I have not posted on this site for a while. Every week, Daryl Tol, President of Florida Hospital shares a story with the Florida Hospital family and this one was posted on Sunday, May 22, 2016. It is my pleasure to share this one with you. Thanks Daryl.
Speaking of unheralded, we probably forget sometimes that we
have a University that is part of our family. If you’re a graduate, then you
don’t, of course. But if you didn’t attend Adventist University of Health
Sciences you could be forgiven for momentary lapses in remembering. Anyway, the
leadership there spent some time this week planning and discussing and doing
other smart and academically impressive things together. They even let me
gather with them for about an hour, momentarily lowering the IQ requirement.
During their meeting they talked about the contrast between something called bounded sets compared to something called centered sets. I told you it was smart and academical. The explanation went something like this…
During their meeting they talked about the contrast between something called bounded sets compared to something called centered sets. I told you it was smart and academical. The explanation went something like this…
There are two different ways of keeping groups of things
together. One is to gather them together and fence them in. That would be a
bounded set. If you’re inside the fence you’re an insider. If you’re outside
the fence…yep, you got it. The other way would be to create some kind of
attractive element that draws things toward it. That would be a centered set.
In that case, you’re not inside or outside. You’re just closer or farther from
the attractive element in the center.
An example. In the American west as settlers started
meandering across the landscape, they continually struggled with their animals
wandering off. That’s why in 4th or 5th grade we learned
about this amazing thing called barbed wire that transformed the west. Simply
by pounding posts into the ground and stringing barbed wire across thousands of
acres, ranchers and farmers staked their claims and bundled up what they owned
into neat packages. They created huge bounded sets to identify what was in and
what was out. And then gave them catchy names like “The Squirming S” or “The
Rocking Z”.
Other parts of the world used a different approach.
Australia is apparently a great example because it happened at around the same
time. There, in Australia, they didn’t fence in the landscape. Instead, they
dug water holes and wells. Knowing livestock in that dry territory would hang
out close to water, they created a centered set. A place that would draw in
their livestock, keeping them in reasonable proximity. The next rancher over
would do the same thing and everyone would keep their cattle (maybe even a few
kangaroos) close enough for comfort.
This kind of thinking defines our world. Consider countries.
Some places get pretty extreme and build huge walls that try to keep their
population inside. Think of places like the old Soviet Union or North Korea. It
seems as if the higher the wall, the more people want to get out, but they
still try. America is certainly imperfect, but it has built a philosophy around
possibility that draws people here from all over the world. Rather than trying
to leave, people come. It works so well, some people talk about building walls
to keep people out. But that’s another topic entirely.
Consider the spiritual application. Some of us have been
raised to believe that our religion is like a fence. You’re either inside (yay) or outside (boo). It can feel pretty good being inside of any group. And it
can feel pretty bad being outside. It plays into our human nature as the
insiders build a sense of superiority and the outsiders build a sense of
resentment. Not really healthy in either direction.
God had a different plan. He didn’t build a fence. He built a well. He called it living water and said if we drank from it we wouldn’t ever be thirsty again. Many of us see the cross there. We know that God put it there and that any time we choose to turn toward it, it is there for us, no matter how far away we are. That it will save us whether we’re 10,000 miles away or 3 feet away. There’s no fence to climb over and there’s no inside or outside. We’re just His and He loves us. He loves us enough to let us wander off into the desert if we want to, but He always makes it so easy to come back. It’s a miracle, I think.
God had a different plan. He didn’t build a fence. He built a well. He called it living water and said if we drank from it we wouldn’t ever be thirsty again. Many of us see the cross there. We know that God put it there and that any time we choose to turn toward it, it is there for us, no matter how far away we are. That it will save us whether we’re 10,000 miles away or 3 feet away. There’s no fence to climb over and there’s no inside or outside. We’re just His and He loves us. He loves us enough to let us wander off into the desert if we want to, but He always makes it so easy to come back. It’s a miracle, I think.
Once I realize the power of this, it changes the way I see
other people. The way I’m called to care for everyone I come in contact with.
Because we’re not on different ranches or part of various warring tribes. We’re
on the same journey and can be a huge help to each other along the way.
Daryl
Daryl
