I awoke earlier than normal this morning and realized it a wonderful time to sit quietly and pray even before I opened my computer to the array of very predictable helpings of bad, sad news. I listened to a sermon last night at our Summer Bible Conference to the heart of a grandfather, 73 years old, wrestling with the reality of a dying seven year old grandson. While I did not know I "needed" his words when the service began, my family heart was deeply touched in thinking of the reality of this life and how we, those left, deal with it.
As I opened my computer to my daily dose of news from six or eight news courses, unsurprisingly, I began to read of pressure being placed on Israel to basically lighten up on Hamas, a play we have seen too many curtain calls on in the last few years. Over a hundred rockets EACH DAY still rain down on Israel from Gaza and Israel, as Israel does best, is rooting out the scum adn thugs that use their own people for wrap-around protection, the world is now pleading with Israel to please stop hurting Hamas due to the casualties. Then I see where there is talk of adding anti missle hardware and software to commercial jetliners and I just scratch my head as how our world is spinning from a vortex into a full scale tornado with gale force winds. Then I went to the tears I shed, again, watching the Medal of Honor awarding to the Army sergeant and my faith in our men and women in uniform was rekindled while our political leadership seemingly grows weaker and more polarized. These shreds of "evidence" are picked as the foundation blocks to illustrate just how juxtaposed our world is with no improvement churning in in our direction from the horizon.
I wrote a blog a few days ago on being STUNNED and that term perfectly illustrates, I believe, how the inhabitants of our global village are feeling. When will this all stop? How can this be? Surely it is not really that bad? What does God have against us? What have we done to deserve this? Have you not asked yourself at least two of those questions in the last five days in the quietness of your heart? Certainly you have!
One of the reason humans, me for instance, detest the sense of being stunned is that you are temporarily out of control thus vulnerable to external forces which creates this innate sense of panic and desire for flight. But when you stop and realize that there really is no place to run nor can you hide from this tsunami of craziness that is seemingly engulfing our world, we either withdraw to this place of solitude to ignore the winds that smell horrible or we rise up and face the oncoming craziness. I choose option B which is to stand to, stand tall and lean into the winds that pelt us with fear and doubt. Anybody wish to join me in that small, elite, ever shrinking platoon?
From that hurting grandfather last night I was reminded that God did not create Man to hurt, to be sick nor to die as you can clearly read in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis. But then there is Chapter 3 which reality decries the dictates of the Creator when Adam and Even allowed Satan to slick-talk them into doing exactly what God told them not to do. So what we are seeing daily in our lives on this spinning rock began with that Satan-won victory over Man and thus sickeness, hurt and death were in the will that was written for Man's choice to go against God's masterplan. It really is just that simple and one can choose to believe I am just a simple man with white hair or you can go and read it for yourself; please do that!
This craziness and depravity are certainly hideous and that is the good news for the really bad news is that it will get worse. There are many Putins in this world all of which are witnessing the American inability to tamp down the bad guys through our abilty to project military force forward anywhere on this earth within twenty-four hours. We see just this week the emergence of the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa fundamentally confederating to project to the world that they are 40% of the world's population and 20% of the world's Gross Domestic Product. They are further providing institutional alternatives to the way it has been after WWII with a new single currency, a new lending instituion that will replace the IMF and the World Bank. All of this to show us even more clearly that America's posh position int he world is now more rapidly a thing of the past and thus becoming another empire relic of history. Never could I have imagined I would witness so much in so short a period of time in my lifetime but reality is what it is.
Our future, our children, are not being educated and you have teacher unions fighting any semblance of attempts to improve the methods and means to correct the trajectory of ill prepared students for this very new world they will face. Our societal norms have now far surpassed concern for in this Age of Toleration, homosexuality, drug use, same sex marriages, abortions, etc, etc are now the norm but being the norm does not mean norm is right in God's Eyes. Wrong is always Wrong and what we have allowed, yes, allowed, to become a societal norm is both sad and atrocious. My wife and I are reading the Bible beginning with Genesis 1:1 and are now finishing 1 Kings. In this page by page account recorded as prophetic for the coming of Jesus, it is blatanttly obvious that God corrects His People harshly when they choose to disobey, to worship idols and to know seek Him. Oh, is that not exactly what we are witnessing on a grand scale today in our world?
Being at the center of the vortex of human endeavor in this twenty-first century is both frightening and numbing. Numbing, like a root canal, does not correct the decay but facilitates a few minutes of no pain which the decay is removed; it is an escape but again, only temporary. What the world village is feeling is this sense that the novocaine has worn off too quickly yet the pain is increasing! Yep, that is about right isn't it?
As I close, please know that God has purpose for each of us and one of those is to be encouraging to others that are hurting. I have so many friends that are experiencing horrific physical and emotional hurts this very day, this moment. All I can do to acknowledge the plight and lift them in prayer for God's calming, soothing hand of mercy. Further, I realize that my whole world could turn upside down this very day and it would be my hope and belief that some would surround me and my family in love, in care and in compassion. We need each other more fervently that we most times realize. This day, reach out and be a friend, an encourager for so many are scared, worried and downtrodden. Our jails and prison are bursting with hurt and disappointment as are our hospitals and nursing and assisted living homes. Visit one and just sit and chat for a few minutes and guess who will be blessed and lifted? That would be you!
I do not know how much more this world can take but I know that this world will be called on to take much more, much worse that what we have seen thus far. In other words, it is not just going to grow calm and evaporate into the air of the world. Our world is fundamentally flawed and mandates leadership to come together to find course corrections and strategy to turn the rudder of this mess. I fail to see that happening at least in the near term. That is truly sad!
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