Wow, it has almost been a month since my last post. My apologies, but I have an entirely good reason for putting off this post for so long. With the exception of this week (thus far), much of my time has been spent working on a project for my Database Applications course.
On a high level, this project, the Intelligent Water Management System project (or simply IWMS), is a three-year contracted project for World Vision through my school. The basic end goal of the project is to create a web application that receives data from water pumps in Africa and allows it to be displayed and worked with in a sensible fashion. I could definitely go into more details, but that is not my purpose for today.
My class and my major's capstone course (which I will be taking next spring) started working on the IWMS project in February and are to have a primitive version of the application working by the end of the semester this May. Two Saturdays ago until the following Tuesday, I personally put in somewhere between 10-20 hours on a database-related issue for the application. Needless to say, it was a very tiring few days. In the end, the issue was resolved and other tasks were subsequently accomplished. However, the road to the end of the problem was very discouraging.
That Saturday night/Sunday morning and Sunday night/Monday morning (each night/early morning ending at about 1:30am) felt like absolute wastes of time and that I was getting nowhere. In retrospect, the 5-6 hours spent across those two days did result in a little bit of progress, but it was not until I decided to get help the following Monday afternoon from my professor that things turned around for the better. After visiting my professor, we worked out a solution in about 20 minutes that I was trying to accomplish for the previous 5-6 hours. While this was indeed a huge relief, I was a little disappointed in the seemingly unnecessary extra amount of time I put into this task.
Later that week, a great friend of mine (who was my freshman roommate, is my current RA, and will be one of my future apartment-mates next year) was talking about how he is seeing God move in regards to his duties as the Student Body Chaplain next year. He said something that gave me a fresh perspective on life: "Faith makes life possible, not easy." While my situation was not directly a faith-based battle, I earnestly believe that the entirety of it all demonstrates faith in the Christian life rather well. I struggled for a relatively long time on a particular issue, but it was not until I surrendered to the reception of help that I ultimately achieved victory. The end goal that I was trying to accomplish was indeed possible, but it was definitely not easy. However, it seemed impossible until I reached for something beyond my own strength and abilities.
In our daily life, we will face many difficult situations. As believers and followers of Christ, we have the opportunity to put our faith in a God who never fails, who will never leave us or forsake us, and who is always looking out for us. In the midst of our difficulties, we need to remember to have faith in Him who makes our life possible. Faith will not necessarily make our circumstances easier, but we can rest in God's omnipotence and omniscience and know that He will make our lives possible and that He will lead us through it all.
God cares about every detail of our lives (Luke 12:7); no matter what kind of a situation you face, bring it to God and have faith that He will lead you through the mess. He is faithful and true, and He will never let you down. Time spans may differ, but God will ultimately guide you to the end, every single time.
Showing posts with label World Vision. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Vision. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Making a Difference
Allow me to preface what I am about to say by officially welcoming myself to the blogging world. Yay!! *Confetti* *Other Random Party Effects* This is definitely something new for me, unless, of course, you count micro-blogging via Twitter. By the way, follow me: @zkantner. Anyway...
As I was saying, blogging is basically a new concept for me, but I feel rather inclined to give it a go. Why, you may ask? Two reasons. The first is simply that I want to express some of my thoughts in writing, cacophonous as they may end up being. Writing is a primary form of communication, the quality of which seems to be running down the drain at an exponentially increasing rate among people my age and younger. I want to further develop my personal writing technique and hopefully stir up some healthy conversation at the same time. The second reason is more or less a child of the first: I think about/read about/hear about various different things every week, and I feel as if I just do not givesome of a majority of those things a fighting chance outside of a short one to two minute conversation with a friend or two. Do I expect everyone and their mother to read and respond to what I have to say? Of course not, but there is nothing wrong with at least putting some thoughts out there for anyone who cares to take a look. So, here's to a new experience with endless possibilities!
Last night I attended a short chapel for the Collaboratory at school. This particular chapel is a weekly occurrence which takes place before the various Collab groups go their separate ways and work on various projects that have worldwide impact (such as projects with World Vision). This particular chapel featured Dr. Michael Zigarelli, a professor of leadership and strategy. I unfortunately have not had the pleasure of having him for a class yet, but I will at some point next year (and I am genuinely excited for when that opportunity finally arrives).
Dr. Zigarelli spoke to us of an event that happened back in 1999 when he used to work at Fairfield University in Connecticut. One day he noticed that when his young son went out to get the paper, he stood at the end of the driveway staring into the sky at some unknown yet captivating sight. Dr. Zigarelli figured he might as well have a look since his son, at this age, would only pay attention to Barney and related TV shows for the same span of time that he spent staring into the sky on this morning. It turns out that the boy was looking at three news helicopters hovering not to far out in the distance behind their house. Later that day, Dr. Zigarelli learned that these helicopters were hovering above a scene where, hours before in the dead of night, a single mother and her four sons were killed by an Amtrak train. The mother was running across the tracks to retrieve her youngest son when the horrific incident occurred.
After recalling the incident, Dr. Zigarelli went on to mention that this woman, Julia Toledo de Urgiles, happened to be a custodian at Fairfield University, the very same place where he worked. She happened to be struggling to pay for everything. She was only making minimum wage and was attempting to support four children as a single mother. Dr. Zigarelli and Julia never had contact with one another, but Julia represented a type of person that many of us tend to ignore or may even be ourselves. She was invisible. She was one of the people that many of us today simply overlook. There are just some people with whom we do not concern ourselves. It is a downright regrettable truth. We live our lives, interact with those we know, and try our best to stay out of everyone else's business. But when we step back and take a minute to examine the situation, there are many invisible people, like Julia and her children, who are very real people with very real lives and very real problems. And like the rest of us, they deserve the same love and respect that we give our friends.
In the words of Dr. Zigarelli, "In Jesus Christ, there are no invisible people." Everyone in this world longs to be loved, cared about, listened to. What if we actually took the time to give someone else a little bit of our time? What if we chose to dwell with those who, in our selfish and corrupted mindsets, appear to be below us when really they are people just like us? What if we gave that person across the coffee shop a chance to feel like a real human being? What if we actually loved people the way Jesus taught us to love? I think the world would be a very different and more likable place.
"Making a difference begins with one person at a time. Making a difference begins with one conversation at a time." These words from Dr. Zigarelli struck me at the core last night. If someone had taken the time to get to know Julia, maybe offer her some help, would her situation have been any different? We will never know, but I would go out on a limb to say that circumstances would most definitely have been different. It is time we all reconsidered how we go about our daily lives. For all we know, one conversation could make a world of difference in someone's life. If we are so busy that we cannot find even a few minutes to engage in someone else's life to make them feel like they matter, then our priorities are way out of order.
Romans 12:9-13
As I was saying, blogging is basically a new concept for me, but I feel rather inclined to give it a go. Why, you may ask? Two reasons. The first is simply that I want to express some of my thoughts in writing, cacophonous as they may end up being. Writing is a primary form of communication, the quality of which seems to be running down the drain at an exponentially increasing rate among people my age and younger. I want to further develop my personal writing technique and hopefully stir up some healthy conversation at the same time. The second reason is more or less a child of the first: I think about/read about/hear about various different things every week, and I feel as if I just do not give
Last night I attended a short chapel for the Collaboratory at school. This particular chapel is a weekly occurrence which takes place before the various Collab groups go their separate ways and work on various projects that have worldwide impact (such as projects with World Vision). This particular chapel featured Dr. Michael Zigarelli, a professor of leadership and strategy. I unfortunately have not had the pleasure of having him for a class yet, but I will at some point next year (and I am genuinely excited for when that opportunity finally arrives).
Dr. Zigarelli spoke to us of an event that happened back in 1999 when he used to work at Fairfield University in Connecticut. One day he noticed that when his young son went out to get the paper, he stood at the end of the driveway staring into the sky at some unknown yet captivating sight. Dr. Zigarelli figured he might as well have a look since his son, at this age, would only pay attention to Barney and related TV shows for the same span of time that he spent staring into the sky on this morning. It turns out that the boy was looking at three news helicopters hovering not to far out in the distance behind their house. Later that day, Dr. Zigarelli learned that these helicopters were hovering above a scene where, hours before in the dead of night, a single mother and her four sons were killed by an Amtrak train. The mother was running across the tracks to retrieve her youngest son when the horrific incident occurred.
After recalling the incident, Dr. Zigarelli went on to mention that this woman, Julia Toledo de Urgiles, happened to be a custodian at Fairfield University, the very same place where he worked. She happened to be struggling to pay for everything. She was only making minimum wage and was attempting to support four children as a single mother. Dr. Zigarelli and Julia never had contact with one another, but Julia represented a type of person that many of us tend to ignore or may even be ourselves. She was invisible. She was one of the people that many of us today simply overlook. There are just some people with whom we do not concern ourselves. It is a downright regrettable truth. We live our lives, interact with those we know, and try our best to stay out of everyone else's business. But when we step back and take a minute to examine the situation, there are many invisible people, like Julia and her children, who are very real people with very real lives and very real problems. And like the rest of us, they deserve the same love and respect that we give our friends.
In the words of Dr. Zigarelli, "In Jesus Christ, there are no invisible people." Everyone in this world longs to be loved, cared about, listened to. What if we actually took the time to give someone else a little bit of our time? What if we chose to dwell with those who, in our selfish and corrupted mindsets, appear to be below us when really they are people just like us? What if we gave that person across the coffee shop a chance to feel like a real human being? What if we actually loved people the way Jesus taught us to love? I think the world would be a very different and more likable place.
"Making a difference begins with one person at a time. Making a difference begins with one conversation at a time." These words from Dr. Zigarelli struck me at the core last night. If someone had taken the time to get to know Julia, maybe offer her some help, would her situation have been any different? We will never know, but I would go out on a limb to say that circumstances would most definitely have been different. It is time we all reconsidered how we go about our daily lives. For all we know, one conversation could make a world of difference in someone's life. If we are so busy that we cannot find even a few minutes to engage in someone else's life to make them feel like they matter, then our priorities are way out of order.
Romans 12:9-13
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