Preparedness

As Hurricane Ike reeks havoc down south, the last few weeks I've been thinking about preparedness and emergency kits etc. When Y2K was looming I did a lot of thinking and substantial preparation and I was ready for 2 weeks without power and perhaps gas and water. I learned about water purification and had a survival plan in place. When Blackout struck the North Eastern North America I was ready. I cooked my meal that night did some reading by candle light and sat out and watched the stars. A month or so ago I sorted out my first aid box and realized I had probably too many things so I resolved them down into a pack I could throw into luggage in a emergency. Also I was at the MEC recently and saw that emergency preparedness kits were on sale. How prepared am I for disaster or emergencies?

So I'm thinking about sorting things because I already have the basics. Hand-cracked flashlight, candles, matches. Emergency blanket and tarps together with sleeping bags, butane stove and gas cylinders, First Aid kit supplies. Basic to human survival are water, shelter/warmth and food. Then information as orientation and source of hope and a sense of security become important. I think therefore I am missing a few things such as water purification supplies, dehydrated food/high energy food source, hand-cranked radio. Strangely this is linked to my cleaning up as well because it is a way of sorting all the different bits I have lying around and centralizing them.

I think this should also apply to the spiritual life and preparedness to meet adversity and disappointment. This last week I was really disappointed by a few things but also because I already had a number of other things in place the impact was substantially reduced. My English conversation class has been cancelled because only two people enrolled, however I still have another elsewhere due to happen and there are students expressing interested in having tutoring. No target students turned up last Saturday but because I had set up analytics I could identify at least significant first time visits to the website. Dealing with what are called desolations, times when God seems far away, is always part of treasuring consolations, moments when God is close. Thus a preparedness is necessary, the good times can prepare you for the bad times. I am not really a last-minuter probably because of fear of failure but in my own defence I'll say good planning and preparation is as much a spiritual activity as being spontaneous. In fact sometimes adequate planning and preparation allows you to be more spontaneous and open to the leading of the Spirit because you're resourced with your emergency preparedness kit.

Losing our way

The great danger of the turmoil of the end-time in which we live is losing our souls. Losing our souls means losing touch with our center, our true call in life, our mission, our spiritual task. Losing our soul means becoming so distracted by and preoccupied with all that is happening around us that we end up fragmented, confused, and erratic. Jesus is very aware of that danger. He says: "Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, 'I am the one' and 'The time is near at hand' Refuse to join them" (Luke 21:8). In the midst of anxious times there are many false prophets, promising all sorts of "salvations." It is important that we be faithful disciples of Jesus, never losing touch with our true spiritual selves. Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

I am constantly amazed how Nouwen puts the deepest things in such a simple way. It is so reasonable and yet so key. Avoiding issues of once saved always saved he takes us back to wondering about lived out lives and loss of direction and purpose. Back to issues whether we are alive or not, whether we are barely alive in Christ or seeking to be fully alive.

when are we dead or barely alive

Trapped inside their bodies, apparently switched off to the world, but still alive: they are the undead. Or so we thought. Forty per cent of patients in a ‘vegetative state’ are misdiagnosed. John Cornwell Timesonline

An article at Timesonline points to misdiagnosis of persistent vegetative state, or PVS. The person appears to be not conscious nor aware nor reacting to stimuli. There is no perceivable brain response. John Cornwell records many amazing stories in his article and probably the most shocking and amusing at the same time is this true story. (Read them all here)

“Young man with motorbike head injury in a coma. His mum, a keen evangelical, comes every day with friends to sing Onward, Christian Soldiers by his bedside. She’s hoping to stimulate his brain into action. It works: he comes round, but he can’t speak. So they fit him up with one of those Stephen Hawking-type laptops, and the first words he speaks are: “For God’s sake, Mum, shut it!” recorded from a psychologist at Putney’s Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability

I notice sadly many Christians who seem barely alive in their spiritual lives. Not only do they seem to be going nowhere but they also seem to be either in denial or blissfully unaware that a spiritual life involved all the aspects of human existence and not merely the outward behaviours and vocabulary of religious practice. If there is truly a divine -human relationship then a continuing stream of insights and epiphanies is to be expected as God breaks into mundane human existence to transform it into life in all its fullness.

Kate Bainbridge... suffered severe brain inflammation after contracting a viral infection. When she came out of the coma, she opened her eyes and could breathe naturally, but she was unresponsive to speech and visual stimuli, and appeared to lack all conscious awareness. ... Adrian Owen’s first experiment on Kate involved presenting her with photographs of her mother and father, followed by fuzzy, meaningless pictures, while her brain was being scanned. “We found,” he says, “that areas of Kate’s brain burst into activity when pics of her family were shown that accorded perfectly with the brain locations of healthy volunteers doing the same task.”

Labour Day weekend as I was speaking about being fully alive ... I had written in my notes struggling proves that you are still alive and kicking. Now after reading this I wonder whether we ought to ensure we have the right stimulation as well. Reading and praying, fellowshiping and serving are in a sense stimulation situations, where we might prove ourselves alive. Are you alive and kicking? Really?

Evil, suffering, and sin

Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand. Simone Weil

I remember in this moment the Japanese anime "Graveyard of the Fireflies" which is a powerful and painful study of two children at the close of WWII. Such is the power of the story line that I have not plucked up courage to watch a live action version. War is evil and the question is whether it is ever a necessary evil. A tension is whether countries can usurp another's sovereignty to instigate justice? National leaders have a responsibility for the care of their citizens, I'd like to think that but somehow I'm not sure in practice that is true.

Over the years I've had Machiavelli's The Prince on the must read list but as yet haven't got to it. I understand that The Prince is really a guidebook on seizing and preserving power. It focuses on a new prince who has a much more difficult task than a hereditary prince. Machiavelli sees that the new prince must cement his newfound authority in power structures that endure. To do this the Prince though publicly above reproach privately does anything necessary to maintain power. I notice that significantly Tanonoka Whande The Zimbawe Times writes of Mugabe,

“The President and First Secretary of Zanu-PF and President of the Republic of Zimbabwe” ordered that international organizations that were operating in his country, helping him to take care of his citizens, be stopped from distributing food to the starving citizens. He would not allow someone else feed the people he is supposed to be feeding unless those people sold their vote to him for food that is not even his.

Evil is considered a broad term used to indicate a negative moral or ethical judgment; it is often used to describe intentional acts that are cruel, unjust, or selfish. Evil is usually contrasted with good, which describes intentional acts that are kind, just, or unselfish. Accepting this definition and having considered all that we discussed above, can we justly deny Mugabe the description or title of “evil”? He has worked so hard for it and continues to do so.

It was Voltaire who said that as long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities. Zimbabweans, don’t believe in absurdities; we are in distress and we duly give Mugabe the title. He deserves it. His malice has gone too far."

Seemingly Mugabe has gone beyond even Machiavelli in having the ends justify the means. But are we really that different from Mugabe?

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' Matthew 25:41-43

Why do bad things happen?

For what are men better than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life within the brain. If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, Both for themselves, and those that call them friend. Alfred Lord Tennyson Morte D'Arthur

There seems to be so much struggle and pain around at the moment. A little while ago another one of the teenagers I worked with over the years passed away. Now this morning I heard of Mark who is terminally ill. I can remember Mark from the age of 12 years old. I knew him in Sunday school and was his leader as a youth. The parents divorced, and then his grandma passed away I remember feeling honoured to be asked to come to the funeral and afterwards to the wake. I later discovered it was to keep both parents on best behaviour, such was the trust he and his siblings felt. Mark has a partner and a child and that only makes it worse.

Tonight I feel the frustration and pain of my adopted god-daughter far away in Shanghai. I cannot protect or shelter or effectively console her. For all those I know suffering or struggling with sickness or painful situations at the moment I cannot offer and will not offer simplistic solutions. All I have are my prayers in this moment.

O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:1-2

Being a blessing

Jesus came to bless us, not to curse us. But we must choose to receive that blessing and hand it on to others. Blessings and curses are always placed in front of us. We are free to choose. God says, Choose the blessings! Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey

... all we know is what Jesus did. And perhaps what we need to know is what Jesus would have me do. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, and told his disciples to do the same (John 13:14-15). Some Christians, in spite of shoes and changing culture, obey this literally (though more as a ceremony than an everyday act of hospitality). Helen Parry LICC

This morning all my daily readings collided together to support each other and yet also bring further to focus the thoughts of the last week. Hospitality is a blessing, even a grace, which is powerful as we pass it on. I've been frustrated because my untidiness is preventing hospitality at home and I still have to work on that. But this morning I am forced to realize that a willingness to spend time with someone far from home is also hospitality. Being available to listen to someone significantly different in age, race, or lifestyle is also hospitality and a way of blessing another and therefore a good work.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

Hope and hope

I have had so many thoughts about hope and it's importance. But hope requires faith/trust and therefore there is an integral gap between guarantees and wishes. This gap is vulnerability which brings out our need for faith and hope.

In many conversations this week - especially in the last 3 days - I've realized that hope colours a black and white world. A black and white world only sees things one way, for the optimist everything is rosy and pain and disappointment don't exist or at least are denied. For those for whom nothing good ever seems to happen, it is very difficult to find hope to hold onto. But hope can produce a little colour in a black and white world. Much of my work seems to be helping people find this little glimpse of colour in the black and whiteness. To avoid being a hypocrite, I am forced also to find moments of colour in my own life. If I am to be present to others then I must also work out of the presence of God in my own life. God must be a reality in my own life.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Phil 2:12