A Year and a Half Later and Has Anything Changed in the World?

(originally journaled Aug 11, 2014)

It has been a depressing round of news this summer. Starting with the teacher strike in May/June, which could now extend into Sept/Oct); all the wars in the Middle East, mostly with Muslim extremists taking over big areas and beheading children and forcing young girls into marriage and forcing FGM on girls and women and killing Christians and other kinds of Muslims etc. en masse; and the civil war in Ukraine and the Malaysian airplane shot down with almost 300 dead (and the other Malaysian flight that went missing over the Indian Ocean a couple months earlier); and the foolish stuff that media spends big time reporting on, while they totally ignore way more serious stuff (because ratings are important of course; and also because of who the media are run by, both corporations and government); and all kinds of horrible environmental issues, like the ongoing pipeline disputes; and this past week the big mine tailings disaster up by Likely, BC.; and on and on and on. And it all makes me feel just sick.

I probably should just "ignore it"--but how can I? I just cannot understand how human beings can be so evil. (I've started reading through the Bible again, and it seems that the world has always been a cruel, cruel place. And yet there have always been pretty decent people--but the bad ones generally rule the roost. It seems like in the "western world" I was "privileged" to grow up in during the second half of the 20th century, there was a brief time of relative peace and calm (I think the atomic bomb and 2 world wars kind of scared folks for a while). But really, even during this seemingly peaceful and calm time there have still been lots of horrible things happening--Vietnam, Middle East, Rwanda, Congo, Sierra Leone, the Balkans .... Maybe we just managed to ignore it since we've been pretty "safe" here in North America (until 911 anyway).

But meantime our own country is being torn apart environmentally for the sake of $$$$ for big multinationals who don't care about anyone or anything except their own  base profit line. And when people do try to rise up (Idle No More; the 99% vs the 1% uprising, etc.), how can we really fight big government and big corporations? Watching some documentaries on Auschwitz last night--and wondering how much longer till we ourselves fall into that kind of evil? After all, it's happening in places all over the world right now, especially the ISIS (or IS Islamic State) in Iraq and Syria.

There are people who say that the elites are happy about it, supporting it, so that large populations can be wiped out and the elites can have even more control. But control over what? Who wants to be in control of a devastated planet, with the few remaining "regular folks" in dire circumstances? I've heard the elites are buying up all the remaining decent lands and plan to set up their own little enclaves and let the rest of the world just die (and yes, what about climate change and all the other "natural disasters"? Earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. Are there really more than in the past? Is this different than before? Is "mother nature"--and/or God!?--rising up in judgment?

Why, why, why do people want to be so rich? What's with that?

I am sitting here looking at all my learning supplies. I want to give free lessons. I still would love to live in an intentional, cooperative community where others could make whatever minimal amount of money is needed to survive--while I could be "grandma teacher" and help with gardening, etc.

I read all the comments on the news items--there are so many good, caring people, people who want a world of justice--but there are also so many rude, crude, racist, selfish, ignorant people out there.

How can anyone continue to support the neo-Con policies of Harper and Christie Clark--and, south of the border, the American Republicans and Democrats, both?

I wonder if President Obama had any idea at all what he was getting himself into? Did he really have all those dreams (or was it just political rhetoric)? It's been just--what? 6 years or so?--since he first became president, and he looks like he's aged 20 or 30 years.

And whatever happened to "democracy"? What we have now certainly isn't democratic in any traditional meaning of the term, and it's getting farther away from it day by day. (And Christianity isn't "democratic" either, despite what some politicos and their followers seem to think...)

(And "free market capitalism" is so not Christian, despite what a lot of "Christian" politicos--and their voting followers--claim. It's all about greed and destruction and power ... evil!)

Okay, well ... I just had to get that out of me.

Your truth, Your church, Your dreams

(originally journaled Feb 20, 2014)

"Every truth without exception--and whoever may utter it--is from the Holy Spirit." --Thomas Aquinas

Jesus promised to send the "Spirit of Truth"--and we sing--with truth--"All over the world the Spirit is moving, all over the world, as the prophet said it would be; all over the world, there's a mighty revelation of the Spirit of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

Yes, there is a mighty revelation, if we--if I!--open my eyes and ears to see and hear it--open my heart and mind to You!

I'm afraid many times we are far too narrow in defining "truth," wrapping up our private version in a neat little box and holding on tight to it, sharing it only with a few chosen, "trusted" others, those we believe will agree and hold on to it tightly with us. We do the same with You, of course--or rather, our personal version of You, because we can never wrap You in a box of our making. How presumptuous that the created thinks it can contain and determine access to and control over the Creator--or even truly know and understand more than a small part of You.

Yes, I do believe all truth comes from You...

And that much of what we call "truth" is only partly so, corrupted and condensed, summarized, simplified as truth is when it is held in human hands, because our sinful nature does corrupt all it touches. And yet You, THE Truth, can never be corrupted--it is just our version, our understanding, that is corrupted.

You shine bright, always.

"Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference--so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked." (Frederick Douglas)

And yet You love Your church--but aha! It is the people You love, Your people, Your children: Your children are the church. Not the physical buildings and programs and systems that we physical beings seem to need. Just You and Your children, washed in the blood of Jesus--and in Your eyes good, pure, and holy.

It is so hard for me to imagine that!

How different You are from us! How amazing!

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen"

"Lift us by awe at the things we see: To set our minds on none but thee."

I've been struggling with the concept of dreams--maybe because "my dreams" are simply too small--too much me!

"Jesus, even in our waking, grant us dreams by which to guide our lives. Make us dream of justice for the oppressed, reunions for those torn from loved ones, hospitality for immigrants, and the healing of all wounds. Amen."

And yes, You use us to work out and fulfill these dreams in human lives--if we are listening to You, and are willing to walk alongside and be conduits of You!