Various recent thoughts

Leadership and being an effective leader has been a recent issue that has come up in my life on several fronts. The first front is meeting a new person who is in leadership training of sorts, at least its a topic he is taking a class in. Another front is watching the leadership of my place of work, and some of their actions. Finally there is my leadership, since I am in a position of that kind of sorts. I almost forgot - our national leadership.

This has led me to think of the guidelines in Timothy and Titus (Bible) for leaders. Also of the passage in Isaiah about they will be led by children. If the proper credentials (Bible ones) of a leader are not there then it will be just like being led by a child. There is also Jesus example of leadership- being a servant to those under you. That is rarely seen today. I'm also reading in Jeremiah, and those times prior to Babylonian overthrow of Judah are much like the times we live in today.

I'm teaching a math class this summer and I was thinking about the need to pray for my students. Some come in and try to do the minimum to get by, others have family and personal life issues that are not conducive to being successful in class. Its a wide range and throw in the fact that they need different amounts of help. Some younger students have only forgotten the concepts, and pick back up on them quickly. Other students have never seen the concepts and it takes them longer to grasp and apply them.

One of my strategies I am planning to use is to post a math problem every day, or have a quiz every day, to make that their HW grade. God has recently led me to the knowledge to be able to do that, I just hope I will follow through effectively.

I got thinking about infinity. I thought God is infinity in math terms. We can catch a glimpse, but can never fully understand or comprehend. Then I thought about ways to define infinity, and one of my favorite ways to consider it is 1/0. Technically and this is taught by math instructors the world over "division by zero is undefined", "not allowed", I don't know what you have heard. It is precisely true - we cannot define God, so I like it.

God is the "one", He can be more than that but He says "I am", He exists. We (all humans everywhere are the zero. Without God we are but a bucket of dust (just add water). When we place God over us (1/0 -His rightful position) then infinity is possible, anything and all things are possible. When we try and put ourselves over God (0/1) we have exactly zero or nothing, as any math person will tell you.

The neat thing is that God truly is everywhere in our lives. We try an compartmentalize our spiritual life and keep it separate from our secular life, but we cannot. He brought this to my attention today, and I'm so grateful for it.

The other thing that came to mind is our need to find truth. I'm starting Jeremiah 9 and its about how we as people tell lies. We do it so often and so well we lose sight of the truth. We must go to God to find truth and no other. Why no other? Because the truth is another person may really be convincing, but a liar just the same. Parents can lie to you (most don't have that intention, but it is possible), grandparents, good friends, etc. The only Persons you can trust is the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The only thing we can truly trust is our time spent with God and what He tells us.

Another thought I've been contemplating is this: if you are dis-satisfied with another person (spouse, mom, dad, child, co-worker) and you complain about this person, are you not acting out of selfishness and pride? The reason I say this is because God has been merciful to us, each of us has broken the 10 commandments (probably several- maybe close to all), so we deserve a life of misery. Justice would dictate we deserve punishment, yet God is merciful and places good things in out lives. Your spouse, child, parents, may not be perfect and probably are far from it, but they have occasionally done nice things for you in all likelihood. Considering what you a sinner deserves, there has been blessing in your life and yet since those people aren't perfect you focus on the times they let you down, so I ask my question again - are you being selfish and prideful? Are you dis-satisfied with the blessings God has given you because it isn't enough (as many or the kind you want)?