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Mitsubishi
Pajero: No dead-ends
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Has God ever surprised you with a creative alternative to an “impossible” situation? Is a new creation waiting to be born in your life now? Or are you empty, infertile, running up against the limits of your understanding? How can God's might and understanding penetrate these barriers? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary edition, page 883).
One
reason that I am optimistic about man's future is that he take such
pleasure in devising ways and means to escape dead-ends. Video games
are very popular now and though I don't know much about them I think
that a common feature they have is providing opportunities to escape
impossible situations. Certainly when I look back on a day at work,
I find it an exceptionally good day when I have met a seemingly
impossible challenge only to have in the end overcome it. In fact,
we easily become disinterested in situations (or with games) that
present no substantial challenges. Such games and situations provide
little or no pleasure. This gets to the very core of what it means to
be human – the profound pleasure we get in mastering difficulties.
This explains why we continually seek to break out of the envelope of
easy challenges. Most all progress or accomplishment of any kind is
based on humanity's seeking this type of pleasure. In this sense,
though we can long to live in Pleasantville – a place where
everything is provided in abundance and there are absolutely no
problems or challenges – we soon come to realize that “though
it's a nice place to visit, we wouldn't want to live there.” In
the midst of challenges, hope is an essential currency. And who
would choose to live where hope shrivels on the vine because it is
not needed?
An
especially complex situation is posed when challenges and dead-end
solutions call upon input from many people with diametrically opposed
points of view. If action were not indicated, this would not be a
serious problem. The issue becomes, since action is often needed,
how to devise a decision mechanism that is mutually acceptable.
Democracy has been adjudged by many as the best answer, for even if
it does not solve the underlying problem it at least implements
procedural fairness—that is, in social situations the principle of
fairness takes precedence over solutions
that would be procedurally bad even if on some levels more efficient and
effective. This is a conscious
choice that democracies make and stand by in faith as the better
choice—as being most in accord with God's point of view since as a
decision model it values people over things. Priorities, even
amidst the tumult, are kept straight.
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