Daily Wisdom 02-10-2005 Grade Nine Essays

You may remember those grade 9 essays you had to write.You're just fresh out of grade school and the teacher says, "Alright class, you have to hand in an essay on this or that topic, 200-300 words, for next week Friday. Of course the mind goes numb.

That's what I encountered in grade nine math. The teacher assigned us to write an essay on the topic of Zero. Zero- what can you say about this concept? With dictionaries, encyclopedias, and big math text books, our frantic young minds tried to wrestle with the concept of zero. Zero really means nothing, negligible, of no value, so to speak. But is there such a thing as zero? When one divides a small integer by a large integer, you can get very close to zero but never zero. For some of us, it was a 'nothingness experience'. We handed in our essays and waited for our math instructor to mark them. We waited for weeks; sometimes months. It was truly a 'nothingness experience' as he never did mark the papers! He said hewould give us all a minimal mark (zero?) because we did such a lousy job.

That grade nine math experience taught me a lesson. Zero means nothing, no value at all. Or does it? Zero degrees Celsius means that water may start to freeze. Zero degrees Fahrenheit is quite a bit colder. Absolute zero(-273 degrees C.), where molecular motion which constitutes heat would cease, can never be attained. Is zero really the lowest point, as one dictionary defines it? One definition appeals to me and taught me the lesson:The point marked on a graduated scale, from which the reckoning begins.

We all have faced low points in our lives. We may have felt like zero or nothing. It may have been the separation from a loved one, tragedy, bankruptcy, rape or loss of health and security. For me, losing a job that I thoroughly enjoyed brought me to rock bottom. It was hard to endure questions from family and friends. Did I fail? My self-esteem was at a zero level.

That's where God came into my life. Out of the depths of despair, reckoning began. I needed Someone who would pull me out of the dark waters and up to a higher level. Peter, the disciple in the Bible, experienced that when he thought he could walk on water but then cried out to Jesus, "Lord, save me!"

Do you sometimes have zero experiences? Reckoning can begin when you ask Jesus Christ to come into your life andfill the void. Thousands of people have acknowledged that the Jesus in the Bible is really therelooking for those who have floundered withnothingness experiences. Why not become one of those people? Contact us at Daily Wisdom to find out how God can change your life and put value into it.

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