Finding a fixed point for comparison

There is a bank that I drive past at least three or four times a day. I am certain, like at most banks, it has wonderful, kind tellers who distribute suckers to children and dog biscuits to the canines who accompany their owners through the drive through. And just like a lot of other banks, it has a digital sign that tells the time and temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius.

Early one snow-covered morning I drove by interested in the temperature. Watching your breath freeze in front of you, you would not even think about leaving the house without coat, hat and gloves. To my surprise when I drove past the bank the sign containing the thermometer read 115 degrees.

I am not a meteorologist, but I do remember from my science classes emphasizing the power of observation. Using the power of observation I concluded that either global warming had not only changed the temperature of the planet but managed to change the freezing and melting points of water, or the thermometer was broken.

Figuring the thermometer was broken, I knew that without the intervention of an expert repairman it was not going to accurately and reliably reflect what was happening in the air around it. For the thermometer to be considered to be true it must be calibrated to a fixed point.

Often our lives are like this thermometer. We look at the world around us snow covering the ground and arbitrarily proclaim "It seems to me to be 115 degrees." If we find someone who will agree with us then it is even harder to be convinced that it is not 115 degrees and snowing.

The Bible tells us that for humanity to really interpret what is happening in the world around it, people must look at a reference point outside of themselves. Proverbs 14:12 reads "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Meaning that if we rely solely upon our senses, experiences and ever-changing emotions we will be misguided and walk a path of destruction.

The thermometer can only accurately tell the temperature when it is set against a fixed point, we can only begin to accurately measure our lives by comparing them to a fixed point.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father and serves as the associate pastor at the First Baptist Church in Jackson.