Ruminations and Ramifications

A quick rumination on global warming

I had the luxury of the window seat on my return flight from DC Saturday morning. I had many thoughts as my mind drifted from the view of the rolling hills below back to my ARRL exam material. One stemmed from a conversation I had over dinner with my client Friday night. He asked me my thoughts on global warming. Now, Scott isn't a believer, but he's pretty conservative for the most part. I told him that there was not enough evidence, that even the young PhD I knew was not convinced, and that besides, God wouldn't allow it. I think that last statement threw him.

But as I looked out over the surface of the earth from a height of 35,000 ft, I realized that there wasn't much there. Comparatively, the volume of the atmosphere from the ground to the highest plant or structure was minimal compared to the remaining volume extending to the edges of our planet's atmosphere. At that moment, global warming and human impact on the planet seemed to be the most absurd thing to me. I already know that weather is created and affected by more than just local construction. Warming at the Tropics and cooling in the Arctic come together on the high plains and mix and balance each other's energy with no help from us, and from no harm by us. Hills do not stop tornadoes. City downtowns do not stop them, either. We'd like to think they do. Maybe an EF0 to EF2 would see some disruption to the lowest level of the flow, but a wedge would eat a downtown for lunch, for sure. There is just so much going on miles above the atmosphere that keeps the tornado going, especially if all of the right factors are there, that it is so arrogant to think that human activity a mere few feet above the surface of the ground could possibly affect storms, or the global weather patterns for that matter.

It just all points to my OWN thoughts on 666 being the number of a man. We are seeing ourselves being put on the pedestal and locating ourselves further inside the temple, in the holiest place, because man is quickly abandoning its gods for itself. If we were to really look inside ourselves and view what induces sin in our members, we would see that it is our desire to put ourselves above God in everything. In our love for others, in our trust, our desires, our worries, how we spend our time, etc... We treat God as an extension to our lives instead of the center that He must be.

So, what IS required of us? Obedience. To follow His commands, the greatest of which being love, and the HARDEST of all to pin down. It's not cheeriness. It's not forgetfulness of wrongs done. I think CS Lewis had some great things to say about this in Mere Christianity. But I think he made a mistake concerning personalities and attitudes being separate from the work done within by the Holy Spirit, because love, obedience, they are required of us and are all to be evident, even if minutely. We cannot go into this expecting to change the world, nor expecting anything! And that is, I think, the point of self-denial and service. It first requires faith, and that faith gives rise to obedience and good works.

Not eliminating poverty from the face of the world, or stopping global catastrophes. Not solving all the problems from the top down and getting all our ducks in a row before moving close to the people around us and loving them. It starts from the bottom up, leaving the big picture to God, and trusting Him enough with the big picture to move closer to individuals and building relationships with them that are for the purpose of encouraging and edifying the body. Because they are part of MY body. And I ought to treat them as I treat my own body, which I fed, showered, and took to the dentist this morning, then took to work so that it could do work in order to generate a paycheck to keep me warm and dry and able to be carted around in my car.

So, let's stop considering what's going on in the upper miles of the atmosphere, and start concerning ourselves with the lowest six feet or so, perhaps just as many feet across, with what is going on there.

posted by Marcian @ 10:30 AM