Author: Wick

Because I’m involved in church-stuff, somehow I got signed up for Dobson’s “Family News” (Fundraising advertisements). Usually they get ripped in half with the rest of the junk mail, and deposited in my round file without much to do.

But just curious at this envelope’s message, “Why does God allow suffering?”, and what Jimmy would say, I opened it. At first glace, I was a little surprised. He actually cited sources of those suffering outside of the US. That was short-lived, however, and the message quickly went into a sales pitch for his book on this subject. It was an excerpt from the book.

To shrink the message down so you wouldn’t have to sift through it all, it came down to this:

The tension built as each second passed.

They began to stand, one right after another. She wanted so badly to knock them over. I gave her a job. Handing me one at a time, while daddy set them up. I knew the end result of such patience would be truly rewarding.

There were 91 dominoes in all. A set of ivory white dominoes that sounded like a symphony when a tower of them fell together. The colors of the dots on each domino made them even more attractive. And even more difficult to resist toppling. But she waited. And helped.

About 63 were set, the trail was winding across the kitchen floor. Her younger sister looked on from her bouncy seat, far enough away to not cause any trouble, but close enough to add to the electricity behind the moment. Her eyes watched as daddy and big sister meticulously added to the line of dominoes leading across the ground.

The 64th domino wobbled, and for a moment our collective imaginations saw the trail of dominoes collide, one after another, with 27 of their friends missing the party. Being a close relative of the Weebles, however, this domino stood intact (Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down), with each of the consecutive dominoes breathing a silent sigh of relief. Progress would continue.

89. She had never seen so many dominoes standing at attention, each waiting for our command.

90. The air stood still. No one breathed. Her muscles held so much penned in tension, she appeared close to bursting as she handed daddy the final domino.

91. Here it was. The moment we’d been waiting for. Anticipating with each addition to the line-up. I wanted to give her the privilege of pushing over the lead domino. But would she understand what was going on? Or would she simply make a wide swipe with her hand, knocking over half of them in no particular order with one fell swoop?

To be sure, I pointed at the first domino, and said to her “go!”. In that moment, my finger came dangerously close. I was unaware of just how close I was, until I saw the first domino begin to wobble. And this was no Weeble wobble. It was coming down. I closed my eyes with a mix of regret and excitement as I heard my daughter scream and squeal with all sorts of joy. I opened my eyes to watch the expected outcome of Newton’s Third Law.

Nothing.

The domino I’d knocked over laid still. Defeated. And had fallen the opposite direction. The remaining dominoes still stood tall.

A crossroads. After hearing how much joy came from a single domino biting the dust, should I continue one at a time, producing several minutes of 90 more outbursts of the same emotion? Or should we go for the gusto, sending all 90 of them in one long chorus of clacking?

We went for the gusto… 🙂

Looking back at the issue of slavery always astounds me a bit. The fact that all throughout scriptures we have story after story of God’s people being rescued from it, and such emphasis on freedom, and equality before the throne. And yet, for a LONG time, even the most religious people saw nothing wrong with owning other human beings and viewing them as inferior.

I imagine myself sometimes, reading through stories from those years, as one of the few who would have realized the injustices happening, and speaking out on their behalf. But honestly, would I have been? I’m not sure. If I’d been raised to think and see things a certain way (which I have been), in a culture that views the world a certain way (which it does)…could I see beyond that? What role does God play in that revelation?

Thankfully, a lot of work has been done in those regards, and now a larger portion of the world understands that slavery is not just. Although there are several people/cultures/organizations who get around this issue by throwing a few pennies at their workers, whatever is enough to not be official “slavery”.

But let’s face it…if a person or group of people is unable to move/work/live freely because of economic or work conditions/etc. that have been placed on them by another people who CAN move freely in those areas….it’s still not just. And as far as one group of people viewing another as “inferior”, I guess we have a long way to go too. You see that in every setting, from school lunchrooms to international economic and political interactions. But at least….a really small part of the issue has been confronted. Right?

All that to say, what is our “slavery”?