Seeing the Big Picture

A few years back there was an experiment called the "Hubble Deep Field".  Astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope far out into space and collected data from the other side of the universe.  The result were different than expected.  The whole thing is complicated and if you want to know about it, here is a link.  But the main idea is that astronomers discovered that at a fundamental level we don't really get how gravity works.  In some ways we have known about gravity for hundreds of years, since the days of Newton.  But it seems that our true understanding is a bit muddy.

I am a nuts and bolts kind of guy.  I like to know how things work.  This means that sometime faith is hard for me.  I am really uncomfortable with a big question mark hanging over it all.  I like to know how all of the pieces fit together.

I once heard it said that Christianity is like a big ship.  Some people are up on the deck embracing the Sun on their faces and feeling the wind in their hair.  Others are below deck.  Way below deck.  They are poking around in the engine room, tinkering here and there, looking at the schematics, trying to see what makes this thing run.  It sound's familiar.

The universe is vast and beyond our comprehension.  It is not realistic to expect that we would understand all what God is.  In fact, I would say that if God were comprehensible, he would not in fact be worth of worship.    

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell,

I'm the kind of guy who likes to know how things work, but God doesn't owe me an explanation. Often when I am studying a subject I find that as I learn more I also see how much more there is to know.  Every answer springs up new questions.  So if God did reveal it all, I'm sure that I wouldn't grasp everything anyway.

For me it is enough to see that the pieces can fit together, even if I don't see exactly all of the ways that it happens.  Believeing in the connections that are fuzzy is where faith comes in.

 Like the rest of the human race, I don't completely understand gravity, yet I am sure that it is there.   It's like that with God.

Three Hots and a Cot

In the world of personal finance there are two kinds of broke.  The first kind of broke is where you've go nothing.  Zero. Zilch. Notta.  When you have no money at all, your life becomes very focused.  It is all about getting through the day.  Food and shelter become the top priority and everything else is secondary.  But when most people describe themselves as broke, they don't mean that they have nothing.  Just that the money that they have is committed elsewhere and they would like to spend some more.

Of course there is more to life than just getting by.  Inmates in prison get three hots and a cot so they say, but most of us wouldn't describe that as living the dream.  Maybe we should be content with only our basic needs being met, but most of us want more.  We want it all.  We want to live the good life and set up residence on easy street.  So there needs to be some balance in all of it.  We need some balance between being content with what we have and striving to do better.

The balance between these is extremes really describes the nature of God's provision.  On the one hand God provision is enough for today.  The Israelites wandering in the desert would get enough manna for the day.  Elijah sitting by the stream would get daily food from the crows and daily bread from the widow.  The people may have preferred to get great stores so that they could see it all.  Daily provision teaches us to rely on God daily.  When left to our own devices, we can wander off and lose our focus.

Then sometimes God goes all out with the extravagant provision.  The overwhelming miracle that blows us away and makes us say, "Wow.  That was God,"

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

We should be content with daily provision, but for most of us the routine is not enough.  So from time to time, God is there with his extravagant blessings to see us through.

The Roundabout Way

We used to have this mini van.  It had power doors that worked well at one time, but as the van aged they got progressively finicky on how they worked.  It seems that each had it's own special set of rules.  One the locks worked with the key better than any other way.  Another the power lock would only work manually.  One door we just left shut.  Still another would only open if we pushed the unlock and the power slider button at the same time.  I'm not sure how we discovered that we had to do that, but we did it because that's what worked.  We all have our things that seem a bit illogical, but we do them anyway.

We all have our ways.  There is  certain way that we travel from point A to point B.  It may not be the most direct or the fastest or even the most scenic, but it is the way we go.  Our ways don't need to make sense to anyone but ourselves.

There was a time that I worked at a Sears doing security.  Sometimes we would have to watch employees who were suspected of stealing to see if they are doing anything out of the ordinary.  But anyone will behave in unexpected ways if we just watch them long enough.  It's what people do.

If it's hard to understand the methods of people, how much more is it hard to understand the logic behind God's methods.  From time to time we all say, "Why God?" and if you are like me, a person who likes to know the why and the how and the plans, not knowing the plans of God can be very frustrating.  

But I know I'm not entitled to know the plans of God.  He's God.  I'm not.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Elijah sits by a creek and waits for animals to bring him food.  Then when he is really desperate, he needs to find a widow with a little.  Why?  Why not just give the man some food?  The Israelites in the desert were given manna, why not that? Why?

Well.  I suppose that getting a little bit of food daily forced him to rely on God, daily.  It kept him out of the way so that the king could calm down.  It blessed the woman and her son by witnessing the miracle.  Or there was another reason that I just don't know about.  After all God is god and I am not.

The Other 10%.

There is a famous quote, "Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."  I tried to find the source of the quote and it is credited to several people such as Charles Swindol or John Maxwell (I thought it was Thomas Edison, but what do I know.)  Any how, a lot of people agree with it no matter who said it first.  

Every day things happen.  Some are good and some not so much, but how we respond, how we perceive it, how we prepare.  That is how life works.

Sometimes I think that life is like a ship.  The captain sets a course and off they go.  Sometimes the wind is in the right direction and the weather is fair.  Sometimes the wind is in the wrong direction and you have to tack.  Slowly and methodically cutting back and forth across the wind but always moving towards the goal.  In this analogy, our attitude and out faith is the keel.  It runs deep and keeps us from blowing which ever way the wind wants to take us.

But what about the other 10%?  The quote is about having a good attitude even when things don't work out, but It sure is nice when they do.  It's nice when the test comes back negative or a little extra money comes in.  These are the day to day blessings.  They work out best when we do our part.  Some days the sail boat goes with the wind.  Some days are like slow going tacks in the rain.  But none of it happens until the sails are raised.  

We want blessing.  We want miracles.  It is only possible to steer a moving ship.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

We need to do our part and count on God for the rest.  We climb up to the top of a mountain and say ok God, the rest is up to you.

Where are we going Dad?

A man went on vacation and left his pet cat with his brother.  He calls a few days into the trip and asks after the cat.  His brother says, "Well the cat's dead." The owner is upset telling his brother, "You can't deliver bad news like that.  First tell me the cat is stuck up on the roof.  Then later tell me that you are trying but he won't come down.  Then in a few days that he is looking bad.  Then when you tell me he's dead, I'm mentally prepared." The brother apologizes and it gets quiet.  The cat's owner says, "so how's Grandpa?" (Pause) "Grandpa went up on the roof and won't come down."

Sometimes we need to be the barer of bad news but it is never fun.

Some conversations are difficult to have.  I was talking to a coworker today about how we never get feedback from our peers.  I said that we would all improve if we felt free to go to one another and say, "Here is an area that I think you could do better."  She looked really uncomfortable at the thought of having that conversation.  Truth be told, I wouldn't like being on either side of that conversation either.  Some conversations are just difficult and we would like to avoid them.

Which brings us to the story of Abraham and Isaac.  God says to Abraham that he has to sacrifice his son.  So off they go.  What did Abraham say to Isaac on the way?  How did he explain it to him?  Did he simply lie, or did he tell Isaac what they were off to do?  How would you even start such a conversation.

The story of Abraham and Isaac is a hard story to hear.  Today, if someone said that they heard from God that they had to kill their son, we would not think that they were blessed, we would think them crazy.  And not a little crazy or fun crazy, lock him up crazy.   How did Abraham not sound crazy when he spoke to his servants and his son?  Maybe he never had to explain what they were doing or why.  Maybe Isaac accepted that the Lord would provide an offering with out knowing the alternative.  Maybe Isaac knew what was being asked and went anyway.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Abraham's message to Isaac was that God would provide.  God would take care of it.  I suppose that is a good basis for any awkward conversation, "God will provide," Money is tight, but God will provide.  There is a conflict at work, but God will provide.  We need an opportunity, but God will provide.

God is our provider and with that in mind, nothing is that awkward.

As Expected

Reliability is the sense that things are going to go a certain way.  We are creatures of habit.  We have this overriding tendency to stick to the routine.  It is familiar and we like that.  There is great comfort in the expected.  We can speak poetically of the road less traveled, but really the road more traveled is pretty nice too.  It is more comfortable and there are nice places to stop.  Our favorite foods, our favorite places, our favorite people all come through for us in a predictable way.  And we like it that way.

Reliability is the sense that things are going to go a certain way.  The thing is that sometimes it's not even that it is what we like the best.  It can be that it is the part that we are the most familiar with.  We stop at a fast food restaurant, not because it is awesome, but because we know what to expect.  We go out of habit and the security off knowing what we are going to get.

Reliability is a sense that things are going to go a certain way.    We count on certain things happening.  The Sun rises in the east.  Winter turns into spring.  The Detroit Lions will figure out a way to mess things up.  Just like clock work it happens.  People are less reliable then day and night.  People sometime let us down.  A reliable person is a real gem.

Several years ago I was at a Red Wings game with my dad.  We were talking with one of his coworkers and the two of them were joking about something that had happened at the office, some sales goal that they had recently made.  The fellow says, "We were way behind, but I knew Henry would have something up his sleeve to pull this out, then the last day these sales come in...."  Reliability is a sense that things are going to go a certain way,

While it's hard to find reliable people, it is a fundamental characteristic of God.  God is the great I AM.  He is what He is.  The video clip below is about the story of Abraham and Isaac.  Abraham has been told to sacrifice his son to God.  

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Reliability is the sense that things are going to go a certain way.  Abraham had a habit of obeying God.  He had experience with God was reliable and God would provide.  Christians should know this message too.  Life has its ups and downs and struggles.  We can rely on God to carry us through the hard times.  He does it time and time again.  He is reliable.  

Endurance

Nothing lasts forever.  In New Hampshire there was a landmark called "The Old Man on the Mountain." On the side of the mountain it looked like a face.  Tourists and residents would make the travel to see the sight.  The Old Man was the symbol of New Hampshire and its residents embraced it as a symbol of their ruggedness.  But now it's gone.

Eventually gravity won out and the side of the mountain came down, but that's how it is.  Nothing lasts forever, but then neither do we.  When most of us say "Forever" what we mean is "Till Death do us part." We don't have the power to commit to forever, only our time here on Earth.  Even so, a lot of people have a hard time keeping a lifetime commitment.  About half of all marriages end in divorce and it seems like there is an awful lot of people who leave the raising of their children up to the grandparents.  There should be more endurance to the commitments that are made.

Love is different.  Love endures.  Love is not measured by the good times.  Love is demonstrated by the way it endures through the hardships.  Love says, "I'm not going anywhere.  No matter what comes." Love is forever.

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

Faith, Hope and Love.  And the greatest of these is love.  Love is the greatest because Love, more than anything else, endures.

So What

Albert Einstein was a genius, there is no doubt about that.  In 1905 while working as a clerk in the Swiss Patent office he wrote three landmark scientific papers that changed the world.  In one he explained how the motion of gases is related to the motion of atoms.  In a second he explained how light energy can generate electricity which eventually led to the development of photocells.  Then the third was called the theory of special relativity which came to the conclusion E=mc².   So, yeah, he was pretty smart.

It seems that Albert Einstein was a great guy if you weren't actually related to him.  He had a wife who he left to take care of their sons while he went off to do his things.  They divorced and he eventually remarried.  He had almost no relationship with his sons.  The sons once commented that going through life with the name Einstein does set up fairly high expectations.  

I wonder if Albert Einstein ever regretted his decisions.  He made great discoveries, there is no doubt about it.  I wonder if he ever questioned whether he would have preferred a life as husband to his first love and father to his children.  I don't know the answer to that question.  But there is this saying that says no one on their death bed ever wishes that they had spent more time at work.  There are things that we do to sustain life and there are those things that we live for.

There are countless stories of the person who rises to the top of their profession but at the cost of their relationships.  The look from the summit and they are all alone.  The story is so familiar, it is almost cliche. 

Watch this clip from Pastor Lowell.

If I don't have love, I have nothing, I am nothing, I achieve nothing.  We can do the right things for the wrong reasons and in the end, without love in our lives, our great accomplishments amount to a big so what.