How Great Thou Art!

     From my window, anyway!

When I, in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hand has made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displays!
by Charlie Leck

Adbus Salam, of Pakistan, was a prize-winning scientist. He died in 1996. While he lived he was hailed world-wide for his brilliant work in physics. His work enabled his nation to establish its current nuclear program. He was also a Muslim and part of the Ahmadi sect. The other major divisions of the Islamic faith in Pakistan regard members of the sect as heretics. The religious right has grown in power in Pakistan to such an extent that they dominate all other religious groups, including Christians and Hindus. The majority of Pakistani people are Sunni Muslims. These members of the Sunni division of the faith have become very militant and offensive in proclaiming their superiority in matters of religion over other Muslims and in matters of politics and government over all other Pakistanis.

Today, one cannot find the name of Adbus Salam in Pakistan’s school textbooks or in its museums of science and technology. Yet, Salam was hailed internationally, winning numerous honors including the Nobel Prize (1979) for his contributions in physics to the study of the God Particle (or Higgs boson). The discoveries announced recently in Geneva about these matters have been a great proof of the seriousness of Salam’s work during his life.

Yet, this extremely conservative wing of the dominant religion in Salam’s homeland considers this great scientist a heretic and a partner of God’s dark side opponent.

It, very frankly, once more makes me sickenly angry about religious zealots who don’t seem to have a brain in their heads. These types are not exclusive to the Muslim faith. We have plenty of them in Christianity as well. They label people who don’t agree with them as heretical and, worse, evil. Believe me, hoards of them are having a great influence in politics in America today and we ought to awaken and see what a danger they are to the stability of our country. Beware of religious extremists!

The most ugly and vile comments I receive in reaction to many of my blogs come from people who claim to be diligently and faithfully Christian. And, their hate-filled comments are always without identification, but simply anonymous.

Tolerance
A word that seems missing from society’s contemporary vocabulary is tolerance. I was taught that it, along with patience, was an important part of one’s character – one’s healthful psyche. There is not one true and certain way! There is no true and certain religion that has all the answers. There is no single route to salvation.

God, you see, is bigger than the human imagination has ever been able to envision Her. Science has come closer to that vision than has theology. Religious extremists are dangerous critters and society must cautiously guard itself against the damage they can do to a civilization. As far as the followers of Jesus and Muhammad go, I am afraid they think too small. God is far greater than their limited imaginations can conceive. Adbus Salam has come closer to seeing the Divine Being and perceiving the truth of creation than has any of the great imams or Christian evangelists.

When I behold the heavens in their vastness,
Where golden ships in azure issue forth,
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness
Of changing seasons and of time on earth,
With rapture filled, my soul Thy name would laud,
O mighty God! O mighty God!
             [O Store Gud, by Carl Gustav Boberg, 1859-1940]

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Forever Hip!

I slashed around in bed last night and had a terrible time sleeping!
by Charlie Leck

It wasn’t that 18 inch putt Tiger Woods missed on the number 11 green yesterday in the Masters that was keeping me awake, but it was ugly enough that it might have done so several years ago. I remember when Woods could knock down putts just with his sheer force of will. That was, of course, before that Thanksgiving weekend a year and a half ago. Woods doesn’t have that will power and dominating control over a golf ball anymore. People speculate about what might be wrong with Tiger’s swing. Believe me, it isn’t his swing. It’s his mind. Unless he figures out a way to get his head clear again and his mind in control on the golf course, we’ll never again see the old Tiger. And, that saddens me.

But, no, it was the hip that kept me awake last night. The pain throbbed and pounded away in there as I struggled to find a position in bed that would give it and me some comfort. Only four more nights like this and then the surgery.

I tried doing the relaxation thing they had tried to show us at the hospital in pre-surgery instruction class. The Penny George Institute for Heath and Healing (one of those holistic health and medicine organizations) had sent someone into the classroom to lead us in a relaxation exercise. Amazingly it had worked for me as I sat there in a chair, behind a table.

“Relax your head and your eyes and the skin of your face and the muscles in your neck!” The instructor led us, with these commands, down our entire body – right through relaxing our little tootsies. And, it had worked and the pain had just seeped out of me.”

It didn’t work last night. Perhaps it’s because I kept challenging myself.

“Ga-dammit, relax!”

At one point in the middle of the night, as thunder clashed and lightening streaked across the sky, I rose up on an elbow and looked up into the dark space at the top of the room and cried out in frustration.

“All right, all ready! How ‘bout giving me a little peace!”

“Huh?” My wife stirred but didn’t really awaken.

I let my head crash back down into the pillow and something strange happened. Something washed over my body and the pain receded and disappeared.

I was a bit shaken and I thought a bit about what had happened.

I had uttered a plea to heaven. Had it been answered?

“I’m not that easy,” I said into the darkness. “You’re not winning me over with a little thing like that.”

Again my wife stirred.

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing! I’m just having a private conversation over here. Go back to sleep.”

“You’re crazy,” she uttered, even as she drifted off to sleep again.

I waited patiently and thought. The pain had not returned. My hip was quiet and at peace. This time I whispered into the darkness.

“I wouldn’t give a dime for a god who would do a cheap trick like that!”

I waited. There wasn’t any answer.

“Why aren’t you downtown on a night like this? I’m here in a comfortable bed, next to someone who loves me," I said. "Why aren’t you tending to those homeless people who live beneath the freeway bridge? Imagine how they must feel on a night like this, when you’re spouting all that booming and crashing and sparks are flying. That’s where you should be!”

Again, there was no reply. There was also no pain. I felt my face breaking out into a sweat.

“It worked,” I whispered.

“What worked?” My wife mumbled the question at me, rather than to me.

“Oh, that relaxation bit they showed us the other day at the hospital. I tried it and it worked.”

“Good,” she said, “now sleep.”

I couldn’t sleep. It was too odd – feeling no pain was strange. I tried to close my eyes, but they were drawn to the little window near my face. I could see the lightening slashing across the sky. Thunder continued to rumble.

I thought about those people who slept out on the streets. What were they cramming their bodies into on a night like this? Where could they find shelter?

I whispered again into the darkness.

“If human beings are so danged smart, why can’t they figure out a way to rid the word of homelessness? How tough can it be to make sure everyone has a comfortable place to sleep at night and a good, healthy breakfast in the morning? How tough?”

No answer again – only the slashing lightening and rumbling thunder!

“And Jesus answered, saying: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

I drifted off into a painless sleep.

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Why not become a follower?
If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.