The best thing that math has done for me is to help me consider the infinite with my clearly finite human capacities.
Yesterday we talked about series and convergence. And my professor mentioned that two separate, clearly different series converge to the same number. Basically, the value of those series as they each approached infinity was the same. As time went on, they gained the same value, and if we could consider infinity and see where they ended up in the forever they would have the same value.
The difference in these series is that one of them approached their value much more quickly than the other. They both would make it there, but we can see the destination of one much more easily than the other. . One gets there much more quickly than the other. Still, when we determine the value of either, the answer is the same.
People are like series. I don't need to try to get to my destination as fast as someone else. I move at the rate that I am designed to move at. But my value, in the end, is the same as long as I am approaching that eternal (infinite) destination.
This was just the lesson I learned yesterday.
Even more importantly, being able to (limitedly) consider that something is infinite has helped me understand the atonement much better. I have often heard that Christ's atonement is infinite. But I had never considered it alongside the other infinite things that I know about and what qualities might be similar. A book called Believing Christ presented this thought to me. Christ has an infinite amount of righteousness. I have a finite amount of sin. If I give Him my sins, and He pays for them, and shares with me a part of His infinite righteousness, my finite amount of sin is gone, and He still has an infinite amount of righteousness. Infinity + 1 = Infinity. Infinity - 1 = Infinity. He is larger than anything I might encounter in this finite mortal realm, or that anyone who has stopped progressing and no longer has an infinite amount of potential and power might present me with. If I trust Him, He can overcome all my finite troubles.
This is what I miss most not having you sitting in my kitchen late at night. I love the way your mind works and the connections you put together to strenthen my own faith.
ReplyDeleteI got on here to read this post one more time. It is too beautiful to only be here--I think I need it in my book I carry with me. I love, love, love these concepts.
ReplyDeletewhat a whole new way to look at the atonement. I am so glad u have shown me more of the "infinite" perspectives of how wonderful it is :)
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