Path to Math

I can say that I have always had an aptitude for Math even though I struggled with arithmetic in my early schools days and never was in the super advanced classes in High School. I took math at my own pace and struggled through some concepts. I was a B student when I entered Cerro Coso Community College. Due to a bad teacher bad precalculus teacher in High School, she was just waiting to retire and didn’t really want to teach, I wanted to take the subject again even though I had passed with a B. Because of this I met a teacher named Dean Bernsten, was the coolest teacher I ever had seen to date. Since I had taken basically the same math in High School I blew through his College Algebra and Trigonometry classes with ease. He noticed how much I enjoyed the subject and how well I was doing in his classes and asked me to become a tutor. I didn’t accept at first because I already had a job but soon after due to horrible scheduling conflicts I quit my job and became a tutor. I was making less money, a lot less, but I could focus on school. After two years of tutoring math in the Cerro Coso LRC I was on fire for math and teaching math. Dean Bernsten acted as a kind of mentor to me occasionally taught me things. One of the first proofs I have done was the proof of the quadratic equation, which he showed me on the board during the dead hours of my work. I got through Calculus I, II, and III, Differential Equations and Physics I at Cerro Coso tutoring all the while. I ended up receiving an award for Most Outstanding Math Student of the Year, or something like that. I felt completely unworthy of such an award. I still wasn’t sure what to do exactly but I liked computers and so I applied for Channel Islands as a Computer Science Major. Shortly afterwards, late at night I had an epiphany, why don’t I just do math? I didn’t know where math would take me or what a mathematician does exactly, but I was happy doing math so why not? So right when I got to CI I changed my major, Math. I have yet to regret that decision. After taking all the required and elective math classes as well as being surrounded by the wonderful teachers here at CI I have learned much. Math is like a tree; you have to climb the foundational trunk, algebra and calculus, before you can swing on its more interesting branches. What a beautiful and fun tree it is to climb.

Leaving Ridgecrest

I came to the realization the other day that I don’t want to live in Ridgecrest anymore. It was hard realization to face. If you are unaware there is strongly held belief in Ridgecrest that if you want to leave you will always come back. This has proven to be true in many cases. I have seen people leave and come back time and time again. But I never had that inkling to leave. For me, the reverse is happening; I wanted to stay but I am feeling drawn to leave. I look at my ties to Ridgecrest, the people I know and would hang out with and I technically have more friends elsewhere if only by sheer numbers. I did a Facebook count and for every two people in Ridgecrest I had three people living else where. But numbers aren’t as important as the closeness with those people. And, blood relatives aside, if I weighted it the numbers on both sides friends elsewhere would still win. My idealized plan for the future consisted of working on the base in Ridgecrest and then teaching adjunct at Cerro Coso with my favorite math teacher Dean Bursten. But after this summer my thoughts have changed.

First I wasn’t able to find a job on the base. They just aren’t hiring right now. I was talking with a friend who did get hired but all he does is sit there. Apparently they over hired people. But mostly the people who I care about aren’t here anymore, family aside. All of the people who I would normally hang out with aren’t really around anymore. I was glad to be able to catch up with my friends that still live here and the ones whom have returned from college for the summer but Ridgecrest isn’t as I remembered it. The ties that I have to this place aren’t so strong anymore. It’s just not home anymore. My actually house home has been invaded by Grandma. It’s been hard living with her since she has really heavy-set dementia. She has no idea what is going on most days and we constantly have care givers in the house while my parents are at work. We don’t really know when she will pass away either. While I don’t want to say this, this has been a strong motivating factor.

I like it here but my close church community is largely gone. It was a bit of a shock but when returning to my home church I didn’t recognize a majority of the people. I used to know tons of people, I’ve been at that church since 8th grade! I don’t really feel part of that church anymore. At the church I attend in Ridgecrest I feel every minute of the service dragging on whereas in Camarillo the service is longer and it passes by quickly. We even stay for hours afterward. I needed a church where I belong and challenges me. They are my family. I have made some really good bonds and have gotten some really good accountability. If I had to pick the most important factor to me it is this.

I strangely feel at home in Camarillo even though I have been there for such a short time even before I found a church. It’s funny after the first week school I ended up visiting Justin via train and the moment I arrived back at the train station I felt a relief as if I had just come home from a long trip. My community there is strong and close. I feel as if I belong there. When I was researching schools I felt inexplicably drawn to Channel Islands. I really can’t explain it, I didn’t care about applying for any other schools even though my mom suggested it. And I got in and that was that. It just feels right being there. Whether it be at church, my math group, or anyone I hang out with there I feel at home. God has led me there and it is good, so good.

So after my graduation I plan on moving there or around that area so I can be close to my friends. I would like to get an internship on one of the military bases down there so I have an in when I graduate. We will see what the future holds but as for now I will set my thoughts and actions on staying down there.

Semester Lessons and Divisibility Rules

This semester has been interesting. I think I could start most recap posts like that but it has been truly interesting. I traveled to Italy, pursued a women, served in a couple of churches, took 20 odd units, and somehow maintained some form of social life. I can’t believe I survived this semester. I can’t believe I didn’t go crazy (who says I wasn’t already)? Not only that but,  with a little help from my friends, I managed to pull off straight A’s minus one class (damn you real analysis)! I was not expecting that at all. I really owe my friends for keeping me afloat this semester both emotionally and educationally. I never knew that I could take that many classes at once and do so well. Of course I know some of the classes were easier than others but still. I passed, even more so.

Since I already talked about Italy in an earlier post we will start with The Pursuit. I gained many insights just through the pursuit. The whole pursuit contradicted my earlier views. For the longest time I just wanted to be single. Trust me, I would be the first person to call foul and say it was because I was scared of commitment or some similar shtick but I don’t believe these common notions would describe why. I held the idea that being in that kind of a relationship was selfish. I wanted to be available to help others and not compromise my time for them due to a commitment to a girl. But like any misled belief there were flaws in that reality. I found that during the pursuit I felt like I was serving more than ever before. I transformed into a more driven person and I gave my time to pursuit and others and serving and school work. Life was full. Not only that but God used this time to speak to me and show Himself to me as I prayed over every move I made. On the other-side of the pursuit I am more open to a being in a relationship. I was made this way and, for whatever reason, have been ignoring this part of me for a long time. I am still fully convinced that I can be happy alone and with that attitude I can thrive in a relationship. But this particular pursuit didn’t work out and I am actually fine with that. Sure I was sad but if that wasn’t my feeling at that moment I would question if I was true. As of now I am at peace with the situation. I only pray that it didn’t complicate the friendship too much. I mean just because I don’t a romantic inclination for her doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy her idiosyncrasies and her company anymore.

Next, churches and serving, I was quite happy to serve again. I was actually able to serve in couple churches too. Doing sound even! I swore to myself I would never do sound again after the drama with the last church. I’m sure it is better now that time has gone by but then it was rather awful. I was able to serve with two churches that were completely different in their attitude from the last church during the drama. One of those new churches was a night church that was merely using the building after the main morning church was done. So there was only one sound system that we shared. This particular aspect was similar to the situation I was in before. One evening doing sound, it might have been the first or second time I was helping and thus I was still being “taught” how to use the system. Actually being fairly experienced with sound equipment I commented on how wonky the it was put together and how we could make it better. The other guy agreed with me but let me know that we have to respect the morning service’s equipment. This was a surprise to me. I certainly wasn’t suggesting that we change right at this moment and I think he knew that but it was a refreshing reminder about what is important. Unity. At my other church the sound equipment would always be tampered with between services so it never ran the same after each use. It caused a lot tension in the church. I was burned out as a sound guy. Tired of fighting the battles and having to take sides in a Christian environment where we should all just be working together. This was refreshing. All of the people at both of the churches I served at are like this. They understood that community was more important than the “show” on Sunday.

This isn’t just about sound and serving. It’s about a true Christian community. I wasn’t just burned out as a sound guy but as a Christian. I am so blessed, surrounded by genuine people pursuing the faith  (there’s that word again, I should pursue a thesaurus). It’s encouraging for me to see a true community of believers.

Now school, school was hard. It was hard to take as many units as I did and still keep my head above water. It was nice to have people who I could work with to ease the burden. Considering my major this should come as no surprise, but I am of course talking about math nerds.  It is rather fun to be around people who genuinely enjoy math. Imagine all the inside jokes that you have with your friends, now imagine that those jokes are math equations. It is rather hilarious how rightly that captures how we interact sometimes, only sometimes of course. I think half the reason I got involved in mathematics is the obscure sense of humor that only people who have taken past the required math courses can enjoy. It’s almost like a secret club. While I can adequately socialize with people outside of this particular “club” I have a sort of sick predilection towards hanging out with mathematicians. On a side note “mathematician” is a word that should be a bit easier to spell considering the people who it represents, I mean come on, it’s almost as mean as asking a dyslexic to properly enunciate his condition.

Anyway, I remember one occasion, giddily talking about math with a colleague in front of an outsider. We were discussing some arbitrary concept, that was a math joke if you didn’t catch it, but they only turned away in disgust. It’s not as if math people are any different that people who don’t like math. Ok, that’s a lie, we are weird at times, but my point is that mathematicians don’t conform to every stereotype, unless, you know, they want to. People often already hold an idea of a what a mathematician should be we seldom fit that mold completely. I know a guy who occupies both the mathematician stereotype and the jock stereotype. You know the that kind person I’m talking about, works out all the time, super buff. But yet he is just as excited about modular arithmetic as I am. Well, he might be a bit more excited by it than I am. But still! While I can easily attribute those characteristics to him without much dispute the truth is he is much complex than those labels. We all are, not just mathematics. There is truth in stereotypes, that is why we have them; People always conform to some classifications but the trouble comes when we don’t imagine past our opinions. We must see the each other as capable of actions and holding interests apart from our first judgements. Over analyzing stereotypes aside, the point I am trying to get across is that I like math and the math crowd I hung out with, while sharing my affinity for numbers, were truly unique individuals. This semester wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Further discussing mathematical content the one class that has truly scarred me for life and yet strangely enchanting was Number Theory. While there are a vast number of topics that I found so alluring that madness was unavoidable, the most captivating of these concepts are prime numbers. Judging by the title of this post you might see where this is heading: Divisibility Rules! It’s a terrible sickness, every time I look at a number I try to figure out if that number is a prime or what it’s factors are. I believe everyone knows a few of these tricks like if the number ends in an even number it is divisible by 2 or if the sum of the digits it divisible by 3 then that number is divisible by 3. But did you know that if you remove the end digit of a number, say 42, a choice which is another level of nerd by the way, and then multiple the removed digit by 2 and subtract the digit that was multiplied number by the remaining digits, seven in this case, and end up with a that number is divisible by 7 then the original number is divisible by seven? I didn’t think so. Oh, and if you actually did the math and came up with zero technically zero is a multiple of 7. 7*0=0. I like finding large prime numbers and even pseudoprimes (numbers that have only two unique factors, often used cryptology). I could go on and on like is forever so I feel like I should stop here. I will just leave you with the Wikipedia page for divisibility tests. Check it out! There are some interesting ones that I didn’t know.

All and all this semester was a learning experience. I learned so many new things and hopefully after this restful summer, almost too restful, I will be ready to learn more, experience more, and do more math! (not that I stopped doing math over the break) I hope next semester will be fuller than ever.

Small Disclaimer and Encouragement: The point of this post and posting it so publicly is to let people into my mind and gain a vulnerability that will hold me accountable to my standards. If for any reason you find the content or the public display in bad taste let me know. Oh and if you think I am talking about you, well I am. Unless it isn’t you then no; I am not talking about you. This is what I think, I have spent a lot of time choosing my words so that I can accurately describe my situation. Even still if you find a phrase not making sense I do have a bit of dyslexic so I may have not caught it. Now I want you to let me know what YOU think. So what will you say? The ball is in your court.

Italia Synopsis and Lession One: Fear and Love

I just got back from my trip to Italy it was really fun. Not only did I get to have some amazing experiences and enjoy my Italian heritage but I learned a multitude of things about myself. I will be having more post about these things as the days progress but as for now I want to give a quick synopsis of the trip, as well as, delve into the wisdom I gleaned.

The trip to Italia (Italy) was a ten-day trip with the Math Department from Cal State Channel Islands. Well, most of us where math majors. The trip was originally intended for math majors but there wasn’t enough people signed up so we admitted a chemistry major, due (two) psychology majors, a biology major, a communication major, and a political science major. The rest were math majors and two math professors. The idea of the trip was to present research and projects to other math students some universities in Italy. Well, we did present twice, but it wasn’t anything special. There were students but mostly grad students and professors so we didn’t get the same connection as the ideal of the trip. So in reality it was a fun trip with a grand total of one day on math talks and the rest of the ten-day trip on doing whatever the heck we wanted. There were only a part of few days that we had to do something as a group, like visiting the vatican museum or going to a piano concerto or going to an opera. But as you can tell from the list it wasn’t really a hassle to meet up for these awesome activities.

The trip was subsidized by a grant and our tuition so it was extremely cheap. We paid seven hundred out-of-pocket which included round trip airfare, hotels, all the museums we wanted to got to and all public transportation costs (trains and water taxi). I ended up spending about three hundred euros on food and gifts for others (and for myself). So for a ten day trip to Italia where we traveled to Roma (Rome), Firenze (Florence), Venezia (Venice), and Padua (Padova) that is an amazing deal, well worth it.

There were of course snags along the way. People didn’t always get along and over all the trip was quite poorly planned. For example, when we arrived in Roma we realized that we didn’t have the address for the Hostel we would be staying at and in the rush of climbing into the taxis we left two people from the group at the airport. Cliques were formed and people yelled at each other sometimes but as for me I intermingled between all the different groups as I have the nature to do so. But these undesirables circumstances only flared for but for a moment and then life was enjoyable again.

On the trip, especial before and during presenting our math talk, I became anxious or even scared. Through this experience I prayed a lot. I God was always with me but he never took away the fear completely. It got me to thinking about the relationship between loving God and fearing God. In the Bible it reads that perfect love drives out fear and that God is love. But also it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is the question that everyone asks; where is the place for fear among our loving relationship with God? Why does God allow fear in our lives since He is a loving God? Because if you didn’t know every experience of fear, God is fully capable of removing.

During the last presentation I came up with a sort of impression of why this is so. God allows bad experience in our life, fear, so that we can become closer with Him. If things were perfect all the time and we didn’t experience fear or any kind of negative emotion we wouldn’t hardly come to God with anything. In the process of fear we become more intimate with Him and grow to love Him more. Before I would be scared and just freeze or just try to tough it out without the Lord, not wait on Him. Now I am learning to deal with my fears in a healthy way by coming to Him with them. I couldn’t deal with fear because I thought that God wasn’t doing His job if He didn’t remove it from me, but I was wrong. God is just opening an opportunity to receive His love during the fear. Perfect love does cast out all fear but it’s a process you have to work through, it’s not instantaneous.

Furthermore the fear of the Lord is something that I am beginning to understand. It’s not so much being frightened by the Lord’s ability to send you to hell as it’s being in awe of his power. He has unlimited power. He can do whatever He wants and be justified in doing so because He created you. He gave you your breath and he can take it away. In a word everything is a gift and while He has this power to do as He wills He is a loving God. You have heard it said and He will not give you anything that You cannot handle or that you should rejoice in the suffering He put You though. These are both true and relate back to the fear thing that I just talked about. God gives you these tests or trails in Love. So while You are fearful in the situation He is there with you asking you to endure it so that He can become closer to You. This is the fear of the Lord. He controls your trials and apart from Him there is fear. True fear of the Lord is the fear of separation; love comes from knowledge that He is with you through the fear. In His love he asks us to under go trials so He can become closer to you. You have probably experienced it before in the state of fear your heart can become more tender. I wouldn’t be surprised if your fondest memories looking back are not the happy times with others but the times when friends held you up through impossible pain. A relationship with God is the same except He controls those experiences and they aren’t just some happenstance.

It is important to know that God loves you more than you love yourself or anything in the world. He wants you. He wouldn’t have created you if he didn’t want to become close with you. He wants intimacy with you. He crafted you in such a way and for such a time and in every facet to return that love because it is the time you will be most fulfilled. He doesn’t want pain because you need to suffer to be redeemed He wants you to discover Him in different contexts. The pain is hard but He is there with you through the fear. Do you view the Lord like this? What is He to you? An authoritarian God? Someone who just wants you to follow his rules blindly? What is He to you?

Real Analysis #1

Well I have tried to write a post on love since Valentines Day but I haven’t been able to write in any eloquence words concerning love because [excuse goes here]. So instead I’m going to talk a little about what I’m learning in real analysis.

For starters Real Analysis is a class that analyzes  everything in the real number line. So have you been told that zero times any number is equal to zero? Yeah, that’s great. A two years old boy (well maybe a bit older) could tell you that. But why? Why does that work and can we prove it. That is what Real Analysis is concerned with. Everything that you have just believed your whole life about numbers, this class starts talks about starting with the very basic rules and builds the whole real number system around them. Let’s start with why zero times a number always equals zero.

First we set it up:

For all x that is a real number we claim that 0(x)=0

Let’s use the additive identity property and add 0 to 0

0x=(0+0)x

Distribution Property

0x=(0x+0x)

Let’s subtract the additive inverse from both sides

0x+(-0x)=(0x+0x)+(-0x)

Right now we have the left side equal to zero. Let’s use the associative property

0=0x+(0x+(-0x))

Again the additive inverse property

0=0x+0

And now here is the claim.

0=ox

Proven

I imagine that you understand that a negative times a negative is a positive. Yeah? Well have you seen it proven? I didn’t think so.

First we’ll start with an arbitrary statement that equals some number x.

Lets set x = ab + (-a)(b) + (-a)(-b).

Whoa there what did I just do? This is where the trickery come in. Just stay with me and it will work out alright.

We have to set the problem up this what in order to get ab=(-a)(-b) It may seem not very obvious to set up the problem in this way but that is what you have to figure out. I have already done it once before so I know where to go.

Anyway

x = ab + (-a)(b) + (-a)(-b).

x = ab + (-a)[ (b) + (-b) ] Using the rules that we already have proven earlier we can factor out a -a

Since we know that a number plus its additive inverse is zero we can say:

x = ab + (-a)(0)

And since we just proved that a number times a 0 is 0 then we have

x=ab.

Cool half done.

Next we just factor a bit different. Pull out the b instead of the a.

x = b[a+(-a)]+(-a)(-b)

Following the same rules

x=b(0)+(-a)(-b)

x=(-a)(-b)

And since we also have x=ab by the transitivity of the equation:

ab=(-a)(-b)

Cool, huh? Well that’s just the beginning. We have done some really cool stuff so far. Today I didn’t do anything but read my real analysis book. It was rather relaxing. I think I might have a bit of a problem. Well now you know something that only a hand full of people know/care about. Enjoy.

College:1st Semester Recap and Lessons

So I haven’t posted in a while so I thought I would catch you up for everything I have learned this semester and make the promise of writing more as you should do after a long break in-between posts. So I promise to write more this year and different stuff to. I always tried to write well craft journeys into the depth of reality but maybe i’ll try a more silly post. I have been told by reliable sources that I can be funny (that might be a joke).

Anyways, in the old style, I will tell you what I learned this year in school. First and foremost, as I went to a school where I didn’t know anyone what so ever, except for on guy I met at transfer orientation, but that doesn’t really count now does it, I learned that I had to get out there and search for things. I couldn’t just sit in my room  and expect things to come to me. I had to let myself be known; this wasn’t ego driven either, if I didn’t let anyone know who I was then they wouldn’t know. It wasn’t like home where my reputation preceded me. The people who I interacted with already had an idea who I was. The only challenge back home was to change that reputation the people had.

At school at had a clean slate, no one knew who I was. I could craft anyone I wanted to be and people would see that as me and I would build a reputation from those interactions. But no matter where you go there you are. I could build a new reputation but I couldn’t escape from the insecurities that I had inside me. I let many people know who I was but there was always details that I withheld or embellished on. Like cooking for example, I can cook and I cook a lot but I am no gourmet chief. I can make a couple of complex things like pizza and I can bake but I make simple recipes for the most part. Also I told some that I enjoyed dancing. This is true but there view of that statement was fundamentally different from the one I had. When I say that I enjoy dancing that is after I gather enough courage to do it. I have to mentally prepare for such an ordeal. even though I give off an air of courage and even arrogance in the face of fear I am, at my core, a scared person. Hmm… maybe that isn’t right either. I believe myself to be a fickle person who waxes and wanes, as the moon would, between courage and cowardice. In these and some other avenues I led some people astray from the person I am. Also of all the mathematics students I met I don’t think most of them knew that I was Christian. But aside from these regrets I was able to build a solid new group of friends and I am thankful for them.

This year was full of miracles. These miracles weren’t just thrown into my lap. God was with me as I acted, not in passivity. If you don’t remember the miracles I talked about it in my previous post Comfort and Personality. I took the initiative to act on the desires that God placed in my heart and He was there to match me with accountability, a possibility for love, a deeper community, friends of all kinds. God is there and still with me. I found a church that changed my persecution of church. I found a church that gave me an encounter with God that helped me fight against the antagonistic agitation I had for all churches. I now am developing an eye of hope more than the eye of a critic. The reason I had that encounter to begin with is because I took the steps to screw the voice of worldly logic that was holding me back and went out of my way to get on a bus towards town. I was debating whether to go to the second launch meeting, since first I would have to take a bus, I was taken the first time by friends, and second I didn’t know if I cared to get involved in the church. (I was still skeptical at this time) They still needed a sound guy and I could fill that role but because of my experience with my last church that was the last commitment I would willing do. But God changed my heart and I am now going to be doing sound.

Out of my courage and confidence phase I decided to attend a Christmas Party that the church that I go to had organized. It was a simple party, potluck style, where the only entertainment was chatting and a Christmas movie, Elf, playing in background in the front room. I found some very interesting people to talk to in the front room. But of all the people I saw I found one girl that I knew from class that I didn’t know was a Christian. I don’t know what is was but something inside of me made me smile an extremely large smile. I was really excited to see her there and her being there made the whole party worth going to. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy the party but if I hadn’t and she had been there it would have been worth it. I couldn’t talk to her about anything but school because I was in such a shock of seeing her there. Not because I didn’t believe that she was a Christian but because of all the places and all the times I saw her there. There at a Christmas party for a church I never saw her at. Amazing. It would seem from that brief interaction that she was floored as well. A new fondness for her grew inside of me. I don’t know much about her but I really hope to get to know her in the days to come. (Edit: It didn’t work out but we are still friends. The whole experience was a lesson in listening to God.)

I also grew close to some people from my campus fellowship after talking about how I am unhappy with the state of the church today, the lack of community specifically. It was brought up at meeting before that the talks we usually have are just the same as always. It is almost like déjà vu. There is no depth, just trained responses. Through this interaction I was able to meet some really good guys. We started off with honesty and that is the way it stayed. I was apprehensive about sharing with new people as it is always that way but I was able to be the goofball that I can sometimes be. I was at ease. They all have similar interests as me so we get along very well. They are the accountability that I need. The people who I can whine too and not have them take it seriously. They just listen and give advice where it’s needed. Also we go to church together at a great little church.

Looking back over the school year took a long time to process and because of procrastination of course and just the sheer content of it all. I learned many things and let myself be know in many new ways. But you have to let yourself be know. You have too. Most people aren’t going to try to have the deep conversations with you. You have to seek it out. God was with me when I seeked out the things he placed in my heart. But I had to search before I could find. It was never hidden from me. It was out there just waiting to be found. God is always there and through the pain and hunger and gladness and peace he is there. He will never leave you. If you feel like you can’t feel God or that He isn’t near the question isn’t where is God; the question is where are you? Just liked the Israelites followed a pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by day God is there but if you go ahead of Him or stay behind you will be apart from Him. Jesus brought the last word. Emmanuel, God is with us. Forever and for always.

advent: a challenge in transtion

So many times the Christmas time becomes a checklist of tasks and things to do and the holiday passes you by. I am preparing for it. I am doing advent. I have tried for the last 2 years savior the month of December and not let it pass me by. This year I will not accept anything less. I need to separate and meter my life according to the seasons. If there aren’t transitions then our life becomes a lifeless drone. We lose our pulse, our rhythm. Time rolls into itself and it’s all the same. I was riding home with my friend Greg this thanksgiving and he mentioned the process of the transition, the travel, between places and how it was better than just teleporting there. It got me to thinking, at least for myself,  I need the travel, the preparation, to see where I am and where I am going. If we get caught up in the holiday for the sake of the holiday we miss the point. What is “The Reason for the Season” as the popular cliché states? Why do we do the things we do? Why do we buy presents ? Why do we always do these traditions every year? What do they remind us of? Do the remind us what they are supposed to remind us of? Christmas can easily become a busy time where we get caught up in the consumer cycle? Why do we put so much emphasize of the material side of side of Christmas? I don’t want that. I’m not saying that it’s bad but when does the good gesture of buying gifts for others consume us? The people who would be getting the gifts would hate to know the grief we experienced in gathering these gift. They would care more about spending time with you. Is Christmas for you a time of happiness and joy and goodwill towards men or is it business as usual, stressful and quick. This year I challenge everyone that reads this to change one thing, just one thing, about how you do Christmas (but you can always be an over achiever). Christmas does not have to be tradition without meaning, it does not have to be stressful events that lead to the next set of stressful events. What should Christmas time be and how has it been in the past? Is there a disparity between reality and the ideal? Try something new. Don’t get swallowed up. Sit back and relax and welcome the coming of the Christ.

I would recommend reading some scriptures everyday to prepare your heart. If your Church doesn’t celebrate advent, find some messages to listen to concerning the advent season. Here are a couple of links that I would recommend but do something different this year if you find yourself eaten by worries and stress.
Readings
http://www.crivoice.org/advent1.html
If you find something that you like better let me know.

Mars Hill Podcast
http://marshill.org/teaching/2010/11/28/first-sunday-of-advent-the-moment-before-the-moment/
Advent Calendar
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/12/2010_hubble_space_telescope_ad.html
It’s pretty cool a new picture each day