Forecast

So, with Hurricane Dean bulking up out in the tropical Atlantic region right now, and all of us in Hurricane country making sure we get updates on it twice a day at the least, a few things struck me.

The local TV station that my wife and I watch our news and weather on most of the time is actually pretty good, but nothing is quite as fun as watching them forecast hurricane routes, especially when they are trying to figure out where it will be around ten days out. They always try, and always show you the long range models, but they are almost always wrong. The fact is, nobody knows that far in advance where these monster storms are headed. A couple of days ago Hurricane Dean was headed right to my front door, but now, just 48 hours later, it won't be coming within 500 miles of my house... or so they say right now. Of course, with them updating the forecasted track every 6 hours or so, when they finally do get it right, they are able to say, see, right where we told you it was going to go, forgetting about the part where they were wrong for days before that.

It strikes me that life can be a lot like that. There are a lot of commentators and such that will make all kinds of wild predictions, but they keep changing them as whatever event they are predicting about gets closer, so in the end, they end up being right... it's just that they were so wrong before they finally got it right. But people choose to keep believing in people anyway.

This brings up another thought, something that is a little bit related, but off track from the above discourse. Putting too much faith in any person can be a dangerous thing. How many people have walked away from Church, and even gone so far as to turn their back on God, because a Pastor, or some other senior person within a church, has done something wrong? You see it quite a bit, and a lot of the problem comes from that fact that too much faith is placed in that person, rather than God. People, be they Pastors or whatever, are only human, and will make mistakes, which is why we need to pray for our Pastors, that God keeps them strong, and keeps them from stumbling, but God is infallible, and if we put our Faith and Trust in Him, we won't be disappointed.