Responsibility

When I put my wristwatch on each morning is when I start a-tickin'.
*
Thank you, God, for a good night's sleep
That washes out the anger of the day
Soothes frustration, heals the hurt
And sweeps the pain of yesterday away
*
So much is on my back
The world is out of whack
Why is it always up to me
To get it back on track?
*
So much depends on me and always has.
*
Forced religion is false religion.

Ganging Up On God

Fiorella, a frequent Facebook contributor, winces every time she encounters an intensive, often gaudy, post asking people to pray for themselves or for others. She will, of course, ask for blessings on everyone who is having difficulties of any kind, but as you know, because of her Missouri Synod Lutheran upbringing, she does it privately, in her closet, not making a public display, "as the Pharisees do." Fio also cringes at prayer requests that imply God responds to popular demand, that the more people that are asking Him to perform a miracle, the better the chances. Fiorella can let both of these viewpoint pass--only God knows God--but she'll nail her own 99 Theses to the church door disputing the idea that God can be controlled by "holy ones"--priests, pastors, saints, etc.--that if the right person prays for a miracle long and hard enough, God will give in and grant it.

That "pastor" who thought he could cure his granddaughter through intensive prayer was operating out of his own ego. It was a power struggle. His granddaughter died because he tried to control God rather than laud His mercy for providing a medical treatment that could have saved his granddaughter's life. Fio prays for him, that he will seek God's love and forgiveness, as must we all.

Love, Not War

Please, folks, let's stay civil.  Let's support our own candidates rather than slandering the opposition.

Fiorella has been especially appalled to see that some of the people who post religious devotions one day turn around the next day and post virulent, vicious attacks on those of a different political stripe. No, you aren't convincing Fio to vote for your candidate.  You're making her even more certain that she's on the correct side of the aisle.

Stacking the Plates

Back to the religion dealie again, Fiorella thinks churches are like dishwashers. Everyone is invited in, but not all will not be cleansed. Sometimes the machine is at fault, sometimes the china. Sometimes the dishwasher powder gets stuck in the dispenser or the machine the machine is old and worn out. But sometimes the plate is too dirty to be cleaned by anything less than a blast furnace.

What Fiorella is trying to get at is that, even is the message is there, sometimes a listener doesn't hear it.

Theological Question

How many millions, over time,
Have early met with their demise
Whose only fault, whose only crime,
Was seeing God trough different eyes?

Totality

Fiorella is constantly amazed by the way every new scientific discovery supports long-held religious beliefs.

The Big Bang is one of them. It holds that everything began in a millisecond with the explosion of a minute particle. Just like in Hinduism it all began from one drumbeat and in Christianity from one word. And everything that ever was and ever will be is enclosed in the universe, nothing ever lost, nothing more created.

God is complete.

Ash Wednesday

When Fiorella attended church for the imposition of ashes, she was feeling all properly contemplative and subdued until the pastor instructed everyone to leave the church without talking. Like Good Friday, he said, Ash Wednesday is a day of silence.

Immediately Fiorella felt the urge to babble in tongues. The truth is, she can't stand to be hushed. In fact, she had to stop attending Good Friday services when she finally realized that nobody else was impelled to sneeze loudly as soon as the injunction of silence was delivered.

Fio was born with rebellion in her blood, of course, but why against silence? Maybe it has to do with needing a constant outlet for all her weird thoughts--now provided by this blog, thank you. And she does like attention.

Or maybe it has to do with her thinking she had killed her great-grandmother--by talking--when she was four, a secret she harbored for thirty-five years until one day she realized how ridiculous it was and began talking about it.

Or maybe it's because silent people are dead people, and Fiorella is very, very alive.

Quandary

I don't understand about prayer. We are enjoined to pray constantly--and I do: I pray, I ask, I beg, I promise, I plead.

But we are also told that God is omniscient, knowing our needs and desires even before we do.

Why, then, do I pray?

Serious Snippets

\
I was interested to note that it's hit the national news that many Hillary supporters are considering sitting out the November elections. I don't know what I'll do yet, but I share the anger. Like Fiorella, Hillary has slogged through the fog. All Obama has done is smile, lift up his head and his pointer finger, then let the magic fairy dust take care of the rest.

*****

Anyone who thinks of the Yearning for Zion sect as a modern-day Little House on the Prairie should read Escape by Carolyn Jessop. Married at eighteen to a fifty-year-old man with three other wives, she was finally able to escape with her eight children five years ago. The religion is weird--the men strive to sire whole tribes of children so they will be gods, each with his own planet, in the afterlife. The wives are in constant power struggles with each other. The children are denied any show of affection. It really brings it home what a sham their whole performance was for the TV cameras a couple of months ago.

*****

RE THE ABOVE: People through the ages have done such horrible things to each other in the name of religion. Think about the Aztec bloodletting, the Inquisition tortures, the Crusades, the Muslim jihads, Ireland, Bosnia, etcetera, etcetera. We definitely do not live in the best of all possible worlds, but it doesn't help to dwell on it. Just go tend your own little garden. Me--I'm rearranging bookshelves today.

Let Us Pray

A friend of mine told me she recently sat in on a class on how to pray. The leader said that often people hesitate to pray because they don't know how to pray except as a group in church.

The leader listed appropriate topics and suggested each person try to pray once a week.

Once a week! I pray all the time--desperately!