Little Mr. Sunshine Inc.
By Stephen Carter on Aug 23, 2007
The stake we live in had a fast at the beginning of July. Apparently we hadn’t been getting enough “moisture” (Mormon parlance for rain). So we were all supposed to repent and fast the next Sunday so that God would send moisture to our parched valley.
Well, I forgot to fast, but I did want to do my part, so I washed my car. I even waxed it. A great act of faith on my part as the wax cost an extra 75 cents. I even parked my sparkling car outside the garage so it could act as a magnet for the rain clouds that would surely come.
On the Sunday of the fast we had this special sacrament meeting and all these big wigs talked about how the rain was on its way. I could have sworn I was watching a rerun of that old black and white church film Windows of Heaven, except that that podium was completely free of beards. And, glory be, after the meeting we walked out to see huge black clouds moving toward us.
But that’s all they did for a whole week! They just lollygagged across the sky mocking us, letting maybe three drops fall. I was really worried, especially since we live about a hundred yards away from the bishop. If his vicinity wasn’t getting moisture, would any part of the valley get it?
Of course, we could have been running the chance that God goes by Webster’s definition of moisture, that being, “water or other liquid diffused in a small quantity.” In which case, our prayers were answered.
An entire month went by with next to zero rain. And it was dang hot. I left on a trip to Alaska the beginning of August, looking forward to the 70-degree weather. And that’s exactly what I got. Boy, it was swell. My ride from the airport was an hour and a half late, but I didn’t mind. I just basked in the perfect temperatures.
Anyway, I got to Fairbanks (losing only a few articles of underwear when one of my luggage pockets burst open en route) and was sitting next to one of my old professors watching baseball when Noelle called and told me that the rain so long awaited by the faithful had finally arrived in monsoon proportions.
It was then that I understood. Bridger Valley just needed to get rid of its biggest sinner in order to receive its blessing.
I was very humbled by this realization and during a contemplative moment I realized that I could probably sell my services. I could move into a town until it gets all dried out, and then the good citizens there could pay me a fee of gratitude for moving away and taking my curse along with me.
But then what would I do with the money? I know you’re supposed to pay tithing on all God’s blessings to you, but what about the curses?
You have to love the way the human mind works. A solid MONTH goes by before any rain falls, and your ward attributes it as an answer to their fasting and prayers? News flash—it was eventually going to rain, no matter how many people did or didn’t eat!
Comment # 1 by Nick Literski | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
The success of a prayer for “moisture”, just like the success of a rain dance, is highly dependent on timing.
Comment # 2 by Gregory Smith | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
did i miss a clue? i took this piece as a mildly ironic fiction, not a true account of the author’s experience.
bwj
Comment # 3 by Bruce Jorgensen | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
Stephen, you and I ought to join forces: you get out of town while I try to get balanced. Then maybe we can teach workshops?
On New Years Day 1978, Southern California was facing the continuation of a drought of many years. Reservoir levels all over the state were at an all time low and there was much lamenting that recovery seemed impossible. That morning I awoke from a distressing dream. Since dreams had been my fascination for more than a decade, I began to work with this nightmare to transform a inner negative experience into something positive. Three days later I had a back spasm that laid me low. Not being able to work or even move much for days, I found a book to read while a friend brought food. The book was about rainmaking in China. (I don’t now remember its title or author). During reading and reflecting on it an historic storm came into the territory and all reservoirs were filled. The massive drainage system constructed earlier despite taxpayer complaints of excessive costs paid for itself in that one storm.
Feeling connected to the event, I wrote a poem about it in the context of my dream. Perhaps you as a story teller can see the point. Here it is:
Rainmaker
I’m nervous as I sit in front
the third chair from the isle.
The man who sits before me
now speaks but doesn’t smile.
“What is your journey here, sir,
before you are retired,
and make no joke about it
the word is more like fired!”
Startled I woke that New Year’s day
as the dream began to fade,
and three days later on the job
my back just up and gave!
Down flat in bed my body lay
retired by the pain
while outside great clouds gathered
and then began the rain.
As outer ragged darkness
sent torrents raging down
I dimly came to be aware
the Master was in town.
His inner light began to glow
in a school room way down deep
to show me what I’d failed to learn
long formal years asleep.
He came now as a rainmaker
from regions far away
where Nature’s master rhythm
is balanced night and day.
He took confusion on himself
influenced from without
and as the inner struggle grew
began to sort it out.
A rainmaker comes for inner work
chaotic states to feel
and restoring balance in himself
new harmony forms congeal.
* * *
“This is now my journey, Sir,”
I say back in the dream,
“to seek that place where rainmakers
can learn the craft they bring.
“I know it isn’t far beyond
for I can see the way;
the longer are the strides I take
the sooner arrival day.
“Even detours to the right or left
are harder now to take
as my journey speed increases
it’s less effort moving straight.
“So that is where I’m going now,
I hope you understand.
If not, that’s all right too, Sir,
but I’m moving to new land.
“I’ll return a later time then
when I’ve better learned my craft,
and if you’re here and still in need,
my work will make you laugh.
“If it isn’t fun to work here
anxiously building your careers,
why work to frantic sweat and toil
if you’re always in arrears?
“Send for yourselves a rainmaker
I know there’s one around
who’ll better help than I can give
when invited to your ground.”
A rainmaker comes for inner work
chaotic states to feel
and restoring balance in himself
new harmony forms congeal.
Los Angeles
Feb 78
.
Comment # 4 by Eugene Kovalenko | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
Stephen’s post was very funny, but I hope no one minds if I offer some serious thoughts on it. Sorry for the mission story, but…
We had an all-mission conference at which Elder Scott spoke. He gave a very lovely and eloquent talk about faith and hard work that I enjoyed very much except for one thing: he repeated as a true story an old urban legend about two sister missionaries being miraculously delivered from a roomful of rapists (minus the “three big guys standing behind them”, but it was essentially the same old story). My comp and I were like, well, how nice for them. We didn’t worry too much about it, though I didn’t like that he had told the story. Most of the other missionaries just accepted it at face value.
A few days later, we knocked on a door and a woman answered. She had clearly been badly beaten and was very agitated. She said, “Oh, I thought you were the police.” We were pretty shocked to see her in that state, obviously, and one of us blurted out, “What happened to you?” She answered that the night before, she had been carjacked in a parking garage, driven out to a nearby wooded area, beaten, robbed, and raped. After several hours, the man had dumped her out on the road and she had made her way home, where she had immediately called for the police and an ambulance, and that was where we came in. We were appalled, of course, and offered our help and assistance in any way. I believe we offered to pray with her if she wanted to before the cops came (and I NEVER did things like that). She had other things on her mind, so we went on our way. I was really shaken and didn’t want to tract after that (and I was the tracting queen of our mission), so my comp and I just walked for a while and talked about it a little, and we did stop and say a prayer for her, that she would be comforted and the criminal brought to justice, etc. However, I think it was at that point or shortly thereafter that I pretty much stopped believing in divine intervention in most instances. You could say that I lost my religion in some respects. I don’t know what kind of life that woman was leading and whether she was “worthy” or not to receive any blessings from God, but I’m pretty sure that she had prayed to be delivered from the evil man who kidnapped her, and she didn’t get any deliverance. Those two actual sister missionaries in South Africa who were beaten and raped a few months ago probably prayed too, and I doubt that they were not protected because they were somehow unworthy.
Anyway, I’ve had a bit of a crisis over this issue off and on over the years, and I think I’ve come to believe in a sort of modified watchmaker theory of God’s involvement in our affairs. I believe that He can and very rarely does intervene to save individuals or to declare His will (and the Holy Ghost is there to prompt us the rest of the time, though whether we listen to the promptings is up to us, and I think that’s the point), but most of the time, things just happen. It rains or it doesn’t. An evil person commits a crime, or he doesn’t. An unmarried woman gets pregnant because she has sex, or none of the sperm make it to the egg, or she has a miscarriage before she even knows she’s pregnant. The grasshoppers eat the crop and maybe the birds come to eat them, or maybe they don’t. A tornado jumps over the Salt Lake temple and hits the Salt Palace, or it demolishes a Church building. A person does a kind deed for someone else, or is cruel to that person, depending on the day he or she has had. Someone gets cancer or brain damage or hurt or killed in an accident. The weather, our bodies, our minds, our decisions, all that stuff works in a certain way, and there’s not a lot that God does to change it. I suppose that He could change it if He wanted to - the faith-promoting stories thingy in the Ensign is full of stories claiming that He does - it’s just that most of the time, He doesn’t. Maybe all the time, I don’t know. I’ve heard a lot of explanations for why not over the years (I’ve shared this story several times in Sunday School meetings where the teacher or class members have gone on about God “giving” us trials), and none have satisfied me. I just can’t believe that God “sends” hail or tornadoes or pregnancies or tumors or terrorist bombers or happiness or love ZOT - like Zeus throwing lightning bolts.
I do believe that God loves His children, though, and that He has not left them entirely alone. I believe that Jesus really lived and really did heal people and teach them and organize a church and atone for our sins and all of that, but I don’t believe that He or His Father did (or now do) anything They were not allowed to do by the faith or lack thereof of individuals. Maybe all Jesus ever did was help individuals tap into what was already inside them - mind over matter and all that - and then give some instructions. I believe that presidents of the Church have at various times received communications from God about various issues, though I wonder why He makes some things clear and other, seemingly equally important things not as clear. I guess I believe that most of the “blessings” or “cursings” we receive in life are simply consequences of things we may or may not have control over. Our actions and behaviors may have some effect on what happens to us, however. A person who fasts, prays, studies the scriptures, tries to stay close to God, etc. will receive more “blessings” of peace of mind, lightened burdens, and guidance from the Holy Ghost (which I’ve come to believe is different from God’s intervention) as a consequence of cultivating his or her spiritual side, while a person who indulges the carnal mind and body or is mentally, physically, or spiritually lazy, etc., will reap the consequences of those actions. And then, on top of that, sometimes things just happen. People are born to crackhead prostitutes as well as faithful Christians. They are outcastes in India or they’re Paris Hilton through no choice or fault of their own (no, I don’t believe that we specifically “chose” our families and mates and all that in the pre-mortal existence, though I think we do run into people we knew and were close to). Sometimes people just get sick, or hurt, or really lucky, or rich, or they fall in love, or whatever, and it just happens. In these cases, as Elder Scott said a few years back in Conference, spiritual strength and the comfort and influence of the Holy Ghost can help to point the way to the best resolution. I believe the scriptures that say “all things work for good for them that believe,” and as I’ve written before, I also believe that in the next life, many of the issues and circumstances that plague (and please) us here will be removed so that we can more fully learn what makes us ourselves. If people want to see some occurrence as a gift or curse or “trial” (how I hate the way we LDS use that word) sent from God, I’m not going to stand in their way, particularly if that belief helps them to endure or rejoice in that particular circumstance. And who am I to say that just because I can’t make sense of things that happen, that there is no sense and it’s mostly random? Maybe God really does assign specific “angels” to unwed crack moms to get them off crack or sends Hurricane Katrina to punish the people of New Orleans. I hope that’s not true, but maybe it is. I also think that hindsight (and sometimes inspiration from the Holy Ghost) can cause us to understand the meanings and outcomes of things that happen in a way that we can’t while they are happening. But I think we’d do a lot better if we stopped looking for Deus ex machina and just took things as they come while praying for the strength and wisdom to handle them well and make the right choices.
Comment # 5 by Villate | Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
The biggest issue in any debate over God’s role in the world is the problem of evil. I think that David Hume sums it up best: “EPICURUS’s old questions are yet unanswered. Is [God] willing to prevent evil, but not able? then is he impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then is he malevolent. Is he both able and willing? whence then is evil?” I don’t think anyone has answered that question satisfactorily. On a different note, I recommend reading Thornton Wilder’s “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.” Not only is it short (about a hundred pages long), it really makes you think about destiny and God’s will. I think that the only place you can look for God’s influence is in your own life. I don’t think you can ever see it in another person’s life. We can never really know another person’s circumstances, history or future.
Comment # 6 by dpc | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
dpc: you seem to believe God’s role in the world and in our lives is “out there” somewhere rather than within you or me or the rest of us. I think the question of evil has been beautifully addressed by Ken Wilber in his Kosmic Consciousness series and in his Integral Spiritual Center conversations. Especially interesting are his Integral Naked dialogues with Esalen founder Michael Murphy. Check them out on his Integral Naked website. It’s like traveling on a spiritual rocketship and “hie-ing” right on by Kolob!
I thinik you are right on when you say “…the only place you can look for God’s influence is in your own life. I don’t think you can ever see it in another person’s life. We can never really know another person’s circumstances, history or future.” That’s why we need to tell each other our own stories, Yes?
BTW, I tried your website but was unable to leave a comment to one of your posts. Send me an email and tell how to do this.
ENK
Comment # 7 by Eugene Kovalenko | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
Stephen’s post appears to me to be a mildly ironic personal experience. I don’t see him passing judgment on God or the faith of the Bridger Valley Saints, but more going for a wink-wink, Kirby-esque kind-of bemused rumination. And if the disparate reactions of the Nicks and dpc’s in contrast with the Bridger Valley Saints to the recent moisture/rainfall in Wyoming (?), I imagine it is kind of humorous from God’s point of view as well.
Comment # 8 by Matt Thurston | Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
My first post was in response to Villate’s post. (And now for something completely different) Truth be told, however, regardless of your religious outlook, I think the fact that a community of people can come together to petition a higher power for the good of the community says something about the power of religion to bring disparate elements together into a cohesive whole. The fact that it was going to rain eventually is meaningless. Phew…Anyways, I have the feeling that Stephen may have spent some time in Central Florida in May. I don’t think it rained once the entire month!
Comment # 9 by dpc | Aug 27, 2007 | Reply
I have the same effect on surf. That is, when I paddle out, the ocean goes flatter than week-old leftover Coke. I’m seriously considering offering my services to the NOAA to ward off hurricanes. Just park me and my board where the eye is set to make landfall, and I’ll have a Category 5 down to a breeze in about five minutes.
Comment # 10 by Thomas | Aug 28, 2007 | Reply