Powerful Statement

I have posted this before a couple of years ago. But I though it worthy of another viewing.

A powerful statement about science made by a scientist. A prize winning scientist.

“It was my science that drove me to the conclusion that the world is much more complicated than can be explained by science. It’s only through the supernatural that I can understand the mystery of existence.” - Allan Sandidge.   

Allan Rex Sandage was an American astronomer. He was Staff Member Emeritus with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California. He determined the first reasonably accurate values for the Hubble constant and the age of the universe.

Science is wonderful, we can learn and test, and do so many amazing things with our science. But I agree with the professor here. It is limited! 

Thank you for reading! 

Still waters

"Be still and know that I am God" 

-Psalm 46:10 

inhale... exhale...

In the children's movie "Cars" the older, seasoned, and more experienced character known as Doc Hudson tells the young rookie race car that "sometimes, in order to go left, you have to turn right." I think there is a deeper truth within that statement.

One of the English authors I enjoy reading is G.K. Chesterton. He is notorious for being the "Prince of Paradox". He has written quite a bit about paradoxes in our world. I think this example helps us understand the truth that our world is full of paradoxes. One of them is this: Sometimes in order to go faster, you have to slow down.

In our culture, we often pride ourselves on being busy. We feel that when we are busy; we're being useful, or that people need us, and that makes us feel good. And this is very true in a lot of cases. But I will venture to say that my worth or usefulness has got little to do with how busy I am. In fact, I'm sure with enough pause, and reflection, a number of us could recall a time when we were too busy to make a valuable impact in a given situation, or in someone else's life. A time when we failed to stop, and with love in our hearts ...paused to 'do the right thing', for the right reason, and failed because we were too busy.

This paradox I have witnessed, and have to apply when I'm reading. Particularly when I'm reading Holy Scripture. In order for me to really have a chance at grasping what it is that I am reading, I do well to read slowly. Not because I am unable to read quickly, that is indeed my problem, I often read too quickly, and miss a many splendored thing. Not only that, but even before I start, I must stop. And I think many of us would say there is much to gain from stopping ...before you start a thing. There are many examples that could be brought to bare that reveal this natural rhythm. The Lord says in scripture that the land needs to lay fallow for one whole year, every seventh year. And we see the scientific evidence of the benefit of that period of rest for the soil. I know with painful awareness that when I attempt to write fine calligraphy, I must attempt to do so very slowly, and almost pause for every word, every letter if it is going to end up legible, let alone beautiful.

I believe it is apparent in life, that we often need to slow down, in order to be faster. Then we may realize that 'faster' is not the goal we ought to have. For it is better to be' set wright' or more efficacious than simply 'faster'. If we are rushing off to do this, or that, we often find ourselves having finished something that we could have done better, or gleaned a deeper truth from, or have helped another more fully. I could say I've read a hundred books, and not gotten as much as out of it as my older, and wiser neighbor, who read one paragraph, and was changed because of it.

The Lord beckons us by saying "come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,  and I will give you rest, ...lay down beside the still water, ...be still and know..." And that He has "seated us with Him, in the heavenly places" Scripture says of those who are in Christ, that they are "seated with Him".

My encouragement to you, dear reader, is to stop, to pause everyday as often as you can get away with it. Take the time to sit with Him, in the heavenly places, as you open His Word.

Sometimes in the most unexpected places, a beautiful truth can be found. Sometimes a children's story will reveal a profound truth that is easily overlooked in an adult's daily monotony. Much in the same way, Christ himself, left his majesty, and heavenly home, and came to earth with a simple humble mission to "seek and save that which was lost." The one who was fully divine, in humility, made Himself fully human. Encoding Himself into this world through a quite, and small beginning to do the most powerful thing in the universe. The thing, that only God Himself could do.

Things Concealed

What would you say is our culture’s biggest need?

From a Christian worldview, and looking at America, to really understand that question from an honest stance, we might do well to first ask what is our culture's biggest problem. Which I would argue is (among many, many things) “being satisfied”. Most people are “satisfied” with where they are on the political spectrum, and more importantly on the religious spectrum. Ultimately not caring about, or not knowing the answers to the bigger questions of life. We as a people don’t really ask ourselves anymore questions, once we have found ‘our place’. More and more our Culture is in great need of ...asking itself the right questions. All too much we are content in our complacency. Truly we live in a culture of “...meh”. We’re a bit like old dog’s who have found their way into a room, and once we find our place to flop down, and sit… we have a tendency to not move, and not care to move, or ask ourselves any of the questions about why we have chosen this room, or that room above any others. Maybe if we had asked we might learn that the only reason we are in ‘our place’ is because we were led there. Or maybe because it was the path of least resistance.

It is the glory of God to conceal things,

   but the glory of kings is to search things out. -Proverbs 25:2

God has given us “Mystery” as a gift! It is our Glory to search things out!

To be a people who learn… a people who read, and who take the time to converse with others, and to learn from others older, and wiser than ourselves. TEN times in the Gospels, Jesus asks the question… “Have you not read…?” Six of those times were in the Gospel of Matthew.

When we go against the “flow” of our culture, we will be going in the direction of caring to speak, caring to stop and take the time to ask questions. To tell stories. To read and understand stories, to involve ourselves, and to involve our neighbors in caring enough to turn the tide, and ask questions.

In the 'Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe', C.S. Lewis tells us of young Lucy who finds something special. An entrance into another world. But this world she finds, as she enters the woods with the wardrobe door still open behind her, is not like the world she knows. She sees a lamp post in the middle of the woods. Lit, and shining, "how odd" she thinks... and ponders. All in a flash of a wink I'm sure, she was thinking... 'what on earth is that lantern doing here in the middle of these woods, and who on earth lit it?' And perhaps if she had more time to question before Mr. Tumnus comes along, disturbing those previous questions and causing a host of other questions. Maybe she would have asked herself 'should I wait here to see who might come by, or shall I walk a little further to see what might be next?' In our culture, It is our curiosity that has been tamed. In some level we are simply content with knowing what we already know.

I've heard it said, that "God has revealed enough of Himself, to make Faith in Him a reasonable thing, and has hidden enough of Himself, to help us to remember the balance between Faith, and reason."
He has given us, enough evidence so that we may find Him, and have fellowship with Him when we seek Him with our whole heart.

"As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity." – G.K. Chesterton from “ORTHODOXY”

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” – G.K. Chesterton from “THE EVERLASTING MAN“

My ride home

Some days are crazier than others...

On days that however, have my mind forcibly going in multiple directions, for prolonged periods of time, like most of us... I greatly look forward to my ride home in my car. Because it's in my car, where I am not at work... and I am not yet to my other place of responsibility. Now it goes almost without saying, that my home is my sacred place, where my family is growing, and existing in the nest of a community that is doing its best to love. A sacred place of refuge, and a place of such peace. But for now, I am in the drivers seat, on my way home. And during this colder part of the year, when it's dark as I'm driving home... I see the headlights, and red tail lights of the other vehicles... like soft red Christmas lights reminding me of simpler times when I was a boy.

It's the insane days that truly remind me of what I was made for. Or more to the point, reminds me of what I was not made for. For when I am in my car driving home... I can listen to the radio, I can not listen to the radio. I usually choose to listen to a radio program that will feed my mind, and my heart at the same time. Sermons are the thing! Hearing men of God expound on Scripture, and telling stories. It's the quiet time, on the road that helps me to stop and smell the roses. What a sad thing really, to have to be moving in order to stop. This reality points to a gaping hole in my own life I imagine. A hole, that reveals a severe lack of quiet time. Quiet time for meditation, for peace, and reflection that is so needed on a daily basis.

I have been kicking myself a lot recently, when I think of all the time I'm letting slip through my proverbial fingers. I have a sense that my life would, in ways unknown to me now, sort out a lot smoother, and for the better if I were to be spending more time with the Lord, in quite reflection, prayer, listening, and reading.

I remember the Hymn "Quite Place". The rendition I love is by "Take 6".

There is a quiet place
Far from the rapid pace
Where God can soothe my troubled mind

Sheltered by tree and flow´r
There in my quiet hour
With Him my cares are left behind

Whether a garden small
Or on a mountain tall
New strength and courage there I find

Then from this quiet place
I go prepared to face
A new day with love for all mankind

"Surprised by Joy"

 In his book "Surprised by Joy" C.S. Lewis writes about the realization that came to him over many years of contemplation, and experiences, of his own longing for, (as it turns out) longing itself. I can sympathize with this understanding. After a few decades of not being a reader, (in fact hating the idea of reading) having gone through many fads, interests, and things in my life, do now realize that in my more recent years, I have found the pleasure, and joy of reading. What is revealed when looking back is this... I had been reading about agriculture. Specifically reading about grassland management, and pasture management. Soil health, also that I loved learning about livestock, and animal health. And the pastoral or maybe even a more agrarian style, and pace of life. So I set out to fix up the barn, build a fence, and some stalls. Add a hay loft, have some chickens, and some goats. Also that I love learning languages. But lately I've been reading mostly Theological books, and I have enjoyed all of these books that have, and are teaching me so much! All these things remain true.. But what is also true, is what I have learned about myself. And that is that through it all,  ...I  love  learning. That hunger, or longing for the next piece of understanding, or the learning of something new (or something old). That only creates more desire for learning.

He points out that the acquisition, or in that moment of joy, how that suddenly when it's gone, it makes you keenly aware of your need for another longing of the next "joy". It's not something you can control. Lewis writes that "Joy is not a possession". And he makes clear that he is not talking about a sensual type of desire, or longing. He specifically makes certain to establish that when he says...

“Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for Joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy.”

The Joy he is talking about is desire itself, a reminiscence of something priceless, or the waiting with expectation for something grand. Again I find it best to use his words.

“All Joy reminds. It is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away or still 'about to be'.”

He also discusses his experience, that once he started to seek out this true understanding of Joy, he realized that you really can't control it at all. You can't 'bring it about' or even necessarily expand it, when you are in it.  But the one thing you can do, is to squelch it. And the quickest way (he found) to do that is to... in the moment you realize you are full of Joy, is to start analyzing that joy. Because NOW, you are thinking about the joy, instead of the thing that has brought you joy.

Through many stratagems, in his book "Mere Christianity" he comes to the same point, that through his life's journey, he has come to the place of Faith in Christ ultimately. And that finding this elusive joy he states this...

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." - C.S. Lewis

In a way, it reminds me of William Wordsworth's (1770-1850) poem "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" One portion reads...

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,	60
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come	65
From God, who is our home

Twelve men...

Reading an essay by G.K. Chesterton. An essay called “the twelve men”. In this writing, Chesterton, makes the very interesting point about the function, and the requirements of a Jury in our court system. That it is very interesting of the fact that there have been those, who have touted the need for a "professional juror". That it would be a good idea to have a fully trained Jury. Just like we have teachers, because trained teachers, teach better. Or professional photographers because trained photographers take better pictures. Or perhaps you would consider lawyers who see trials all the time, and are very professional about it! Chesterton however makes the point, that when they (lawyers) see a defendant on the stand… they see what is very normal, and common to them. When a teacher sees a classroom full of students, or even an individual student, they see what is common and every day. Or a photographer takes one family portrait after another to the point where the families all start to blend.

Chesterton points out that when something very important is on the line, that is the time when you don’t want a jury that is “professional” just going through the motions, and who see what they see every day. Rather, you would want a jury that is not used to the “process” so they are looking in, as opposed to living in their everyday environment. They, the untrained jury, see the weight of a matter. Simply because the dispute (if for no other reason) has risen to the level of a courtroom. Where there are plaintiffs, defendants, witnesses, and a judge. Not to mention all the others that might be present. Reporters, the court bailiff to make sure things remain in order.

In his Essay, the notion of paradoxes comes into play, in his defense of keeping the very valuable untrained jury. He lists four or five of them, but the most important one is the paradox that says..."the more a man sees a thing, the less he sees it." Meaning the more a person studies a thing, and understands a thing... the more likely that person is to understand less of that thing's significance, in terms of everything around it.
He also relates an untrained Jury, to a person who goes to a ballet, for the first time. Or we might imagine, seeing an incredible play. One that moves us to joy, and tears throughout. If we went to that same play every night... that play in our mind, would eventually, over time lose some of it's significance in our own lives.

I am also reminded of something that I first heard quoted by Ravi Zacharias, which was an ancient Chinese proverb that says... "If you want to know what water is, don't ask the fish." 'And the reason is, the fish has never really made an analytical, or a comparative study of the water, it's the only environment in which it lives.'

G.K. Chesterton finished his essay with these words:

"Our civilization has decided, and very justly decided, that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men. It wishes for light upon that awful matter, it asks men who know, no more law than I know, but who can feel the things that I felt in the jury box. When it wants a library cataloged, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up is specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing'round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity." - G.K. Chesterton

A theater near you

Over my three little decades of being a believing Christian, I've come to know a lot of atheists in the course of my days. Most of which I would definitely call my friends! Most of my atheist friends are the ones that I have noticed, being those who typically have some level of issue with simply enjoying anything for pure enjoyment sake. An example would be, going to the movies, and not enjoying it because they are seemingly on the look out for inconsistencies, or “plot holes” or something to grab onto with the intent of being able to point and say "...see, this is dumb because it doesn't work like that." or "...this movie is horrible because there were things that didn't make sense at all." Now, granted, I think we've all seen movies that didn't make a lot of "sense". And that we didn't really enjoy. But I've noticed it with intense consistency in my atheistic friends. 

It does stand to reason they might lean in that direction, being that they are filled with incredulity. Or maybe a better way to say it, is (in the case of the staunch atheists I've known) they are happiest when they can mock something. If they are going to trust something, they have to see it first. When I hear them discuss movies, I feel they enjoy discussing how much they "hated" the movie rather then talking about the one they did like. There is a certain pride that is displayed when they can berate a movie with vitriol, and contempt. But if a movie meets their requirements, the passion is considerably less. It's almost like a glass ceiling, that doesn't allow them to enjoy too much, even of a 'good' thing. The enjoyment, and maybe a big reason they see movies, is so they can take pride in not enjoying them.  

Now in terms of enjoying something that 'doesn't make sense' there are PLENTY of Broadway plays, and musicals that flow and overflow with nonsensical content, and transitions. They are often written so that they don't make any sense to the logical mind, and THAT is somehow something that is supposed to be a beautiful thing, and something that can really make a person enjoy a performance. When the boundaries of so called meaning are ignored, and we can move forward freely with the notion espoused by Albert Camus that life is inherently without meaning. 

I personally see that there might be a bit of a double standard when it comes down to the "reasons" an atheist was not able to enjoy something that didn't 'make sense'. And I also see that there might be a little window into a persons decision when it comes to not "trusting" Christ. It may just be that they have already decided before they saw the play weather they would choose to appreciate it, or to lambaste it. Weather they were going to look for things that they can enjoy, or for things that they can rip apart. 

The thought of a loving God who would reveal Himself to us, and not only that, but would become one of us. God in human flesh, meek and mild... and would, out of his Great Love, rescue us from our rebellious and sinful state, so we can once again have fellowship with him.  We all have our own starting point, but is it really too much to believe? I ask, how different is the person who accepts, and has the faith to believe in the things that comes from God, from the person who does not accept, and has faith to not believe in the things that come from God? And what is missed by a person who would rather try and poke holes in the fabric of their own salvation? This person not only misses salvation but the Joy that comes to a life that is at "peace with God". The Joy that is known in the Heart, and Soul of a person redeemed by God. Not of anything the person has done on his own to save himself, but only by the work of Him who saves. Christ alone! 

It remains true that "Intent, is prior to content" And life is a lot like watching a movie. And when we sit down to watch a movie, that we had no part in making, and we have no say in how it ends. We can't change anything about the goings on in the middle of the movie, or the characters, or the lines... it is still the movie. The movie remains the movie. We can enjoy it for what it is, or we can poke fun at the things we don't like, disregarding it as foolish.
 Life, like the movie, we didn't make it, we didn't decide to be born. We work in our lives, we grow. But when you live long enough you realize that there are a host of things that are not in our own control. We can't always change the lines, and the scenes, or the characters. We are helpless when we enter this life, and helpless when we leave.  That is unless... you, with a repentant heart, accept and receive the work that Christ has done for YOU! By placing your trust in Him. "Because he cares for you!" "Place your hand, in the hand of the Man, who calmed the water." the song says. 

"Oh taste and see that the LORD is good." Psalm 34:8

I'm reminded of the Apostle Paul who wrote to Timothy...
 "But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what was entrusted to me." -2 Timothy 1:12

Get to Know Him. Start by reading the Gospel of John. 
Take this as a challenge to anyone who has not placed their trust on the Lord Himself. 
Read John, and Luke, or any of the Gospels, but do so daily for 30 days. Get to know Him through His word. And when you do, ask Him to reveal Himself to you as you read! 

Paul knew the risen Lord, he 'tasted, and saw' that the Lord is Good!

Once a soul has trusted Christ, Joy, and Peace enters in, like a gentle whisper and brings solace. I can enjoy many things. Because I have the Joy of receiving a Beautiful Savior! 

Heaven above is softer blue,

Earth around is sweeter green

Something lives in every hue

Christless eyes have never seen

Birds with gladder songs o’erflow

Stars with deeper beauty shine,

Since I know, as now I know

I am His, and He is mine.