Friday, December 30, 2011

Godzilla


Dr Niko Topodopeles (a.k.a. the "worm guy") wakes up as his plane approaches for landing in Golfo De San Miguel - Panama - and on the way from the dock to the base camp tent this conversation ensues between him and the Colonel: 

Worm guy:  "Look, I work for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but accidents and spills are not my field."
Colonel: "We know."
Worm guy: "Do you know you've interrupted a three year study of the Chernobyl earthworm?
Colonel: "Yeah, you're the worm guy, right?"
Worm guy: "The radioactive contamination in that area has mutated the earthworm's DNA. You know what that means?
Colonel: "No, but I've got a feeling I'm about to find out." 
Worm guy: "It means that because of a man-made accident the Chernobyl earthworms are now 17% larger than they were before."
Colonel: "17%, huh? Sounds pretty big."
Worm guy: "They're enormous. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm a biologist. I take radioactive samples and I study them."
Colonel: "That's great. Here's your sample (pointing down at the muddy ground) - Study it."
Worm guy: "What sample?"
Colonel: "You're standing in it."
Worm guy: "I don't see it. Where is it? I don't see it."

**Camera slowly zooms out to an aerial shot of a gigantic footprint** ...and then it dawns on him...

I like the small beginning so much that I struggle to move on.

I'm all for small beginnings. God says that we must not despise the day of small beginnings, but gosh! have you ever become so 'content' with small beginnings that you get stuck in it, unable to move forward to greater things?

For three years the 'worm guy' has been studying earthworms and quite happily so, as he drives his little jeep through the bundus and singing in the rain. To many it is merely earthworms but for him it is very significant work. He is so preoccupied with the earthworms that he doesn't realize the new opportunity that is staring him in the face; something of much greater significance - Godzilla.

The beginning is not suppose to be it.The word 'beginning' is defined in the dictionary as the act or process of bringing or being brought into being; a start / a source; an origin / the first part / the initial stage of a developmental process. It clearly implies that something more must follow, and usually something greater/further developed.   

I think contentment and patience needs to work closely together. We need to be content where we are and patient on the way to where we're going, i.e. we need to be going somewhere in life - reaching, growing, moving forward, but in the same way we need to stay mindful that man make their plans but God still determines the outcome; He still calls the shots. In the end it is really a team effort; a partnership, and the journey takes time - no drive through destinies. Don't let impatience or passiveness tempt you to fall in the trap of thinking maybe God didn't have a big plan after all.

A time and a place for everything, including small beginnings


So we shouldn't get stuck in the small beginnings, but at the same time the three years studying the earthworms were not a waste; it taught him a lot, knowledge that came in very handy as they were trying to figure out what Godzilla is and how to deal with it while doing their best for the people and the city of New York.

What we learn during the small beginnings is what makes the experience necessary as well as worthwhile. God is always - I believe - busy preparing us for greater things ahead, things that we don't know about because we cannot see the end from the beginning like He can.

Sometimes God need to make us see the wood for the tree

In the book The Dream Giver (by Bruce Wilkinson) Ordinary has a big dream - one big enough to entice him to leave the safety of the Land of Familiar. He doesn't know what his dream looks like exactly, he just knows that he has one. And so he embarks on a journey and experience many things and face many challenges until he lands up in a place, see a need and decide to help out while he's there before he continues on his journey in search of his big dream. Just like the worm guy he finds himself right in the middle of his dream and he doesn't realize it. And then it dawns on him...

Sometimes we are so deep in it that we simply can't see the wood for the trees. It is then that we need God to help us see a glimpse of the bigger picture. 

God never shows us all the details. He says that the righteous shall walk by faith. How much more vital is it then that we fellowship with Him daily - the one who knows the plans He has (and the perfect timing for its fulfillment)? May He graciously help us to recognize it when we're right in the middle of it.

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