We've had a lot of science related bulletins in all these years. Some had to do with biology, and of course chemistry and physics. Somewhere, someday, I should preach a series of lessons on the "science of the bible" and put them all together. I think it would be a fun, and fundamental, set of lessons.

Regardless, the other day I was asked which is better, an expensive digital thermostat or a cheap, old-fashioned mercury one. With only one real moving part you'd think the old one would last forever, yes? I mean its simple and very elegant in its design and has been unchanged for decades. It just works. Where's the science here? Well consider that old fashioned thermostat. It works because a coil of metal inside there contracts when its cold and makes the mercury short a circuit and click on your furnace. When the room heats, the coil expands back out and the mercury tube is moved in such a way it no longer crosses the wires, and the furnace shuts off. Just a simple switch. How could that go wrong, compared to that mumbo jumbo electronic junk?

Because the coil is really a side by side marriage of two metals, usually copper and iron, sometimes copper and nickel. Copper is the party animal and likes to bend, expand, let loose. But since it is married to iron, which is rigid and does not like to bend, when copper relaxes the iron side will pull it back to straighten up and fly right. It gets worse, when its cold the copper will shrink more than the iron, so it bends the other way. But iron is faithful, and when the heat comes on and the copper relaxes, again the iron is there to set it straight. Back and forth, this little dance goes on. Fractions of millimeters, yet enough to turn the whole coil (it all adds up) and make the glass tube holding the mercury tip left or right, making contact or not.

I was once in a church where they had no elders and were considering two men to appoint. One of the men was a compromiser, and considered too liberal in his views. The other was very stiff and considered too unbending, unmerciful. But together everyone thought this was a great idea, as a pair. But here's the "rub." First off, one elder is not qualified or unqualified depending on any other elder. Each man must be correct on his own merits. While worldly, modern thinking would say these two together were perfect, consider the thermostat. Why does a simple, elegant, seemingly perfect mechanism break? Because while you can thrash that copper back and forth pretty much forever, eventually the iron part is going to break from all that bending. Then the copper is free to expand, bend, and without that iron never get back to the right shape. If the copper breaks, then the iron will hold rigid. Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

It becomes useless, cannot be repaired, and gets thrown out. I would submit that eventually the same thing would happen to those two elders. Sooner or later the more serious one would get tired of pulling the liberal one back to the right, and things would break. Or the unmerciful one would prevail, and harshness would be the rule of the day. Either way, where's the discipline tempered with love? With these two, it isn't a dance, it would have been a war.

There are seasons for all things, and one thing that defines a season is the temperature. It changes. Sometimes we may need to be more merciful, and sometimes we may need to be unmovable. It is true with elders, with marriages, and with kids. It is true of any relationship. We must control ourselves. Perhaps we should most emulate the mercury! While our very nature may be poisonous, traces of us should be in everything we come in contact with. Perhaps we drive some hatters mad, still, when put to good use we can, when things get hot, rise to the occasion and deliver the news. Will it be accurate? That's up to you. After all, in this instance, the simple, elegant, old fashioned moving part is "us."

Randy