Spice Bowl #1: Hope and Awe by Blesson John
Note: This is the first of what I hope will become a fairly regular column for our church blog. I have chosen the name ‘Spice Bowl’, because I plan to talk about a diverse range of topics that interest me. Additionally, Spice Bowl happens to be the name of the only Indian restaurant in College Station. :-)
The newspaper is one of the most depressing pieces of literature I have read. There is rarely a positive headline on the front page. Instead, the stories that give one hope are subjected to the back pages everyday, next to advertisements for grocery store coupons and furniture closeout sales. This trend continues everyday, and everyday, some columnist or politician gives the public a spiel about the declining state of the world, whether it is economically or in living standards. We have become so entrenched in this worldview, that this is what we believe. Decline is what is expected, so when it comes, it seems like the inevitable result. We are fed these ideas by the mainstream media and whatever else influences us. Since we live in such a busy culture, we rarely take time to stop and take in what is happening and trying to form a more coherent picture. In other words, we rarely stop and take in the world ourselves.
Because most members of our church live in either the city of Dallas or its suburbs, we are too acquainted with the concrete jungle or row after row of strip malls and billboards. We come home to neatly arranged lines of brick houses or apartments. We are trapped in our own little worlds of school or work, with little else besides that. Life is monotonous.
Next time you have an hour-long lunch break, go to a local park or quiet place with animals or a body of water, and just sit. Turn off your Blackberry and take sometime to enjoy the things that God has created, and get away from man made monotony. The simplicity of something as small like as array of grass blades that grow and die has been overlooked. In man’s world, grass is just something that requires cutting every other week. No one ever thinks about grass as a complex transducer that uses so many mechanisms in order to convert energy from that yellow thing in the sky into energy can that help it grow. Those who have studied biology know the complexity of the Calvin Cycle. The reactions that take place during this cycle look something like this:
3 CO2 + 6 C21H29N7O17P3 + 5 H2O + 9 C10H16N5O13P3 → C3H5O3-PO32- + 2 H+ + 6 NADP+ + 9 C10H15N5O10P2 + 8 Pi
Yet all of this is happening in one blade of grass. Take your time and look at everything around you, be it the mechanics of a running squirrel, the swimming of a duck, or cloud patterns in the sky, craters on the Moon, or the scouting behaviors of a tiny ant. People have different ways of explaining all of this. They may do this in a purely naturalistic sense, in which the supernatural viewpoints are considered ridiculous. Yet, according to this viewpoint, something as complex as love is considered to be solely the result of whatever neurotransmitters are involved, or a way in which to evolutionarily pass on one’s traits to future generations. Is that not more ridiculous? Keep rekindling your sense of awe and hope in the midst of this broken world.
Note: This is the first of what I hope will become a fairly regular column for our church blog. I have chosen the name ‘Spice Bowl’, because I plan to talk about a diverse range of topics that interest me. Additionally, Spice Bowl happens to be the name of the only Indian restaurant in College Station. :-)
The newspaper is one of the most depressing pieces of literature I have read. There is rarely a positive headline on the front page. Instead, the stories that give one hope are subjected to the back pages everyday, next to advertisements for grocery store coupons and furniture closeout sales. This trend continues everyday, and everyday, some columnist or politician gives the public a spiel about the declining state of the world, whether it is economically or in living standards. We have become so entrenched in this worldview, that this is what we believe. Decline is what is expected, so when it comes, it seems like the inevitable result. We are fed these ideas by the mainstream media and whatever else influences us. Since we live in such a busy culture, we rarely take time to stop and take in what is happening and trying to form a more coherent picture. In other words, we rarely stop and take in the world ourselves.
Because most members of our church live in either the city of Dallas or its suburbs, we are too acquainted with the concrete jungle or row after row of strip malls and billboards. We come home to neatly arranged lines of brick houses or apartments. We are trapped in our own little worlds of school or work, with little else besides that. Life is monotonous.
Next time you have an hour-long lunch break, go to a local park or quiet place with animals or a body of water, and just sit. Turn off your Blackberry and take sometime to enjoy the things that God has created, and get away from man made monotony. The simplicity of something as small like as array of grass blades that grow and die has been overlooked. In man’s world, grass is just something that requires cutting every other week. No one ever thinks about grass as a complex transducer that uses so many mechanisms in order to convert energy from that yellow thing in the sky into energy can that help it grow. Those who have studied biology know the complexity of the Calvin Cycle. The reactions that take place during this cycle look something like this:
3 CO2 + 6 C21H29N7O17P3 + 5 H2O + 9 C10H16N5O13P3 → C3H5O3-PO32- + 2 H+ + 6 NADP+ + 9 C10H15N5O10P2 + 8 Pi
Yet all of this is happening in one blade of grass. Take your time and look at everything around you, be it the mechanics of a running squirrel, the swimming of a duck, or cloud patterns in the sky, craters on the Moon, or the scouting behaviors of a tiny ant. People have different ways of explaining all of this. They may do this in a purely naturalistic sense, in which the supernatural viewpoints are considered ridiculous. Yet, according to this viewpoint, something as complex as love is considered to be solely the result of whatever neurotransmitters are involved, or a way in which to evolutionarily pass on one’s traits to future generations. Is that not more ridiculous? Keep rekindling your sense of awe and hope in the midst of this broken world.
Psalm 8:3-6
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
Great Start! Thanks...
ReplyDeleteWay to go.
ReplyDeleteWho woulda thunk that the shy teenager of yesterday was so eloquent? Great job!
ReplyDeleteBTW - the newspaper is desperate, whatever drives sales, just so they stay afloat. Fear sells. Gossip too. :) Looking forward to Spice Bowl #2.