Fling Carefully

Asherel was assigned another Science Olympiad event and I was asked to coach a second area I know nothing about. We will be flinging things. The goal is to fling things further and more accurately than other teams fling things. We must design our own flinger, called more scientifically a "trebuchet", and then we have to practice flinging things zillions of times and chart all the parameters that might help us to fling things to within centimeters of where we hope to fling them. We will receive scores as long as we fling them at all, unless we fling without warning. This results in immediate penalty.

I think this should be applied to oak trees as well. Depending on how high the acorn is when it begins its descent, factoring in the pull of gravity and rate of freefall acceleration, many acorns have been known to bore holes 3 inches wide in unsuspecting skulls .  It would be a safer world if God had programmed the oak trees to give some sort of warning. Just a simple 3 second advance notice, an Acorn Warning System.  I would not presume to improve on the Creator's Design as I have noticed He has not left a little "Suggestion box" at my bedside, however, perhaps just a few quick words that harmonize with the lovely tree, like, "Look out blockhead!" or "Incoming!".

This is the season when acorns are falling all over the place. As I pull out of the driveway, there is frequently massive crunching crashes against the roof of the van. As I cringe, I hurry to back out from under the trees. Sometimes I see squirrels pointing at me and high fiving, and I am not sure the acorns have fallen of their own accord.
"Penalty!" I scream at the squirrels, which only makes them chitter louder.

It is a season of flinging. Friends are being felled with dire diagnoses, temperatures are plummeting, money is being ricocheted every which way as the holidays approach. Sometimes damaging words are bandied about too as the stress of the season mounts. The leaves that were so magnificently brilliant are now being ripped from limbs and tossed in the air to swirl madly to collective brownness.  Soon it will be all laid bare, and then all that can be flung will have succumbed to the unbeatable call of gravity. Quiet will descend.

But in that silence, maybe we can listen more deeply to the warnings God has been flinging since time began; and maybe we can catch those words of comfort and delight that always accompany what He throws at us. And words we have thrown to others might then be carefully and thoughtfully considered. We have the power to inflict damage by what we fling, words that don't encourage, inspire or point to the One who could fling us all away if He so desired.  It can be a season of reflection and sometimes dismay.

"Fling away!" I say to my trebuchet team, "But fling thoughtfully, or you will pay the penalty!"

Galatians 5:9-11 (New International Version)

⁹ “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” ¹⁰ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. ¹¹