Wow it has been awhile since I have posted here. As usual with my summers I have no free time. I am a little late posting this, mainly because of the amount of homework that I have had to do with my quarter thus far. Many of you probably already know that my wife and I are expecting and back in late July we finally found out the sex of the baby. Now before I go telling it, I want to let you all know how things let up to this moment.
Some of you might have known that my wife got pregnant late last year and we were excited about it. However it wasn't meant to be as she had a miscarriage right after Christmas. Now my wife was devastated by having the miscarriage, which is understandable, but for me, I didn't really know what to say or feel. I knew in my heart that this baby would never have to experience the pain and suffering of this world and the baby knows what perfect love is already. What I couldn't stop thinking about was maybe God was teaching us this lesson since we tried to take matters into our own hands.
So what did we do? you ask. Well being that we have two daughters (and don't get me wrong, I love my daughters with my whole heart and would never trade that for anything) We both really wanted a son, and I can definitely tell you that I wanted a son more then my wife did. Well my wife got around to searching the internet for different ways and methods to help conceive a boy and we tried them out. Next thing we know she was pregnant, and I felt pretty good that we might be having a son. Well that obviously wasn't the case. After the miscarriage though it definitely changed my perspective. I knew that I didn't want to try those methods again, and if God felt like I was ready for a son, then I knew I had to trust in him if I was meant to have a son.
Fast- forward a few months and bam my wife was pregnant again, but this time we didn't try any methods. Of course before we found out the sex of the baby the running joke was we were working on a girls basketball team. I would have people ask me what we were hoping for, and for the first time I would tell them that the gender didn't matter to us, we just wanted a healthy baby and uneventful pregnancy. I could finally say I didn't care what the gender was and truly mean it. Now fast-forward to July, my wife went to the ultra-sound with her mom and as usual with this summer, I just wasn't able to get off work to meet her at the ultra-sound. However she had the tech put the gender into an envelope and seal it so her and I could open it together at dinner before I went to school for the night.
As we finally met up for dinner, just the two of us, my wife hands me the envelope so I could open it. As I open it and flip the picture over, the first word I see was "IT'S A BOY!!" I'm pretty sure my heart stop for a moment and I had to read it again for it to finally sink in. In that moment I can definitely say I have felt pure joy that only comes from God. If we weren't in a public setting I'm pretty sure I would have cried, especially since I was already tearing up.
So there you have it, finally we are having a boy, and I think this story just shows that God is faithful when we are faithful to him. I'm excited about having a boy, but in all honesty the true glory belongs to God. Till next time.
J
You have granted me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has preserved my spirit. - Job 10:12
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Fourier and Lightning
As I spend my night trying to finish up my project and and homework for my class, I decided to procrastinate some more. I'll be honest, my streak of straight A's might come to an end tomorrow after I take my final, and that is definitely caused from the lack of effort that I put into this class...but if somehow by the grace of God I breeze through the final, then the streak will live on. My class is called Signals and Systems, which is pretty much an extension of calculus with emphasis on Fourier Systems and Transforms.
To give a quick idea of what Fourier is, for those who don't know what it is, you are pretty much taking a signal, lets say a sound wave, and pretty much looking at the frequency harmonics of the wave, and at least for my degree in Electrical Engineering, you would have a signal and when you are breaking down the harmonics, you look at how different components of your signal will affect your systems that you are sending your signal to. Now Fourier is used everywhere and for a lot of different things and that is the beauty of it. It will definitely be a subject that I will get more in-depth with. Once I have a better understanding of it, I will have to share what I find.
Anyway, earlier this evening as I left my parents house after visiting with my sisters, I started watching a storm off to the northeast of where I was at, I decided to take a little longer drive home to watch the storm, mainly the lightning. I have always been fascinated with lightning, and tonight watching the storm, it got my wheels spinning. What if I could take a Tesla coil(not the car company) and use it to draw the lightning to strike it. Once it strikes it, would I be able to harness the energy and electricity it produces? Seems like a thought that might be possible.
The other night I was reading an article on EMP's(Electromagnetic Pulse) and I was drawn to how this could be used as a weapon(and I wouldn't put it past any government in the world to be developing it, if they haven't already), which would bring devastation for our society. Think Dark Ages again multiplied by 100. Now to bring this all together, since electromagnetic waves are pretty much sine waves, this is where Fourier would definitely help me to understand these waves better, as well as my Electromagnetic Physics class soon. Now what if I can take a Tesla coil and use it to absorb the EMP, thus eliminating the chance that the EMP would do any devastating damage. Possible? Well anything is possible. Difficult? You bet. I like challenges though. Till the next randomness of my head.
J
To give a quick idea of what Fourier is, for those who don't know what it is, you are pretty much taking a signal, lets say a sound wave, and pretty much looking at the frequency harmonics of the wave, and at least for my degree in Electrical Engineering, you would have a signal and when you are breaking down the harmonics, you look at how different components of your signal will affect your systems that you are sending your signal to. Now Fourier is used everywhere and for a lot of different things and that is the beauty of it. It will definitely be a subject that I will get more in-depth with. Once I have a better understanding of it, I will have to share what I find.
Anyway, earlier this evening as I left my parents house after visiting with my sisters, I started watching a storm off to the northeast of where I was at, I decided to take a little longer drive home to watch the storm, mainly the lightning. I have always been fascinated with lightning, and tonight watching the storm, it got my wheels spinning. What if I could take a Tesla coil(not the car company) and use it to draw the lightning to strike it. Once it strikes it, would I be able to harness the energy and electricity it produces? Seems like a thought that might be possible.
The other night I was reading an article on EMP's(Electromagnetic Pulse) and I was drawn to how this could be used as a weapon(and I wouldn't put it past any government in the world to be developing it, if they haven't already), which would bring devastation for our society. Think Dark Ages again multiplied by 100. Now to bring this all together, since electromagnetic waves are pretty much sine waves, this is where Fourier would definitely help me to understand these waves better, as well as my Electromagnetic Physics class soon. Now what if I can take a Tesla coil and use it to absorb the EMP, thus eliminating the chance that the EMP would do any devastating damage. Possible? Well anything is possible. Difficult? You bet. I like challenges though. Till the next randomness of my head.
J
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Cap and Coke
"Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God's presence, never in full view of the world." - Oswald Chambers
If you were to ask me what my favorite drink was, well judging from the title you could probably guess that it is Captain Morgan and Coke. Once in a blue moon I will have a drink, and tonight is one of those nights. As I get ready to subject myself to my last weekend of homework for the quarter, I decided I needed a drink to help relax me so to speak. You see this has by far been a very difficult quarter in school to say the least and in that process I questioned why I am in school to begin with. My desire for school is gone as of now. There are a hundred reason I could discuss as to why I feel that way, but I will spare you the agony.
This brings me to the above quote above. This quarter has been a battle, everything I want to do turns into a battle. There has been days that I just wanted to say adios to everything and disappear into the mountains. Now don't get me wrong I would never do that, as much as it seems tempting. A few weeks ago I read a blog post on "If Only" Discipleship. It was an eye opener for myself. It pretty much talked about how we make excuse that if things were better we would be able to serve God like we should. Well that hit home, since I don't have a lot of time and I do make those excuses. As I try to regain my focus for school, I have been mindful into keeping myself more active with God and not letting my busyness get in the way.
Now after reading that article, I knew what I should be doing, but for some strange reason I felt disconnected from God. I actually feel like I am in a "spiritual depression" of sorts. Nothing seems to be going the way I envision it going, and it just feels like God has been silent with me for whatever reason. I even went fishing last weekend to try and see if I just needed to get out by the lake to help clear my cluttered head and listen for God. Unfortunately it didn't really work, if anything my mind was even more cluttered than before I went up there. Until now, after listening too different songs, one by Zac Brown Band, "Tomorrow Never Comes" and the second by Need to Breathe, "Slumber".
I love how God uses music to get his point across to me. It is something I have always been able to enjoy with music. Sometimes I wonder if I missed a calling to do something in music, but oh well I still can.
On a side note if you have time check out those two songs, they are great songs and great albums in general. Also with fathers day coming up, on the Zac Brown Band album, there is a song called "I'll Be Your Man (Song For a Daughter)" which is an excellent song. Since I have two daughters I listened to this song and hope that I raise them up to be Godly women and that if they listen to this song they would always remember me by how I raised them. If you are a guy and have daughters listen to the song and challenge yourself to raise your daughters up so they would consider you their man until they find their future husbands. Ladies if you have an awesome dad that raised you up, then share this song with them, I guarantee they will absolutely loves this song. Until the next time.
J
P.S. Here is the link to the article I mentioned earlier if anyone wants to check it out, its a good read.
http://australia.thegospelcoalition.org/article/if-only-discipleship
If you were to ask me what my favorite drink was, well judging from the title you could probably guess that it is Captain Morgan and Coke. Once in a blue moon I will have a drink, and tonight is one of those nights. As I get ready to subject myself to my last weekend of homework for the quarter, I decided I needed a drink to help relax me so to speak. You see this has by far been a very difficult quarter in school to say the least and in that process I questioned why I am in school to begin with. My desire for school is gone as of now. There are a hundred reason I could discuss as to why I feel that way, but I will spare you the agony.
This brings me to the above quote above. This quarter has been a battle, everything I want to do turns into a battle. There has been days that I just wanted to say adios to everything and disappear into the mountains. Now don't get me wrong I would never do that, as much as it seems tempting. A few weeks ago I read a blog post on "If Only" Discipleship. It was an eye opener for myself. It pretty much talked about how we make excuse that if things were better we would be able to serve God like we should. Well that hit home, since I don't have a lot of time and I do make those excuses. As I try to regain my focus for school, I have been mindful into keeping myself more active with God and not letting my busyness get in the way.
Now after reading that article, I knew what I should be doing, but for some strange reason I felt disconnected from God. I actually feel like I am in a "spiritual depression" of sorts. Nothing seems to be going the way I envision it going, and it just feels like God has been silent with me for whatever reason. I even went fishing last weekend to try and see if I just needed to get out by the lake to help clear my cluttered head and listen for God. Unfortunately it didn't really work, if anything my mind was even more cluttered than before I went up there. Until now, after listening too different songs, one by Zac Brown Band, "Tomorrow Never Comes" and the second by Need to Breathe, "Slumber".
I love how God uses music to get his point across to me. It is something I have always been able to enjoy with music. Sometimes I wonder if I missed a calling to do something in music, but oh well I still can.
On a side note if you have time check out those two songs, they are great songs and great albums in general. Also with fathers day coming up, on the Zac Brown Band album, there is a song called "I'll Be Your Man (Song For a Daughter)" which is an excellent song. Since I have two daughters I listened to this song and hope that I raise them up to be Godly women and that if they listen to this song they would always remember me by how I raised them. If you are a guy and have daughters listen to the song and challenge yourself to raise your daughters up so they would consider you their man until they find their future husbands. Ladies if you have an awesome dad that raised you up, then share this song with them, I guarantee they will absolutely loves this song. Until the next time.
J
P.S. Here is the link to the article I mentioned earlier if anyone wants to check it out, its a good read.
http://australia.thegospelcoalition.org/article/if-only-discipleship
Monday, May 4, 2015
Walking a tight rope
My life right now is one big balancing act. One wrong step and everything will come crashing down. I know sounds like a bummer, but it is what I have known for the last two years that is seems normal now. I have been asked before how I am able to balance work, school, and family life, and I can tell you it is not easy. First off I recognize that by the grace of God he gets me through everyday, even when it seems like all hope is lost and I just want to disappear and hide. For example, right now I am way behind on my homework and I should be doing it, but I feel like this is more important. Work has been insane right now. I have been pretty much working 10 + hour days since I started my new quarter and I am already worn out from work. Hence why I am behind in my homework. Plus with the all the projects that I need/want to do around the house and I am surprised I haven't had a mental breakdown and gone crazy.
When I look back at how I got to this point, I think of all the circumstances and events that happened in my life and I can see it all pointing to this journey I am on, but the biggest difference that allows me to function each day is the thought that I know I am not alone in this journey and it was a task God gave me to do. Two years ago when I started school back up, I didn't know what to expect, and man was I blindsided. I was doing great with balancing school and work, but at that time I wasn't exactly putting a lot of emphasis on my family. My wife was getting close to giving birth to our second daughter, and I had a chat with the pastor of my church about how he was able to balance school, work, and family. He told me not to be afraid to go down to part time, and I have taken him up on it a quarter or two. One thing I did do was make a commitment in my heart to not miss another church service unless I had a legitimate reason. Since at that time I would only go to church if I wasn't busy.
Since that commitment, it changed how I viewed my priorities, I started putting my family first, school second, and work third. Then something funny happened, my pastor did a little series on how work and God can go together, and I realized that I should be doing it not only with work, but also with my family life and school. So I decided to dedicate all I am doing in school to His will and His glory, as well as how I interact with my family that it might bring Him glory as well.
You know what, since I did that, school got easier, and my family life got better. Don't get me wrong, I have my good days and bad days like everyone else, but I know in my bad days it is usually a lesson that I need to learn or it is just a bad day. Something I else I have learned recently from a book I read was everything belongs to God. If we are to be good stewards for God, we must recognize that everything belongs to him and he is just letting us use it. When we are good stewards, he will reward us with more, whether it be by our careers, our families, our finances, it doesn't matter, he loves to give. If we abuse what God has given us and are not good stewards, well he can take it away even faster then when he gave it to us. Now to me, that sounded a lot like my life in general especially the last 10 years of it.
Well I think I have rambled on enough. Not sure if any of it made sense. Pretty much a song called "Difference Maker" by Need to Breathe sums up a lot about how I feel. Now I love music, and when I can find songs that really connect with me, I love them even more. Till the next one.
J
When I look back at how I got to this point, I think of all the circumstances and events that happened in my life and I can see it all pointing to this journey I am on, but the biggest difference that allows me to function each day is the thought that I know I am not alone in this journey and it was a task God gave me to do. Two years ago when I started school back up, I didn't know what to expect, and man was I blindsided. I was doing great with balancing school and work, but at that time I wasn't exactly putting a lot of emphasis on my family. My wife was getting close to giving birth to our second daughter, and I had a chat with the pastor of my church about how he was able to balance school, work, and family. He told me not to be afraid to go down to part time, and I have taken him up on it a quarter or two. One thing I did do was make a commitment in my heart to not miss another church service unless I had a legitimate reason. Since at that time I would only go to church if I wasn't busy.
Since that commitment, it changed how I viewed my priorities, I started putting my family first, school second, and work third. Then something funny happened, my pastor did a little series on how work and God can go together, and I realized that I should be doing it not only with work, but also with my family life and school. So I decided to dedicate all I am doing in school to His will and His glory, as well as how I interact with my family that it might bring Him glory as well.
You know what, since I did that, school got easier, and my family life got better. Don't get me wrong, I have my good days and bad days like everyone else, but I know in my bad days it is usually a lesson that I need to learn or it is just a bad day. Something I else I have learned recently from a book I read was everything belongs to God. If we are to be good stewards for God, we must recognize that everything belongs to him and he is just letting us use it. When we are good stewards, he will reward us with more, whether it be by our careers, our families, our finances, it doesn't matter, he loves to give. If we abuse what God has given us and are not good stewards, well he can take it away even faster then when he gave it to us. Now to me, that sounded a lot like my life in general especially the last 10 years of it.
Well I think I have rambled on enough. Not sure if any of it made sense. Pretty much a song called "Difference Maker" by Need to Breathe sums up a lot about how I feel. Now I love music, and when I can find songs that really connect with me, I love them even more. Till the next one.
J
Monday, April 27, 2015
Where to begin...
Well hello readers of this blog. If you got to this page on accident, then I advise you to leave now. If you decide to continue on, well I warned you. I have never considered myself a blogger before, nor will I ever consider myself a blogger, I figure this would be a means for me to help get my thoughts straight. For those of you who know me, and we haven't talked in a long time, just know I haven't forgotten about you and my hectic journey is getting closer to being finished. For those who don't know me, well hello then my name is Jonathan. You can refer to me as J or Mullow if you would like.
A little about me if you don't know me, or a catch up session if we haven't talked in awhile. I have a wonderful and beautiful wife who some how tolerates me everyday when I am home. I also have two beautiful daughters that are the light of my eyes. Currently I maintain a full time construction job as well as a full time school schedule, so needless to say I don't have a lot of time. I am a Christian and there will probably be future posts regarding my faith. Actually most of my posts will probably relate back to my Faith in Christ one way or another. I don't mean to offend anyone so don't take offense. I am not here to argue with anyone about it either. Just know my faith is the most important thing in my life. If you ever want to talk about it I would be more than willing to chat about it. Maybe my trials and lessons that I have learned will help someone who needs it.
So why blogging you ask? I have asked that question for the last year for awhile now. Lets just say I am feeling called by God to write a blog. If any of you know me really well you know that I am an introvert. I also don't voice my thoughts all that much either, my wife can attest to how I will take my time answering a question just to make sure that I have my thoughts in order before I answer it. It drives her up the wall, but it is who I am. Seems like lately though it takes me longer since I have a billion things swirling around through my head.
Now to the point of this blog. Last year my wife and I went through some challenges with some more deeply impacting us than others, and the one thing I noticed about us is how much we both grew in our relationship with Christ. This year I have felt like I am in a rut, but I am not in a rut, if that makes since. For those of you who don't know what I am in school for, I am studying Electrical Engineering, which is a pretty intense degree in its own respect, I also go to a private school that is on a quarter semester system. So on top of the intense degree, all my classes are accelerated when compared to a traditional university. Now I am not looking for pity about going to school full time in a crazy degree. I knew the challenges it was going to present me and I embraced it with open arms.
Alright, now back to the matter at hand, this year I feel like I am being challenged on a whole new spiritual level and I don't know what to make of it. I feel like God is calling me to do even more with our church we go to and even more with other people's lives. This morning for example, I had some crazy dreams, which for me are pretty typical, and usually those dreams I forget about after being up for a little bit, but this dream was bugging me and I could not get this dream out of my head. Thankfully I was rained out of work today which was a blessing considering I needed to finish my take home test and lab for my class tonight. Well after I got home from being rained out I told my wife I was going over to my parents house since they are out of town and I can hopefully not have any distractions. Except my dream kept bugging me.
Now I am not going to get into the details of this dream, but all you need to know was I felt so convicted that this person need help in someway, that as soon as I got to my parents house I just prayed to God for clarity in the situation. Well in that process I was drawn to read Romans 7. Which is a wonderful chapter in seeing our sin and how we fulfill God's law through Christ. Verse 15 really stuck out to me. It says " For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." Rom 7:15 ESV. Then it struck me that I have been ignoring God's pushes for me to do what he wants me to do. After I read Romans 7 and meditated on it I spent the next hour praying a lot of things, Now I don't know if that person in my dream needed prayer or not, but what I do know is not to ignore God's nudges at our heart to do his will.
Well I hope I didn't bore any of you, and I am thankful you suffered through my rambling on. I might get the hang of this blog stuff yet. Till the next one.
J
"Yet not what I will, but what you will" - Mark 14:36b
A little about me if you don't know me, or a catch up session if we haven't talked in awhile. I have a wonderful and beautiful wife who some how tolerates me everyday when I am home. I also have two beautiful daughters that are the light of my eyes. Currently I maintain a full time construction job as well as a full time school schedule, so needless to say I don't have a lot of time. I am a Christian and there will probably be future posts regarding my faith. Actually most of my posts will probably relate back to my Faith in Christ one way or another. I don't mean to offend anyone so don't take offense. I am not here to argue with anyone about it either. Just know my faith is the most important thing in my life. If you ever want to talk about it I would be more than willing to chat about it. Maybe my trials and lessons that I have learned will help someone who needs it.
So why blogging you ask? I have asked that question for the last year for awhile now. Lets just say I am feeling called by God to write a blog. If any of you know me really well you know that I am an introvert. I also don't voice my thoughts all that much either, my wife can attest to how I will take my time answering a question just to make sure that I have my thoughts in order before I answer it. It drives her up the wall, but it is who I am. Seems like lately though it takes me longer since I have a billion things swirling around through my head.
Now to the point of this blog. Last year my wife and I went through some challenges with some more deeply impacting us than others, and the one thing I noticed about us is how much we both grew in our relationship with Christ. This year I have felt like I am in a rut, but I am not in a rut, if that makes since. For those of you who don't know what I am in school for, I am studying Electrical Engineering, which is a pretty intense degree in its own respect, I also go to a private school that is on a quarter semester system. So on top of the intense degree, all my classes are accelerated when compared to a traditional university. Now I am not looking for pity about going to school full time in a crazy degree. I knew the challenges it was going to present me and I embraced it with open arms.
Alright, now back to the matter at hand, this year I feel like I am being challenged on a whole new spiritual level and I don't know what to make of it. I feel like God is calling me to do even more with our church we go to and even more with other people's lives. This morning for example, I had some crazy dreams, which for me are pretty typical, and usually those dreams I forget about after being up for a little bit, but this dream was bugging me and I could not get this dream out of my head. Thankfully I was rained out of work today which was a blessing considering I needed to finish my take home test and lab for my class tonight. Well after I got home from being rained out I told my wife I was going over to my parents house since they are out of town and I can hopefully not have any distractions. Except my dream kept bugging me.
Now I am not going to get into the details of this dream, but all you need to know was I felt so convicted that this person need help in someway, that as soon as I got to my parents house I just prayed to God for clarity in the situation. Well in that process I was drawn to read Romans 7. Which is a wonderful chapter in seeing our sin and how we fulfill God's law through Christ. Verse 15 really stuck out to me. It says " For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate." Rom 7:15 ESV. Then it struck me that I have been ignoring God's pushes for me to do what he wants me to do. After I read Romans 7 and meditated on it I spent the next hour praying a lot of things, Now I don't know if that person in my dream needed prayer or not, but what I do know is not to ignore God's nudges at our heart to do his will.
Well I hope I didn't bore any of you, and I am thankful you suffered through my rambling on. I might get the hang of this blog stuff yet. Till the next one.
J
"Yet not what I will, but what you will" - Mark 14:36b
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