The Ripple Effect: A Spiritual Talk, by GuerrillaLogistician

Reference –  N/A

By GuerrillaLogistician

@glogistician on X.com

To my average reader, this is NOT about gear and more about spiritual stuff.  Any feedback is welcome because this isn’t my wheelhouse.

A young man walks off into the woods, pack on his back, all alone, except for what he has brought. With him is his trusty companion, nose sniffing the air as they both meander down the trail into the woods. His companion awakes and looks around at everything, but the young man does not see the same things. He does not experience everything the same way as his trusty companion, but he sees things that he sees nowhere else. The meandering of the stream that has been there for hundreds of years, maybe even thousands, slowly etching away at the earth. As water pushes the small round rocks, the slick, slacking sound of tumbling stones is muffled by the burbling water. His trusty companion stops, lifts his nose, and sniffs as whiskers bounce, and they each inhale a breath.

Both of them know that they should be here at this moment and that this is the right course of action on the right trail at the right time. Both know that this trail is going to be more difficult than an average day and face much peril from large predators to even others of their own species. Neither one of them can talk to one another, but they are both experiencing things differently and yet identically. Several grueling but rewarding hours later, the pair decided to stop and put up a small tent along a placid little pond fed by the small stream that they hiked along as it carved its way down the mountainside and into the hilly terrain. The densely packed pine needles above them and the smell of green forest and loamy ground permeate their senses. They both eat a hearty meal next to a fire and retire to the small tent where they will guard one another and protect one another. Neither of them was able to talk to one another, but all the same, they bonded like they never could back home in a house that was in a city that bustled with life.

The next morning, they both woke up with the man’s trusty companion pawing at the tent flap like he always did to be let out to go to the bathroom. The peaceful calm of the world out in this rustic environment felt more alive and more in tune with both of them than the city full of thronging masses. The dew on the ground, the cold air, and the little droplets of water sticking to the tent; it’s a light wispy fog edge just above their heads, waiting for the sun to burn it off. After both of them had taken a quick hike just within sight of the camp but far enough way to not make a mess, both were feeling relieved and alive. While one could not talk to the other, they each felt the presence of one another in a way they couldn’t be quite explained out on a piece of paper. Words did not constitute the bond they had had this whole time and had fortified on this little trip into the Backcountry.

Even though both of them would be attacked by parasites such as mosquitoes and fleas, they walked until both felt a little bit too sore to go on, but they pushed that extra little distance to this perfect campsite. The young man set up his little fire again and cooked them a nice, hearty breakfast as both of them did their own thing around the campsite but stayed within eyesight of each other. As the sun burned away the sky’s blanket of fog, the young man sat on a large rock with his loyal companion and began skipping pebbles into the water one at a time. With each cast of his arm like a rod being whipped with powerful energy, the little Pebble flew out like an electron and skipped on the surface of the water, creating ripples. The larger the rock, the heavier the ripples moved towards the banks. Reeds sticking up from the water would gently sway as the waves overtook and flexed them back and forth. The shorter reeds were engulfed in water and almost didn’t move, while the strong, tall reeds barely shuttered.

It was at that point that the young man realized what had been in front of him the whole time. It wasn’t nature; it wasn’t his companion; it wouldn’t be his future wife, although he wanted all of these things in his life deeply. There was one thing that he yearned for just a little bit more, and that was the spiritual bliss and calmness that he couldn’t quite grasp when he was in the city. Grabbing a handful of rocks, he chucked them across the water, making dozens of ripples that bounced and clashed with one another. While interesting to watch and mesmerizing, it was all too unfocused, and it felt like it was clouding the serenity of the area. With the ripples moving around the small puddle next to the pond and a low spot, the crystal still sat more obviously than anything else, reflecting the trees and sky back to the young man’s eyes. When you are not looking and you are lost, it is the serenity of focus that brings about peace and purpose that the young man needed, and his companion enjoyed every chance he could get.

I’m going to start by saying this straight away: I am not the best Christian, the most pious Christian, or the most educated Christian. I struggle with the church in some of the philosophical senses and read the Bible with more scrutiny than should be demanded by anyone, be it God or man or animal. I came from an atheist background, and not one of those hating monstrous ‘Christians are evil’ types. I was the one that thought Christianity was absolutely wonderful, but I just didn’t either get behind the message or could comprehend the faith. My journey started out with many friends who are Christians slowly planting and sewing the field, and there’s still far more work that needs to be done, probably by friends assisting and my own toils that I need to do. So if any of you think this is flawed or off, please absolutely tell me where I’ve gone wrong.

I don’t normally stray mentally during sermons at church because my knowledge is so pitiful that I absorb it like a sponge, but today I felt compelled to drift and think and contemplate about many things and could not quite focus. I was thinking about our radio program at the church along with many of my friends and comrades in arms that I have met along my journey both prepping and in general. Many I see once a year and probably have impacted my life more than they’ll ever realize, from Alfred to a man who gave me a book of Psalms, and other people that I communicate sparingly because I know their time is precious, like Brush Beater and Joe Dolio.  Part of the story above is my experience of realizing that there is more to the universe than just a physical body and what we do, and that came from a lot of time camping and traveling, but honestly, this could be a story about anyone: a young man, an old man, a man in his middle age. It could be a woman, and it may be people that we don’t even think would fall in with any religion, organized or otherwise.

While I was listening to the pastor talk today, I realized that I lived in a city and that city was covered in a blanket of noise. Some of that noise was good and important, like the NOAA broadcast telling the weather, something as benign as music playing, and others were horrendous abominations to not just the religious but even many who believe in nothing. I sat there listening to a man whom I do appreciate and respect. I remembered other people calling themselves pastors with fake names, faces painted to look like beards, and pronouns that were not nearly reflective of reality. I also realized I was in an area that was focused on correcting those problems in the world, even though it had embraced people like me who were not the best or most pious people on the planet. The hand offered was not to the people who were already perfect and good but to those who wanted to listen to something better than what they had been trying to do themselves. With that, something clicked in my head, and I’m not sure if I can put it on paper exactly in a way that will be presented to you in a logical sense, but I will try my best.

Just like the young man and the ripples in the water, electricity and electrons fly out throughout space. They hit wires, and if those wires are a certain length, they are harmonic and just like the reeds in the water, they move back and forth, forcing electrons to basically sway down the wire. And if one paid attention well enough, one could figure out what was being said. The simplest way to do that would be just to look for the Di (dit or .) or Dah (dash or -) of Morse code, but as we progressed in our knowledge, we learned to use our words and transmit them in multiple fashions. Many of you have probably already heard about the genocide going on in Syria again, and those words may have come from NC Scout himself. Likewise, you may have turned on the TV and listened to CNN and not seen anything about that subject or some other erroneous commentary not talking about the genocidal actions against Christians.

As we stack more reeds in the water and shake them and throw stones and make more waves, the picturesque beauty of what God has created gets muddied and churns up the silt clouding our beautiful crystal clear waters. It is sometimes hard to understand, especially when you are not religious, that you are being inundated every day by tons of noise: some good, some evil, and some benign. I see some people joke that they don’t have a problem with my mental health and that they think they handle their mental health problems pretty well since they come up so often.  Sometimes, it takes just pulling away from all the noise and hectic nature, and when you do, you start realizing things are different.

When you take an HF radio out into the woods, away from cities, electronics, and the ever-present hum of Chinese garbage, spurious emissions signals buried deep in the rumble of static from the cosmos come out crystal clear to you. Can you do the same feat in a city? Sure, you can, but it requires you to have the perfect length antenna for the perfect signal that is probably being transmitted to you on a specific frequency. It is that church or person that brings you that voice that you couldn’t hear behind all the noise, nonsense, hatred, and vitriol that flood us daily. Many of us are not equipped to do that kind of work in such a noisy environment and must seek assistance.

So many people think that prayer is just something you do and no one is listening. Even if that were true, do you think the person who is transmitting on an HF radio in a city is either calling because they are lonely, sick many times, or needing help isn’t being heard by someone? Likewise, if everything is energy, do you not think even the act of prayer may not spread to your fellows in faith? Maybe you’re an atheist like I was, and you think no one can hear my prayer even if I vocalize it. Who would help me? Many of these people are inundated with so much noise that they don’t see the hand reaching out to help them; they don’t see the person trying to guide them gently to a better path but not forcing them.

Just like those little ripples in the pond something is being seen, people are listening, and even in all the static and noise a higher power might be gently moving your gaze to that tranquil little puddle that moments ago was ignored because of its size but now is the salvation of beauty that you missed mere moments ago as you thrashed around by yourself. Realistically, many of you will probably never understand this, but I will say this to all the atheists that quite can’t understand and have both grievances with organized religion, legitimate ones at that: idiotic tropes told you that you believe because nobody has corrected your viewpoint. The reality is even if there was no God to gently sway you to a better path and a more prosperous future even though he makes that trail both in life and salvation difficult to make it worth it but not impossible what you also are missing is the community that is held together and bound by the church.

I implore many of you to spend the time to go out and see nature and see what God has produced in front of you, even if you think it was just made by random happenstance in a cosmos of dust coming together and elements forming what you see today. While you may not see God, many scientists have, and you ignore their faith because it would preclude you from understanding that there is not a division between science and faith but that the axe that cut the roots was done to destroy our communities. It is the churches that care about their flock and everyone else around them, preach forgiveness, and understand that justice is something that must also occur at the same time. You may never get the chance to totally understand where the flawed belief of somebody’s quick quote from one sentence in the Bible can be twisted into something that has lost all its meaning like a rung out rag, all of its water twisted out an attempt to dry it of its life-giving moisture. It takes having an open mind beyond that of somebody set in their ways to truly understand somebody else and empathize with where they come from.

And God knows there are many people that talk the talk but do not walk the walk as well. Some of those will evangelize to you and tell you that your life would be better if you fell into God’s arms, but you see and smell the sickly sweet stench of their hypocrisy covering their words of truth in something so awful that you turn away. You are not the only one who has experienced this, and I can’t tell you where to find the ones that are truly being honest versus the ones who are just lying to virtue signal. Take your time and be receptive to understanding where these people are coming from, and maybe you, too, will want to join that community that is not forcing you at gunpoint, taking away any of your rights.

The worst thing most Christians will do if you are sinful and not repentant is that they will separate themselves from the noise you cause because you’re not on the frequency they want to be listening to in the first place. If you try to inject your conversation loudly, just like a trucker using a heavy amp, they may rebuke you, but they will most likely filter you out. If you follow American Partisan, I implore you, even if you are not a religious being and you think spiritual health is not a reality, spend some time in the woods, maybe by yourself or with a loved one or close companion. Shut those cell phones off and marvel in the world you live in. Enjoy the stars, the skies, the rain, the rough terrain, and eat your meal in peace and open your mind just a little bit. Maybe tune into that frequency, maybe cut that antenna to the right band so you can hear what all of creation is gently pushing you to understand.