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"God won" [Chile Mine rescue]
The Deacon's Bench ^ | 10/13/10

Posted on 10/14/2010 6:53:57 AM PDT by marshmallow

Aren't we supposed to shrug it all off, attribute it to science and engineering and the sheer grit of the human psyche?

Isn't it supposed to have more to do with willpower than wonder? We live in a post-Christian world now, don't we? To paraphrase Tina Turner: what's God got to do with it?

Well, it seems, everything.

We sit here in our living rooms and offices, sipping coffee and checking e-mails, and hour after hour, another one emerges, up a long dark hole, to a shaft of daylight, and there are cheers and tears -- and then something more. Something that moves even the most hardened heart. The world is blinking back tears as we see it, again and again. One man, breathing his first fresh air in months, falls to his knees and prays. Another makes the sign of the cross. And in the media-saturated aftermath, one of the miners is interviewed on camera, still wearing his dark glasses, still numbed by it all, and he puts it in terms we can all understand. It sounds so simple -- to some, I'm sure, simplistic -- but it all makes perfect sense.

"I've been near God, but I've also been near the devil," he says through a translator. "God won."

Yes. That's it. End of discussion.

For over two months, they lived in a tomb, among rocks and rosaries. They prayed in darkness, waiting for light they could only remember, fleetingly, from last summer. And yet, they dared to believe. They sent a flag to the pope, and letters to loved ones, and petitions, endless prayerful petitions, heavenward. People called it "Operation San Lorenzo," for the patron saint of miners -- a saint who knew something about buried treasure and prayer. Thirty-three men persevered. They struggled. They hoped.

(Excerpt) Read more at blog.beliefnet.com ...


TOPICS: Prayer; Religion & Culture
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1 posted on 10/14/2010 6:53:57 AM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

Not to nitpick...but, it’s “What’s Love Got to Do With It”.


2 posted on 10/14/2010 6:58:37 AM PDT by Carpe Cerevisi
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To: marshmallow

I heard the the translation as “I saw God and the Devil in that mine and I followed God.”


3 posted on 10/14/2010 6:59:46 AM PDT by Boardwalk
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To: marshmallow
For over two months, they lived in a tomb, among rocks and rosaries. They prayed in darkness, waiting for light they could only remember, fleetingly, from last summer. And yet, they dared to believe. They sent a flag to the pope, and letters to loved ones, and petitions, endless prayerful petitions, heavenward. People called it "Operation San Lorenzo," for the patron saint of miners -- a saint who knew something about buried treasure and prayer.

It's a good thing they don't have the ACLU in Chile - they might have gotten an injunction to stop the rescue.

4 posted on 10/14/2010 7:02:50 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: marshmallow

I love it that the MSM is forced to report on the faith of these miners. Must be driving them bats.


5 posted on 10/14/2010 7:04:26 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: marshmallow

If they guys with the drill hadn’t showed up, my guess is God would have left them down there. Flame away.


6 posted on 10/14/2010 7:07:32 AM PDT by tickmeister (tickmeister)
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To: anniegetyourgun

Yes,the sight of real men falling to their knees praying
with rosaries and bibles in their hands must have upset
the libs!


7 posted on 10/14/2010 7:07:53 AM PDT by Dr. Ursus
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To: Dr. Ursus
Yes,the sight of real men falling to their knees praying with rosaries and bibles in their hands must have upset the libs!

And that is exactly what these people were. Real men. They knew they were imperfect, and that their own powers and abilities were limited, but with God all things are possible.

8 posted on 10/14/2010 7:10:51 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: marshmallow

If you’re going to paraphrase, be correct. It’s love not God.


9 posted on 10/14/2010 7:14:50 AM PDT by stuartcr (When politicians politicize issues, aren't they just doing their job?)
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To: marshmallow

“media-saturated aftermath”

Chicago talk show host cracked the code on this. The media is giving this 24/7 coverage because women think the miners are “hot”.


10 posted on 10/14/2010 7:15:28 AM PDT by bigbob
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To: marshmallow
Fatima, October 13, 1917On the 93rd anniversary of The Miracle of the Sun, 33 men (one for each year Christ was on this earth), were finished being rescued from well beneath the earth's surface. The fact they were all wearing donated $450 Oakley sunglasses when they emerged somehow can amusingly (or otherwise) fit into this other "Miracle of [seeing] the Sun [once again]."

Thank you Jesus, thank you Mary ... Rosary for Peace.
The Miracle of the Sun in Fatima October 13, 1917 (video). As the solar miracle begins,
onlookers star directly into the sun as it begins to spin and emit iridescent colors.

11 posted on 10/14/2010 7:16:15 AM PDT by mlizzy (Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee ...)
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To: tickmeister

Besides, He could have prevented the whole thing!


12 posted on 10/14/2010 7:17:06 AM PDT by stuartcr (When politicians politicize issues, aren't they just doing their job?)
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To: marshmallow

Yes, it is a testament to God. I believe also, the first guy out held up his little bible, as if to say, “God did this, to Him be the Glory”. God stayed the forces that would have surely taken the miner’s lives... but God also provided the human tools to event the rescue. Tools that could only have come from a land where the human spirit is allowed to soar, to imagine freely and invent. In no other nation is the human spirit allowed to soar as in America... and why? Because America’s founding principles are based on the knowledge of God, as taught from the Christian/Judeo understanding of God, not Allah, Buddha, Hindu or any other. Only God and His grace provides the environment for true freedom of the human spirit, hence the biblical saying, “know the truth and the truth will make you free”. That truth? An acknowledgment and reliance on the one true God.


13 posted on 10/14/2010 7:17:39 AM PDT by dps.inspect (the system is rigged...)
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To: tickmeister
If they guys with the drill hadn’t showed up, my guess is God would have left them down there. Flame away.

Yes, He would. But why would anyone think it to be the right thing to even attempt a rescue of these miners anyway?

14 posted on 10/14/2010 7:24:29 AM PDT by pnh102 (Regarding liberalism, always attribute to malice what you think can be explained by stupidity. - Me)
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To: GreenHornet
They prayed in darkness, waiting for light they could only remember, fleetingly, from last summer. And yet, they dared to believe. They sent a flag to the pope, and letters to loved ones, and petitions, endless prayerful petitions, heavenward. People called it "Operation San Lorenzo," for the patron saint of miners -- a saint who knew something about buried treasure and prayer.

You're right, GreenHornet: Thank God there's not an ACLU in Chile.

15 posted on 10/14/2010 7:30:20 AM PDT by GOPJ ( - - - - - - Your universe: http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/)
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To: tickmeister
If they guys with the drill hadn’t showed up, my guess is God would have left them down there. Flame away.

So, Who do you think motivated the guys with the drills to show up? And Who do you think nurtured the country that produced the guys with the drills?

16 posted on 10/14/2010 7:35:36 AM PDT by McGavin999 ("I was there when we had the numbers, but didn't have the principles"-Jim DeMint)
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To: stuartcr

God never promised you a rose garden. Their faith was tested in the crucible of that mine, and it is what helped them to prevail against all odds.


17 posted on 10/14/2010 7:40:42 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: Carpe Cerevisi
To paraphrase Tina Turner

that's why it said PARAPHRASE.

18 posted on 10/14/2010 7:42:54 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: stuartcr

it didn’t say QUOTE, it said paraphrase, which means to use DIFFERENT WORDS.


19 posted on 10/14/2010 7:44:49 AM PDT by xsmommy
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To: tickmeister

God, or rather the human faith in a deity, likely helped by providing hope for all involved where they may have given up otherwise. Men did the rest using intelligence, discipline and hard work.

Remember, if it’s God who rescued them, then it’s also God who trapped them down there in the first place.


20 posted on 10/14/2010 7:45:38 AM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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