In Tibet, the people want to be free and to determine their own leadership, but they cannot. One of their main leaders is exiled. In Myanmar (Burma) there is a similar situation. Some separatist Kurds in Iraq and Turkey want their own state. Wars are still being fought in Africa and other parts of the world where people want the right to self-determination, to live in their own autonomous cluster, sometimes at some expense of another group of people's land or freedom.

It's a problem. 

Where does self-determination start and stop? God created and singled out the nation of Israel and led them to a place that was not theirs, but was promised to them. Some people were displaced along the way. It's a problem to this day. The history of the nation of Israel has been one of migration, placement, and displacement.

So much has changed in our world today, from the time of the Old and New Testament context of the written Word. Whether or not there are principles about nationhood that span over to still apply to our day, and what they are, and how they apply, is something I'm still seeking.

If people groups got along better, if people did not suffer discrimination and exploitation (and sometimes even the threat of extermination), would there be such a strong force of self-determination today? Is it right and just to pursue this? In America, we'd say yes - it's why our nation exists. But was our invasion and displacement of other people, in our "self-determination," really justified? On what Biblical basis? And what about other peoples today in the same boat?

Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. 22 The babies jostled each other within her, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.

The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."

- Genesis 25:21-23

I'll share more thoughts on this soon, but I'd love to hear yours, what think ye?

Watching the scenes last night on television of the dozens of consuming wildfires in California was a strange and uncomfortable sight. It is still burning this morning, and has consumed thousands of acres, taken some lives, and burned hundreds of homes and other buildings including a church.

The scenes from the television have burned a visual into my mind of what a consuming fire would look like that spreads on its own, moving past one hill after another, the embers flying for a mile or more on the hot dry wind to begin new fires where there were none, with no predictability or pattern.

It is an awesome and sobering thing to see. The devastation of consuming fire is complete... and yet, next to some homes that were burned to a crisp stand other homes unscorched.

The Old Testament has quite a few references to consuming fire, and now my brain has a visual image. For example, in Zephaniah 3:8:

Therefore wait for me," declares the LORD, "for the day I will stand up to testify. I have decided to assemble the nations, to gather the kingdoms and to pour out my wrath on them — all my fierce anger. The whole world will be consumed by the fire of my jealous anger.

Just to be clear, I'm not matching this verse against the California fires in any 1:1 relationship. It's just one of the types of scriptures that came to mind.

Whether God meant these words literally or figuratively I don't know. But on television I saw what it might look like.

Incidentally, where do "Acts of God" come from? Do they come from the "wand" of God with pinpoint accuracy? Do they come from coincidences of nature based on some known patterns and chain reactions? Are they punishment? Are they arbitrarily random? Do they mean anything? Does God sometimes prevent them, and other times not?

One of the things I do know is that when some part of our lives gets swept away - a relationship, a loved one, a job, a home, or our very health itself - it is in times like this we are forced to realign our perspective on life, to "take stock," to go back to the essential things we trust most, the things that really matter.

For a vast majority of people (from very different religious frameworks) this kind of experience puts us in a position of realignment in faith to God's presence and power, which we sense will last through any catastrophe. Somehow, in mystery, we simply know this.

And this is my prayer for the people who have suffered so much loss in the past two days in California, as the fires still burn.

Whatever God's part in this particular consuming fire, I do not know. But I do know that while God is incredibly patient, God is also jealous for our allegiance, for relationship and communion with us, and I pray this will be a prime side effect for many thousands this week in spite of and because of the great disruption of place and possession.

Not only in California but in many other places around the world experiencing even greater loss - may there be a "net gain" on the other end made possible only by God's power for those who choose faith.