Clouds without Rain

This week’s weather has reflected the climate of my work. It’s been hot, humid, cloudy, and stormy with almost no desperately needed rain. I’ve been working long hard hours, pounding away at the keyboard, producing almost nothing toward my urgent deadlines.

Vanity, Vanity

For my work I occasionally travel to the Chicago area (which has become a nightmare with the ongoing highway construction on I-80/94), and my minivan spent May 3 in a repair shop in Indiana. The computer diagnostic indicated two problems: the EGR valve and a TCC (transmission) code. The EGR valve was replaced for $367 and the TCC code disappeared. I drove it home without incident. On my way to town the next week, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on again. Sure enough, another computer diagnosis revealed the Torque Converter Clutch (a transmission thing) was still a problem.

I was reluctant to travel alone anywhere with a van on the verge of a transmission problem, and my husband and I checked into repairing the transmission. The cost of nearly $2,000 seemed a bit prohibitive for a 1995 minivan with 162k miles.

So we searched for a replacement and, the last week in May, we purchased a 2000 minivan with 82k miles. We figured we were gaining five years and cutting the mileage about in half.

On June 12, I took the "new" van to the Chicago area. The next morning, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on. It spent the day in the same repair shop where my previous van had been one month and ten days earlier. The EGR valve was replaced for $215.

That day I had to leave my meeting early to pick up the van before the repair shop closed. I waited for it at the shop, dropped off the person who had given me a ride, was stopped by one of Indiana's finest (he thought my plates were expired because apparently the Iowa 2007 sticker is the same color as the Indiana 2006 sticker), waited 10 minutes to get back on busy Hwy 30, drove north on Torrence and waited 20 minutes for a train, and arrived back at the meeting just after its conclusion.

The next morning my van wouldn't start. It was a minor problem and the same dealership graciously repaired it at no charge, even though it was not related to the previous day's work.

Although I was much later than I'd hoped, I was still able to do the interviews scheduled for that day and headed for home about noon.

Waking about 4:00 for several days and the stress of the last few days had exhausted me. On the drive home, I listened to the soundtrack from "Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" at full blast, pounding my steering wheel and weaving my shoulders in time with the music to keep myself awake.

But once I got into Iowa on I-80, the other music I had along wasn't moving me. The twenty miles before my exit were killers. I was watching for each mile marker and singing to the tune of "Twenty More Bottles of Beer on the Wall," a progessive song of: "Twenty more miles to my exit to go, twenty more miles to go."

As I drew near my exit, I noticed a helicopter hovering over the area. I slowed down and pulled into the right lane. When I crested the last hill, I saw a huge pileup of several cars and a truck in the eastbound lane. The straight truck had been carrying corn that had spilled across both lanes. Eastbound traffic was being diverted north at my exit. I debated whether to take the exit or continue to the next, but my psychological state couldn't face one more mile of interstate driving. I pulled off.

At the ramp's stop sign, a trucker in the diverted traffic stopped far enough back to let me through the long line. When I crossed the overpass, a sheriff directing traffic waved me through. I headed south toward home.

Listening to news report on the way home and the next morning, I heard that 13 people had been injured and taken by helicopters to hospitals in Iowa City and Des Moines. Eastbound traffic had crawled north to Hwy. 6 and through Grinnell before returning to I-80. It was several hours before the eastbound lane was reopened.

Witnessing the magnitude of what could happen on a trip to Chicago put my two recent trips into perspective. What's a few hundred dollars of repairs and some wasted time compared to injury and hospitalization?

Providence, Pentecost and Babel Reversed

There are times in my life when God's providence is so obvious it makes me feel as if he reaches down, wraps his arms around me, and whispers in my ear, "See how much I love you, Glenda!"

This past weekend was one of those times.

In between a couple of time-consuming projects for Mid-America Reformed Seminary, I've been struggling to write a series of articles for Christian Renewal concerning the Reformed Christian and the arts. I'm interviewing several people: G. Carol Bomer, David Hegeman, William Edgar, Suzanne Clark, Larry Woiwode, and Makoto Fujimura. I had interviewed Carol via email about four years ago and, feeling a kinship with her, hoped that some day I would meet her this side of glory. In March, I began interviewing her again via email for this series on the arts, and finally began getting the article about her put together last week.

On Friday, I sent her an email requesting a jpg to accompany the article. She wrote back that she wouldn't be able to send a jpg for some time because she was on vacation. "...I'm here in Pella, Iowa..." she wrote, not knowing where I live. She was staying with a couple from our church who live about two miles from my home.

On Pentecost Sunday, June 4, I met Carol this side of heaven. We met at a Pentecost worship service, another manifestation of God's providence.

The devotionals I've been reading from Ligonier Ministries' Tabletalk broke from the Genesis narrative, after discussing Genesis 11:1-9 and "The Tower of Babel" on Tuesday, May 30, to go to the description of Pentecost in Acts 2 and discuss "Babel Reversed" on Wednesday, May 31:

At Pentecost, the festival of the firstfruits of the harvest, the church received the firstfruits of cosmic redemption when the Holy Spirit was poured out equally upon all flesh (Acts 2:1-4). The miracle of tongues, where every one heard the Gospel in his own language (vv. 5-11), provided evidence God was breaking down the cultural and ethnic division imposed at Babel, revealing that the true Israel is defined not by tongue or culture but by common faith in the Messiah.

Linguistic and cultural differences remain, but the power of the Spirit enables us to break through them for the sake of the Gospel. The reversal of Babel has begun, as the elect from every nation gather before the Lord's throne to worship Him (Rev. 7:9-12).

One of Carol's current painting series is "Global City Babel," in which an image of Pieter Bruegel's Tower of Babel is incorporated into every painting. She explains that the image represents "anti-foundational" postmodernism with its "relativistic language" where the meanings of words become mere "social constructs." Carol refers to Pentecost as "this amazing reversal of Babel."

"The mystery of Word becoming Image will always have its reference in Christ," she says, "who is not only the transcendent Logos, but also the Word Incarnate and the Creator of language, who communicates through language to bring His global image bearers into community."

Meeting Carol was an act of God's providence; the providential exposure to her "Global City Babel" series, the Pentecost devotional, and the Pentecost worship opened my mind to the immensity of "Babel Reversed" and touched my heart with God's personal love.

Contemplation

Contemplation is crucial for creativity.