God of Rain

I see God in the rain.

It falls on the godly and the ungodly, just like the mercy of God's daily provision.

It makes everything clean, like the blood of Christ. For those who are His, it washes them. For those who are not, it washes them away.

Like the power of God, no one can stop it.

Crazy House

Sometimes the things said in my house don't make sense to me. Take yesterday, for example. Katrina was getting Carsen a drink, and here's how that conversation went down:

Katrina: Here Carsen, I got you some juice.

Carsen: I don't want juice! I want water!

Katrina: Carsen, it's juice! You like juice.

Carsen: ... is it tomato juice? (one of her favorites)

And here's another that just happened. It's breakfast time and Katrina is trying to coax the kids to eat. Carsen and Canon are fighting over each other's food.

Katrina (to Carsen): Eat all your pop-tart, and if you're still hungry you can have some bologna.

Totally Random Ramblings

Here's what happens when I don't watch TV for a while...

I'm pretty happy with the way things are going right now. I feel like I'm coming out of a period of angst about the future. And as I was thinking about this, I wondered how temporary and fleeting this could be. Today at church, Todd talked about our nation and how it has lost its way from being based on truth. I got to thinking. Nations fall. What is keeping our nation from crumbling? Maybe it's the church. Maybe it's the fact that people in this nation still love God (Genesis 18:16-33). So how are we doing? Are we, the bride of Christ, striving to hold back the justice of God against our nation?

Speaking of the bride of Christ, this is something that blows my mind. We, the church, are the bride of Christ. We are also the body of Christ, and He is the head. How can we be both? This is a strange mystery, but Paul acknowledged as much (Ephesians 5:32). Our union with Christ is spiritual, though. Our fleshly union on this earth is just a picture of the intimacy and the pleasure we will experience (1 Corinthians 6:16-17).

So what's the verdict? Should I watch more TV or less?

Hardened

Sometimes I worry that God has a hardened heart. Sometimes I worry that God's heart is hard like mine. But this is emphatically not the case. He is so much better than I. But I see Him as having a hardened heart because I do.

I've always known that God is to be first in the life of a believer. In response to that, I harden my heart against those who would tempt me to love them more than God - my wife, my kids, etc. What does this look like? At times, I will decide to do what I think is right despite of their perceived or actual needs. In my mind, this is what leadership looks like - doing what is right despite the clamoring of the followers. After all, isn't that what Moses had to do for 40 years? But I think hardening my heart against those I love is a cheat. I think the right answer is to love God more, not to love others less. By loving others less, I am actually allowing myself to love God less and still put Him "first". And in reality, what I am doing is loving others less, loving God less, and loving myself more. I am trying to avoid the pain that would come from actually having to choose between the two.

The Gospel of J35u5 Chr!5+, Part 3

Faith. Good software practice is built on faith.

You design it using an open, loosely coupled architecture because you have faith that it will work out better in the long run. It's more difficult. It's often unnecessary to accomplish your original program goals. But you do it in faith that it will work out for the best in the long run. Maybe you've written an open architecture before and realized its benefits. Or maybe you've written a rigid architecture and suffered the consequences. Either way, you know it is worth taking the time to do it right at the beginning.

You document it in the expectation that you or someone else will need to read it in the future. Again, there's no immediate value. It's an investment.

A good software engineer is always looking forward at what comes next, even imagining it if he has to.

Hebrews 11:1 - "Now faith is the assurance of thing hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Spammers ... seriously?!?

The spam emails I get are always so obviously spam, I just have to wonder how it is even worth their while to keep spamming. Let's just take a walk down the chain of thoughts that someone would have to have to actually respond as the spammers desire:

<Moron opens his email>
Moron: Oh! I've got a new email! Looks like it is from ... me?? Hmm, that's strange. Oh well, I'm sure there's a good explanation. Let's see what this is about...

<Reads subject line>
Moron: "I'm your new manager"? What? How am I my new manager? Maybe I work for myself now! That would be great! I guess I'd better read it or I might get fired.

<Opens email>
Moron: Is there supposed to be something in this email? Oh, wait ... here's some words: "Can't see the images below?" I certainly cannot! What should I do? Oh, it tells me - "Click here" Okay!

<Clicks on link>
Moron: What's this? A website for buying erectile dysfunction medication from overseas pharmacies? Now why would I send myself an email with links to a site that sells ED medicine from overseas pharmacies? I guess I'm going to start a business retailing cheap ED meds. Better buy in bulk!

Seriously, what other chain of thoughts would possibly lead someone through the courses of action that end in a win for the spammers? Not only are the deceptive tactics completely lame and unbelievable, they are also completely disjoint along every step of the way. Come on!

The Gospel of J35u5 Chr!5+, part 2

Let's look at the gospel of Humility.

I actually had this conversation with a co-worker the other day, and he sat there nodding along without realizing I was sharing a major aspect of the Gospel...

Matthew 19:30 - "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

This has to do with how you think about your application, and how you design it as a result of that philosophy. We've all used apps that think they are clearly the most important thing your computer has going on. Why wouldn't your PC feel blessed to spend 80% of it's available resources running Louts Smaemite? Also, have you ever tried to use an app as part of a larger system, only to find that its only interface is through a GUI? In contrast, think about the most flexible, useful operating system in the world - Linux. It is literally a compilation of little nuggets of functionality, each one humbling itself before the system to be used any way the user sees fit. Want to read from a file? Most commands have a command line switch for that. What to read from STDIN instead? Most can handle that too. None of them exalt themselves on high and say, "I must be the only app you are using."

This concept came up in conversation with a co-worker, when he was describing the process required to get his system working. He had designed it in a bit of a vacuum (my fault). It required starting an executable and then starting 2 separate Java processes to send & receive data. I walked him through the architecture he was plugging into, and then explained how his app needed to "just start" at system boot, instead of requiring the operator to take 3 extra steps (each incurring a chance for failure) at the end or middle of the normal boot process.

When we exalt ourselves, we can achieve glory from men for a while, but overall we are not useful to the Master Designer. When we humble ourselves and submit to His plan for us, we are much more capable of serving His purposes.