Levi’s Legacy Watch

Congratulations! | We Are So Proud of You!

You’ve been selected as a recipient of a Levi’s Legacy calculator watch.

Please share a little bit about yourself.

Kindness | Loyalty | Enthusiasm

Past Recipients

Congratulations!

You’ve been chosen by the faculty to be the recipient of a Levi’s Legacy Watch.

This is a gift in memory of our son Levi McClurg who was kind, loyal, enthusiastic, sometimes whimsical, and even funny. He found something in mathematics that lit up his soul. The thinking, the imagining, the hard work of it illuminated something in him and he wanted to pass that to others.

We are giving you a calculator watch because it’s a little bit silly—we doubt you can do any meaningful math with this. But it’s also meant to be a little bit serious. Levi’s passing made us keenly aware of the scarcity of time.

You have been chosen because your instructors have seen in you something that rhymes with who Levi was. So please receive this silly, inexpensive gift in a spirit of whimsy. Let it encourage your enthusiasm for mathematics. Wear it and use it to remind you that the best use of your time is to devote it.

Peace,

Craig & Kay Charlotte McClurg

Levi’s Parents

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It’s not about telling time.

∞

It’s about experiencing the moment.

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The Story

I like watches. I have a small collection. A favorite watch of mine is a Swatch “MoonSwatch”. It’s an inexpensive replica of the Omega Speedmaster watches that many astronauts wore on their missions to space and to the moon. Mine is grey with a black dial on a black strap. Levi wore a MoonSwatch too. His was brown with a beige dial that had a small illustration of Saturn on it.

I had planned to give Levi a special watch to mark his achievement of attaining a Masters degree. I wanted it to be fancier, metal, not plastic, and mechanical. But I knew that his taste and mine were different enough that I didn’t want to just buy something that he may not love. So I thought I’d write him a note and say, “Let’s go shopping for a watch when you come home for Christmas.”

But giving a note at the important moment we were anticipating seemed a little bit of a letdown. Then I had an inspiration. I ordered a Casio calculator watch. It was meant to be a joke. It was meant to be a placeholder. I was going to give it to him at dinner after Levi defended his thesis. If you’ve watched The Office, I am pretty sure the character Dwight Schrute wore one. Amazon delivered it the day Levi died.

And so here we are now. I thought maybe I’d keep it. Add it to my collection. Maybe never take it out of the box. But that seems a waste.

So we are giving this watch as a means to honor Levi’s memory. We see it as a weird and goofy kind of ‘scholarship’. Levi was kind. He was loyal. He was enthusiastic about Math. He was a young man who cared for and felt deeply about others. I’ve asked the professors to take ownership of this, and to award it to someone who also reflects the qualities we saw in Levi — and that person is you — we are blessed to know that these qualities are visible in your life too.

Craig McClurg

Ω

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Levi James McClurg

1999 — 2025

From the beginning, Levi’s life reflected curiosity. In the patterns of numbers, in the beauty of nature, and in the kindness he offered everyone he met, Levi expressed wonder.

He saw God’s order in equations, and completed a Masters Degree in mathematics at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. He was preparing to pursue a Ph. D. when he died.

Levi caried wisdom gently. He taught with patience, and grace, with empathy for his students.

Now in the presence of the One Who Is Alpha and Omega, Levi’s searching has become sight; his faith has found its eternal home.

Levi attended High Tech High School where he competed in Track & Field, Flag Football, and excelled in Archery.

He graduated summa cum laude from Point Loma Nazarene University with a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in Mathematics. He completed a Masters in Mathematics at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Levi placed his trust in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and chose to be baptized while in High School. He would want you to know that a life in Christ is available to all.

Math + Faith

I’m not a mathematician, not even close. I struggled back in 8th grade when they added letters to the numbers! But in many conversations with my son Levi, I knew that he saw beauty in mathematics. Most of the time, I didn’t understand much of what he was saying, but his eyes lit up. His imagination was fired. He spoke quickly, his voice punctuated with pauses as he found images and metaphors to describe what he could see in his mind.

I am a person of faith. I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus. And I can be as enthusiastic about Him as Levi was about math, haha! Some might think that there’s a big difference between math and faith, yet I am starting to see how they overlap. I’m finding that mathematicians are people of faith; they trust that abstract structures somehow describe reality, that proofs reveal truth. This is not a blind faith, but a rational trust.

Mathematics is not physical, but it deals with what is real. It seems to me to be a symbolic language that describes the ‘how’ of the universe. In a similar way faith is not physical, but it is no less real. It is a pursuit of the ‘why’ of the universe.

Math is discovered and not invented. One can spend a lifetime learning what has been learned and then take that knowledge further. I know Levi hoped to contribute something new to the field. Faith too is discovered. A lifetime can be spent learning what has been revealed generally and is available to all. Further, we can find the edges of faith and interact with its Author. Both of these fields are an exploration. Both can be lifetime pursuits.

Today, I’m asking,

“What if the universe can be best understood

if reality is grounded in a rational, self-giving Person?”

We can see that we live in a universe with laws. Gravity works! Math makes sense! A reasonable person can see that humans have internal moral laws. While they sometimes are distorted by self-interest, we all generally agree that hate is bad and love is good. We can see that humans are capable of reason and rational thought. We recognize that each of us has a deep human longing within us. It’s a longing for connection, for wholeness, for goodness, beauty, and truth, for something more, for something beyond us. Faith is a reasonable response to a universe like this.*

Math is beautiful. It is good. It can be powerful. It is mostly lost on me, but Levi could see the elegance in a solution, a kind of simplicity in a proof; he could sense symmetry and coherence in the realm of mathematics. Faith too focuses on what is good and beautiful and true. Christianity says that beauty is not accidental—that it reflects the character of Creator.

And math is limited. (As is faith). Math can show us much of reality and it can describe processes, But it seems to me that math describes a partial picture of what is real. Math isn’t attempting to answer many of the big why questions:

• Why is there something rather than nothing?

• Why should we trust reason?

• Why do moral values feel binding?

• Why does human life have dignity?

These are each huge questions, and this sheet of paper is so small, therefore I can’t answer these adequately here. Instead, I mean to find the edges of mathematics. It’s fair to say that math helps us understand the mechanisms of the universe — and these are fascinating, beautiful, and true. Faith helps us understand meaning and purpose in the universe, and these too are fascinating, beautiful and true. Math, together with faith, gives us a fuller understanding of reality. And so I invite you into a thinking faith, not a blind faith, not a faith without inquiry and discovery... Consider faith with the same curiosity, humility, and care you have as you pursue mathematics.

*******

Why did you choose math? Maybe you’re studying math because you’re good at it. Maybe, for you, like it was for Levi, it scratches an itch. There’s a ‘want to’ in your heart to understand and to know and to imagine. There’s an itch to discover truth, to feel the accomplishment of solving and understand; to experience beauty. I would suggest that the ‘want to’ sensation is a seed of faith. It would make sense to me that it is a reflection of Creator in you. Perhaps math is related to a parallel pursuit of both mechanism and meaning.

*******

It’s been assumed that faith is a feeble grasp for meaning. Kind of like, “I don’t feel so good about myself. Therefore, I work up some spirituality so I can feel better about me.” Some try to create meaning with a comforting myth, based on feel-good vibes. At the most, these attempts have short-term and shallow results.

Yet the Christian faith says, “Something happened…” A specific person, in a specific place, at a specific time, made falsifiable historical claims. This is un-mythical, and not so vibe-y. Jesus is a historical figure. He lived in the first century in the eastern Mediterranean. He made claims about Himself, about God, and about faith. Exploring His life and claims is what faith is all about. Believing in Jesus is not the end of inquiry. It’s the beginning of seeking truth under the assumption that truth is personal and good.

Where much of religion is about power and politics and certainty, Jesus came humbly. Faith has gotten a bad reputation as the cause of division in our world. Yet the actual center of Christian faith is about self-giving love. It’s about a God who overcomes evil through suffering, through apparent failure, and self-sacrifice. He revealed truth and beauty in His own human weakness.

Jesus said things like, “Come to me…”, and “I’m at the door, knocking”, and “Follow me”. He invited several fishermen, a government worker, a political revolutionary, some craftsmen, laborers, and farmers. He included men and women from every sphere of society. His invitation to follow echoes across the centuries and becomes something we too can consider. It becomes a kind of question. It asks, “What do you want?” It’s worth stopping and considering, what is it that you want? Jesus is inviting you into a lifelong apprenticeship with Him. He is our good, kind, loyal, and enthusiastic Creator. Together with Him and with one another we can continue our journeys of discovery of the beauty and truth found in math and faith.

* I learned this from C.S. Lewis’ amazing book, Mere Christianity. He is a master of logical thought and helps us make sense of faith through reason.

Bibliography + Next Steps

YouVersion

Also known as ‘The Bible App’, this is an app you can have on your phone with multiple translations of the Bible. It has lots of great features like a ‘verse of the day’, and lots of different reading plans.

BibleProject

This web site has incredible resources, including awesome animated videos to help us understand that the Bible is really a library of 66 different books written by more than 40 authors over the course of around a thousand years. The Bible Project helps us understand that the whole Bible tells one story about God and humanity.

The Chosen

This episodic show is the largest crowdfunding project in history. It follows the life of Jesus and His early followers. As of this writing there are five seasons and about xx episodes to help us more fully imagine Jesus’ life, His message, and His invitation.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

Lewis, the author of the Narnia series focuses on reason and the inner logic of thought. In this book he argues that universal human morality points to a rational, personal God and presents a reasoned case for core Christian beliefs. “If I fin in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He Is There and He Is Not Silent by Francis Schaeffer

Schaeffer is a Christian philosopher and his work focuses on worldviews and cultural consequences. This three book volume argues that it’s only bibical Christianity that provides a coherent basis for thruth, morality, and human meaning. “Biblical Christianity is truth concerning total reality—and the intellectual holding of that total truth and then living in the light of that truth.

The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel

Strobel is a journalist who interviews scientests and scholars to show that conemporary discoveries in cosmology, physics, and biology provide compelling evidence for an intelligent designer. “Science has made belief in God more reasonable, not less.”

Jeffrey Geibel’s Story on the Ex-Skeptic Podcast

Jeffrey is a high school math teacher who shares his journey from faith to doubt and back to faith again. “Even in mathematics, you cannot reason without assumptions — every proof depends on axioms accepted without proof, so reasoning itself requires a kind of faith.”

Faith Is a Team Sport

Find others who are willing to give a rational trust in Jesus and do these things together:

• Find a church that’s cool and go together.

• Read, watch, and learn together.

• Grow together.

Wanna Chat?

I’d be happy to text, voicecall, video call via iMessage, WhatsApp, FaceTime or Zoom. Heck, if you want to email, I’d do that too, haha! Feel free to contact me any time. To get started, click the button below to send me an email:

Craig