houston, we have a problem

That phrase "Houston, we have problem" was originally spoken by James Lovell of Apollo 13 when the mission encountered a major problem. It has come to mean - something is terribly wrong.

Something is terribly wrong.

With Everything!

There is something wrong with everything on Earth - Eden is gone. Everywhere we look we see a world that is slightly askew. M. Night Shyamalan did a wonderful job in his movie Unbreakable to visually show us through his camera, and through his characters a world that is at odds with itself. The camera shows us through upside down characters, shots through obstructed views and one of my favorites a scene shot in the reflection of a TV set. The main characters show us the two opposing apexes of the pendulum swinging through the fragility of life. Are we completely breakable, or unbreakable? Either way there is pain. We live in a fallen world.

The beauty of Eden is gone, but we yearn for it. We strive to look our best in everything we do. We want the beauty of a beautiful home, a beautiful car, a beautiful wife, beautiful kids. We have to realize what we are really yearning for. We think that beauty can be bought from a plastic surgeon, but it is only temporary. We think that beauty can be found on-line, it too only lasts a moment. We keep trying, and once what we have found to be beauty gets old, worn out, or just not beautiful anymore, we search for something else that is beauty. There is no perfection in beauty anymore Eden is gone. The beauty that we long for, the perfect everlasting beauty can only be found in Christ. He is what we long for.

The peace of Eden is gone. We also strive for peace, or what we call happiness. So we find ourselves burned out by beauty, but surely God wants me to be happy. Right? If I could just get my kids to behave, if I could just get that raise, and I could go on. There are a number of things we think will make us happy. I recently read this quote from Watchman Nee, and it hit me hard.

"I am not suggesting by this that we must try to dispose of everything; that is not the point. The point is that as God's children you and I may not accumulate things for ourselves. If I keep something it is because God has spoken to my heart; if I part with it it is for the same reason. I hold myself in the will of God and am not afraid to give if God asks me to give. I keep nothing because I love it, but let it go without regret when the call comes to leave it behind. That is what it means to be detached, free, separated to God."

The place of Eden is gone. What I mean is all of the places to live on this planet have a character flaw. There is no perfect place to live. There are Hurricanes, Tsunamis, Volcanoes, Wildfires and Tornadoes just to name a few. This is not our home and we have to get used to that. I am reminded of the movie "The Matrix" where Neo finally sees the Matrix for what it really is.

All of this to say when we begin to realize that something is wrong we are one step closer to understand what we are really longing for. And that is God himself.

One last quote, from the great theologians Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young:

"Well then can I walk beside you, I have come to lose the smog, And I feel like I'm a cog in something turning, And maybe it's the time of year, Yes and maybe it's the time of man, And I don't know who I am, But life is for learning, We are stardust, we are golden, We are ten billion year old carbon,

And we got to get ourselves back to the garden"

At least we know what we are looking for. Welcome to the journey.

quiet

I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend today enjoying lunch. He is leaving town soon and moving out to California, so this was a chance for us to catch up and say so long (for now). Anyway, during the middle of lunch the restaurant experienced a power outage, and I noticed it instantly. It wasn't because of the lighting, because we were sitting next to a window and the lighting never changed.

It was the noise.

The fountain in the entryway stopped, the hum of the lights disappeared, all of the noise of power was gone. People were still conversing and there was the noise of people walking and talking, but the underlying noise was gone. I found myself wanting to lower my voice, because now others could hear me better. I felt the noise of the conversations grower quieter just like mine did. It felt like all of the other people became uncomfortable with the quiet as well.

Do we all feel uncomfortable in the quiet?

At my house there is always music on. Everyone in our family loves music and there is almost always some sort of music playing. Sometimes softly and sometimes we just rock out! Other than music there is generally a TV on somewhere in the house too. The AC is blowing, the computers are humming, the air filtration systems are whirring (allergies!) and on and on. Right now my monitor for my computer just started making and audible buzzing sound that almost drowns out the AC blowing.

What does it sound like in your house when the power goes out?

You should try it sometime. Make sure all of your expensive electronics, Computers and AC are off and just hit the main breaker. You will quickly see how much noise we live with.

How do we expect to hear from God with all of this noise? I wonder what some of us would do without noise, not the obvious loudness of life, but that low level humming (white noise) of life and electricity.

One of my favorite things to do is standing outside in a heavy snow. Do you know what I am talking about? One of those snows where it falls straight down, and each flake is the size of a half dollar. Talk about quiet and peaceful. I think it is the most peaceful experience in the world.

God wants us to experience His peace, but we need to just hit the main breaker and let life get quiet. We can hear what He has for us when it is quiet, and we are listening.