Hitting the Target

This morning, the world record computation of pi finally completed. Thereby the 105 days long calculation comes to a successful end. Before being able to hit a target like this, you have to know what your target is. To choose the aims in our life wisely, is a task of great importance.

Naturally each person has a whole hierarchy of objectives. For a Christian the goal at the top of this hierarchy is to become like Jesus (Romans 8v29): loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled (Galatians 5v23f). This is the background of the following poem, which I would like to share with you (an English version can be found here).

Wo gehe ich hin?
In wessen Fussstapfen gehe ich?
Wer zeigt mir den Weg?
Gehe ich blind?
Was ist mein Ziel?
Bin ich auf diesem Weg allein?

Meine Seele findet in Gott allein Ruhe!
ER ist mein Ziel!
Und ich gehe nicht allein!
Friede und Ruhe,
Sicherheit und Liebe,
und reichlich, niemals – endende Gnade!

Wer bin ich – ohne IHN?
Weggeweht vom Wind!
Ich habe alles, worauf es ankommt – mit IHM!
Für immer Vergebung!
Mein Freund, ich möchte dein Freund sein.
Sei mein Vater!

Dein Kind.

The first biography I’ve read about a younger person

I encountered this poem while reading the biography of Puschel (a.k.a. Lydia Holmer). This is not only the first biography I’ve read about a person being younger than me, it is also the biography which affected me more than any other biography. In short, it is so remarkable, because the mentioned character qualities of Christ manifested themselves so evidently in Puschel’s life. She mirrored His image during the whole 28 years of her life, before and after her diagnosis of cancer in 2007, in a way, I can only dream of.

π and my date of birth

Compared to the above goal, the aim to compute pi with a world record accuracy of 22.4 trillion digits is hardly worth mentioning. It definitely does not rank in highest levels of my hierarchy of goals. Nonetheless, I’m pleased that this target has been met this morning as you can see in the screenshot below. Since the start of the computation, 105 days have passed. The actual calculation took 89 days. At the time of completion, the 22’459’157’718’361 decimal digits are the most digits of pi calculated. Funny enough, the last three computed decimal digits of pi turn out to be my date of birth (in German notation).