The Ways Things Are

In life there are things that are whether we want to acknowledge them or not. For example, real maple syrup comes from maple trees no matter what we say, believe, or choose to ignore. The color red has already been established. We can call it whatever we want, but red is still red. Snow falls in the winter in Wisconsin. We may wish it was different, but it is what it is.

Intelligent people spend no time arguing things that "are." They acknowledge them and adjust their lives to the obvious.

It reminds me of a story of a warship traveling through the night on a special mission. In the middle of the night the captain saw a light in the distance in the very path that the ship was headed. He sent out a warning to the oncoming "ship" that it would need to alter its course in order to accommodate the warship. Soon the captain received a response that told the warship that it should adjust its course by 15 degrees. The captain sent another message giving his ship's name and his personal credentials and demanded that the ship approaching him adjust their course 15 degrees. In a bit, there was another response telling the captain that he needed to reconsider and adjust his huge warship's course, or face dire consequences. This time, the captain was angry and started to talk about the firepower this ship possessed and the importance of his mission to national security, and issued a final ultimatum: adjust your course or face physical force that could lead to injury or death of your crew and loss of your contents. After a while the captain received word that another message had just come from the approaching ship. It said "We are a lighthouse."

Obviously, this captain's conversation would have been different if he knew that he was speaking to something that was immovable.

It could be that in our culture today we have begun to believe that the immovable is moveable, and our discussions demanding things to change are foolishness. If you were to check out all fifty of our nation's state's constitutions, you would find God acknowledged. In my own state of Wisconsin our preamble says: "We, the people of Wisconsin, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom, domestic tranquility…." These constitutions were put in place to guide us; they were not put in place for us to guide.

God is God. I am Dave. God is and always was. I once was not. God changes not. Dave changes.

It would be very good for us as a nation to realize that there are things that will not change because they cannot change. God will always be God, whether we acknowledge Him or not. If we do acknowledge Him and honor Him as God, we will one day look brilliant, as we will have navigated this life quite well. If we do not acknowledge Him, we will look like a foolish captain who has been telling a lighthouse to move.

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