Sharks, lions, and bears oh my!!

In 1975 my family vacationed in Ocean City, NJ. That was the year the infamous movie Jaws was released. I recall my dad responding to his children’s pleas to watch that movie with “If we go see this movie, you WILL go swimming in the ocean tomorrow!” As a wise father he knew the fear that would likely grip each of our young minds as we entered the Atlantic the next morning with new knowledge of what may lurk just beneath the surface. We went and saw the movie that night and did, in fact, swim in the ocean despite our newfound fears. Since then, I have never entered the beautiful depths without the ever-present awareness of row-after-row of razor sharp teeth that could seal my doom at any moment.

As humans, we have a well-deserved fear and respect for sharks, lions and bears because a ghastly death is possible if not likely if we attempt to occupy their territory. We seem to instinctively know, if not learned from paranoid parents and the Discovery Channel that these carnivores will, if given the opportunity, devour us causing an agonizing death. It is directly due to this rightly placed fear that we avoid certain times of the day in the ocean, hang our food high in a tree when camping and don’t meander through the Serengeti without a rifle.

Unfortunately, we often do not hold that which can destroy our soul with the same reverence and awe. We habitually play like a child with reckless abandon in places of this world that we should, and in fact very likely know are fraught with dangerous sin traps, lifeblood sucking pitfalls, and God distancing temptations. We haphazardly enter Satan’s lair convincing ourselves that it will be okay this time, God wants us to, we can resist the temptation and help others, grace abounds so why not, and various other falsehoods. But the truth is, shark’s teeth are created to shred meat, lion’s claws are designed to slice and hold its prey, a bear’s power is prepared to overcome the weak, and sin exists and will consume the unwitting and foolhardy soul that dares come hither.

When will we understand? When will we grasp the darkness of our soul to scamper from the light? When will we desist playing with fire and discontinue blaming others when we get burned?

God and God alone has the power to overcome our sinful desires. We are truly a moth mesmerized by a flame flickering in the darkness. The difference is that we, unlike the moth, were given a conscious, a soul, and the ability to cry out to the living Savior so that we may avoid our deserved demise.

God asks “When will we realize sin is and always will be a machine of sorrow, emptiness, misery, and death?” Choose life, peace, joy, comfort and glorifying the Creator rather than the creation.

Run to the Savior who does love you but cannot ignore the sin that so easily entangles you. Do not give strength to your sin by counting on personal willpower but instead on the power of the Holy Spirit to free you from the bondage of death. 

God of Wonders

Just south of the U.S. Mexican border in the expansive Chihuahuan desert, abruptly springs the Naica Mountains. This mountain range derived its name because it sits on top of the deep and ancient Naica fault that birthed these crags. In the late 1800s, prospectors began to dig into the Naica dust in hopes of finding buried treasure that only Mother Nature could create. It did not take long till miners discovered precious metals like lead, zinc, and silver. Occasionally a mineworker would find small yet striking crystals in the rocks.

In April of 2000 brothers Juan and Pedro Sanchez did not believe the mine had given up the last of its booty and entered the dark and deep mine shafts. They were not novices at mining and so they began to excavate new tunnels in search of elusive hidden treasure. Suddenly and unexpectedly, their shovels pierced a rock and mud wall. The heat and stifling humidity from this never before seen room pummeled their bodies and filled their lungs as the mud tube in which they stood breathed in this alien air. As their dim miner’s lights stabbed the darkness they quickly realized that something was different about this chamber. No, it wasn’t precious metals, sparkling diamonds, or a lost city; it was a room bursting with never before seen massive crystals the size of steel girders that support modern day skyscrapers. 

National Geographic explorers and scientists have since voyaged the half-mile conduit and entered the dwelling that is justly named The Cathedral of Crystals. Others who have gazed upon its grandeur have nicknamed it The Sistine Chapel of Crystals. Nat Geo describes the view as “It looks like Superman's fortress. Hidden deep beneath the surface of the Earth is one of the greatest natural marvels on the planet: a giant crystal cave with crystals up to 36 feet long and weighing 55 tons. But this scorching cavern could kill humans after just 15 minutes of exposure.”  

Humankind seems to have an unquenchable compulsion to explore, find answers, and discover the mysterious. It is this motivation that propelled Ponce De Leon to seek the Fountains of Youth, Christopher Columbus to seek a route to the riches of India, and Bill Gates to expand the realms of possibility in microchips. It is this drive that most often attributes to great and magnificent encounters such as the Naica Caverns.

I would imagine when Juan and Pedro first crawled out of the bowels of the earth and excitedly witnessed to others what they found, their friends likely thought they had inhaled too much toxic cavern gas. Eventually they were able to coax someone else to breach the earth’s surface and slowly travel to the immense depths to view never before seen and indescribable beauty beyond measure. The Sistine Chapel of Crystals has been in that location for many millennia and has simply sat there waiting for adventurers to discover its creative and breathtaking splendor.

You see, it’s not that the crystals were not there, they were; it was that no one sought them out and no one opened up the craggy door to absorb their intensity. But once they opened this portal they could not contain their excitement, they had to go and tell others of this unseen miracle.

In all of history something like these glowing skeletons were relegated to fictional books like Journey to the Center of the Earth but now the unreal has become real.

While the Cathedral of Crystals is assuredly remarkable, defies logic, and to some level believability, it does not rise to the level of paranormal. That is, science understands how these improbable formations came into existence. There does exist, however, something behind these translucent treasures that is in a real sense paranormal. That something is what we call God. The all-powerful Being transcends all known laws of science and is the force that allows such wonders to exist. God is far more intense, awe inspiring, bewildering, and awesome than anything we behold with the naked or aided eye. God is the greatest treasure of all and unlike the caverns in the Chihuahuan desert that require discovery; God has and is seeking you.

Isn’t that incredible to consider that God wants and loves you so much that He created you and left His thumbprint to quench your natural drive to know something is true; in particular, the existence of an unseen Being? He offers such exhibits as the massive crystals, quantum particles, and colossal universe so you could know He truly is! Are you burrowing around seeking the ultimate pearl and are your eyes wide open to the opulence that awaits you? It would be a travesty to traverse this plain and miss the reality that surrounds you!

“Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens
   and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the LORD,
   for at his command they were created, and he established them for ever and ever—
   he issued a decree that will never pass away.  Praise the LORD from the earth,
   you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
   stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills,
   fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds”

Psalm 148:3-10

Ghosts in the Dark

The faces, screams, pain and gripping fear I have witnessed when I wore the badge and emotionlessly slid into a bag are so vivid at times as to haunt my thoughts when the light slides under my feet and darkness blankets my body and fills my eyes. Thumps in the night are not ghosts or demons but mangled bodies from the past delivered by darkness untold for me to embrace and view them again. My futile attempts to flex muscle against unseen forces have reached their end. I now fear reality as the thoughts of yesterday cripple my today. I have entered the wormhole and no pill or soothsayer can cloak that which has been revealed. I am thankful my once soulless eyes have been forced to see the depth of man’s weakness but there are times I wish I could taste imitation again. To be able to close my eyes to the barbarians at my gate and live again in wonderment in lieu of unshakable death is tempting as if it is even feasible. Alas, there is no Disneyland but only foggy voids of despair, emptiness, dread and hollowness by which I breathe. My hands and feet desperately clamber for a familiar point of contact only to find they are all shifting pixels of odd beauty pulling my energy but returning no favors. I have spent my life hiking an open path of choices with a magnificent singularity in view. I have reached this earthly Nirvana, tasted its deception, felt her nakedness and consumed her lust; I violently shake as I awake to the backside of the façade. The other side of the moon is nothing but dark, cold, and lifeless and man’s childhood dreams have been revealed as sterile and unfruitful.

We reside among devils. I now see them as they fly into our lungs, run through our veins and camp in our brains. God’s creation willingly ignores our condition because we do not wish to be healed; did I want to be healed? I wonder, had I known the day was coming when I was told there was no Santa might I have stayed in bed or scampered down the rabbit hole? Alas, mortality forges on because she believes that bag of diamonds and vault of gold is more than shiny stones; “It must be purpose!” But the black velvet bag is empty and the vault is hollow. We have no hope, we wallow in misery, why do we embrace meaninglessness and prefer not to look behind the curtain of Oz. Oh that Toto would have been crushed in the storm, burned to death by the broom or consumed by the flying carnivores. Instead, he, in his smug, cute, furry coat survived the war to expose a fake, no different than I, who resided on the dark side of the moon. I have no ruby slippers and the sorceress’ wand has been shattered and I daily float over the great abyss and tremble. Hovering past the wall and looking back the solid ground on which I played is but a shaved apple skin rotting from below. The world frolics ignoring friends who drop beneath and despises those who have pierced the atom never to return. All of humanity is content in their snow globe and I, and I, well I am here and I cannot be there. Christ is the Author of it all, and He and His Kingdom are all that ultimately exists, and one day that dimension will be my rest but not today. Today I forage for scraps of justice, love and peace to find deception, sorrow, and anguish in the dead that walk about in this stagnate pool of disease as they embrace every slimy sip. I beat my head against the wall in a futile attempt at the impossible as I have no power, no authority and no strength against the impenetrable darkness that is man. Christ and Christ alone has conquered the impossible, nay, the improbable with His drips of sacrificial blood on Calvary. Oh that the upright rotting corpses could witness the grandeur of Truth. I plea before the righteous Judge for their eternity but only a finger is offered and it is Christ pointing to the freewill of mankind to remain empty or accept His filling. We are loved but rarely consume its sweetness choosing to immerse ourselves in the cesspool of rot. Why?        

Rant on Science

Forgive my rant but it is such an inane assertion by non-believers to say that Christians ‘simply’ want to invoke the boogey man when in fact we have the capability to understand theoretical physics at a much deeper level. It is my view that they, not us, are staying simplistic when they ‘simply’ state “Big Bang” or “Millions and millions of years ago…” (sorry, but isn’t that what children’s books start with? E.g., “In a distant land a long long time ago…”) We, believers, go deeper and further to attempt to grasp the Infinite that stands behind it and truly getting to the “why” and “how”. To me the real questions are why are they limiting the research? Why not expound the realm of possibilities? Is that not what science and in particular quantum sciences are created to dissect? I mean, why, would an individual of any stature out of hand exclude something that is at minimal possible and at peak likely?