Constant Change

I just graduated from Indiana University, which I am very proud of. I thank God for the journey he blessed me with, for all the ups and downs, and the truth I’ve learned along the way. However, the journey continues as I will be going to more school. I will soon be a graduate student studying information systems, which basically connects every aspect of a business over the internet or allows a business to function digitally using computers.

Throughout college, I had a lot of time to think about what this life really is. I’ve come to realize life is composed of a relationship between constancy and change. I call constancy the “math” (or science) and change the “art.” I feel that life definitely has constants and these are found through math and science. But I’ve also found that once you know these constants, you can manipulate and change them into different combinations to create art. That’s what makes life enjoyable for me: knowing the constants and producing different combinations with them. A classic example of this is cooking. You know what ingredients are sweet and which are not. That is the constant. How you combine them to create something tasty is the art. However, creating good taste takes a balance. Does it taste good enough or is the dish just a tad bit off?

I’ve found that in my life, I have always strived for balance. I believe life has a humor to it, in that I strive to reach this perfect balance point where everything will be alright or perfect. I strive and strive and strive, but somehow I always seem to not be totally satisfied with what I’ve obtained or how far I’ve come. It’s like life keeps constantly changing and giving me different combinations to master as soon as I think I’ve mastered them all. As Albert Einstein once said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”

Personally, I think the only way I can ever reach this perfect balancing point is to believe in Jesus. He is the balancer. I think God designed this world using math and art, but designed it in a way where I can never enjoy this world to the fullest unless I include Him in it. It’s kind of like how we need the sun to survive but we can barely look at it directly, unless we have sunglasses. I view God as our sun and Jesus as our sunglasses. Jesus allows us to look at things that we wouldn’t be able to see without him. For me just graduating, the phrases “go accomplish your dreams” and “do what you love” have certainly been used. While I would like to accomplish my dreams, I know that as long as I believe and develop my relationship with Jesus, he’ll be able to open my eyes to things I would have otherwise been oblivious to. And maybe I might not be able to do what I love all the time. But I know that as long as I continuously pursue love, I will be ok. Because God is love (1 John 4:8).

-Brody

My Opposites Theory

My motivation in writing this post is to share with you a theory I have as to how God might have designed the physical world. I call it my opposites theory. As a biology major in college, I observed that nature seems to be designed with several puzzling tools or mechanisms that reappear consistently throughout the world. I’ve observed that it likes to use opposites (inverse methods, cycles) and trinities to produce it desired effects. Let’s name a few examples:

1.     Magnetism = opposite poles attract.

2.     Acquiring energy = Photosynthesis (plants) and cellular respiration (human cells). Photosynthesis (6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light energy à C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂) and cellular respiration (C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂ à 6CO₂ + 6H₂O + ATP energy) have the same chemical formula except one is the inverse of the other. Cellular respiration uses food to create energy for the body and photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide, water, and light to make its own food for energy. Both these processes create energy so that the body or plant can live. However, their chemical formulas are the inverse of each other.

3.     Spring and Fall = Leaves bud and blossom to life in the spring only to show their true colors before gliding to their death in the fall season. However, nature resurrects itself and the cycle starts over again next spring.

*Bonus Example: The Pixar template = I didn’t major in Pixar but they do have really good examples of using opposites to complement each other and make a good story. For example, Ratatouille is about a rat who sheds the label of king kitchen pest to become head chef and boon of a fancy Paris restaurant. Inside Out is self-explanatory. It tells a story about how emotions inside the brain dictate actions outside of the brain. The main emotions are also opposites, joy and sadness.

*Bonus Example #2: Have you ever tried frozen hot chocolate? It’s just as good if not better than liquid hot chocolate.

To take these inverse, opposite, and cyclical tactics further, I read somewhere that two things can be distinct only if there is a third thing between them. While this might not be true, I do think there is something to it. Here are some examples of trinities in the world.

• Temperature = hot, warm, cold 
• Atom = proton, neutron, electron
• Trinity of trinities = Space, time, and matter form our physical world
• Space (length, width, heighth) 
• Time (past, present, future) 
• Matter (Liquid, solid, gas)

All in all, the point of this post was to share with you this fun theory I have about one possible scientific mechanism God used to design the physical world. While I gave only a few examples, I have provided more examples at the bottom of the page. I don’t know how true any of this is, but these patterns have been popping up in my life over and over again and I thought I’d try to write some of them down. And it’s fun to think about how the world around you and me was built. The Bible has given me clues as have my own observations of nature. I hope in the future, you too will look around and try to notice reoccurring patterns that you see on a regular basis.

-Brody

(More Examples)

Inverses: 

•  Old marketing style = What, how, why / New marketing style = Why, how, what (https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action)
• We look into the past to predict the future
• The internet and the iPhone has “connected” us more than ever but also disconnected us more than ever.
• Photosynthesis equation:

• Cellular respiration equation:

Opposites:

• Less is more philosophy 
• Love-hate relationship
• Oxymorons (examples at very bottom of page)
• Albert Einstein – “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.”
• Is the glass half full or half empty?

Cycles:

• Make money to pay taxes and the phrase “got to spend money to make money”
• Nature dies to create room for new life and that life later dies to create room for other new life
• The sun rises and sets everyday (or the earth just keeps spinning)
• The law of conservation of mass = matter is neither created nor destroyed (it goes somewhere and gets reorganized)
• The water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle

Trinities:

• Christianity = God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Paradoxes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes

https://www.buzzfeed.com/moerder/17-mind-bending-paradoxes-that-will-hurt-your-brain?utm_term=.eua0GN5Nm#.exmmwngnb

https://www.britannica.com/list/8-philosophical-puzzles-and-paradoxes 

• Crocodile dilemma = If a crocodile steals a child and promises its return if the father can correctly guess exactly what the crocodile will do, how should the crocodile respond in the case that the father guesses that the child will not be returned?
• Card paradox = The next statement is true. The previous statement is false.

100 Oxymorons: (http://www.oxymoronlist.com/)

1. A new classic
2. Accurate estimate
3. Act naturally
4. Active retirement
5. Advanced beginner
6. Agree to disagree
7. Alone in a crowd
8. Big sip
9. Bittersweet
10. Blind eye
11. Boneless ribs
12. Business casual
13. Calculated risk
14. Center around
15. Completely destroyed
16. Consistently inconsistent
17. Constant change
18. Crash landing
19. Daily special
20. Definite maybe
21. Doing nothing
22. Dry ice
23. Enormously small
24. Expect the unexpected
25. Extra ordinary
26. Extremely average
27. Fictional reality
28. Fighting for peace
29. Final version
30. First annual
31. Forgotten memories
32. Found missing
33. Friendly argument
34. Going nowhere
35. Graduate student
36. Group of individuals
37. Grounded airplane
38. Half empty
39. Halfway done
40. High ground
41. Huge shortage
42. Icy hot
43. Ill fortune
44. Inside out
45. Instant classic
46. Jumbo shrimp
47. Ladies man
48. Lamp shade
49. Last initial
50. Least favorite
51. Limited freedom
52. Man child
53. Minor crisis
54. Modern history
55. Near miss
56. Never again
57. New routine
58. Night light
59. Numb feeling
60. Old news
61. One choice
62. Original copy
63. Paid volunteer
64. Peaceful protest
65. Permanent substitute
66. Pool table
67. Pretty ugly
68. Practice test
69. Random order
70. Removable sticker
71. Round edges
72. Rush hour
73. Safe bet
74. Science fiction
75. Second best
76. Seriously funny
77. Short distance
78. Single pair
79. Slumber party
80. Small fortune
81. Stand down
82. Still moving
83. Student teacher
84. Study break
85. Swiss Army
86. Tame beast
87. Taped live
88. Timeless moment
89. To infinity and beyond
90. Top floor
91. Unknown identity
92. Upside down
93. Victimless crime
94. Virtual reality
95. Weak muscle
96. Weekday
97. Wet drywall
98. White chocolate
99. Whole piece
100. Young adult

Technology of My Lifetime

       On the first day of my information systems class, we spent about 10 minutes reminiscing about technology. It got me thinking about the technology that has been developed in my lifetime. I was born in 1994 and a lot has happened since then. The following is a list of technology and events that I feel have been impactful in my lifetime. Feel free to comment if you think of anything too.

New 21^st Century Technology:

*Special tech of the 1990s still used in 21^st century = Internet Explorer (1995), GPS (1995), DVDs (1997), Bluetooth (1998), Netflix (1998), Blogs (1999), WI-FI (1999)

2000

Toyota Prius (2000)

Texting on phones by AT&T (2000)

USB flash drive (2000)

Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 (2000)

George W. Bush elected President (2000)

2001

iPod (2001) and iTunes (2001)

9/11 World Trade Towers (Sep. 11^th, 2001)

Segway (2001)

Windows XP (2001)

Gamecube (2001)

Xbox (2001)

Wikipedia (2001)

2002

Camera Phones (2002)

GoPro (2002)

2003

Myspace (2003)

LinkedIn (2003)

Skype (2003)

Mini Smart Cars (2003)

Microsoft Office (2003)

Human Genome Project completed (2003)

Columbia space shuttle disaster (2003)

Safari web browser (2003)

BlueRay (2003)

2004

Google search engine (1998 and public 2004)

Facebook (2004)

Rovers reached Mars (2004)

TIVO & DVR by DirectTV (2004)

Firefox web browser (2004)

2005

Google Maps (2005)

Youtube (2005)

Playstation Portable PSP (2005)

XBOX 360 (2005)

Hurricane Katrina (2005)

2006

Twitter (2006)

The Cloud (2006)

Wii (2006)

PS3 (2006)

No more planet Pluto (2006)

2007

iPhone (2007)

Android (2007)

Kindle (2007)

Netflix streaming (2007)

2008

Appstore (2008)

Google Chrome web browser (2008)

Barack Obama elected President (2008)

2009

3D movie Avatar (2009)

Last year with Simon Cowell on American Idol (2009)

2010

Instagram (2010)

Smartboards (2010)

3D TVs (2010)

iPad (2010)

2011

Snapchat (2011)

Increased Solar panel usage (2011)

2012

Wii U (2012)

Sandy Hook School Shooting (2012)

2013

PS4 (2013)

XBOX 1 (2013)

Google Chromecast (2013)

2014

Apple Pay (2014)

3D Printing (2014)

Jimmy Fallon Tonight Show (2014)

2015

Apple Smartwatch (2015)

2015

Self-driving cars (2015)

2016

Cavaliers win NBA finals (2016)

Cubs win world series (2016)

Donald Trump elected President (2016)

2017

???

Outdated Technology (as of 2017)

Kodak cameras

CDs

Borders bookstore

VCRs

Walkman headphones

CD players with the skinny headphones

MySpace

AIM – instant messaging

Flip phones

The large turquoise iPods and iPod nanos

Limewire (2000)

Atlas maps

Dial Up/ AOL

Floppy disks

Cassettes

Camcorders

Landlines

Answering Machines

Old Televisions; now Plasma and LED

MP3 players

Wristwatches

Pay phones

Phones with the spiral wire and neck cradling

Typewriters

Radio? Now streaming and satellite

Pagers

Original handwriting

Dot matrix paper printers

Fax machines

PS1 and PS2 (2000) / Nintendo/ Gamecube (2001)/ Xbox (2001)

Hope you enjoyed reminiscing!

-Brody

Why Jesus makes God not a Hypocrite

Summary:

1.     God made a contract with us that He is very serious about. (Deuteronomy 29:9-29)

2.     God seems like a hypocrite because He says and means two very opposite mottos.

3.     God isn’t a hypocrite because He gave us Jesus.

Intro:

Why is Christianity so confusing?

The answer is because it’s paradoxical. It’s self-contradicting. God is a hypocrite. These statements are all true about Christianity, which is why I think many people choose not to believe in God and the Christian faith.

Here is the ultimate secret to God though. He is a hypocrite. Except, he isn’t.

Here is why God isn’t a hypocrite and more like a uniquely honest non-hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who says one thing but does another. God says one thing and means it. BUT He also says the opposite of that first thing he said, and means that too. For example, God says, “break my rules and you go to Hell (Deuteronomy 29:19-26)(2 Thessalonians 1:8-9)(Matthew 13:49-50).” But he also says, “break my rules and I’ll forgive you…you’ll be saved…come to Heaven (1 John 1:9-10)(Romans 10:9-13)(John 14:1-4).” Those are two very different statements. The mystery behind God is that He means both of these statements at the same time. How can He do that?

Body:

The answer to this question comes from the Bible in Genesis chapter 15, referred to as “The Lord’s covenant with Abraham.” Here is a quick summary of the chapter:

1.     God and Abraham are making a covenant (a contract that makes “binding mutual promises and vows to be faithful and loving no matter what the circumstances”) about how Abraham, who is 75+ years old and childless, will have a son with his wife Sarah. God promises that Abraham will also have many descendants for generations to come after he dies.

2.     Abraham asks if God really means this. Abraham asks this because with a covenant, if someone breaks it then there are very bad consequences.

3.     In other words, Abraham asks God if He (God) will punish himself if He (God) breaks this covenant. God says yes.

4.     He then tells Abraham to cut animals into pieces and line the pieces up in two parallel lines. This was an old-time custom where a master would make his servant walk through an alley of cut up animal pieces while making a contract…basically making the servant state, “If I break this contract then I deserve to be cut up into pieces.”

5.     So revisiting Abraham’s question, how does Abraham know God will stay faithful (that God will destroy himself (God) if He (God) breaks the contract)?

6.     At the end of Genesis chapter 15, the Bible says that after Abraham made the alley of animal pieces, God came down as fire and passed (“walked”) through the alley of animal pieces. This is good. God showed that He was willing to face the consequences if He himself (God) broke the contract and didn’t give Abraham a son or heir. HOWEVER, He never made Abraham walk through the contract-binding alley of animal pieces. Why didn’t he make Abraham walk through it?

Conclusion:

In not making Abraham walk through, God basically told Abraham, “See, I signed this contract by walking through this alley of animal pieces, but I also signed this contract in place of you. If I break my own rules, then I will destroy myself. If you break my rules, then I will destroy myself instead of destroying you (Matthew 27: 32-50)(John 19:28-30).”

That statement is the whole basis of the Christian faith and is why Jesus is the ultimate answer to God’s mysterious and paradoxical ways (John 14:6). If God messes up, He will destroy Himself. If we as humans mess up and don’t follow His rules (if we sin), then God will destroy Himself as Jesus instead of us. We just have to believe in Jesus in order for this to work (Romans 10:9-13).

If God will destroy Himself as Jesus for us, then can’t we mess up as much as we want and He’ll still forgive us and die for us anyway, allowing us to avoid Hell? The answer is yes but that doesn’t mean we should take advantage of that. It would be utterly rude and disrespectful and evil not to respect someone who died for you. Jesus died for you. God died for you. God died for us. Thus, we should obey God’s laws and his commands the best we can with intentionality to not break them. At the same time, we should have peace knowing that He will forgive us even when we mess up and break His rules. If we have this mindset, then we’ll have a loving relationship with God (Deuteronomy 7:9). We’ll respect Him. He’ll love you (Proverbs 8:17). He’ll love us. He already loves us (John 3:16-17)(Romans 5:8-11)(John 15:12-17). He’ll give us the opportunity to go to Heaven so that we can meet Him face to face and live in a place of peace and joy with Him forever (Revelation 21:3-8).

This is why I believe in a God and a religion that seems hypocritical. And I trust God because He gave us Jesus.

-Brody Forbes

*Based on the sermon “A Covenant Relationship” by Tim Keller

http://podbay.fm/show/352660924/e/1381345988?autostart=1

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) by Chris Tomlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I

My American Dream

After watching the presidential debate, I thought about my American dream. What is my American dream? I realized I don’t have an American dream, but rather just....a dream. It doesn’t deal with materialism or power or even social status. My dream is to be in Heaven one day with God who loves me and where no evil exists. But while I’m living in the United States of America, here are three American dreams of mine motivated by what God has told me in the Bible.

DREAMS

1) Matthew 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

I love this Bible verse because it tells me to store up treasures in heaven. Thus, I go about my life seeking out joyous experiences and loving relationships, not cars, clothes, or the latest technology. My dream is to live in a nation where people focus on storing up treasures for Heaven and not treasures for their basement.

2) Matthew 8:24-27

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

I don’t want my house to be built on the sand of the United States of America. My dream is to build my house on the rock of a country that acts out Christian principles.

3) Mark 12:30

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

This verse inspires me treat everybody with kindness, compassion, and empathy. My dream is to live in a country where everyone loves God with all their heart and each other as themselves.

The United States of America is a country I am thankful to live in. It gives me freedoms that other people don’t have. I just wish we as Americans would seek out the wisdom of the Bible, whether we believe in God or not. I hope we can store up for ourselves treasures that last, not material goods that wither away. I hope we create policies that motivate us to act out Christian principles. But if anything, I hope that we treat our fellow citizens and non-citizens with respect and love, whether they have a different ethnicity or even a different religion. That’s my American Dream.

-Brody Forbes

John 3:16

Romans 10:9-10

John 15:9-12