On The Road Again

While it is very sad to be away from home this summer, one of the perks of researching at A&M is that College Station is within a roughly 3 hours radius of all my friends in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Waco!

So as I looked at my calendar to plan weekend road trips, I decided to update my driving playlist. There are few things more frustrating than driving across a state, finally finding a good station, and then driving out of range!

So here's my new and updated Road Trip Playlist:

1. needtobreathe

 I could listen to needtobreathe in almost any situation, at almost any time and it feels right. So of course their discography belongs in my playlist! Now, I own three hours of their music alone, so I had to cull my favorites to prevent a needtobreathe monopoly of my stereo!

2. TED Talks

Maybe this reveals my inner nerd, but I love TED Talks. They're the perfect length to pique your interest in a topic, but not long enough to lose my attention!

Some of the ones coming with me to Austin this weekend are:

Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors
Thomas Insel: Toward a new understanding of mental illness
Elon Musk: The mind behind Tesla, SpaceX, Solar City...
Allan Savory: How to fight desertification and reverse climate change

I'm a girl of diverse interests, what can I say?

3.  Brian Regan, "Pirates and Pilots"

 "Can you imagine a better ending to this story? Landing in Charlotte with luggage and dry socks! squish squish....squish squish squish"

Every time I travel, by air, land or sea, this routine always pops into my head. And Brian Regan does it much better justice than I ever could...

4. FM Static

Nine months of the year I wouldn't really consider myself an FM Static fan, but once summer rolls around, something in my soul longs to listen to Trevor McNevan's side project with reckless abandon. Pop punk and summer just go together like that I guess. Favorites songs include Tonight, Take Me As I Am, My Brain Says Stop, But My Hearts Says Go! and Last Train Home.

Bonus (Guilty Pleasure) = Taylor Swift. 

I'm unashamed to admit that I listen to Taylor Swift from time to time. Driving happens to be one of those times. Let's be real- I'm never going to fall asleep at the wheel when I'm singing along to You Belong With Me, 22, or I Knew You Were Trouble, complete with goat screeching, of course.  

So yeah. That's what I'll be listening to this weekend (and probably a few other weekends this summer)

What do you listen to when you drive? 
Books on tape? Country radio? Celine Dion? 
And what's your driving-by-yourself musical guilty pleasure? ;-)

Until next time, Ceci 

You've Got Mail!

Actually, not really. It's a glitch.

A few weeks ago I was checking my email on my iPhone, but I noticed that though I had read all the messages in my Mail inbox, the app still claimed that I had one left unread. Despite my current engagement in technology minded studies, my Google searches were futile and I found no reasonable explanation for the little red circle with a "1" gracing my homepage.

This blog isn't about my inability to troubleshoot Apple products though, it's about my response to this imaginary forever-unread message that stares me down every time I use my phone.

 To offer some background, I'm an information junkie. I love data, facts, opinions, theories...I love knowing STUFF. (For all you Baylor people, one of my Strengths is Learner, no surprise)  I find it difficult (nearly impossible) to enter a library or bookstore without leaving with a stack of books ranging in topic from neuroscience to philosophy to airplanes.

My most recent book splurge

One way this translates in other parts of my life is that whenever I get out of class or feel a buzz in my pocket, I feel this deep and insatiable need to check my email.

What information is waiting for me to come and discover? 

What if a professor emails clarification on an assignment? What if work emails out a new policy? What if an old friend tries to reconnect with me?

 That cute little notification began to taunt me. What it symbolizes is an unread message, an undiscovered nugget of information. Though I knew that there was, in fact, no unread message, it still made the point that somewhere there is something I don't know, that maybe I should.

What if I get information about housing for my summer internship? What if a group I'm involved with sends details about an event I'm helping with?

What if...what if...what if...?

But what if it all could wait? 

...what if it all didn't matter?

I don't think information is bad, I think it does matter; God is omniscient and we still think He's pretty cool. But one thing the ease of having a smart phone has taught me is that in my little corner of the world, information is an idol.

I've fallen into the same trap that caught Eve in the garden. I want to know; I want to be like a god and know everything. She ate a fruit, I'm a chronic email-checker. It sounds trivial when you put it that way, but it's really not. This combination of pride and a longing for independence are a lethal mixture, one that I've found myself getting awfully comfortable experimenting with.

I'm reminded of the verses in 1 Corinthians 8 that say "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." (NKJV) The New Living Translation is especially convicting: 

"But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much."

I guess that's what it boils down to, knowing things makes me feel important, but that's not my purpose. I don't live to make myself important, but to show Christ important through me.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix this bug with my Mail app, I'm welcome to advice, but what once was extremely annoying has now become a simple reminder there will always be unread emails, unopened messages, and unexplored life mysteries. And I'm going to be okay with that :-)

Reflection Leads to Trust

Today has been such a whirlwind, I've hardly had a chance to catch my breath...let alone reflect and process.

But now, as I sit. breath. think. rest. I am so overwhelmed with awe and gratefulness to my God, that I can't help but write it down, in hopes that someone else might be encouraged...even if it only serves as a reminder to myself in 5, 10 or 25 years.

Three years ago I made one of the best decisions of my life and little did I know just how life-transforming of a decision that was to come to Baylor University. As I sat crying in the Penland cafeteria with my dad at Spring Premiere, little did I know the adventures that awaited.

Exhibit A:

Today I had the blessing and privilege to share my day with some very special groups of people.  My morning was spent preparing with the Haiti Engineering Team and the rest of the BU Missions teams for our summer experiences. My afternoon was spent at a Youth Ministry Teams Student Leader Retreat. The beginning of my evening was spent preparing for our annual semi-formal with the always wonderful Leadership Council and the remainder of the evening was spent celebrating, dancing, and laughing with the ECS-LLC community.

Did I see any of that coming? Not a chance! All I knew was that I was moving over 2000 miles away from everything I knew to study engineering.

As I reflect on these experiences, both today and over the last three years, I can't help but see God's hand in every fiber of my story. Every opportunity, mountain, and valley- He has been there.

And He will be there in whatever comes my way next.

As I look forward to my senior year, as I weigh the possibility and options of graduate school,  as I takes steps toward whatever God has for me next, I have no reason to fear, no reason to fret.

Before the world began, God knew each and every step that brought me to Baylor and each and every interaction and activity that I have participated in since. And while I can't even begin to fathom and imagine what is up next for me, God knows and there is nothing more comforting to know or hear.

Three years ago, I stepped out in faith and committed to Baylor and over the past three years God has proven Himself faithful to me time and time again.

The only appropriate responses seem to be praise and thanksgiving!

...and trust. The last three years have been great, but they haven't been perfect. I've let myself down and I've been let down by others, but the perpetual constant and foundation has been Jesus Christ. If that doesn't warrant my trust, I don't know what does.

So I look back in awe and gratitude and forward in expectant excitement...and in the present I trust.

"Jesu Cristo es el mismo, ayer, y todos, y por los siglos." Hebreo 13:8