The Ultimate Source of Sustenance

The day that we stop counting our blessings is the day we plunge into despair.  For everyone it is not true that “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”  For some the outlook is parched earth.  My wish is that people without hope can sustain themselves by the knowledge that they have within them the divine spark.  They are inherently valuable and stand fully equipped to make valuable contributions even when not expected, ask for, or wanted.  They are never forgotten or forsaken.

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Just a Saying

There is a saying:  “What if they gave a war and nobody came?”  This is saying that people will no longer care about something to the point of death, or hate something to the point of death.  That would have implications not only for war, but also for daily life.  Not infrequently we are called upon to take risks for these reasons and to this extent and we do them willingly.  A common one is travel.  We take the kids to see grandma but subject our family to all the risks of going 75 miles/hour in heavy interstate traffic.  Our love, our care to support family relationships easily banishes from our minds the stark risks involved.  We do it because we care; clearly experience with human nature shows that war will always exist so long as people feel that they have fundamental stakes in the battle.  It is a way to show symbolically as well as in the flesh the unlimited nature of commitment.  So we had best hope that wars do not end so long as stakes of this sort exist.  Otherwise that would indicate a monumental shift in the nature of man—one in which he no longer could be counted upon to have and affirm in significant ways solid commitment.

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Misconstrued as Self-Confidence

Self-Confidence defined: “confidence in yourself and your own abilities” (Encarta Dictionary).

Some Sunday thoughts: A common error is to interpret the confidence of people of faith as self-confidence.  This is a remarkable error since people of faith often have a very dim view of human nature—including their own.  Actually the behavior interpreted as self-confidence is a manifestation of true human freedom deriving from the abandonment of all forms of idol worship.  People are astounded by the quiet assurance of a man of faith often mistaking it for courage when it in fact is simply the result of true freedom and faith.  They mistakenly call it self-confidence when in fact it is the quiet conviction in the validity of the life of Jesus and the absolute nature of God as love.  With this conviction and confidence at the core of their being they are able to withstand any hurricane thrown at them by the passions of the world.  By keeping a holy focus in this sense they are content that all will be well no matter what ensues.  They no longer count as important or significant the desperate transcendent quest to gain or maintain official position or station.  These things are now viewed as a manifestation of fleshly lusts for power.  Ironically, idol worship itself can also give the appearance of self-confidence.  The trust placed in idols emboldens one to act with vigor and earnestness.   The difference between faith in idols and faith in God is the difference between a “short-term only-the-now-matters” focus contrasted with “now only derives significance as it is given meaning and purpose by the Eternal.”  It seems that the world of idols is often the winner—until cut down at the knees by disaster.  A historical perspective clearly indicates that holy ground is the solid ground.

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The Pain Mystery of the Outer Banks

We are confronted by a mystery.  Why is it that pain (say childhood pain) can bring about two possible reactions?  On the one hand, it can cause a person to have a heightened compassion deriving from empathy for the pain of others thereby calling forth efforts to lessen or prevent it.  On the other, the pain can be transmuted into sadism in which one wants to increase the pain of others for the sole purpose of enjoying it in reverse empathy (“I feel your pain” becomes instead “you feel my pain”).  The first is a reaction of love; the second is a yearning for perverted justice (perverted because pain is gratuitously inflicted upon the innocent).  This mystery has come to mind recently.  I used to view it as mutually exclusive—either a person was of the first order or the second, but not both.  My recent behavior makes me reevaluate this.  Several days ago in my Florida living room as tropical storm Irene was intensifying off the continental United States, several path trajectories were identified.  With time, the paths became more focused and the hurricane clearly threated such atypical sites as Washington DC and New York City.  As I was watching this on TV an uncomplimentary and evil thought crossed my mind.  “It’s about time,” I thought.  “Let them be the ones to suffer the intense and prolonged anxiety that can come from being in the path of a storm.  Let the New Yorkers scatter and evacuate under great stress and anxiety.”  Yes, my thoughts and emotions were enjoying the exhilaration of revenge.  What an exalting feeling of vindication suddenly overcame me!  Then out of self-interest I immediately squelched the thought.  “I can’t think or feel this way or God will send the next hurricane as a direct hit on my doorstep,” I thought.  If God has anything in common with the paparazzi, he has another unflattering photo of me to add to his files.   

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The Turn of Events

        WWII

Some remember from their youth

The daring acts of war

They remember flying high amid the flak

And dropping bombs below.

        Vietnam

My memories of my youth

Are tame in comparison

For when steel prison doors clanked shut

And count time sealed us in

The patriotic cause was joined

By being counted in.


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A Prayer for Gratitude

Lord, fill me with gratitude

Which it seems so much I lack;

Ingratitude is not my bane

So much as blindness to sacrifices made—

Efforts done on my behalf by countless others

And by God above—

Help me to feel a debt reaching deep

Not to indenture me to drudgery and guilt

But to put me in a frame of mind

That binds me with love to give in kind.

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Plain Vanilla

During the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s people whose names are not household words developed computer networking.  How telling is it that I know the name of Charles Manson but not their names?  Some of the developers no doubt made good money as engineers, but made very little in comparison to the gifts they brought society.  While celebrities of all types during those years may have been famous for a moment, surely true greatness resides with those who serve quietly and make solid contributions.  In a way I think those who developed ARPANET, TCP/IP, Ethernet, emailing, and the internet share the fate of many parents who after bringing their children into the world and nurturing them for years, find their fame and wealth focused teens take them for granted and are a little embarrassed by their normalcy.

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