Chemistry is a bit of mystery to me. I did fairly well in high school in most subjects even without the discipline of study (a habit I would rue in college) until I met chemistry. I decided to monitor the class during my lunch hour since my schedule was already full of things like calculus, physics, mechanical drawing and other fascinating subjects. I sat there daily for a whole semester trying to grasp the concepts of the atomic chart and what it meant in combining elements to form new exciting compounds that would make the world of tomorrow a better place. I never got it. It was beyond me.
I did realize however that those who do get it go on to become highly paid professionals (as opposed to myself) who specialize in creating formulas that bring exciting new applications to this life. It is the formulas that fascinate me. Someone carefully writes down the exact process and steps that combine this element with that element under these specific conditions leading ! to a new creation. It is so exact that anyone can later upon discovering these notes duplicate the exact same creation. This science is duplicatable and because it is a science, it will guarantee the original results every time.
The results benefit all of us who take prescription, drink from plastic containers, nuke our food, drive our cars, and pretty much engage in everything else in our world. Formulas rule our world, or at least a good portion of it. It is the crowning achievement of the Industrial Revolution and the trademark of our modern enlightened culture.
You might say we are a formula driven society. We engage in the dating world by inputting our personalities into computer data banks that in turn crank out a dream match for our future spouse based on formulas. We have seven habits to being highly successful people. We have a ten step formula to making children mind without losing ours. We have formulas for better marriages, better sex, an! d better sex in marriage. We have formulas for attaining wealt! h, achie ving our goals, and getting the corner office. We have formulas that make government the solution to our problems and formulas that promise us that less government is the solution to our problems. We even have four spiritual laws that formulate how to get to heaven.
Is everything in life a formula? What about the computer matched perfect spouse who turns out to be a wife beater or control freak? What about people who just aren't that gifted to begin with and can't make the seven habits stick? What happens when less government fosters unbridled greed that almost bankrupts a nation? What happens when the government program only adds to an already bloated bureaucracy that moves ever closer to financial Armageddon?
It seems to me that formulas work in science but rarely work in matters of life. Life as God designed it is more complex than the atomic chart and thermo-dynamics. If your formula gets you to where you want to go in life, it probably created a tr! ail of broken pieces and sacrificed people or values along the way.
Perhaps most devastating in all of this is the notion championed by the Christian Community that things relating to God can some how be put into a formula. Sacramentalism when adhered to will repeatedly upon execution produce God's intentions. Liturgical readings and common confessions will repeatedly upon execution produce relationship with God. The Evangelicalsim's sinner's prayer upon recitation will guarantee entrance to heaven. Is this what it has all come down to?
We argue about and base fellowship upon whose formula is correct. The Sacramentalist declares their formula is correct having been discovered by the early Church Fathers through oral tradition. Their formula is 2,000 years old without interruption and if nothing else, longevity must stand for something. If "we are wrong, the masses throughout history are doomed and these consequences cannot even be considered." The Lit! urgist declares their formula correct because the Reformers di! scovered the error in the formula some 500 years ago and fixed the problem. The Evangelical knows that their formula is correct because its "in the Bible." They have 23 verses in scripture to prove it.
But the proof of any formula is always in the product. The most complex formula on a blackboard may be impressive to the uninformed mind, but if it doesn't produce a higher quality of plastic when executed, it is just hieroglyphic arrogance meant to impress. So I ask where is the product...the fruit that our post-modern expressions of the beloved faith are allegedly producing? It is time to ask God to forgive us for our theological arrogance.
God is beyond formula. Relationship with Him cannot be reduced to four spiritual laws or an entrance-level prayer. The passport to heaven cannot be easily stamped and the bus ticket to the Kingdom costs more than prayer. The God who sovereignly chose Abraham for indescribable blessing was also the God who called for him to p! lace his son on an altar of sacrifice. The Jesus who invites all the weary and burdened to come and receive his restful yoke is also the who sits on the throne before whom everyone must stand and give an account. The One who says "Come" also says "Depart". God is beyond formula and our attempts to reduce Him to our formulas are beneath His high calling to be His people showing forth his excellencies to the world around us.
The treasure that we discover in Christ is such that for joy we sell all we have to secure the field wherein the treasure lies. There is no formula for this. It is a matter of heart and soul. It is a matter of devotion and commitment. It is a matter of relationship that is to be sustained through His grace until the end. It is a matter of life with the Creator outside of a labratory in a Kingdom that is permeated by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. There is no formula for that.
chemistry formula chart
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