Pratt: There is hope
As with all things physical, aging brings both its problems and its benefits whether we are evaluating products or human beings.
Oddly enough, we tend to close our eyes to truth when it does not fit our pursuit of power over the animate or the inanimate. I blame it on Walt Disney. He built such a beautiful world of characters to entertain our children that we jumped on the Disney World train, putting aside all common sense to be joyfully entertained.
Then, we parked our children in front of a box that broadcast all kinds of entertainment, enabling us to get our chores done as they sat transfixed by entertaining bunny rabbits and other characters showing uncommonly interesting human behaviors. We hardly notice when devious ideas are inserted into the innocence of our children. Now they can carry the “influencer” box in one hand.
This is not a rant against Disney, nor is it a critique of today’s communication possibilities worldwide. So, what’s the point? If you’ve ever been a parent of toddlers, you know that keeping them healthy, safe and calm is a full-time chore.
So, how is it that we have allowed our children to become targets of the worst in human behavior by excusing all kinds of criminal acts against society, including a broad variety of attacks on our children?
Is this the result of a sexual “freedom” that allows us to produce children and discard them when they become too much trouble. At the simplest, it is often the failure to recognize the importance of family responsibility versus free-ranging sexual experimentation, also a big factor in considering whether the practice of abortion should be limited in any way.
It is not necessarily age that determines attitudes, but belief, maturity and experience that “rules” were made to be broken or ignored to achieve our desires of the moment.
After all, Adam and Eve just wanted a “taste” of that apple in the Genesis story. In a moment of desire, humanity went from obedient companions to rebels against the Creator, thus succumbing to a much broader array of temptations. (We don’t even know how long the pair looked before the first bite!)
Thus, humanity down through the ages invites the whirlwind, but reaps the destructive tornado of pain and death in its rebellion against the Creator.
Still, there is hope. A plan for rescue is provided for the condemned under sentence of death, but it is not a human-devised answer. Humanity still strives over the entire story of whether we simply evolved out of the building blocks of life which somehow came together to seed the world with a superior type of animal, or a higher power of Creation that determines whether we live or die and what it means to seek eternal life for humanity. Or maybe it was just one big accident in God’s laboratory of life.
Rebellion is as much a part of our journey as is faith, bringing both love and peace or hatred and war. People argue over whether we are attuned to a Higher Power, and if so, its purpose and final intent or destination.
Those of us who believe we are fully dependent on the grace of God even argue with each other about just how that love of God is dispensed or how or where and under what name we should worship this promise of eternity.
What we can clearly witness is that Evil, too, is a personality that threatens our very survival. Unfortunately, many of us resist the promise of perfection to “enjoy” whatever attracts us from an Evil personage we call Satan, the fallen Chief Angel of God, bent on revenge by destroying God’s beloved humanity.
But one thing is clear: the struggle between evil and good continues wherever humankind resides. We decide whether to love or hate one another. Biblical revelation uses the name Babylon as descriptive of immorality, an evil empire that is filled with idol worship. Humans do sense there is a higher power than themselves.
I don’t know whether our space probes can ever penetrate beyond the physical to touch the eternal, but if we study the biblical stories of prophecy, we find our “huge” universe is simply crowded with both good and evil striving for a harvest of humanity.
Our belief or disbelief will change our environment, but it will not change that which is eternal. Evil seems to be having its day around the globe, but it’s not the final answer. Only God holds that privilege.
“But you dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, and await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will bring you eternal life. In this way, you will keep yourselves safe in God’s love.” (Jude 2:20 NLT)
Beth Pratt retired as religion editor from the Avalanche-Journal after 25 years. You can email her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Pratt: There is hope