Football's Here!

I enjoy football, especially that of my ‘Horns, and secondly, the Wolverines, but I’d hardly call myself a fanatic. What I’ve noticed this year is that many people, including me, have been more excited about the advent of football season which finally arrived this weekend (for the college folks—I think the pros started several weeks ago—see what I mean?)

For me, in record-breaking hot, drought-stricken Texas, the beginning of college football means that it is time for the temperature to begin to consider maybe thinking about starting to cool off.

Le Chatelier’s Principle

This is one of the key principles we teach in General Chemistry. It is a very simple concept but with profound implications. “If a chemical system at equilibrium is stressed in some way away from equilibrium, the system will shift in such a way to relieve the stress and restore equilibrium.”

In other words, some chemical reactions reach a point at which the original reactants are forming products at the same rate that the products are reverting back to the reactants, so the net concentrations of each reactant or product remains constant. If you stress the system by changing the temperature, or by adding/removing one of the components of the system, the reaction will adjust to a new equilibrium with different concentrations than it had originally, but still constant once equilibrium is reached.

This principle is true of any dynamic system with equilibrium points, not just chemical ones.

The drought in Texas has stressed the equilibrium of the ecosystem, with the personally relevant effect of driving hot and thirsty fire ants from outside to inside my house, disturbing my personal equilibrium.

Integrity Among Educators

A relative, who is a retired educator, sent this link to today’s post by a blogger with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It covers a breaking scandal in the Atlanta public school district where, from the superintendent on down, there was a culture of corruption to cheat on the state-mandated standardized tests, including intimidating teachers who failed to do what it took to raise scores or who objected to the unethical practices.

Higher Ed is not immune to these types of pressures, especially in the current economy. Believe it or not, many schools have funding models where students who fail classes cost the university money and the higher the graduation rate, the better the financial picture. On the surface, this sounds like a good idea. However, reality can be very different.

Emergency Alert System

Jesus said that when the fig tree is putting on leaves we know that summer is coming and that in the same way when we see ‘these signs’ we know the end is near, though we will never know the date until it happens. Interest in end times has been high the last few years, and not just among the family of God. People look at the world and say it just can’t get much worse.

I have alternately been sympathetic towards that perspective and struggling with it. We Americans tend to be pretty myopic and short-sighted when it comes to looking at the big picture of history, and just because it seems our nation might be on the brink doesn’t mean the whole world is. I’ve consciously held on to that perspective because I wanted to do everything I can to keep an objective view of things. Also, I CAN picture things getting a whole lot worse, and believe there have been periods of time that have been worse throughout history. Given how easy our lives have been here, any hardship often seems like the end of the world to folks.

However, right now, I do think the world is on a brink of unprecedented change. There are a number of clues in Scripture that in the end, it is economic power, not military power that will consume the world. It is interesting that money-worship, greed, materialism and so on are the things that Christ nailed more than anything else.

Looking at the news, the economy is THE global story right now and for the last couple of years. While the Great Depression may have been worse in many measures, there is something about the global instability, and the American currency instability that gives me pause. We are nearing a tipping point, and a major power shift, probably towards Asia, that will radically change our way of life. And with global mindsets and technologies, there are changes possible we could not have conceived of not too long ago. The stage is being set and the fig branches are getting tender.

Is this the beginning of THE END? Can’t say. There is a growing sense of foreboding in my spirit that is harder and harder to ignore. There is certainly a type of end approaching and our lives are about to change. I am convinced of this. Wisdom is telling me to get prepared. My spirit is telling me to pray more, and exhort others to faith and to pay attention to the world around them and seek the Lord regarding it.

Could I be overreacting? Yeah. But I am seeing more and more people with the same vibes from many different areas, particularly the economic sector, and not just the Christian sector. Thus, I look at Pascal’s wager—if I am right and I prepare, then I’ll be in better shape. If I am wrong and prepare, I’m still in better shape. If I fail to prepare, than at best I’m neutral, and at worst, well, it ain’t pretty.

So, my advice is to pray for the Lord to reveal wisdom, and follow it.

SDG

Money Smarts

Some Bible commentators have said that Jesus talked more about money than any other topic, warning against putting money and material goods above God, that it is virtually impossible for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, and so on. James even warns that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

In true human fashion, this has led the Body as a whole to mistrust money and not like to talk about it. I know several godly pastors who hate preaching on money, because they feel like it is always a plea for more giving or something. Thus we tend to be ignorant about money and how it works.

The education system isn’t any better. If our students are lucky, they learned how to balance a checkbook, which with online banking, is becoming a lost art.

This financial ignorance is costing us, big.

When I read my Bible, I get a different picture. I see God describe money as a powerful tool, and one that must be mastered, not idolized. I see poor people who are just as slaved to the idol of money and wealth as the very rich. I see poor and rich alike content with their lot. I see wealthy patriarchs, kings, merchants and so on who desperately love God and generously give and honor God with their wealth.

How does that jive with the passages we all know (or think we know)? Very simply. Like every area of temptation/sin, God is concerned with our heart. What is our attitude towards wealth? Do we use what we have to live and serve God, or are we so far behind that we are running just to pay our bills and shunting off ministry to ‘a better day?’

I am working towards, pardon the clichés, making my money work for me, so I can work as to the Lord, and not working for my money, as a slave and servant to an idol.

Furthermore, when the opportunity presents itself, I try to help my students look at money differently, to see it as a tool to master and not be mastered by, or afraid of.

Until our governments (local, state and national) learn this lesson, we are in danger of being overwhelmed economically at the personal level. Thus, we need to be prepared to handle economic collapse. I think the first step is to examine our attitudes towards money. The second is then to get educated about money and how it works, so we can then make better decisions, the third step.

SDG

The Least of These, Our Brethren

The current economy is causing considerable stress to many of our institutions, and hard decisions are needed. Last year, our university president sent out a notice that in order to maintain resources to attract top faculty hires, salaries for all support staff were to be frozen. A colleague in our fellowship sent a letter to the editor of a local paper that shared my concerns. As a rule, the support staff already make much less than the faculty, yet they do critical work that few faculty would even consider doing--how many Nobel laureates do you know who are willing to clean a dorm bathroom at the end of a rowdy weekend? They are called support staff for a reason-they support our work so that we can focus on what we've trained for and love doing. Making life harder for them risks cutting us off at the knees.

Jesus said, "whatsoever you've done for the least of these my brethren, you have done it also to me." (Matthew 25:40) We ignore our support staff at our peril, on many fronts. Get to know the staff who clean your offices/labs. When you see the bathrooms being cleaned, thank them. Take your admin assistant out to lunch or otherwise let them know you appreciate them. This, too, is ministry.

Coda: this year, the president announced a one time merit bonus that nearly all staff are eligible for. This is a move in the right direction. Good job.

SDG