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Prayer, Sinkholes, and a Monorepo ​

Prayer ​

A prayer to start the day,

"Heavenly Father, I welcome you into this day to be the Lord over it. For this is a day that You have made. I will rejoice! And I'll be glad in it! Guide and direct everything I think, say, and do. May it all bring Glory to You."

In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Sinkholes ​

Today was the first week in a new sermon series titled "Sinkholes." The premise of the series is that there are underlying problems under the surface that might be slowly eroding within us that will someday develop into a full blown problem in our lives. Whether it be pride, jealousy, hate, lust, doubt, or any number of sins, anything that isn't being dealt with will eventual manifest itself into something which can destroy our lives.

Luke 6:46-49 reads,

"Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things of which I say? Anyone who comes to me, and hears my words and does them, this is what they are like. They are like a person building a house who dug down deep and laid a foundation on the rock. When a flood came, the stream of water broke against that house and could not shake it because it was founded on the rock. But the one who hears and does not do what has been taught, is like a person who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the streaming waters broke, and immediately their house fell; and the ruin of that house was great."

A few key points about sinkholes that Pastor Jason brought up...

  • Sinkholes are about foundations
  • Sinkholes are never sudden
  • Sinkholes aren't solved; they're strengthened

When our foundations aren't well built, or none existent altogether, it can be quite easy for things to erode underneath. And whatever is causing the erosion is never something that just suddenly happens. It is always something that slowly eats away underneath the surface. When an actual sinkhole forms, pulling the surface down into the hole, that's it! The damage is done. All you can do is fill in the hole with something strong, such as concrete, until the hole is covered up. After which, you can build a new foundation.

I need to be on the lookout for spiritual sinkholes. I need to take the above passage from Luke to heart. I need to store that deep down in my soul. The simple truth is, I have had sinkholes form in my life. And I know of a few areas where the potential for more sinkholes to appear is likely. In some cases, I can plug the leak that is causing the erosion under the surface. In other cases, I need to preemptively begin filling in the gaps below with the spiritual concrete of the Bible.

Something Pastor Jason said truly resonates with me. He mentioned that it is often due to laziness that these problems can occur. Ecclesiastes 10:18 reads,

"By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idle hands the house leaks."

Sloth, or laziness, in this context is about being reluctant to work or make an effort. Far too often do I resign myself to giving up because something feels too difficult or challenging to face. It can begin with ignoring the prompt to pay attention to the signs that something might be going the wrong direction. I may also misunderstand the issue as possibly being something else altogether. Or perhaps I may dismiss it as something I am unable to do anything about. Regardless, the biggest problem I have is ignoring the warning signs God has been giving me!

This year, I have begun a journey that is keeping me in the Bible on a daily basis. As Pastor Jason put it, the Bible is the right motivator to get me going on strengthening the sinkholes that have formed, or are in the process of forming. It is like the concrete that will build a solid foundation below the surface. Honestly, that has become the easy part. The hard part is the next thing Pastor Jason mentioned, accountability. We find accountability in our community. When we share our sins and struggles with trusted Christian friends, we can be held accountable in those struggles and sins and find freedom from them.

I more than struggle with this. Due to past trauma, I do not actually trust anyone. Even my closest friends and family aren't people I feel I can go to right now. My ability to trust has been completely shattered. I trust God. But I don't trust people. And at the moment, I do not feel God drawing me to anyone He tells me I can trust. That said, Pastor Jason did mentioned one way we can know whether or not someone is to be trusted. If the person is responding by saying something to the effect of, "Here's what I think you should do or here is my opinion", that is not someone I should be sharing my struggles with. But if the person is responding with, "Well, here is what the Bible says about this", that is a person I can trust.

The 3 most important points in the above passage from Luke are:

  • Hear: Listen to the Holy Spirit
  • Dig: Inspect my life
  • Lay a foundation: Strengthen my life

Pastor Jason concluded with this beautiful gem: Laziness ends when God's Word and God's people are injected into our lives. I'm well on my way with the first part, God's Word. But I need prayer for the second part.

Monorepo ​

In the software industry, there is a common tool called a source code repository. Simply put, it is a place to store the code that is behind any piece of software. It is typically managed by something called version control; which is simply a means by which to save the history of any changes being made to the software's source code. I use such a system for all of the behind the scenes work that goes into this blog and all other aspects of my website. This helps me manage everything from the actually source code that runs my site to the content contained on these pages. This blog entry, for example, is constantly being saved as I type. Once I go to publish it, a copy is stored in a source code repository in the state it was in when being published. I can update the content at anytime and a new copy will get stored when I publish it again. It is a really great way to save the history of my content should I wish to "go back in time" for any reason. It also keeps the content safe in the event of a computer crash on the website or my person computer. It is all stored "in the cloud!"

In recent years, it has further been common for related projects to be stored in the same repository, or a "monorepo." Here in 2024, I decided to change my website to have subdomains instead of sub folders. Basically, "www.bygregmarine.com/blog" became "blog.bygregmarine.com." I really like the way that reads since it is a "blog" "by" me, Greg Marine. Since I am going to be doing this with all of the sections of my website, and since each section is being powered by the same source code, I decided I would move the separate projects to reside in a new repo I simply named "ByGregMarine.com." Thus, I built a monorepo.

Having been a software developer and engineer for nearly 3 decades, I thought this would be an easy task. And in the end, I could see how I could have made it easier to do. However, with nearly 3 decades of experience, I made the task of doing this far too complicated...HA! It took me hours to setup this monorepo and get all of the deployment configurations figured out. In the end, this will all be worth it. I have a single place to go to add content. I have a single place to go to add enhancements to the software that delivers the content over the Internet. I have a single place to go to manage my static online presence. Several frustrating hours on a Sunday afternoon are nothing compared to how much easier this will make it for me to express myself in my space here. The goal has always been to share myself with my world in a way that best reflects who I am. And I believe I have achieved this phase of that goal.

Week 2 Begins ​

I did very little else today besides go to church, work on my website setup, and go through my prayer and Bible time. Today begins the second week of the 21 days of prayer and fasting. As I mentioned the other day, I don't really miss TV. I still miss candy and seafood. I'm not suffering that "First World Problems" sort of way. But I'm looking forward to at least having seafood again. When I was planning my day this morning, I thought about going to the beach and to stop by a place that has one of my favorite fish sandwiches. Oops! I can't have fish right now! So I ended up just going to the grocery and home after church instead...hehehe This, of course, allowed me to refocus on listening to God. And you know what, I heard Him today! I won't be going into anything specific; as it is too personal to be in a public journal. When I look back on this journal entry, though, I hope I recall what I heard. It would be a great reminder that God has something amazing to say!