I graduated from my Master’s program at UGA last December and will be starting a PhD program this Fall. So, right now, am taking a little break from studies and doing an internship. I am enjoying some time off from studies/exams to sharpen my saw and prepare for the challenges ahead.

God works in mysterious ways! I was talking to Him in prayer yesterday and asked Him to speak to me about the things going on in my life. My scripture portion was from Exodus (God giving Moses instructions about the construction of the tabernacle). I felt that I did not receive any message from it. I again asked God to speak to me in some way. He did - when I wasn’t expecting Him to.

 My mother told me in the evening to cut a few onions to be used in cooking today’s meals. It was then that God showed me many lessons from the humble vegetable shown below.

1. A couple of the onions I was chopping were partially rotten. However, I did not want to throw them away and tried to salvage parts that were alright. God showed that if we allow Him to, He is willing to remove the unprofitable parts from our lives so that He can use the other portions for His work. No oneis unprofitable for God’s kingdom unless that person chooses to be so.

2.  Some of the other onions were rather hard. I had to use extra force to chop these ones. Similarly, if we resist His hand in our life, the only way He can change us is by bringing something hard enough to shake us and make us acknowledge Him.

3. I end up crying every time I cut onions. This time however, the tears taught me something valuable! The chops are necessary to remove the dross in our lives but they do bring tears to the eyes of the One doing the work! God is saddened when He has to teach His children the hard way but His word says

For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Proverbs 3:12

He corrects us because He loves us so much to let us continue in sin and bring reproach to His holy name or terrible consequences to ourselves!

4. It’s true that I wanted to salvage good portions of the onion. However, I was not lenient in retaining not-so-bad-but-not-so-good-either parts of it because they could damage my family’s health. God does want to salvage our lives and fill us lives with unspeakable joy. But He does not want to remove only the ‘big’ sins and leave ‘little’ sins in our lives. The things we consider ‘little’ sins or ‘minor’ temptations (anger, jealousy, selfishness, pornography, for instance) also have to go from our lives to experience the full potential God wants us to reach.

5. After removing the bad portions of the onions, my mom and I realized that we needed a larger quantity of onions for the curry. So, I had to chop another one to have a sufficient amount. This showed me that God can fulfill His purpose even without our help. He can use other people to fulfill the task you and I are not able to complete. However, what a loss that is for us when we do not fulfill all that God wants us to or see His mighty works in our lives.

6. Finally, the onions were used (with other ingredients) to make a tasty curry :)! This showed me that no matter how bad we fail God or how far we run away from Him, if we allow Him, He is more eager than us to cleanse away those sins and use us for His name’s sake. Together with His Spirit and other believers, He accomplishes wonderful and delicious victories that delight Him and bring praise to His matchless name!

May God bless you!

And Zecharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well striken in years. Luke 1:18

I was reading this passage this evening and pondering over these words of Zecharias, a high priest in the temple at Israel. He and his wife were old and barren. The angel Gabriel appears to Zecharias and declares that the couple will have a son! After hearing that, Zecharias says these words in verse 18.

It is so easy to believe if someone gives you a blueprint of your life so far (for verification) and then after. No need to stress out for anything. You would even know when and how you’d die; so you can prepare for your departure well in advance. However, a Christian life is anything but that. Sure, God through His Spirit will guide, comfort and lead you. But it is a step-by-step leading. It is easy to get confused as to what the next step is and that’s why it is more important to be tuned to listen to God’s voice diligently.

I’ve been thinking about this recently. I have graduated and will have my commencement on December 18th. So far, so good. However, what happens next? No idea as of now. However, this waiting period is not a wasted period. God has been teaching me so many things. I’ve seen God working in my life in a very real way. For instance, while preparing my defense slides, I started preparing them in one software (Latex) but due to the learning curve switched to powerpoint. I needed to go to the department the next day to access the latest version of it. However, that morning, I could not find my keys anywhere! After praying about it and worrying for some time, I went back to Latex and did an initial version of the slides. This was actually good because I would not have been able to access the department for powerpoint late in the night and my brother had latex software too, so he could help me tweak it. Also, quite a lot of attendees commended the slides. This is a small example, but I experienced the God’s work in my life in such a powerful way. God indeed used this situation for His glory and for my good.

I had a couple of interviews today for an internship and started worrying about the outcome. However, God reminded me this passage and a verse farther along in the chapter

For with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 1:37

So true! And that was the answer to my worries. With God nothing is impossible. What I think are uncertain times, are known by God and He knows what lies at the end of the uncertain period too! Thus, if you think that you cannot make it through any uncertain tests of faith, you’re right. You cannot make it in your own strength. But with God, you definitely can!

Wow, I’m posting again after a long time!

Few updates

- I’m applying for a PhD next fall. Let’s see how that goes.

- By default, the above point implies that I am graduating from my Master’s program :D. Yes, 2 more months to go!

That’s it for now. God bless!

Sharon

Right now, I am working on 6 projects! All have different requirements and methodologies - and all six are crucial for me.

5 tactics that worked for me in the past:

- Timeboxing. Spend blocks of time on a single project. Instead of spending a couple of hours on one project and then switching to another, spend a whole day on one and finish a large portion of that project.

- Automate. Automating processes have many benefits.

- Multi-task. Work on multiple projects at the same time. Sounds contrary to #1 but not really. If you automate processes, one can be running in the background while you are thinking about or working on another one.

- Ask for help - when necessary. Don’t bug people though.

- Get your priorities* straight, and then work on top-priority tasks/activities first.

5 tactics that didn’t:

- Distractions. Pretty self-explanatory. Do NOT have/allow distractions when working on major projects. Emails, social networking sites, phone calls, idle browsing of web, thinking about other things, people, projects all count as distractions.

- Lack of rest. You need proper rest and relaxation to work better.

- Analysis Paralysis. You need to get started at some point. There is no use to keep analysing things. Even a rough version is better than no version.

- Lack of clarity. Use a sheet of paper and write down why you want to do some task and what exactly needs to be done. Be crystal clear!

- Quantity (excess or the lack thereof). Don’t try to put too much on your plate - will lead to a burn out. But, on the other hand, if you have the potential, don’t underestimate yourself.

*. My way of judging a priority is: Does this activity/task have significance 5 years down the road? 10? after I die?

Came across an article about Miss California’s answer in Miss USA Pageant [1]. There you go, one of the signs of persecution for taking a stand for Christian faith.

This brought a thought into my head - what if something like that happened to me? What about day-to-day things and issues where I become lax and not attempt to win spiritual battles? I pray that God helps all His children (including me :)!) to be faithful to Him till the end.

Carrie Prejean is definitely a winner by God’s standard. God bless you, lady!

Related Verse: Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:10

Good news, my first-author research paper has been selected in the Research Track of ICWS conference! Praise be to God!!! There are three tracks in the conference - Research, Industry/Application and Work-In-Progress. This year, the Research track had an acceptance rate of 15.6% (about 40 papers selected).

This brings me to the topic of the post - Victories and Losses. ICWS is actually the 5th conference we submitted this work to. The conferences have been shown below with results:

- SCC 2008. Accept in Work-In-Progress.

- ICSOC 2008. Reject.

- WWW 2009. Reject.

- AAAI 2009 Spring Symposium Series. Accept as Short Paper.

- ICWS 2009. Accept in Research Track.

When my paper was not selected (SCC was a select but we did not publish there because of some reason) in the previous conferences, I was saddened. However, looking back, I can clearly see that God had a purpose & reason for making that happen. Because we couldn’t get a publication in the previous three conferences, my advisor agreed to publish the paper selected in AAAI Spring Symposium which was held in Stanford. Stanford is one of my dream universities and I wanted to see it ever since I was a kid :). God helped me see it as a presenter in the Symposium there! This might not have happened had one of the earlier papers been accepted (or had I gone to SCC ‘08).

When I first thought about this, one thing which struck me was - losses in the life of a Christian are not failures! They are the fulfillment of God’s purposes (as are victories). God says in His word -

Meditating on this issue made me realize the following reasons why God allows ‘losses’:

- God allows those ‘losses’ to help your faith in Him & patience/humility toward Him grow.

- Those battles were not worth winning compared to the the very best victories He has in store for you.

- That battle’s victory would not have glorified His holy name.

- There was some sin in the person’s life which did not allow God to work in that person’s life (Psalm 66:18).

Whatever the cause, I believe that God is sovereign and He knows the why/what/where/when/who/how of all situations. I praise God for giving me an opportunity to realize that His thoughts and ways are greater than mine and that He has a definite purpose for my life (which I do not understand fully yet. but that’s ok, He does :-)!).

I would like to assure you, dear reader, that God has a plan/purpose for you too! If you do not have a personal relation with Him through Jesus Christ His Son, you cannot experience the peace, joy and wonderful spiritual/ physical blessings He gives by His grace and mercy. Have a look at this page where I shared my testimony and provided a pdf that outlines what The Bible says about Salvation. If you do have a personal relation with Him through Jesus, that’s wonderful! Praise God! May God build your faith and use you for His kingdom.

God bless you!

Sharon

(Picture courtesy of http://themachados.net)

Just came back from a Symposium at Stanford University! It was exciting and all that stuff…

Here’s the information about my paper. By God’s grace, the presentation went well and am happy with the feedback received.

Going to Stanford has re-ignited interest in research and academia in me again! But, as always, I have to say these to myself - “slow and steady” & “God knows what’s best for you” :).

So, let’s see what happens!

Sharon

Related Verse: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

It’s been a long time since the last post. Nearly three months! Needless to say, I’ve been busy :).

A few of those things worth mentioning are:

- Classes & class assignments,

- Paper submission to ICWS conference,

- Google field trip, and,

- Accomplishing my goals for this year (spiritual/professional/personal/social)

There’s going to be a slight change to this blog soon. Postings will be fewer but more richer in content. I’m aiming for 2-3 posts per month.

Till then,

In Christ’s service,

Sharon