Friday, 20 December, 2002

This is a part of a series of devotions based on: God Was In This Place & I , i Did Not Know - by Lawrence Kushner.



Continuing a look at good and evil and God's presence in both.

If we rule out "accidental" tragedies that could have been prevented had the victim not taken some voluntary risk, we are left with only freak, hopelessly unforeseeable accidents like a tornado or a rare illness. And if we hold our society similarly responsible, for example, for not creating adequate safety measures or directing its energy to the prevention of disease, then the list is diminished even further. How much misery might be prevented, for example, if humanity chose to allocate its resources toward healing rather than war?



Another way to ask the question at the end of this piece would put it like this: How many wars would we enter if we used our resources toward healing and ending the misery of others? Someday we may actually begin to thing about others and adjust all of our lives as part of a way to live together peacefully. The other day I read an editorial or letter to the editor about SUVs. The person wrote about how safe they were and that their miles-per-gallon were as good as one of the old cars the writer used to drive. The line that caught me was the line about safety. The writer didn't worry about his wife in the vehicle as she drove around town or drove the kids to the events of the day. Very true...I guess. But how safe are these vehicles for the other vehicles and other passengers all around them. Without even going into the global impact of these vehicles that have weak regulation on emissions, it is so easy to sit elevated from the road and other drivers that the only thing that "counts" is...once again...me and myself. Isn't that the beginning of that cycle that leads to so much division in an already divided and warring world?



Connection: We can begin within our own lives to look beyond our own lives and see what part we play or do not play in the well being of God's people everywhere. I like to think it is as easy as keeping our eyes and ears open to see how connected we really are to one another.



Lord God, you call us to be one people within our diversity. We need you to inspire our vision so that we may see the potential for new life that is wrapped up in the well being of others as we live together both now and in the time to come. Amen