Second Lesson from Outer Space

Shoot the Moon!

. . . I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm. . . .
Joel 2:25 (KJV)

The moon is approximately a quarter of a million miles from the earth. For centuries we have enjoyed it, worshiped it, built calendars around its appearance, planned launchings of ships around its gravitational pull, and promised it to those we love.

A relatively new treatment of the moon has been the novelty of going to it. Jules Verne wrote From the Earth to the Moon in 1865, a fantasy that showed his fascination with the idea of space travel and a visit to the orb. In the first volume of his Space Trilogy, Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis wrote of the moon’s orbit as a barrier preventing cosmic demon forces from assaulting the earth. So by the 1930s the science-fiction community had an established notion of the moon’s distance from the earth.

Early science-fiction authors also had a well-developed sense of the vast distances involved between bodies in our solar system and the other stars. This gave them plenty of material to teach the impact of small changes over those distances. One of the best-loved lessons was that of accuracy in our moon shots, given unfortunately before we ever attempted one. But here is how the lesson goes.

The moon is 240,000 miles away from the earth.
Since the moon orbits the earth, the radius of that orbit is 244,000 miles because the earth’s radius is 4,000 miles.
The circumference of the moon’s orbit is pi X 244,000 x 2 = 1,533,097 miles.
Therefore, one degree is 1,533,097 / 360 = 4,258 miles.

Accordingly, the lesson we must learn is that if you aim a rocket at the moon and you are off by just one degree, you will miss the moon by more than 4,000 miles!

Of course, we added a level of sophistication to our formula. Because the moon orbits the earth once every 28 days, we need to aim our rocket to a place where the moon will be when the rocket gets there. Since NASA would put a rocket into earth orbit for a while and then send it off to the moon from there, the mathematicians calculated a 4-day trip to the moon from earth. This means the moon is about 51 degrees away from the intersection point if everything goes well. Even so, the idea remains the same. If your aim is 50 or 52 degrees away, then your rocket zips right on by the moon and into deep space. (Well, maybe it goes somewhere else, but that’s another story.)

So goes the lesson. Miss your aim by a little, and you miss your target by a lot.

All right already! Enough!

This is a variation of the old saying “as the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” It’s one more of those lessons of child-rearing, education, and character formation that needs revisiting.

Let me first dismiss the lesson of the moon shot as pure hogwash! From an engineer’s perspective, nobody would be so foolish as to design a rocket like that. Consider this. You make those careful calculations, even down to the fractional degree, and you shoot your rocket up into earth orbit. Then you do your trans-lunar insertion (that’s what I think NASA used to call it) to break free of earth’s gravity and fly to the moon. Along the way something moves in the rocket, or some microscopic piece of space dust collides with the rocket, and suddenly it’s off course. Now what?

Thank goodness, while the mathematicians calculated the flight path, the engineers designed the rocket! They designed into the rocket a few extras, one of which included the ability to make a mid-course correction. From the ground NASA could fire one of these engines for a few seconds and return the rocket to its course. And of course, once we put humans into those rockets, the crew on board could fire those engines. Close to the earth the corrections are slight. Close to the moon they become more significant. But the ability to change course is absolutely necessary, since life between here and the moon is so unpredictable.

Now let’s apply this to our life lessons and beef up our teachings.

We look to our upbringing and take an assessment of where we are in our lives. We include the genetic and environmental components of our childhood and our adolescence. We consider the mistakes we’ve made, the penalties we’ve paid, the violence we’ve suffered, and the 8-ball we’re behind. From here the path to our destination looks bleak. We are going to miss our life goals, set by others or ourselves, by far more than a few thousand miles. We have wounds and brokenness to deal with, we have scars that keep us from coping with new relationships, we have memories of the hurts we’ve caused others. We’re off the chosen path.

This is where the guidance system is to kick in. Our first action is to repudiate any teaching that says our lives are on a fixed course. Our second action is to identify the resources available to us for mid-course corrections. And our third action is to fire up those engines and make those corrections so we can get off the destructive paths we think we can’t escape.

Nobody is going to say this is easy. Nobody is going to trivialize the pain that you have gone through in your life, or the heartache that accompanies the experiences you’ve had. Every pain is real. Every hurt is to be acknowledged and honored in your life. And nobody is going to say that you will accomplish total restoration in your life, though you may be surprised at what you can accomplish.

Nobody is going to say that the mid-course correction can be done alone. You may be able to do some or all of these actions without help, but you may be the exception. And if you have resources to draw on when you make changes, you can find this far more effective than when it’s a solo act.

The only part of this that you can do yourself (in fact, the only part of this that you must do yourself) is to decide to make the mid-course correction. After you have made that decision, the resources are there for you to draw on.

Grace and Peace,
Charles+

First Lesson from Outer Space

It was called "Space Invaders." It was an electronic animated pinball game, incredibly sophisticated and totally absorbing! Today we would call it a "video game" where the name hadn't been invented when I first ran into it.

As soon as I put my quarter into the machine, the screen filled with several columns of hostile creatures dropping to earth with the worst of intentions. My job was to save the world by shooting them all with my ground-based defense system while moving left and right to dodge their bombs. If a bomb hit my missile launcher, or if one of them made it to the ground, the weapon disintegrated and had to be replaced by another. When the third launcher evaporated, the game was over -- unless we had enough points to get another launcher. We made points every time we shot one of those invading critters. When we shot all of them, a whole new screen of them would appear. The invaders on the new screen came down faster and were much meaner.

Video games became more sophisticated and more absorbing. Fortunately for me, there was no issue about kicking the habit and walking away from the things. Well, not quite. I had to spend a few more quarters obsessing over another game. My friends and I called this one "Spastic Spider." Its real name was "Centipede," and its title character descended on my ground-based shooter while I had to shoot all its little segments before it touched me. Every so often this eight-legged monster would come down in some random pattern and bounce around to wreak havoc, and it too had to be shot to pieces.

A lot of people were far better at these games than I was, and with their superior eye-hand coordination they always scored better than I did.

But with all these games there was one fact that finally made it into my analytical mind. Every time I played the game, I lost. Every time anybody played the game, the result was to lose.

Did we get 10,000 points?
Did we get 60,000 points?
Did we get a million points?

In all cases, the question was "How many points did I get before I lost?"

I could play once and see my score. I could play again and see a different score, higher or lower. I could play a third time and see a third score. But the final score was accompanied by those horrible words "GAME OVER" to taunt me with the reality that I LOST.

Look at the cycle.
Pay admission, enter the game.
Get beaten.
Leave the game.
Take a breather and think about what you did wrong.
While away from the game, realize you're out of the game and maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Remember what it was that attracted you to that game in the first place.
Come on, reach for that quarter. Get back into that game.

Do we have a parallel in any aspect of our life lessons here?

Pay admission by forsaking all others. Pledge to be together until death do you part.
Get beaten.
Leave the abusive situation.
While you're safely away from the abuser, reflect on the marriage and the relationship. What did you do wrong? What did you do to provoke the violence you were going through?
Look at the life you're living now. Are you really better off than when you were in the abusive environment? Was it really that bad? A few blows, some biting remarks, were they really something you couldn't handle? Wasn't that better than the loneliness you feel now? What was it that attracted you to the relationship in the first place? Didn't you love the person? Doesn't love conquer all? Shouldn't you be willing to give the relationship another chance?
Come on, reach for the car keys. Get back into the relationship.

This is one of the hardest things for me to write. Each question triggers a memory of someone who returned to some unhealthy abusive situation.

With the video game you get defeated and try again. You do better on the next try, drawing on your experience of the past encounters. You don't do as well on the next try, because some new hostile beast appears and trips you up. You lose.

With the abusive relationship it's the same thing, but the stakes are higher. We're filling cemeteries with those who can't break loose from the cycle of abuse.

If you're addicted to video games and you can't break away, there are sources of help. Please look for these sources and use them.

If you're addicted to the cycle of abuse, there are also sources of help. Please look for these sources and use them.^* Your life may depend on it.

Grace and Peace,
Charles+

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^* It is impractical to list resources, as an individual's needs are personal and unique.

The Curs(e) of Personal and Political Credit

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Harry S Truman

“When will we get the sorting utility manual?” I asked of the group manager.

“Charles, we don’t have a sort utility manual because we are not going to sort our data. You need to use the indexing capabilities of our new database.”

Oh, how I wish he hadn’t sent the e-mail to the entire company. It was mildly embarrassing to me, but that was nothing compared to the embarrassment he brought onto himself. Someone who had his ear told him that I’d been working with huge volumes of data, so large that the database was incapable of handling even a small percentage would drag the database to its knees.

Two weeks later one of the project leaders dropped the sort utility manual onto my desk. I’m not proud of my next comment, asking “Whose idea did it have to become before it was acceptable?”

Computer programmers and engineers tend to be a non-conventional breed of creature in the workplace. These people tend to come up with phenomenal ideas on a daily basis, but this is coupled with weak resignation that hardly anything will be accepted when it comes from them. In geek-speak it goes like this:
The acceptability of an idea depends on its source far more than its content.

Several years ago I sent this concept to Scott Adams, creator of the "Dilbert" comic strip. He has used the idea on occasion, though I may have been only one of many who sent it to him.

Translated into real-world language, the principle works like this.

• On Monday Bob, a geek, will come up with an idea.
  Jim, Bob’s low-level manager, dismisses the idea out of hand. Management would never buy it. The idea is too much trouble to implement. It’s too expensive. It takes too long to recover the cost of putting the idea in place. It doesn’t fit with the philosophy of the company.
• On Tuesday Harold, the department head, calls a meeting of low-level managers and solicits ideas. Jim presents Bob’s idea, claiming credit for coming up with it, and Harold gives Bob the approval to put the idea in place.
• On Thursday Malcolm, the division vice president, calls a meeting of department heads and asks for status reports. Harold describes the idea he came up with, and the progress his department is already making in its implementation.
• On Friday Keith, the CEO, holds a press conference to report the state of the company and its innovative accomplishments. Keith describes his (actually, Bob's) idea, already in place for several days, and the way his hard work and creativity is paying off.
• The following Monday, as the process gets repeated, Malcolm passes Keith in the hallway. Keith smiles at Malcolm. Malcolm, now having a nice day because the CEO smiled at him, calls Harold into his office and compliments him on last week’s superb idea. Harold, courteously thanking Malcolm, leaves and visits Jim in the engineering area. Another attaboy goes to Jim, and Harold feels he has expressed adequate appreciation to Jim. Jim then goes to Bob and demands new suggestions for company improvement. As Bob smiles and promises to think of something, he sees his idea going in full force and is happy. He also has mild contempt for Jim, Harold, Malcolm, and Keith.

Because Jim took credit for Bob’s idea, and Harold took credit for Jim’s stolen idea, and Malcolm took credit for Harold’s stolen goods, and Keith made the buck stop with him, they’re all credit hounds. So in calling them “curs” my title is not a misprint.

Bob continues at the company for several years, content to see the results of his ideas making his workplace better. Just before he is laid off, however, Bob puts one final idea in place. He goes to the tropical fish store, purchases a fishbowl, and sets it onto the secretary’s desk.

Whenever Bob or any of the other geeks come up with an idea, they write it onto a piece of paper and put it into the fishbowl. Whenever a department head or a low-level manager needs a smile from a superior, it is a simple matter of pulling out a slip of paper from the fishbowl and implementing the idea written on it.

The geeks couldn’t care less. It’s affirmation enough to see the idea work. That’s their job satisfaction. They don’t have to compete; they don’t have to stab others in the back; they don’t have to get credit for their ideas. They just work until someone really smart takes the company’s reins and decides the geeks are expendable, at which time the techies are laid off and the smart managers empty the fishbowl prior to running the company into the ground.

I remember in 1968 when Alabama Governor George Wallace ran for President of the United States. The nation was mired in a conflict in Southeast Asia, among other things. I remember Wallace making a campaign speech, in which he addressed several things he planned to do for the nation if elected. After each point, especially that of ending the Viet Nam conflict, he would say “. . . and I could care less who gets the credit for it!” (Yes, of course he meant that he “could NOT care less.” But this is evolution of the English language, not illiteracy on the governor’s part.) Whatever else I thought of Governor Wallace, those words of his stuck with me ever since.

So what shall be our commitment as we address the social and political issues of our day?

Charles+

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The world is too full of examples like these. Allow me to share one more, as a footnote.

One night I rode in the police helicopter over Washington, DC. I noticed, looking down at a crime scene, that the tops of the police vehicles had luminous numbers for ID. Later I asked the helicopter pilot if this helps him to identify the units, and he said, "Funny you should mention that." Then he told me this story.

"A couple of years ago I suggested to the chief that the tops of the cars ought to have their IDs so that the helicopter pilot could call out on the bullhorn when a suspect runs past one of them. The chief said it was a lousy idea, too expensive and impractical. Then a few weeks later the Commissioner made a public statement about putting IDs on the tops of the cars. It was amazing what a great idea the chief thought it was!"

YOUR Old Familiar Hymns Aren't MY Old Familiar Hymns

I looked up the term “the old, familiar hymns” as a theme for this reflection. The exact match came in a surprising place, a teaser to an article in the Christianity Today Library.

I’ll get back to that after this.

On Tuesday morning I was in a conversation with Linda, a woman at one of my employment networking groups. I mentioned that while I’m a geek during the week, I’m also an Anglican Priest. She told me that her church, North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship in Richardson, was having a special presentation comparing old hymns to new ones. The subject of hymn sources, contexts, and intentions is one that holds my interest, so I made plans to attend the Wednesday evening presentation.

The first thing I noticed was that where we sat when we entered the sanctuary. We went to an empty row and took our seats in the middle of it. There was no strategic 50-yard-line advantage to this, as they had projectors and screens all over the ceiling and we’d be able to see everything relevant to whatever was going on. But Linda chose to sit in places other than the first two seats on the aisle.

I’ve always wondered why people will enter a church, find an empty row, and sit so close to the aisle that you can’t slide a razor blade between the person and the end of that pew! Then the next person comes to the row, already disgusted that there aren’t any aisle seats left, and grumbles under his breath because he had to climb over that inconsiderate person who sat next to the aisle. But where does that second person sit? Right next to the aisle-sitter, of course! Then the third person comes in, totally disgusted with those two rude men who sat so close to the aisle, and climbs over person one and person two to sit where? You guessed it: in position three!

OK, this is not isolated to the churches. Walk into a movie theater, and the same thing happens. I suppose the early arrivals want to dash off to get popcorn when the movie they paid $10 to see has a dull spot or a social message? Who can guess?

All right, back to church we go. It’s Wednesday evening at an African-American church. Linda and I are sitting in the middle of the row of seats, looking forward to a comparison and contrast of hymns or praise songs from different eras. So we have a presentation about three pairs, and I can only remember some by title or content. Here’s what we got:

“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!” as the traditional, set beside a more energized hymn with a comparable theme

“Majesty, Worship His Majesty!” as the traditional, set beside a more energized praise song with a comparable theme

Two reverent songs essentially expressing “There’s Something About That Name [Jesus]”

I enjoyed the presentation, but what struck me is that “Majesty” and “There’s Something About That Name” were considered “Traditional”! The first time I heard -- or heard about -- either of these was in the second half of the twentieth century! Just how young are these people, that these are “traditional” musical offerings? (Or just how old -- oh, forget it, ha ha!)

Now back to the Christianity Today Library teaser. The leaders of a congregation are arguing over the worship leader’s choice of music. One of them complains “If he'd just play some of the old familiar hymns once in a while. Those new tunes are so difficult to sing. When he gets going on that instrument, it seems like he's in another world.”

The argument took place in 1730.

Please take time to enjoy some of the old familiar hymns.

Charles+

Strange Checklist for Shopping

Well, why wouldn’t they notice? I pushed my shopping cart into the store with an egg carton and an empty applesauce jar. Nobody would really notice anything unusual about a closed egg carton, but it was empty as well. Nobody gave me any sort of odd stare, as people hardly notice anything about anyone these days. Just a casual glance before they looked away and went about their other business.

Not too many people would take these things into a store unless they were up to something. This was the case for me. The egg carton and applesauce jar were my shopping list. My task was simple: just get a jar of applesauce and a carton with a dozen eggs. How straightforward could it be?

You would be amazed how many brands of applesauce you can find in a grocery store! I located the right brand, and then I matched the size of the empty jar in my cart. That was simple enough. I had my hands on the right brand, right size jar. Once it went into the cart, I was ready to approach the eggs.

Oh, but wait! There’s more! I had a jar of “ORIGINAL” applesauce in my hand, and was about to put it into my cart next to the empty jar marked “NATURAL.” It's a safe bet that I was glad for my shopping list! What an embarrassment it would be to go home with mismatched jars.

I almost got caught off guard, but then I was very careful to check out the eggs. That was a snap, since only one kind of carton had the color and markings of the one in my cart. So as soon as I opened the new carton and made sure all the eggs were unbroken, I was ready to go.

At the checkout counter was a final act of humiliation. The checker said, “You were sent here, weren’t you?” She had my number. She knew I didn’t want to disappoint my wife and bring back the wrong merchandise, but she was happy for me that I got it right. Then she put the empty jar and egg carton into my bags and laughed at me as I left.

I returned home and put away the items, leaving the empty containers on the counter for my wife to validate my efforts. All was well.

Good grief! How complicated can it be to get a jar of one brand’s natural applesauce and the right kind of eggs? Aren’t we being too much of a nerd by putting this much effort into getting a very simple thing right? At my age, and with my experience buying groceries, shouldn’t I be able to accomplish a simple task?

In this particular case all of these questions are valid. They are great to ask. But consider this question. How many times do we figure we “got it right” and discover later that we’ve forgotten something?

Have you ever heard of an airplane pilot who forgets to lower the landing gear, and the plane makes a very sickening sound as it scrapes on the runway? The pilot immediately knows that he or she has landed with the wheels up because it takes so much power to taxi. Not only that, the altimeter reads about two feet lower. And the pilot gets to meet a lot of interesting and important people. To add insult to injury, someone takes the landing checklist out of the airplane seat pocket. Sure enough, the checklist has an entry that says “Gear [wheels] down and locked.” The pilot has lots of hours in this type of airplane, knows the controls and procedures by heart, but somehow just didn’t get one of the details right.

I want to assure you that every time you ride on a commercial airline flight, the crew in the cockpit goes over the checklist line by line. And in addition to that, the “black box” (actually, it’s orange) makes a voice recording of the crew members calling out the line items. So your chances of a pilot forgetting simple items such as lowering the landing gear are very slim.

I could take this into the area of tragedy when pets or children are left in a locked car. Now I’m done with this because it’s more serious than I want to get.

Let’s go in the direction of our Bible study. Give me the answers to these questions.

1. Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden for eating what?
2. Noah took how many of each type of animal onto the ark? (Yes, it’s Noah. Nobody’s trying to trick you by saying Moses!)
3. Who cut Samson’s hair, causing him to lose his strength?
4. How many Magi went to visit the Christ Child?

Here are the answers.

1. Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden for eating a forbidden fruit, not necessarily an apple.
   Genesis 2:16-17; 3:2, 6, 11
2. Noah took seven pairs of “clean” animals and one pair of the others.
   Genesis 7:2
3. Delilah didn’t cut Samson’s hair. She called a man to cut it while he (Samson, not the nocturnal barber) was sleeping.
   Judges 16:19
4. The Bible doesn’t say how many Magi brought the gold, frankincense, and myrrh when they went to visit the Christ Child.
   Matthew 2:1, 7, 11, 16

See? How many did you get right? Could we do better with our Bible knowledge if we spent more time studying even the things we think we know?

So the next time you see me in a grocery store with a 3-dimensional checklist, maybe there’s madness to my method.

Or maybe there’s method to my madness?

Grace and Peace,
Charles+

Well, They All Sound Alike to Me!

This morning I received a call from a longtime dear friend, asking me for a Scripture reference. He said, “I remember, there’s something in the Bible about people in the last days calling good evil and calling evil good. Do you know the verse that’s taken from?”

We talked for about an hour, just catching up on things. He gloated about the beautiful weather he’s having in his part of the country, and I slipped several notches in my piety because of the sin of envy. He told me the wonderful things happening at his church, and I rejoiced with him.

All during the conversation I was searching my various concordances to no avail.

“I think it’s probably Pauline,” I said. He agreed it sounded like it belonged in 2 Timothy, around the “itching ears” text in 4:3-5.

After we finished our conversation and wished each other well, I kept scratching my head. All my keyword searches (“evil,” “call,” etc.) were to no avail. Why? Because I was looking at the New Testament passages for my answer.

Finally, I consulted one of the two theological experts in my life: either Google or Bing, I forget which. Searching on “call evil good” returned about 3 finish-the-phrase search lines, one of which took me exactly where I wanted to go.

Well, no it didn’t. It took me to Isaiah 5:20, one of the “Woe” prophecies. “Woe unto them that call evil good” was not what I wanted to read. I wanted to read something like my friend had said: “In the last days there will be false teachers who call evil good and good evil.” I was disappointed for some reason.

Then it came to me. No, actually, two things came to me. The first was that Paul, in telling Timothy about the itchy ears being scratched by false doctrine, indirectly was saying exactly that. After all, when we look at the teaching that pleases the high-rollers in the progressive churches, it’s teaching that is blatantly false. It’s teaching that reinterprets such statements as John 14:6 (“. . . I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”) as “I am one of the ways to God.” It’s teaching that excuses sex outside of marriage as long as (a) it’s consensual, and (b) neither party is married to another person. (Trouble with that one is that Jesus in Matthew 5:28 didn’t talk from the same memo; he didn’t consider consent, nor did he consider marital status when he defined adultery.)

The second thing that came to me was the consistency between Paul and Isaiah. Paul was never considered a prophet in the same sense as those great figures of the Old Testament, yet he often spoke and wrote prophetically. His words to Timothy and others concerning the last days had a prophetic ring to them, and his letters to the various churches expressed the Divine Revelation. So here I thought “they all look alike, don’t they?” Well, probably not. But I still enjoyed the consistency between Paul and Isaiah, and there are a lot of other consistencies just sitting around like gems on the ground as we reflect on the Scriptures.

May you be blessed in your own treasure hunts.

Charles+

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^KJV 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. ⁵ But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.

^KJV Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

^KJV John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. ⁴ And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. ⁵ Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? ⁶ Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. ⁷ If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

^KJV Matthew 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: ²⁸ But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.