Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Mechanics is an amazing thing. I've been house/dog/bird sitting for the past few days and I brought one of my college textbooks along, since I figured I would have time to burn. My biggest school is on spring break this week so I've been able to read up on some concepts that have been getting a bit rusty.

Here's is a pretty great video showing one of the most mind-boggling experiments we can do. Corny, I know, but pretty great! Enjoy...

Christians Never Say Goodbye

I haven't updated for some time, but thought I would do a special update in honor of a man who was a good friend, a mentor, and a teacher.

Chris Kimball passed away in his sleep this past Tuesday, March 10th, at the age of 56. I took guitar lessons from Chris from the age of 10 until the age of 15, and learned from him every tool needed to continue to grow and learn as a guitarist and a musician. Chris and his wife, Jay Lynne, were some of the first family friends that we made when we moved to Seattle from New Mexico in 1991, so I have known him since I was seven years old.

Before I ever even showed an interest in guitar, Chris had shown an interest in me. When he found out that I liked Star Trek and was interested in outer space, he invited me over to his house to watch the movie Space Camp, and he made me his "world famous" grilled-cheese sandwiches. At church campouts he would take me out on his boat with the other kids to go tubing, and he would always have a guitar waiting back at the campsite. A favorite song I'll always remember was his rendition of "Whale of A Tale". Chris was an absolutely amazing guitarist, and truly lived his life doing what he loved. At times in our lessions I can remember simply laughing in disbelief as he would make his guitar do incredible things.

Every hour I spent with Chris was much more than a guitar lession. Many, many times we would not even pick up our guitars, but would instead talk about things like confidence, or education, or girls, or whatever else might be beneficial for me to learn and ponder. If Chris had a sarcastic, rough exterior (and he did), then he had an equally sober and kind spirit which would light a twinkle in his eye whenever he spoke to me about the Lord or about the things he had learned over the course of his life. Chris was always extremely open about his past, about the things that he had seen and done and learned from, and he used our time together to impart wisdom just as much as music.

Chris and Jay Lynne moved to Wenatchee in 2001 and I stopped taking lessons. I only saw him once more -- at a Summer Safari in 2002 -- which is a fact that I now deeply regret. How hard would it have been to drive out to Wenatchee for one weekend? In hindsight there are many things that I want to tell Chris but I never did. How I would have enjoyed spending the day with him, years removed from my adolescence, able to discuss life and music and joy and girls! But that day now cannot come; at least not in this life.

This week has been a good time for me to reflect upon what the gospel of Jesus Christ offers you and I today. This life will end. And yet Jesus says a shocking, almost nonsensical thing to Martha in John 11, after her brother Lazarus has been dead for three days. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"

That's a good question, Jesus. Do you? Do I? Is it true that Chris is alive today even though he is dead? If this is not true then I ought to grieve the loss of an old friend and mentor, for there is no hope of ever being reunited. And yet I know that Chris is now merely asleep in Christ, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. One day he will awake.

I know this has been a bit of a long post, but I'll finish up by sharing a passage from a book called A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken, in which the author recounts the last time he saw his friend C.S. Lewis. I have not read the book myself, I should admit, but ever since hearing about this passage in a sermon many years ago I have not been able to forget it, and so will share it here:

“On that last day I met C.S. Lewis at the Eastgate for lunch. We talked, I recall, about death or, rather, awakening after death... I said it would be a sort of coming home, and he agreed. Lewis said that he hoped Davy and I would be coming back to England soon, for we mustn’t get out of touch. ‘At all events,’ he said with a cheerful grin, “We’ll certainly meet again, here - or there.’ Then it was time to go...

"When we emerged onto the busy High with the traffic streaming past, we shook hands, and he said, ‘I shan’t say goodbye. We’ll meet again.’ Then he plunged into the traffic. I stood there watching him. When he reached the pavement on the other side, he turned round as though he knew somehow that I would still be there in front of the Eastgate. Then he raised his voice in a great roar that easily overcame the noise of the cars and buses. Heads turned and at least one car swerved. ‘Besides,’ he bellowed with a great grin, ‘Christians NEVER say goodbye!’"

Lazy Afternoon...

On Saturday afternoon I went to Starbucks after watching the Huskies grab first place in the PAC-10 from the clutches of the UCLA Bruins. It was a sweet game, but I missed a big chunk in the middle of the game because I had to meet a student for a tutoring session.

I went to the 'Bucks on the corner of Greenlake and Ravenna. It was totally packed as I went in to sit down, but I was able to find a spot in the corner in a pretty comfy chair. I went, in large part, to unwind -- to get out of my house and have time to people-watch and not be distracted by my computer or my roommates.

One of the things that I have been trying to do in the new year has been to listen to God for specific direction. I have a lot of big decisions coming up in my life, and I think there is a lot of anxiety in my heart right now about the future. What will I do next year? Should I continue to pursue a career in medicine? If so, how will I get there? Should I continue to serve at Crossroads or go with her church plant, The Downtown Church? Anyways, as a result of this line of thinking I found myself with a book about prayer on my lap and a fatty Bible on my armrest, my vanilla latte within arm's reach.

About two minutes after I sat down in the corner hoping to have some alone time, a fellow managed to sit down next to me and whip out his Bible and a pocket concordance, haha! So of course we struck up a converstation, and it turns out he is working for the Navigators doing something called Edgecorps. The really interesting part, though, is that several of my friends and roommates have been in a men's group for the past few years through the Navigators -- and, as the Lord would have it, the leader of the study is my new friend's boss, and the study happens to take place every Thursday night in my new friend's house. Small world: we turned out to have a solid set of 5 or 6 mutual friends right off the bat.

God has a funny way of using the time that we give to Him: we were each encouraged a great deal by our conversation, and as we compared what God has been teaching us I was keenly aware that God was using fellowship to speak to me instead of solitude. Which is interesting. Certainly there are times when we ought to be alone and be quiet before the Lord, listening to His still voice (which I need to do far more consistently in my life -- see "often" in Luke 5:16). Yet this weekend He used a conversation to speak to a specific circumstance in my life, when I had intended to hear from Him in solitude and "alone time."

John Owen

"John Owen’s treatises on Indwelling Sin in Believers and The Mortification of Sin are, in my opinion, the most helpful writings on personal holiness ever written."

-- Jerry Bridges

I just finished a book called Triumph Over Temptation which is a modern repackaging of three books by a guy with a cool name who lived in the mid-1600s. This was my second time through, and I think I will need to make it a commonly revisited friend. Every time I read it I am reminded of how SERIOUS sin is in our lives, and how diligently it needs to be guarded against with prayer and truth from God's Word. Does anyone talk like this anymore??

Some of the most piercing quotes, and most applicable to myself:

"Do not flatter yourself that you can hold out against temptation's power. Secret lusts lie lurking in your own heart that will never give up until they are either destroyed or satisfied."

"If sin entangles us in one area of our life, it will ensnare every area of our life."

"...both meditation and prayer particularly oppose indwelling sin. The are always designing the destruction of sin."

"When a man does not repent or deal with his sin, he cannot experience real peace in his soul."

"Satan blinds people to strive to serve God without having a real relationship to Him. To let sin alone in our lives is to permit sin to grow until it chokes and blinds the conscience. Not to conquer sin is to be conquered by sin."

"The excellency of a believer does not consist in how much he knows, but in what he assimilates and what becomes transformed within his soul."

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I know it has been a while, and that I should blog a bit more. Upon hearing that I was in danger of being removed from the "Blogs We Like" section of some close friends, I figured I can do better... :) I'll try to say a thing or two about my Christmas vacation if I get a chance!

Road Trip, Week Two

It has been a few days since my last update... I actually managed to spill water on my laptop last week, so that is good. My keyboard doesn't really work right now, but I'll manage. On with the summary!

After leaving Yosemite we had one of our longest driving days, and so we left early in the morning from our beautiful camp site. Our goal was to get to Las Vegas for the evening, so we planned to just miss Death Valley on our way down, since our car didn't have air conditioning. It is not generally a good idea to drive in Death Valley without air conditioning. That being said, however, we made a slight adjustment to our itinerary and drove through the North end of the valley after seeing Scotty's Castle, which was built in the 1920s as a vacation home for a wealthy stock broker. But now it is just a bit of a tourist trap for the National Park:

We got to Vegas in the evening and found our room in the Plaza, which is where Sinatra and the Rat Pack used to hang out. We were across the street from something called the Fremont Street Experience, which is just a big street with cool movie-type stuff on the ceilings. Then on the next day we walked the Strip for five or six hours after swimming and seeing the new Batman movie at the Palms. Vegas is pretty fake and lived up to its reputation as 'Sin City:' we all agreed that we probably don't need to ever go back. But it was cool to see some of the famous buildings and people... in fact, I met Jessica Simpson, but she was in a hurry so the photo turned out blurry.

After Vegas we drove up to a National Park called Zion (yup... lots of Mormon stuff) for a couple of nights. This was the first of many "Southern Utah" parks -- there are several really cool parks in Utah, most of which have truly amazing rock formations and natural scenery. Zion, for example, sports tons of unique and awe-inspiring views of things like the Checkerboard Mesa. There is also a huge arch in the park, which we were only able to see from a distance, but which I will say more about in my next post anyway.

Our only full day there was spent on a hike up the 'Narrows,' which is, oddly enough, a narrow canyon with a river running through it, and which you can generally hike if there are no flash flood warnings. We walked through a canyon with (sometimes) 1,000 foot vertical cliffs on either side, making sure to look for flash-flood hiding spots along the way.

Our next stop was to the south of Zion -- the Grand Canyon, which is in Northern Arizona. But we decided to take a quick detour to the North first, to see Bryce Canyon. Bryce is another amazing place, but we only had a couple of hours to kill there, so we just went out to some lookouts. Here is a picture of Kyle on the rim of Bryce Amphitheater, which is beautiful:

When we got to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we set up camp and had dinner, but we also had our first big argument as a group of four men. Two weeks isn't bad when you think about it. :) We did go see the sun setting over the rim, however, which was a great experience and well worth a four mile hike in new flip-flops. Ouch. On the next day, then, we walked down the North Rim of the canyon along the North Kaibab Trail to Roaring Springs, which is a cool little spring where we were able to refresh and eat jerkey, carrots, and wheat thins. Quality meals always.

Again, we were on the edge of some hard-core cliffs, and were able to get some amazing views. And I probably shouldn't have put my legs over another ledge... oh well.

Road Trip, Week One

I just returned last week from a great three week road trip with some of my best friends. More than seven months in the planning, "The Greatest Adventure, Year 2008" was truly an epic adventure, though it probably has a slightly inappropriate name when placed in the form of an acronym. I'm gonna try to do a three-post installment highlighting the best bits! First: allow me to introduce the gentlemen...

Jeff Hodgson, one of my best friends, is on the far left -- he and I went to Lake Washington High School together many moons ago, but we really didn't know each other until UW. Next is KB Baby, Kyle Bjorback, who has been a good buddy since we met at a Phi Kappa Tau "BMC" Weekend our freshman year, and who is getting married in two weeks to the beautiful Lisa Dubbs!! Third from left is the one and the only Jason Boyett, an old friend from Crossroads Bible Church and the fraternity. We used to ride the buses to Bellevue together and talk about girls. We still do the latter. :)

We woke up early on day one and hit the road for Crater Lake, and stopped for lunch at Burgerville, which is Oregon's rip-off of In'n'Out or Dicks. We got camp set up in time to take a hike up to the top of nearby Mt. Scott to watch the scenery -- our first of many hikes to come, and a good warm-up. This is a pic of Kyle and Jason near the top.

We left in the morning for our next stop -- Redwoods National Park in Northern California! The drive was pretty sweet, and I was able to drive along the coast for at bit on Highway 101, then through ancient redwood trees on a scenic drive through the park. The trees in this part of Northern California are really ancient and humongous, in large part because it does not so much rain as constantly "mist" in the forest.

Our campsite was right on the ocean and only a mile or so South of Fern Canyon, which is an amazing gully where they filmed a famous scene from Jurassic Park II. Our campsite neighbors turned out to be an old Christian couple named Jon and Joan Archer - Jon is a pastor and was a High School teacher for many years, and knew the park inside and out. It was a joy to meet them, and a privilege to spend time with them touring the canyon and learning about the history of local indian tribes. Above is Jason, walking through Fern Canyon.

After another night in Redwoods we drove down to Chico State University, where we were grateful for the hospitality of our Phi Kappa Tau brothers there. It was cool to drive through some serious forest fires on the way down -- at times the sky was red and the sun was hidden behind billows of smoke.

Yosemite was the next stop -- we spent three nights on the river just outside of the park there, and on our first full day we hiked up to Glacier Point along the "Four Mile Trail," which is actually 4.8 miles, and which has a 3200 foot elevation change from bottom to top. There are some seriously beautiful outlooks on the way up, and the view from the top would be worth it by itself. Here is the view from Glacier Point, which you can just drive up to if you like, but which is far more satisfying when earned. Then a pic of Jason with the rest of the valley behind him.

Our next day was a hike of Half Dome (you can see the dome in the above picture on the right), which was about an 18 mile day. Doing a 10 mile hike the day before might not have been the brightest thing ever, but we at least learned that we would need to bring about three gallons of water! At the top of the hike you have to climb up a super steep granite face along some cables, which were really busy on the day we went up (a Saturday). Here is a view from the top: you can't tell here, but Kyle and I are sitting next to a 1,300 foot cliff. I probably shouldn't have dangled my feet from the edge, but you only live once, right?

Beautiful Poetry

Although the fig tree blossom not,
And all the vines of our small plot
Be barren, and the olive fail,
The sheep grow weak and heifers frail,
We will rejoice in God, my love,
And take our pleasures from above:
The Lord, our God, shall be our strength
And give us life, whatever length
On earth he please, and make our feet
Like mountain deer, to rise and cleat
The narrow path for man and wife
That rises steep and leads to life.

-- John Piper

I really like Piper's poetry, and I think it is one of the coolest parts of his ministry. Some days I find myself writing poems in my head, but I never really get around to writing them down for whatever reason. It wasn't until tonight that I realized that my "head" poetry is really similar to Piper's in terms of the meter. He fairly consistently rhymes in pairs of lines, or alternating lines, and will often carry a sentence past the break of the line, so as to match words from the middle of his sentences.

I should write some of my poetry down. But it probably won't ever find its way online... :)