George Martzen "georgos"

A tree falls in the middle of a remote California wilderness. No one observes it, except maybe a passing doe with her fawn, a few squirrels, some mosquitoes and a few million micro-organisms, if they can even be said to observe anything at all. But to those creatures of varying states of consciousness, the falling tree is merely a passing phenomena. While it is potentially information, yet if no one takes note or records the phenomena, it is simply one of many hundreds, thousands or millions that might occur every hour at any one location. After all, the wind blows, rain falls, animals eat and are eaten, plant and animal cells are constantly growing and reproducing, air molecules are swirling through the atmosphere, atoms are constantly churning with energy. An unimaginable number of events are occurring constantly. But who cares? Ok, God cares. But otherwise, it’s just passing phenomena, unless some sentient being takes note and begins to reflect upon it, and shares it with another, a...

The US dollar turned 70 cents against the Singapore dollar last week (currently registered on the Yahoo Finance page at 1:0.7024). In Singapore one might not be overly concerned, considering there are only about 4.5 million people here, and a very small fraction of those are directly dependent on the once mighty greenback. My family is one of those, so we celebrated the turn to 70 with a minor “Oh dear,” and then went on about our business – our business being missionaries. Quite frankly, I did not enter full-time ministry to make it rich. Rather I find fulfillment in knowing that I am planting or cultivating that little mustard seed of God’s Reign wherever I go. In fact, I’m not fully convinced that the popular goal of becoming a millionaire is compatible with the biblical witness to God’s Kingdom. But that’s another story. But the fact is, missionaries, like everyone else, live in a global monetary economy. We are affected by the fluctuations between national currencies and the nat...