The Son Also Rises

The Universe is not in a hurry. You are. That’s why you are anxious … Author unknown

The sun is a lolly-gagger. Did you know that? I always thought there were twenty-four hours in a day. That’s what I was taught. I am sure I was even told it was a verifiable “fact.” But it turns out it isn’t. The earth makes one complete rotation in roughly twenty-three hours and fifty-six minutes. Where do the extra four minutes go (or come from)?

Ah ha! As the world turns on its axis, it is also working its way around the sun. The earth travels approximately one degree each day (365 days to make the 360 degree trip), so it takes those four extra minutes to get the face of the earth back to where it was relative to the sun. 

I won’t bore you with everything else I know about time and space (for I’m sure you have better things to do with the three minutes it would take me to dump all that information on you), but I just found that bit of trivia interesting. It’s not something I had ever thought of before and, to be honest, don’t think my life will change significantly in light of that new information. What will change, however, is how I view the word “fact.”

Instead of thinking of facts as things chiseled into stone, I find it more useful to think of them as how we describe things until better descriptions come along. The sun appears to rise in the east each morning, so we call that event sunrise. We talk about the time that happens as a “fact.” The sun will rise at a certain time each day. It is how we describe the event, even though we know the phenomenon is described differently in astronomical terms. 

Are facts important? A few years ago a group of firemen got together and built a large deck on the back of a house for a fellow firefighter. I suspect coffee, tea, and ice water were not the only beverages used to quench their thirst. They finished the job in under five hours. They did the job without permits, without inspections, and without using proper materials or building techniques. A couple bought the house a few years later and needed to completely dismantle the deck which had become unsafe, and rebuild it completely – using proper materials and techniques, meeting or exceeding minimum building standards.

The fact is the old deck was poorly constructed. The fact is the new deck is vastly better. The differences between the two decks could be seen and felt. Facts matter. The question is, what do we do with facts when we have them in hand?

The sun will rise and set when it is supposed to. That’s a fact. There’s nothing I can do to change it, so I don’t need to waste energy trying. I can decide what time I want to rise each morning and what time I wish to hit the sack. That’s also a fact; it’s a fact I can work with. Those two facts aren’t in competition with each other. One doesn’t cancel out the other. One isn’t better or worse than the other. One is a fact of nature (the universe), and the other is a fact of nature (me). Each operates on its own timeline.

One of the things that makes life chaotic is the idea that it is a competitive sport. It’s not. We tend to mush our facts altogether as if each one carries the same weight as the one next to it. If you believe the earth is flat and sits on the back of a turtle or across the shoulders of Atlas, that’s fine by me. Neither set of facts or fables will ultimately affect my life. Some facts rest in the hands of a higher power, and that’s the point.

Each of us rests in the hands of a higher power. I suspect the only facts God is interested in are how we treat one another, how we treat creation, and how we treat ourselves. That is a fact upon which I base my life’s decisions and actions. Now I think I’ll go out and watch the Son rise here in this, our valley.

Keith Axberg writes on matters concerning life and faith. Author of: Who the Blazes is Jesus? Good News for a Vulgar World (available through Amazon in Print and e-book)