AP Top Headline: "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Somali pirates hijacked a supertanker hundreds of miles off the Horn of Africa, seizing the Saudi-owned ship loaded with crude and its 25-member crew, the U.S. Navy said Monday...."
It couldn't have happened to a better entity. (Not fond of Saudi Arabia, and it irks me that our country has any relationship with them at all, let alone a good one.) Still, piracy! Insanity.
Is this a sign of the times? Are moving backwards instead of forwards? Civilization is failing, not progressing. I am not surprised, really. I mean, if you look back in history, all the way back to the ancient "Sumerians" you can see the rise and fall of civilization or empires time and time again. It's obvious we are heading that way again.
The good news is we seem to advance a little bit more whenever a fall occurs. So after centuries of misery, it will get better again for a few more centuries.
I think everyone should read Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible). It covers the rise and fall, cycles, etc. in depth. Everything man does comes and goes and comes again. Nothing under the sun is new, and all things repeat. Only that which God creates is eternal and lasting and eternally pleasing. Solomon was a deep thinker. He pondered and pondered and pondered the meaning of life, it was a torture to him. He saw the cycles, he saw the toil, he saw the toil of past empires and how there was nothing left of them now. He saw these things and it troubled him to some extent, including his own riches and the things he built (including the Temple).
In the end, he realized that a man must be content in living his life, in the day to day details of his life; it is in the details we will find God. God lives in acts of kindness, in love, in doing "the right things at the right time." And wherever God is in, you know it is something that extends beyond this world, this life.
2 comments:
That famous passage from ecclesiastes:
"1 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a (A)time for every event under heaven--
2 A time to give birth and a (B)time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3 A (C)time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to (D)weep and a time to (E)laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to (F)dance.
5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
6 A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to (G)be silent and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to (H)hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.
9(I) What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?
10 I have seen the (J)task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves."
A belated happy thanksgiving to you. Hope you had loads of turkey. Gobble! Gobble!
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