The Conundrum of Sharing

The Conundrum of Sharing

            The conundrum of sharing, perhaps the most interesting aspects of animal life. The animal behavioral specialist(social biologist) I believe, would specify that all animal life shares with "its kind" (Genesis 1:25). In varying extents (herds of wildebeests, flocks of sheep, prides of lion, colony of penguins, pack of dogs, flock of geese, pod of whales, etc.) all share with one another, of its kind.  The smallest of vertebrate life, the ant, are known for sharing, even taking care of one another.  "The ants [are] a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer" (Proverbs 30:25). In the African bush, I saw something which my guide told me he had never seen before, a herd of elephants at one end of a large lake, a herd of buffalo at the other end. In one African river, thousands of hippos, during the day, under water except for their backside's so that the river looked like one cobblestone street. As normal as breathing, animals associating with one another, sharing. It does not take but a few days for the kindergartener to talk about his friends. Older, the same kindergarten students, become high school students, spending much time on the telephone with their friends. Man is a "social" animal, whether men in a barbershop, women in a beauty shop, or gang members or soldiers around a pool table.

            I have nothing but sympathy for lonely people...those in nursing homes, those children in camps around strangers, away from the familiarity of home.

            As an army medical officer, the sickest patients I ever knew were young people suffering from homesickness. The most tragic patients I have ever known, both young men and women from homes where they were abused. I once asked a young man why the scars on his body? He did not hesitate, "From the beatings of a drunken-vile father." I was on the staff of the army hospital at the WAC training center of the army (women's army core, Ft. McClellan Alabama). So many women came from homes where they were sexually abused. This is the excessive baggage which young people should not be forced to carry with them their entire life. Yet, so many of the people you deal with each day, some which you find so hard to understand, are carrying around baggage which no one could ever comprehend...enslaved by the scars/warts/memories of abuse, addictions, anguish.

            In order for a book, television show, Broadway play, movie, TO BE A BEST SELLER, IT MUST BE THE WORST SMELLER.  On the road of life, we are all just voyeurs, tantalized by other people's lives, other people's problems, other people's weaknesses, other people's sins. Why do you think Oprah was so popular, digging down into other people's foibles and families?  The essence of every book of fiction, play, movie, digging into the minds-weaknesses-strengths of other people. Our mothers and grandmothers, victims-addicts of the "soaps." Lies on the television so much more interesting than their own- living vicariously through actors. Most lives are just "party line telephone" listeners. We strain to hear conversations from another table, gossip from a magazine, other's lives are so much more interesting than our own. Yet, people are arrested everyday for peeping and we could not imagine anyone interested enough in our dull lives to peep on us. In nightclubs, small groups-cliques, people in activated conversations. I often thought, "What are they talking about? They do not know anything." Same at the church house, court house, or even your teenager on the phone. If you ask any of these people so engaged in conversation, "What were you talking about?" Always the same answer, "Nothing." We are just social creatures, drivel, procurers of trivia. Yet, many of us hold memories forever of conversations.

            My very first memory of my grandparents as a very young child, a heated argument between them about who was going to pay for my aunt's college tuition. They were in another room, the aunt, home for the weekend, ready to leave since her parents were taking her back to school. I am probably the only one who paid any attention to their argument because, at that innocent age, I could not understand that kind of attitude in people who I loved.

            As old as time, mankind, men, women, even the lower animals, unable to get along. Beyond count, the tears-pain of warfare.

            No other man has ever been able to write words such as the Apostle Paul, the love chapter of The Bible (1 Cor 13). "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these [is] love." This chapter of The Bible is the only chapter in which Jonathan Edwards, leader of the great awakening, preacher of the world's famous sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God", ever preached verse by verse.

            We often think that God is a tempter. Only once, the world's first Jew, Abraham. And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, [here] I [am]" (Genesis 22:1). Referring to God establishing a definite relationship between himself and Abraham and his willingness to offer his son Isaac as a burn sacrifice. For God to be God, he has no needs, does not tempt anyone. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man" (James 1:13). Sovereign God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, totally in charge, HE IS BOSS.

            Puny man might think that a God of wrath could easily turn against a perverted, profane people who kill babies, marry males and females of the same sex, intent on lying, cheating, stealing, would send the worst drought in 50 years, the worst storm in 100 years. We know that there is enough evil in the world, enough scientific knowledge, that mankind is capable of weather manipulation. A special agency, HAARP, is set up for this function, easily available to people with power, people with money. It is important for the Christian to share with the world that God is long suffering, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). God has a record, once destroyed the world and everything in it by water. "O give thanks unto the LORD; for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] for ever" (Psalm 136:1).