God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

Today there are several TV shows here in the US that deal with ghost hunting. . .Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Stories, Celebrity Ghost Stories, Paranormal State, and an occasional documentary about a famous exorcism or haunted house. Charismatic, TV-friendly hunters bring in high tech equipment such as digital recorders to record ghostly voices called Electronic Voice Phenomenon ( EVP ). There are night vision TV cameras, computer monitors watching every room, walkie talkies, Electromagnetic Frequency monitors, and heat sensing equipment. There is the interview with clients: We heard children crying or giggling, we saw a lady dressed in last century's fashion, we were touched, we heard a voice telling us to get out, we heard footsteps, things fly off the kitchen counter, something appears to me at night, we feel watched all the time, a voice tells me to kill myself or kill my parents or my kids, etc. In a haunted home, people live in terror as things literally go bump in...

Psalm 1 says, "Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers (NRSV). A poetic metaphor, of course. But what does it really mean? That nothing bad will ever happen to a God-centered person? Of course not. We all know that such people can have car accidents, develop cancer, lose their homes, lose a child, wind up divorced, or become depressed and angry. Goodness knows Israel and every major hero and heroine in the Hebrew Bible had crosses to bear and trials to overcome. So what point was the author of the psalm making with such confidence? The water represents God's presence in our lives... an otherworldly energy that brings them through all tests and trial...