The Singapore Summit

Even if you were determined NOT to know anything about the historic Singapore Summit between Trump and Kim Jong Un yesterday...not sure you could pull it off. It is everywhere today. All over social media and as the saying goes, like assholes, everyone has an opinion. Including the news media. Fox News is giving its version of it (while slamming the left at every opportunity). The left wing media is giving their version critical of Trump and the right.

I hope Trump and Jong Un manage to come to some kind of agreement that moves the needle backwards to a world with a few less nucs. But there are some things that bother me a lot about the summit.

One thing is the row of flags behind the two of them. Every other one is an American flag. Touching or very close to touching the North Korean flag. How did the dictator of a country like North Korea elevate himself and his flag to equal standing with the United States? Everyone who is so concerned and outraged about dishonoring the flag and the pledge and the anthem, tell me...are you okay with that? Does that not demean our flag?

Remember when Obama visited Cuba and there were a few pictures that showed the likeness of Che Guevara in the background? People criticized him very strongly for that. "Mr. President, you're a disgrace," Ben Shapiro tweeted. Check out this article in Time Magazine.

Another thing ...Trump's hearty endorsement of the North Korean dictator after the Summit

"He's got a great personality. He's a funny guy, he's very smart, he's a great negotiator. He loves his people, not that I'm surprised by that," Trump said. "I think that we have the start of an amazing deal. We're going to denuke North Korea."

Please take a few minutes and watch this video of a young North Korean girl who escaped from North Korea. She tells of witnessing the execution of her friend's mother for watching a "Hollywood"movie.  Tell her how much Jong Un loves his people. There is poverty, lack, wide spread human rights abuses. From all appearances, Kim Jong Un mainly loves himself.

Asked if he had a message for the North Korean people, Trump said, "I think you have somebody that has a great feeling for them. He wants to do right by them and we got along really well. We had a great chemistry."

Great chemistry? Really? As Saturday Night Live's church lady used to say many years ago..."isn't that special."

We take their rosaries...

I came across a meme making the rounds on Facebook. It is a picture of neatly arranged rosaries that have been confiscated by the border patrol from undocumented immigrants trying to enter the United States.

Although the meme includes a partial link to the story that ran in the New Yorker in March of 2017,  it gives the impression that this is some new atrocity. Not hard to believe when there are so many new atrocities every single day. Please let me be clear...no one is more outraged, frustrated and shocked by this administration...by this president...than I am but this is something we cannot lay entirely at his feet. We have been doing this stuff for a long time.

Tom Kiefer is the photographer who took the pictures. He collected the personal items that were confiscated from undocumented immigrants by the border patrol. Most of the stuff ended up in the trash. He collected the items from 2003 to 2014. Below is the introduction on his website. El Sueño Americano (The American Dream)

Lurking beneath the bright and shiny dream of a better life, El Sueño Americano is a deeply disturbing reflection of our treatment of fellow human beings. As a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol janitor, part of the job was removal of trash bags at just one of our 136 facilities, where personal belongings are seized from migrants at or near the border. One day I looked into the bags. I glimpsed personal items, carefully chosen to support their owner’s desperate and dangerous journey. Items confiscated and trashed as ‘non-essential’; rosaries, bibles, wallets, clothes, coins, phones, food, soap, blankets, and family photos. Spending time with the confiscated items, organizing them, photographing them -- profoundly moved me. How precious were these to their owners? Disposing of them, I realized, was an act of dehumanization. El Sueño Americano is a visceral snapshot of what is happening, in direct defiance of those who would sweep it out of sight.

I am not really an advocate of totally open borders although I welcome immigrants. Yes, I know the immigration process is so broken and if my kids were suffering I'm sure I would make the trek to the US Border praying for mercy. But the heartlessness of the process that strips these people of their rosaries and little blue Spanish new testaments...and toilet paper, toothpaste, shoelaces, blankets, wallets and extra clothing is horrible.

I don't have the answers. I wish I did......

Here is the link to the New Yorker article. This is the link to a true/false discussion of the FB meme on Snopes.

Sermon Series..."Living in the Mess"

I just listened to a very moving sermon on the church of the resurrection website…not by Adam Hamilton but by a woman named Penny Ellwood. I looked for the GPS (Grow, Pray and Study guide)…but there wasn't one for this sermon series. I loved what she had to say about how to “live in the mess.”

She talked about different life events, some hypothetical, some from her own life and some from the lives of people she knows. Her most moving story was the story of a young seminary student she worked with at one of the satellite campuses. While he was dating the woman he is now married to, her mother died. He went to the funeral out of state where he met her family for the first time. 

Her dad became distraught at the gravesite….so distraught he actually jumped into the open grave; on his knees, crying hysterically. Nobody knew what to do. The grave was deep and nobody could physically reach him. The young man....Joe....didn't know what to do either but he did the only thing he could think of; he jumped down into the muddy grave, in his new suit and simply embraced her father, wept with him and provided a shoulder to cry on. Like Job’s friends (before they became miserable comforters) Joe sat in the ashes with his girlfriend's father. 

When the grieving man finally calmed down, they were so deep in the muddy grave Joe wondered how they would ever get out….and then he looked up and saw many hands reaching down to help pull them out. The analogy is touching, poignant and inspiring.

It seems like an interesting series because we all….ALL….end up in the pit of despair at times in our lives. Although throughout the Bible we are assured that God is with us always…even in the “pits,” we are comforted when another human meets us in our pain, sits with us in our ashes and extends a hand up when we are ready to climb out.

He Turned Out All the Lights

I’ve been listening to the audio version of a book written by Barbara Brown Taylor, “Learning to Walk in the Dark.”

I’ve listened to it on several recent road trips. On the 4th of July when I went to help Emily move her stuff out of the house where she was temporarily staying. And again, recently, when I went to visit my mom. I also checked out the ebook version so I could find and reread the snippets that caught my attention.

I am mesmerized by this woman’s voice. She narrates the book herself and does an amazing job. She was an episcopal priest for years but eventually left the church. (She wrote a book to tell about her experience….Leaving Church)

Perhaps she honed her speaking skills behind the pulpit....? I am also intrigued with her writing style. Sometimes she conveys her thoughts in very long run on sentences, cobbled together with commas, colons, semicolons and dashes. She gets her point across in an almost long winded, lyrical way.

My last post talked about a late night (very dark) journey when Shasta met Aslan. It broaches the subject of learning to walk in the dark. While Taylor acknowledges that, at first glance, darkness in scripture seems overwhelmingly negative there are also verses that say something different. There are stories that tell of great things that are said/done/accomplished at night or in the dark.

In the Message, in Job Chapter 19 Job laments:

God threw a barricade across my path—I’m stymied; he turned out all the lights—I’m stuck in the dark. He destroyed my reputation, robbed me of all self-respect. He tore me apart piece by piece—I’m ruined! Then he yanked out hope by the roots. He’s angry with me—oh, how he’s angry!

Perhaps the treasures hidden in the darkness are not easily seen until we are back in the light once again. We think God is mad at us but it is often in our darkness that we meet God. I met him there during a very tumultuous period of my life that was indeed dark, scary and overwhelming.

I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places, So that you may know that it is I, The LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. 

So does God really turn out the lights? That is the age old, oft pondered (and more oft argued about) paradox of determinism versus free will. That has been a major sore spot for me in my relationship with God but it’s true; scripture indicates that He does, sometimes, turn out our lights ..for his purposes....and for our good.

God dwells in deep darkness. God comes to people in dark clouds, dark nights, dark dreams and dark strangers in ways that sometimes scare them half to death but almost always for their good--or at least their renovation. God does some of God’s best work in the dark. From a sermon delivered by Barbara Brown Taylor at the 2014 Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis, Minn

Why Me? Why Not Me?

I wrote the following this past weekend - just now getting it posted.

I am in Ellwood City this weekend visiting my mom. I left yesterday afternoon from work, made the four hour trek across Interstate 80 and arrived at my mom’s in time to visit for a while and watch a few “as seen on TV” preachers that she’s taken a liking to. I enjoy visiting my mom even though I hate the drive and the lack of an internet connection here in her apartment.

I can venture across the street to Burger King, or a few blocks farther down to the city park on the main street where Armstrong cable provides free internet, or to the library a few blocks farther or across town to McDonald’s. That is a lot of free wifi choices for a small town like Ellwood City.

I walked to the library earlier today. It is consistently the noisiest library I’ve ever been in. Every. time. Loud librarians, boisterous meetings, noisy patrons and today they were hosting some kind of American Girl doll event. Quite a few little girls showed up with their mothers and grandmothers holding their American Girl dolls by the hand. It was kind of cute and since it was a first for me, I enjoyed it but it was still noisy. Just Noise (my favorite white noise app) blocked out the hub hub.

I tuned into Facebook and was surprised to find a status update from a friend of mine about a shooting last night in Williamsport. Five people were shot as they left a local bar called Imbibe. An earlier altercation in the bar seemed to be the starting point of the attack, but none of the victims were involved in the dispute and were merely innocent, probably drunk, targets leaving a bar at closing time. Been there, done that.

Come to find out that my birthday boy (25 years old yesterday) was celebrating at the very bar not too much earlier. They left for more celebrating at another bar in town. My daughter, who works around the corner from where the shooting took place is sometimes part of that closing time group of partiers. She was out of town with her boyfriend.  

Nobody died although there were two life threatening injuries that involved Life Flight. Suspect is still at large. I am thankful I was not one of the moms who received an emergency call at 2 a.m. My offspring are not lying in a hospital bed at Geisinger. But it could just as easily have been one of them. Different timing, different plans and it could have been a whole different scenario. But for the grace of God, there go I. Figuring out why it wasn't is above my pay grade but I am infinitely grateful.

Musings on ISIS and Hell

I happened upon a short blog post written by Benjamin L. Corey on Patheos this morning.  Why ISIS Should Make Christians Rethink the Doctrine of Hell. It “puts a face with a name” concerning the fiery doctrine of hell...eternal conscious torment.

We’ve all seen the pictures. They’ve been plastered all over Facebook, in the news, on “start pages” like AOL (yes, AOL still exists) and Yahoo. The single, lone pilot, caged, in anguish, as the flames advance toward him. I don’t know if the whole video is available anywhere online but if it is, I could never watch it. I can’t even watch fake torture on shows like 24 and The Blacklist. And now there are sources saying ISIS is threatening to burn 17 Kurdish fighters….and even some claims about burning children alive. Hideous...horrible….soul sucking….heartbreaking evil.

As the article points out, ISIS is not the first to use fire as an instrument of death and torture. Christians were quite fond of using it against their enemies. Even just their theological enemies. Let’s not forget that atrocities were committed by followers of Jesus all down through Christian history. The Inquisition, the Witch Hunts, the Crusades.

For a long list of these atrocities…..“events that solely occurred on command of church authorities or were committed in the name of Christianity,” check out THIS ARTICLE. If you are skeptical, think of the list as a starting point for further research. I don’t want to see Christianity blackballed NOR whitewashed, it’s sins hidden.  As followers of Jesus, we are obligated to learn from the mistakes of our Christian predecessors. There are many variations of the oft repeated quote, “Learn from history or repeat it.” We are obligated to expose and denounce (and learn from) any and all atrocities committed in the name of Jesus.

I’ve written about topics like this beforeon this blog. Extremism is the problem and, all too often, the extremism is based on religious theology/ideology. Christians are not exempt and, in fact, are some of the worst offenders.

But I digress….

Back to the topic of ISIS, hell and our Heavenly Father.

Corey says this:

But here’s the irony of it all: while we find burning people alive morally repulsive when ISIS does it, most Christians seem to have no moral qualms about believing in a God they think will do precisely that.

And not only does he burn people alive, he uses his “special powers” to keep them conscious and burning (but not consumed) for all eternity. The traditional concept of a hell….eternal conscious torment... orchestrated by God…..is a heinous doctrine that besmirches the character and nature of the God Jesus spoke of and represented. “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”

For many of us, hell is the bitterest pill to swallow when embracing traditional Christianity. I didn’t….couldn’t….swallow the pill. I researched and prayed and studied until, like William Barclay, I was a “convinced universalist.” Sadly, there are some Christians who seem to revel in the concept of God burning his enemies  (enemies who, coincidentally, look just like their own personal enemies) in hell forEVER. Try to take their hell away and they are pissed. I’ve witnessed it.

One of my favorite stories in the Gospels

51 When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; 52 and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem.54 When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them 55 But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; 56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”] And they went on to another village. Luke 9:51-56

Jesus rebuked them...and even though some early manuscripts skip the “spirit you are  of” part, I think this passage highlights a question we should all answer. If we derive any kind of satisfaction from the doctrine of hell it is time to take a good long look at what is in our heart to see if it lines up with what Jesus had to say here.

A newer translation, The Voice, sums it up...

Jesus (turning toward them and shaking His head): You just don’t get it.

The Question That Never Goes Away.....

My mother has a problem with religion. She has a problem with God. She was raised in a very strict denomination, by very strict parents who worshiped a very strict God. You were never sure about your salvation because you could lose it just like that. Movies were out, any games that had dice, no jewelry, pants on women, purchases on Sunday etc. etc. etc.

Her biggest issue with God is the Problem of Evil...the Problem of Pain. Theodicy. We talk about it sometimes during our twice a week phone calls.

I tell her I don’t have the answer why bad things happen..that nobody really has the answer. It has been talked about and written about and argued about for thousands of years. Perhaps, it is a mystery that we may not understand until we are “on the other side.”

This doesn't satisfy her, of course. I understand that. It didn't satisfy me during the several year stint when I was too mad at God to talk to him very much. I was mad about all those starving children and the rampant, overwhelming, seemingly unstoppable evil in the world. Except that I was convinced he COULD stop it, if he wanted to. I read many articles that looked at the question from different perspectives.  I discussed it on message boards and yahoo groups. I talked it over with Keith (time and time again)

I found little dollops of salve here and there that took the sting out of the anger but I never really found an acceptable answer that explained why God allows this stuff to happen.

I read several books that helped a little.. “Why” by Adam Hamilton and Phillip Yancey’s twin volumes (written decades apart)  Where is God When It Hurts and The Question That Never Goes Away.

Following are two quotes I happened upon recently. One, I found just this morning on Ann Voskamp’s FaceBook wall. The other quote, that says practically the same thing, is from Rob Bell.

No matter how we don't understand the why of suffering, we know that the God who went to the Cross, He *knows* suffering & *He suffers with us.* *We never suffer alone.* The whole suffering world rings with the comfort of it, how Your nailed scarred hands cup our faces, hold our hurting hearts & You whisper: "I know... *I know.* Me too. *Me too*." Anne Voskamp

“Our tendency in the midst of suffering is to turn on God. To get angry and bitter and shake our fist at the sky and say, "God, you don't know what it's like! You don't understand! You have no idea what I'm going through. You don't have a clue how much this hurts." The cross is God's way of taking away all of our accusations, excuses, and arguments. The cross is God taking on flesh and blood and saying, "Me too.” ― Rob Bell

I still don’t understand it but I know he saves our tears in a bottle and the Bible promises in three separate places that he will wipe all our tears from our faces.

Behold, he makes all things new.

Colorado Shootings, Where Were You God? (Part 2)

When Keith and I were first married (about 10 or so years ago) it was during a time in my spiritual journey when I was searching for my way spiritually.  I was filled with angst over several “big ticket” spiritual paradoxes. 

Hell was not an issue since I never really believed in hell. True, until I happened upon the Tentmaker sight, I couldn’t actually support universalism via scripture but that was mainly because I was a new Christian and didn’t know that much about scripture.  Through Tentmaker and other similar sites, I eventually learned that virtually all scriptures that preach a hot, eternal hell can be explained. 

And I had never been used or abused by religion…what I’ve heard Lynn Hiles refer to as “hoodwinked or bamboozled” by religion.

One of my biggies was free will versus sovereignty. But the biggest biggie….which could actually be deemed a sub category of determinism….the one that dogged me for years….was the POE.  The problem of evil.

Keith and I talked endlessly about it.  He is very settled in his beliefs and has no problem seeing God as the cause of all the things in the world that we, in our short sighted humanness, deem evil. If not Him, then who?  The “devil”?  Evil men?  The idea that any one or any thing could wreak havoc outside of the plan and purpose of God was far more troubling.  

This view was….totally unacceptable to me.  Yet, a good case can be made to support it.  Believe me, Keith came up with many, many arguments.  None sufficed.  None appeased.  None let God off the hook. 

Yeah…I know….who are you, oh man, to talk back to God.  Does the clay have the right to get pissy with the potter?  But I did….and I seethed with unanswered questions and the utter outrage at the unfairness of the way He set things up. 

And during our discussions, Keith would often point out how those who suffered the greatest evils, like the Christian martyrs, were given a depth of spiritual bliss that the rest of us did not experience.  One name in particular came up often.

His books line the bottom shelf in the book case in the living room.  Richard Wumbrand.  At the time, I didn’t want to hear about spiritual bliss in exchange for horrific suffering.  Not fair.  Not acceptable. 

And now…ten years later, I still don’t have any definitive answers. I do have some intuitive beliefs that have given me peace.  I am not haunted anymore by the questions.

Oddly, a quote by Wumbrand….whose mistreatment “at the hands of the Communists” but allegedly purposed by God casts the faintest light of understanding on the POE.

"God sees things differently than we see them, just as we see differently than an ant. From the human point of view, to be tied to a cross and smeared with excrement is a horrible thing. Nonetheless, the Bible calls the sufferings of martyrs light afflictions. To be in prison for fourteen years is a long period to us. The Bible calls it 'but for a moment,' and tells us that these things are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2Co 4:17). This gives us the right to suppose that the fierce crimes of the Communists, which are inexcusable to us, are lighter in the eyes of God than they are in our eyes. Their tyranny, which has lasted almost an entire century, may be before God, for whom a thousand years are like one day, only a moment of erring astray. They still have the possibility of being saved." Tortured For Christ

And another comment articulated by a young mother on a Christian message board cast another dim beam of light.  She talked about her kids…and skinned knees.  How, when they skinned their knees, it was like THE WORST THING THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE EVER….FOR ALL TIME.  That was the skinned knee seen through the eyes of the child.  A skinned knee seen through the eyes of a parent….well, she knew that this too would pass and that in the grand scheme of things, a skinned knee was really not that big of a deal. Even if the injury was the result of being pushed or tripped. So she hugged them, wiped their tears away and told them it would be okay.  

And doesn’t God do the same thing for us.  He wipes our tears. He tells us it will be okay.  Through the Apostle Paul, God tells us that these light momentary afflictions (skinned knees) are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…..in us. 

In this earthly realm those promises still ring kind of hollow.  For the families of the victims of the Colorado shooting, the verse in Romans might be very little comfort. 

Perhaps we are like little kids with skinned knees. What seems utterly unredeemable in our eyes to God is not really a problem.  The Bible says He will work all things together for good. 

How he can bring good out of tragedies like the death of a child, the Holocaust, war, famine and pestilence, disease, I haven’t a clue. 

Comments welcome….

 

Colorado Shootings, Where Were You God?

Lots of people around the internet are talking about the Colorado shooting. About the victims...about acts of heroism...about the coincidences that brought some to the theater and the coincidences that kept some away.

And they are talking about the shooter, his history, his friends and family, his mom's comments, (that Keith tells me were taken totally out of context by some over zealous reporter) About the "I'm a crazy man" look in his tortured eyes.

And of course there is ongoing, heated debate about guns and gun control. For the record, I loathe guns...but if my neighbor, or my dad, or my boss wants to own a gun and is responsible with the use and storage of the weapon...I am content to "myob." However, I see no feasible reason ( or how it could be construed as a threat to the 2nd Amendment) to not do whatever it takes to keep weapons that can fire dozens of bullets without reloading...out of the hands of crazy men. Out of the hands of EVERYBODY for that matter. But I digress. That is the subject of another post....someday. Back to the Colorado shooting.

So the conversation goes round and round. Everybody has an opinion. Everybody has questions. Ultimately, the discussion turns to God....and most everyone, in one way or another wonders the same thing..and (consciously or subconsciously)asks the same question of God. "Where the hell were you??!! when these victims were being gunned down??? And why didn't you do something??"

That question is the crux of the age old mystery of theodicy. The immortal question, "If there is a good, all powerful God, how can evil exist?"

The conclusion many come to is that there is no God. "Sorry folks, you're on your own."

Others (like Harold Kushner of the "When Bad Things Happen To Good People " fame) settle on the belief that God is not all powerful. He would like to do more to help but, sadly, his hands are tied.

Others settle on the belief that he is not all good...because as far as they’re concerned not stopping atrocities like the shooting is as bad as actually causing them.

And some folks...the total determinist/absolute sovereignty believers believe just that….that he actually causes these things to come down. They believe he is all powerful, all good and the first cause of all causes. In other words, he directly ordains these things(for our own good, of course) There is a case to be made for that viewpoint.

Some folks believe man's free will is the ultimate deciding factor and that God never...or rarely, intervenes. There is a case to be made for that viewpoint, too.

Although diehard believers on both sides of the “free will/sovereignty” line will disagree that a case can be made for the opposite side.

I see so many things in shades of gray, along the lines of Adam Hamilton's book "Seeing Gray In a Black and White World.” I suspect that the truth about most things is somewhere smack dab in the middle, or at least not totally to the far left or the far right.

This question haunted me for years. I read, I pondered, I obsessed. I was totally pissed off at God for the way he set things up...starving children in Africa, death, disease and pestilence everywhere. I couldn't just write him off as an imaginary friend because I've felt his touch and know he exists as surely as I know I do. Non belief was not an option. Pouting at him was. But in my heart, I knew that whatever evidence gets stacked against him, he is good, he is love and his mercy endures forever.

I've stopped pouting. I've even stopped asking the "where were you" kinds of questions. And I'm not dead set sure what I think about his involvement in world events but I suspect sometimes he causes, sometimes he prevents and sometimes he intervenes in very mysterious ways.

A Facebook friend posted a link shortly after the shooting. It leads to blog post written by a pastor in Colorado. He told the story of a young woman in his congregation. Petra Anderson. She is in her early twenties (22, I think) and she was in the theater that night. She was shot multiple times. One of the shotgun blasts sent a pellet through her brain....front to back. The prognosis was bleak but when the neurosurgeons operated, they discovered Petra had a brain anomaly that had been present since birth. It caused no symptoms. She had no idea it was there. Nobody did except, of course, her Maker.

It was a tiny channel that ran from front to back. Just big enough for a shotgun pellet. The bullet entered her nose at that exact spot and made its way to the back of her brain, via the channel, causing next to no damage. The blog author said that the tiniest variation in the entry point would have caused the pellet to bypass the channel, ripping through and damaging/destroying vital brain tissue.

No matter what your theology or opinion about the POE (problem of evil), sovereignty and free will, this story (that has also been mentioned on the news and other sources) gives one cause to pause and ponder. An old hymn and two Bible verses come to mind.

The Bible verses...

Isaiah 43: 7"...everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

and

Psalm 139:14 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. NLT

The blog post about Petra went viral and received hundreds of comments, many that expressed disdain for the idea that God was responsible for this anomaly/ miracle yet didn't come through for the other victims.

Which brings me to the words of the old hymn by William Cowper -

'God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform"

There is another thing about the Anderson family that seems to deepen the mysteries of God's ways.  Petra's mother is battling a reoccurrence of (terminable) breast cancer...her prognosis is not good...and she is not expected to survive. 

Since this is getting long, I'll finish up in another post (really, I will)

Wurmbrand on Truth, Burning Hearts and Finite Crimes

I’ve been listening to Wayne Jacobsen’s multi part series, The Jesus Lens.  Today, while hoofing it around the neighborhood, on a perfectly gorgeous, sunny Easter Sunday, I took note of a quote he used to illustrate his point….a quote by Richard Wurmbrand. 

I know who Richard Wurmbrand was. He came up a time or two in discussions with Keith during my five or so year stint of wrestling with theodicy and the suffering that abounds all around us. The, if there is a good God, how can there be starving children question. Wurmbrand’s book, Tortured For Christ, moved here with Keith ten years ago and is in the bookcase…along with a few other books he authored.

The short version of his life story can be found on the Voice of the Martyrs website….an organization he founded after he was finally released from prison….the second time. He spent years in a Communist prison…enduring tortures that defy the imagination.

So when I got home from my walk…and settled down on the couch with my I Pad, I looked up the quote on Google.  I came across several other quotes that struck me…and I am sharing them in this blog post…..

On Truth…the one Wayne used:

The Bible is a wonderful book. It is the truth about the Truth. It is not the Truth. A sermon taken from the Bible can be a wonderful thing to hear. It is the truth about the truth about the truth. But it is not the truth. There have been many books written about the things contained in the Bible. I have written some myself. They can be quite wonderful to read. They are the truth about the truth about truth about the Truth. But they are NOT the Truth. Only Jesus Christ is the Truth. Sometimes the Truth can be drowned in a multitude of words.

On the flame in his heart:

"In solitary confinement, we could not pray as before. We were unimaginably hungry; we had been drugged until we acted like idiots. We were as weak as skeletons. The Lord’s Prayer was much too long for us—we could not concentrate enough to say it. My only prayer repeated again and again was, 'Jesus, I love You.' And then, one glorious day I got the answer from Jesus: 'You love me? Now I will show you how I love you.' At once, I felt a flame in my heart, which burned like the coronal streamers of the sun. The disciples on the way to Emmaus said that their hearts burned when Jesus spoke with them. So it was with me. I knew the love of the One who gave His life on the cross for us all." Tortured For Christ

And how all crimes….no matter how horrendous….are crimes of a finite nature.  Sheds a bit of light…perhaps… on the age old, “What about Hitler” question.

"God sees things differently than we see them, just as we see differently than an ant. From the human point of view, to be tied to a cross and smeared with excrement is a horrible thing. Nonetheless, the Bible calls the sufferings of martyrs light afflictions. To be in prison for fourteen years is a long period to us. The Bible calls it 'but for a moment,' and tells us that these things are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory (2Co 4:17). This gives us the right to suppose that the fierce crimes of the Communists, which are inexcusable to us, are lighter in the eyes of God than they are in our eyes. Their tyranny, which has lasted almost an entire century, may be before God, for whom a thousand years are like one day, only a moment of erring astray. They still have the possibility of being saved." Tortured For Christ

Lots to ponder in those three quotes.  More quotes can be found HERE.  Some of his books can be found HERE and HERE

Statistics on extreme poverty from atop my soapbox…..

I am not really an optimist…no big surprise to the people nearest and dearest to me.  I try to be.  I want to be.  Alas….not. Optimism is counter intuitive to me.  So this weekend….on the ride home from visiting my mom, I was challenged by a few quotes I read in a blog post on the Rebel God website.  (I was able to read on this trip because Keith came along.  It was nice having his company….and he drove!!!  Leaving me hands free to play with my new IPad on the trip there and back!!!)

The quotes…..

Consider these statistics cited by Dr. Scott Todd from Live58:

"We used to say that 40,000 children die each day from preventable causes. In the 1990s, that number dropped to 33,000 per day. By 2008, it dropped again to 24,000. Now it is down to 21,000. That means that in a generation we cut that number in half.

1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty today. That's a staggering amount, but let's put those numbers in perspective: In 1981 52% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today it's 26%. Again, that means we have cut the number in half, and we did it in one generation."

and

As Scott Todd explains, there are many reasons for this unprecedented progress,

"Over 600 million people gained access to safe drinking water since 1990. This, along with an increased awareness of the nutrition in breast milk and the use of oral rehydration therapy, explain why water-borne diseases are no longer the leading cause of death for children under five. We are simply executing the practical strategies that work.
Vaccinations are another example of a practical, life-saving strategy. 733,000 children died of measles in 2000; but, that number dropped by 2008 to 164,000–a 78% reduction in only eight years. Simply using the vaccines that we’ve had for decades is saving hundreds of thousands of children every year."

Wow…and there are people who actually think we can end extreme poverty in our generation.  And there are lots of initiatives and programs and individuals working toward that goal. 

Another thing that struck me in the quote above was the dramatic drop in deaths due to measles… attributed to the vaccines we have readily available in this country. 

A soap box issue of mine…..those folks who refuse to vaccinate their children without a really good medical reason.  It’s only because of people like me….who chose to vaccinate our children in spite of the minimal risk….that they even have that option. If measles and diphtheria….pertussis…polio…. and the other diseases kids are routinely vaccinated against were rampant here in the States, they would not have that luxury.  Families like mine helped eradicate those diseases.  Families like theirs threaten to bring them back to life.

Many look on vaccinations as a plague…an evil forced upon the unsuspecting public by the big pharmaceutical companies.  Most of those 733,000 kids who died in 2000 didn’t have the option.  I choose to look upon the vaccines we have available as a privilege rather than an arbitrary harm forced on our kids.  And yes, I did the research before I vaccinated Matthew, my firstborn….with great trepidation and concern. I know there are risks.  I signed the consent forms that listed them in several pages of small print detail.  There ARE risks, I know that….but perhaps, in addition to protecting my own children from diseases that are, indeed, making a comeback in this country, I did it for the greater good? 

I digressed from the initial point of this post….but will leave it as is…hoping that I have not offended anyone who reads here.  This is one of those hot button topics.  At least for me it is.  Comments are, of course, welcome.

The Benefit of the Doubt

I came upon a post recently…on Google Reader…a post about assuming positive intent.  The article focused mainly on how this concept applies to marriage and close relationships.  Not a new concept and goes by the alias of giving someone “the benefit of the doubt.” 

The gist of it…

If at all possible, assume positive intentions….even when the circumstances point toward a deliberate slight.  Obviously there has to be some “give your head a shake” common sense involved in assigning blame….or not.  if your partner/parent/child/friend slaps you….calls you names….lies to you….steals from you….positive intentions do not apply.  If they are late for dinner, forget your birthday, hurt your feelings…it does not necessarily mean they did these things on purpose….with negative intent.  

How do you figure out the difference?  Perhaps based on their normal behavior….their character….the history of the relationship.

Our human relationships can be a reflection of our spiritual relationship with God.  Do we assume positive intent on his part….when things are not going so great?  The buck does stop with him, after all. He has the ultimate say so…the final vote. And being omnipotent and all….he has the power to bring it to fruition.

 I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me? Jer 32:27

We can’t plead our case to a higher authority because…..well…there isn’t one. There is no such thing as going  “over his head.” No appeals process, no higher ranking official. 

Frustrating sometimes. Maddeningly so. 

annie posted a quote the other day on her FB page….

The reason the mass of men fear God and at bottom dislike him is because they rather distrust his heart...
~Herman Melville

Many times I’ve questioned his motives.  Many times I’ve distrusted his heart. 

But I’d like to suggest that we might do better to assume positive intentions on his part no matter what the circumstances look like.  To draw close….to “cleave” instead of “leave.”

He does declare his love and faithfulness throughout scripture.  Nowhere more clearly that in Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV

Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Sounds like positive intent to me…..

Oh My God! the movie….

This morning on Facebook, someone posted a quote from "Oh My God," the feature length documentary by Peter Rodgers, The premise of the movie intrigued me. 

In every corner of the world, there’s one question that can never be definitively answered, yet stirs up equal parts passion, curiosity, self-reflection and often wild imagination: “What is God?”

Filmmaker Peter Rodger explores this profound, age-old query in the provocative non-fiction feature Oh My God. This visual odyssey travels the globe with a revealing lens examining the idea of God through the minds and eyes of various religions and cultures, everyday people, spiritual leaders and celebrities.

Keith checked to see if it was available on Netflix and indeed it was.  It should arrive sometime the end of the week, in time to watch on Christmas afternoon. Our Christmas Days are usually quiet....the kids head off to their dad's about noon and we eat leftover Chinese food and hang out.  Everybody has to have their traditions, afterall.

I will post a review of sorts after we watch the movie. It did not get very good reviews for content.  (although the photography is described as stunning) so we'll see.....

There is also a book called the "Oh My God Chronicles" written by Rodger.  There is an excerpt from the book to read PDF style on line.

He talks about his father, famed photojournalist George Rodger, known for his photographs of WWII that were published in Life Magazine.  He was with the British army when they liberated the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp on April 15, 1945.  His photographs were among the first "proof" of the atrocities committed by the Germans. Of the scene he witnessed, he says this....

Under the pine trees the scattered dead were lying, not in their twos or threes or dozens, but in their thousands.  The living tore ragged clothing from the corpses to build fires, over which they boiled pine needles and roots for soup.  Little children rested heads against the stinking corpses of their mothers, too nearly dead themselves to cry.  An emaciated man approached me.  "Look, Englishmen," he said.  "This is German culture." And he fell down dead in front of me.  Bodies with gaping wounds in the region of the kidneys, liver and heart testified to the cannibalism that had been resorted to, degradation begetting degradation.  

Which brings us back to the oft asked questions of theodicy....a question way beyond the scope of this post. 

How the Light Enters and Shines….

The wound is the place where the Light enters you. –Rumi

I came upon the Rumi quote as I was stumbling here and there on  (where else) the internet this morning.  It reminded me of a devotional I saved from a book of devotionals by Joni Erickson Tada.  She talked about the light of Christ falling on the broken pieces, the shattered pieces of our lives....and how God can turn the shattered ruins into a kaleidoscope through which his light can shine.  I think it is majorly cool when two people as different as can be....from different eras and cultures and belief systems convey the same deep truth.  Joni said it this way.....

Shattered glass is full of a thousand different angles, each one picking up a ray of light and shooting it off in a thousand different directions. That doesn’t happen with plain glass, such as a jar. The glass must be broken into many pieces. What’s true of shattered glass is true of a broken life. Shattered dreams. A heart full of fissures. Hopes that are splintered. A life in pieces that appears to be ruined. But given time and prayer, such a person’s life can shine more brightly than if the brokenness had never happened. When the light of the Lord Jesus falls upon a shattered life, that believer’s hopes can be brightened.

Your life may be shattered by sorrow, pain, or sin, but God has in mind a kaleidoscope through which His light can shine more brilliantly.

Bonus quote:

With a closed mind and heart, the light cannot enter.

-Shelby Taylor Weaver

Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in….

After a year long (and then some) hiatus, I’ve been hitting the gym just about every morning. I’ve been getting up early (as usual) but instead of lollygagging around on the internet sipping a strong “not for wimps” cup of coffee for an hour or more, I’ve been heading out to my cold, frost covered car and driving to Planet Fitness.  Once there, I read the blogs I’ve saved in google reader and other miscellaneous stuff I’ve earmarked to read…on my Kindle 3 while pedaling or hoofing it on the treadmill.  Killing two birds with one stone.

I suspect some insights and thoughts are a result of the endorphins that are circulating through my system.  I’ve read there is a difference in the way the brain processes thoughts when you are exercising.

I’ve gotten so many ideas for blog posts, I’m pondering a new  “at the gym” tag. We’ll see.  No telling how long this early morning exercise resolution will hang on. 

The idea for this post came, not from google reader or anything saved on my kindle, but from the Planet Fitness music blaring from their speakers.  Usually an annoyance that fades to the background, these lyrics captured my attention. 

“I’m still alive but I’m barely breathing”

“Just prayed to a god that I don’t believe in”

The song is called Breakeven from The Script.  It is an ode to lost love.  An “I’m dying here while you are out there living it up” song.  The song emphasizes that he is “falling to pieces.”

It made me think about how often we turn to the god that we “don’t believe in” when our world is crashing down around us and we are “falling to pieces.” 

Wasn’t is C.S. Lewis, no stranger to incredible pain when he lost his beloved wife, Joy, who penned the words

But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. --C.S. Lewis

And George MacDonald said this

As cold as everything looks in winter, the sun has not forsaken us. He has only drawn away for a little, for good reasons, one of which is that we may learn that we cannot do without him. --George MacDonald

And there is the oft repeated “no atheists in foxholes” quote.

I won’t get into the perpetual, seemingly unanswerable question of whether God merely allows or directly causes our suffering.  I suspect it’s a bit of both and not strictly an either or thing.  But he uses our distress as his megaphone to break thought our deafness.  Many times when we have nowhere else to go, we turnj to the god that we don’t believe in….and find, to our utter amazement, that he is indeed there. 

My “testimony” is a variation of that very theme. 

I’m including a video of the song in this post.  Videos come and go on You Tube, so it will inevitably become a dead link.  I think it’s really interesting what they do with the photographs in the video. 

 

Sitting with the ashes…

I just read an article in the November edition of Reader’s Digest called “Love, Faith and War.” It is a short article (duh…Reader’s Digest, after all) about two chaplains in Afghanistan. Very well written….with carefully chosen quotes and situations that brought the story to life.

I checked the RD website to see if the story was on the internet but I couldn’t find it.  (There is an article called “Fifty Secrets Nurses Won’t Tell You”…..interesting read….and a bunch of other interesting titles)

There was a snippet, a quote by Capt. David Knight, that stuck out.

“Much of the chaplains job, he says, is not resolving problems or offering advice but simply being present as the patients and the staff cope with terrible situations”

“You need to be OK with people hurting, he says.”

He calls this sitting with the ashes, a reference to the Biblical story of Job, who lost his family, his health, and all his possessions.  “He was sitting in the ashes mourning and his friends came and sat with him,” he says. 

Now granted, Job’s friends are infamous for their “miserable comforting” techniques…..but perhaps there is a lesson to be learned there too.  What not to do when we sit in the ashes with someone who is hurting. 

As a mom, I’ve had to sit with the ashes.  All three of my kids have had difficulties and heartache in their lives.  Many times….most times…they brought it on themselves.  There have been times when, out of futility and necessity,  I’ve stopped beating my head against the brick wall of trying to control the situation and simply been there with them in the ashes. 

Right now, one of my kids is going through a challenging situation.  Nothing that will matter all that much ten years from now, but a costly, most definitely avoidable mistake that involves a lot of unpleasant untangling and damage control.  And I’m sitting with the ashes. 

And it hurts like hell to watch someone you love in distressing situations.  Especially your kids.  Especially your “mom, I’m and adult now” kids.  They are….yet they aren’t.  A time of transition…with one foot still in the old world of childhood and dependency….but the other foot in a new world of “I’m my own person and can do what I want.”

And I wonder if God feels that way about us.  He tells us, he warns us, he guides us….but sometimes we get that rebellious burst of “I’m my own person and can do what I want.” And when things fall apart, he sits with us in the ashes. 

I know he does because I’ve felt his presence very strongly in the ashes.  And I believe his heart aches for us when we make a mess of things….and he promises that he will (eventually)bring beauty out of the ashes…..

 

Evil Perpetrated Against a Child…

In the conversation between the brothers (aka Ivan’s tirade) in Fyodor Dostoevsky's, The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan’s big beef was the evil perpetrated against children…under the omnipresent eye of God.  That was his ultimate “WTF is wrong with this picture” moment….no fair, this isn’t right, time out, you’ve got to be kidding.  Children should not suffer the way they do.  Especially at the hands of adults. Especially not at the hands of adults who are supposed to love them and care for them….their parents.  Sometimes that is the most treacherous place for a child to be is in the care of their parents.

It’s really not like me to comment on current events in a post.  It is more my style to wait until the event is a distant memory and then write about it. The reasons? Perhaps procrastination…and too much I want to write about, not enough time to write it.  Maybe a bit of my “far from the maddening crowd” mindset.  If the vast majority of blogs in the Blogosphere are writing about it, I probably won’t be.

But the current events of the past few days so fit the topic of my last post that I would be remiss not to mention dear little Caylee Anthony and the great evil perpetrated against her at the hands of an adult.  Probably an adult who was responsible for her care. 

I love my Facebook feed,  It serves as a sort of demographic of popular opinion.  I have friends on FB that span the range of the spectrum--liberal/conservative, fundamentalist/new age. So I get a plethora of opinions and viewpoints.  There are no shortages of viewpoints about the Casey/Caylee Anthony case.  They run the gamut from “fry the bitch” to “our justice system worked the way it’s supposed to” to “what was the jury thinking?” and “this is the OJ verdict for a younger generation.”

I don’t know.  I didn’t follow the trial…and only read about it helter skelter during the three years the case captured the media’s attention.  Is Casey guilty?  I don’t know.  If she is guilty, why would she do such a thing to her own child?  Just another question mark…amongst the endless number of question marks surrounding suffering and evil….especially when it involves children. 

Again as I mentioned in my first post….Epicurus summed it up:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

 

Why? 

That is the heart wrenching cry of those tormented by the POE, the Problem of Evil. 

Why? Why? Why?

Theodicy tries to answer the question….and there are no shortages of opinions about it…and we’ll take a look at a couple of the most interesting theories in upcoming posts….but nobody REALLY knows for sure…and so the question remains

Why?

The Conversation Between the Brothers….

Long ago and far away, I ended the first post in this series….The POE Revisited….

More in my next post about the conversation between the two brothers, Ivan and Alyosha.   Here is the link to the excerpt.....Fyodor Dostoevsky on the Problem of Evil from the Brothers Karamazov.

Perhaps the title of this post isn’t quite accurate.  What goes on between the brothers isn’t actually a conversation….it is a one man dissertation.  Ivan presents his complaints against God to his brother …monologue fashion. Alyosha… mainly listens. 

And it is the children…the suffering children….the stereotypical argument that is so often raised against God…that bothers Ivan the most.  He makes his case using examples of suffering children….facts and anecdotes that he’s collected from newspapers and books.  And he has some really abhorrent examples.

The “theory of theodicy” he rails against is one of the many explanations mankind has come up with to reconcile the big three pillars of theodicy….the goodness of God, the omnipotence of God…and the existence of suffering.

Ivan is a made up character birthed from the mind and imagination of Fyodor Dostoevsky but he is a composite of many real life people who also find the POE and mystery of suffering….especially the suffering of children, to be the ultimate paradox…the unexplainable enigma…the “fly in the ointment”….the unforgiveable sin for a God who is supposed to be love.  The suffering of children is a frequent theme in Dostoevsky’s work so perhaps he, too, is trying to hash it all out…make sense of it…through his writings?

The angle Ivan chisels away at in his monologue is the necessity of suffering for an eventual, eternal harmony. The conclusion comes to is “no way, Jose’” It’s not worth it.   And he uses the examples of children to prove his point….even though he muses that….

I meant to speak of the suffering of mankind generally, but we had better confine ourselves to the sufferings of the children. That reduces the scope of my argument to a tenth of what it would be.

but….

I took the case of children only to make my case clearer.

Of the other tears of humanity with which the earth is soaked from its crust to its centre, I will say nothing. I have narrowed my subject on purpose.

I’ve had trouble getting started on this series. Perhaps because I don’t know exactly what I want to say.  There is so much to say…so many aspects of it to explore.  I’m just going start typing and see what unfolds…looking at it from several angles. Writing brings a clarity to thoughts, gives them form and order.  A bit like free style mind mapping, without the map. 

More to come in my next post. 

The POE Revisited

The idea for this series was sparked as I read some of the excerpts from The Brothers Karamazov.  How loving your specific neighbor was so suprisingly difficult to pull off.  In that same chapter, Fyodor Dostoyevsky deals with another big theological paradox.  Perhaps the biggest paradox there is....

The POE....the problem of evil....suffering....how to reconcile a loving God....an omnipotent God....with all the evil and suffering in the world.  That is the basis of theodicy, the defense of God's goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil. 


From my own experience, I've found that his defense...or vindication, the word used in some dictionaries "ain't easy." I wasn't a Christian very long before I was faced with reconciling those three key points that form the theodicy riddle, the "therein lies the question" quandary/paradox/koan....

1. The goodness of God
2. The omnipotence of God
3. The existence of evil

 Epicurus summed it up:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

It haunted me for the longest time and  I was just absolutely, totally pissed off at God about all the starving children, death, disease, pestilence, natural disasters etc that abound in our world. We were barely on speaking terms, He and I. Well, mainly "I." He was still whispering softly to my heart but I wasn't interested in listening, I had a major pout going.  Huge chip on my shoulder.
 
But I wanted....needed....answers. And so I googled....and surfed.....and clicked on link after link about suffering and evil.  The Brothers Kromanov might have inspired this series, but I have no shortage of resources to draw from.  I have dozens, possibly hundreds, of articles saved on my computer....about suffering, the POE…..all trying to answer questions like…. just where the hell is God when we suffer.  I printed many of them off and saved them in binders.  I have at least as many links saved in my favorites and just as many quotes saved in my quotes file.

I plan on this being a series....but you know how I sometimes stray from the original, central theme.  I think the conversation between the two brothers is profound.  It sums up the problem of evil in a nutshell....succinctly.  Perhaps it will remind some of you of a long forgotten required reading assignment in English Lit....or perhaps it will be prose that many, like me, never struggled to read and understand.   And when it comes to the problem of evil, who really does understand? 

More in my next post about the conversation between the two brothers, Ivan and Alyosha.   Here is the link to the excerpt.....Fyodor Dostoevsky on the Problem of Evil from the Brothers Karamazov.

At the Butler Hospital – You Are Awesome In This Place…

Written ‘now”
The following post was written during my mom’s hospitalization and surgery to have a faulty, leaky valve replaced.  She has been plagued with complication after complication requiring more and more invasive, painful, frightening procedures.  I was there for the surgery (6 days prior to and 6 days after) but she has gone through the past week alone. Yesterday she had to endure another surgery…with full anesthesia.. to drain fluid and blood from her lungs. It was hard being here while she is there, alone.  They didn’t know the extent…if they would be able to do it through 2 small incisions or if they would have to do the open heart thing again.  Fortunately the least invasive procedure seems to have worked and she is doing well.  Thank goodness. I am weary for this to end.  And she probably feels like she is lost in some macabre nightmare.
I still believe what I wrote in the following post.  That God is there…that he is in fact…everywhere.  The other day my daughter Emily posted the following “verse” on her FB wall….
‎"You were made with a purpose. The God of this universe will hold your hand through everyday of your life, for every laugh and every moment that takes your breath away. For the moments, the phone calls, and the news that make your heart drop and turn your world upside down. Yeah, my God is big enough for those moments as well."
I googled it…thinking it must be scripture from The Message Bible or lyrics to a song…but I couldn’t find it.  When I asked her about it later she said it was from one of her old journals. She wrote it.  She is indeed one of the living epistles the Bible speaks of. 
My post follows…but really…how can I improve on the sentiments expressed by my 17 year old daughter? 
Written “then”
I feel God all over the place in this hospital. Perhaps because I am not in patient care areas in the hospital where I work, I don’t notice it as much.  Perhaps it is because I am out of my normal, usual surroundings here (and very, very homesick) Maybe I am more attuned/ receptive to spiritual things here than at home… figuring out when to go to the grocery store....and the timing of other mundane tasks. Time has lost its meaning this past week.  Almost like it has been suspended.  I'm in a time warp.  A bubble...
Perhaps that is why I notice that the air here is heavy with His presence.  Almost tangible. 
Here in this hospital, the family of heart surgery patients wait in the ICU Waiting Room.  On the day of my mom’s surgery, I was there early...long before regular visiting hours began.  The solitude in the room was interrupted when, one by one, members of a big family started to arrive.  They were distraught.  Some of them were crying. Some of them were hugging.  One woman started to sob.  Let's face it....the waiting room in ICU is often not a very happy place. 
A woman who was part of the group struck up a conversation with me by the coffee pots.  She was here from Florida.  Her best friend was the ICU patient.  She came to say goodbye to her friend.  That morning they were removing life support.  She told me her friend and her family were all believers.  Strong believers.  Later, I heard them say that one by one they went in and said their goodbyes.  Then they all gathered in the room to be with her when she died.  Very sad.  Yet, I felt Him there with that family. 
I feel Him now...sitting in the lobby waiting for ICU visiting hours.  He permeates this place.
A song has stuck in my head for the past few weeks.  I listened to it a couple of times this morning....sitting here typing on my mini dell.  And it occurs to me that it is true.  No matter what place we find ourselves in....He is there.  And He is Awesome.  And He is “big enough.” Video follows....