Nooooo!

I have unfortunately stumbled across this website....and I. can't. stop. watching. It's a silly waste of my time but now that I'm 41917 seconds into it, I feel I'm too far gone and I must continue until it is complete!
This is a fair warning, that if you click her on this you may be here for a year. Now you want to know what it is.....don't you?

42118 seconds.

Beyond My Intellectual Capacity

So I have this big astronomy test on Thursday over nothing that particularly excites me, so instead of studying what is supposed to be on the exam, I watched a video by Louie Giglio titled, "How Great is Our God" and decided I should blog about it. He compares the rest of the galaxy in terms f the Earth being the size of a golf ball, in other words, everything I wish we were learning about in class!

This is now Earth. Imagine you on that Earth. You can't even make a pin prick small enough to represent one person!

After picturing our tiny selves on a small golf ball sized Earth, it only makes sense to compare that to the other bodies our the galaxy. Like the sun for instance, would be 15 feet in diameter next to our Earth. You can put 960 Earths in the Sun which would be like filling a school bus with golf balls! (Has your jaw dropped yet? Cause mine has.)

Louie talks about four main stars, the second being Betelgeuse. It is twice the size...not of the sun...but of the Earth's orbit AROUND the Sun! That would be like six Empire State Buildings stacked on top of each other. 22 trillion Earths could fit in there...you could fill a SUPER DOME with that many golf balls 3,000 times!

If Betelgeuse isn't large enough for you, then you have Mucephi. Its diameter would be 2 Golden Gate Bridges end to end...that's only the diameter! You could squeeze 2.7 QUADRILLION little Earths into this star.

He tries to help us grasp a quadrillion so he talks about how 1 million seconds ago would be 12 days ago...no biggie right? 1 billion seconds ago would be 1975...1 trillion we're now in 29700 BC.......1 quadrillion seconds ago is 30,000,800 years in the past! Holy wow!

Now onto Canis Majoris. I don't even need to go onto this one to explain how magnificently huge God is and how undeniably small we are, but I'll tell you just for kicks. In comparison to a golf ball, Canis Majoris would be the size of MOUNT EVEREST! That's almost 6 miles about sea level! You could fit 7 quadrillion Earths in into this star. Did you catch that? 7 QUADRILLION! That's enough to cover the state of Texas with golf balls...22 inches deep. Yep. That's right.

Now keep in mind how itty bitty we are and remember that this is only our galaxy...not to mention the other who knows how many galaxies that are out there.

God breathes stars into existence. There are no words.

Stairway to Fun!

It comes with the wait

Patience is something I struggle with and something that God is constantly testing me on. I guess he really wants me to learn this fruit of the spirit. I'm most definitely thankful for this, but it doesn't go without moments of frustration and loads of emotions. I happened to stumble upon this poem the other day and it came in perfect timing. God has a way of doing that.

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate ...

And the Master so gently said, “Wait.”

“Wait? you say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

“My future and all to which I relate
Hangs in the balance, and you tell me to wait?
I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign,
Or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
And Lord I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate,
As my Master replied again, “Wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
And grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine ...
and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

“I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of my love for each saint.
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

“You’d never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

“The glow of my comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“You’d never know, should your pain quickly flee,
What it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
But, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still . . . Wait.”

-“Wait” by Russell Kelfer

Settled Place

Right now, I believe I have a right to be a little unsettled, a little stressed out and frustrated.

But I am not.

Maybe it is because I am sitting in a cafe with calming music in my headphones, eating a scone and a blended coffee, but I feel more at peace now than I have in a long time.

It is not just a temporary "this place is peaceful" kind of thing. I would more call it a settled peace. I feel like I could handle any situation right now, which probably means that I am being prepared to deal with something new and challenging, I guess. But I am OK with that too.

This settled peace, it is really very freeing. I watch out the window as a sheet of newspaper is tumbled in the wind, as tiny birds hop around beside a car in the parking lot picking at crumbs on the blacktop, and I am just watching. I am not analyzing or preparing the thought of these sights for anything, I am just watching and enjoying their separate beauties.

I am a little scared, I must admit, because I do feel as though I am being prepared for something. I have been put into this accepting state of mind and I am scared for whatever it is I must accept. Maybe I am over analyzing after all. Maybe I am just being blessed with this momentary peace and I should accept it as a blessing and nothing more.

It is hard, sometimes, to accept a free gift, isn't it?

Thoreau

I was looking over some of my Henry Thoreau quotes that I have written down over the years of reading his stuff. Not only do I love Thoreau even with his quirky, far out personality, but I am a huge fan of great quotes, and when you put the two together, it is a beautiful thing, so I wanted to share.

• I know where he’s going. He’s going where he’s supposed to go. So he can be where he’s supposed to be, at the time he’s supposed to be there. Why? So he’ll be liked. My God, a whole country of us who only want to be liked. But to be liked, you must never disagree. And if you never disagree, it’s like only breathing in and never breathing out! A man suffocates on courtesy.
• Retirement? What an absurd idea! Why spend the best part of your life earning money so that you can enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it? Why work like a dog so you can pant for a moment or two before you die?
• Maybe to prove less is more. You see, I’m really very wealthy; I just don’t have any money, that’s all.
• If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Lament

My all time favorite Bible verse. When times are rough, I always look to this to help me get through.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It’s a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It’s a good thing when you’re young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst. Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return. If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way.
Lamentations 3:25-33