The Paltry

November 21, 2006

Part 11 Ozone Hole

Joel Akin

What if man had never lived. What if the dream we had were thrown into the pit and the dream we were were tossed into the sky. What if the one city that had been on earth, the one place that God loved more than any thing were gone? What if the Mer, the heart of the city of God were tossed into the fire of the abyss?

And what if the one dream God had to build an empire were based on one place that no one wanted. It was called worthless. And it was called Munising. Of all the worlds in all history in all places of time there were none like this place that God had created. It was beautiful and it was wonderful and it was the prayer seat where God went when he was tired or hurting. It was a place of rest and a place of relaxation. It was a place where God sought out hope for his own heart. It is hope which is like a dream. A place of request and desire. A place we would call hope but not the hope of sin or the hope of men or even of Hope women. Though they had been an inspired bunch and bunch is true for the Nana, there were still things that hurt God.

Now if there were things that hurt God then how do we men help? After all if God were God, and we know He is, then how could there be a land that was hurt? How could Munising, the one place in all the world that seems beautiful beyond compare, carry such pain. It were as if the entire race of men were cast into the abyss at that point. And if they were then what happened to change things? For we who are men cannot change things, or so we’ve been told. And so we believe. And so we march according to those orders. That God changes things and we men mark the time of completion.

But if God were to speak to us as men and ask “What are men that He is mindful of them?” how would we answer. Would we say that we had saved men from the fire? Would we say we had trampled this story into the dust because it doesn’t go into history as deep? For there is a Munising and it means “I sing to the moon”. Now people who are there will laugh and cry out “No, it means something else.” And they probably have an indian tongue to explain it. But I will share with you why words are prophetic. Pretty much all words. And that is the part of this story that will be hard for linguists and inquiring minds to accept. Part of the reason is not all words are breakable in the way we want. If a word is “I Sing” and it comes from China we say that they are just an unusual combination that sounds like English. Yet if English comes from God and He picks out combinations He likes for a town then He sends it to Men no matter what the age. And He bases it on the age He plans on returning to earth.

For if Earth is His footstool, and it is, that means it is His place of rest. A relaxing dockside trip across the lake by means of a houseboat or by means of a ship. It is the way God works. He lets men build things and then He goes among them and plays in His field of glory.

Now men are like trees, or so the blind man said, and they are walking amongst us. Yet some men are like them and so they are cut down by a switch. Michigan was like that. It became cursed and it became a land filled with Sin. It became a land that was filled with evil and evil spirits that went into men. It became a land of giants, like Paul Bunyan. Men who were real and yet men who fought these giants spiritually. They fought not with the axe, as was in the days of old, but with the switch or the heart. They cried “God, which switch do I use?” And then they went out and chose a path and that was the switch.

Yet men didn’t just listen to God they founded their faith on His love. And they turned away from Sin and they founded a world based on pleasure of life. And it was a good thing. Not austerity as communism applies to life. Not hate as people like Chang did. He was a man of ancient days who went out and peopled the land with giant after giant. They stole people and they lied and they raped and they pillaged until men dreaded Chang. Yet no one writes about he was a man of ill will towards men who had faith.

Now there are others out there. You’ll look up names and it might be good but sometimes men changed. Change is of the heart and the body is part of the soul. And if the soul is bent on destruction then men are bent on soul work. This is like a Christian who bends his will so that God could be first. If a man is bent on the destruction of the soul then he is aimed towards the separation of the soul and spirit.

Now the Spirit, and this is true, is the only part of man meant to be permanent. The part that lies within a man but is not an evil spirit. It is the part which is bound within each man as a seed. And that seed is the part of men that was missing when they ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It wasn’t in man nor was it covering him as some believe. It wasn’t there because man didn’t need it. They just walked around naked in the garden and they knew they were naked but were not bothered. Now how can that be unless God walked that way as well? If He was unclothed, and that doesn’t seem right, then why do I mention it. Because men are shocked at nakedness. It is as if they were hit with a ton of clothing begging them to run and put it on.

Now, you think this is evil so ask yourself one question. If this age taught men the value of clothing it was for protection against pain or suffering when they face element after element. For example an element of pain is an element of fission. Pain is the mix of two elements based on an anti-social connection. So if pain is the removal of inno plus the price which is cent then in no cent means there was no value inside. It meant that men were without price on the inside where that spirit now lies or sits.

Now if innocent meant without value inside then what do we do with real value? For men are beyond rubies and beyond diamonds. They are a pearl of great price which is the price that Jesus paid. He saw their value and knew they had no value to anyone. He paid for them and bought them with his blood and they were given hope where there was none but the law.

The law was meant to stun men back to life so they could think. It was meant to shake them from their semblance of life. It was meant to turn them away from sin. And it was meant to turn them away from everything, even life, to help them see there was a God, the only God of all things, who wanted them to be free. How? By the sting of death. Death was a man but death was an angel sent by God in the case number we call Egypt. Egypt was a story of the men because they had stolen knowledge. And that meant they had ripped apart the age of time and taken that which was their price.

Their price was the age of resistance when men strove with giants and when giants built things. They were men who built the pyramids but it wasn’t 4 or 5 or 6 thousand years ago but fourteen thousand. Fourteen thousand, five hundred, and twenty two give or take a few months. That is as of today. I know because I listen and that is when it started with a man we will call Sha Re or the man who carried the men to a new way of life. Sha re was the one man who became part of the English language and it was in the word Share. It became a part of our history which we have forgotten. It became a part of the history of Iran for they carried the name Sha until the Ayatolla took over. The Eye of Toll became the law of toll that took over from men like the Sha. They became men who stole away the freedom of the people and called it hope. They stole the Sharia or Share law and called it ‘about time’ and they decided to steal everything that was good about Share and gave it up for law. And law isn’t evil, it just carries a sting and if Sting could sing he would carry it to men. For he would carry a song and call it hope. And it would be a song of hope or Hope for all men.

Sometimes there are measures to every story. In those measures we have to conquer the discharges that threaten our waterworks. Some might laugh for there are many types of discharges. In those things can become a source of pain. In a way that is the method of Sin who strives to take over. He fights for pain because to him pain is a discharge that he can enjoy. That sounds sick and it is but it is the ways and methods of Sin that add to the pain of others. And if we submit to those discharges then we submit to a way of life that brings us into the belly of the beast. When men rise up to do evil they do so because it is convenient. Sometimes they inherit it and sometimes they build it. The end result is a place that is broken open.

For Munising it wasn’t just a home on the map where I spent some of my life. Nor was it just a place where my relatives lived and died. It was a place culled from the center of things and broken open like an exposed heart. And it was this heart that was stolen away and broken off from the body. Now if this sounds strange remember that the body is made up of people who live on earth. There are many of us now and we are all over the world. Our works are founded on works and those works on works. It seems like if you search out the layers you will find a multiple addition. Why? I guess the answer has to be that we are part of a great story that was poured out from the beginning for God really did have a beginning. And it wasn’t messed up and it wasn’t filled with Sin and it wasn’t evil. It was His world and He loved it and earth was His footstool. And footstool meant a place of rest, which for God was part of a tool shop. A place where He could make and wish and dream and have fun. It was a place for God, above all worlds, that He could call His own. It was a place meant to be a store house of blessings. And it was meant to take off the official buff and polish and just hang loose.

Now if that doesn’t sound like God then remember He made us to have fun. Some of us take it to extremes and climb Everest or swim across the English Channel. For Him He fell into sleep here and rest here and let Himself enjoy things that man enjoyed. Now you think “God doesn’t sleep” and scripture is clear on that. So lets just say that time changes things and those things done in heaven in a spiritual way became broken from that which we do in a natural way. The spiritual became the end focus of all things and yet there was meant to be a pardon. A place where we could unwind and let things go and just be what we are. It is as if we put God in the box that says God has to be this way.

So if God wrote He doesn’t sleep then He doesn’t sleep spiritually but when His son Jesus came in a natural body he slept. He had to or it would have mentioned it somewhere. The fact is the natural body was meant for ‘wear’ and it was meant to be worn as a source of time. And it was meant to be in until Time was fixed.

Well if Time never got fixed because we humans just kept going from bad to worse and we took Gods land and we dumped our garbage on it then suddenly Gods footstool becomes something it wasn’t meant to be. A source of nightmare. A source of bad dreams and sorrowful endings. A place where dreams didn’t really come true in the way that God wanted them to be.

So in this there is truth and in this there is life. And if we think about it we measure out God by our bill and make Him pay the price by our arrogance. We live on His land, we use His food, we use His time and we think “I will do what I wish, when I wish and how I wish....” So God created a few laws to get our attention and try to make us see that we were breaking the tenant act. Ten Ant. Ten wisdom laws. And we still didn’t see. We just groaned. Its a case of mistaken identity. Its a time of defense. Its a time when we will have to answer for how we treated the land.

The fact is we don’t know what to think but I have a clue. Its called letting go of our arrogance because God who made all things is like us. Now that sounds arrogant but its important to say because He wants to be honored and loved. So time moves forward and we carry a burden. And that burden is the dreams we lost and cast behind.

I wanted to write this story of the Sampo because it spoke of the world tree. Nebuchadnezzar was compared to it at one time until the Holy Watcher thought he had grown too large and arrogant. That Holy watcher was a man who cared for the land and wanted it healed. If a man was at the top of the tree or became the top of it then we have to let go because we were not him. He went out and bore seven turnings of time and that in itself is a mystery. Some think it seven years or seven turnings of months but what if it were actually a period of time when he bore the pain of seven worlds of time? In that there is mystery but time can be a weapon and if Sin holds it against us with the dark ‘force’ then as Luke might say, or was it his sister, “Your my only hope Obi wan Kenobi” which really means something in translations around the world.

Now we spoke of Munising and I mentioned it because it was a gap in the link. That link speaks of time and in time there are multiple mysteries which give us edges or gaps. Each edge is like a tree and we link to it with ties, like yellow ribbons, that give us edges on hope. They are memories and memories are keys which help us to remember what was, what will be or what is. Sometimes they are longings of the heart so deep they reach right past our defenses and keel us into the harbor so that we come out of the storm. And for Munising it was a song, a call, to a land that was called worthless.

Now I have lived there and I do not see it that way. Yet the land was seen as worthless by those who walked before. And in that edge they carried a sword which swung down in justice and demarked it from time so it would carry that stigma upon the people who lived or passed by. And in it they called out to the ages and carried the word of the sower or the sowing of the ages. And that was a few who were called to this place amidst the hills and inland sea called Lake Superior.

Sometimes we are founded in mystery. Mystery is like a challenge to unravel the past. It speaks to us from shadows and from fringes like the Tallit of prayer given those who speak at the Wailing wall with their petitions. Petitions are not wrong they can be frequent. Yet I sometimes wonder about the worth of frequency. Would the Jewish people pray at the wall if they did not believe in the worth of their land? Would they have ceased in prayer if an enemy had stolen them away? For it was the wall they faced in prayer that would not move. Yet they sought it out anyway because a wall represented the strength and the hope and the uplifting of petitions. And if that uplifting meant that the temple could be mounted or raised up then there was hope for a restoring of law. Yet it really wasn’t the law they cried for. It was a cry to God who created the law they longed for. For if God had given them a law based on the tenant act, and in a way, that is what Israel received for the promised land.

They held hope that the law would strip away the uncleanness from their land. For Ko Sure or Kosher abidance scraped away the fat and brought forth the lean. And as we learn in grocery store lessons lean is much better than fat. But it is those who get the lean who complain the most in life. It is those who look and stare at their dreams and say “Look, they have the fat, I have the lean.” And thus it takes Wisdom for us to see that the lean is beneficial for us and tastes better to boot.

Now for the land of Upper Michigan there was a sign that was written but no one could see it. It was carried as a sign until someone said there were two ways of seeing. And so I looked and wondered why I could not find the sign pointing and realized it was in the word. For the sigh of GN or NG. Now this sounds foolish to some but it works for me. GN speaks of a joke I heard long ago. There was a lawyer, a doctor and a preachers son who sat down to discuss life. One said “My father is a lawyer. I can be bad and it costs me nothing.” The second son said “My father is a doctor. I can be sick for nothing.” The preachers son said, wisely, I might say, “My father preachers about being good so that makes me good for nothing.”

And so GN speaks to me of my heritage. One that I sometimes joke about that I can be good for nothing. It is in that GN that our heritage speaks because we have taken the blessing of what God did and we have twisted it around so that we see things in a mirror. None of us realize that Lake Superior can be like a mirror and it reflects one light that we see. We call it the Sea of Tranquility but it is the light which reflects from the moon. It shines upon the sea of Mer and we look and we cry out “A sign” And that sign is the one we seek in life to the extent it says to us what we’ve heard all our life. “I am good for nothing.” And it goes into our heart and into our life and into our land. And it speaks to us to such an extent that we cannot see that we are the writing on the land. And if that writing is written in the past and it is the music of the land then it is a sorrowful one. One that coats the world in colors of gray when it should shout forth with Joy from the stars.

But the reflection of that light is not the Mer of which I sing. I know the moon speaks of Tranquility but sometimes its a modest drug that leads us to tranquilizers. And they are drugs that modify our behavior. Overcoming the night mer, or the mirrored reflection of the moon, which is covered in dust from past ages, then we are caught up in the GN of it. It is beauty to us and speaks of romance and speaks of moments of reflecting. But it does little else until we reverse the charges. And in the moment of change the nightmare turns into a song of hope. And that song of hope speaks to us so that we can see for the first time in our life. It is then that the sign I seek is one that is written in the land all along. The “Moon I sigh” becomes “Oh moon I sing.” And the world of my youth and the song of my heart that I spent a lifetime fighting because I spent too much time crying out for a sign when I really wanted to sing.

And so I say this story of the Sampo continues because I realize a revelation. That Time changes us and twists us with Sin. Sin takes those nightmares and makes them real. Sin takes our dreams and casts them back to us with worthless sighs and signs. And we are caught between the switches. One road leads to change and the other to despair.

Yet it is said of Paul Bunyan that he had an axe with which he swung and could knock down trees with a single blow. That sounds a lot like Lake Superior. But he also had a law he rode upon. He called it Blue or Babe and it was his ox. And there are mysteries you will find that men wrote of Paul Bunyan as one who like the wind rode through the trees and territories of Upper Michigan. He carried that Axe and he could down a tree with a single blow. And yet there was one greater than he would strode with his law amidst the pine and tamarack and maple. And he carried a stirring in the mist and a set of horns that blew. Paul Bunyan rode upon it and he called it Blue but that blue he rode was Lake Superior. There is no other story out there that speaks of Paul Bunyan that knows this story fully. For he was a man who carried a price to the men of this land. And that price was a man of innocents. And he carried the innocent to all the people who lived there. And he carried it lock, stock and barrel. And he rode upon a law that was so powerful that none would dare get in his way. It was a giant bull and like all big bowls it carried a story that goes back to a woman named Hope and a man named God.

Now you wonder where worthless land came from and you return to an ancient word called paltry(Paul tree). Paltry speaks to us of this land. This land that belongs to God. It was His home and his place of rest. And of Babe? Well, sometimes there are mysteries to life that speak to an age long lost. An age of mystery. For of Babe there is another word, though we don’t use it much. It is called Paltor. His friend, the blue bull, the law. Yet if we wish to go back even further we find a book written long ago we call the Palter. The friend of Earth. That became the book of praise which we call the salter or Psalter. And it was that book, those myths and legends, all of them were lost, forgotten or thrown out until all God had left were the rags from riches left behind by Sin.

Who saw that this land needed healing? God did. It was written back then when Hopes shipped created a blow out from underneath the Keeweenaw and that sprang forth out of the stone, out of the rock.

And that great blow out came into history as Paul Bunyans Ox. His law. God called it the mystery of faith. A speaking to the land that was worthless. A speaking to the rock so that the rock might bring forth water.

He carried the seed of faith, the spiritual man he could not see, the man of faith who would rise up and speak to the rock. The man of faith who would carry a rod. Maybe for some it was a message from His spokesman. The one who helped carry the law and the sting of death. The one he rode or wrote into the pages of history. The Babe was carried down to us as myth and myth, like mist, is one that speaks to us of things that were. So that people of Munising would know that Upper Michigan is his home. His place of rest. And it is there that one day soon you will hear Paul Bunyan singing and his voice will ring across the land and it will grow and prosper and live again with promises that will never be forgotten.