You Can't Get There From Here
Ever since I was a youngster, I have thought it would be handy to have a tunnel through the middle of the earth. There are about eight thousand miles of planet underneath your feet. Yet, surprisingly we know more about the rocks on the moon than those only 10 miles away, hidden underground.
The further you go into the earth, the warmer it gets. After the first few hundred feet, the heat increases several degrees for each thousand feet. At the very centre of our earth, there is a mysterious super hot heart that appears to be iron under very great pressure.
The attempt to drill through the crust of the earth is complicated not only by the high temperatures, but because the thinnest parts of the crust are at the bottom of the deepest oceans. In 1970, the Russians began drilling the world’s deepest hole in Siberia. At this point, at a depth of more than six miles, they are near the limit of what is technically possible.
So how do we know what is deep inside the earth if we can’t look at it or take samples? Sound waves from earthquakes, which travel through the interior of the earth, can be detected by special equipment on the surface. By noting where and when they reach the surface, we can get a good idea of the material through which they have travelled.
So next time you dig in your garden, remember that, although you could fly around the earth, there is no chance that you could ever take a shortcut by using a tunnel through the centre!
Part of the human condition seems to be the desire to be somewhere else. Sometimes this is geographical, sometimes temporal. Many of us who are quite content with our present location would like to be able to move the clock ahead or back to what we see as some preferred time. Typically those who are younger would like the advantages that age seems to brings. Those who are older would like to once again enjoy the benefits of youth.
Just as surely as some of us would like to be able to shift time or to take a shortcut through the middle of the earth, some of us would like to take a spiritual shortcut. The process of maturing is a slow, sometimes painful one. There are so many things to distract us: families, education, careers, fun. While these things may all contribute to our development as persons, the pressures that they bring to bear on us can also hinder the growth of our psyche.
We can easily fall into patterns of behaviour which help us cope for the moment but stifle our spiritual development. Most people would see “doing what is right” as an important part of human maturing. To do what is expedient, but “wrong” would be a step in the wrong direction.
In the spiritual realm there are limits as surely as there are in the physical. Self-righteous justification of harmful behaviours and bad choices will not aid in the development of our character. To achieve any kind of positive spiritual goal demands first, that we really have spiritual life and second, that we “go the long way.” Taking short-cuts will never enhance our maturity.
Instant spiritual development would be nice, but the only way to achieve maturity is through a process of growth and change. Little by little, we develop as we exercise our spiritual muscles. There are no spiritual hormones to help us to grow larger, faster. Time is part of the process God uses us to bring us to maturity.
Peter, one of Jesus’ followers wrote a couple of letters near the end of his life. In the second one, he advised his readers with these words: “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” [2 Peter 1:5-7]
David Humphreys and Ron Hughes
© August 2004
