Monday, March 20, 2017

Real yet Irrational


This past Tuesday math nerds around the world celebrated Pi day. Pi is the Greek letter used in math to represent the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The value of Pi to the hundredths place is 3.14, therefore March 14, otherwise known as 3/14, is celebrated as Pi day. The real interesting thing about Pi is that it's value does not stop at the hundredths place.   In fact, the decimal goes on unending.  In other words, you can get close to writing Pi but you'll never be able to get it exactly.  Pi is a real number but is considered irrational.

In my high school math classes our teacher challenged us to memorize Pi to as many decimal places as we could.  I can still do it - 3.14159265. I was pretty proud but was reminded that even though I knew Pi six more decimal places than those who knew him only as 3.14 I still was infinitely away from knowing him completely.

For a long time I've felt some spiritual connection with Pi.  A real number that was irrational. A number you could know in part but never fully know. Pi reminds me a lot of God. Real but irrational.  Knowable yet incomprehensible.

My hope and prayer that in some way today as we pray, commune, sing, and go to Scripture that we could get just a bit closer to knowing this real but irrational God.  I hope today we can add one more decimal place in our pursuit of knowing this incomprehensible God.


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