About a month ago my wife made the accusation that I was addicted to caffeine. I disagreed with her, and had to prove that I was not, in fact, addicted to caffeine. To that end I decided to go five days without consuming the drug.
A BRIEF HISTORY
I have taken some sort of energy drink/caffeine supplement almost daily since early in my high school career. While the forms have shifted, from Pepsi to “Spark”, then to various energy drinks and coffee/tea, one thing has remained; they all have some sort of caffeine. Over the years I have learned that your body builds up a sort of tolerance to the drug, the more you take over time the less it affects you.( I.e. the first time I had one dose of “Spark” I was a bit jittery, then, as time went on I slowly upped the dosage until I was having a double dose of “Spark” several times a day and feeling little or no effects.) There were short times when I would stop taking caffeine, but never longer than a week or two. Every time after I had stopped and got back on, my body had re-set and caffeine suddenly had a greater effect; which was great, I could spend less money to get the desired result (more energy).
THE EXPERIMENT/INITIAL RESULTS
My five day journey began on a Monday. The day was great until about 2pm which was when my first hard core caffeine headache hit, I took some ibuprofen which helped. Day two sucked the most I think, the headache hit hard, and I felt slightly physically ill. Day’s Three was more manageable and I only took ibuprofen once. Day Four I didn’t take ibuprofen at all and had only a slight headache, and Friday I just felt great!
APPLICATION
After I achieved my goal of my five days I decided I could only have caffeine on days I did NOT work. This has worked out great so far; however, I have had to re-learn my caffeine digestion. I had one bad experience on a Saturday when I had an energy drink at 6pm and one at 10pm, big BIG mistake. When I used to consume energy drinks 2X’s per day I could take one at 10pm and be in bed by 1am, but since my body wasn’t accustomed to that high amount of caffeine anymore I was up in bed until around 4am, and it made for a horrible morning. Through trail and error, I have figured out that the energy drinks now last about six hours instead of two, so I can plan my consumption accordingly.
As for the days when I don’t consume caffeine I simply go to bed earlier. During the day I still get tired around 2pm (like I did when I drank energy drinks). I don’t get headaches anymore when I don’t have my “fix”, and I am saving a TON of money by only having them on the weekends.
All in all I would say that caffeine is a good thing and a tool, you just need to know how to use it. Caffeine like any other drug/medication can be awesome when used appropriately. If not you are simply throwing money away.
Lata Folks
Ryan
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thankful
I don’t have any profound thoughts about this weekend, so I’ll keep it short.
I am truly thankful for my wife.
She loves Jesus more than me.
She puts up with my random questions, and my very opinionated self.
She is a great cook, and makes almost EVERYTHING from scratch.
The fact that she will quietly wait and not complain while I am playing Video Games with my
brother. (Sometimes she even encourages me to play Video Games with him :P).
She gives it her all even when she is sneezing every 3 seconds (Literally folks, literally.)
She cleans the kitchen pretty much by herself, (that means doing ALL the dishes)
And most of all I just love who she is. She is my social half, my external processor, my grace filled heart, she is the perfect balance for me. She is truly an undeserved gift from God.
Lata,
Ryan
I am truly thankful for my wife.
She loves Jesus more than me.
She puts up with my random questions, and my very opinionated self.
She is a great cook, and makes almost EVERYTHING from scratch.
The fact that she will quietly wait and not complain while I am playing Video Games with my
brother. (Sometimes she even encourages me to play Video Games with him :P).
She gives it her all even when she is sneezing every 3 seconds (Literally folks, literally.)
She cleans the kitchen pretty much by herself, (that means doing ALL the dishes)
And most of all I just love who she is. She is my social half, my external processor, my grace filled heart, she is the perfect balance for me. She is truly an undeserved gift from God.
Lata,
Ryan
Monday, November 8, 2010
Hello Again
It’s been a while since my last blog post and I think that the cooler weather has inspired me to start writing again. (or start trying to write).
I guess I have been internally processing a lot of things lately, mostly theology based, wrestling with the tough questions. Working out my salvation with fear and trembling. I read a lot of Driscoll and some Piper looking at the idea of predestination (aka Calvinism) the far reaching implications of Calvinism as well as free will (aka Armenianism), and the implications of free will thinking.
A ton of Bible reading went into this study as it does continue. These questions have given me new motivation to spend time in the Bible, taking in God’s wisdom and basking in his glorious work. I think that with this study I have come to know God more, which is what I had hoped for.
While I feel there is a legitimate case for Armenianism I tend to fall on the Calvinistic side of things, and I was probably predestined to land that way (It’s ok if you want to laugh at that). The thing that I cannot get around with Armenianism is the total depravity of man (by man I mean humans). I don’t think that given a choice anyone would “choose” God.
Romans 3:10-20
As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.”18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
I guess I have been internally processing a lot of things lately, mostly theology based, wrestling with the tough questions. Working out my salvation with fear and trembling. I read a lot of Driscoll and some Piper looking at the idea of predestination (aka Calvinism) the far reaching implications of Calvinism as well as free will (aka Armenianism), and the implications of free will thinking.
A ton of Bible reading went into this study as it does continue. These questions have given me new motivation to spend time in the Bible, taking in God’s wisdom and basking in his glorious work. I think that with this study I have come to know God more, which is what I had hoped for.
While I feel there is a legitimate case for Armenianism I tend to fall on the Calvinistic side of things, and I was probably predestined to land that way (It’s ok if you want to laugh at that). The thing that I cannot get around with Armenianism is the total depravity of man (by man I mean humans). I don’t think that given a choice anyone would “choose” God.
Romans 3:10-20
As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips.” 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.”18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
First Cause
I have been reading a lot lately about predestination vs. free will, and it has taken me back to my semi-philosophical college days. Yes for a while I actually thought about majoring in philosophy but ultimately decided that philosophers think too much and act too little, so I didn’t. That being said I still LOVE philosophy in small doses. One of my favorite subjects is that of God, namely the existence of God. A noted philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote several arguments in Summa Theologica for the existence of God and in this blog post I want to discuss one of them.
FIRST CAUSE
Thomas Aquinas asserted that everything we can observe in science and in nature has a cause. Ie: Thunderstorms are caused by water evaporating from the earth and gathering into clouds, then re-condensing and falling into earth. Or the ball hit the wall because I threw said ball at said wall. So every thing in life has a cause right? Aquinas argued that you could trace these causes back to the beginning of time until there was a first cause, and the first cause was God. God moved which caused the creation of the world, which then led to many other causes, a chain reaction if you will.
The major argument against this argument is “What caused God?”. To this the answer is simply “God existed forever”. To which the immediate rebuttal is “If nothing ‘caused’ God, then why does there need to be a cause for anything else?” or “If God has been around forever why can’t anything else have been around forever?”
My college philosophy professor would assert that this (above) argument makes the “First cause” argument void and to a certain extent I would agree with him (only on the idea that the argument is logical in that it can be observed in nature, however I believe that God did create the universe and everything in it). I would say that per the laws of science matter can neither be destroyed nor created, it is simply changed and that would point to matter being around for eternity…
EXCEPT
For life, life had to have a cause there is no other possible explanation for it. It is the one question that has plagued evolution scientists since Darwin. The complexities of a single cell organism has been compared to that of a Boeing 747, and for matter to “mystically” all come together at the right time in the right place, in the right order of chemicals is very very improbable if not impossible. It is something that as not been replicated in a lab, it is indeed a profound mystery for which scientist don’t really have an answer.
One outspoken atheist Charles Dawkins, put forward the idea that life was seeded on earth by aliens. The obvious question becomes “what caused the aliens?” in which case you simply come back to square one of the original argument.
So I don’t think Thomas’s argument was as weak as initially assumed I just think that if the argument is focused, namely on life, it becomes much more potent and harder to refute.
I’m no theologian or great philosopher, but I do like to ponder these questions, because I think it is good for Christians to challenge their faith as to make it stronger.
Friday, October 8, 2010
My Beautiful Wife, Emotions, and Spaghetti
I have been married for a little over two months now, so at this point I would like to consider myself and expert… ok maybe I wouldn’t go that far, but I have learned many things about my wife in these past two months of marriage, and I would like to share at least one of them with you.
Warning: I will be talking a bit about sex in the paragraphs to come, so brace yourselves or turn away.
Making the Emotional Connection:
It turns out that during the course of a day a woman becomes disconnected from her husband, and it is important that a connection be re-established upon meeting up after a day of work. I, being a semblance of a man, didn’t realize this. In my man brain my thoughts are “We texted and emailed each other at work, there has been no break in our connectedness”. I was wrong, and one thing I learned is that texting and emailing are no substitute for face to face conversation.
Making the emotional connection is fairly simple. All I have to do is ask her about her day, and listen, and from time to time ask follow up questions. I found this is very important, and helps my wife feel the love I have for her. But that isn’t the only reason it is important for me to ask about her day.
There is a book titled “Men are Waffles, Women are Spaghetti” or something of that nature. The book goes on to state that men like waffles, can compartmentalize better than women. Meaning that parts of men’s lives are less likely to affect other parts of their lives. Women on the other hand are like spaghetti, every part of their lives affects every other part of their lives, it is all jumbled together like spaghetti. This is the other reason it is imperative that I ask about my wife’s day. If she had something happen at work, or something happened with her family etc. it is important that I know what happened, and how it affected her for several reasons...
1) The most important reason, is that I can be there for her, so that I can comfort her through whatever trial she is faced with. So that I can lovingly lead her, and know how she is emotionally and how I can help her/serve her best.
2) Sex, I like most men have a hair trigger, we can have great sex anytime any where. My lovely wife, like most women, needs to feel emotionally engaged, and needs to feel safe, secure, and loved when making whoopee. Things that go wrong at work with her family with me etc. always affects her sexual experience. I want her to be happy, and want her to want to give herself to me freely completely, feeling safe and secure and that all is right with the world.
3) Learning about my Wife. I love my wife dearly and want to be her best student, learning about her day and how things affect her helps me get to know her better, and that is something I love.
I love that my wife is a complex puzzle that I have yet to totally figure out or understand but I am looking forward to taking a lifetime to do it. (although my goal is to do it in half the time so that I will have the other half free to enjoy her completely).
Much Love,
Ryan
Warning: I will be talking a bit about sex in the paragraphs to come, so brace yourselves or turn away.
Making the Emotional Connection:
It turns out that during the course of a day a woman becomes disconnected from her husband, and it is important that a connection be re-established upon meeting up after a day of work. I, being a semblance of a man, didn’t realize this. In my man brain my thoughts are “We texted and emailed each other at work, there has been no break in our connectedness”. I was wrong, and one thing I learned is that texting and emailing are no substitute for face to face conversation.
Making the emotional connection is fairly simple. All I have to do is ask her about her day, and listen, and from time to time ask follow up questions. I found this is very important, and helps my wife feel the love I have for her. But that isn’t the only reason it is important for me to ask about her day.
There is a book titled “Men are Waffles, Women are Spaghetti” or something of that nature. The book goes on to state that men like waffles, can compartmentalize better than women. Meaning that parts of men’s lives are less likely to affect other parts of their lives. Women on the other hand are like spaghetti, every part of their lives affects every other part of their lives, it is all jumbled together like spaghetti. This is the other reason it is imperative that I ask about my wife’s day. If she had something happen at work, or something happened with her family etc. it is important that I know what happened, and how it affected her for several reasons...
1) The most important reason, is that I can be there for her, so that I can comfort her through whatever trial she is faced with. So that I can lovingly lead her, and know how she is emotionally and how I can help her/serve her best.
2) Sex, I like most men have a hair trigger, we can have great sex anytime any where. My lovely wife, like most women, needs to feel emotionally engaged, and needs to feel safe, secure, and loved when making whoopee. Things that go wrong at work with her family with me etc. always affects her sexual experience. I want her to be happy, and want her to want to give herself to me freely completely, feeling safe and secure and that all is right with the world.
3) Learning about my Wife. I love my wife dearly and want to be her best student, learning about her day and how things affect her helps me get to know her better, and that is something I love.
I love that my wife is a complex puzzle that I have yet to totally figure out or understand but I am looking forward to taking a lifetime to do it. (although my goal is to do it in half the time so that I will have the other half free to enjoy her completely).
Much Love,
Ryan
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Government God and Orphans
I was conflicted on weather or not I should post this, because I felt so convicted in even writing it. I am on the side of lower taxes, but often fail on helping the poor with what I have been given.
This past Sunday our pastor, Brandon, was speaking on the book of James, specifically the verses which talk about taking care of widows and orphans. He told a story of a mother who wanted him to explain to her son why the rich should not give all their money to the poor. He said that the kid was right, that that’s what should happen. This got me thinking about how this would relate to my own views of low taxes and limited government programs for anybody (the poor included). Are my views wrong? Am I twisting the Bible to say something it doesn’t?
In short no, I don’t think that the rich giving all of their money to the poor contradicts my views on lower taxes, and limited government. For one, James does NOT say “Give all of your money/possessions to the government and let them take care of the poor.” We are commanded, I like to think of a finger pointing at me “YOU! take care of the widows”, “YOU! take care of the orphans.”, the responsibility doesn’t rely on a third party it is your personal responsibility to do these things.
When I think about the fact that the Government is slowly but surely kicking God and Jesus out of our founding documents and schools it makes me wonder why government programs would be any different? So if we decide we want more government programs to help raise our children and take care of the needy aren’t we neglecting our responsibility as Christians to bring the gospel and aid to those who need it? I say absolutely YES. I think that voting for higher taxes to pay for government programs it takes money out of your pocket that YOU have been commanded to give to the poor, to pay for services to the poor that YOU should be providing*.
But what about the Christ followers who work for the government and assist in helping the poor and needy? My heart breaks for them, because I know their hearts have to be breaking everyday as they are unable to openly share the one thing the people truly need, and that is the Gospel. Their hands are tied with red tape and they are at risk of losing their job if they boldly proclaim the gospel. I’m not saying they don’t and that they aren’t able to minister in other ways, I just think the ideal would be being able to openly share the gospel.
I know that no matter what some people will have more than others, and we are obligated to give what more if any we have. I just think in an ideal world we would have greater potential for good if the government got out of the way.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down fro mthe Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows"
Much Love,
Ryan
*Some folks do this corporately at a church level, they think they can simply give money to a church and say they are good. I think we have been called to more than that.
This past Sunday our pastor, Brandon, was speaking on the book of James, specifically the verses which talk about taking care of widows and orphans. He told a story of a mother who wanted him to explain to her son why the rich should not give all their money to the poor. He said that the kid was right, that that’s what should happen. This got me thinking about how this would relate to my own views of low taxes and limited government programs for anybody (the poor included). Are my views wrong? Am I twisting the Bible to say something it doesn’t?
In short no, I don’t think that the rich giving all of their money to the poor contradicts my views on lower taxes, and limited government. For one, James does NOT say “Give all of your money/possessions to the government and let them take care of the poor.” We are commanded, I like to think of a finger pointing at me “YOU! take care of the widows”, “YOU! take care of the orphans.”, the responsibility doesn’t rely on a third party it is your personal responsibility to do these things.
When I think about the fact that the Government is slowly but surely kicking God and Jesus out of our founding documents and schools it makes me wonder why government programs would be any different? So if we decide we want more government programs to help raise our children and take care of the needy aren’t we neglecting our responsibility as Christians to bring the gospel and aid to those who need it? I say absolutely YES. I think that voting for higher taxes to pay for government programs it takes money out of your pocket that YOU have been commanded to give to the poor, to pay for services to the poor that YOU should be providing*.
But what about the Christ followers who work for the government and assist in helping the poor and needy? My heart breaks for them, because I know their hearts have to be breaking everyday as they are unable to openly share the one thing the people truly need, and that is the Gospel. Their hands are tied with red tape and they are at risk of losing their job if they boldly proclaim the gospel. I’m not saying they don’t and that they aren’t able to minister in other ways, I just think the ideal would be being able to openly share the gospel.
I know that no matter what some people will have more than others, and we are obligated to give what more if any we have. I just think in an ideal world we would have greater potential for good if the government got out of the way.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down fro mthe Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows"
Much Love,
Ryan
*Some folks do this corporately at a church level, they think they can simply give money to a church and say they are good. I think we have been called to more than that.
Friday, October 1, 2010
James 1:19
“My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
Slow to become angry? What does that look like? I mean some of the times that I get angry it just happens. I don’t spend time meditating and thinking “Yes, this qualifies as something I can be angry about because xyz criteria have been met.” It just happens, someone flicks my face, the waitress gets my order wrong, someone submits a credit application incorrectly… AGAIN. When triggered by these and many other things my immediate involuntary reaction is anger.
So how does one become “slow to become angry”? I honestly had no idea so I posed the question to my awesome Bible study. Not surprisingly my good friend Travis came up with an answer that blew my mind and made this whole thing so clear. The answer: Holiness and Humility. All of the reasons I listed above made be angry for one reason… ME. Because I am a sinner and can be/am very prideful , when someone flicks MY face it disrespects ME. When the waitress gets MY order wrong I have to wait to get MY food, or I have to suffer through what was brought to ME. When someone submits a credit application incorrectly I have to fix it, and it take MY time away from doing things I want to do.
Don’t get me wrong I believe there is such a thing as righteous anger, but 95% of the time the reasons I become angry is because my little world becomes less than perfect. If I was completely humble and Holy, like Christ is Holy, I would be able to see that those things don’t really matter. The only thing that truly matters is that God be glorified.
To God be the glory forever, Amen.
Much Love,
Ryan
Slow to become angry? What does that look like? I mean some of the times that I get angry it just happens. I don’t spend time meditating and thinking “Yes, this qualifies as something I can be angry about because xyz criteria have been met.” It just happens, someone flicks my face, the waitress gets my order wrong, someone submits a credit application incorrectly… AGAIN. When triggered by these and many other things my immediate involuntary reaction is anger.
So how does one become “slow to become angry”? I honestly had no idea so I posed the question to my awesome Bible study. Not surprisingly my good friend Travis came up with an answer that blew my mind and made this whole thing so clear. The answer: Holiness and Humility. All of the reasons I listed above made be angry for one reason… ME. Because I am a sinner and can be/am very prideful , when someone flicks MY face it disrespects ME. When the waitress gets MY order wrong I have to wait to get MY food, or I have to suffer through what was brought to ME. When someone submits a credit application incorrectly I have to fix it, and it take MY time away from doing things I want to do.
Don’t get me wrong I believe there is such a thing as righteous anger, but 95% of the time the reasons I become angry is because my little world becomes less than perfect. If I was completely humble and Holy, like Christ is Holy, I would be able to see that those things don’t really matter. The only thing that truly matters is that God be glorified.
To God be the glory forever, Amen.
Much Love,
Ryan
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