Troubleshooting

I love how God can use the fact that I'm bored and can't get the "5 Why" method out of my head to show me something about His character and convict me.

Last week at work we had several pump failures. So the troubleshooting began. One of the of the quick methods I have learned is the "5 Why" method. It is pretty simple. You ask the questions why five times to get to the root cause of the problem. Essentially you just have to act like a two year old.

FICTIONAL EXAMPLE
The pump won't pump. Why?
The is no flow coming into the pump. Why?
The supply line is plugged. Why?
The polymer got cold. Why?
The heat tracing circuit is broken. Why?
Heat tracing is not on the preventative maintenance schedule.

We could have just replaced the pump...and then the problem would not have been solved. The pump would still not pump, and a pump that doesn't pump is just an expensive piece of metal.

During the week I decided to start using the method other broken things in my life. Some of the results were just ridiculous, and others were thought provoking. I decided to use the method with my "broken" Bible since for a few days the Bible had really become just a book in my life. Where I ended up really surprised me in a great way.

I will leave the details out, but the part I wanted to share is that I love how God can use the fact that I'm bored and can't get the "5 Why" method out of my head to show me something about His character and convict me.

Homework and the Power of Words

I thought I was done with homework in the traditional sense when I graduated from college. I was wrong. Recently I have had homework associated with support raising. I have a book to read and essays to write. Well when I found out that I had some writing assignments to do, I mentioned to Dave, the assigner of the assignments, that I am not a good writer. He was quick to challenge that statement. When he asked why I thought that I wasn't a good writer, it only took a moment for me to say that my 10th grade creative writing teacher told me I was not a good writer, but it was okay because I was good at math and science. Nearly 8 years later I still remember what he said. Then I got to college and they have writing for engineers and speech communication for engineers , which were the easier versions of the classes. The power of words is amazing. I believed for a long time that I couldn't be a scientist and believe in God because of the words of teachers. Praise God it took less than 8 years for someone to challenge that belief.

Over the last few weeks I have really enjoyed writing, mostly because I am excited about the topics and it isn't being graded. Writing about what God has been doing in my life has been a great experience. I usually write in my journal weekly, but writing an essay and keeping to one page has forced me to thoughtfully consider what God has done in me, how He has been faithful, and what I learned about His character. Writing these things down will hopefully help me to remember these truths when I am in the middle of trails. It is astounding how quickly we forget, which is probably why God keeps telling us to remember.

As for my writing, I am not too concerned with the quality, but I hope that it communicates what God is doing in my life, in the lives of others, and in Southern Sudan.