Regarding Capacitors and Electric Potential

Are you confused already? I don't blame you. However, you probably aren't as bewildered as I was earlier today. Bewildered might even be an understatement. But at the end of all of it, a verse popped into my head on the drive home, and my day wasn't totally ruined. You're probably even more confused now. Allow me to rewind.

I had my second physics exam today. Are the wheels turning yet? Probably faster than mine were at 3pm this afternoon. For the rest of you, I'll cut to the chase: I think I bombed it. Now for some commentary.

First of all, this is not me venting about a bad day. I have resolved to keep all things political, opinionated, and generally negative out of this blog. This blog is for me to share what God is doing in my life. Today, in the midst of a bad day, God appeared yet again to minister to my heart.

Anyway, I really studied hard for this thing. I knew all the equations, although I won't take the time to write them out here and spare you all some headache. I really knew what each one did. To find capacitance, you divide the charge by the electric potential. To find the electric potential, you take the integral from a to b of the electric field vector dotted with dL. For those of you who are about to stop reading, please don't; I promise I'll stop! Bottom line: I knew a lot of stuff going into this and I felt confident that I would do pretty well. But when I sat down and started taking it, things just fell apart. I really don't need to ramble on because I want to get to my point, but lets just say that I would apply equations over and over but would never get one of the multiple choice answers. So, now to my point.

Afterwards, I just really felt down about it because I knew I probably failed it and I have always taken school very seriously. Here are some of the things that went through my head though. I thought that I could either shrug it off, or dwell on it. If I shrugged it off, that would make it look like I didn't care about it, which I obviously did. On the other hand, dwelling on something that's over and done with would change nothing. Now, of course I'm going to look at the answer key when it's released, but I'm having a hard time letting my failure not get me down too much. Another thing: I really felt stupid. I know it sounds dumb because I know I'm a smart kid, but I really felt stupid. I felt like I should be better than this. I felt inadequate. I felt kind of depressed that I did so terribly and I guess I beat myself up about it. And so that's the scene. On the way home, all I could think about was "not good enough". Then a verse popped into my head.

1 Peter 5:7 "...casting all your cares upon Him, because He cares for you."


So I just prayed. I was in rush hour traffic on the freeway so I prayed with my eyes open and hands on the steering wheel, but I prayed nonetheless. I was just reminded that no matter how big of a failure I experience, I can take it to God, and perhaps more importantly, no matter how small a failure. I really appreciate God's ability to minster to us perfectly whenever we need it.

Today has since gotten better. I'm doing well in my other three classes and I just finished up some math homework for differential equations. I actually like that class. The homework has never been hard for me and additionally, I find it a little interesting. That reassured myself that I'm not as stupid as I would sometimes have myself believe. After all, God created math and physics. If he can atone for all of mankind's sins, He can get me through Electricity and Magnetism.

In Christ,

Jeremy