The best drinks in the world

The best drinks in the world:
Eggnog
Earl grey tea
Rum & Eggnog
Good coffee
Sleeman's beer
Chai tea
Any black tea with milk
Eggnog
Eggnog

Two years ago I thought I'd finally died and gone to heaven: I was grocery shopping right after Christmas and all the eggnog was on sale. Still, even on sale eggnog can be expensive. I went to the manager and asked him if I bought a lot of the eggnog, would he give me a better deal? He asked how much I wanted. I said, what if I bought all of it? So at 79 cents/liter, I bought 32 liters of eggnog. Someone helped me carry it home in crates and I stacked it in my freezer, my fridge, and all over the counters. I was still drinking it a couple of months later.
Some people say that I love it because it comes only once a year, and that if I had it every day I'd get sick of it. I disagree. Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
God is the same way. (You might think I am stretching this analogy too far!) When he blesses us, he doesn't just give out a little bit of blessing and say, okay, now you have to wait awhile until you're desperate to be blessed again.
He gives lavishly. Abundantly. Over the top. Just like this amazing snowfall we have right now in BC! I'm getting frustrated with missing school, but it is so beautiful! So cold! So wonderful!

Let it snow

Snow, snow and more snow! I love it so much. Everything is totally white and clean and bright and blanketed in about a foot of it. Everything is cancelled, everything is still and quiet, neighbors are out shovelling and some brave souls are trying to drive. I am still stuck in Burnaby, of course. I tried to drive out to Langley last night but one of the chains came off my car tire and then after skidding my way around for about 20 minutes I gave up and went back to Mom and Dad's to spend the night. I'm going to try again today, hopefully I make it!

Snow is amazing. In every handful there is a billion beautiful crystal structures that rival the finest architecture or the most intricate lace, yet as soon as a little heat touches it, the crystal structure is disrupted and the water transitions into a chaotic, disordered state we call liquid. All that beauty, gone! The interesting thing about snow crystals/snow flakes is that they are a perfect mix of kinetic and thermodynamic considerations. On the one hand, the formation of snow crystals from chaotic liquid to a very ordered structure is thermodynamically unfavorable in that the entropy of the system decreases. (For non chemistry/physics people, this means they get MORE orderly instead of LESS orderly, which violates the principles of thermodynamics and the way the universe generally works.)
On the other hand, it is kinetically very favorable for snow crystals to form, because in their ordered state they are in a place of lower energy, which of course is a great thing. (I follow this principle all the time in my human kinetics class: the less energy I have to expend, the better!)

However, besides the great example of thermodynamic and kinetic push-and-pull, I think by far the most wonderful thing about snow is how transitory the beauty is. If I was God, would I be willing to make something so incredibly intricate and beautiful, and then just allow it to dissolve away in a matter of seconds? All that work for nothing?
The question is, does God create beautiful things just for the sake of creating them, whether or not humans will actually appreciate them, or whether or not they serve some great useful purpose?
I remember the first time I saw a snowflake up close enough to see the actual structure of it. It was an emotional experience, as if I was suddenly a spectator of something so much bigger than myself and I was looking through a window into another universe. I lay on the snow contemplating that the one flake I held in my hand was one of billions and billions of others, yet God cared enough about it to make it so amazing and to let me see it. God, you're really the amazing one!

Funny funny funny

Last night I went to Grant Fritzke's house for American Thanksgiving. We laughed and joked, and I laughed so hard I cried. I even laughed so hard I choked on a pickle. Apparently, laughter is the best medicine. I read that the average adult laughs 17 times a day, but the average kid laughs 100 times a day, which probably explains why they are so fun to be around.
I've decided to spend more time laughing and rejoicing, and less time complaining and arguing.

1122, the magic number

Actually the magic number was really 1000. Natalie Leoganda and I have been taking in recyclying every week and sending the money to JOY hospice in Uganda. We have my mom's little Honda Civic to pack everything in, so there's not a lot of room to fit bottles. Usually we start with the trunk: drag bags of bottles out of Northwest and pack about five garbage bags into the trunk. We have to slam it closed. Then we drive to Robson and start packing the back seat, moving the front seats forward as far as they can go. We put about 10 garbage bags in there. Then Nat sits in the front seat and I load a bag or two onto her lap. Then I get in the car and we drive to the bottle depot. The only problem is being able to breathe with the smell of sour juice and rotten milk all around us, but we usually make it. Our goal has been to fit 1000 bottles in the car, and today we did it for the first time! Actually, 1122 bottles. (That's $58.00)
It's a ridiculous way to make money, really- but at least we're saving the environment one bottle at a time and saving humanity one pill at a time (the money all goes to buy medications.)

Quantum mysteries

So are quantum entities particles or waves? Neither, but something else entirely- something unknown in itself. It exhibits either 'particle-life' or 'wave-like' features, depending on the conditions. If you ask a particle question, you get a particle answer. If you ask a wave question, you get a wave answer. In this way subject and observer are inseparably linked in quantum theory....we can say nothing about what the quantum world is like in reality; instead we recognize the validity of alternate and mutually exclusive approaches to it. (The Soul of Science, 1994)

Kind of like the Trinity, I guess. How can God be one and three at the same time when the two are mutually exclusive? No real entity can be both at the same time, or can they? Faith in quantum theory requires a colossal leap from my human understanding to something that is a little beyond intelligibility. It requires a healthy dose of humility in admitting it is true even though I can't totally understand it. The striking beauty of quantum physics is that it works, so I am forced to accept its truth even if I can't visualize it. It is remarkably predicitive, it is experimentally satisfactory, and we see its 'fingerprints' in the everyday behaviour of atoms and subatomic particles. (if you even want to use the word particle!)
And God is a little beyond intelligibility too, but the more I look at him and study him and experience him, the more I see his beauty and the more I understand him.
"Who has known the mind of God?" Paul asks in his letter to the Corinthians...."But we have the mind of Christ." How amazing that God would welcome us into the mystery and beauty and relationship of the Trinity. It takes a colossal leap of faith, and a very substantial dose of humility.

Late night thoughts

I learned a song in Africa that was hard to sing and even harder to dance to, but the words have stuck with me a long time. "Eyalama, eyalama, jokedeke. A tikolo a ngo twana jokedeke." Loosely translated, it means "Thank you God, because if it weren't for you, we would already be dead in our sins."
See how awkward English is trying to translate that gentle phrase! But I have been thinking about this great reality. If it wasn't for the living water that I had in Jesus, there would be no life in me; I would be a walking corpse. But he feeds me with his life.
A businessman spoke at TWU and taught me this prayer, one that appears throughout the New testament and that we can pray all the time: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
It is this tacit recognition of the reality of our totally dependant state on God that allows us such great joy!