If he was a candidate eight years ago, who knows...

"Well, I've been sleeping like a baby - sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours, wake up and cry..."

John McCain on Jay Leno, in response to being asked how he's been doing since Election Day

Sir is always right, even when he's wrong, he's always right...

Some days, my mind does not seem to come even close to working. This is demonstrated by my activities in a lesson this morning explaining how to factorise quadratic equations. I'd warned the class beforehand that the method was quite difficult, and I think my actions showed that...

Firstly, I'd point out that I'm an engineer by training, and therefore a somewhat lazy mathematician. The result of this is that if I need to solve an anyway tough looking quadratic (that is, one with a co-efficient of x squared greater than one...), I'll shove it straight into the quadratic equation without even thinking of factorising. This means that I'm less than fluent when it comes to factorisation. It should have been less of a surprise then when I ran through my example and soon found it didn't factorise. D'oh, not to worry though, I just made another one up. The unfortunate thing is that not only is my factorising pretty rubbish, so is my mental arithmetic, and so my second example also didn't work...

Third time was the charm, but I think I was long past the attention span of my class. Maybe next lesson I'll get it right...

Sin and Boredom

I've been reading some of Dale Ralph Davis's commentaries on the Old Testament history books (which incidentally, I would struggle to recommend highly enough), and I've been struck by his highlighting of the "boringness" of sin. Particularly noticeable in Judges and the books of Kings, the reports of the sins of the nation of Israel soon become repetitive and boring. Think of the refrain in the epitaphs of the Kings of Israel in I and II Kings, such as this example from I Kings 15:33-34:

"In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all of Israel at Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin."

It's same old, same old. New guy comes in, and does the same thing as the first king of Israel did as he made the nation sin. I picked this example because that's the first passage my bible opened at, I could have taken my pick from a number of others. Similarly, the book of Judges has a similar pattern of boredom, the phrasing at the beginning of chapter 4 says much:

"And the people Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD after Ehud died."

There's a sense of frustration in the tone, "after this guy died, they just went back to what they did before...". Davies's claim is that this is very deliberate, there is no creativity that arrises from rebellion against God, just a lukewarm rehash of what has come before.

As I've been studying Romans recently, part of what I was reading in Romans 7 resonated with this feeling from the Old Testament:

"What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet." But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness."

Romans 7:7-8a

These verses give me the mental picture of me wanting to rebel, but not being able to think of a way to do so. In the end, my sinful nature has to wait until I hear the law before I can find a suitable way to be rebellious! Sinfulness can't think for itself - it needs to react to something good, such as God's law, before it can get inspiration to rebel. There is no originality, sinning is going to be the same old, same old.

Davis goes on to point to show that the real points where the narrative gets exciting in the history of Israel is when we encounter characters living in God's service, thinking of episodes such as Joshua's initial conquest of the land, the often intriguing and exciting saving actions of the Judges and the reigns of the Godly kings of Judah such as Jehu. This shouldn't be surprising, to follow the creative God, the God who brings all things into being, is inevitably going to be exciting, yet if we rebel against God how can we expect anything other that creativity to flee from us? In the words of Jesus,

"The thief comes only to steal and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly."

John 10:10

Dates in the completion of an Engineering Degree...

6th October 2002: Arrive in Oxford as a first year undergraduate.

19th October 2002: Matriculate as a member of the University of Oxford

17th June 2006: Finish exam in Engineering Mathematics, bringing an end to my studies for the degree of Master of Engineering.

And now...

23rd May 2009: Date set to graduate and receive the degree of Master of Engineering.

It's better late than never, I suppose. It's particularly amusing that I've completed a post-graduate qualification before I've been accredited with my undergraduate one...

Indications of being a geek

On an afternoon in Paris, wondering what to do, you look at a map of the metro looking for inspiration, you see La Défense and think

"Oh, I can go and see that three-dimensional projection of a four-dimensional hypercube!"

followed by some sort of justification along the lines of

"That would be cool!"

I have to admit, I was genuinely excited. As it was I had more reason to be so than just my mathematical geekery - it is a rather impressive structure. I'd known it was big (La Grande Arche de la Défense being a bit of a give away I suppose) but I wasn't quite prepared for quite how colossal it was. There's something rather breathtaking about huge, yet very simple, structures.

All of this was marginally before I then got swept away by being impressed by Parisian city planning (it only goes from bad to worse), as I turn round to find L'Arc de Triomphe lined up exactly, with the Champs Élysées running along the line between the two arches. It's been pointed out to me that my amazement would have been lessened if I'd went to the length of research that involves looking at a map, but as I commented on Sunday, looking at a map lessens the excitement that can come from these sort of things...

No Condemnation

I am rather amazed that, until it was pointed out to me, I'd never appreciated the present tense in the following:

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Romans 8:1

I'd always seen the aspect that related the to the future. At one point I faced condemnation, now through the death of Christ I, through faith in him, no longer fear condemnation at that last day. I got that, and found comfort in that. But there's more to it than just that.

In Christ, I face no condemnation. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever. I know that when I stand before judgement that I will face no condemnation, but actually when I go through hard times and dark periods, at the times when I can't understand what's happening or why I feel the way I do, I can be assured of this, it is not God's condemnation for me. This is a glorious truth, because it means that in those hard times, my refuge and my comfort is still my God. I don't have to run from him in the hard times, in fear that I have invited his judgement, but I can continue, with trembling, to throw myself on His mercy as the one who forgives and comforts sinners, such as myself.

At the end of a week where I've felt lonely, ill, disquiet and guilt, I am able to remind myself that there is no condemnation for those in Christ, and the God who answered my call for His mercy all those years back is still the same comfort now as He was for me then. Amen.

These thoughts come off the back of listening to this sermon by John Piper.

The planning, it would seem, doesn't stop...

No longer does take a day off sick mean having a day off - I've just spent an hour sorting out potential cover ready to e-mail off in case I don't recover by tomorrow, as well as figuring out whether my lessons can be planned for Monday. Joy.

It's a good incentive for not taking spurious leave I suppose...