Itsara

A while ago on Valence (which has been really quiet lately – where you at, Casey?), there was a tangential discussion on what is and is not a miracle. I think it started somewhere around here, if you’re interested. Anyway, we’re going through Bruchko with Sandra for homeschool, and we read a chapter titled “Everyday Miracles” that had an interesting point of view on this subject.

Bruchko is the story of Bruce Olson. God called Bruce to share Jesus with a dangerous tribe of indians in Colombia called the Motilones. When the Motilones accepted Jesus, it radically changed their lives without destroying their culture. Their faith, in this passage and others, is astounding.

As people began responding to the Word and obeying God, other things happened that I also called “miracles” – things that were clearly supernatural. But the Motilone idea of a miracle wasn’t necessarily mine. Some things that astounded me they took in stride.

Medicine, for instance. After the Motilones began to walk with Jesus, there was a tremendous expansion in that field. But whenever shots, pills or ointments were administered, they were accompanied by a chant that called on Jesus to heal. For the Motilones, the healing that the medicine accomplished was a miracle from Jesus. It was something He did for them. Their prayers were a part of the healing process.

Sometimes that brought surprising results. One day I arrived at a home to find a man who had been bitten by a poisonous snake the week before. He had almost recovered.

“I thought you were out of snake anti-venom,” I said. “Where did you get some?”

“We didn’t have any,” the witch doctor replied.

“What, in heaven’s name, did you do to make him recover?”

“Well, all we had was some antibiotic. So we gave him that and prayed that God would heal him. As you can see, He did.”

I was astonished. The antibiotic was absolutely no good for snake poisoning. God had healed the man, not the medicine.

But wasn’t that what the Motilones said about all healings? What difference did God’s method make? Whether a person used the proper medicine or not, it was still His healing.

To Bruce, it was a miracle – a supernatural intervention of God upon the natural world. To the Motilones it was also a miracle, but it was the same sort of miracle as every other kind of healing – whether by proper medicine, by prayer, or by the body’s ability to heal itself.

The interesting thing is, what if it wasn’t supernatural intervention? What if the antibiotics had an affect that Bruce or medical science simply didn’t understand at the time? Or what if there were some other natural law at work that we’re not aware of yet? Bruce, as well as most of us, would say it was not a true miracle, but the Motilones would still maintain that it was a miracle just as everything else is.

It raises the question of what a miracle really is. If we define a miracle as something that breaks natural laws, then, as science progresses, our definition of a miracle must grow narrower and narrower. What if we’re looking at it the wrong way?

I really like the Motilone view. All of it is God’s healing. What difference does God’s method make? One could argue that they are a primitive, ignorant group of people. Yet their faith is greater because of it, and it is a faith that brings results.

The wisdom of the world says that knowledge and self-reliance should be among our supreme goals. But Jesus praised the faith of children. A child who doesn’t trust his parents finds himself alone, broken, and wondering why his life is so terrible. They become self-reliant, but in a misshapen, “I don’t need anybody” kind of way.

A child who trusts on the other hand, as the Motilones trust God, finds that even though life isn’t perfect, it’s a pretty fun, safe, and loving place to be so long as his parents are nearby. The trusting child learns self-reliance too, but of a kind flavored with trust – with other-reliance.

We could argue that the Motilones are primitive and ignorant by Western standards, but their lives are lives of love and everyday miracles. So who’s better off?

Sean has a post on his blog. Some pertinent information:

• Arriving at LAX on Monday.
• In San Diego from the 23rd to April 1st.
• In Arizona visiting family for two weeks.
• Back in San Diego April 15th to the 22nd.
• Wondering if anyone in San Diego has a car they can borrow while they’re there (though Sean didn’t mention it, I imagine they’ll need a car seat as well).

Man. Somebody’s been wasting a lot of time talking about science. Time to tell you guys what’s going on in our lives.

First news first. After two failed attempts at getting Prang legitimized to visit the United States and her in-laws, she has finally been approved! (Third time’s the charm, apparently). Sean and Prang are wasting no time, and they plan to leave for the States on Monday. I don’t know exactly what their plans are after that, just that they hope to visit San Diego and Sean’s family in Arizona, and to stay for as long as the United States government and their commitments here will allow.

March and April are summer break in Thailand, so Lutiya and Pan are home for a while. Lutiya wants to visit her village, but may not be able to until next month. Pan, uber-responsible child that she is, got herself a summer job at a restaurant near our house. It’s long hours, but also more money than she’d ever see from allowance.

Matt and Sandra are still doing school, though they’ll have a break around Songkran in which they’ll probably get to see their mom.

Nathan is doing better all the time. He seems to be accepting our love and discipline really well. His smiles are quicker and more and more genuine. He’s learning the right words for the things he wants and can even follow simple English instructions. Cindy and I, also, are getting more used to the idea that he’s our son.

Isaac is a crazy talker. He loves telling me everything about everything and has no problem mixing Thai and English or repeating words over and over again to tell me that he kicked a ball or watched a movie. He’s really interested in books. His favorite is The Big Book of Flight, in which he has increased his vocabulary from “balloon” and “dadow” to include words like helicopter, airliner, space shuttle, and jet fighter.

Cindy is of course still teaching dance, and her girls have a performance tonight here in the mubaan. I got to watch their rehearsal last night and, as always, Cindy’s creativity and love for dance astounds me. The best part is we’re getting videos of these things so we can show you when you come to visit.

I’m still writing. The first novel is kind of done for now, until and unless I go back to it and do some major revision. The second novel is nearing completion and I hope to start querying agents with it in the summer sometime. You can keep up with that kind of nonsense here, if you’d like. Or you can just wait until I show up screaming on this blog that I’ve got an agent or am published or something.

You may recall a few years ago God asked me to get rid of all my games. If you do, it might surprise you to learn I’m playing them again. Not only that, but I have some installed on my computer. How did that happen? I’m so glad you asked!

A few weeks ago I was talking with a bunch of fathers about parenting. Someone asked how they could have a better relationship with his teenage sons.

“You gotta spend time with them,” one said.

“How do you do that? They’re always out with their friends or in their room on the computer.”

He explained, “You have to get in their world. Find out what they’re into. Like my sons are totally into Star Wars. It’s all they ever talk about. A few years ago, when they first started, I wished I had known it was going to be the next big thing for them. I would’ve gotten into it from the start.”

He talked more about how it’s never too late and stuff, but I was thinking, “That sucks. I love Star Wars. Why can’t my kids be into stuff like that?”

Suddenly I realized that Matt – one of my kids I spend the least time with, and one that needs a father figure the most – was already into something from my world. He’d even asked me before if I wanted to play games with them or install them on my computer. I’d always said I couldn’t.

I’d often wondered how to reconcile the conviction against games with spending time with my kids. Suddenly the solution seemed obvious. It felt insanely right to break the conviction for Matt’s sake.

So on the weekends now, in addition to playing Monopoly with Lutiya and Sandra, or taking Pan out for an amazing sandwich, I play Left 4 Dead or Counterstrike or Team Fortress with Matt.

I won’t say it hasn’t been a struggle. The whole point is to spend time with Matt, so I still won’t play single-player; I’ve got Warcraft 3 on my computer and I can never play it. It’s also really easy to spend 3 or 4 hours on a game and forget I have other kids to take care of.

But mostly it’s been really, really good. Matt and I have fun, and more than that, I feel like I know him better. We actually talk. He’s no longer some kid mooching my food, he’s someone I hang out with. Confrontations about his homework or whatever are easier, since he doesn’t feel like the only time I talk to him is when I’m upset. For that matter, neither do I.

It’s not as if the hours spent capturing flags or hunting each other through military outposts is all quality time, but as any parent will tell you, quantity time is the only way to achieve quality time. And now Matt and I have some of it.

I’ve been dancing around this topic for two weeks now. I’ve laid the foundation, now it’s time to jump into it (how’s that for mixed metaphor?).

Like heliocentrism 400 years ago, evolution is a topic that has created a rift between the camps of science and religion. And, like heliocentrism, evolution has a heck of a lot of scientific evidence to back it up. It would seem we Christians are losing. Can our faith be undermined so easily by scientific observation? (more…)

I’m interrupting the essay on science and religion basically to complain. The pollution here in Chiang Mai is really bad. I’ve been sneezing all day. Sandra’s PE class won’t let them actually exercise for more than 10 minutes at a time. The kids’ noses have been running for days (hint: they aren’t sick).

To give you an idea of how bad it is, look at the mountain in these two pictures. The first picture was taken during the rainy season when we moved in. The second picture was taken today. When an entire mountain disappears, you know it’s bad.

A long time ago, everybody thought the sun revolved around the Earth. It made sense, you know? There’s no certainly no evidence, to a casual observer, that the Earth is moving. It was the obvious conclusion. Science supported it, in the objective way science does, and everybody was happy.

Christians even found Scriptural support for this supposedly scientific fact. A number of verses stated clearly that “the world is firmly established; it cannot be moved” or that “the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.” This proved, thought the church, that God was really smart and that science was just now figuring out what the Bible already told us.

Then some scientists – in the objective, methodical way that science does things – found out they were wrong. (more…)