This time tomorrow I will be searching for a place to rest my weary head after a 4am start in defiance of paying £94.50 for a train to Stansted when my flight to Biarritz cost all of £6.50. What a crazy world of economics we live in. What a crazy world full stop.
It was with great sadness that I learnt the news of Osama Bin Laden's death and just before there is an uproar from those among you who are far better informed than myself, I still cannot think that the answer to death and violence is more of the same. Even less so that it is celebrated as a victory.
Is it not short-sighted as the wheel of revenge is pushed around again? Is there an alternative? Would it have been possible to show him grace? A grace that is spoken of by presidents and the massive church going population of America but what about its living reality? Indeed how do you live out this grace in this situation? What does it look like?Yes I doubt he would have wanted it, but what does it say about the people who were baying for his blood? What did this desire do to them? Was there far too much at stake for a trial to ensue? Who knows what would have been revealed about the corridors of power or those that walk in them if the latter had been risked.
On an Alpha course that I attended recently, the vicar said that the question he is most asked is does Christianity work? I see no example of Jesus ever taking revenge. Even at his final arrest he puts back the ear of his enemy that has been chopped off by one of his own. Ghandi would concur with this ethos and lived it as an individual, but how do you do that as a State? How does that work?
These questions have consumed my thought life which is a good thing as I have had little time to worry about my impending departure. Gaining a healthy perspective on our own lives is so important and what for me, seems like a gargantuan journey that I am about to undertake, to most of you, will be of some interest amid your own comings and goings and gargantuan journeys. I have often thought that that is why worship is so important as it takes us beyond ourselves, our own problems and fiefdoms into another realm where we and our egos no longer stand as the great I am! A good nights sleep has a similar effect.
Bon Nuit
Katex
apparently (according to facebook) the authorship is in dispute but a great man wrote:
ReplyDelete"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King, Jr.
yeah - vengence is what got us to this place -it certainly won't get us out of it.
ReplyDeleteIt takes someone to break the cycle. To take the hit and bear it, without passing it on to someone else. Such a cost to bear though -it seems beyond many, but not all.