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Don’t put your life in the hands of experts
who know nothing of life, of salvation life.
Mere humans don’t have what it takes;
when they die, their projects die with them.
Instead, get help from the God of Jacob,
put your hope in God and know real blessing!
God made sky and soil, sea and all the fish in it.
He always does what he says; he defends the wronged, he feeds the hungry. God frees prisoners— he gives sight to the blind, he lifts up the fallen. God loves good people, protects strangers, takes the side of orphans and widows,
but makes short work of the wicked.
God’s in charge—always. Zion’s God is God for good! Hallelujah!(Psalm 146:3-10)
The change of administrations in the US, and the arrival of a new, younger, smarter, more saavy president has many of us hoping for an inevitable end to the current economic, international, and domestic crises.
Those expectations have been seriously compromised by President Obama’s reversal of the ban on international abortion funding by the US. Family planning I get, wellness programs for mothers and infants I get, but abortion? How is the re-institution of a global genocide (destruction of 945,000,000 children, 1920-2005) ever a righteous solution to population issues?
With a train ride reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln’s 1861 rail trip to Washington DC for his inauguration, President-elect Barak Obama and vice-president elect Joe Biden traveled to Washington with their families aboard an Amtrak train. Obama’s inauguration will launch a presidency his transition staff is calling “A New Birth of Freedom,” a symbolic allusion to Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, and his Emancipation Proclamation that freed American slaves.
Obama’s historic pilgrimage is generating images and metaphors that evoke powerful longings in the American public–for a country and government that will support fully their needs for peace, tranquility, economic stability, and the resolution of conflicts, domestically and abroad.
OK, we’re in a long-term budget crunch–singles, families, neighborhoods, businesses, cities, states, and nations. There’s no way around it, over it, or away from it. So get with the program! It’s time to live simply, travel simply, work simply, shop simply, and eat simply. (It’s also time to cut back on business expenses, hiring, and expansion, but unless you’re the executive, owner, CEO or CFO of an enterprise, that responsibility probably does not apply to you!)
There’s some pretty challenging news this week on the US economy. Unemployment has reached 7 1/2 % and massive layoffs will continue in most sectors as the recession deepens. Life as we know it has hit a chaotic cycle.
At my worksite, we’re having all day meetings tomorrow to announce the 4th round of layoffs. Already this year, we’ve sold off three sectors of the business. Our contract has remained unsigned since last February, and we’ve experienced serious workload declines and three staff layoffs. The meetings will announce even further layoffs and changes. People are on edge. My guess would be that a sell-off or total withdrawal from the sector is closing in on us. The company is losing money, and that’s a sure sign of impending changes.
The only sectors prospering are healthcare and government. (Surprise surprise!) Healthcare costs are about to escalate, as baby boomers hit retirement, pension benefits vanish, and COBRA costs rise. At a minimum $300+ a month for singles, few retirees or unemployed workers are going to be able to afford maintenance care–which will significantly increase healthcare costs for critical care needs. Read the rest of this entry »
For one Christmas in the late eighties, a friend gave me a small granite sculpture of three peas in a pod. When I opened the box, she said “it’s to remind you to fit in a little better.” There was prophetic wisdom in her gift. I put it on a shelf at home, and through the years, I’ve dusted it, held it, and wondered where she is now. I’ve also wondered what insight led her to see that I needed to get along better with ordinary life, to be less ‘marginal.’
A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it! It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. This is scary. . .
With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on. (James 3:5-7, 9-10)
I wonder how James would feel, if he visited our communities today, and saw that the exact issues that he admonished first century believers about were still firmly entrenched in 21st century Christians. It’s mortifying to realize that 2000 years later, many of us are still clinging tightly to unregenerate behavior and sin.
It’s bitterly cold tonight… Winter has suddenly turned deadly serious. As I walked to my car after work, the wind caught me in a death grip, and I regretted grabbing just a sweater before I left the house.
Once I was inside the car, with the heater turned on, I saw the night sky–there’s a spectacular waxing crescent moon, with Venus just below it. They were just hanging there together in the sky, like a lantern, first on one side, then another, overhead and then behind. By the time I pulled up to the house, they had come to rest above my mountain. How can such creative splendor not have a Creator?
