Opus 2024-193: Machines

I wonder if the world we live in and our individual lives are represented best by a Rube Goldberg machine.  Think of how complicated and how much nonsense seem to be involved in one of those machines and yet ultimately it completed the task that needed to be done.  Do you see any parallels in your life?  

God created the world.  God made man.  Originally everything was perfect, until it wasn’t.  Satan messed it up.  Everything was thrown out of whack.  And now, we are in the midst of finding a solution.  We may go through many different stages.  We may follow many weird roads.  But ultimately under God’s guidance, we will arrive at the destination.

He knows where we are going.  He knows how to get there.  Just because the current situation does not make sense to us does not mean it is not perfectly clear to God.  A jigsaw puzzle was once a perfect picture.  Then, for fun, someone decided to cut it up.  When you dump it out of the box for the first time it makes no sense but time will bring a solution.  He even provides a picture on the front.

Rube Goldberg machines are fun to watch.  Get in the habit of enjoying the chaos of life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-192: Poetry and Life

I was thinking about Lord Byron as a poet.  Why?  I have no idea.  I find that I do not care about poetry and have no opinion about who is a great poet.  I wonder how many other areas of life I have no real concerns about.  I can fake sports conversations as long at it doesn’t require knowledge of recent events or teams.  Cars are to get places without walking so I am not overly concerned about engines and styles.  

On the other hand I can’t get enough of my grandchildren and I would tell you about them but I know the look of eyes glazing over.  I keep telling myself I need to learn to enjoy poetry but then my grandson wants to go out an play on the rock pile.

I am sure Lord Byron would understand.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-191: Thoughts on Music

The product of enthusiasm is not the same as the product of inspiration.  I am going through a stage of buying old CD’s in thrift stores and seeing what they have to offer.  One thing I am looking for is music from my past that I enjoyed and can still enjoy but have no access to any more.  Another interest is in listening to groups that I have never followed and hope that I will find some nuggets in the pile.  

There is a lot of very boring music out there.  One interest I have is Christian music that is helpful in worship.  Most of the contemporary music we are hearing in church today is the product of people excited with music and possibly in love with God.  It is not the music of genius or of inspiration.  It lacks that very special ingredient that makes it worth listening to a second time.  To be honest, it lacks worth in listening the first time.  It reminds me of the songs my grandchildren make up as they are playing in the living room.

I can say the same thing for the secular music I have been exploring.  I will go through an entire album and feel like it contained nothing that reaches into the depths of creativity or else it was being so creative that it was pointless.  Most “artists” have a pattern in their music.  Once you hear the first, you have already met the rest.  There are exceptions.  I put those aside to listen to again.  Maybe I will find some pieces that work into my inner being.

I am most familiar with traditional church music.  When you think about a well known song writer like Fanny Crosby and consider she probably wrote hundreds of hymns, it should slow you down when you consider that a hymnal with 800 different titles “only” has 20 of her songs.  We need to accept the fact that it is a rare jewel that has one song worth remembering over the generations.  Most people writing songs never produce anything that should make it out of the garage.  If their goal is to have a good time in the garage, well and good.  If they expect to take the world by storm, maybe another day.  We need to keep looking for the diamonds and put the glass aside to be recycled.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-190: Answers

Recently, I was reading and thinking about some of the Bible verses that talk about prayer and answers to prayer.  We tend to be very subjective on so many topics and when we think of answers to prayer, we focus on answers to our prayers.  People wonder why they don’t get what they asked for.  Often times the answer to that is relatively simple.

What brought me to this was thinking about the old wristbands that asked, “What would Jesus do?”  That is a happy thought, and a positive thought, but that’s not the question we should be asking.  What we should be asking is, “What would Jesus have us do?”  I thought of Jesus walking on the water as he wanted to get out to the boat in the middle of the lake.  I thought of Jesus telling the storm to quiet down.  It would be really great to be able to tell storms to quiet down.  It would be great to be able to control the weather.  But can you imagine the chaos if everyone was able to control the weather.  You might have one person asking for snow and another asking for a sunny beach day.  What kind of conflict with that cause?  Would it be hurricanes, tornadoes?

In reality, we are to often be glad that God does not answer our prayers.  He has a better view of what’s going on.  That’s why one verse specifically says that if we pray, according to his will, we will be answered.

Keep praying.  Our country needs it.  Your neighbors need it.  I imagine you and I need it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-189: Shortcuts

Americans are always trying to find an easier and quicker way to do something. The reason this comes to my mind is that I’m having a hard time getting in and out of the used car that I bought.  It is a 2002 Mercury and it is very low to the ground.  I like the car but at my age it’s hard to go up and down.

Is it a good idea for me to think about getting a car that is higher and easier to get into?  There are two ways I can go on my rationale.  On the one side I can say that it’s just too hard and it’s going to get harder.  On the other side I could say it’s good for me.  I need the exercise.  

Americans are inventive and creative.  There are times when things get so hard we think of new ways to deal with him and we move our culture forward . That is a good thing usually.  On the other side when we make things easier we can to reinforce our laziness.  That is a bad thing.

In the 1800's we did not need to go to an air conditioned gym to work out or install a treadmill in our back room.  We also did not have as much leisure to read and fellowship.  Everything has trade offs.  

I hope your attempts to find a balance go better than mine.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-188: Click-Bait: Solo or Sola

I got pulled in again by clickbait.  The title had the Nicene Creed juxtaposition against the concept of sola scriptura.  And it said that we couldn’t have both.  OK.  You got me.  I clicked and started listening.

It was an interesting conversation up to a point.  The problem that I saw developing was the same tension that I see every day between people who have a theological position, and what the Bible itself actually says.  They often are quite different.

The Bible does not use the terms, sola scriptura, mainly because that’s Latin and the Bible is written in Hebrew and Greek.  I don’t even think the concept is there.  The Bible does say that all scripture is inspired, or God breathed, but it doesn’t say it is the only anything.  And yet we have this group of concepts, I think there are five, that are sola:  Scripture, grace, faith, and so forth.  The logic of five different “only’s” escapes me, but it is vital to some theological systems.

The point I’m trying to make is that we need to keep the advice of theologians and gurus in perspective.  The Nicene Creed developed at the Council of Nicea is of great assistance in understanding the complexity of our faith.  The debate on the trinity was very helpful to Christians today.  It is not the word of God.  We need to be careful when we take something even as traditional and long-standing as the Nicene Creed and try to make them into doctrine.  Oh, creeds are helpful in someway, but they all have their limitations.  I think of the Apostles Creed recited in our church.  It leaves out the divinity of Christ.  It doesn’t deal with salvation by faith alone.  And yes, it is something which has been helpful to believers for centuries.

You have a Bible, use it.  Let people help you with their ideas, discuss things, disagree, disagree with enthusiasm.  Ultimately though, focus on what God tells us through the Scriptures and understand that the theologians all have their own point of view and system they are pushing.

Come, let us reason together.  I think someone said that once.

homo unius libri

Opus 2024-187: Look, Ma, No Hands

As we look back at the attempt to murder Donald Trump for being popular, and not being a part of the Washington establishment, it’s hard to deny that the hand of God was what kept him alive.  A fraction of an inch was the difference between life and death.  What they call an accidental turning of his head, gave him that fraction of an inch.  If you don’t see the hand of God in this, you’re not looking.

Look at the different ways in which the hand of God have could’ve caused a miracle here without even coming out of the closet.  Think of the track of that bullet.  We focus on how close the shooter was, around 100 yards.  Think of the kind of accuracy it takes to project a small piece of metal, 100 yards at the speed of sound and come within a quarter of an inch of being effective.  Good shooting, but not good enough when God is in charge of the ballistics.  All God had to do was send a strong puff of wind at the right time while that bullet traveled, and it would miss.  He could have even done it by sticking His finger out and, nothing noticeable, just changed the trajectory oh so slightly.  No one would’ve seen.  No one would’ve known.  And yet it was the hand of God.

As for turning his head, that’s the stuff of spine apples, read that “spy novels”, and John Wayne movies.  How many times does an author insert just such a coincidence to bring the story to the place he wants it.  Consider God the Great Author of the novel of life.

Extend that ability to work miracles into places where people don’t normally see.  Think of the health issues that you might have.  God could have prevented them simply by tweaking a cell.  He could’ve kept you from getting sick simply by zapping on a bug.  You might ask, “Why didn’t you do that?”  And the answer, of course, is that He did, many times, multiplied times.  You just didn’t see it.

I am aware of the times in which God has caused me to just start off from a stop sign a little bit slowly, and some crazy person whizzes through the intersection, taking up the space I would have filled.  What I am not aware of are the times, in which that crazy person turned left instead of going straight ahead, ran out of gas, was nagged by his wife, or many other possible solutions that could’ve happened with no one knowing what God was saving me from.

Is God active?  Yes.  Is God moving?  Yes.  What we do is make it very hard for Him to make a difference and still give us free will and the joy of independent movement.  We fight Him every step of the way.  In spite of that He continues to work miracles.

One of the things that we tend to forget is that God is busiest taking care of His people and those who are faithful.  One of the possible reasons why we don’t see more of His hand is because the country is so full of rebellious, pagan, self-centered people.  The quiet miraculous outcomes are the ones that no one sees.  The homes that are not flattened by tornadoes are not visited by reporters.  If you are one of His then you should not be asking yourself why something went wrong but consider how wrong it could have gone if God were not awake.

homo unius libri