Borrowing wings..

Later today, I get on a plane and fly over to Ireland and the US for holiday with my sister. I do hope to sproadically post while I'm away. In spite of all this it doesn't yet really feel that I'm going.

So God's Blessings on you all, and I look forward to catching up with you all upon my return.

Heroes

Hero is an word that I've seen most often on the sports pages, or in the letters page complaining about its place, and usage on the sports pages. I saw this article in today's Sydney Morning Herald after the death of Rosa Park, who came to attention through refusing to give up her seat on the bus.

I thought the article raised interesting questions about who our hero's should be.

After watching Hotel Rwanda recently, a hero not on their list perhaps could be Paul Rusesabagina.

Any thoughts?

Another Slice

Was going through my mail account, and I came across this slice entitled “Permission to Lament”. It was quite interesting read.

The below quote resonates with me:

“Sadly dissimilar to many of worship services, the writers of Scripture identify with the pain of the world and do not hold back in addressing it …. [At the funeral of a loved one], I desperately needed permission to lament. I needed to be able to ask why with the force that was welling up inside me, even as I clung to the resurrection of the Son and trust in the Father."

Earlier the writer describes how after 9-11, Matt Redman commented “we had a few expressions of hope at out disposal, but when it came to expressions of pain and lament, we had very little vocabulary to give voice to our hearts cries”, or put another way “The world we live in is not as it was intended to be, and our worship must not deny this.”

I think its this reason that Lament is one of my favourite Christian songs, (It's on a CD Great is Your Love, produced at St Paul's Castle Hill), and the words are below:

O Lord the God who saves me
Day and night I cry to you
My words fly out into the air
Seemingly unanswered
Why are you so silent
Why so little comfort
As I fall into the pit again
Deep into the pit again

Darkness is my only friend
When will all this suffering end
Fear consumes me and I try
To stumble to the distant light

Where are you Lord, in the sadness
Where are you when I feel so alone
I try to find you, where are you hiding
I can’t make any sense of the pain I’m in
My tears are my food all day and night
And I’m running out of strength to fight
Father God please carry me on your shoulders
Take me through the valley to the other side

Where are you Lord, in the sadness
Where are you when I feel so alone
I try to find you, where are you hiding
I can’t make any sense of the pain I’m in
My tears are my food all day and night
And I’m running out of strength to fight
Father God please carry me on your shoulders
Take me through the valley to the other side

Nicole Schleicher, 1997

+++

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars, In their courses above
Join with all manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness
Morning by morning, new mercies I see
All I have needed, thy hand hast provided
Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me.

Electioneering

Mark Latham, caused a little bit of a stir when he published his diaries recently. I am not sure that I am keen on reading them, but at the same time I suspect that within his book there will be kernels of truth, and understanding, of both the Australian Labor Party and Australian Politics. (Of course I might be giving Latham too much credit.)

I was perhaps a touch more interested when I read a speech Latham gave entitled 10 Reasons Why Young Idealistic People Should Forget about Organised Politics, and a responding article in The Age 10 Reasons Why Politics can be Great.

In sum, perhaps truth is in the middle. Politics can be both richly rewarding, and deeply distressing.

Mark Latham’s first point was public apathy. He broke the electorate down into for groups, those who are well informed “conservatives” or “progressives”, those who are “down and out, and for this reason distrust the Government”, and the apathetic middle class who vote from their wallet, but are largely disinterested.

Perhaps this is overly simplistic, but I think contains at least a kernel of truth.

To be sure, politics is not a career you’d want to take a family through, given how ruthless and relentless elements of the media often are.

In the follow up piece, I guess the below kind of sums it up –

There's so much that needs to be done. Who got the children out of detention? Who freed the long-term detainees? Courageous Canberra politicians! Who's going to pass laws to cut greenhouse emissions? Who's going to get justice for our indigenous people? You! No one else can do it.

Sure politics may not be a fun-filled life, but it’s an area which cries out for idealists, to reform the system, and reform our society.

++

Before I leave the area of politics, I was thinking, about the debate surrounding our system of voting, and length of terms. Just thought I’d leave my two cents worth here. I like the idea of fixed terms; it means we know when we’re going to vote, and four year terms means that stuff could well get done.

I know you can’t legislate people to care about who, or what they vote about, but the least we can do, is make people need to show up, and perhaps mark a bit of paper.

The other thing in the debate that intrigues me is that in the reforms they are suggesting that those who have been incarcerated are ineligible to vote. I don’t think I like this idea because I think it makes on comment on those who are criminal as beyond rehabilitation.

Couple of short points…

It was disturbing to read that the US seeks to send a man to walk on the moon by (or in) 2018. To me, we need to bring our gaze back to earth. What does it really matter if we walk on the moon, once we see the profound misery on earth?

Last Thursday was Police Remembrance Day, to commemorate police officers killed in the line of duty. In light of this I do wonder if it is worth making the murder of a police officer carry a stiffer penalty. In part I feel that is any one life is not worth more or less than another, but at the same time, these are men and women, who put themselves at risk day by day, surely we need to send stern messages to those who would willfully injure or kill those who perform in this valuable line of work.

We should regardless all pause to reflect on this day, and pray for those who are employed in these professions. Last year’s speech.

Two things from the newspaper: Found the Tribal Mind in today’s Herald interesting. David Dale mentioned movies that prepare ‘students for life’. For the record, David listed The Fellowship of the Ring, Rabbit-proof Fence, Contact, Billy Elliott, Memento and more. What films should be on the curriculum? What do you, my dear readers think?

Emily Maguire wrote an interesting article declaring the belief that a moral society depends on holy guidance has been contradicted.