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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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Musings from my little brother.
Yay, an original note from deep within the labyrinth of my mind. Meaning, it rambles on and on. =)
I want to say that grace is cliche in modern society, let alone the current Christian establishment, but it isn't, and I don't think ever will be.
No matter how common it is for us to fall upon whenever we screw up (and believe me, I know how often I find myself hanging on to the thread called "grace")... it's still there. It's the one small crack in the door, allowing you to step out of the darkness and back into the light.
It's that one, small, narrow pathway to redemption. Often used, yes, but narrow, most definitely.
To accept the forgiving hand offered to us, the hand that inherently says, "I still love you"... it beats the pride and self-pity out of you when you think of it.
The very notion, that the God who sent His son to die for us, that He of all people would be the one to wade through the muck and filth to get to us... it's simultaneously humbling and encouraging.
That He loves us that much, that even when we've done the most horrible things - when the only thing that we justly deserve is hell - He still loves and cherishes us. It's easy to die for someone. To live for someone like Christ does for us, like we should do for others, that's the hard thing to do.
We're not worthless, we're not piles of crap to be cast away because of how much we reek of sin. That much is encouraging about grace. The lengths God will go to for that lost lamb (aka myself and each of us) should dispel any ideas of worthlessness you have about yourself. If God would go to the ends of the earth for a fallen man (or woman), they can't be worthless in His eyes.
But... to accept the hand of grace is also an indication of humility. Of need. Accepting that hand means giving up the paltry idea that you don't need God, that what you're doing is absoultely fine and dandy. Accepting that hand of forgiveness... means you depend on God. That you know you messed up. That you want to start anew.
We don't deserve forgiveness from God. For all He's done for us, He really has nothing to lose if He were to condemn us all to hell this very instant. Because, again, by all standards, that is where we deserve to go.
But, again, that is what makes it so amazing, what He did and continues to do for us. The grace He extends to us. "Amazing" can't capture grace fully. Sure, it describes it, but grace is an idea... that cannot simply be whittled down to a single human descriptor.
As many times as I speak about what God's done for us as people, I'm given constant reminders about what exactly I'm saying. How much I need Him and His love. How no matter what I do to screw up, there is always a hand extended toward me, waiting for me to tug on it.
A hand, filled with a grace that transcends any Earthly "I forgive you".
Amazing Grace indeed.Words courtesy from my little brother.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
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What a crazy friday.
I think this past friday will be a day that I will remember for quite a long time. Late wake up for a 3.5 hour drive back to Nashville, Graduation, cleaning up and setting up my apartment, and then (nearly) getting arrested at the end of the day at gunpoint. Yes, that last event really did happen.
Drive back to Nashville
I really must say that the previous week has been the greatest weeks I've had in quite a long time. Getting to have fun with my friends from AACF and also getting to chill with some of the awesome ppl from various IVCF chapters in the southeast region. The food, the nature, the awesome water rides, the track sessions, and the evening sessions...so much fun and awesomeness. Anyways, after the closing evening session, we tried to get up at 5am so that those of us that wanted to go back to Nashville in time for the Vanderbilt Commencement Ceremony would make it in time. Just our luck that we overslept our alarms and woke up at 6am and left at about 6:20. Add the fact that we didn't leave camp on the same roads we arrived on, we were slightly hesitant and almost missed a few turns to get back to I-75N. But once we were on the highway, we were flying up the roads back to Nashville so that we could make it in time to see our friends walk across the stage. Thankfully we made it just in time to hear the last few remarks of Chancellor Zeppos before the awardng of the diplomas.
Graduation
It's been an awesome three years with you guys. I will deeply miss you all. May what we have seen, heard, and learned be carried wherever we go in this world. Go into this world and continue to grow and learn for this journey is just at its beginning. I will do my best to send something to each of you so that I don't inundate everyone with oh so much stuff to read through.
Moving in and cleaning up
Finally got to finish up with moving into my apartment along with my room mate. Stocking the fridge with our needed meats, eggs, and drinks (with the occasional vegetable) is not an easy task. Who am I kidding, we were already well stocked with ramen (multiple types from beef to spicy vegetable) and snacks and all we needed to get were our eggs and vegetables. It was a bit chaotic trying to get all of the stuff in and organized because of all the other items we had in the apartment already. Near the end, it was almost ready to really live here except for a few things that were out of place.
Night adventure
After we had moved and organized most of our stuff, we went back to campus to help another friend of ours move out of his apartment on campus to his summer place. This went on for quite some time as everyone was both packing things into boxes and moving said boxes into my car. Near the end of this night's load, I found two personalized martini glasses that would be brought to the other apartment. When I walked out, I clinked the two glasses together as I attempted to figure out in my mind where the two glasses would fit the best and not be shattered. However, no more than a second later did two VUPD officers run around the corner of the door, guns drawn, screaming at me to get down on the ground. I was completely confused. Why am I being arrested? Did they think I was stealing from that apartment? Did they think that I was trying to steal the car? Why is this happening to me? Of course, I complied and got on my knees and did as they said. Then they started to pat down my pants asking me what I had in my pockets (contents being the needed wallet, cell phone, keys and the ever useful swiss army knife and my camera). Again, I was wondering why this was happening. Eventually they let me up and gave me a rundown of the situation. Apparently other residents of the quad had heard popping noises like firecrackers/fireworks or gunshots (for those of you who don't go to Vandy, three years ago there was a shooting in the same quad). Needless to say, I did not have anything explosive on me (nor in the car) and adrenaline was surging through my blood. Soon afterwards, my room mate and our friend came out to pack the last few items into the car and they were briefly questioned by the police. Yes we were all safe and we didn't have any problem with the police afterwards. As we drove out, we saw there were at least four patrols that were parked in the main circle with their lights on. Only then did I realize how strung up the police were.
All of this ended around midnight to finish off this past friday. A friday to remember? I think so.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
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You Are an Espresso
At your best, you are: straight shooting, ambitious, and energetic
At your worst, you are: anxious and high strung
You drink coffee when: anytime you're not sleeping
Your caffeine addiction level: high
Yep. Sounds like me. Although I'm beginning to wean myself from the coffee (can't guarentee that due to finals).
Friday, April 04, 2008
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Germs in soil find antibiotics tasty
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer
Thu Apr 3, 5:15 PM ET
Antibiotics for breakfast? The drugs are supposed to kill bacteria, not feed them. Yet Harvard researchers have discovered hundreds of germs in soil that literally gobble up antibiotics, able to thrive with the potent drugs as their sole source of nutrition.
These bacteria outwit antibiotics in a disturbingly novel way, and now the race is on to figure out just how they do it — in case more dangerous germs that sicken people could develop the same ability.
On the other hand, the work explains why the soil doesn't harbor big antibiotic buildups despite use of the drugs in livestock plus human disposal and, well, excretion, too.
"Thank goodness we have those bacteria to eat at least some of the antibiotics," said bacteriologist Jo Handelsman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who wasn't involved in the study. "Nature's pretty effective."
The discovery, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, came about almost by accident.
A team led by Harvard Medical School geneticist George Church has a Department of Energy grant to develop ways to create biofuels from agriculture waste. Plants are full of natural toxins, so the goal was to find microorganisms in soil capable of breaking down certain of those chemicals. To winnow down the strongest candidates, they tried exposing these bacteria to what should have been far more toxic substances, antibiotics.
That bacteria can eat weird things is the basis for the field of bioremediation. Some bugs help break down oil spills, for example.
Nor is it a surprise that soil bacteria can withstand some antibiotics; some had already been found. After all, a number of antibiotics are natural — think penicillin. Some antibiotics have been derived from soil.
Instead, the surprise was how many bacteria didn't just survive but flourished when fed 18 different antibiotics, natural and manmade ones — including such staples as gentamicin, vancomycin and Cipro — that represent the major classes used in treating people and animals.
Church's team gathered soil from 11 spots in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Pennsylvania, from city parks to pristine forest to a cornfield fertilized with antibiotic-containing manure.
Bacteria prefer to eat sugars, like rotting fruit. Put in laboratory dishes to subsist only on antibiotics, the germs grew a little more slowly but the researchers found every drug tested could support growth of some bacteria.
More disturbing, a number of bacteria could withstand levels of antibiotics that were 50 to 100 times higher than would be given to a patient.
"They were not only resistant, they were super-resistant," Church said.
"I guess we weren't really thinking about it as something that bacteria would just eat for breakfast," he added. "They are capable of living on this stuff for a long, long time."
The finding comes amid increasing concern that many infections could soon become untreatable, as more bacteria become immune to today's antibiotics even as few new drugs are being discovered.
But the medical impact of the new work isn't yet clear. Germs in soil aren't big human threats, and no human pathogen has been spotted with the same ability. Still, many of the soil bacteria tested are relatives of human pathogens, including a notorious E. coli strain.
So the next step, under way now in Church's lab, is to identify the actual genes that let these bacteria devour and degrade antibiotics. Then the question becomes whether that genetic mechanism is something soil bacteria might be able to transfer to human pathogens, thus making them more drug-resistant.
Wisconsin's Handelsman says gene pathways involved in metabolism are far larger and more complex than the type of single-gene resistance often seen in human pathogens. "It's not really as bleak as that."
And Church agrees his work is "not entirely all bad news. ... It gives us some time to get ahead of it and figure out if it really poses a threat."
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(more on this later)
Saturday, March 22, 2008
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Juggleville III - Catch a Sketch
Hey guys! Make sure to go to www.juggleville.com today at 2:50 EST and 8:50 EST to be able to watch Juggleville III online! If you've seen last year's show (Juggleville II - Symphony in Gravity), this year is even better in things like the performance of the routines, the presentation of the routines, and the overall story to the show.
viola1032_v2
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- Name: Josh
- Country: United States
- Member Since: 4/20/2006
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