Twitter Rant: A "Miracle" or "Good Luck"?

Oh, give thanks to the LORD!
         Call upon His name;
         Make known His deeds among the peoples! – Psalm 105:1

Today’s Reading: Psalms 105-106; 1 Corinthians 3

This is a twitter rant from earlier today as I thought about a back and forth exchange that I had with a friend about the Chilean mine rescue. Was it a miracle or just good luck?

Enjoy.

In this post I suggested that the Chilean miners' survival was a miracle.

We have been so well trained to try to understand everything that we have abandoned miracles as things out of fairy-tale thinking.

It's as if only the least educated of those among us can believe in such silliness.

What happened with the miners was a mixture of scientific know-how and luck. Miracles don't happen anymore, if they ever did.

I disagree with this line of thinking. When I see a series of events go impossibly right I look to purpose rather than chance.

Miracles are at least as equally plausible as random luck. The difference is one's perspective.

If you believe that there are no purposeful outcomes outside of human understanding then luck wins.

Also it is more comfortable to deal with a belief in luck when we look at other situations where the victim is not so fortunate.

But this rationale, though strangely comforting in the bad cases is quite lacking in the good ones.

I readily agree that the logical problem that occurs when one tries to explain the problem of “good luck” arises when explaining God's purpose in tragedy.

The reason why I side with miracles in the end is because I do not dare to explain the purpose or reasons for anything.

Only in hindsight do we pretend to see, clearly, past events. And those too are rarely seen with 20/20 vision.

So for those who believe in luck I ask... why do you chose to believe this way? Does it help you understand the world?

Cause from what I see luck and miracles are the inverse of each other. One explains the good the other the bad. Both are logically weak.

Both luck and miracles require specific systems of belief regarding the existence and role of God.

Or lack thereof…

A Miracle in Chile

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
         And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Psalm 103: 1

"Thank god, thank god. They are all safe. It's a miracle!" – Pedro Cortez

Today’s Reading: Psalms 103-104; 1 Corinthians 2

  

Several nights ago I watched as the third man was lifted from the collapsed Chilean mine a half mile below the surface. I was overwhelmed with a few thoughts.

The first was gratitude that they all made it out alive. They were buried underground for 69 days, the first seventeen of which no one knew whether they were alive or not. They survived on painfully limited rations of food and somehow managed to keep their sanity.

The second was the absurdity of it all. I mean really? What the heck are human beings doing a half mile underground? If that doesn’t clearly show the degree to which we have fallen out of balance with this world then I don’t know what does.

The third was the pomp and ceremony of it. There are people who survive life or death situations every single day. The vast majority of them go unnoticed. I was getting a bit irritated by it.

But then I started reading articles about the men and I was overwhelmed when I read this one quote. A 63 year old miner, who has been working in that mine since he was twelve, immediately collapsed to his knees when he got to the surface.  He gave a prayer of thanks for what he and his companions had survived.

And then it hit me. It REALLY hit me. It was a miracle that any of them made it out… but all the more a miracle that they ALL survived. And I started to understand why there was so much attention paid to this. The world was witnessing a miracle happening live, right before our very eyes.

Of course all kinds of science and technological know how are what enabled the rescuers to drill the pipes so that the miners could escape. But think about how much had to go right for this result to come about.

The cave-in happened in such a way that no one was critically hurt. That is a miracle in and of itself. There was a miraculous mixture of personalities down there that prevented the morale from dropping too low. Several of the trapped miners were known as the folks in the crew who make everyone laugh. Their gifts of comedy helped keep everyone sane and balanced.

They also had exceptional leadership. The supervisor who was trapped with the rest of the miners had the leadership skills to ration the food for the first seventeen days at levels that would make any grown man want to fight. But they did not break down in a catastrophic way. In the face of a seemingly insurmountable challenge he helped the rest believe that they all could make it if they shared what they had. There was no reason to lose even a single life while there was still hope for survival.

And after seventeen days relief came.

Miracles do still happen. They happen everyday.

We have come up with clever ways of ignoring them or explaining them away as something else; chance, luck, science, coincidence.

But there is nothing that is outside of God’s control. All that we are and all that we have to give can work for the good of God. Sometimes it comes in the form of a doctor who has been gifted with amazing knowledge that saves physical lives. Other times it is a child gifted with a smile that saves emotional lives.

Either way a life is saved. And when we are able to see how we touch the lives of others each and every day by spreading love into the world we will see the miracles that are happening all around us.

It isn’t the miracles that have disappeared from this world; it is that we have lost the faith that gives us the desire to look for them. 

The Power of Meditation

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalms 46:10

Today’s Reading: Psalms 46-48; Acts 28

I had a conversation recently with a friend about meditation. We were talking about how powerful it is, how when we are able to reach that place where we can let go, we are connected to something that is wonderfully powerful, beyond measure.

This brought me back to the time where this blog was born; the ten day fast that I did in September of 2007.

Many years had passed since I had really spoken to God. Sure God was around and maybe I hollered at him every now and then when I thought I needed him, but I was in an utter state of confusion. I couldn’t see anything clearly.

Then I decided to do the master cleanse and unplug from the TV and Internet for 10 days.

The experienced changed my life.

When I look back on it I see that the power of that experience wasn’t in the lemon drink or the salt water flushes. The power was in the silence. When everything was shut off my spirit was able to shake off the burden of the noise in my mind and finally exercise its wings again. In the silence I was able to hear what God wanted me to hear. I was able to listen.

The times that I spent meditating and reconnecting with God were so powerful and so comforting. It was like going back home and realizing that I never left.

For several years prior to this I spent so much time trying to solve all of the spiritual problems of the universe that I had forgotten what my position was. In the attempt to understand God, I gradually started trying to do his work. I tried to answer the questions that only He can answer. I tried to solve the puzzles that only he can solve.

But when I became quiet I was able to see clearly and know without a doubt that He is God. Not me.

Often times we don’t know the next step we are supposed to take in life because we spend too much time talking and not enough time listening. Give listening a chance sometime. Find a quiet place where you will not be interrupted and just close your eyes and sit there. No music. No soothing meditation sounds. Just silence.  If your mind starts racing about random topics, let it race. Listen to what it is saying without trying to control or judge it. Let it talk freely and observe what it has to say. Eventually it will tire itself out and go silent.

This is when the miracle begins.

From this silence the spirit will burst forth. It will sing the songs that God wants to speak into your life. This is what inspiration is for me. It is when we are blessed with ideas and visions and dreams that are bigger than our small minds. They are so big and beautiful for our lives that it is clear that they are not ours.

Then when you open your eyes you will see what I saw and continue to see. What once was foggy is now clear. And in that clarity you will know the next steps to take to make your dreams come true.

The only question is… do you have the courage to take the first step?

If you don’t have some crazy, miraculous epiphany the first time, that’s cool. Keep trying. Having the patience to reach a state of quiet is very difficult. It takes work and patience.

But I promise that if you put in the work, you will reap the fruit one hundred fold. 

A Fancy Handkerchief

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Acts 19: 11-12

Today’s Reading: Psalms 10-12; Acts 19: 1-20

Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve hit on a magical mystical part of the scripture. I guess the whole Job thing was a bit of a downer. It’s all good though. Sometimes we gotta deal with the really real right?

Right.

But look at this one! Pieces of cloth that touch Paul are being taken to the sick for healing. It’s kinda cool to think that he could touch a handkerchief and it could be used in this way. But I wonder what the circumstances were. Did someone let Paul borrow his handkerchief while he was debating in the synagogue? Was he wiping his brow like one of them hot and sweaty Baptist preachers? What did the sick person think when that damp, sweaty mess of cloth was brought to him?

Sick Person: Don’t touch me with that mess.

Person with Handkerchief: But it’s Paul’s sweat on it.

Sick Person: I don’t are if it is Jesus’ sweat. That’s nasty.

Person with Handkerchief: Shut up and let me put this on you.

Sick Person: Over my dead body!

Person with Handkerchief: Ummm… well that is an option.

Sick Person: fine… but keep it away from my mouth.

Yeah, something like that.

What’s interesting is that this is commonly known as prayer by proxy. Someone who could not make it to the assembly of believers is sick. That person’s loved one comes and asks for healing for that person. Since the assembly cannot physically lay hands on the sick, they pray for an article or clothing, or pray for the sick person while touching the loved one. They then go to the sick person and lay hands on them, serving as the proxy for the original blessing.

Yeah it sounds hokey but stranger things have been proven to be true. If I didn’t know better I might be like the Sick Person above. Get that mess away from me!

But during this time of reading the Bible I have seen miracles happen. At this point I won’t categorically reject any of this stuff. Over and over again the theme of the impossible becoming possible has been drilled into us. All that is required is the proper measure of faith.

I think I can do that. Who knows… maybe I’ll try this in the future and come back to talk about it.

Plus, Paul was a regular person like you and me. We can do what he did right?

Right. 

Miraculous Living

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom… Ezra 1:1

Today’s Reading: Ezra 1-2; John 19: 23-42

Uh oh… here God goes again talking to folks that we don’t expect Him to talk to.

Cyrus sent out a written proclamation throughout the entire Persian kingdom saying that God’s house was to be rebuilt in Jerusalem and anyone who wanted to roll out and make it happen could roll.

Have you ever had someone that you least expected tell you something that was so true for your life that it was almost scary?

Well it happened to me when I spoke to Manny.

Some people say that miracles are not real. They say that they are either figments of our imagination, or humanity’s way of understanding the unfathomable.

But miracles do happen. We just have to keep our hearts and spirits open to see them.

Each and every day as we walk along the path of life we experience miracles. It is these miracles that keep us on our path or encourage us to get back on when we have fallen off.

Sometimes they come with flashing lights and pyrotechnics and smoke clouds. But most of the time they come in random occurrences, strange coincidences, and advice from loved ones and strangers.

But either way, one must believe in order to see them.

That belief doesn’t have to be a steadfast, unwavering faith in the supernatural (I mean who really can say that they have mastered that kind of faith in anything?).

Sometimes believing happens in a blink of an eye. Sometimes that believing is a momentary flicker when our hearts and spirits dare us to take a chance on the impossible.

The trick is figuring out how to turn those flickering sparks into flames. As we practice believing, by taking those chance, leaps of faith, we learn how to light the fires of our hearts.

And with our hearts ablaze or lives become the miracles that we previously could not believe.

Where There's a Will There's a Way

“Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” –Joshua 3: 15-17

Now we meet Joshua, the successor of Moses. And as only a successor of Moses would, he gets off to a pretty gangsta start.

Israel must cross the river Jordan in order to enter the Promised Land and reach their first foe; Jericho. But of course, as has become the theme so far in the Old Testament, an impossible obstacle stands before them.

The river is high when they approached it and they have to get everybody across. So what does Joshua do? He has the Levites lead with the Arc of the Covenant. When the Arc reaches the water, the river stops flowing and the people are able to walk across the dry riverbed.

One of the scariest things about pursuing our dreams is that they tend to seem impossible at first. After all, that’s why it is a dream right? If it was easy to achieve you’d have already done it.

But when we go for dreams that are in line with our talents and purpose there is always a way to achieve them.

I’m sure you have heard about Ben Underwood. Ben was diagnosed with cancer in his eyes when he was three years old and had both of them surgically removed.

Tragic.

But he didn’t let that stop him from living as normal a life as possible. With theencouragement of his mother to use his other four senses to navigate the world, Ben created a form of echolocation to serve as his new eyes.

Echolocation is what dolphins use. It is also the logic behind SONAR. You make a sound. That sound bounces off of objects that it encounters and comes back to you. And based on how long it takes for that sound to come back you can determine the precise location of that object.

With this miraculous skill, Ben could not only tell where the things around him were, but he could also “see” cars, cups, fire hydrants, and trash cans.

No matter what your dream is, it can be done. When you get to that point where it seems impossible just remember that “impossible” is God’s specialty.

Just keep moving forward. Where there’s a will there is always a way.

Here is Ben's Story...

Today’s Reading: Joshua 1-3; Mark 16

Little Isaiah

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. – Mark 10: 13-16

I train a martial art called Capoeira. It is a Brazilian martial art created by enslaved Afro-Brazilians as a means to resist slavery. And now, it has grown to be a very popular martial art all over the world.

One of the things I love most about it is that it is a family affair. If one were to drop by Capoeira Brasil (where I train) you would not only see adults training, but also children of all ages. You may even see a dog or two. It’s more than a martial art. It is a loving community and a way of life.

Late last year I befriended a special little two and a half year old named Isaiah. His mom brings him to class, and while she trains, some of the community of folks hanging around looks after him along with the other children.

He’s such a great child.

We became friends during our annual festival. We were watching some of the masters fight and he was there just giggling and laughing and having a great time. It was easy to see that his spirit was full of the same joy that you could see in his smile. It was as if everything in life was good and beautiful. He had the eyes of someone who is still amazed by the miracles he witnesses everyday.

I waved to him and he giggled and waved back. Then after playing like this for a while he reached for me to hold him. I was totally surprised, but who could say no to that little guy?

Not me.

Ever since then whenever I see him he always gives me a big hug and a smile and we always play for a bit.

There is something special about the way a child sees the world. It is good and pure and inspiring and so full of love. I think this is what Jesus was talking about in the scripture above.

If we could work on being more like children, to see the miracles of love and joy and laughter and play all around us; then maybe we would understand how to be better people.

Perhaps seeing the miraculous in the everyday will help us to love better, to appreciate more of those things we take for granted.

I’m trying to approach everything like it is brand new; each new day, each new person, place and thing.

I’m going to be more like Isaiah so that I can better see the miracle of life that God gives to all of us every single day.

Today’s Reading: Deuteronomy 1-2, Mark 10: 1-31

What is Really Possible?

Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?"

"From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."

" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." Mark 9: 21-23

“Everything is possible for him who believes.”

The more I hear this, the more I wonder… Is Jesus really serious here?

Ok here’s what I mean.

So yeah we know this idea of believing and receiving. We know that we need to believe in our dreams otherwise we won’t do the work that we need to do to make them happen.

This all makes sense.

But what about what Jesus actual says? Is life as simple as just having faith? We’ve seen Jesus wither trees, raise people from the dead, restore vision, heal the crippled, the leprous, the possessed…

But that’s what Jesus did. Cause after all Jesus was Jesus right?

But for some reason Jesus keeps on telling his disciples that they can do it too. And there was nothing special about them. They weren’t the result of an immaculate conception. Jesus asked them to follow him and they were the ones who said yes.

They were special by faith, but not for any other reason.

And Jesus sent them out and they did all kinds of miraculous healing too.

What if the message here is literal as well as symbolic? What if Jesus is saying that anything really is possible by faith?

Does that mean that if we had enough faith we could feed thousands with some loaves of bread and a couple of fish? What does that mean for world hunger? Does the solution lie in faith rather than genetic engineering, hormones, and economic policy?

Hopefully I didn’t lose you here.

I just find it fascinating that this is repeated over and over again in the Gospels by Jesus himself. It must be for a reason. Maybe we really are capable of so very much more than we think we are.

Food for thought…

Today’s Reading: Numbers 31-33; Mark 9: 1-29

Self or Others

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. – Mark 6: 45-50

Here’s the story of Jesus walking on water again.

What a show off.

But this telling of it is interesting. Or perhaps I just didn’t notice it the other times I read it.

The reading today starts off with Jesus trying to get some quiet time for himself and his disciples. The twelve disciples have come back from the mission Jesus sent them on to preach throughout Israel. As they are trading war stories they are bombarded by all kinds of folks.

So Jesus says ok, let’s bounce to a remote place so we can get some peace and get a bite to eat.

As they are in a boat making their exit five thousand men (as well as untold numbers of women and children) run to their destination and get there first.

Drats. Ok… I guess now Jesus has to preach to them and feed them all with a miracle.

Done.

So then finally when the people are physically and spiritually fed Jesus gets to pray alone. But then when he’s done he sees his disciples on the water trying to row against the wind.

Sigh…

So Jesus catches up to them on foot, (walking on water of course) gets in the boat, and then the wind dies down. Finally they can be on their merry way.

What a day!

I like how Jesus managed to take care of everything. He started the day wanting to find some peace and quiet and he ended up finding it. Along the way thousands were fed.

Most of us have a hard time striking that balance. Either we take care of others to the detriment of self, or we look after self to the detriment of others.

This day in the life of

Jesus shows us that this balance is possible. One should not be done at the expense of the other.

Rather, if we are on the right path, there will be ample room in our lives to take care of others and ourselves.

Today’s Reading: Numbers 17-19; Mark 6: 30-56

The Viral Plague

Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me."

Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD. And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt. But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. – Exodus 10: 16-20

The past two day’s readings in Exodus have been the story of Moses getting the people of Israel out of Egypt. After reading about the crazy plagues my first thought was this.

Those Egyptians were GANGSTA.

Pharaoh’s magicians matched the first three plagues tit for tat.

Drop your staff and have it turn into a snake. Easy.

Turn the Nile and other water into blood. That’s cool.

Make frogs rise up out of the Nile and go everywhere throughout the country… Yeah we got that handled too.

(God did earn style points for having Aaron’s staff gobble up the magicians’ staffs though.)

After these three, God upped the anti something vicious. Killer hail, boils, gnats, flies, locusts, darkness for three days. But still Pharaoh wouldn’t give up.

I had to admire his hustle.

Have you ever had a foe with this much determination?

I recently did: a computer virus.

Ok fine, it didn’t turn my shower water into blood or make bugs start popping up under my sheets but geez it nearly finished my computer, not to mention my ability to blog this weekend.

The sneak attack commenced Friday at around noon just before my physical therapy appointment and lasted through this morning. I had no idea what to do about it. So at the risk of further infection I went to Google and found a site called Geeks to Go.

The expert assigned to my case knew exactly what to do. It did take a couple of days but with his help my computer’s health was restored and I am able to get back to the creation of this illustrious blog.

Perhaps I’m being a bit silly here, but I think I felt a small bit of what Moses and Aaron felt in front of Pharaoh. That virus had a clutch on my computer like Pharaoh had on the people of Israel. And like Pharaoh, that virus’s heart was hardened beyond belief.

Given my relative position of defeat, I thought about surrendering… I pulled out my old Windows XP disk and tried to delete everything and reinstall a fresh copy.

I couldn’t even do that! Ultra wack.

It sucks to be faced with an adversary that has rendered you powerless. I was forced to seek outside help.

Sometimes we are in situations that are way too big for us to handle on our own. In these situations we have to be humble enough to know that we can’t handle it and ask for help. Help may come in the form of a fantastic miracle. But other times God works the miracles that we need through the people we have around us.

Whether it is Geeks to Go blessed with the technological prowess to kill a computer virus, or medical professional blessed with the know how to kill a physical virus within our bodies, we cannot forget to stay connected and stay humble.

After all, that’s what friends and family and our community are for. We are stronger together than we are on our own.

And when others call on us, we have the opportunity to be that same blessing in someone else’s life.

Today’s Reading: Exodus 9-11: Matthew 15:21-39

The Backside of a Miracle

When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"

Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."
He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region. – Matthew 8:28-34

Today's Reading: Genesis 27-28; Matthew 8: 18-34

Whoa whoa whoa!

Ok wait a minute… What if you were one of the people tending the pigs? You’re going about your work, chillin, minding your own business and all of the sudden this happens. I imagine it going something like this. Let’s call the pig keepers Earl and Carl.

Earl: Hey… Carl. You see that man over there?

Carl: What man?

Earl: Look dummy! That man there. He’s walking on that road by them tombs where them crazy dudes are. Must not be too smart.

Carl: Don’t you know who that is? I think that’s that Jesus dude.

Earl: Jesus? Oh that fool owes me three denarii!

Carl: No not that Jesus. You know, the one who turned water into wine at that party a while back.

Earl: He did what!? Hahahaha! Shut up Carl.

Carl: yeah man. It’s true. My cousin Ray was there. Red wine, delicious.

Earl: Like that huh?

Carl: Yep like that. But what’s he doing over there by those tombs. He must not know… oh no… they seen him!!

(Carl and Earl yell out into the distance for Jesus to run away from the possessed men.)

Carl: You think he heard us?

Earl: I dunno man… Now he’s talking to them. They’re not attacking him!

Carl: Wait he’s looking in our direction now.

(Jesus points at the pigs… then there’s a snap, crackle and pop.)

Carl: Oh no!

Earl: grab em you fool!

Carl: I’m trying I’m trying!

Earl: Go close the gate!

(Carl is knocked down into the trough by a massive hog as the hog herd runs down the ledge and into the lake to their demise.)

Carl: nooooooo…

Earl: Well I’ll be good and Go—

(Jesus turns and with a snap fixes his gaze at Earl in the distance, stopping Earl short from saying God’s name in vain. He then calmly continues on the path. Earl and Carl sit in silence covered in slop. After a few moments Earl hollers out to Jesus in the distance.)

Earl: Ay! What you gone do about our pigs holy man!

(Jesus keeps walking)

Carl: Bossman ain’t never gonna believe this.

Earl: Shut up Carl.

Yeah, something like that.

I feel bad sometimes for the folk on the sidelines of these miracles. I mean, Earl and Carl got jobs to do ya know? Now they’re about to get fired because of a miracle.

That ain’t right.