Science Lessons in Cambridge

Last Friday Christopher and I spent the afternoon and evening at Harvard. We were there at the invitation of a friend who offered to give us a tour of the Chemistry and Biology labs used by graduate students and post-doc students. Our guide was a friend who earned his MD and PhD (Biochemistry) at Harvard, Finny Kuruvilla.

We spent several hours visiting various labs in the Chemistry and Biology buildings and getting demonstrations of the various scientific equipment and devices and learning about the biology of the cell. It was a fascinating day and quite an inspiration for Christopher, since his favorite subjects are Math and Science.

After dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we spent a couple of hours with the Harvard Science grad students’ Christian fellowship meeting. We watched a film on Intelligent Design and stayed for part of the discussion. The film is excellent.

The Whole of Christianity

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work; I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it." No half-measures are any good … Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think you think wicked- the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself; my own will shall become yours …

The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing is to hand over your whole self- all your wishes and precautions- to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call “ourselves,” to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life and yet at the same time be “good” … And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do … If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat … I must be ploughed up and re-sown …

This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is easy to get muddled about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects- education, building, missions, holding service … the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became man for no other purpose.

(from Mere Christianity)

Email me at betterpromises@yahoo.com.

Bird-in Hand / Day 2

During the night Christopher had heard buggies going by our motel. Being Sunday night they were probably teens going home from the customary “hymn sings” (which are held at the home (barn) of the family who hosted the morning church service).

This morning we took a complimentary bus tour that started at 8:45 after a simple breakfast. It was another nice day and the tour was interesting and informative with some nice scenery. But we spent as much time stopped at gift and quilt shops as we did touring. Getting off the bus we decide to have lunch early and beat the crowd, so we went to the restaurant that is connected to the motel.

The local food is quite good and hearty, so our lunch was a real meal. The Bird-in-Hand restaurant was renovated and enlarged last winter. After lunch we went on another bike ride, following a route that we had used in other years. Unlike yesterday, we did not bring the bike tools along- a mistake. After about ninety minutes of riding my handlebars worked loose and I couldn’t ride it. But it was a beautiful day and the walk was fun.

We relaxed in the room for a while and then went to the indoor pool where Chris swam and I read. Had I known there was a hot tub, I would have worn my swim suit. That hot water would have been wonderful on my tired leg muscles. After a short walk we called home and went to a movie.

Bird-in-Hand

Today we arrived in Amish country for a long weekend of bike riding. For November, the weather was perfect- sunny and cool enough to ride without getting hot and sticky. As we were leaving Plainfield at 7:30 this morning, we stopped at a gas station to put air in the bike tires but then couldn't start the car- dead battery. So Carolyn came down and gave us a jump and we drove to Wal Mart to get a battery, which we installed ourselves there in the parking lot to save time. The delay was only about an hour.

We got to New Holland about two, parked and unloaded the bikes. We biked through Amish farmland- white farmhouses and barns, fields, one-room schoolhouses, Mennonite church buildings, waving to people in grey Amish buggies, and Amish kids on roller skates- all with beautiful autumn late afternoon weather. At about 4:30 we loaded the bikes and we drove down to check into our room at the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn on route 340.

Email me at betterpromises@yahoo.com.