This One Bothers Me...

I post stuff on FaceBook...and I read a lot of stuff other folks post there, too.  Some of the stuff I post and read is humorous.  Some is about family life or professional pursuits.  Some of the stuff is just "stuff."

I enjoy much of what I read.

Of the 600 or so friends I have on FB, whose postings find their way to my computer screen, two kinds of postings certainly represent a goodly percentage of the stuff I browse, read, or dismiss: Politics and Religion.

 

 

Many of my postings are about religion and politics, too.  I guess that's what we folks who have been told forever, not to discuss religion and politics, think we should do on FaceBook.  We could be wrong.  I could be wrong.

 

However, the mixing of NRA gun-rights sentiments and the Christian religion is, in my opinion, really...really stretching things.

 

This one, for example, from a recent FB posting, bothers me...more than a little.

 

 

 

Yeah...supporting easy access to guns, with little or no background checks being run on many who purchase them...and advocating for the manufacturers of those guns...and mixing it with an attempt at some kinda theology...probably shouldn't be attempted.

 

It bothers me.  Maybe it does you, too.  Maybe not.



The Journey of Just One Soul...

I suspect that you are very much like me.  And I am very much like you.  That is, I suspect that most of us spend most of our time in the company of others.
Spouses, or significant others.
Family.
Friends.
School.
Work.
Day in...day out.

In the normal course of any given day I spend more time in the company of others than I do by myself.  I suspect that is true for you, as well.

There are just over seven billion of we human beings on this earth right now, and its getting more and more crowded every day.  Statistically, about 100 people die worldwide every minute.  And, about 175 babies are born worldwide every minute.

Even though its a really large planet we live on, in the places we inhabit on this earth, it can tend to be rather crowded.  Its not unusual for us to be in the company of others.  In fact, it is hard not to be in the company of others.

And yet the journey of any one of us through this life is pretty much a solitary affair.  No one else can know the path we walk.  Really.  No one else can feel what we feel.  Actually.  No one else can think what we think, experience what we experience, or go where we go. 

Faith in a Creator...in a God...who journeys with us through this life becomes important exactly because no one else can make the journey with us.  Even in this crowded world, we are pretty much on our own.

And so, here are some encouraging words and thoughts for we solitary souls who pass this way but once:

~Real things are given and received in silence.

~To seek and find God is to do so in your heart.

~"Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation." -Rumi.

~"When we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey." -Wendell Berry.

~"A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other." -M.C. Richards.

~"Live for the present moment, which is where life is to be lived and God's presence is to be known.  The future - if indeed we are given a future - will come out of today.  And we will need every moment of today to prepare us for the possibility of tomorrow." -Br. Curtis Almquist.

~Grace trumps Karma.  Every single time.