There is certainly no end to human arrogance. It has been with us since we were
created. I know that when I was an older
brother, I tormented my younger brother unmercifully. The reason was simply that I was older and
bigger than he was. My
granddaughter has two sons, one is three, the other has just had his first
birthday. When I watch the two of them
play together, they remind me of my own antics when I was their age. The youngest has just learned to walk, and
tries to get around his brother. With a
snarky look on his face, his older sibling won’t let him get by. It isn’t just to be mean, it is the arrogance
of being a bigger brother and calling the shots. They will work this out in time. One of these days, the youngest will punch
his brother in the nose and they will be on their way to a solution. This isn’t how we would like things to be,
but given our tendency to want control and our arrogance in exercising it, it
is the way that things will be.
It isn’t
much different in adult affairs.
Political parties don’t get along well either. Neither do nations. That is why we have had a continual arms race
since we have created countries and borders.
The strongest always wants to control the weakest. We don’t say it that way, but it certainly
works out like that. The Middle Eastern
countries are currently trying to work out their differences, religious,
political and economic and are having a terrible time getting to a place of
agreement. Mostly there have been wars
and rebellions. They will work things
out also, but only when the armies retire and there is some way to come to an
agreement over the things that divide them.
We would love for all of this to happen without bloodshed, but the
problem is that power is what the different factions seek and there is very
little humility abroad in those lands.
The same
thing is true in our country. Washington
is rocked with division that paralyzes our congress and keeps anything at all
from getting done. It is disgusting that
something as simple as requiring background checks for those who want to buy
weapons can’t pass congress although some ninety percent of Americans believe
that it needs to be our law. This is
because of the terrible lack of humility on both sides of this argument. It won’t end until there is leadership that
demands action.
In the
earliest of times, human beings decided to build the tower of Babel to reach to
the heavens and control the world. God
confused human language and destroyed the tower and it never happened. We turned our attention instead to
controlling one another. If you read the
Old Testament, it is one war after another.
You will read of God leading the armies of the Hebrews against the
armies of the Philistines, or the armies of the Babylonians defeating the
Hebrews and leading them off to captivity, and the armies of the Romans
defeating the Hebrews and occupying their land with little freedom for
anyone.
Finally,
sick of it all, God sent his Son to come into this world to teach us humility
and Love. That is what the Gospels are
all about. But Jesus didn’t stop the
arrogance. Because of his preaching and
his Love, he was crucified and buried.
It was then that God caused Jesus to rise from the dead and promise to his disciples that the Spirit would come to
comfort and to lead them.
amazing blog!
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