Math 152 notes

2/24 - L

class canceled yesterday cuz of snow!

still 8.9, still convergence. I gotta read the book, cuz I don't remember this stuff, but I think I'll understand it better from the book than from class. I still want a voice recorder...

I'm pretty sure you basically just take the definite integral, plug in positive or negative infinity, and take the limit of it. A number is convergent, positive or negative infinity, divergent. I think.

A Poem

Roses are light, violets are dark
I'm colorblind, and I poop in the park.
I may not know what you're saying to me,
But if you say it real nice, I'll still be happy.
I love to play, and run, and... play!
as long as I'm not stuck inside all day.
I'm sorry I don't really help much right now;
But maybe this summer I'll help Dad herd cows.
I love how you smile when I clean up my toys,
And shaking my booty brings everyone joy.
I love the attention that newcomers give,
So come to Camp Winchester, 'cause that's where I live!

-by Brandon Bronaugh
Dedicated to Dache Seale

The prof is desperately trying to explain the definition of something to us before he runs out of time. The sad thing is, even if I didn't know this stuff already, I probably still would only be halfway listening to the proof he's giving.

[formula for arc length]

Don't read this if you hate it when people suddenly

So I'm gonna do a blog post every night from now on! The only reason I say this is, I've been doing that for a while now, and I figure that if I resolve to keep doing it, I'll stop pretty soon.

“I don’t know if you care that much about basketball, but you should care about Calculus.” – Tamás Erdélyi

That was my Calculus professor, after saying something about basketball before he started his lecture. I think that what I quoted is the only thing he said before the lecture that I understood. He's Hungarian. Coolest. Accent. Ever. I believe I've already stated this, though.

Darkness. Night? Maybe. It's inside, so there's no way to tell. A door; there's the doorknob. Open it? Definitely. Anything to get out of this place. The stench is unbearable. Soundless hinges squeak open. Empty hallway. Sprinting. Objects become visible. It must be daytime. Are those screams? No, just imagination. Halt. Another door. Is it locked? Only one way to find out. It's not. This one makes no sound as it swings open on it's creaky hinges. Anyone here? Yes, there's something, or someone. It's a dog. Pressing on. Getting brighter. Outside door. It must be open, too. It is. Something is opening it. Growling? Hissing? No way to place that sound. The door flies open and

I'm tired. Goodnight.

Patience

Auughhh!! Ok, I bet you already know where this one is going now. Have you ever had trouble with patience? Yes? If not, you should be writing this, telling people like me how to get better and stuff like that. I just throw my thoughts down.

So it's like someone's leading you through somewhere, and the place is full of really cool things. You would stop and enjoy all the really cool things this tour guide person is, but there one thing in particular that you want to see. So, the whole time, you're asking "What about this? When is that coming up? What'll it be like? Can you take me straight there?" And that's what we do. That's what I feel like now. I know that God has this amazing plan for my life, and He's taking me through it right now, step by step, day by day. But I keep looking forward, to next month, to next summer, to next year, to... I used to think this was good. I mean, it's better than the alternative, which is reliving and regretting your past constantly. I've been both places, and looking forward to the future is much more fun. But, in either case, you're still being distracted from what really matters, which is living for God, right here, right now. Don't forget your past, because you need to learn from trials and mistakes, and don't stop envisioning your future, because God has something wonderful in store for you. Just make sure you're doing the work of the Lord right now. I heard this neat little quote once. It starts off saying how yesterday is something, and tomorrow is something (I know, real descriptive, right?), but "today is a gift; that's why it's called the 'present.'" It's true.

So, I think I'm kinda getting a little off track here. Plus, I want to go to sleep by midnight (not gonna happen). I started off talking about patience, specifically in regard to God's plan. I keep wanting to be somewhere other than where I am. It's not always a "grass is greener" type of thing, though. I'm not always discontent with where I am at the moment, I just get, well, impatient. I'm finished with whatever I'm doing before God is. I don't play with the little toys very long before I start to go for the big one, or new one, or whatever. This book I'm reading (I finished the Cussler one yesterday. awesome) right now talks about how patience is closely linked to wisdom, and that kinda struck close to home for me. Because I struggle with patience sometimes, and yet, for a really long time now, I've prayed for God to give me wisdom. What's weird about that is, I don't really know how He's answered my prayer. Like, I don't really feel wise or anything, but sometimes it seems like I give answers to people that I didn't know that I had. I start talking about things, and I'm just like "Where did that come from?" Almost like I'm just coming up with this stuff as I say it, yet I say it like I've learned it through lots of experience or something like that. Is that wisdom from God, or just me saying the first thing that comes to mind? And if it is wisdom, why do I have such trouble with patience?

Even if patience and wisdom go together, the main thing you get from patience is peace. That's because patience is when you totally trust God and His plan, and especially, His timing. But then, wouldn't that mean that patience is tied in with faith? Whenever you have patience, in any situation, isn't that evidence of faith? Two people standing, waiting for an elevator. Both are going to the same meeting, starting at the same time. One is nervously tapping his foot, watching the numbers slowly change, the other is patiently waiting, thinking about what the stuff between bricks is made of. Why? They obviously have different attitudes about the same thing, but, unless the nervous one has to pee or something, why would they be so different? Sure, you could argue that the patient one has more faith, trusting that the elevator will make it, and he will get to his meeting in time. But you could also argue that he simply has more wisdom, because he understands that fretting about an elevator simply won't help anything (or because he went to the bathroom before he left for the meeting). Are they all three related somehow? I mean, I know they all are, in some way, but I'm talking about in this context. Basically, how do you become more patient? You pray, yes, and ask God for patience. But if you ask God to help you fight a giant, you still have to go out there and fight. What do you do?

Is patience really anything in and of itself? Like, what is patience? Maybe it's just a byproduct of wisdom and peace. But patience is a fruit of the Spirit (unlike a coconut)! Ahh! I don't understand. Am I over analyzing this? I tend to do that on occasion. "He looked at me and didn't smile. Does he hate me?" Ok, maybe not quite like that, but yeah. Ugh, now it's 5 til 12. I really need to blog less. Have you noticed that I've been blogging a lot lately? Well, I have. It's probably just cuz I've been thinking a lot, and something about putting my thoughts down where people can read and laugh at them without me knowing is...appealing? Wow, I just made blogs creepy. You're a creeper now, you know that? Don't worry, I'll find a good picture for the milk cartons.

So, we ran a marathon today. Yes, literally. At least, I think it qualified as a marathon. It was a three mile, timed race around the quadrangle. Six laps. It's called the "bloody cross," and the Corps does it every year. It's called that because the way we run around the quad is in the shape of a cross. It's really good bull (fun). We get to wear costumes if we want. I chose to wear my Halloween costume. If you've ever watched Sesame Street, you probably remember Bert and Ernie. I was dressed up as Ernie. If you remember from Sesame Street, Ernie wore jeans, and two sweaters. Also, you never see Ernie run, and you sure don't ever see him run 3 miles in sunny Texas weather. Yeah, I came really close to passing out. I didn't fall out, though! I stayed in and ran all 3 miles. The 3's on here look cool. They go below the line. I wonder if they'll look the same when I post this. I hope so.

Anyway, so back to patience, I want to go to sleep, and this is taking too long, so I think I'm done (sarcasm, but I really am done). I guess I haven't said this before, but please keep me in your prayers. It's a lot better than it was last semester, but it's still really tough here. If you're reading this, I love you, and thank you being my friend. If you don't know me, and you're secretly following my blog or something, that's ok; I still love you. Wow, I just reread the sentence before, and it sounded really deep. I actually didn't intend it that way. It is true, yes, but it was supposed to be all cheerful and funny and stuff... yeah, I'm just gonna go now.

High five!

You know, time only flies when you look back on something. Like, that footprints poem, about the guy dreaming about walking down the beach with God, leaving footprints in the sand. When you're walking, each step is, well, just one step. But then, you look back, and you see a long trail. It actually makes me think of calculus (yes, this does make me a nerd). Whenever I'm working on homework or whatever, each operation, or even each problem, is not all that much by itself. Sometimes it's just a couple numbers, and that's it. But then, after a while, I look back on the pages I've completely filled with numbers an symbols and variables, and I wonder how my hand didn't cramp up while writing all that. Look back on your life. I'm only 19, but that's still plenty of footprints, or calculus notebooks. The thing is, though, it all happened one step at a time. Unless you bunny hop, you're only setting one foot down after another. I guess you kinda have to take everything in a similar way. I know I have trouble just multi tasking simple things, like thinking and talking. It seems like either my brain is running, or my mouth is. My ears get caught in the crossfire sometimes, too. I don't really know where I'm going with this. Just a thought I had. I don't know. I guess we should pay attention to what we should be focused on at the moment. The future is good to look forward, and to plan for, but you have to make sure you know what you're doing now, cuz that sets up the future. You don't want to be giving directions out of town to the person you should be riding with.

Sore muscles. If you learn from sore muscles, I should be a genius pretty soon. Nothing like going from never doing pull ups, to doing a total of about 60 in one workout. Maybe half were actually good ones, though. At least my legs aren't too sore. We're running tomorrow. I think it'll be pretty cool. Friday was a really good day. Got my scholarship letters turned in, called my mom to say happy birthday, we got the right to wear our GM cords (don't ask, just accept), hanging out. It was all pretty great. Went shooting with my dad and brothers this evening. That was fun. I found out that I'm actually pretty bad with a handgun, cuz I never shoot one, but I grouped the sks (Russian military rifle) pretty well...at 15 yards... But anyways, it was lots of fun. I had bbq, too. And pie. I like pie.

Potatoes (is there supposed to be that e there?) make a really good lunch on the go.

If you're running for some kind of political thing, and you stand outside the voting place and shake my hand and say hi and act real nice to me right before I go in and vote, I just might vote for you. Course, if you read my blog, I'll probably vote for you anyway.

I write random things like this partly because I want anyone who reads this to laugh or smile at least one, but mostly because I can't think of anything else to say, but I don't feel like I'm done yet.

I'm doing this on my iPod again, and it's kinda tough. Was my last post on my iPod, too?

I do pt. Why? To make my body stronger, so I can do even more pt. Duh...

Schlotzky's or IHOP?

If you put a sign on your car that says "Ask me about GIRL SCOUT COOKIES," you'll get "Hey, what's that on your car?" more than you will anything about cookies.

My scout may be roadworthy sometime soon. I'm considering starting a second blog about my progress on it, complete with pictures and 3 months between each post. Everyone else does it.

Saw an old Corvette on the road today. I was looking at it as we passed it, and the driver looked at me, so I smiled and gave him a thumbs up. He nodded and returned the smile and gesture. It made me happy.

I told myself I would get to sleep by 3... Yeah...

Sometimes I wonder where my life is going. Ok, I almost always wonder where my life is going. I mean, being in college means that you're thinking about your future. That's why you're there. But I don't know. Remember what I said about giving directions to the person you should be with. I've done that. You get so caught up in what needs to be done that you forget about what you need to be doing. But I guess I'm also talking about long term planning, as well. I kinda feel like I just went to college because "that's what you do after high school." I don't know why I want to be a nuclear engineer. In fact, and don't tell this to anyone, I'm not even sure I do want to be a nuclear engineer! Even more important, I don't know what God wants me to do. I'm pretty sure I'm on the right track, at least, because I haven't felt Him telling me any different. Maybe it's just not time for me to know yet. Read Hannah's blog, if you haven't yet. I think that's what started me thinking about this. I don't know. I think about all of the unknowns ahead of me, and I get nervous, anxious, impatient, everything. I wanna know what's going to happen, but it's kinda like when you're on a train, and the only time you can see what's going on with the train is when there's a turn ahead. A little glimpse at where you'll be next. But whatever happens, you aren't driving, so why should you worry about what's ahead? Don't you trust the Driver? One of the many quotable things I've heard my scoutmaster say is this, which he said on a long van ride to Colorado: "I can't sleep in a car unless I'm driving." Arent we like that with life sometimes? The only person you can trust in the driver's seat enough to relax with is yourself, yet you've got the best in the world behind the wheel. That should be enough for you to sleep, even if it is a kind of bumpy ride. Sleep. Something I should do now...

Hope you enjoyed.

Peace. Oh, and love. And U-turns...

*Toniiiiiight*

Ok, I'm gonna make this one real quick, cuz I'm tired. Today was pretty great. I didn't do a whole lot, but it was a lot compared to what I've been doing this past week. So, since i'm feeling better, I decided to do a little pt. I went running, but I took the dogs with me this time. I was already in a pretty good mood, just cuz, plus it was really good weather for running. The dogs made it all so much better, though. See, from what my mom told me about the dog walk, I expected Buddy, our rat terrier, to tire out long before our German shepherd, Princess. I pictured myself carrying Buddy while running. That was not at all the case. I probably didn't run more than mile, maybe a mile and a half, but Princess, or Prinness as we call her, was work out less than halfway through. She kept pushing on, though, and it made me very proud. Buddy, however, was ahead of me most of the time, and I could almost feel the excitement trailing behind him. The only times he got behind me were when he stopped, or tried to stop, to smell something. There were many of those times. He probably would've marked half the neighborhood if I had given him the chance. Thankfully, he cane along almost everytime I tugged on the leash. Ugh, this isn't short like I said it would be. Ok, so anyway, it was really fun running with the dogs. Then I did some more pt on my own, played wii, and burned some cookies. I was really hyper for a lot of today, and it was a lot of fun. That's where the cookies came from. I've also had Jeremy Camp's "Tonight" stuck in my head for a while now. It's a good song. I wish Gone Fishin' would play it. After all that, I went to see Avatar with Cate and Mitchell, and Chris and Leah were randomly there, too. I think Mitchell got them in, too. I didn't know they were gonna be there until I got a call from Chris saying the movie was about to start, 15 minutes before I thought it was supposed to be. Oh well. It was a good movie. Afterwards, we - just Mitchell, Cate, and I - went to IHOP. That was cool. I got never ending pancakes, but I ate less than 8. Mitchell payed for all of us, though. It was really nice of him to do. So now I'm back home, and I'm so stuck on this stupid blog that I'm doing this on my iPod while laying in bed about to go to sleep. It's almost 4, and I still have to wake up for church tomorrow. Ugh, that's me. Goodnight yal.

I just searched my blog for the word "poop," and it came up with something....

:)

Joy to the World

I'm starting this now, but I'm probably going to come back and finish it later. There's a lot to be happy about in this world. I'm surprised I'm just now finding this out. If you're sad, think about happy things... for example, a song I really like just started playing on KLove. It's actually the song that's playing right now, if you haven't stopped the music player at the bottom of this page. That makes me happy.

Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't ever be sad. I get sad a lot. But while there's plenty to make you sad, there's so much to be happy about, too. Think about the Olympics going on right now. I don't even know why, but just thinking about them makes me happy. Imagine doing something really great. One of my life goals, as of about 10 minutes ago, is to one day carry the Olympic torch. They do a relay which involves thousands of people. This year was the longest relay held entirely within the host country thus far. Canada is pretty big. But I don't care. I want to carry that torch someday. Think about funny things that you've done with friends, or, better yet, plan something really fun to do with friends. I won't tell you what just yet, but Chad and I are planning on doing something really cool sometime soon. It's going to be epic and amazingly awesome. You could make something great for someone. It doesn't take a lot of money (it might), but if you put work and imagination into a gift, it's very special and personal. Plus it can be just plain cool. Do what I do, and try to make something that that person will use, or display somewhere, and laugh or smile every time they use or look at it. They don't have to think about you specifically, either, just make something that makes them smile. Pray. If prayer doesn't make you happy, then you need to be praying anyway. Praising Jesus brings the deepest, most fulfilling joy I've ever experienced. Find a hobby. Make some music. Write a blog! Just don't worry, be happy. Even forcing yourself to smile can help. But if you're down, definitely find some friends, and just talk. You don't even need to say that you're sad, just talk to a friend. I'm willing to bet that will make you happy. But the point of this isn't just to cheer you up if you're sad. There's no reason to wait until you're sad to try to be happy. Just be happy!

Here's a joke that I really want to tell as soon as I get the chance:

You have to be in a restaurant, or similar setting.

"How do you sell a deaf person a chicken?"

"I don't know. How?"

"DO YOU WANT TO BUY A CHICKEN!!??"

I'm gonna do it! I can't wait! If I were you, I wouldn't go anywhere quiet with me for a little while...

what is it?

I'm all better now. Well, almost all better. I went upstairs a little while ago, and that kinda wore me out. I think I'll have my strength (haha) back by tomorrow, though. Maybe I'll do a little pt on Saturday. I hate pt. But I haven't done any since.... oh wow, since last Tuesday. I'm out of shape. But yeah, I probably would be back at A&M right now, if those doctors at the hospital, or even the ones at minor emergency, would have just given me some antibiotics last Saturday. But no, all I got was some pain medicine, so I didn't get much better until I went back and got some antibiotics yesterday. No one knew what I had, though. I guess that's actually kinda scary, when you think about it. The tests at minor emergency for strep, mono, and flu all came back negative. The couple blood tests at the emergency room didn't show anything, and the doctor said my throat looked good when he looked at it with that little light thing. You know, the one on the end of the stick, that they tell you to open and say "ahhh" so they can shine the light down your throat and look through the little hole? Yeah, that thing. So, since he didn't see anything too crazy, they went and x-rayed my throat to look deep inside it for infections (yeah, I don't know how an x-ray is supposed to see infections, but whatever). That didn't accomplish anything, either. Well, the guy who did the x-ray was pretty cool (see my other post where I talk about Michael), so I guess meeting him was a plus. I was high, though, so anything that involved people that talked to me was a plus at the time. But anyway, all those tests, and no one could tell for sure what it was. The doctor finally just guessed that it had to be laryngitis, and I just accepted this as true. Giving me vicodine and just telling me to chill for a little while wasn't the best remedy, though. Oh well, it was a nice week off of school. Can't believe it's already Thursday night, though.

Ok, I should definitely probably put something relevant and important on this post. I think most of what I previously said was just me repeating what I said in another post. I've posted a lot this past week, cuz I've been so bored. I've also started over my Zelda game on the wii, and gotten probably halfway through it already. I think I've put in 16 hours on it just this week. That's 6 days, though, so it averages out to less than 3 hours a day. I don't think I played any yesterday, though, which brings the average to more than 3 hours a day. That can't be healthy.

Is it weird to think that I used to look kinda like him? I mean, I have blue eyes, and I used to have long blonde hair. Not quite like his, but kinda close. I guess I don't have his sideburns, though. Or pointy ears.

Gotta catch some sleep

I just spent...a long time... looking for a Pokemon layout for my blog. Yes, Pokemon. Why? I have absolutely no idea. I don't even want to know how long I spent on this fruitless search. I found plenty, but none of them worked. I'm pretty bad at this HTLM stuff. html... whatever... I'm just bad at all this formatting. I guess that's one reason I prefer facebook over myspace. They format your profile page for you. It's so much easier that way. Myspace is so complicated, and it's so much less fun. I pulled three surveys off of there the other day, though. Probably the first time I logged on in at least three months.

I'm still home. Went to the doctor today. She was really nice. Put me on antibiotics. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. I just hope this vertigo goes away pretty soon. I can't hardly walk right now. I can make it to the bathroom, or the kitchen, or even upstairs, alright, but I don't think I could walk for a very long time without sitting down, or sit down for extended periods of time without laying down. That won't do for college. I can get away with walking in the dorms and stuff, cuz I have a note, but I'm not too sure about walking all the way to class. Some of them are pretty far. Maybe I'll just tough it out. Then again, it doesn't matter how tough I am if I can't walk in a straight line. Maybe I should just drop out and find some career that doesn't involve a college degree... No, I'm just kidding. Don't worry, I'll stay in college.

I did talk to dad once about doing something besides being a nuclear engineer. It's not like that's set in stone at this point anyway. Is your life ever set in stone? I guess pretty much the only thing you can be sure about in life is death, and with how things are looking now, even that might not happen for some of us. But anyway, I think it would be great just to have something that I love to do, that has nothing to do with money or income. I guess you could consider it a hobby, but I'm talking on a larger scale. In this case, my dad and I were talking about owning and running a camp. Now, maybe I couldn't both own and run a camp, along with being a nuclear engineer, but I'm sure I could at least help out at one. We got onto this topic because I mentioned that I'm not sure if being an engineer is what I really love to do, and I want to have a job in a field that I love, not just one that makes me a lot of money. I don't think I've ever talked to someone who regretted getting a job they loved because of low pay. Yeah, there are plenty of people who wish that the jobs they have would pay more, but they still love their job enough to stick with it. I love working at the camp. Everything about it. The people, the animals, the campfires, the smells, the sounds, the games, stories, snacks, songs, and the amazing presence of God in such a beautifully isolated sanctuary. Every opportunity to visit that place is such a blessing to me. When I told my dad about that, he suggested I invest in a camp someday. Now that was an idea! I could be a part of making and managing the thing that I love! Oh, it seemed like such a great idea, it couldn't be real. I still can't imagine it could actually happen. But then again, that dream is what the Seales are living. Sometimes I try to imagine waking up and having to go feed the chickens and the horses (sometimes when I'm there I don't have to imagine!), having your summer job be right outside your door, and going to sleep next to campers in bunks just a few hundred feet from your bedroom. I'm sure they would say that it's not all as extravagant as I'm making it seem right now - after all, the grass is always greener on the other side, right? - but I still think it would be pretty great. Oops, it looks like my secret's out now. The Seales know how cool I think they are. I guess I'd better not tell them how serious I was about adopting me...

Haha, I look back up at the title of this blog, and I realize that I couldn't have picked a better one. This is my third attempt at starting this post. I'll be surprised if it makes it. I don't know why I'm writing, other than the fact that I don't want to do my math homework. I'll get a due date extension. I'm sick, they'll have pity on me. I hope...

This week has crawled by. I found that the weeks so far this semester were actually moving by faster than I expected, but this week has crawled by. It's probably just because I'm sick, and all I've done since Friday night is lay around on the couch or my bed, eat, play some wii, sleep, eat, play on my ipod, eat, sleep, play wii, sleep... somehow I've managed to keep my devotionals going, but they been hardly anything more than scribbling down whatever semblances of thoughts I have at the moment before falling back into the sleepy stupor I was in before. All of this just makes me even more anxious to get out of this world, and out of this frail, vulnerable body. Paul said somewhere, I can't find it right now, that we'll inherit bodies that are like Christ's. I thought that was pretty cool. He didn't mean like Jesus' body when He was here on earth, either, but like His in heaven. I look forward to that. No more sickness, no more injuries, no more pt...

Ooh, so I got the surround sound system hooked up on Saturday. It's pretty tight. The bass is really nice. 700 watts, I think...

At the hospital, the nurse gave me this stuff called dilotin (I don't know how it's spelled, but it's pronounced dil-OT-in), which he said is ten times stronger than morphine. Yeah. Think about that for a second. Morphine is pretty strong stuff. The guy put this stuff in the IV, and then, about a minute later, it's almost like fire is going across my chest, then up towards my head. I got this crazy head rush, and it felt like someone was pulling me back into the pillow. From the time I first felt it in my chest, for the rest of the night, I kept moving my legs, whether I was thinking about it or not. I was high for like an hour after that. When the guy came in to take me to x-ray my neck to check for some kind of infection, after proper introduction ("Hi, what's your name? My name is Brandon, it's nice to meet you..."), I started talking to him about the musical I was missing, how I was feeling, and stuff like that. He was a really nice guy. His name was Michael...

If you're still reading this, you must either be really bored, or you have a weird sense of humor, like me. Or maybe you just like me that much. :) Thanks.

Are smileys allowed in blogs? Are there any rules for blogs? I saw this cooking blog once that had a post about what kind of stuff you should eat when you're sick. The requirements looked so difficult to fulfill that it seemed to me it would be worse for you to make that food than it would be just to eat whatever you have in the fridge. I would just keep a good stock of canned soup for whenever you're under the weather...

I think I had a point for starting this post, but I can't remember what it was now. It may have just been to complain about how bad I feel, but then I didn't want to just complain, cuz no one wants to listen to someone else complain about how they feel, and it's not good to complain anyway. So, I was gonna turn it into a motivational post about how we'll get new bodies in heaven. I think you saw where that went. It's all Hannah's fault. I just read her new post, and whenever I read one of her blog posts, it makes me want to go and write a really thoughtful, inspiring post of my own, but they never turn out quite like hers do. Just look at this one. I don't even think I want to go back and read it now. I'm scared to...

Have you ever played Donkey Kong 64? That was a cool game...

So I was walking through the Trigon the other day (it's the building with all the ROTC people. they're actual military, not A&M Corps. BIG difference), and I noticed this sign with an Army slogan on it: "I will always place the mission first." I had seen the sign before, but those words stuck out to me that particular time. I thought about what exactly that pledge implied. Always, as in, all the time. Whether you want to or not, whether you like it or not, whether it's easy or not. Always. I imagined a soldier, stuck out there, somewhere far from home. Maybe it's cold and wet, and he's only inches away from frostbite, but he's still crawling across the ground, away from the warmth of camp, towards a deadly enemy. He thinks about his family back home, where it's sunny, and bright, and he feels loved, and welcome, and safe. But he has to push those thoughts to the back of his mind, and keep crawling, farther from camp, farther from home. He must complete his mission. The last thing he wants to do is get any closer to the enemy, but it's part of the mission. He only wants to go running back into the arms of his family, and embrace them, and never leave. But he must complete his mission.

Isn't that kinda how we should be? Think about it. We were placed on this earth for a purpose, a mission, if you will. I don't know about you, but I'm anxious to get to Heaven. Sometimes I wish I could just leave this world and go straight there, and I'm sure many Christians feel the same way. But we must complete our mission. It's tough, yes, and it's not always fun. We have to go through some pretty tough training to prepare ourselves for it, and, many times, we have absolutely no idea why we're doing what we're doing, we just know that it needs to be done. Only after we finish our mission, can we go home. We shouldn't treat this world as our home, because it isn't. We are only here for a short time. This is just camp. Don't spend too much time making yourself comfortable here, because when you leave for home, you don't take your tent with you.

Now, I know this is a pretty loose analogy, but I think it's good for that one point. We're here for a while, and, even if God blesses you with a great life, it's nothing compared to what's in store for us. Just the thought of that should make you anxious to go home. But remember, we have a mission to complete here. And God will never send us through something we can't handle, with His help. We never leave His thoughts, His sight, or His hands. I hope this has encouraged you in some way.