January 6, 2008

 

A Rocks and Roll Faith

 

   They’re old, they defy conventional wisdom and nobody knows how they keep going.  I’m talking about The Rolling Stones.  Not those Rolling Stones.  The ones in Racetrack Playa, California.

 

   Located in Death Valley, that sun-baked basin is home to almost 200 ancient rocks that move mysteriously, leaving half-inch-deep trails that sometimes stretch hundreds of feet.  Amateurs and academics have studied them for fifty years and there’s still no universal agreement on how the stones travel — sometimes in a straight line and sometimes in a zigzag pattern with hairpin turns — almost always slightly uphill.

 

   There are two main theories surrounding the rambling rocks which range in size from pebbles to 700-pound boulders.  Some believe they’re pushed along by powerful winds while the clay basin is made super-slippery by heavy rains.  Geologist Paula Messina of San Jose State University points out that, if friction is reduced to zero, a person can move a 1,000-pound rock with one finger.

 

   But Professor John Reid of Hampshire College in Massachusetts flooded a test area in the playa and pushed around the rocks.  He concluded that even the smallest stones wouldn’t move without winds of 500 miles per hour, which have never been recorded on earth.  Like many others, Prof. Reid supports theory number two:  that gusting winds get some help from sheets of ice that form at night when temperatures plunge.  But that idea has critics, too, who say ice sheets carried on a bed of water wouldn’t leave gouges or would create parallel trails instead of ones that head off in all directions.

 

   Some speculate the stones are pushed by magnetism, earthquake vibrations or “dust devils” — tiny desert  whirlwinds.  But no one has ever seen the rocks move, mostly because of their remote location and the stormy conditions during which they change position.  “If a 700-pound boulder is moving, you're not going to be staying put either,” says Prof. Messina.  So, for now, the mystery continues.  A Park Service sign near the playa reads, “Please do not remove the rocks; they become essentially meaningless when moved out of place.”

 

   The same holds true if we use the renegade rocks as a metaphor for how we grow spiritually and undergo radical transformation that defies conventional explanation.  Exciting, inexplicable things happen if we get serious about prayer, living the Word of God, finding purpose and encouragement in the church and letting the Holy Spirit remake our hearts.  When that happens, we make genuine, measurable progress in our character and maturity.  Instead of hiding our struggles, we should see the stages in our development as testimonies to God’s power and reminders of what He will still accomplish in, with and for us.  Please do not remove the rocks;  they become essentially meaningless when moved out of place.

 

   Like the stones in Racetrack Playa, we generally make progress only during the storms.  Sometimes it comes in a straight, predictable line.  Sometimes it zigs and zags through unforeseen circumstances involving both setback and celebration.  But it’s always when the ground seems slipperiest underfoot that we’re forced to find our balance.  When we’re willing, the wind of God’s Spirit will carry us forward, creating conditions around us and within us that let us slide through temptation and adversity.  People may not understand how or why the changes in our lives are happening, but the evidence of those changes will be plain for all to see.

 

   “Be glad for all God is planning for you,” writes the apostle Paul.  “Be patient in trouble and always be prayerful...  Never pay back evil for evil.  Do things in such a way that everyone can see you’re honourable...  Don’t let evil get the best of you, but conquer evil by doing good.” (Rom. 12:12, 17, 21)

 

   Nothing grows on a rolling stone, but a rolling stone grows.