Just Like That, Huh?

The Old Testament reading at church today was from 1 Kings, bits and pieces from chapter 18.

In a nutshell, Elijah goes to the Israelites and says, "You all are worshipping a false god, Baal. We'll see which god is the real God. We'll each prepare a bull for sacrifice, and whichever god can burn his own offering we'll all agree is The God. You guys go first." So they slaughtered a bull and prepared it, but didn't light it on fire, and started praying to Baal. They prayed fervently all dang day, but nothing. Elijah taunted them, and they cut themselves according to their tradition and still, Baal never showed up to burn the offering. Elijah slaughtered a bull and prepared his offering, but doused it in water first, like, really drenched it. And he prayed, and God showed up and burnt the offering thoroughly, even the water burned.

When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, "The Lord indeed is God; the Lord indeed is God." We didn't read the next bit, about Elijah slaying all the prophets of Baal. (1 Kings 18:39)

I'm thinking, How awful would that be?

So, you watch as your god gets beaten soundly in a whose-god-does-better-fire contest, your community leaders get schwacked by the victors, and you, what, fall down acknowledging the power of the new God, and get back to your life? Just like that? Just, bam!, yesterday we were Baalites, now we're Jews.

There wasn't one guy that called for a do-over? There wasn't some goodwife back home, saying, "well, you men probably didn't do it right. Baal's there, you just messed up the offering." Or, "Baal's a perfectly good god, but he demands we follow the rules he gave us, which include burning the offering. You want the god, you gotta follow the rules."

And isn't that, in essence, what God (via Elisha) does in 2 Kings chapter 5? He (again, through Elisha) cures the captain of leprosy, but only if he goes and bathes seven times in the Jordan. Not the Abana or the Pharpar, but in the Jordan. Again, you want God, you gotta follow the rules.

I don't want to get into a discussion on whether or not we really have to follow the rules, or what exactly the rules are, or anything like that. My point is, isn't that kind of harsh? And more than a little hypocritical?

Spring Cleaning and Update

I have created a new blog JUST for knitting stuff. Though, I'll most likely mention it in here when I post something there.


So, for those who didn't know or haven't heard, here's the update.


On Wednesday night my folks came to visit from the West coast. We had a lovely visit and on Thursday night we went out to dinner at Rhinehart's Oyster Bar. Everyone loved it, even the kids. We decided that we weren't gorged quite enough and went to The Evil Empire for some dessert. When we got home, the lights were all off. Well, we left in the day time and probably turned them off. But the motion-detector light didn't come on. And there was that funny smell. Kind of like an electrical fire smell. And tons of black smoke billowing out of the laundry room.

My wonderful parents coralled the kids while we sorted out who to call and what to do. Georgia Power turned off the electricity at the meter (but later had to go back and turn it off at the street) and we called an electrician and our home-owner's insurance guys. Every one except for GA Power was great.

The house was built in 1955 and had the original breaker panel and service. It was at 100 amps, which is plenty. If you don't have an electric dryer and a computer and a microwave and a TV and another TV and a stereo and about a bajillion extra lights (even if they are CFLs). The Aluminum wire coming into the house (that's right, Aluminum, not copper) expanded and contracted, becoming loose where it connected to the copper wire at our breaker box. It arced and started an electrical fire that melted large portions of the breaker box, including the main breaker, and the wires going into the box AND coming out of the box.

On Tuesday late morning, the electricians came back and turned everything on. The power got turned on on Monday sometime after five pm (we had already headed back to Columbia, where our insurance company could afford a hotel. They just didn't want to pay $400 a night for one in town. Go figure.). GA Power would have been out sooner, but some tree got knocked over at the Masters.

So the plumber came out today to fix the drain (wholly unrelated. Yay!!) and sometime real soon I get to call ServPro. I've been putting it off. I'm not sure why. It's just not something I'm looking forward to.