trip was uneventful except when the lady next to me ordered her third glass of wine, and decided it would look great spilled all over my new pants. Rome is beautiful, I've covered a lot of the city walking (with some help from a couple shots of expresso). Our hotel is nice, a block away from the st Peter in chains church and just down the road from the collesum in a quiet alleyway. I'm pretty exausted and might make it an early night. I want to go on a mourning jog to some of the sites before they begin looking like Disney land again... Then it's conference time! The talks sound cool in the neardiest way possible, ours is on Tuesday!

Anyhow, I'll try to keep this updated but expect short posts because I'm tapping them out on my iPod.
Peace
mike

Does anybody know what's actually going on in Honduras? The UN, USA, and a few other large world players have denounced the coup, but I can't help but feel sympathy for the new regime. first off, they obviously have enough support from the people to overthrow the government. Oppression isn't anything new in Honduras, one of the leading banana exporters of the world. I know that US companies like Chiquita and Doll have major stakes in the Honduran economy, and in past coups have supported the old government to get stability back as quick as possible (coups are not good for business). There's also been a lot of press on these companies mistreatment of their workers. Ties to drug cartels have been linked to the old leader, and I wonder if the US is supporting him because we believe in democracy or if we stand to loose a lot of money due to fair rites for the country and their workers?

Sorry i havn't been posting very much. I've been busy with school and bike riding. the triple is 2 weekends from now! I'm feeling strong, and overall pretty confident about the ride. thats all for now. peace.
-mike

Lunch time musings

How often it seems we take some blessing God has given to us out of his goodness and turn it into some sort of pat on the back for ourselves?

its like saying "surely because I've got this blessing, I've done something right and God is rewarding, and those that don't have it must have done something wrong, and are being punished"

I seem to see this attitude in myself and my friends all the time. Some examples are:

• Our friends (community)
• Our health/athleticism
• The place we live, earths beauty
  
• Our possessions
  

It seems that this posture seems to reflect our worship for ourselves, and our constant feeble attempts to cover our sinful nature with our good acts. How much more an act of worship to realize how little we deserve any of our blessings, but are given them in abundance anyways?\

I guess this is important because it determines the way we use our blessings. If we assume our wealth is a blessing to us, without our earning, than we will be more likely to use it to bless others. on a less noticeable note, if we assume we are in great community because we have done something right, our community will soon turn inwardly focused and will not represent the outwardly focused church in the new testament.

My first You-Tube video

I started making this one day when i checked the weather and saw a stunning mid-latitude cyclone over much of the US. I wrote a little script to grab the current viable water vapor image off the net, and stitch them together in a video.

These large scale vortices are common around the globe, and match (in structure) a lot of the smaller scale vortices I study in the lab.

2009 Big Bike Trip

Last year we road the blue ridge parkway to fulfill my nastolgia for Appalachia. We had a great time on a perfect trip that can will never be re-created.

However, my love riding my bike remains, and Today a dream was born for this summer: a trek through the beautiful Rockies from Boulder to Crested Butte, stopping along the way in destinations such as Estes Park, Winter Park, Frisco, and Buena Vista.


The trip will either happen in late June or early August. Here's links to maps of individual days:

Day 1: Boulder->Estes Park 64 miles, 6483 ft climbing, 3763 decent
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/co/boulder/75712398313061540

Day 2: Estes Park->Winter Park 68 miles, 5630 ft climbing, 5052 decent
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/co/-estes-park/561123983182788124

Day 3: Winter Park->Frisco 72 Miles, 2310 ft climbing, 2251 ft decent
http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/co/tabernash/982123983356526213

Day 4: Frisco->Buena Vista 68 Miles, 3310 ft climbing, 4396 decent
http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/co/boulder/225123983402330303

Day 5: Buena Vista->Crested Butte (This is up for debate, the route i have on the map above might be dirt roads...)

If any of my buds that are reading this want to join in, let me know!

Peace.
mike

From one of my favorite bands

"Ultimately, every revolutionary act is an act of love - it's about love for people. And so I think every song I've ever written has been a love song." - zach de la rocha

Beef, its what's for dinner (not anymore)

So i've been reading this book "rich Christians in an age of hunger" and I've been thinking a lot about the choices I make every day.

I blogged a little bit ago about gas, and if buying gas from certian companies has certian environmental or humanitarian effects. Well, this can spread to all sorts of things, clothing, food etc. A really usefull website a friend showed me is www.betterworldshopper.com On better world shopper, they rank companies on a variety of issues from 'A' to 'F'. It's not a perfect website, they don't really tell you how they got their data, but it's a start to making wiser choices.

I've also made the decision to stop buying beef. I'll still eat it if its being served to me, but the social and environmental implications in cattle raising seems to hard to justify without more knowledge. I'm not going to rant on this too much, or look down on people who still eat beef, but there are a couple of reasons:

1. With rising food prices and a global food shortage, its important to concsider how much the world can sustain, and what our crops are being used for. it takes 16 lbs of grains to produce 1 lb of edible beef.
2. With global warming, more intesnse storms and harsher droughts, water is beggining to be an issue for a lot of the united states. It is estimated more than half the water used in the united states is used to grow grains for beef consupmtion or in beef proccessing.
3. Finally, a recent study shows that producing 1 kG of beef produces the same amount of Co2 that is made driving a car for 3 hours while leaving all the lights on in your house.

so thats that!
peace.

Can you still see goodness in my heart?

Yesterday I was walking home from school around 9pm when I realize a man is following closely behind. Soon he is right next to me, just an inch from my elbow. This brief dialog followed:

"Excuse me." He says
"Yes?" I reply
"Can you still see goodness in my heart?" He asks
the question caught me a little off guard.
"What?" I asked.
"Can you still see goodness in my heart?" He repeated.
still a little woozy from a day in front of the computer i replied:
"yeah, i guess so..."

and with that he grinned, and ran off across Broadway.


The man haunted me all night. What did he mean? Then i sat down this morning to read the news.

Children in Africa are still being abducted as soldiers.

Can I still see the the goodness in their hearts?




Angry militants in Gaza continue to fire rockets at neighboring Israel, as Israel continues it's blockade and air strikes of the area.

Can I still see the the goodness in their hearts?



The news continues, war, oppression, corruption, greed. Sin. We are a fallen people, can I still see the goodness in our hearts? Yeah, i guess so. We are image bearers of God. Because He is good, i can't help but see good in all people. Despite the fall, I can still see goodness in our hearts.

I guess this means I have hope for humanity, but that hope can only prevail if the evil in our hearts is redeemed. Then goodness, our true image, will prevail. That's why I have to trust Christ. Without Him, there is no hope. there is no redemption. In him, there is hope. In him, there is peace.

Peace.
mike

Courage

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. "He that will lose his life, the same shall save it," is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes... A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water, and yet drink death like wine.

-G.K. Chesterton, orthodoxy

Envrionmentally friendly gas companies?

I was reading this article in the BBC about Nigeria flaring off natural gas from their oil wells, a wasteful and destructive practice. The oil companies (Shell oil) point their finger at the government while the government points their finger at shell. The whole thing makes me wonder, should I buy gas supplied by shell oil if they do this practice? I'm sure other companies are destructive as well. Are there any gas providers that strive for environmental excellence and fair humanitarian practices? How bought pushing for renewable energy and sustainable practices?
I just feel really uninformed, and the only decision that affects my gas buying is "what's at this exit." but maybe if i knew a little more, i could plan to buy my gas from "better" companies and maybe make a bit of difference in the world.
Peace.
mike