"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
I would just like to say how sorry I am that I can’t be with you this Saturday. Fenella made an offer for me to send you a note discussing
some of the needs in my part of the world, and I am very happy to be able to do that.
One of the most beautiful things about Asia, the thing I love the most, is the uniqueness and variety of people, languages, cultures, geography, weather, history ... everything. And also, the different points of view. So the greatest need that I see is just love love love, and gratitude, and openness to all the diversity in people.
However the problem of aggressive behaviour is something I have to pray about daily. Asia is the most heavily armed region in the world and the arms race here is very real. Most of the governments are not truly democratic, even though they hold elections. Probably the saddest event in the news this month was the violent anti-Japanese demonstrations.
I feel it is important when thinking about Asia to hold to the truth about man, as Mrs. Eddy defines man in her chapters Recapitulation and Genesis. (I love these chapters so much!) We are not locked into the aggressive behavior that the study of genetics may eventually attribute to our human identities.
Mrs Eddy says, "Man is the family name for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that God imparts moves in accord with Him reflecting goodness and power." Since we all reflect goodness and power, there is no need for aggressive behavior in order to be good and powerful. And, of course, this relates to The Sermon on the Mount in the beatitude "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God;" and the teachings of reconciliation -- turning the other cheek, and loving one's enemies.
The people of Asia face many challenges, including the suggestion of inexplicable and uncontrollable diseases and natural disasters, such as the Avian flu and last December's tsunamis, plus enormous amounts of corruption and people struggling in poverty. These are all extremely important things for us to pray about. But, I guess I felt like mentioning the problem of aggressive behavior because it is something I find myself working on prayerfully every day. Even in church! I can see that if we, as groups of people, cannot get along peacefully with each other, and make genuine efforts to listen and understand a different point of view (a very difficult task when one is emotionally worked up and angry), we will never be able to solve these other problems, which clearly have no borders.