Here

Well, one way to make a change in the, sometimes horrific, world could be this. It seems to have worked before. Its something. Oh, and if you can't go to Washington D.C. you can digitally sign what i think to be an pretty darn good petition.
Easier on paper I'm sure, but i guess that not for us to complain... right?

hmmm... it seems like if injustice isn't staring you in the face, it's easier to disagree with but harder to punch out cold...

Thought i'd throw these out to those who potentially read here.

"Peace"

Rain Falling on a Battle Field

The Blood on my brow is washed to the ground
And the blood on my spear is forgotten
By a million tears

Pools on the ground reflect our image
And no one in time can explain the scrimmage
Emotions are washed as the thunderheads roll
And lightning flash lights all our faces exposed

The heavy warm rain weighs battle gear down
And one by one, pieces all fall to the ground
And bare chested men, exposed for their worth
Care not for their colors, which lay mingled with earth

Instead all washing their nakedness clean
Are united as one. No difference seen.

And as water quenches a dry tongue
Its invigoration gives life to breath
And one lifts his arms t'ward heaven
In the thundrous quietness

And everyone, they see
That they've all become the same
And that theres only now one army
In the rain

mc Jan/08

Hope Love Life...

The fact of the matter is that I should have crashed and burned a thousand times.

It was only the Grace of God that kept me on me feet and only the knowledge of which that gave me the will to keep standing.

I remember my mom saying that rebellion was a sin. I never really understood that. I thought of the punk rockers with their antiestablishment agendas and something in me desperately related with them. I remember one of the presidents of the United States being quoted as saying that a little bit of rebellion was a good thing once in a while. Stick it to the man! Don't conform. Don't be a pawn.

I think I might finally see what was really meant by the one who said that rebellion is a sin. I don't know, but I realize now in having being saved from myself a thousand times that I don't have anything to stand against. What is there left of me? That is, the me that was defined by myself. We call it pride.

I fall and I fall again and become subject to grace and slowly become by humility- that sweet revelation of seeing myself as I really am.

God said I was worth saving.

I'm worth something. I have to throw off everything I was caught up in about myself to see what that really is because surely this self-motivated pride stuff isn't it. That becomes humility and I begin to see myself as God sees me and I begin to realize that I'm worth more than I ever knew. I stop fighting as a rebel that feels helplessly disvalued by the world. I stop acting defensively knowing my own failures and realize that to continue- knowing what I know now- is pointless, prideful and rebellious. God has called me to something more. He has valued me higher than that! To disvalue what he has called valuable (even worth dying for) - what blasphemy is that!?

So I don't stop acting. No. For surely now it's time to be pro-active.
Knowing what i know now i act out of a new entity and agenda and no-one said it would be easy (when a sinful nature, evil, and -it seems sometimes- the whole world is going the other way down the stream.)

I have a theory that a man goes crazy without something to live for. He'll get depressed, feel devalued, and may end up off the deep end. Probably most of us have experienced that feeling to some extent. Maybe you've lived alone, ate Kraft-dinner, worked at a dead-end job and watched TV in the evenings a little too long for a state of pace. We begin to lose touch of that part of us that wants to live. That's what it seems like to me. I think you might be alive if you know you could die tomorrow and know that something you did today would count.

Maybe you've seen the way a friend's demeanor changes when he gets into a job that is fulfilling to him, or when he starts back at college and feels like his life is going somewhere, or when he enters a relationship with a significant other. Suddenly there’s something real to live for!

Jesus showed me that i was worth something. I respond and accept it. I love him for it and respond accordingly (Something most definitely real to live for!)I find myself living -ideally every part of my life and being- for HIM. Purpose. Hope. Life. Love.

Alright...

I Found Profound

From a book of clever and heartwarming short stories and antidotes about life that my mom recommended, called "Front Porch Tales"( by Phillip Gulley.)
I was apprehended by the end of one of the stories called "The Kitchen Table" By the moral which I found considerably profound. Maybe you won't; maybe you will. The following is the summary from that chapter:

"A friend came for dinner not long ago. He asked me where I had bought my table, and I told him I had made it. He wanted me to make him one, but I told him no. A man has to be careful not to let his hobby become his business. He was talking about how his kitchen ta ble is forever falling apart and lamenting the shoddy nature of today's craftmanship. People slapping things together in five minutes expecting them to last a lifetime.
We got to talking about how that isn't only true about furniture, it's true about life. Folks get discouraged because God doesn't make them saints overnight. They don't understand all the years of God-work that go into making one's life a thing of beauty- a lot of shaping, a lot of smoothing, a lot of finishing. And if we rush the process, the flaws will surely show.
Once a week I rub a coat of lemon oil into my table. It reminds me that my table is never really finished. Kind of like me. "

What can I do?

I regularly read World Vision Bulletins.
World Vision is an organization which I have come to trust for relatively accurate international statistics and news. It has also proved itself to be nothing less than a respectable and effective Christian Humanitarian Organization.
So when I read their most recent Bulletin with the heading, "Sudan Crisis Continues. Dozens Die from Hunger Daily." I have reason to believe that it is more than an attention grabbing header. Its probably also nothing less than the truth.
Same goes for the other bulletins I've pulled out of the archives. One reads, "Action now will save lives! Silently, starvation stalks millions in Africa". Another "emergency bulletin" appeals that "Starvation Threatens Millions in Zimbabwe". This one includes a picture of a mere toddler sitting sadly, stomach enlarged from sickness, on the ground.

Of course these Bulletins appeal for financial support for these situations and as I read the details of the specific catastrophe I will probably be moved to give up a bit of what I suddenly realize is worth so little to me and so much to them. My heart begins to break as i begin to comprehend what I'm reading.
I've come to wonder, however, if money is really all I can give...

I know that there is desperate need left right and center. I need not look far and I need not look for the physically malnourished or sick. However, the physical need in countries like Sudan, Zimbambwe, Kenya, Ethiopia and Darfur is what I'm looking at imparticular at the moment.

In our typical western mindset we seem to assume that money will make everything all right. Everybody needs money and everything can be done through the all sufficient currency.
Can it really?
I want to know.

If money is all it would take to stop dozens from dying in Sudan daily then why does starvation continue? What is money? We've got lots of it don't we? If that's all it takes and they're not getting it then I fear that something is not right at all. Surely that can't be all there is to it... can it?

Is it a lack of educated people helping those in impoverished countries to survive, heal and rebuild? I never see much of a recruit section on the World Vision website for this. Are more people needed? If so, what kind of people? What kind of training is needed? These are things I actually want to know! Nurses? Agriculturalists? School Teachers? Economists? Engineers?

And my third question is, if it's not money and if it's not people then why do people still die?
I know that this question is very ignorant and that the answer is very involved, but If you have a possible partial answer, I'd like to hear.

mc