camel eye

Yikes!  We are going to heat up, dry out, and turn to cosmic debris!  Who you jiving with that cosmic debris?  Not a day goes by that I don’t get mail telling me how wonderfully green this or that product is and encouraging me to be environmentally responsible and “go green”.  Oddly, the bottom line is always some method to part me from my money.  I’ve told some folks of my intention to be on the cutting edge of the next great sensational scare and cash in on millions of naive gullibles.  I missed the “cell phones cause brain cancer” and the deadly, silent, mass murdering asbestos, radon, and mold.  These all have the essential traits of bad science: they can’t be measured and the cause and effect relationship can’t be proved conclusively.  Even eminent death by H5N1 (bird flu) lost it’s sensationalism when we realized more people are killed by out of control Russian farm tractors.  And now, it looks like I have squandered global warming.  All the great warming scams seem to be taken.

There is something you are not being told.  This is getting out of hand and it’s time someone spoiled the fun.  Odd as it may seem, I’m one of the few people in the world who have modeled radiant energy in the atmosphere and conducted empirical research to back it up.  (Radiant Cooling to the Night Sky, 1982).  Global warming is a function of the greenhouse effect.  Here’s how it works as briefly as I can make it.

Every object radiates energy and the wavelength of that radiation depends on the temperature of the body.  Hot stuff, like the sun, radiates in short wavelengths which, in the case of the sun or the very hot filament of a light bulb, or a lightening strike, our eyes can see.  Cooler stuff radiates at longer wavelengths and we can’t see it.  Many materials are transparent at some wavelengths and opaque at others.  Glass, for example, is transparent in the visible spectrum but opaque in the 8-12 micron wavelength which is where stuff the temperature of the Earth radiate.  In a greenhouse, visible light from the sun, at a short wavelength, goes right through the glass and heats up the soil and plants.  The soil and plants, because of their Earthly temperature, radiate at a longer frequency and the glass is opaque at that frequency so radiant energy does not escape and the greenhouse gets hot.

Easy enough.  No glass on the Earth but the atmosphere has a host of components that keep radiation from escaping.  The only one we hear about is CO2.  Yep, it is opaque to the critical wavelengths.  Holds heat in real well.  Even though CO2 levels have increased 5% over the past 10 years, there just isn’t enough of it to have much more effect than atmospheric dust.  The biggest problem with CO2 is that it doesn’t correlate with temperature.  That is, an increase in one does not cause a corresponding increase in the other.  They are not related.  Go measure it yourself.  I did.  Graph it and it looks like a shotgun blast.  No correlation at all.

All the greenhouse gases combined, even with atmospheric dust, don’t make doodly squat difference in trapping terrestrial radiation and causing a greenhouse effect.  One single chemical, all by itself, accounts for 75% of atmospheric attenuation contributing to a greenhouse effect and it correlates extremely well with surface temperature.  Go measure it yourself.  I have.

Before we expose the real menace to the Earth’s greenhouse effect, let’s look at what some smart people say about temperature.  Not pandering politicians.  Not quasi-scientist with an agenda.  Not a programmed tree-hugger.  Atmospheric radiant balance IS rocket science.  Let’s ask a real rocket scientist.  I pick Dr. Phil Chapman, M.I.T. staff physicist, NASA astronaut, and Apollo 14’s Mission Scientist.  Yeah, he’ll do just fine.  “Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.”  Chapman, and others, noticed the very close correlation with sunspot activity and terrestrial temperature.  Ok, but I want to talk to the guys that actually hold the thermometers.  NASA measured 2007 Arctic sea ice at 772,000 square miles more than the last three years’ average.  They also measured it 4-8 inches thicker.  Denmark’s Meteorological Institute stated, “We have to go back 15 years to find ice expansion so far south.”  Not exactly “melting planet” rhetoric.  The University of Alabama’s data from satellites launched in 1979 show a warming trend of a quarter of a degree per decade.  True.  But, the part the media leaves out is the next sentence: “This warmth peaked in 1998 and the temperature trend the last decade has been flat even as CO2 has increased 5.5%.  Cooling began in 2002 and, over the past six years, global temperatures from satellite and land temperature gauges have cooled 0.22 degrees.”  NOAA ocean buoys have recorded the same cooling since their deployment in 2003.

So, what is the single greenhouse gas that is responsible for 75% of the atmospheric greenhouse effect?  Hydric acid.  Dihydrous Monoxide.  DHMO.  Whichever name you choose to call it, the vapor form of this chemical accounts for 75% of our greenhouse effect.  Go measure it yourself.  I did (Proceedings - Seventh National Passive Solar Conference).  It’s out of control.  It now pollutes virtually every body of water on Earth and corporations continue to dump as much as they want directly into our domestic water supplies.  The US military has spent billions of dollars trying to contain it.  There are plans for a $54 million containment facility just 15 miles from my home.  Even brief exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage.  It is no safer in it’s liquid form; killing thousands every year and destroying acre upon acre of wetlands habitat.  Ingestion symptoms include bloating, excessive urination, and vomiting.  It is found in pesticides, domestic poisons, excised tumors from terminal cancer patients, and fire retardants.  Al Gore says it poses no threat and does not consider it’s 75% contribution to global warming to be as significant as CO2’s 11%.

If Only . . . . . .

If only “ifs” and “buts” were candy and nuts?

Yeah, I screw up. If only, if only, if only. If only I could do over. If only I had figured it out sooner. If only I would have seen it coming. If only I could undo it. If only I could get past it.

We all do regrettable things. For starters, we hurt others, we hurt ourselves, we make the wrong choices (often premeditated), we say things we regret, we waste our time, we let the important things drift, we do foolish things.

It’s a given: we make mistakes and we will make many more. What do we do about them? Well, if nobody really noticed it, why not just bury ‘em. Like when we harden our heart and give that self-righteous look to the man outside the convenience store with hair on his face, surly dreadlocks, and shame in his eyes, begging for some change. We walk by like he’s not there and think “get a job, slob.” Just tell yourself it’s no big deal. Minimize it into oblivion. After all, everybody does it. Rationalize it into oblivion. Why should you be the one to help this bum? Just lower your standards and go on. It’s not your responsibility in the first place.

It doesn’t matter what the regret is or how important it is: slouching at work, screaming at the kids, or little white lies to your spouse. Burying it won’t fix it and it won’t make it go away. Unresolved regrets come back to haunt us like Jason Voorhees. You never know when or where but the zombies are always buried just beneath our skin. Repression is a polluted way to live. To misquote the Bard, your insides become a “festering canker blossom.”

Let’s try something else to release our regrets. Let’s just blame others. What could be simpler? And, it works; sort of. At least it’s well rooted in history. When Adam took that egregious bite in the garden of Eden, he took it manly and immediately blamed his wife. It didn’t work for him and it hasn’t worked for anyone else either. When I screw up, it’s just about me. Deflecting it to someone else may get me through the day but I still sleep with guilt. Cindy and I have few rules but one is never go to sleep with anger, regrets, or unresolved problems. We’ve had some late nights but, when we do this, little things aren’t allowed to grow and we always wake up with a clear conscience. Pick milestones in your daily schedule and draw the line. Fix mistakes at work before you go home. Make everything right with your kids before you put them to bed. Release regrets with your spouse before you go to sleep.

Oh, poor me. If we can’t bury our regrets and we can’t just blame others, why not just blame ourselves. Oh, poor me. I must beat myself up. I can pay for my guilt with depression, self-punishment, setting myself up to fail, and even through sickness. How many Hail-Mary’s is this going to take? It’s a subconscious response we may not even realize. Self-condemnation is so convenient. All I need are prescription drugs, alcohol, and razor blades. Ok, maybe with a mix of burying regrets and deflecting regrets to others, I can leave the razor blades off the list. We can waste decades paralyzed in self condemnation. How do you know when you’ve punished yourself enough? The guilt doesn’t go away by just blaming ourselves.

As usual, our human viewpoint won’t get us where we want to go. We are not free until we fix our regrets with man AND God. With boogers at work, it can be as simple as a little overtime. With people, it can be as simple as a sincere apology. If you’ve done some big-time damage, it can take dedicated effort over time to repair what you’ve messed up. Nobody said it would be easy. It takes character.

With God, it is so simple we try to make it hard. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Hey! Cleansing is what I want. I accept my regrets, quit making excuses, and turn the condition over to God. “People who cover over their sins will not prosper. But if they confess and forsake them, they will receive mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). Confessing is such an elegant solution. “Forsaking” can take concentration, effort, and time, but it causes happiness and I’m all about that. Throughout the Bible we are told to do something in order to receive something. Believe in Jesus and receive eternal life in heaven. Love God and receive blessings. Have faith and receive strength. Confess and receive mercy and forgiveness. God is ready; willing, and able to clean our slate. All we have to do is ask and accept. Don’t let pride get in the way of asking and don’t let our human viewpoint get in the way a accepting. You have to do both. “there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). If you don’t belong to Christ, you’re on your own so keep right on denying it, passing the buck, and punishing yourself because that’s all you’ve got. If you do belong to Christ, accept His forgiveness and mercy, forgive yourself, right your wrongs, and focus on the future. Do all these things and wake up with a clear conscious and free spirit everyday. “Do not remember the past events, pay no attention to things of old. Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

All God’s chil’n got problems. He tells us to expect them. It would be nice if God came with “Insurance”: the promise of reimbursement in case of loss, pain, disability, and suffering. What He gives is “Assurance”: freedom from death and doubt. We still have to deal with what is dealt us on Earth.

Problems in our business and personal lives are of two basic types. Most of the day-to-day distress is the result of our own free will and our own poor choices. But what about innocent suffering? Things we have no control over? Why does God allow it?

First, it allows us to build our faith and strength: to re-focus on Him. It steadies you. One of the most distressing events in business is processing a payroll when a dozen families depend upon a check and there is not enough money in the bank to cover them. You go through a time like that and you’re all panicky; then the Lord stills the storm and you think, “Thank God that’s all over. I’ll never have to go through that again! I’ve learned my lesson!” And two weeks later, there is another storm. But this time you’ve been through it once, so you steady up a bit. You don’t get so panicky. You learn something. You learn about the strength of God and are reminded that He will meets our needs in the hour of need. And sometimes, it is literally the last hour! Through faith, you turn to God for strength. You learn to receive.

Second, our suffering and distress matures us. God is building you up so he can hold you up and say, “He’s approved, he’s tested.” God is in the process of making veterans. A veteran has been through something and has been tested and proven.

Second Corinthians 1:8-10:

I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time that we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it. We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead. And he did help us, and he saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again. {2 Cor 1:8-10 Living Bible}

Now, that’s a veteran speaking. He’s been through some tough things, but he knows that God can take him through them, and he will. He isn’t saying, “It’s all over.” No, he is saying, “There’s more coming, but God will take us through.” That’s a veteran.

Third, it’s a way for God show his grace. You learn something about the Lord: you learn how gracious he is. You learn that he can handle events in ways that you couldn’t dream of or anticipate. You see him work things out in ways that you could never have guessed. So the third and fourth times a trial comes up, you are steadier. You don’t panic, you don’t bail out. You stay under and let it work itself out.

In times of great grace, it’s easy to forget that distress is to be expected. It’s not strange, it’s normal. It’s not a surprise, it’s promised to happen.

First Peter 4:12

“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is coming upon you to test you, as though some strange thing happened to you.”

James 1:

“Count it all joy, my brethren, when you fall into various tribulation.”

Heb. 12:11:

“No discipline for the present is pleasant. But afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it,”.

Right at the moment of hurt, we are not going to feel like rejoicing, but it should soon follow that we rejoice in our suffering. And that is what Paul plainly says: “We also rejoice in suffering.”

What is rejoicing? It’s not simply stoicism. It is not simply a ‘grin and bear it’ attitude, or ‘tough it out’ and see how much you can take, or ‘just hang in there until it’s over’, or ‘don’t let anything get you down,’ or ‘keep a stiff upper lip.’ It’s not endurance or acceptance or resignation.

When I’m having a really trying day, I say to myself, “at least I’m not pregnant.” It reminds me that things could be worse and whatever is happening is not as bad as I might make it out to be. But, pregnancy is an excellent example of rejoicing in suffering. Several months of pain leading to the extreme pain of labor and delivery. Many a brave man has face-planted the floor from the mere sight of it! And yet, there is joy in it because she knows that childbirth produces children. It is the child that makes it all worthwhile. Women will gladly go through it again because they want a child. Suffering produces something worthwhile. That is rejoicing in suffering.

Romans 5:1-5: 1

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

The right attitude is critical if you want to ultimately benefit from the problems you face. You can let your problems destroy you, or you can use them to become a stronger and better person. Every day, the alarm goes off, you get out of bed, and you decide how you will handle your problems.

We rejoice in suffering, because there are certain benefits that we can claim whenever we are faced with it.

Suffering helps us handle pressure. It gives us character. When we weather storms, we have a chance to prove to the world what we’re made of, and prove to the world what God is made of and how He is faithful to protect us through trials.

Suffering produces an attitude of confident optimism, because once you have suffered you realize that problems aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. I taught myself to water ski on hydrofoils. I tore my elbows, wrenched my back, and broke my left foot. I couldn’t wait to heal to do it again. I wasn’t afraid of the pain I had already faced. When you stay with it, you become stronger and your problem becomes weaker.

Still, some days I loose focus so there is a reminder taped on my monitor, Psalms 118:24: this is the day the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it. God never promised it would be easy. Suffering and distress are attitudes. We look in the mirror and see “O poor me.” Be the mirror; not the image. People look at us and see God in the way we respond to suffering. It’s an opportunity to glorify God and that is a gift.

I’m not rich.  I’m Mr. Middle class income.   Being self employed, there can be some really good years.  There can also be some with negative income for the whole year!  Rich guys have jets and island getaways.  Not me.  I ought to slide right through the eye of that needle.  Maybe how rich we are depends on our threshold of what we consider “rich”.  Consider, if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:

57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from North and South America, 8 Africans

52 would be female, 48 would be male

70 would be non Christian, 30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 60% of the entire wealth and all 6 would be from the U.S.

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth

1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education

We are too too blessed to be stressed.  I’m so rich I don’t even know it.  The poorest person in America is incredibly rich!

I woke up this morning with more health than illness.  I’m already richer in health than the 1 million who will not survive this week.

I’ve never experienced  imprisonment, torture, or starvation.  I’m already richer than 500 million people in the world.

I can attend church without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death.  I’m richer than three billion people in the world.

I have food in the refrigerator, clothes on my back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep.  I’m richer than 75% of this world.

I only have a couple of bucks in the bank, $27 in my wallet, and spare change in my glove box.  I’m among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

I can read a Bible verse.  I’m richer than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

We are too blesssed to be stressed.  Keep it in perspective.  When Jesus talks of the difficulty for a rich man entering Heaven,  He’s talking to me.
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