Here's some fun for the day........
TRIVIA:
What year was the World Wide Web launched?
BRAIN TEASER: (answer at bottom)
Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?
QUOTE:
"I don't plan to grow old gracefully. I plan to have face-lifts until my ears meet."
(Rita Rudner)
COMIC FUN:
TRICIA'S TWEET OF THE DAY:
Sometimes what looks like disaster in our lives is part of a bigger plan. But we will never fulfill our destiny if we are having a pity party.
RANDOM OBSERVATION:
I've been reading a Tony Campolo book called 'Let Me Tell You A Story'. It has...of all things.....lots of stories in it. I enjoy most of them and will probably be sharing them from time to time. I was drawn to the one I'm sharing today because I'm a math person. Ha...I guess if I was 'drawn' to it I should be an art person. Anyway, here's the gist.
A boy was trying to learn arithmetic. The teacher gives him a book full of problems to solve. In the back of the book there's a listing of the answers to the problems, but the teacher instructs the boy never to look at the answers in the back of the book. Instead, he is to work out the answer for himself.
As the boy does his homework, he cheats. He looks in the back of the book and gets the answers beforehand, finding it much easier to work out the problems if he knows the answers in advance. While it is quite possible for the boy to get good grades this way, he will never really learn math. As difficult as it may prove to be, the only way for the boy to become better at math is to struggle with the problems himself. He will not learn and become better at math by using someone else's answer, even if those answers are the right ones.
In life's journey we are faced with problems and we sometimes wonder why God doesn't just spell out the answers so that we know exactly what to do. God doesn't give us the answers because He wants us to work out the problem for ourselves. It is only by struggling with the problems as they present themselves, day in and day out, that we can develop into the kind of people God wants us to be.
My mathematical brain relates to this story (I guess it's more of an example than a story) I think it's natural to want life to be easy with no struggles, but it helps me to think of this mathematical example. You really don't learn math if you just look at the answer. Similarly, in life....you really don't learn and grow if everything is just handed to you trouble-free.
I thought of something else from my own math experience. I was a math major in college and continued on to get my Master's, so I had a lot of math classes. There was something I would notice in all my classes. The people that were always asking the professor 'why' or stating 'that doesn't make sense' seemed to be the ones struggling the most in the classes. I wasn't one of those 'why' people, I accepted the properties and theorems. They are what they are. Accept it. This seemed to work for me and I did well. Granted, there are some theorems that you prove for understanding, but there are plenty you just had to accept. The 'why' people couldn't deal with this.
Reading the example from the Campolo book made me think of my own math/life philosophy. There are some things in life you will face that you just have to accept. The 'why's' will drive you crazy if you keep asking them. You may never know, so don't obsess over a why. Some things just are what they are because.....that's what they are. Pretty simple. Often times the 'why' of the situation wouldn't the change the reality of the situation anyway. It still is what it is, so let that 'why' part go and don't dwell on it.
The next time you're going through a difficult situation, think of the boy and the math problem. You can't learn math if you don't work through the problem. You can't grow in life if you don't work through the struggles.
TRIVIA ANSWER:
1991
BRAIN TEASER ANSWER:
Mount Everest, it just hadn't been discovered yet.
Until next time......
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