Monday, March 16, 2009

BURNING FIRE


This is the burning fire that kept us warm at Kim's restaurant and cast a beautiful glow all around us. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush which drew him to the place where he heard God's voice. John the Baptist spoke of Jesus as the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Can religion help us overcome the fire of anger that burns within all our human hearts? Religion can insite people to be violent and fuel intolerance but I do not believe that this was the teachings we were to live by. One of the challenges of faith is to cultivate peace within our own hearts and our families and communities. We have to read the Bible with the goal of "doing unto others what you would have done to you." This says Karen Armstrong is the real message of the Bible threaded among the ugliness of religion that creates war because it's goal is power.

I agree with David Wolfe "inside every human being is a battle againest the pettiness and malice that thread through our character." I believe that our anger leaves us not only drained but feeling guilty realizing we have lost our "cool."

"The deepest experience of God has never been in conquest but in compassion, community, holiness, and humble goodness." Violence can never capture the human soul and force it to conform. The fire of religion, the love of God, can be denied expression but cannot be put out.
I would invite your comments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

well written mom.
Ken

Anonymous said...

Did you like the picture of the fire? Dad did not think it would turn out.