Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “How long will this wicked community grumble against me? I have heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’ I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this wilderness; here they will die.”

• Numbers 14:26-35

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
    throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
    or you brought forth the whole world,
    from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn people back to dust,
    saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.
Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
    they are like the new grass of the morning:
In the morning it springs up new,
    but by evening it is dry and withered.

• Psalm 90:1-6

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

• Matthew 10:29-31

“ ‘God walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed … it goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. it is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.’ (Three Mile an Hour God, Chapter I)”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Kosuke Koyama (1926-2009) was a Japanese Christian Theologian.  After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he started his lecturing career, and preaching, at Thailand Theological Seminary.  His theology was not marked by deep thinking at a high intellectual level.  His thirteen written works were designed so that the common man could understand.  His book Water Buffalo Theology was hailed as a method of Christian-Buddhist dialogue.

Koyama had the education similar to the intellectual giants of his day, but his first work assignment was in Thailand.  I had two visits to Thailand.  The first time, I was there for two weeks, and it took me most of that time to teach a three-day class.  It was not the language barrier.  It was the culture barrier.  They revered me as their teacher, but they dared not step out to assert themselves with their understanding until they knew for sure.  I, as their teacher, would lose face if they made a wrong step.  It took me a while to coax them from one concept to the next.  They got there, and maybe their learning was deeper and more thorough than anywhere else that I taught.  My second trip was for over a month.  I worked with them, and they were careful and steady.  After all, I was part of the family.

While learning this culture, Koyama learned how to preach the Gospel, in less high intellectual words.

I have often heard from theologians, pastors, and lay people that God’s timing is nothing like our timing.  God is outside time and space and the concept of a day for God is like 1,000 years for us or even vice versa.  So, our entire life for God could be like the blink of the eye for God.  Yet, God loves us so much that he knows every hair on our head.  He knows every cell in our bodies.

But Koyama speaks of a Three Mile an Hour God.  This book was a study of many different topics, showing that God was not in a hurry with any of us.  God was just in time, instead of being a bit early God gives us plenty of time to think about “Will God deliver?”  Everything seems to be a test of faith, when it comes to the difference in our timing and God’s timing.  But in the book, one topic spoke of the forty years that the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, the chapter about a Three Mile an Hour God.

When they had no faith that God could conquer the inhabitants of the Promised Land, the Israelites were punished.  They would wander in the wilderness for forty years.  About the fastest that they could walk was roughly three miles an hour.  Yes, God taught the Israelites how to rely on Him.  He taught them not to whine about how their lives were better as slaves in Egypt.  He taught them obedience.  He taught them courage.  And they learned faith.  All at a pace of three miles an hour.

We have our learning fast and furious these days, but have we really learned anything?  I never crammed for a test.  I never learned much about studying.  I looked over my notes.  I organized my ideas on what might be on the test.  Then, I went to bed early.  I knew the most important thing was good sleep and a clear mind.  In a Psychology test early in my college life, a hippie came in and sat next to me for the exam.  I have no idea why I phrased the question this way, but I asked, “Are you up for the exam?”  His reply was with a shaky voice “I’ve been up for three days, Man.”  When I arose after completing the four-hour exam, I glanced over at the bearded person next to me.  The uppers he had popped had worn off.  He was asleep, but his eyes were still open.  He had not even written his name at the top of the first page.

We are in so big of a hurry, we do not even have a clear view of where we are going.  But God knows.  And do we really want God’s Love on a roller coaster while we stand nearby?  His Love is there, but in a split second it whirls past us.

That is a description of our lives.  But God’s Love is at such a slow pace, that He counts every hair on our head as He passes by.  He’s outside time and space.  He has got the time, and He chooses to love us that much.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.