We are all familiar with the self-apellation Jesus used, Alpha & Omega, Beginning & the End. For many years I thought that just meant He was infinite. Of course, that in itself is magnificent. Recently I heard a teaching tying this in with Author & Finisher of our Faith; that Jesus would begin a work in us and would finish it. This was an interesting truth, and I’ve been mulling it over for the last year or so.

When the Spirit begins a work in us, He will finish it. There is no question, because He has declared Himself to be the Finisher. He does not lie, nor does He fail. That should give us encouragement. No matter how bad things get, we can rest in the knowledge that He will complete the work He started.

I have used this concept to help me focus on finishing my bachelor’s degree. I have been discouraged often, wondering if I would ever finish. But this knowledge, that He will finish His work in me, has kept me going. I have stood on this.

Today I graduated from Old Dominion University with a BS in Computer Science, minoring in Computer Engineering. I was thankful that God finished this part of His work in me. I understood that He had begun the work, and He completed it.

However, the Spirit enlightened the eyes of my understanding, when He spoke this to me:

The end of a thing is better than the beginning.

Ecc 7:8

Imagine a master carpenter like Norm Abrams (New Yankee Workshop… I love that show). He wants to make a beautiful side chair. So he draws up plans, gets the supplies, measures, cuts, glues, nails, sands and finishes the piece. He begins the work and finishes the work. Now I can do the exact same thing. I could make plans, buy wood, measure, cut, clue, nail, sand and finish. I could spend the exact same amount of time doing all that work, and I guarantee you I would not have anything even close to what Norm can produce. The point is not the work. We don’t grade on effort. We grade on the finished product. The reason Norm does the work is to take raw material and turn it into a beautiful work of art. If the end (the side chair) wasn’t better than the beginning (2×4s in Lowe’s), it would just be a guy in his garage avoiding housework.

I missed this point entirely. I thought God was going to give me the grace to finish. I had no idea he would restore the years that the canker worm stole. I had no idea He would produce beauty, when I had come with ashes. I did not realize He would take my burlap and turn it into cashmere. Read that verse from Ecclesiastes again. The end is better than the beginning. The promise is not just that there will be an end. The promise is that the end will be better than the beginning.

Not all my grades are in, but I believe I finished this semester with a 4.0. I got the highest grade in my class on a national Computer Science exit exam, scoring in the 99th percentile nationwide. Because of this, the CS department gave me a $150 gift certificate to the bookstore, where I was able to get a nice ODU hoodie that was out of my price range normally (along with a bunch of other swag). Tony Snow was the commencement speaker, and gave an excellent speech talking frankly about God and country. My son saw me graduate. I was interviewed by the Virginian-Pilot, and I was able to share a bit about my faith, and what I shared in this post. When the reporter asked if I was proud, I was able to tell her the second part of Ecc 7:8, “The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”

I say all this not to brag, but to give glory to God. He is the one who worked in me, both to will and to do His good pleasure. If we talked about what I was able to accomplish on my own, I could show you strings of Withdraw-Fails and dropped classes. Despite my best efforts, the Spirit completed His work. Well, He completed a work. I’m excited to see what He’ll build next.

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ah. that’s done.

about an hour ago i took my last final exam of the semester. i had a project due last saturday at midnight, a final yesterday and one today. i’m very happy to be finished for the semester.

i’m only taking one class this summer, and it’s a co-op class. that means i just go to work like normal and write a one-page paper at the end of the semester saying what i learned. easy 3 credits.

after this summer, i only have a handful of classes, and then i’m done. w00t. tentative graduation date: Dec ‘07.

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I have big news again. The company that I went to work for Dec 15, Internosis, got bought by a larger company, EMC, a couple weeks ago. I now work for EMC Microsoft Practice. My new job title is Senior Solutions Consultant. w00t.

I took a Microsoft exam, 70-228 Administering & Configuring SQL Server 2000, on Friday and I passed! I got an 811/1000, and I needed a 700. This was the last exam I needed for my MCDBA certification. That’s right folks. I’m now officially a Microsoft Certified Database Administrator. My email signature at work is getting to be an alphabet soup: MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, MCT. I’m tempted to throw some fake ones in there to see if anyone notices. On second thought, they’d probably notice but not say anything, making me look like an idiot. I’ll pass.

I’m taking three classes this semester: UNIX for Programmers, Object-Oriented Programming and Design, & Linear Algebra. That first class is just one credit and it’s work at your own pace, and I’m nearly finished with it, so it doesn’t really count. Linear Algebra is definitely not an easy class, and I’m slightly apprehensive about it. I got a 100% on the first quiz though, so I’m optimistic I’ll do ok. OO Design should be fairly easy, as that’s what I’ve been doing at work for the past 5 years. We’ll see.

Our Bible study is going well. We’ve started studying Galatians, and there’s some really good stuff in there about living by faith. We’re hitting chapter three tonight and I expect it to be good. It’s open to everyone, so if you would like some good food and good foundational teaching, come tonight at 7 pm. Email me for directions.

I have Yahoo! messenger at the new job - feel free to IM me if you’d like.

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raegan wants me to study. she’s cajoling me. “please study.” so sweet. cannot deny.

going to get my book.

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I’m taking a database administration class for ODU. We each have our own database, and the default logins are the same for everyone. So I’m getting ready to do some homework over my lunch hour, and I discover that my tables are gone. I’ve been considering asking how to change the passwords (we’re using command line tools, and nothing is intuitive), but figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to leave the passwords the same for now. Certainly I could wait until class… right? Ha! Someone in my class is a real jerk.

I’m so sick of being in college. Full of immature kids who think smoking weed is cool.

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