The Great Fickle

“The hearts of the people are fickle...” Hosea 10:2

One of the challenges we face when all appears to be going well is that we may actually believe all IS well.

Visiting relatives in the Chicago area many moons ago my brother and I (and assorted cousins) were put into the rear-facing seat of my uncle’s station wagon. He and my aunt Ginny had picked us up at the train station and were hauling us to their house where we would camp out for a few weeks. It was a typical hot sticky mid-western summer’s day and back in those days they had no air conditioning in the cars. Well, they did. They called it “four by fifty” air conditioning – rolling down the windows as you zipped along at fifty miles per hour.

That didn’t help us in the back, of course. We had no side windows, we were faced to the rear, and any moving air was about a hundred degrees with the added humidity of a dozen perspiring bodies who shared our crew space.

But then, science kicked in. I had just finished seventh grade and I remembered learning about motion, air, and the mechanics of aircraft and how they fly. In a stroke of brilliance (and wanting to demonstrate that I actually HAD learned something in the school year just concluded) I offered a suggestion to my cousinly companions.

“According to modern science,” I said (and yes, that is what I really said), “the car moving forward is creating a vacuum behind it. If we open the rear window, the vacuum will help draw air into the car!”

This created a real sense of hope and excitement for all those crammed into the back seat, and so our cousin John rolled down the back window and – voila – hot air filled with the oily exhaust of our monster wagon flooded into the car, giving us immediate relief from any oxygen we might need to sustain life.

Needless to say, Cousin John quickly rolled the window back up, saving us all from a gruesome death, while the others pummeled me into a quivering mass of humbled pie.

Sometimes we do the best we can with what we have at hand, only to discover that the results are not what we had intended. We also learn that while our intentions might well be noble, that we are not judged by our intentions, but by the consequences of our actions.

Of course, we all had a great laugh out of our experience (once we had all returned to consciousness) and “according to modern science” became the unofficial motto of the summer.

Oh how fickle science can be – and yet, how dependable. The laws of science apply irrespective of our understanding and, if we are wise, we will learn not to take science for granted or assume we can figure out every outcome for every action. Science isn’t as much fickle as it is an equalizer and humbling force.

We will reap what we sow; if we sow in arrogance, we will reap abundant humility, but the good news is that if we plant the good seeds of love, patience, kindness, joy, happiness, and so on, we will more likely receive an abundance of good fruits.

Hosea tells those who are listening that if they plow up the hard ground of their hearts – living to please God – that God may well respond by showering them with the fruits of his own loving kindness.

I am actually happy that my best intentions and actions are sometimes turned on their heads. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking one is more than what one actually is. Making mistakes, acknowledging those mistakes, and making amends for them as best one can, we make this a better place for those around us, as well as for those who will follow. And isn’t that why we’re here?

We’re here to take care of this wonderful garden we call earth and, more importantly, to take care of one another. We open the window hoping and praying for fresh air. If the air is toxic, admit the mistake, and close the window.

There are abundant opportunities in life to get caught in the Great Fickle, but there is good news in knowing that it is not God’s desire to pick us off, but to pick us up instead in this, our valley.