surprises

On Monday morning, I asked God to surprise me this week and then on Monday:
1. My AP Bio test got moved from Wednesday to Friday.
2. My Latin teacher said he wasn't going to be here from this Thursday - next Tuesday.
3. My sketchbook homework that was due on Wednesday is now due on Friday.

I realized that God has been and is continually teaching me about worshiping him. He deserves my everything. I've been watching a few videos here and there - Pastor Stephen Chandler's message & Bethel videos and it kind of clicked. Over the past few months God has been showing me that everything really does point to him and he deserves all of my worship. And what I learn in school shouldn't be a distraction from not spending time with Him, but it should make him worship him even more. We're learning about all the small details of a cell right now in biology and it amazes me how God created everything and how it all works together. While I'm living, there are thousands of reactions going on in my body - hydrolysis, movement of organelles, cells, etc. and everything works together well. Isn't it amazing?

WARNING- SPOILER ALERT: If you never read Candide before and you don't want me to spoil the ending, you should skip the next few paragraphs, but if you don't care, you can read it, haha.

We just finished reading Candide by Voltaire in lit and at first, it was difficult to get accustomed to the style and the pace of the book, but it has been making me think. Questions I was thinking about the other day - What is hope? What is optimism? Is there a difference between the two, and if there is, what is it? Is it possible to have hope but still be pessimistic? (Feel free to comment what you think!) I was asking a few of my friends and we all seemed to agree that there is a difference from hope and optimism abut how they were related seemed debatable. I think it really depended on how people defined hope. One of my friend defined hope as a wish, but I think it's more than just a wish. Another of my friends said - "Optimism is thinking everything is good and looking at the good in everything while hope if believing that something good will happen one day. I think most optimistic people have hope but you don't need to be optimistic to have it." I think these definitions somewhat limits what hope is. It makes it seem like there is no actions as a result of hope and I think it's the opposite of my friends said. I think most people with hope have optimism. I actually don't know. They're so intertwined. Anyways, that was just a thought.

I also found the character Pococurante very interesting. Candide was so certain that Pococurante must be happy because he had everything. "I've been told about a senator named Pococurante who lives in a beautiful palace on the Brenta and always gives strangers a courteous welcome. They say he's a man who's never known sorrow or trouble" (p.98). His "palace was an architectural triumph" and he had everything in abundance. However he made a comment about all his source of entertainment that although they were entertaining at first, they all ended up boring him. "The noise may be amusing for half an hour but if it lasts any longer it bores everyone, although no one dares to admit it" (p.100). I found that really interesting because it really shows us nothing in this world can really satisfy us. It can entertain us for a while, but eventually it can't so we search for more entertainment elsewhere. Then, isn't that depressing? Yes, but there is someone who can satisfy us and that's God himself! Nothing will satisfy us in this world, but God can and will. Then everything, including my studies points back to God again.

At the end of the book, Pangloss said - "...when man was put in the Garden of Eden, he was put there 'to dress it and to keep it,' that is, to work; which proves that man was not born to be idle" (p.120). This really reminded me of my key verse this year - "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do." Someone in class mentioned in class that Voltaire criticizes religions, but he doesn't question God's existence. I found that interesting. I don't really know exactly what Voltaire's points were through his book, but they're interesting to think about. I also found it somewhat significant that at the end of the novel, "the whole group entered into this commendable plan, and each began to exercise his own talents. The little farm yielded abundant crops." Maybe Voltaire's message to the people of his time was to stop theorizing everything and start working together as people. I like how each of the characters cultivated their talents. I think it's important we do that as a society as well. Not everyone can be one thing.

I made a website! mustardseedphotography.weebly.com
I was talking to my art teacher today and she suggested that I make a website so I just did, haha. She's really good at photography!