Where were you when . . .

I found myself saying it today . . .
"so where were you when the earthquake hit?"

I felt so stupid saying it - because it was really a non-event.  I sat in the back seat of a Ford Ranger Pickup Truck while it happened.  We were stopped at a stoplight and I was on the phone.  I thought that maybe the guys in the front seat were rocking the car for some reason so I quickly dismissed it.  It was only until my wife called and told me what happened that I stitched it all together.  It was like waking up and recalling a dream - I DID feel the shaking.  Weird.

What is really strange is the perspective that is so warped.  I am in a car at a stoplight on my phone thinking that my world is governed by such things as phone calls, traffic and to-do lists.  Meanwhile several million tons of solid rock grinds against itself miles underneath the surface of the earth.  One event that is considered feeble by West Coast standards is felt from DC to Maine.  So what is the real 'reality?'  What forces really control our lives?

It reminds me that we are not as god-like as we might think.  We are (literally) ants that scurry around on rather large rocks that float over a sea of lava.  Moreso, we are little creatures that have a beginning and an end and if today was our last there isn't a thing we could do about it.

Usually it is this kind of thinking that pushes you toward a belief or away from one.  Those who get pushed away get a glimpse of the meaninglessness of it all.  They conclude that the earth shrugs its shoulders from time to time  - the natural world is a collection of great blessing and great devastation - there is no rhyme or reason.

For me, it pushes me toward belief . . . the bigger the scale, the more it impresses me that we can't possibly have the mind of God.  Huge rocks, scalding lava - all of it the product of things far greater than I can imagine.

Divine Spark

Most people have heard the idea that we have a 'divine spark' within us that was put there by our creator.  Essentially this means that we are the product of matter (flesh, bones, blood, skin etc) and the 'spark' that set it in motion.

Sometimes people take this in the direction of being divine.  The idea of a 'divine spark' doesn't say that we are divine, just that we are products of the divine.  In the same way that your MP3 player isn't music, it just plays music.  We are not divine, we are conduits of the divine.

Now of course there are those that would say that there is nothing divine . . . anywhere.  This point of view says that we are all animals - some more advanced than others.  Humans are no exception.  We are just animals with a bigger brain case that allows for the abstraction of ideas to encompass things like hopes, fears, imagination and logic.  The only reason that humans can pray and dogs can't is because of the processor speed of the brain.

This is where we examine the Sphex.  Yes, today is animal planet at this blog . . . we are looking at a pretty wicked little bee called the Sphex:

There was an interesting little tidbit that I heard about the Sphex - it is actually Daniel Dennet's idea that is used for explaining how animals do not have the same kinds of reasoning skills that we do as humans. You see, the Sphex burrows in the dirt and sets a trap for its prey.  Once the prey is caught, the Sphex comes out to inspect the victim.  Researchers found that when they move the prey, the Sphex will go find it but quickly return to the nest only to set it up all over again.  Once it goes back inside to tidy up it returns to find the prey moved by the researcher.

The Sphex does this over and over with no sense of exasperation.  It is merely executing its program.

Humans?  I am sure some nasty words would fly at some point and perhaps a hopelessness would settle in . . . but that is because as humans we are different.  The Bible says that everything else was created but humans have a special 'breath' of God within us.  Perhaps this is the divine spark - whatever it is it makes us human and different.  So I don't know whether it is a literal breath or if it is figurative . . . but that is beside the point.

The point is that God made us different . . . for a purpose.