The entire world, it appears is continuously waiting and praying for Someone (or something) to “bring us Love and Peace” as its reality slips farther and farther from us each passing day despite the ever increasing scientific and technological advancement of man.
The primary missing link, however, appears to be that neither world (nor any other kind of) peace can come to us through others! It must come individually and collectively through both meanings of US! How many centuries ago did St. Francis of Assisi offer us the incomparable (formula) prayer:
“O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace! Where there is hatred, let me sow Love; where there is injury, Pardon; where there is doubt, Faith; where there is despair, Hope; where there is darkness Light; where there is sadness, Joy! O, Divine Master! Grant that I may not so much seek, to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to Love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is only in dying that we are born to Eternal Life!”
We have but to listen to our daily news casts that always lead with the highest number of lives lost (wherever; however), still championing the old media cliche’ “It has to bleed to lead,” after all these centuries! Worse still is reporting the number (of approximate American lives lost thereof-–whether insinuating interest or worth.
In our constant criticism of others (as men/women or nations) we may do well to look at “The Man (woman/country) in the Mirror” and exert greater effort in becoming “a light, not a judge; a model not a critic; programmers, not the program! In so doing we choose (as men and nations) to “feed opportunities and starve problems; to keep promises, not make excuses; and to focus on our immediate circle of influence rather than on the larger circle of hope/fear or concern.
Effective results come from things created mentally (and spiritually) from the beginning before they are attempted physically. Ineffective projects derive from allowing old habits, other people, environmental conditions or fear of failure to dictate its mental creation.
Should we but give it prayerful, careful consideration, many may discover that the core of our inability to effect positive change as men/women and nations, stems from the smallest word in Webster’s dictionary-–EGO, Edging God Out–through wrong motivation!
Let’s THINK about it, PRAY about it and Investigate! (1-800-22-UNITE)
