As I sit here on another dismal Saturday morning after a beautiful couple of days of sunshine, one must always remember that this is Northeast Ohio. So the weather is what it is so I will whine no longer on that immutable topic.
Over the last two weeks, I sort of went on strike as to seeking out the "news" of the world for I realized I was allowing the constant dosage of the ever present dosages of cruelty, hate and societal decay to begin to take my smile away. Syria, North Korea, same-sex marriage and homosexuality, atrocities, our Constitution itself again under attack all for the premise of absolute "equality" and the loss of some friends to death plus the loss of one of the great people of the twentieth century, Lady Thatcher. Each of those points on that listing is capable of pulling a smile from any one's face. The escalating killings and slaughter in Syria is abominable while the world sits on the sidelines wishing and hoping something good will finally happen. The Arab Spring is at best a farce as it relates to any sense of real stability in the Middle East. Israel is boxed in by incendiary attitudes by nations capable of inflicting tremendous damage to that nation of God's Chosen People. It is really easy to project from the prophets in the Old Testament and the Revelations that perhaps the End Times are truly upon us.
The "strike" I chose to invest in was to get my head away from this chatter for my mind works too hard and too diligently in seeking to connect the dots as to why all this is happening and the ultimate implication for the global village. Our lives on this journey seem to get more hectic and fearful with each passing day. I do wonder if my parents or my grandparents ever felt this sense of ever present doom in their world. I wonder if they ever became fatigued by all the noise of chaos in this world. My one real memory, for example, was the events of the Kennedy assassination when what I recall was my mother holding me as we sat watching the news from Dallas on the old black and white television in trying to grasp what this all meant with mother trying to explain it as best she could. All remember at that young age was that something really bad had happened and there was this sense that the world, my world, was in free fall.
Today, by relativity, that assassination would be almost a side show to the constancy of world events that are beyond terrible such as a hundred thousand at least Syrians slaughtered with the fighting. In other words, we have today been neutered to a degree with hearing and seeing so much in 24 / 7 news all clamoring for one more headline or interview with a talking head. So my "strike" was to clear my head, rise above the noise and seek to smell the roses of Spring. I have found myself really enjoying watching the birds at our feeder as I read my Bible each morning or battling the squirrels and raccoons doing combat operations at night to get to the feeder before I take it inside.
My blog today is about hope! I have great hope that my son will soon complete his dissertation for his doctorate. I have great hope that God will use the labor in the jail ministry for a much greater purpose than any of us can imagine. I have great hope that my five grandchildren will grow in the admonition of a Lord that loves them more fully that they can comprehend at their young ages. I have great hope that the demon of cancer or Alzheimer's will not visit my family. I have great hope that our children will continue to be great parents creating examples of Godliness for their children that will be passed to their children. I have great hope that we will see a revival in the Land where hoards of people are drawn back to churches that will preach the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have great hope that the nation will cast off the chains of societal decay that is growingly prevalent to return to a life style of Christlike principles. I just have a hope!
A great old Gospel song Jake Hess used to sing talks about ... Prayer is the key to heaven but Faith unlocks the doors. Words are so easily spoken but prayer without Faith is like a boat without an oar. Have Faith when you talk with the Master, that's all He asks you for. Prayer is the key to Heaven, but Faith unlocks the door..!
I pray for a revival of Faith in our young and our old; a Faith that will draw this nation to its root structure that our Founding Fathers institutionalized into that great document, our Constitution that has guided this nation through wars and disasters and will again if we keep the faith in that document written on Christian principles. My heart is still very heavy at the loss of so many friends of last but it is far heavier with what I see as wholesale, blatant aberrant lifestyles trying to be rationalized as "equality for all." Wrong is wrong and no amount of wrong will ever make a wrong, Right!
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