On Babbling Madmen

2 Kings 9:1-3 reads as such:
"The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, 'This is what the Lord says: I anount you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!""

Back in the day, Elisha was like this wicked awesome prophet. And it so happened that other prophets that we might assume to be his pupils hung out with him.
Imagine him sending one of his eager pupils on this 'mission', the same way a research professor gets a grad student to do all the menial tasks for their experiments.
And reflect on how odd a request that is.
"hey dude. tuck your cloak in (i'm guessing this entails an air of swiftness), and take this bottle. run up to an army commander, dump oil on him, tell him that he's the king of israel, and then run away. fast."

the story goes on.
After this guy finds Jehu, anoints him king, and runs away, Jehu went back to his buddies:
"When Jehu went out to his fellow officers, one of them asked him, "Is everything all right? Why did this madman come to you?"
"You know the man and the sort of things he says," Jehu replied.
"that's not true!" they said. "tell us."
Jehu said, "Here is what he told me: 'This is what the Lord says: I anoint you king over Israel.'"
They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, "Jehu is king!"

I think that the officer's judgment of the prophet being a 'madman' was justified. That's pretty much the only sane way to react when some guy runs up to your friend and proclaims him king of Israel.

But here's the kicker: they believed him.
The writers of 2 Kings doesn't record any conversations between Jehu and his friends trying to convince them that yeah, he was king of Israel. In fact, it seems like Jehu was a little embarrassed that he was randomly selected as the next king.
Instead, the commanders spread out their cloaks and proclaimed him king.

That would be kind of like a band of University professors proclaiming Al Gore to be the President of the United States.
But only if those professors believed enough in Al Gore to assassinate obama and proclaim gore the president. Except assassinating people for power and believing in al gore are mutually exclusive. So ignore that.

HERE was my point:
At first glance, the unnamed prophet was said to be a "babbling madman", but no one disputed his authority.

Kind of like how John the Baptist ate wild honey and wore clothes made out of camel hair, like a freaky hippy, but was regarded by his contemporaries as a prophet and and inspiration.

Kind of like how Jesus healed crippled people on saturday (oh no! not saturday!) and had to wake up extra-early in order to get away from people.

The "things of God" often times are presented to us in ways that appear completely ridiculous. As if God is a crazy eccentric old guy. But it's our job to roll with that, presuming we use discretion and don't assume that everything nutty is divine.

On Falling Trees

When a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

People have always asked that, and quite frankly, I never understood why.
The next time someone says it, here's how i'll counter:
"If a tree falls on the side of the road, and nobody hears it, but it takes out your power for 4 days, does anyone care if it made any sound? no sir. You're just ticked at that tree because you know PSNH won't get their trucks to your house until halfway through next week."

I don't think i've ever been without power for so long because, and it presents an interesting juxtaposition.

I woke up friday morning to no electricity and no final day of school before midterms. I then sat around until 3:00 when my dad turned on the generator. At that point I took a shower and drove to a friend's house who didnt' lose power. I didn't return until 11:00. Saturday was the same drill. Woke up, showered, left, and came home at 8:00.
What was so striking is how little there is to do when there's no power.
Literally all you can do is sit around in the dark.

Weirder still is how different life can be just a block away. For people who didn't lose power, its as if they lived in Utah, where the only way they know about any "state of emergency" is though CNN telling them that 300,000 people in New Hampshire have no electricity.

Meanwhile, though, my parents have kerosene lamps going and are freaking out about food in the refrigerator. Its like, two completely different worlds, right next to each other.

Apostle Peter referred to his fellow christians as "strangers in the world", "aliens", and in the kjv, "peculiar people".
In 1 Peter 1:13, he said, "therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."

Here's what I take away from this:
There is a distinct difference between christians and nonchristians.
This whole weekend, as soon as i stepped into my house, i realized that there was absolutely nothing to do. And when i went to someone else's house, it was as if everything was normal.

But when i was sitting around with nothing to do, i realized that, 150 years ago, that's how everyone lived. There was no electricity, no modern conveniences.
We complain and yell and whine when our power goes off, and sit around with "nothing to do", but clearly they had ways of filling their time up in the 1850s... just ask the Amish.

That's how nonbelievers should see our lives.
They should look at us and say, "woah man. all this time i thought life was awesome, but now i look around and theres nothing to do."
They should be asking us to hang out because they're "bored".
We never have to sit around in metaphysical darkness when the "power" goes out. No matter what happens to us, we still have our best friend at our side.

That's totally way more awesome than not having running water.