7SR 2010 Pics, Round 1

The first of the pics from 7SR 2010…if you have some more, make sure to get them to Dan to upload! 

QotW: Is it okay to date a non-Christian?

Another good question to think through (for the record, the W in QotW now stands for “whenever” because it’s certainly not a weekly thing…haha):

I am a Christian.  Is it okay to date a non-Christian?

This is a really good question, because it is one that a lot of us probably wrestle through in high school.  It can be especially relevant when we really connect with a guy or girl from school on a lot of things…except for the topic of faith.  And it’s a loaded question because there’s a part of most of us that really wants to be in a relationship, wants someone to care for and love us, wants someone that we can call our boyfriend or girlfriend…

As for whether or not it is a good idea, there are a few different opinions out there.  Some suggest the idea of “missionary dating”, or the thought that the Christian in the relationship can actually help bring the non-Christian to faith in Jesus.  But, as good as that might sound, I’ve found that it often goes the other way, with the Christian being pulled away from their faith…

Furthermore, I think the Bible is pretty clear on this one.  In 2 Corinthians 6:14-16, Paul writes, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.  For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial (another name for Satan)?  What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said, ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”

Certainly, Paul didn’t have dating in mind when he wrote this (dating didn’t really even exist back then!), but the principle of the passage is that Christians and non-Christians are fundamentally different.  One of the ways that the Bible speaks about this difference is by using the ideas of light and darkness: before we were Christians, we lived in darkness, doing whatever our sinful desires drove us to do, but once we come to know Jesus, we live in the light, living for Him.  And as a result, it’s not wise for believers and non-believers to be “yoked” (or joined) together in any kind of significant partnership, because essentially, both groups are about different things.

If we want to take the image one step further, imagine this.  Imagine you are tied together to someone with a piece of rope.  And imagine that you are trying with all of your might to go the right, while the other person is trying (with all of their might) to go to the left.  Clearly, being tied to this person isn’t going to help you get to where you are trying to go.  In the same way, no matter how many interests and activities a Christian has in common with a non-Christian, the two are fundamentally different and going in opposite directions.  One group is trying to live for and serve God with their life, while the other doesn’t really have an interest in doing that, and that doesn’t make for a good “yoking” or partnership…

An ideal relationship is one that helps you follow Jesus: you want to date someone who encourages your faith, someone who points you to Jesus, someone who is about the same things as you.  I know it can be hard to wait for that person, especially when there is a non-Christian who is interested in you or who you like, but trust the Bible on this.  God isn’t trying to ruin your love life or take away your fun, but He’s actually trying to give you what’s best for you, something that helps you to love and serve Him!

7SR 2010!

As of 1/25, the trip is full and registration is now closed, but if you’re going, check out the 7SR page to find out more about what to pack and the schedule for the weekend.

An Engineer’s Perspective on Santa Claus

WARNING: Do not read this if you are under the age of 12 or have younger siblings reading over your shoulder…I’ve already ruined 1 too many people’s Christmases with this…haha.  But the engineer in me appreciates it…

SANTA CLAUS: An Engineer’s Perspective

I. There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at least one good child in each.

II. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on to the next house.  Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second —3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

III. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the “flying” reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with eight or even nine of them — Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

IV. 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance — this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 g’s. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

V. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he’s dead now

In all seriousness, though, have a great Christmas! See you in 2010!