martes, 22 de mayo de 2007

Faith

The faith is a concept often attacked by intellectuals and overestimated by religious persons around the world. It is therefore convenient to try to understand more about it and to avoid, when we use it, that our faith is recounted like "blind faith."

According to the dictionary, faith is the reliable confidence in the truth, the validity or seriousness of a person, idea or thing. According to the Bible: It is, then, the faith the certainty of what is waited, the conviction of what is not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

In many situations we have no control, we cannot have control, of the future events, nevertheless we have to take decisions and act as if we knew what is going to happen. The majority of the people who flies in a plane do not know if each one of the elements that allow its correct functioning is in perfect condition, nevertheless they trusts, have faith, that the mechanical team of the air company realized correctly its maintenance task and acts consequently: doing plans on what it is going to do after a normal landing. Without faith, we would paralyze ourselves.

Now then, the faith is not a superstitious hope, the faith is a confidence derived from the truth, or at least, of our understanding of the truths that govern life, in the past, present, and future. In this sense, the faith is individual. Nobody can provide faith to other person, or transfer bottled faith.

Granted, truth is an evasive concept, especially when it is discussed what will happen in the future. As such, it is important to distinguish faith from presumption and from obstinacy. Let's suppose that the weather has been nice (sunny and without wind), but that the weather forecast speaks about a sudden change for the next day to rains and strong winds. Presumption would be to make plans for the next day based on how there has been the weather (sunny, without wind) in the previous days. If instead, we do plan for next day based on how we wish the climate to be, it would be obstinacy. In fact, if we like the snowfalls, we might acquire appropriate clothes, sleds, antifreezes, etc., without considering that it hasn’t snowed for years: obstinacy. On the other hand, faith is to trust that the meteorologists know what they are predicting based on the big number of accurate predictions in the past and to prepare wisely for the rains.

Faith is also to see what nobody else sees and to act consequently. All persons are different and each one visualizes the future in a particular way. Let's take as an example Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. He was an artist, not an inventor or neither a scientist, not even an engineer, but when he listened by chance to a conversation about electricity and electromagnetism, barely in development by then (this happened at the beginning of the XIXth century), he visualized a way of distance communication based on the above mentioned concepts. And even more, confident that it would work, he left his painter's career and dedicated his life to develop his idea. He endured many rejections and 12 years pass by before the American Congress accepted to tend a telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore. The result: a way of communication that improved the world. This "vision" beyond the senses, is faith.

The faith is not "a blind jump in the darkness" as Soren Kierkegaard said at the beginning of the XIXth century and whose phrase was simplified later to "faith is blind." The real faith is based on something sure. There are those who say that faith in God is blind, but actually there is so many evidence that points out to the existence of a Creator, that the real blindness would be to have no faith in God. As well as the reason endorses the faith in God, it must endorse any person, work or idea in which we place our faith. It was the scientist Blaise Pascal who said: "The faith says to us with accuracy what the senses do not say, but it doesn’t contradict what the senses see; it is above them, not against them."

It is because the faith that we can trust the future. A study on stress and anxiety carried out by the University of Pennsylvania revealed that 15 per cent of the Americans spend more than half of their time (not counting sleep hours) worrying, either for health, finances, family issues, job security, violence, or relationships. Although a small dose of stress is healthy, we must counter the excess with a good endowment of faith.

Finally, faith must be reflected in our character. The confidence in God, in our family, in our coworkers, will allow us to concentrate on our own responsibilities without worrying excessively on issues out of our control, even if at one particular moment the results are adverse. We must always remember that a good character, with his dose of faith included, produces fruits in due time. And of course we must never forget the source of faith: So faith is by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

miércoles, 16 de mayo de 2007

Man Spent Seven Years Dead in Bed

The News:
The decomposed body of a German man was found in his bed almost seven years after his death, said the Police of the German city of Essen… The Police said in a statement that the man was 59 years old and he was unemployed at the moment of his death… Probably he died of natural causes November 30, 2000… Near the bed of the deceased, the Police found cigarettes, an open TV guide and some German coins, that stopped circulating in 2002 after the introduction of the Euro… The apartment of the man was in a building with offices and residences, many of which are now uninhabited… "Nobody miss him. Nobody denounced his disappearance", the Police said (taken from reforma.com)

Comment:
Death is natural, what is not natural is to spend 7 years unnoticed. Even the most far away relatives take less time in trying to establish contact, but let’s assume that they had an argument and distance themselves. Didn’t a single neighbor try to complain about the bad smell (that I suppose spread when the body was decomposing)? Nobody went to ask him for a cup of sugar or to invite him to the typical meeting of neighbors? Didn’t he meet any friends to play golf with, dominoes, cards or Nintendo? And more surprising: Nobody went to cash some debt, services, taxes, interests or quotas And doubly surprising: Nobody went and tried to sell him long distance services, magazine subscriptions, scouts cookies, or discount coupons.

Death is natural, what is not natural is to smoke. The natural thing is to eat and to enjoy that delicious German food.

(Editor: The Germans drink a lot of beer and this Blog is against the alcohol)
(Author: But surely they also have other beverages, so instead of criticize, investigates a typical German beverage without alcohol and complete the previous paragraph)
(Editor: Why bother? Coke is universal)
(Author: Don’t be lazy! Investigate and complete the paragraph)
(Editor: "The natural thing is to drink water". There! Should I add it?)

Death is natural, what is not natural is to live watching television. Not because many people do it, makes it natural. The natural thing is to take a walk at the park, to greet the neighbors, to visit the friends, to communicate with relatives, to play chess, to pay taxes… (Well, please erase the last one before the editor sneaks in, at any rate, being unemployed and 59 years old, perhaps he received instead of paying). Anyway he should have contact with some social worker, his dentist or simply his doctor.

"Nobody miss him…" the sad thing is not so much his isolation but the form in which he spent the little time that we have in this life: smoking and watching television. Is there an alternative? Of course: to change the TV guide for a Bible and to switch the time in front of the screen for time in the congregation praising God. First, it would prepare him for eternal life and second, it would provide him with a new family in probable replacement of the carnal one that give up on him.

What the Bible Says
A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24).

We do not know the reason why the man of the news remained alone, but if we follow the Solomon’s advice to be friendly, that will not occur to us.

jueves, 10 de mayo de 2007

Rape of Girl; Decides Not To Abort

The News:
Lucila …, a 10-year-old girl and nine months, asked for help… so that they should offer to her medical attention during her pregnancy … The small one denounced that was violated by…, the landowner of the house that they rent and where she lives with her parents … Lucila said that her aggressor threatened her all the time so that she never denounced anything, otherwise, he said to her, he would kill her. For this reason, Lucila kept silence, until the growth of her belly denounced her. Lucila's parents …, indicated that the pregnancy of the girl is already 28 weeks old … The parents requested …, medical attention for their daughter, who decided not to abort … The aggressor was taking advantage of his absence and that of his wife to attack Lucila … The 65-year-old rapist is now in prison… The pregnancy of Lucila is of high risk, and for being the mother-to-be minor of age, her childbearing will be with Cesarean surgery… Yesterday, Not Governmental Organizations of Oaxaca were pronounced in favor of the decriminalization of the abortion in the entity, and demanded that the reform approved in the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District should have validity in the whole Country.

Comment:
She should be playing with dolls and nevertheless...

I doubt that anyone differs with me if I affirm that it is not fair. And if we let free our personality, we would be crying out loud that the author be raped, outraged and abused, if not lynched, in jail. Wouldn’t we feel some satisfaction if we find out that he is having a bad time in prison? What garbage of man! (And I don’t say worse things because this is a Christian Blog).

Regarding Lucila, wouldn’t we be advising to this small girl to abort? After all, the law allows it since it is a high risk pregnancy and also, consequence of a rape. What doctor in his healthy judgment would refuse to practice the abortion in this case? Undoubtedly it would be the advisable thing so much not to put in risk her life or her future, and nevertheless…

What a radical decision of this girl! She doesn’t wish the abortion, but wishes to have her son, even in so outlandish and risky conditions. What lesson she is giving us! Her baby is not guilty and she will provide him with innocent love and fondness that we, the rational and intelligent people who suggested her to abort, might not. Instead of ending with an unfair situation for others, Lucila accepts and forgives. The rapist is in the jail, while she, without microphones, without noise, with inaudible voice, with his actions, is saying to him: "Although you took advantage of me by force, I am going to have your son; I am going to take care of him and to love him very much, even more than Lily, my favorite doll…"

Lucila does not understand the legal language; she is unable to distinguish between "termination of the pregnancy" and "abort", or between “decriminalization" and "prohibition". Perhaps some day will understands it, but for the present moment, what she knows, based on her feelings, is that she loves his baby. Let the legislators, ethicists and scientists go on with their debates about when an embryo turns into a human being. She took a simple decision, that of loving…

And that must makes us to shut off and make us repent of the unhealthy advices that we gave her and repent of cursing the old man. Lucila is demonstrating us what would Jesus do and for that, she deserves not only our respect, but our admiration.

Some persons have said to me that they don’t like that I publish sad news, or tragedies or depressing ones. This is not one of them. This one is of life, of value and of love. Thank you Lucila! Persons like you are the ones who make us think that the human race has future.

What the Bible Says…
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:44-45)

In Mexico a debate is going on about abortion. Lucila is saying that what it matters, all debates aside, is to love.

lunes, 7 de mayo de 2007

Hawking Enjoys Weightless Flight

"It was amazing... I would be able to keep going without stopping", said Hawking, of 65 years, after landing from a trip of two hours in a Boeing 727-200 modified and with padded walls that, flying in parables as a roller coaster, produces periods of weightlessness… The professor is almost completely paralyzed by a degenerative illness and can only speak by means of a computer and a synthesizer… Four doctors and two nurses accompanied the cosmologist, dress with a blue suit of flight, inside the airplane "G-FORCE One", popularly known as the "vomit comet" by the unpleasant effects that can feel on board those who are submitted to the experience… The Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero-G), operator of the airplane, usually charges 3,500 dollars per passenger for a flight of 90 minutes… The scientist traveled seated during the ascent and once the plane descended, was helped by two people that guided him in the air while he was floating freely… Hawking, author of the best seller "Brief history of the time", on the origin of the universe and the creation of space-time, where also refers to more extensive themes as metaphysics, said that the opportunity to experience the weightlessness was "marvelous" … "I believe that mankind does not have any future if does not go to space", said Hawking. "I believe that life on Earth is every time in more risk to disappear from a disaster like the global warming, a nuclear war, a genetically developed virus, or other dangers", added… Hawking, holder of the Lucasian Professor of Math at Cambridge, position once occupied by Sir Isaac Newton, suffers of a degenerative illness, lateral amyotrophic sclerosis that was diagnosed at the age of 22.

Comment
And to think that I complained that a ride on the small roller coaster of the local fair was expensive! I do not need to pay so much to feel dizzy and just knowing the nickname of the airplane, I guess I am going to stay in land. Once in my life I paid to ride on the big Mexico City Roller Coaster: It was once too many! Now, yeah, I know that there are some people happy experiencing strong emotions, addicts to the adrenaline, some practicing extreme sports, who feel that in order to be alive one must challenge the gravity: It’s their money! I suppose that there are a lot of people like that, or the business of this little plane, the "G-FORCE One," would go bankrupt. Don’t take wrong, I don’t have anything against them, that should be clear, but please, if are you one of them, before your following jump with parachute (or equivalent: bungee jumping, motorcycle jumping, even scooter jumping), be sure to have accepted Jesus as your personal lord and savior. Just in case.

I respect Dr. Stephen W. Hawking, the disabled scientist that did the trip and I am happy that, to him it represented a unique emotion to abandon his wheelchair and to float inside the airplane. But I have no reason to agree with his opinions. I know that it could be shocking for the scientific community: Dissenting with Dr. Hawking, holder of the Lucasian Professor of Math at Cambridge, position once occupied by Sir Isaac Newton? Blasphemy! I will try to explain myself, but I should clarify before hand, that no human being, even the most brilliant and intelligent (Me included), possess the truth concerning the future of mankind. Of course I am not going to debate with him the result of a series of complex differential equations (because I will lose), nevertheless, he is entering a ground where he challenges God and as such is earning this fight.

(Editor: There was no need to clarify who would be losing the debate. Do I erase the note?)
(Author: I wanted to emphasize my humility)
(Editor: Then, the note after “brilliant and…”)
(Author: Forget it! forget it!)

Dr. Hawking said: "I believe that mankind does not have a future if does not go to space." Also: "I believe that life in Earth is every time in more risk to disappear from a disaster like the global warming, a nuclear war, a genetically developed virus, or other dangers." In his web site, in a Conference titled "Life in the Universe," wrote: "One can define Life to be an ordered system that can sustain itself against the tendency to disorder, and can reproduce itself." "A living being usually has two elements: a set of instructions that tell the system how to sustain and reproduce itself, and a mechanism to carry out the instructions. In biology, these two parts are called genes and metabolism. But it is worth emphasizing that there need be nothing biological about them. For example, a computer virus is a program that will make copies of itself in the memory of a computer, and will transfer itself to other computers. Thus it fits the definition of a living system that I have given."

He also mentions in his article (I give up citing him literally because he is very prolific) that life in other worlds exists, but that we do not know about it because the probability of intelligent life is very low (he himself says so), or that life has not evolved enough, or that has not been bothered in visiting us. Actually, when I was reading his article, at least the first part, it seemed like he was going to defend the idea that a divine designer exists, because he argued about the low odds for basic elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen) to combine randomly in order to form the extremely complicated molecule of DNA. Instead he concluded that perhaps there couldn’t be a lot of intelligent life in the universe, perhaps just some. Then he moved to speculate that life can also be mechanic (according to him, a computer virus is a form of life) and that we can send mechanical elements to space in order to colonize other planets.

Honestly it is very peculiar his form to visualize the future of mankind: Mechanical ships (robots) with the ability to reproduce, carrying, imbedded in chips, the literary production of all terrestrial libraries (I expect that this Blog can go incorporated in some little robot; would that make it my great-great-great-grandson?) I love science-fiction, I even wrote some time ago some short stories, but always I was able to distinguish them from reality. It seems to me that Dr. Hawking is trying to erase the line a little bit forced.

In another part Dr. Hawking said: "We are such insignificant creatures, in a small planet, of a very average star in the exterior suburbs of a hundred billion galaxies. As such it is difficult to believe in a God that care for us or that even note our existence."

There’s the point! Perhaps it is the illness that bothers him, or the lack of sincere human contact, or the lack of love around him, or some other sad event in his life, that produced in him incapacity to believe in God. I’m sorry, but I have to rebuke him. We are not neither insignificant, nor we live in a minor planet. If Earth was prepared, in the best possible location of the Universe, by God for us, we cannot be insignificant. And if we interest him enough as to give us a comfortable home, is because His desire to have personal contact with each one of us. Someone that can create the Universe can have the power to attend us all as well. Dr. Hawking cannot believe in Him and because of it he lives without hope for the biological human beings.

God so cares for us that has given us the sunsets, the flowers, the fragrances, the beaches, the forests and of course endowed us with the senses to be able to enjoy them. It gave us also a soul, a spirit and a family (biological) to enjoy life together and that is enough proof of His existence.

What the Bible Says
For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6).

Wisdom is to understand that God formed us and that only in Him we can trust, even when the future could be perceived uncertain. Let’s be happy with the little things that we have today in this planet that He gave us, because tomorrow we will be with Him in spirit in a place where treasures are not based on heavy metals.

Patience

The patience is a feature of character that allows us to go through chaotic situations without collapsing, allows us to educate our children without yelling and allows us to accept our coworkers without getting depressed, among many other things.

It is very interesting to know that the origin of the word patience is the Latin root pati that means to suffer. In fact the participle patiens was introduced into English as patient (in the hospitals) or "the one that suffers." Thus the same word recalls us that the patience implies suffering, though that suffering is accepted with dignity expecting a greater reward that will come, whether with the simple passage of time, with the perseverance, or with the correct activity at the correct moments.

It is important to notice that patience does not mean only to wait until the situation change or until somebody else does what it has to be done. It would be very easy, and a part of the human nature too, to blame someone else for everything negative that happens to us. Patience is the quality of tolerate or support pain or accept difficulties without complaints.

We will review the characteristic of patience in the three circumstances previously mentioned: the simple passing of time, the perseverance and to choose the correct activity at the correct moment.


Patience in slow moments
Have you ever been despaired with the bureaucracy of certain institutions? Have you ever had the "opportunity" to expect long time in lines in order to be attended? Have you ever had to attack your own boredom or that of your children in long trips? Those are all moments in which patience should defeat uneasiness.

We must understand that "bureaucracy" is not evil by itself, in fact was introduced in the administrative science as an element of organization and control. Without that uncomfortable "paperwork", an organization quickly would not know where its incomes came from, how to reproduce a particular process in absence of the actual leader, or how to control the expenses. We must understand then that the bureaucracy has a reason to exist and we must be kind when dealing with her.

Aside from understanding we also can use some creativity in order to convert the waiting moments into useful moments. Carry with you a book or some of your to-do issues (nowadays you can take a computer in a small briefcase) the next time that you have to face the bureaucracy, have to stay in line at the bank, have to expend some time at the waiting room of the doctor, to a trip, etc. Invent games with your children with words, numbers, etc.

The farmers know that the time between the sowing and the crop is not for laziness, it is a time to fertilize, to weed, to fix machinery, etc. One must take advantage of the apparent "dead time".

Patience as perseverance
It is said that Robert Bruce defeated England to free his country Scotland from its yoke, but only after many and painful defeats. He always had the patience to assimilate the blow, to raise a new army, to fight again, to be defeated, to assimilate the blow, etc. A cycle that was not interrupted until Bruce achieved the final victory and could reign in Scotland.

We can apply this, so much to this King, as to a football team that, after been blown out several times, perseveres until achieves the championship, to a student that finally gets his or her degree, or to an employee that finally is recognized as "faithful servant".

Patience as the correct activity at the correct moment.
When "we are at the nick of time" we tend to despair, to irritate, to shout and to generate a terrible chaos without reaching any meaningful results. This is also a moment for the patience. Again, it doesn’t have to be a matter of expecting for a solution to "fall from the sky", though we can pray and ask for divine help, we still also have to face the problem. Gideon, David, and other heroes from the Bible that received God’s help, still had to go to the battle.

The crew members of the Apollo 13th, when their ship suffered damage, could hit the walls with their heads, could curse the mission, could tear their suits and still have the same problem. They had the patience to request aid, to comment the alternatives and to work in a solution that could improve their odds even when time was scurrying among their hands. They did the correct thing with patience.

Source of the patience.
The good news is that to achieve this feature, we have the aid of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22 says that the patience is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We are not alone, we can pray that God provides us with His Spirit so we can be rewarded with this fabulous feature of Christ’s character: the Patience.