Thought for the Week of July 23

"When I am afraid, I will trust in You." (Psalm 56:3) Events of the last several days - which have included major shootings in Toronto and in Aurora, Colorado, have made me realize how difficult it is for many people to confront and overcome fear. I noted particularly after the Aurora shooting (in a movie theatre during the showing of the most recent Batman movies) that theatres across the US and Canada announced they would be taking added security measures. I suppose security is a good thing, and I know that sometimes such incidents spark "copycat" incidents, but it still seemed to me that adding security at movie theatres across North America was playing in to the culture of fear that already exists, and that I often believe our leaders try to instill in us to justify so-called"security" measures that do little but restrict our freedoms. The Bible reminds us that "perfect love casts out fear." Where do we find "perfect love"? We find it from and in God. And so Psalm 56 gives us good advice - "when I am afraid, I will trust in You." Whatever causes fear, turn to God, and let God drive it away and fill you with grace and peace. Have a great week!

July 22, 2012 sermon: The Works # 2 - A Living Faith Is A Working Faith

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. (James 2:14-26)

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     “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds.” That’s a fantastic question! What good would that be, indeed? I was doing some reading a few days ago as I prepared today’s message, and I came across one person who thought it would be fascinating if James were an interviewer for someone going into any kind of Christian ministry. I’ve been in the position of doing that from time to time for the United Church. We have very serious questions about a candidate’s doctrine, and we examine a person’s psychological fitness for ministry (yes - I passed that one!) and we make sure that they’re willing to be subject to - as the Manual says - “the authority and discipline of Presbytery.” These interviews go on for a while. None of those issues are unimportant, but I would imagine that James, if he were sitting in on such an event as an interviewer, would have one basic question he would ask any interviewee: “how has your faith affected the way you live your life.” He would ask that question, because a person can show doctrinal and psychological and ecclesiastical fitness without actually having any sort of living faith. That’s sad but true, and I suspect that the last thing James would want to do would be to bring someone into a Christian ministry who has shown no concrete evidence of having a living faith.

     This week’s topic brings me back inevitably to Martin Luther. I had a great conversation after church last week with a couple of people about Martin Luther. They didn’t know that Luther had such a negative view of the Letter of James. But he did. He didn’t like the Letter of James and he didn’t feel it belonged in the New Testament, basically because he felt it was too works oriented, and not centred enough on grace. Luther referred to the Letter of James as “the epistle of straw” because he felt that it had no firm foundation and that it would easily collapse. Obviously he was wrong about that. 450 years after Luther’s death the Letter of James is still very much a part of the New Testament, and I find it a fascinating piece of writing. As much as you may wonder (and I wonder it too!) what right I have to claim that Martin Luther was wrong, I guess that my right to do it stems from the fact that he and are are mere mortals, we both put our pants on one leg at a time, and I have the last 450 years of church history on my side, after all! Luther’s mistake - probably because of the “temper” of the times he lived in - was to draw too strong a distinction between “works” (as understood by James - or “deeds” as the NIV that I’m using translates the word) and “faith.” Luther thought James was being legalistic. He thought James was saying that to earn your salvation you have to do certain things. I don’t believe that’s what James was saying at all. James would not have differentiated between works and faith. James’ argument is that a person is moved to a certain way of living by the mere presence of faith. In other words, faith changes us and leads us to more “godly” actions, not because the more godly actions are required of us but because acting in such ways should become a part of our nature by virtue of having faith. Mere belief or mere faith is a proposition, so to simply say “I believe in God” or “I believe in Christ” is pointless. As he explains it, even the demons can say those things, which is to say that even those things that are totally opposed to God and to God’s ways can say those things. They prove nothing if they’re only words. But words have to be put into action. We have to practice what we preach. Otherwise our words are empty, and we dishonour God by claiming faith if our faith results in words that lead to no actions.

     James is not saying that “faith alone” isn’t correct. He would, of course, have agreed that faith is essential, but like Paul who said in Galatians that faith has to produce the “fruit of the Spirit,” James is saying that faith has to be demonstrated in some way for it to be living faith, and if it isn’t living then it’s of no use to anyone. “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” A faith that doesn’t show itself in action isn’t living faith. True faith will always lead to doing good works. I wonder, though: if James believed that faith without works is dead, what would James have thought about the reverse: works without faith? There are good works done without faith. Some of the most loving, kind and Christ-like souls you’ll ever meet aren’t Christians and don’t claim to be. Some are outright hostile to faith, while still doing as many or more good works as any Christian. What would James make of that?

     That’s actually very interesting. He believes that faith without works is an inauthentic faith. To put it another way, real faith leads to real works that are done for the glory of God. Inauthentic faith leads either to no works or to works done for self-benefit (either to get glory from others, or to feel good about ourselves.) I suspect James would say the same thing about works done in the absence of any faith at all. He would see those works done in the absence of faith to be self-centred or even selfish, probably because they don’t enhance relationship with the person or persons benefitting from the works. At most, they perhaps assuage guilt at the condition the brother or sister is in. “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” The good in such cases is making ourselves feel good about having done “something” even though we’ve accomplished nothing. And we can't claim not to be guilty from time to time. How many of us have said to a person "I'll pray for you" and then two hours later we've forgotten about it? That might even apply if we were to give clothing or food to the needy person - unless our faith is also moving us to confront the conditions causing the person to be in need, rather than just giving something to the person in need to help them along. Jesus Himself was making basically the same point in His famous parable of the Good Samaritan. The people who passed by the beaten and bloodied man in the ditch weren’t faithless, but their faith was worthless because it moved them to no action. And if the Samaritan himself had simply bandaged the man up and left him there the Samaritan wouldn’t have been much better. But the Samaritan took responsibility for the man. Jesus said, “Then,” (after bandaging the man up) “he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’” That’s what a working and living faith looks like. It not only does things - it cares about people; it builds relationships with those in need and it confronts the conditions that puts them in need. That’s what the church is called to - we not just meet the needs of individual people, we are supposed to enter relationship with them and to confront the powers and the systems that create the conditions that put them in need in the first place.

     A living faith is a working faith - it means means living as if what you say you believe is actually true. It means trying to make a difference - not just to people, but to society as a whole. With a living faith, we become examples to the world of the difference God makes in a life and of the type of society God desires us to create, where selfishness, self-centredness and greed are all things of the past. Let me ask you: If you were sitting in on that interview, and James asked “how has your faith affected the way you live your life?” how would you answer? I hope you would say that it’s made you try to change people’s lives for the better and to try to change society for the better. Nelson Mandela - who, in my opinion, is the only person alive today who can be called a “great” person - turned 94 last Wednesday. He was baptized and raised as a Methodist. He never really said very much about his religious faith, and yet, his witness to Christ was not what he said but what he did. He had both the opportunity and the power to take great and bloody revenge on whites in South Africa for the oppression he and his people suffered, but instead he chose to devote himself to reconciliation between blacks and whites. James would have said that was a living faith - one that spoke loudly by how it was lived, and that wasn’t merely empty words. That’s proof that a living and working faith can make a difference. None of us are Mandela. Maybe we won’t change the world. But we can still live our faith and make a difference to those around us! If we do that, we don’t just claim good news for ourselves, we become good news for the world!

Mandela and Reconciliation

The United Nations in 2009 declared July 18 (Nelson Mandela's birthday) to be Nelson Mandela International Day (or just Mandela Day.) I wish I could say that I did more to mark this "Mandela Day." I respect Nelson Mandela deeply for his example of peaceful reconciliation. I did have the opportunity to preach at a nursing home service this afternoon, and I spoke on 2 Corinthians 5:18 ("All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation ...") using Mandela as the greatest example of reconciliation that the world may ever have seen. Mandela was born and raised a Methodist, educated in Methodist schools and as far as I know is still a Methodist. I know that in November of 2006 he and his wife (also a Methodist) spoke to a group of Methodist bishops in Mozambique. He speaks little about his faith, but his actions have witnessed impressively to what Christian faith at its best should be.

I noted on the website for Mandela Day a list of 67 ways to change the world. I regret to say that I did none of them today. Perhaps my sermon at the nursing home (where there is probably as much need for reconciliation as there is anywhere there are humans beings) qualifies as something at least. Here's the list, though. I think it's worth thinking about.

67 WAYS TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Think of others

1. Make a new friend. Get to know someone from a different cultural background. Only through mutual understanding can we rid our communities of intolerance and xenophobia.

2. Read to someone who can’t. Visit a local home for the blind and open up a new world for someone else.

3. Fix the potholes in your street or neighbourhood.

4. Help out at the local animal shelter. Dogs without homes still need a walk and a bit of love.

5. Find out from your local library if it has a story hour and offer to read during it.

6. Offer to take an elderly neighbour who can’t drive to do their shopping/chores.

7. Organise a litter cleanup day in your area.

8. Get a group of people to each knit a square and make a blanket for someone in need.

9. Volunteer at your police station or local faith-based organisation.

10. Donate your skills!

11. If you’re a builder, help build or improve someone’s home.

12. Help someone to get his/her business off the ground.

13. Build a website for someone who needs one, or for a cause you think needs the support.

14. Help someone get a job. Put together and print a CV for them, or help them with their interview skills.

15. If you’re a lawyer, do some pro bono work for a worthwhile cause or person.

16. Write to your area councillor about a problem in the area that requires attention, which you, in your personal capacity, are unable to attend to.

17. Sponsor a group of learners to go to the theatre/zoo.

Help out for good health

18. Get in touch with your local HIV organisations and find out how you can help.

19. Help out at your local hospice, as staff members often need as much support as the patients.

20. Many terminally ill people have no one to speak to. Take a little time to have a chat and bring some sunshine into their lives.

21. Talk to your friends and family about HIV.

22. Get tested for HIV and encourage your partner to do so too.

23. Take a bag full of toys to a local hospital that has a children’s ward.

24. Take younger members of your family for a walk in the park.

25. Donate some medical supplies to a local community clinic.

26. Take someone you know, who can’t afford it, to get their eyes tested or their teeth checked.

27. Bake something for a support group of your choice.

28. Start a community garden to encourage healthy eating in your community.

29. Donate a wheelchair or guide dog, to someone in need.

30. Create a food parcel and give it to someone in need.

Become an educator

31. Offer to help out at your local school.

32. Mentor a school leaver or student in your field of expertise.

33. Coach one of the extramural activities the school offers. You can also volunteer to coach an extramural activity the school doesn’t offer.

34. Offer to provide tutoring in a school subject you are good at.

35. Donate your old computer.

36. Help maintain the sports fields.

37. Fix up a classroom by replacing broken windows, doors and light bulbs.

38. Donate a bag of art supplies.

39. Teach an adult literacy class.

40. Paint classrooms and school buildings.

41. Donate your old textbooks, or any other good books, to a school library.

Help those living in poverty

42. Buy a few blankets, or grab the ones you no longer need from home and give them to someone in need.

43. Clean out your cupboard and donate the clothes you no longer wear to someone who needs them.

44. Put together food parcels for a needy family.

45. Organise a bake sale, car wash or garage sale for charity and donate the proceeds.

46. To the poorest of the poor, shoes can be a luxury. Don’t hoard them if you don’t wear them. Pass them on!

47. Volunteer at your local soup kitchen.

Care for the youth

48. Help at a local children’s home or orphanage.

49. Help the kids with their studies.

50. Organise a friendly game of soccer, or sponsor the kids to watch a game at the local stadium.

51. Coach a sports team and make new friends.

52. Donate sporting equipment to a children’s shelter.

53. Donate educational toys and books to a children’s home.

54. Paint, or repair, infrastructure at an orphanage or youth centre.

55. Mentor someone. Make time to listen to what the kids have to say and give them good advice.

Treasure the elderly

56. If you play an instrument, visit your local old-age home and spend an hour playing for the residents and staff.

57. Learn the story of someone older than you. Too often people forget that the elderly have a wealth of experience and wisdom and, more often than not, an interesting story to tell.

58. Take an elderly person grocery shopping; they will appreciate your company and assistance.

59. Take someone’s dog for a walk if they are too frail to do so themselves.

60. Mow someone’s lawn and help them to fix things around their house.

Look after your environment

61. If there are no recycling centres in your area, petition your area councillor to provide one.

62. Donate indigenous trees to beautify neighbourhoods in poorer areas.

63. Collect old newspapers from a school/community centre/hospital and take them to a recycling centre.

64. Identify open manhole covers or drains in your area and report them to the local authorities.

65. Organise the company/school/organisation that you work with to switch off all unnecessary lights and power supplies at night and on weekends.

66. Engage with people who litter and see if you can convince them of the value of clean surroundings.

67. Organise to clean up your local park, river, beach, street, town square or sports grounds with a few friends. Our children deserve to grow up in a clean and healthy environment.

A Thought For The Week Of July 16

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer." (2 Corinthians 5:16) Paul (in the days when he was known as Saul) once looked on Jesus as he would look on any man. From a worldly point of view, Jesus failed - He was crucified; He was killed; He was rejected by His own people. It doesn't sound very promising. And so Saul, observing the situation from a worldly perspective, turned on those who followed Jesus, becoming one of the great persecutors of the early church. But then, in a dramatic conversion experience, Saul was changed. He became Paul, and he confronted reality: it was Jesus' seeming defeat that was actually His victory; it was Jesus' apparent weakness that gave His disciples strength; it was Jesus' death that ultimately offered a new way of living. Jesus was like no one else, and He couldn't be judged by the same standards  that the world normally uses. Jesus turns the world and all its expectations upside down - and thank goodness. If Jesus were just a reflection of the world, what would be the point of faith in Him? Jesus asks us to live by the standards God has clearly revealed (love, mercy, compassion and justice for all) and not by the standards the world expects of us (the pursuit of wealth, ambition, a "me-first" attitude, putting profit ahead of people.) Now is as good a time as any to start doing that. Have a great week!

July 15, 2012 Sermon - The Works # 1: Role Reversal

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.  But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.  For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business. (James 1:9-11)

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     Having read through the Letter of James last week, we’re now going to take the next few weeks to reflect on some of the content we found in it. Since James is essentially an "ethical" letter - stressing how we should respond to God's grace and not God's grace itself (although, with apologies to Martin Luther, I don't believe grace is absent from the letter!) - I'm going to be focusing on the ethics of Christian living (or, as in the words James actually uses, the "deeds" or "works" that are ideally called forth in our lives by the gospel of grace as it touches our hearts and transforms our lives.) One of the things we have to come to terms with is that we are not called to live as the world lives. Our faith is supposed to change us. The way we live is supposed to be almost unrecognizable to the world. People are supposed to look at us and shake their heads because we think and act and respond so differently than the world expects. People are supposed to wonder how it is that Christ can make such a difference in our lives. Jesus is supposed to turn the world and how we view it upside down. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament make this abundantly clear and repeatedly tell us that people of faith are supposed to approach each day with an outlook that defies worldly standards and that makes people stand up and take notice. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way.

     I have a friend who I’ll call John (that’s not his real name) who I’ve come to know over the last few years who is a Baptist pastor in South India. Since I’ve known him, he’s shared a fair bit with me about what being both a pastor and a Christian in South India is like, and I now have a standing invitation to visit and worship with him at his church if I’m ever in South India - and I’ve extended the reciprocal invitation to him to worship with us should he ever find himself in this part of the world. John was born and raised as a Christian in an overwhelmingly Hindu culture in which only 5% of the people are Christians. His father was also a Baptist pastor, but he was a convert in his early adulthood from Hinduism to Christianity. The family made a lot of sacrifices to become Christians. Persecution of Christians in the region isn’t uncommon. I found this report about the situation of Christians in South India: “There has been an increase in anti-Christian violence in recent years … . The acts of violence include arson of churches, re-conversion of Christians to Hinduism by force and threats of physical violence, distribution of threatening literature, burning of Bibles, raping of nuns, murder of Christian priests and destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.” I share this not to demonize Hinduism (because God knows Christians have done a lot of ugly things over the years too, so we have no room for feelings of pride or superiority) but just to give you a taste of what my friend John faces on a regular basis. One of his challenges is that almost all the people who attend his church are converts from Hinduism to Christianity in a culture that doesn’t take very kindly to such conversions. Another challenge - especially for him as a Baptist - is that many of his parishioners absolutely refuse to be baptized. He doesn’t doubt their Christian faith, but they believe that if they accept baptism that will be the final sign for their enemies to begin persecuting them. So they gather quietly to worship, but because baptism by law has to be registered, they decline baptism. Dr. David Scott, a Methodist who teaches at the Union Theological Seminary in Bangalore, India, writes that “ the Indian Christian convert has been described as “an outcaste, no longer recognizable as a functioning member of his or her former community. ... numerous Indians consider Christian conversion and baptism to be effective denationalization. For many conversion to Christianity is offensive, a betrayal of India's national heritage, an alienation harmful to the life of the nation, a disturbance having undesirable political and economic implications.” My friend John tells me that, to avoid these consequences, many in his congregation insist on holding on to the Hindu caste system - the system that establishes a “social pecking order,” with those on the bottom (known as the “untouchables”) being truly cast out. They can be educated, make money and even rise to positions of prominence in government, but those of higher castes still won’t associate with them. So John’s congregation is hopelessly divided into Hindu castes, in spite of the fact that they’re professing Christians, and many of his parishioners won’t even speak to each other.

     That is not just a South Indian phenomenon, although in South India it’s taken to something of an extreme. There are many Christian congregations in North America that find themselves quietly (or sometimes not so quietly) divided between the “ins” and the “outs,” and woe to anyone who chooses to challenge the unspoken power structure. And this is not just a modern phenomenon. It’s witnessed to in Scripture. There are repeated warnings in Scripture about the dangers of discriminating within the community of faith, and repeated calls for that not to happen, for all to be treated as equal in the eyes not just of God but also of the people of God. In Matthew 20:16, Jesus says “So the last will be first and the first will be last.” There is no sense to that, is there? But Jesus is saying that God will bring about a radical re-ordering of society in which those who are often the last to be thought of and the last to be taken care of will be placed at the front of the line. Jesus was the one who promised blessing - and not as a future promise but as a present condition - to the most unlikely of people: the poor, the meek, those who mourn. Our world is more likely to see those in such conditions as cursed, not as blessed. Even before Jesus was born, Mary saw that His birth would re-order society. As she reflected upon God’s work, she said: “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” And even centuries before that, the prophet Isaiah in speaking of the work of the Messiah, wrote that “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” The fact that these things needed to be said suggests that Jesus, Mary, Isaiah - and James, who wrote that “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.  But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position” - all saw various forms of inequality in the community of faith as a problem to be addressed. And it is a problem to be addressed. Most congregations have a power structure - those who, for one reason or another, can influence every decision that gets made if they want to. If that’s because they’re the spiritually mature people, that’s all right - and appropriate. But that isn’t always the case. Sometimes it’s those with money vs. those without. Sometimes it’s those who are educated vs. those who aren’t. In some contexts it’s those who speak in tongues vs. those who don’t. Sometimes it’s those who commit what they think of as “lesser” sins vs. those who commit what are thought of as “bigger” sins. In some churches it’s men vs. women, or clergy vs. lay. We’re not supposed to (and maybe we don’t even mean to) - but we try to make the church look like the world by dividing it in some way into those who “have” vs. those who “don’t,” or those who “are” vs. those who “aren’t.” Ultimately, that destroys Christian community. It becomes far too easy for those who “have” or who “are” to look down upon those who “don’t have” or who “aren’t” and it becomes equally easy for those who “don’t have” and who “aren’t” to start to believe they’re unworthy.

     That’s why I like to speak about the "paradox" of the gospel - the fact that what Jesus gives us is not what we expect by worldly standards. From Jesus we get the God who humbled himself and became a man; from Jesus we get the crucified God; from Jesus we get the Son of God who eats with sinners; from Jesus we get unmerited grace apart from obedience to law. The world doesn’t understand this. Neither should they really understand we who follow Jesus. Instead, the world should be fascinated by both Him and us; they should wonder what makes such a difference. Back to those words of James: “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position.  But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.” This isn’t normal. It’s a complete reversal. It’s not “the law” that demands obedience but it’s part of “The Works” that should simply flow from faith - to establish a community where there are no rich and no poor, no mighty and no weak, no important and no unimportant; to establish a community where we all just treat each others as equals - which is what we are in the eyes of God anyway. The things of the world don't count to God. Having a lot doesn't make us more worthy in God’s eyes; having little doesn't make us less worthy in God’s eyes. We are equal in the sight of God. God promises a radical re-ordering of society; and God desires that it begin in the church, among His people, as an example to the world of what real community and real relationship look like.

A Thought For The Week Of July 9

A thought for the week (a day late, but better late than never!): "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." (1 John 4:20) You can't claim to love a God who is love and then not be moved to love in return. That seems pretty basic to me. And yet it astonishes me that a lot of Christian often seem to try. Some are pretty open about it. You have, for example, Westboro Baptist Church, who seem to express hatred for everything and everyone. But they're the extreme exception, I agree. Usually it's a far more subtle thing: we gossip, we criticize, we judge. Christians cast aspersions on other Christians because of what they believe or what church they belong to. We act in unloving ways toward our brothers and sisters and neighbours all the time. And when we do that we bring both ourselves and God into disrepute. People who aren't Christians are pretty smart, after all, and they often know how Christians should act better than we Christians do. 1 John 4:20 is more than just a call for us to love - it's a reminder that we dishonour God by failing to love. This isn't talking about a romantic, emotional love - it's love in action; love that gives for the sake of others; sometimes love that costs pretty heavily. If we love God, that's the kind of love our lives should display. Have a great week!

A Thought For The Week Of July 2

"But you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when you eat from it, you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:7) Back in the 70's the musical group Queen wrote a song that included these lyrics: "I want it all, and I want it now!" In a lot of ways that's the attitude of so many people today. We can't wait for anything and we want everything. The end result is that so many people are never satisfied with their lives. They can never rest and enjoy what they have, because it's never enough. They need to be moving on to the next thing; striving after the next possession. To be satisfied is a sign of weakness. To be content is to start falling behind. There's a lot of unhappy and unsatisfied people because of that - because we can't have it all. That was true from the very beginning. God gave Adam (humanity) everything - except for one tree. The implicit message: "you can't have it all." But Adam wasn't satisfied. Adam wanted it all. Adam (& Eve) were tempted and went after that tree - and the result was disaster. As individuals and as a society we too often want it all and we'll do whatever we need to do to get it. That might be on a personal level as we run over whoever gets in our way on the climb up the ladder, or it might be on a societal level - "who cares about the earth, we want the oil!" God wants us to understand that we can't have it all. We need to learn contentment for ourselves, and direct our attention to helping others in need. If our thoughts are always and only on us, we can't do that. Be content. Look around. Find someone who isn't as well off as you - and they're always around. Then give them a helping hand. You might as well. After all, you can't have it all! Have a great week!