The Variable

So it only took until the fourth post before I referenced the TV show, Lost. I'll go ahead and apologize now for the next 20 times it happens. Anyway, fan of the show or never seen it, I think you'll understand why this struck me.

In last week's episode (5.14), a character named Daniel Faraday (learn more about his namesake, Michael Faraday here) makes the following statement.

"I've been spending so much time focused on the constants that I forgot about the variables, and do you know what the variables are? Us. People. We seek the reason, we have choices, we have free will."

How much time do we spend focused on the constants? The constants of work, family, TV shows ... the things that make up the routine of life. And we forget about the variables ... the people, us.

In an internet age, it's surely easy to forget about the variables, and it's sometimes harder to think about the variables, a.k.a. people, across the street than the ones across the world.

For example, I have a neighbor that I would often rank somewhere between plant life and my cat for value to society. Yet, it seems to me that I could be his variable. The constants in his life seem largely of the destructive kind. But he has choices, he has free will ... (pause to let the Calvinists think about it) ... and perhaps I could do something to sway those choices. Or at least I could if I ever stopped worrying about my constants long enough.

Romans 10:14: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?"