Shade Tree Wisdom 11/6/07

I dress for that ‘cold front’ the weatherman keeps promising with cold air down from Canada, and then regret wearing the heavy jacket before I’m done. One of these days we will have it match, weather and clothing.

UPS, the ubiquitous package carrier, used to train its drivers with two weeks of lecture. But this generation doesn’t hear well, so the company devised hands-on training. For example, when he delvers a package, the driver has his key on his ring finger, holds the rail when he steps down, walks briskly to deliver the average of 200 packages and picks up a average of 70. Each stop averages 4.2 minutes, and when he gasses up, he drives into a station on the right side of the highway. They even devised a machine to help them keep their balance if they should slip on ice or oil in the walk. A driver who does not hold on when he steps down soon develops ankle problems and has to quit. The company has been doing this for years. And is held up as a model for efficiency.

I put down that article and picked up Habakkuk again. Here is an interesting book. This prophet asks the sort of questions we would ask. What’s happening here in the world with your people. Don’t you care? Aren’t you listening? Why is the Christian Church in such turmoil today? How can this be put right?

The prophet, of course, is concerned about the people. And God gives him a startling answer. He will send the heathen Babylonians to march through the land and bring destruction. And Habakkuk is startled, because it is not the answer he would expect. But isn’t that the way answer to prayer often comes, in a different way, but always in time, and always better than we might have asked?

Because the Bible is God’s way of dealing with his creation. And in all the seemingly random way there is always the divine hand at work. The prophet learns the lesson well. Look how the book ends. 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 God, the Lord, is my strength;

He learns to trust the Word of His God, and so must we.

GPD 11/6/07