There are many reasons why I do not believe complete unity between nations will ever be possible; I could discuss theories of human nature and emphasize the inherent traits of greed and corruption and revenge and lust. Or I could make my point by addressing the limitations of living in a broken world of famine and drought and the innate drive toward self-preservation when one is threatened with extiction. I could make my case using Scripture, pointing to verses about the poor always being with us and reapers sowing and brothers against brothers.
My Baha'i friend believes that if the people of the nations somehow were able to really know the other, that this level of intimacy and understanding would solve most discord. Knowing is loving.
But I want to talk about accidents.
Suppose my Baha'i friend asked me to pick up his grandchildren from the airport. God forbid, but suppose, caught up in conversation, I missed the red light and his grandchildren were stripped from him. My friend then finds himself at a crossroads. Does he forgive and embrace me and we continue our friendship, or does he seek restitution, or even revenge?
Assume my friend chooses to 1) forgive me. Is it possible to return to the former level of intimacy? Or will the pain of loss prevent my friend from sharing the part of him that is so necessary for the transparency of friendship? Or perhaps my friend 2) cannot forgive me and breaks fellowship? Or maybe he now 3) hates me and seeks my destruction?
I assert that the loss due to accidental misfortune creates an impenetrable wall of sorrow. I further assert that this sorrow can only be consoled from without by He who heals. Therefore, it is only He-who-heals who can unite daughter with mother, son with father, brother with brother, wife with husband.
The greatest contribution I can make toward the reconciliation of the sorrowful is to remain receptive and vulnerable to the touch of He-who-heals.
"Blessed are the peacemakers."
"If you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."
4 comments:
"The regenerate use
eating, drinking
clothing and shelter
with thanksgiving
to support their own lives
and to the free service
of their neighbor
according to the
Word of the Lord"
-Menno Simons
Flaming Arrow #1: Suppose you believe, as some people are prone to, that God had a hand in the creation of that sorrow? Does that change the manifesto?
Will I
1) forgive God?
2) break fellowship with Him?
3) hate Him and seek His destruction?
4) none of the above?
If God has his hand in the creation of sorrow, a true possibility, it does not change "the manifesto" so much as further complicate it. For if the faithful who pursue "world peace" (which all too often is THEIR version of "peace") are being thwarted in their efforts by a God who is not interested in their version of "peace", then what hope of success do they have?
Are there "accidents?" Of course there are. Do we have free choice? (I don't want to go down that road)
"Peace" is unattainable, this side of the ultimate union with He who heals. And yet, "blessed are the peacemakers..."
and so I return in my own mind to the idea of being subjected to futility... I always thought that since, Isaiah knew that his efforts were "doomed to failure" even before he started, why not me?
I don't necessarily have to relegate God to a position of "cruel little boy who prods the ants in his ant farm into fighting each other to the death".
However, neither do I feel compelled to establish the standards by which God's actions and behaviours are measured, and then go the final step and aquit Him of the charges that my standards just indicted Him with.
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