Like a Hurricane

Yes, it's a Scorpions reference. However, that's where the reference ends for today. Sorry to all you Scorpions fans out there.

It is Sunday. More precisely it is Sunday the 19th of June. The first wave of campers arrives this week here at the Conference Center at Mount Hermon. That puts me a bit on edge because it means that everything that I planned out last week will go into motion this week. This is the time of inadequacy and self-doubt. Now is when everything that I put in the back of my mind last week comes to the forefront. It is the weight of being solely responsible for a program...or being solely responsible for anything, I guess. How much more must a single parent feel? So yeah, there's a meeting today in a few hours, and then a couple hours after that the boulder begins its official, and unstoppable, roll down the hill. Will it bring damage and destruction, or will it roll harmlessly? No matter what happens, I will know the answer to that by Friday night.

So, coupled with that, I'm also grappling with a few issues through everything I'm reading. Two books occupy my time at the moment: Guns, Germs, and Steel and Dune. So, both books are great (and yes, for a very slim selection of books I am a SciFi fan) but both present some interesting issues. Guns, Germs, and Steel presents a pretty comprehensive look at how many of the cultures and societies that we see today got to be where they are. The inspiration for the book came from the author's experience in New Guinea, with a friend that he has there who basically asked him that question: how is it that Europeans came/have come to be in the position they are in. For example, why were the Europeans the ones to set sail to explore other lands, and infect so many people with their germs? Why wasn't it another culture who came to land on European soil? And, beyond that, why was it the European germs that killed off other races and not the other way around? And why was it that steel and guns came to be weilded by those same Europeans? This whole thing is a thorny issue and really comes down to agriculture, according to Diamond. Of course, the factors surrounding that single issue are very complex and culture comes into play in terms of willingness to adopt new means of technology, ability to interact with other peoples to gain that other technology/innovations. That ties into a group's ability to sustain larger and larger numbers, and whatnot. Perhaps what is hitting home so far is a very surface and obvious issue: chance. There is so much in there that just seems to be the way things turned out: location, cultural norms, etc. How much of that do we say is providence? How much of that is God's hand at work? And, if we consent to that, how close is that to a VERY slippery slope about racial differences and God's preference in that arena? I tend to balance that out with the belief that God doesn't deal in that way, but instead knows that a great deal of life here for us is indeed up to a certian amount of chance. God works through a lot fo that chance, which is the (one of the) wonderful thing about God. I've gone on a while here so I want to settle it with a general boggle the mind comment. It boggles the mind.

OK, so the other book is Dune. Suffice to say that is revolves around good and evil, and has much to do with motives, patience, and the fulfillment of prophecy (a la the first Matrix in that last respect). The big question around much of the book iis about Paul and whether or not he is the one meant by a prohecy. The matter is complicated by the fact that Paul's mother, Jessica, is a member of a kind of secretive (but not secret) society. This group moves onto planets and spreads certain stories and prophecies that follow a basic pattern. Unknown to the native inhabitants, these prophecies are made to support this secretive society. Of course, the native people of the planet are going to take that prophecy and twist/change/adapt it as time goes on. Now, this planet seems to be finding truth/Truth in this woman's son. We, the reader, get the sense that there is a larger hand at work, and that what may have initially been a hoax is actually real. The tie-in here is indeed similar to those issues raised by the Matrix, I guess (except this book was written in the 60's I think) and have to do with whether or not one might know what they are doing when they are walking the path of greatness or prophecy and all that. I think the larger issue for me is that we may not know when we are even doing God's work. That blade cuts both ways, I suppose. We may think we are doing God's work and in fact we are not. That is a large issue that, for me, has a lot to do with our own ability to relate to and commune with God. I think a certain level of humility should aslways be present: never be totally certain of what God requires, especially as we go forth and proclaim our interpreted messages to others. That responsibility is massive, with equally massive consequences (which Dune also makes clear).

OK, I rambled. Maybe I should throw in another pic from this past week to end the email with a nice, serene moment...I'm on top of Humphrey's Peak in this one. It's the tallest point in Arizona, just north of Flagstaff at calm 12,633 feet. I look really content and happy in the pic, but the wind was gusting 40 to 60 mph and it was at no warmer than freezing point. Yeah, pretty miserable. But I tried to climb this bad boy back in December of 1998 and the snow was too much, so it was nice to finally check it off.