What's New?


What's New?

Uber, Bitcoin, Tesla, Millennials, Dreamers, Drone, AI, Virtual Reality and dozens of other terms that we may have heard of but we may not know what they mean.  Or we may be very familiar with them but we think they really have nothing to do with us.  A missionary spoke to a group of us when I was in seminary and he told us, “As ministers of the gospel you should know a little bit about everything.”  He meant that in order to earn the right to be heard as preachers of the gospel, you need to demonstrate that you know something of the world of your hearers.  Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed theologian said, “Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”

I have always been interested in many things but this week I have stepped up my game a bit.  It’s not unusual on any given day to travel several 20 to 30 minute segments in my car.  The news on the radio leaves much to be desired so I’ve begun listening to TED talks.  These are online presentations are about anything you can imagine.  So, this week I listened to a few talks about cryptocurrency or programmable money, ex. Bitcoin.  I don’t get it, but they say it’s coming, so I’m trying to grasp something.  I also listened to a talk about the state of our educational system.  The presenter said that the fear of failure on standardized tests has squashed the ability to use our imaginations and therefore we are only turning out students to fill positions in already prescribed industries and institutions.

Wow!  Human beings are amazing!  If you want to really have your mind blown listen to an interview with Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX.  But take a step back before crediting humans with too much and look at our universe.  Aren’t we, as humans, merely discovering things that an all powerful, all knowing, all loving God made available to us.  To our small minds the universe is infinite and the opportunity to discover something new is also never ending.

I’m hoping that these breakthroughs in technology do not lead us into another renaissance or industrial revolution where humans’ egos grow ever more inflated.  Instead, shouldn’t our fascination and worship of the living God grow exponentially with our ever-increasing knowledge?  

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
    Can you loosen Orion’s belt? 
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons[c]
    or lead out the Bear with its cubs? 
Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?”

God’s response to Job

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God, Fix Our Van!

Image
God, Fix Our Van! When our van broke down, our prayer for days was “God, please fix our van!”   Or “God, please make sure UPS delivers the part today!”   And then things began to happen and our prayer changed to “God, what would you have us do today?”   On a Saturday we left home to drive across the country to visit our children.   It was a grand plan: visit four days with our boys, go camping and then drive to see our daughter and do the same thing.   Things were going fine until we tried to climb a steep gravel road toward a reservoir and things began to heat up. Literally. The van overheated and BOOM! The thermostat housing exploded.   I tried to remain calm.   Hey, no one’s hurt, my boys have another car to go get help.   It’s not so bad……I wish I had been calmer. Plans look ruined.   What would we do now?   At least it was daylight and a tow truck was coming.   “Oh God, lead us to a good garage!”   And various prayers like that effused from our mouths.   Meanwhi
Read more

The Smoothing of the Stone....A Continuing Journey

Image
Thirty two years ago I got the idea for a book that would outline the serpentine path that my life has taken.   Even then I had experienced significant pitfalls, broken relationships and rejection that I thought would kill me.   Not all was doom and gloom; these were mixed in with tremendous opportunities and blessings.   In an effort to gain perspective, I came up with the title, The Smoothing of the Stone   and began writing a blog in 2012, imagining that a book was forth coming.   Eleven years later I can look back and say, “Well, you might have had something to offer then, but now…oh boy…now look what you’ve got.”   Of course, maybe I should keep waiting because the stone, that is me, pitted and marred by the tossing and tumbling, still at times looks fairly smooth at first glance.   In the past ten years my seasoning process has stepped up a level.   Rejection of my character and personality has revealed flaws of which I was not aware.   I have been blessed to not have experienced
Read more

Obscurity

Image
In 1968 a statement was attributed to Andy Warhol, “We live in an age where each of us is seeking our fifteen minutes of fame.”   Little did he know what was coming.   Whether it’s ‘hits’, ‘tweets’, ‘comments’, ‘likes’ or the number of ‘friends’ you claim, each of us has the potential to thrust our thoughts, accomplishments, talent (or lack thereof) before a world-wide audience.   And yet, not everyone takes advantage of pursuing such fame.   Everyone has enjoyed some aspect of this brave new world, and I will confess that I enjoy a smattering of entertainment that the internet provides.   Some of my favorites are clips from old TV shows, series of posts about Border Collies demonstrating their intelligence, and the amazing skill of a few on “America’s Got Talent”. Much of it is meant as pure entertainment, but the temptation to thrust your personal thoughts and images before a watching world should be examined closely. Many of you not only avoid such exposure but   actually abhor the
Read more