Thursday, May 31, 2007

Tactics

'ach joH'a' chose the foolish Dochmey vo' the qo' vetlh ghaH might lan Daq tuH chaH 'Iv 'oH val. joH'a' chose the weak Dochmey vo' the qo', vetlh ghaH might lan Daq tuH the Dochmey vetlh 'oH HoS;

but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong 1 Corinthians 1:27

(click for podcast version)

What does it take to succeed?

In battle, and in life, we expect that you would prosper if you have strength and intelligence on your side. A Klingon would say you need to be val (intelligent) and HoS (strong). It's probably what most humans would say as well. Without some measure of ability, and the brains to use it... how CAN you succeed?

And yet - we may be confounded to come across passages like this one from the apostle Paul. Words that suggest that victory depends not on our mustering superior resources.

This should not surprise us. God seems to favor a different tactic - one perhaps that reminds us of our dependance on HIS favor. Remember back to the era of the Judges, how God told Gideon to choose his army in such a way as to make his army far smaller than he had wanted to take into battle. And yet, he won.

Think of David - a youth - defeating a giant though he was a shepherd boy with no more than a sling and some stones. Hardly a reasonable force, nor what would look like a wise strategy. And, yet he won.

God's grace is able to use us - foolish as we might be, weak as we are. This is not to say we should not strive to be all that we can be. But measured against His wisdom, against His power - we know that we are weak. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Think of how the apostle Paul struggled with some unknown illness - and was never healed from it, despite long efforts of prayer. This failing, this puj, weakness did not stop him, for he realized how God could use him in his weakness:


2 Corinthians 12:9-10 He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.


To beings who seek to win at all costs, beings like Klingons, or we humans, no doubt this sounds foolish. But if we trust in God, we'll learn that indeed, despite our weakness, despite our foolishness, God can use us victoriously!



'ach joH'a' chose the foolish Dochmey vo' the qo' vetlh ghaH might lan Daq tuH chaH 'Iv 'oH val. joH'a' chose the weak Dochmey vo' the qo', vetlh ghaH might lan Daq tuH the Dochmey vetlh 'oH HoS;

but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong 1 Corinthians 1:27

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Guidance System

'ach pa' lIj ghop DichDaq Dev jIH, je lIj nIH ghop DichDaq 'uch jIH.

Even there your hand will lead me, And your right hand will hold me. Psalms 139:10

(click for podcast)

Missiles, rockets, and spacecraft come in endless varieties. Different missions, different propulsion systems, and different fuels (some don't even HAVE fuel). Some only travel the airless regions of space, others are aerodynamic and need to contend with atmospheric travel. Some carry passengers, other are completly automated.

BUT, one thing they all do have in common is: a guidance system. Whether a pilot, a computer, or even simple fins on a primitive missile - in order to reach their destination, they all need guidance.

AND, so do we.

In marvelling at God's presence, this psalmist asserts that he cannot escape from God's presence. No matter how far he goes:


'ach pa' lIj ghop DichDaq Dev jIH, je lIj nIH ghop DichDaq 'uch jIH.

Even there your hand will lead me, And your right hand will hold me. Psalms 139:10


The guidance in this psalm is God's leadership, his drawing us forward through life. In the KLV I've used Dev, the Klingon word for "to lead." I used a form of that verb in the KLV of Psalm 23, DevwI' for "shepherd" (to lead, Dev, plus the suffix -wI', indicating something which leads). The Hebrew word in this psalm for "lead" is nachah. A primitive root meaning to guide, it appears almost 40 times in the Bible. (And it also appears in Psalm 23, "he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.")

Now, sometimes our problem is not LACKING guidance - but having too much. Radio, TV, Internet, bringing us news, entertainment and more can batter my spirit with "look here," "see this," and "what's that?" It goes on and on till I don't know what I think or believe. The great thing is, while we can NEVER escape God, we CAN turn off the media, we can set aside this confusing chaos of "leaders."

Recently I read a touching book "I'm Proud of You" about one man's friendship with the late Fred Rogers. It's a wonderful book - and one thing that struck me was - what a man of prayer Mr. Rogers was. Every day he took significant time - out of a very busy life - to pray for many people. That need for prayer and time alone with God was crucial in his life.

It spurred me to make new effort to try to carve out a space at the beginning of each day, a time to listen to the Word, and note prayer concerns on an index card I carry with me through the day. The best thing is that when we retreat from the chaos and establish a little quiet time with prayer and the Bible, we can advance, renewed and rejoice with the psalmist:


'ach pa' lIj ghop DichDaq Dev jIH, je lIj nIH ghop DichDaq 'uch jIH.

Even there your hand will lead me, And your right hand will hold me. Psalms 139:10

Monday, May 14, 2007

There are lakes on Titan

chugh jIH tlhap the telDu' vo' the dawn, je settle Daq the uttermost parts vo' the bIQ'a

If I take the wings of the dawn, And settle in the uttermost parts of the sea... Psalm 139:9

(click for podcast)

There are lakes on Titan, one of the moons orbiting Saturn. Something like 859 million miles away (more than a billion, 382 million kilometers), those seas (of methane, but seas just the same) are farther than the farthest ocean on earth. AND.

God. IS. there.

No doubt there are more distant seas.

We know of dozens of worlds circling distant stars already - mostly huge Jupiter-sized worlds, and there are certainly many more. As we refine our technologies we get better and better at discovering what seems like an endless supply of planets that God has made. There are shores out there as well. The farthest oceans are many tens, thousands, MILLIONS of light years out there. And should we travel "on the wings of the dawn" to those shores - we will find the same.

God. IS. there.

The Hebrew word used here for sea, yam, occurs more than 300 times in the Bible, and comes from a root meaning "to roar" (think of the sound of the surf). On some distant planet, if you needed to translate that word in conversation with a Klingon fellow traveler, you might use bIQ'a.' That Klingon word is a construction, taking the word for water (bIQ) and augmenting it with -'a'. Essentially it means "very big water" and it's a word that a Klingon might use mean lake, sea or ocean.

And whether we cross real oceans, or methane ones far away, there are always new shores in our lives, new frontiers as we journey through each day.

There is a prayer "O, God Thy Sea Is So Great And My Boat Is So Small." The good news is that on the waters of life - no matter where - in that boat, we will NOT be alone.

The comfort we find in the reflections of Psalm 139 is that, we can't go so far - Titan, Alpha Centauri or beyond - so far that we can ever get away from HIM.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Busy week!

Sorry, there'll be no new post this week - I've been busy. If you miss the sound of my voice, however, you can listen to my readings at verbumdomini.com, where I'm doing the readings for 4/6-4/12.

And here's a post about someone who has taken the Klingon Language Version and made it available for the Macintosh program Accordance.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Beyond Limits

chugh jIH ascend Dung Daq chal, SoH 'oH pa'. chugh jIH chenmoH wIj bed Daq the Daq vo' the Heghpu', yIlegh, SoH 'oH pa'!

If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the place of the dead, behold, you are there! Ps 139:8

(Click for podcast version)

Artificial intelligence developers speak of something called the "Horizon Effect" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_effect). When programming a game - like chess or checkers - they discovered that as a program looked ahead and evaluated its choices, there was a limit - a horizon that was beyond the computers finite capacity to anticipate.

This meant simply that the machine would make decisions that turned out to be disastrous once the game advanced beyond that "horizon."


chugh jIH ascend Dung Daq chal, SoH 'oH pa'. chugh jIH chenmoH wIj bed Daq the Daq vo' the Heghpu', yIlegh, SoH 'oH pa'!

If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the place of the dead, behold, you are there! Ps 139:8

This verse pictures the limits-beyond-the-limits of human experience. "Heaven" - shamayim in Hebrew appears nearly 400 times in the Bible, and carries the idea of something lofty - the sky, the realm of the stars. Poetically, as in English, it can convey the idea of a spiritual place. I've translated it as "chal" the Klingon word for "sky."

At the opposite extreme we have "the realm of the dead," in Hebrew "sheol" the invisible world of departed souls. What that means to the Psalmist isn't clear - but collectively - from the heavens to the grave, he is confident he cannot cross any border to escape the LORD.

God has no horizon. It's clear - there is no distance so far that we might escape God's notice.

Right now, the space probe New Horizons (http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/), the fastest human ship ever, has just passed Jupiter. This craft took 13 months to get there - an incredible speed - and it still has around 8 years to reach Pluto. It's thrilling to see the amazing pictures it has returned of the Jupiter systsem, and I'm looking forward to what it will find in the outer reaches of our solar system. This vessel, true to its name, extends our view, gives us new horizons. And yet - we know, and certainly the author of Psalm 139 would agree - even at this incomparable distance, we will not be beyond God's boundaries.

Of course, we generally are not moving at such speeds, or travelling such distances. But our lives can ascend to great joys and triumphs and just as quickly descend into deep moments of despair. The strength, the encouragement we have here is that - in those moments - WE AREN'T OUTSIDE GOD'S HORIZON. He's there, he's ready to hear. And he's ready to help.


chugh jIH ascend Dung Daq chal, SoH 'oH pa'. chugh jIH chenmoH wIj bed Daq the Daq vo' the Heghpu', yIlegh, SoH 'oH pa'!

If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the place of the dead, behold, you are there! Ps 139:8