Wisdom From a Miner
I met Luis Urzua today. Luis was the shift foreman of the trapped Chilean miners, and widely credited for maintaining the unity of the group through their ordeal. Several of us remarked to him that the miners had raised up consciousness of a watching world about G-d (Whom they had called the 34th miner) in their survival. His money quote:
We started praying almost immediately. At first, the men prayed separately. They came from different backgrounds and traditions. I said to them, “Why should we pray separately? Is there not only One G-d?” From then on, we prayed together.
He certainly knows the difference from the alternative – Yonah 1:5 “And the sailors were afraid, and cried every man unto his god”
Like Noah Katz, I too immediately thought of Sefer Yonah upon reading this. But I recalled Yonah Hanavi’s concern that Nineveh’s teshuvah would be a kind of mekatrig on Am Yisrael.
If the Chilean miners can do it, why can’t we?
When reading “Wisdom from a Miner”, I recalled our pastor asking the entire congregation (of 900-1000) to pray now for the child of two of our members, Sunday before last. From a scratch, the child got an infection which was not responding to antibiotics. The doctors and family were very concerned. The following Sunday (yesterday) , our pastor announced that the child went home from the hospital the Monday after we prayed. Praise God.
From the Hebrew Bible, the passages where Abraham prays for Sodom, comes to mind. Genesis 18:16-33 we see “Abraham’s plea for Sodom” and the LORD answers: “If I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake”. With every plea, the number is decreased to 45, then 40, then 30, then 20 and finally 10. “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”
OK, now, I see when Jonah, the Prophet, delivered the message to Ninevah to repent or be destroyed and they did and God did not destroy them.
In all three examples, a person who believes God is counted as righteous but faith without deeds is “dead”. Often the most simple deed of faith is to pray.
So noble a sentiment, so simple a sentiment, so true a sentiment.
Makes one want to sit back and reflect upon many things . . . .