This post by another blogger ends with a thoughtful prayer. Click on “read more” to see the entire post and the prayer. It’s not very long. — John
I was perusing MSN’s homepage, and I found a slideshow on war-torn Libya. I could not help but be struck with a sense of awe while looking at this picture. Take a moment and just look at the details. Please.
In a world with so many modern advances– cancer research, clean energy, cell phones, and the Internet– I struggle with the idea that people feel the need to destroy cities and kill people to “win.” Aren’t there more 21st Century ways of dealing with problems? The destruction in this picture represents a total disregard for life and progress. And what does all of this destruction accomplish?
The fact does not allude me that when and where we are born is not a choice. I am lucky that my house is not one of the bombed apartments in this picture. Right now, I have pumpkins and scarecrows in my yard. I am celebrating autumn and anticipating Halloween…
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Living Simply And Still On The Grid 
I often have the same thoughts: to wit, as a race we have the power to fix damn near EVERYTHING that is wrong in the world, if we could manage to stop trying to kill each other. We could grow enough food safely, distribute medical treatment, build housing, erect dikes against flooding and build schools… except all that money and energy is going into bombs, guns and deployment, mostly because people disagree about who has the real imaginary friend.
Hence I will skip the prayer part. Until people all over the world realize it is up to us, we’re holding the bag, we have to be the adults here, I don’t expect much change.
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Yes, I agree. We humans have a lot of growing up to do. Whether one is a believer or not, the very thought that God would allow wars and atrocities and misery to continue is confounding. Believers find a way to reconcile this, but it still troubles the mind.
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What bothers me is that so many believers find a way to think that God will fix it if they just press their hands together and squeeze their eyes shut and wish hard enough. Nothing happens until people do the hard work, which involves a lot of swallowed pride (I’m not exactly good at that myself) and some willingness to talk to people they don’t instantly like or understand. (I am always willing to set aside prejudice but I have a really difficult time with postjudice – my late and ex’s word for the effect of repeated and cumulative shitty experiences with a given demographic.) I’d like to think I could stop short of actually systematically killing people in aid of some assumed purpose, but I’ve fantasized too often about killing certain particular people or types of people to imagine I’m immune to the urge myself. It is not easy, and I can’t think that prayer has a prayer of helping.
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