Working Together for Good

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,

to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

 

We sing it. We quote it. We even throw it at others that are having trials and tribulations in an effort to “encourage” them. But how do we react when it happens to us?

I had plans, lots of plan, good plans. Nothing this week went as planned. And yet, everything still happened, and actually turned out ok.

This year I had a group of students ask me to help them start a High School Fishing Club. We got permission to go fishing during a school day to get in some practice. (Who’d a thought it?) Unfortunately, boat logistics got in the way. We ended up fishing from shore. We got in some good practice, bonded as a team, and best of all, caught fish. I even got to wow them with my desnagging abilities.

Today we had a school carnival. I always do a butterfly house. When I went to put the new netting that I had purchased, it was two feet too short. I could swear that I had checked “repurchase” on the Amazon website. But there it was, missing the bottom. My wife suggested that I use our champing screen room. It was a brilliant idea. All I had to do was simply pop it up. I was almost done when I heard an ominous rip. So much for that idea. After a trip to Lowe’s for a roll of plastic and some heavy tape, I was back in business. The kids we’re wowed and the parents got some great pictures.

Everything got done, and the result was just as good as if I had had my way. It’s funny that we humans have such a hard time with trust. Even though trusting can get easier as we age and gained life experience, it still can be a struggle. There will always be new plans. Some will work our way; others will be bent to His will. And frankly, I’m ok with that. Because God is always doing good. 

Faces in Odd Places

 

Have you ever seen a face on something inanimate like a rock wall or even a potato chip? Scientists tell us that our brains don’t like to deal with disorder. Anytime our brains can find a recognizable pattern, they latch onto it and try to shape it into something we already know. The face on Mars (pictured on the left) is a great example. Under just the right light, causing just the right shadows, we see a face.
However, if you light it up evenly and turn the perspective slightly it just turns into another hill. Our brains saw the face because it hates randomness. The phenomenon is called pareidolia. It is a special form of apophenia, (the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things or ideas) that turns random visual data into faces. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia)

Common examples from everyday life include me seeing a face on the back of my Toyota. One might see a face in an electrical outlet or even in a piece of fruit cut just the right way. I remember reading about people seeing Elvis on burnt toast or Jesus on a potato chip. We see bunnies, horses or even dragons in the clouds. The list goes on and on.

Over the Labor Day weekend, we took a mini camping trip to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. (Hence the reason I missed posting a blog last week.) While fishing in the North Fork of the Stanislaus River, I came across this rock in the middle of the river.

That’s where my pareidolia kicked in big time. To me it looks like a fossil dinosaur skull. So much so, that I wanted to get down the bank to really look at it. It turns out, it is just simply a rock. But it doesn’t take much imagination to turn it into a whole convoluted story. One friend of mind said, “Oh, Transformers”!

It’s another instance of “seeing is believing” getting the best of us. Very often our senses can be deceived or even betrayed by our brain wanting to see what isn’t really there. That’s why it is so important to educate ourselves concerning the truth. Life is not always what it seems. But a dinosaur skull, well that would have been cool anyway…