Enigma of Rationality

No man is an island

Entire of itself,

Every man is a piece of the continent, 

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thy friends

Or of thine own were:

Any mans death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind,

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

-John Donne

The world, particularly western civilization has fallen into a cauldron of irrationality

Our world is seized by the idol of appearance. Nothing rational about this enigma, it is always a matter of LOOKS. 

This writer is an eye doctor. I was always amazed, with the ophthalmoscope The clearness of the interior of a child's eye. The child must be about five years of age before the eyes start focusing correctly. The pairs of muscles attached to the child's ocular structure must learn to work correctly, if not you have what the average person sees as "cross eyed"(Most parents and teachers want the child to read to young. The child does not have the hand-eye coordination to handle this delicate process before the age of five. Most parents likewise, allow the child to sit to close to the television and we have an epidemic of myopia, nearsightedness. There space-world comes in and it takes an artificial concave lens to push it back out were it belongs).

Two of the worlds great politicians are eye doctors, Dr. Rend Paul, and Dr. Bashar al-Assad. president of Syria. Too many doctors forget they are scientists. Dr. Assad is condemned as a killer of Syrians but, he does not permit foods with GMO'S (genetically modified organisms) in the foods of his country. It is much like the rationality of Big-Pharma in America spending big bucks on "erectile dis-function" while three-thousand African children die from malaria everyday.  It is much like Obama speaking of the death of innocent  "Our counter terrorism efforts have prevented attacks and saved innocent lives both here in America and around the world and that determination to protect innocent lives only makes the loss of these two men especially painful." This writer is concerned about this pretender-presidents unconcern about the three-thousand innocent babies killed-aborted in this nation each and every day. The irrationality of abortion, the killing of any innocence both young

and old is a matter to which god will hold him, as well as this nation to account. 

I heard 19 trillion used the first time this morning. Our nation is 19 trillion dollars in debt... Money that can not, and will not ever be repaid. 

Each morning, when I am putting on my necktie, without fail, I hear the large mobilized street sweeper in the street in front of my house (This old soldier still wears a necktie everyday). The streets are swept everyday including Sunday, same time every morning... 7 am. So irrational, appearance of streets, little attention of what goes on off the streets. Same block, college student killed for the few dollars in his pocket. Have you noticed that every housing project, streets so clean, lawns and grass manicured around the housing project, WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE IMPRESSING? God, each other, he knows and we surely know the basis for our problems, here, Iraq, Baltimore or anywhere else. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). You can bath, perfume, put lipstick on a sow, but she is still a hog. 

Read all the books, study all the charts, listen to all the experts, but the bottom line, age, particularly old age, is the cause of every disease. If you go to your doctor sick, make sure you look sick. 

William Cowper hymn writer, (There is a fountain filled with blood) wrote in one hymn, "God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform." Cowper, minister, hymn writer, suicidal, on the brink of insanity most of his life. To those who knew him he probably appeared normal. Your congressman probably appears normal but, for the salary of 175-thousand he makes a year, he must spend two-million dollars to gain his congressional seat. The next president will spend two billion dollars to gain the presidents salary which pays an average of four-hundred-and-sixty-thousand. Most politicians- bureaucrats, seek office or get appointments in order to be near the government money. Much of it winds up in their pockets. Have you ever written down how many government services you get for the taxes you pay? You can write a list of these services on a very small piece of paper. It is all appearance, looks. We have these large government buildings, all these firetrucks, police cars, and we think we are getting something for our money. President Roosevelt conducted WWII with one secretary. Now, as of 2014 the executive branch has 2,079 employees. 

49% of Americans get a government check, of some type. It might be a check from welfare, student aid, housing, military or other retirement. It just looks good, if everyone looks good. When Jesus nourished the ground around the Sea of Galilee with his feet, the world was under Roman rule, Roman slavery. Yet, even Jesus, god in man, creator of the universe, said, "For ye have the poor always with you" (Matthew 26:11). 

Off the clean streets, the manicured lawns and public places, inside most communities life is like that in an internment camp. Most of us are just striving to survive. As on the College-University campus, their are those who have the financial largess to "hang out" at a fraternity house. In my city, many citizens can "hang out" at the country club or golf course. But most of us are just striving to survive. 

Recently, in my city, a long living- hard working- god fearing grand-mother died. In order to get her checks, (SS, housing, food stamps, etc.) her daughter just left her in her bed, dead. She would go in each day and spray her with a disinfectant- deodorizer. Grand-mother slowly dried up, but a grand-child "let the cat out the bag." A fireman told me that in the welfare ghettos of New York City, almost every closet contains a dead "old cadaver", covered in lime. What is the answer, the longest distance in the world, that fourteen inches from the human brain to the human heart, "Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life" (John 6:68)

#1726

Shards

Shards or potsherds refer to pieces of pottery, stone or glass relics unearthed by archeologists which can be used for dating history and historical events concerning ancient cultures. Perhaps the most exciting recent discoveries have been those in Biblical lands, scientifically dating King David and King Solomon to Biblical history. You make such discoveries all over the world as you study primitive civilizations. Even the sea reveals shards from containers in seafaring vessels that went down. In America, some Indian pottery has been unearthed, but early history is more actuated by Indian weaponry (arrowheads, tomahawks, etc.).

It is interesting to contemplate just how many civilizations will be revealed. For instance, some nations, some civilizations are so corrupt through bribery, that even American industries (well-known for their corruption) cannot do business there. I remember the bribery in Nigeria. From the time you entered the country until you leave, everyone just expects a bribes or expects to be bribed. All business there is built around bribes, it is just a way of life. At the airport, immigration, the government official will ask you for money in order for you to get your luggage. He pointed to the end of the room to a large pile of luggage which went all the way to the ceiling and said, “those did not pay.” So, I paid him the $5, in order for me to get my bags. My Nigerian guide then told me that this was protocol for his country. I will never forget him saying to me, “it is just luck, your wits, or the grace of God by which you survive here.”

One time, when going through India, my guide went into the airport duty-free shop and buy bottles of liquor and other enticements for me to present to the immigration officials. It was like a time, in my presence, in full-dress uniform, a state senator was given a bribe by one of my friends in the legislative building in Raleigh. My friend said, “this is the way you get things done in the NC legislature.” I truly believe this is the only activity in Congress...the taking of bribes (“political contributions”).

There are 2,300 references to money in God's Word. God only had to say it one time, “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Some do get caught, some go to prison (I believe 5 are in prison now from the legislative halls of North Carolina). If written in stone or pottery, this would be the potsherd of American history. When a member of one of America's richest families was running for President, Robert Kennedy said he had discovered a different world, people with whom he had never associated. I remember, when I went off to the university, my mother said, “you will be around completely different people, but if you do not expect such, then there is no need for you to leave.

When you discover the “potsherds” of the world history, when you put flesh on historical figures, the prophets and poets of history, you learn about real people. The poorest people in the world are below the 30^th parallel. I believe God wanted me to see what other people in the world were like and that is the reason I have traveled the world. As I traveled, seeing people and learning things about people which are almost indescribable, but which I thought should be described...I found that in speaking and writing, no one is very interested.

I am convinced that the power brokers of the world, the politicians, that small percentage involved in world politics and commerce have little understanding about the real people of the world...their gifts of personality, their gift of faith and faithfulness, their gift of memory, their gift of forgiveness, their gift of generosity, their gift of genuineness. Indescribable shards almost all found in real people.

What shards of decency can you find in police-state tyranny? We have just learned of the North Korean political prisoner camps...barren, isolated encampments for political indoctrination. We had heard about such from Christian missionaries, but now Amnesty International documents such, camps holding up to 200,000 political prisoners, starved unless able to memorize and recite communist-atheist-humanist rules of life. One man reports that he was forced to watch the execution of his mother and brother; another, starving, beaten for eating kernels of corn from cow manure. Much like the unbelievable atrocities I found in Campala, Uganda, the Congo, Liberia. The unbelievable harshness, cruelty, evil of the people, ruled by rape and machetes. In other commentaries, I have described what I saw and experienced in Africa and other places.

In our comfortable Christian isolation from the shards of the world, the anguish of some cultures, we bash the world, the flesh, the devil while knowing full well that Satan and religious bigots can quote scripture. Perhaps this the reason Dietrich Bonhoeffer, preacher of righteousness, who was hanged by the Nazis, was criticized for writing to his best friend that Christianity should be separated from religion. The road to hell is paved with religion, religion is very active in some police state tyrannies, but Christianity is a relationship, through Christ, with a Holy God. Two hours before he died, Bonhoeffer preached to his fellow inmates. He preached from Isaiah 53, that Christ on the Cross, paid-in-full, took the full wrath of God for all the sins of the world and all the sicknesses of the world.

I will never understand why the liberals developed a taste for the sewage of the world, the ugliness, the perversion, the political, economic and spiritual decadence found in every socialist society. As with a magnificent beauty of the world, shown in mountain ranges, flowers, even beauty captured by individuals on canvas or musical scale. Holy God is a matter of beauty, found in places and people around the world, separated from the ugly.

Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;

--Open My Eyes, That I May See (Hymn)