Weather Change

Its not every day you have a weather change named after you! Tropical Storm Don "barreled" across the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall yesterday bringing with it much needed rain but not enough to end the oppressive heat wave that has seized south Texas. While I would never wish a hurricane on any one, I'm a little disappointed that my namesake isn't more of a force of nature. Still there's something to be said about bringing relief in the middle of a heatwave. Recently it was reported that a child died in his home from heat exposure. Its a sad tragedy that does raise the question of whether God is to be blamed for such acts of nature. If God is truly all powerful then surely God could have stopped this from happening. To be fair to God, it might be noted that when engineers build poorly constructed and maintained levees, a city floods. When a nuclear facility is built on the coast of a island nation known for its tsunami's, it is a kind of gamble. When utility companies turn off the electricity of a South Texas senior barely able to pay for her prescriptions, she's liable to die from heat exposure. I cannot blame God for the actions of others anymore then I can take responsibility when, for example a mechanic fails to bleed my brakes resulting in an accident.  There is also the acknowledgment that in his wisdom God chooses to govern the creation through certain laws of nature, that while not perfect, do create a kind of predictability we have come to count on. But is God to be blamed for tragedy? I suspect if God constantly intervened in the life of the creation, there would be no tragedy. But wouldn't there also be no free will? After all, you can't tell God he can only interfere when its convenient for us. If my driving will result in a fatal accident some time in the future, God could simply refuse to let me drive. If a child will someday take someone's life, would it be better for them to have never been born? If a nation will establish itself through the genocide of the land's native inhabitants, would God not simply step in to stop this from happening (you and I would likely not be here if that were the case)? Free will even means you and I have a choice to reject God; and yet as imperfect as it is, we claim freedom is necessary for life. We will fight it, go to war for it, even die for it. And that takes me back to Tropical Storm Don. I'm glad my namesake didn't cause any significant destruction but instead brought relief, however brief. I only hope that in the brief span of my life, I have the grace to do the same... God willing.

Starting A New Thing

There's a draw back to hiring people that are young enough to be your children. First, they make you painfully aware of your technological shortcomings. Second, they speak a language that sounds oddly familiar but is punctuated by references that make no sense. Recently one of my staff urged me to begin blogging. I smiled and nodded my headed in agreement, while secretly questioning his newly expressed affinity for folk dance! Still, here I am dipping my toe into the virtual world of digital communication. "Theos-Offroading" is my reference to an "off-road" approach to a discussion about God (Theos in the Greek). My hope is that you'll consider joining the conversation without feeling constrained to agree or necessarily follow conventional norms of thinking about the Christian Faith. The truth is, no matter how tightly we wind God up, we will fail to constrain the true nature of God who has been revealed throughout history to people very differently and to very different people. Why are we so different from one another, one might ask. The obvious answer is God made us this way. And if this is true then God's ultimate goal must not be broad conformity but celebrated diversity. In terms of Christian community, it means acknowledging our uniqueness as individuals while at the same time, recognizing our connectedness to one another. To put it bluntly, this is family business.