An Inkling
Do you remember the “Oracle of Delphi”? Here’s how it worked: a priestess sat on a tripod seat over a fissure which emitted vapors from deep within the earth. As she breathed the vapors she would fall into a trance, and would ramble and rave. Priests would record her words and then convert them into poetry, which would then be given as oracles to the inquirers.
Our oracles work differently. Barometers, thermometers, and high altitude wind gauges breathe the vapors and then speak forth data, which “priestly” computers convert into weather prediction oracles. I doubt that the Delphi Oracle hit it right very often. But the local weather oracles have been amazingly accurate, especially considering the complicated weather systems that have been blowing through.
I wish they had been wrong! But because they have been right about snow over and over (and over and over), we’ve had to adapt our church and personal calendars over and over and…. We’re long past Plan B, and on to at least Plan E or F by now.
As I was mulling over this week’s weather oracles and a possible Plan F, I thought of James’ little reminder (4:13-15, from The Message): And now I have a word for you who brashly announce, “Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.” You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing. Instead, make it a habit to say, “If the Master wills it and we’re still alive, we’ll do this or that.”
The weather oracle helps us make a Plan F. But Plan F will happen only if the Master wills it. So, whether or not the weather oracle is right and Plan F actually happens, is truly secondary. I’ll take the Master’s certainty over mine any day.
Blessings,
Keith
