RANDOMNESS

I'm using Nora Holm's The Runner's Bible this month, and today's Statement of Truth is "The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)

I know from my research that "Shadow of turning" calls up an image of a sundial. It refers to time and the passage of time."Variableness" calls up images of the clouds forming, changing, and passing. We see the sun, the moon, the stars, and then we don't. Light comes and goes. But not with God. He doesn't come and go.

He never changes.

And yet He created a physical world full of change.

"God is Spirit" (Jn.4:24) existing in a spiritual milieu, but He created a physical, material world and physical beings who can't put their hands through it, who enjoy hot tea and lemon with sugar and who love to watch the sun "rise." Even on a gray day.

He loves variety, motion, change, beauty, randomness. This God, who created all things, and who never changes, created a universe that never stands still, where every snowflake, every leaf, every person is different, unique in some way.

Even snowflakes that appear identical formed in different places in a cloud, fell in slightly different spots. One will get the sun, the other be in shade moments longer before it melts.One leaf catches sun or rain, is on a plant or a tree that receives more water or less. One gets eaten by an insect or a deer, another is the resting place of a butterfly, or ends up pressed in a child's scrapbook to be gazed upon many years later.

No two creatures--created by God--ever experience life or existence in the same exact way. Ever.

Think about it.

Is any "random" event truly random?

A bug flits randomly from my lamp. Not "randomly" to the bug. It has some "idea" in its pea-brain--to get away from the heat or light or enemy, to seek food or a mate elsewhere. It has eyes. It sees a place that might be good to rest in or on or under.

Samuel Johnson said, "Nothing in reality is governed by chance, but that the universe is under the perpetual superintendence of Him who created it; that our being is in the hands of omnipotent Goodness, by whom what appears casual to us is directed for ends ultimately kind and merciful; and that nothing can finally hurt him who debars not himself from the divine favour."

CLIMBING OVER THE BIG HILL AND SMALL "STUFF"
I was asked recently how I combat the frustrations of aging.

First of all I depend on Jesus! Secondly, I depend on my friends, and I have the best friends anyone could have in the whole world. Was it an accident that I found them just before my world began crumbling? I don't think so. God sends us help when we most need it.

Also, you have to be patient with yourself and flexible and recognize that you're not as strong or as quick as you used to be and make adjustments or be willing to give stuff up or do it more slowly. I can't walk as far, so I park closer to stores. I used to be able to hoe out the garage in one day. I used to be able to mow the whole yard in one day. Can't do it anymore! And there's no point killing myself over it. I get stuff done. It just takes longer. And if I can't get to stuff, I remember "Don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff." In the scheme of life, you have to set priorities.

It drives me craziest that I can't remember stuff. So I've learned that I can't multitask like I used to, and I have to make notes and lists. Those notepads that charities send are wonderful for jotting little things down.

And I rejoice in the things I can do and the beauties in Nature around me as the seasons change. I laugh with the kitties and ignore their mischief for the joy they bring us. And I've gone back to the things that always gave me pleasure, but which I don't have time for anymore. So I can't spend an hour doing needlework or sit and read 125 pages a day and whip through books, but I can find 10 minutes or so. And if it means getting up at 4 a.m. to do laundry or clean out my inbox so I'll have time to watch a baseball game or play with the kittens or write a chapter or a scene, then I do it. And I get to see gorgeous sunrises as a result.

I think getting older means learning what's important and what's not and playing through pain if you don't want to sit on the bench in the dugout. There'll be plenty of time for that maybe too if we're lucky.

Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God says "If we do what we can on our parts, we shall soon see that change wrought in us which we aspire after." Easier said than done. You have to live moment by moment--"in the now"--if you are to consciously choose anything other than your habitual response. It requires patience and self-control--both of which I find in short supply! But when I do change my thoughts, things change as well. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Romans 12:2) And conversely, I've found it to be true that we can be renewed by the transforming of our minds.