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Let's go for a ride in the family car!

The internal machinations of the modern internal combustion engine fascinate me. Early engines incorporated only one cylinder. The cylinder, acting alone, activates a crank shaft which drives the wheels. Very easy to understand, but also heavy and prone to excessive vibration.

In order to make it less shaky, the clever engineers of the day added a cylinder on the opposite side to oppose the action of the one cylinder. This not only helped with the vibration issue, it created significant additional power for the engine. Also, the engine could be made lighter because the crankshaft need not be so robust - the force was dissipated by the opposing piston's action.

Two cylinders became four, then six, then eight, ten, twelve, etc. Most modern vehicles stop at eight cylinders because it becomes much more expensive and not really worth it to have additional cylinders. If additional power is desired one may just increase the size of the engine displacement rather than add more cylinders.

Early engines also operated on a two-stroke (intake/compression and power/exhaust) cycle. Some engines still operate on a two stroke cycle, but they are being phased out due to reasons I'll discuss in a minute. These two-stroke engines rely on the compression from a return exhaust pipe - either bent or specifically designed to return compression - to keep the fuel/air mixture inside the chamber. As a result, fuel/air mixture sometimes escapes into the air (pollution). This leads to inefficiency. Two-stroke engines also tend to be much louder than four-stroke engines.

Almost every engine made today is a four-stroke engine. In a four-stroke engine, the steps of intake, compression, power, and exhaust are all separated. This kind of thing can only work if the engine has two or more cylinders because there is no power delivered to the crank shaft on the compression stroke. This power is provided by another cylinder working opposite the first to provide power for driving the crankshaft and compression to the first cylinder. And then the process is reversed.

Two-stroke engines never have made sense to me. I just can't see how they work at all. Four-stroke engines are much more simple for me to understand, although much more complex in manufacture and operation (many more moving parts).

But what does all of this have to do with Paul and Timothy?

We are never alone. As alone as we may feel in this world, there are others around us who love us and can help provide the power we need to succeed. In the terminology and technology of the day, Paul refers to being "yoked" together - two animals pulling their load together, with the yoke providing a stabilizing and equalizing and balancing method. But in our modern vernacular, perhaps the multi-cylinder engine example is a good one.

One cylinder engines exist - they run your lawn mower or hedge trimmer. But their use is fairly limited to relatively light-duty tasks. High-speed engines pulling heavy loads require precision engineering and incredible attention to detail in order to provide the power and torque necessary to give desired results. In a similar way, one person working on their own can only accomplish so much before he or she gets burned out. Pulling together always provides greater strength and power. I think that's why God gave us to each other - to lend power when needed. In our modern world, this is perhaps more important than ever.

I love you. Let's pull together, shall we?

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