The Oddity of Earth : On the Road Chaplain

The Oddity of Earth!

Hello to my Hump Day faithful readers. I hear from so many of you and I want to take a moment to thank you all because you encourage and inspire me! Writing may come out of one mind, but it takes a lot of “togetherness” to create the stories and you are a part of that. Now, today I want to share a phenomenon of our earth and it’s so odd that scientists, physicists, etc. get baffled. When you read this you’d be baffled, too—but don’t worry, OK?

*Did you know that the Earth completed its shortest rotation in recorded history this year on June 29? It’s not like we felt it and most of us are certainly not checking the milliseconds on our calendars. However, scientists are and this amazing info about our planet’s rotation is nothing short of miraculous and why not? God designed it not with human minds, but with his mighty creative wonders!

This shortest rotation shaved 1.59 milliseconds off of the approximately 24-hour day we all live in. Generally, the Earth is slowing its spin ever so slightly, so why it seems to be speeding up is a mystery to the super-brains and it’s driving them crazy. How about you? Did you realize you lost 1.59 milliseconds? The answer is no, it’s impossible to feel it at all.

Geodesy professor, Matt King-University of Tasmania says: “Clearly something has changed and changed in a way we haven’t seen since the beginning of precise radio astronomy in the 1970s.” Our geodesy super-brains who take care of our standardized UTC, which is universal time coordination, have been busy syncing our clocks around the world! Imagine having such a job! Fred Watson—physicist and astronomer, loves the job. His latest thoughts are “When you start looking at the real nitty gritty, you realize that Earth is not just a solid ball that is spinning. It’s got liquid on the inside, it’s got liquid on the outside, and it’s got an amazing atmosphere and all of these things slosh around a bit.” OK, so if you feel you are tipsy perhaps you are sloshing with the earth—oops you lost some milliseconds for sure!

The quandary? It seems the Earth is spinning quicker. Watson says: “Every leap second is a major source of pain for people who manage hardware infrastructures…this can have a devastation effect on the software relying on timers and schedulers.” This means your computer/cell phone/tablet will not be happy. Your calendar stays the same but today’s incredible technology is so precise our ‘toys’ will get wonky. O dear, what should we all do? Leonid Zotov, a renowned scientists with 3 PhD’s, answers: “Predicting variations in Earth’s rotation is almost as difficult as predicting stock prices. We deal with it and don’t worry.”

All these milliseconds made me think of who is in charge of this universe! The brainiest folks can assess but it is God who keeps us spinning on this planet as well as all the planets we know and don’t know. In other words, the miracle of Creation continues and for God, the Creator of it all, time is in his hands and he is not counting milliseconds!

We all wrestle with time—never seems to have enough, goes too fast, or goes too slow. But in God’s timing, every millisecond happens exactly the way God deems it. Remember Job’s conversation with God? Job was upset and literally let God have it (bad idea). God threw back questions that set Job down on his butt! Here’s just a few lines of their conversation from The Message Bible…I recommend reading Job 38, 39 and 40—it’s truly amazing! I’m sharing from Chapter 38 when God begins to question Job from out of a violent storm!!

“And now, finally, God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. He said: “Why do you confuse the issue? Why do you talk without knowing what you’re talking about? Pull yourself together, Job! Up on your feet! Stand tall! I have some questions for you, and I want some straight answers. Where were you when I created the earth? Tell me, since you know so much! Who decided on its size? Certainly you’ll know that! Who came up with the blueprints and measurements? How was its foundation poured, and who set the cornerstone, while the morning stars sang in chorus and all the angels shouted praise? And who took charge of the ocean when it gushed forth like a baby from the womb? That was me! I wrapped it in soft clouds, and tucked it in safely at night. Then I made a playpen for it—a strong playpen so it couldn’t run loose. And I said, ‘Stay here, this is your place. Your wild tantrums are confined to this place.’

I’m so grateful for ‘brainiacs’ who help us with the gift of technology, medicine, teaching, engineering, organizing, etc. We need them all, and whether they believe it or not, they are all being used by an incredible God from whom they get their talents and smarts. To me, each person has a “genius” in them given by God to benefit this world. Like the scientists shared above, they work to make a difference that affects us all.

So despite our changing “planet rotation”, isn’t it a great relief that no matter if time has hiccups, the climate has disastrous changes, the global scheme of things screws up…no matter all of that, our God is firmly in charge and holds every millisecond in his hands. OK, now I don’t have to worry about losing my sleep if the earth speeds us or slows down-whew!! Can I get an AMEN?!