Exhaling Midterms

There is only so long that you can take in

before you must put out

Only so long that you can study

and relearn

and process

and read

and take notes

before you must let it all out,

a test isn’t good enough,

no, not at all.

Only so long that you can learn about life

before you must go out and live it.

I can only learn about the “Theories of Intelligence” for so long

before I must go and use my intelligence.

I can only learn about encryption of data for so long

before I must go and make something worth encrypting.

I can only learn about position, velocity, and acceleration for so long

before I must go and make my own motion in the world.

I can only use my “analytical/academic intelligence” for so long

before I must go and use my “creative intelligence”.

***

I love you, my AP classes

but during midterms

(rather more, anytime)

I need to make something

to have the input and learning seem worth it.

***

I need to exhale after weeks of inhaling.

Inhaling:

integrals

the Law of Universal Gravitation

the Vigenère cipher

literary devices

SAT vocabulary

the double approach-avoidance conflict.

I just exhaled this poem,

in a heaving, heavy, ugly breath

because I have been running a race

and the finish line is midterms.

***

Life should be like breathing,

not all inhaling

and not all exhaling

but a balance.

***

I feel like I can breath again

God’s Infinite Love

The rambling of a Christian AP Calculus AB student about God’s love and math:

God’s love is ∞ (infinite) and always continuous

God’s love doesn’t have holes or sharp turns or cusps in it

God’s love has no limits

Makes your sins DNE (Does Not Exist)

God and us were parallel lines,

we were never going to intersect

but then Jesus died on a cross † (perpendicular lines)

so that we could meet.

God’s love is irrational (π), it doesn’t make sense why He would love us like He does

but it is real (7) and radical (√) anyway

When we share God’s love it does not subtract (-) from our own;

rather, it multiplies (*) and adds (+) meaning to other’s lives

He knows eXactly where to find us

and He knows “Y” (why) we are there

He knows you from you minima to your maxima

His love circles you X² + Y² = r²

from your center to your tangent line

To love God back has the absolute greatest value

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God

It is a simple opposite over hypotenuse equation

the opposite side is always shorter than the hypotenuse

our sinned filled lives are always shorter than God’s perfection

God’s love to our love is not ∝ (proportional)

it is always > (greater than)

***

Of course I’ve saved the best for last: God’s math

1 cross + 3 nails = 4given

A History Worth Remembering

We are constantly making history

both as individuals

and as society.

Tick Tock goes the history clock

Our actions are written down in the future history textbooks

that someday our grandchildren will read

and ask, “You lived through that?”

The same question I ask my own grandparents about World War Two.

The wheel of history turns

and so does that of life.

And so I challenge you,

on this day

January 20th, 2017

to make a history worth remembering

a history to be proud of

a history worth living through

because each and every one of us

can make and change history.

This day will certainly go down in the history books

and probably the day after will also

so let’s make it a good day.

President Donald J. Trump will change the world

as well as my life

and so I wish the best for him and my country.

Though I do not agree with everything he says or does or believes or tweets

though I could not vote for him

I will support him

I will wish only success for him and my nation

because I want to make a history worth remembering

a life to be proud of

I wish the next four years to be the best in all of history

and I will try to make them so.

President Donald J. Trump,

you will change my life

you will change the world

you will make history

but so will I.

 

Love Extravagantly

I created a Christian mix tape this past summer and my mom, sister and her best friend and I were driving to an amusement park listening to the CD. On the mix was Proof of Your Love by for King and Country (which has the best music video I have ever seen in a Christian song). In the middle of the song are these beautiful words about love. We all stopped and just listened. Not until months later did I find where the words came from. I get a Bible verse on my phone everyday and I like the Message translation better than NIV in most cases. When I first read these words, I was dumbstruck. I could easily recite 1 Corinthians 13 – which is known as the love chapter – in the New International Version, but when I read it in the Message it felt so new and alive. So below I am sharing with you the Message version of 1 Corinthians 13.

---

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

More Human than Hero

Heroes are just humans,

full of flaws and faults

like the rest of us

They may think that

the flaws are hidden when capes and masks are donned,

that faults fly away when they do,

but instead they just fester and grow

into something without edges

or boundaries.

In trying to save the world,

they forget to save themselves.

They turn more human than hero.

And that is what draws us to them.

You can give us super-humans

and although their powers dazzle us,

we are allured to the human in their names.

Saved For a Purpose

I had the pleasure of listening to Nicole F. Nelson at my church today. It was an excellent message about us being saved for a purpose and that purpose is to use our talents to help others as well as share the Good News, especially when there are so many challenges in this world. Her words speak from God’s heart and they blessed me and I hope that they bless you as well. Below is the video of her sermon.