Never has the general society or the church had so much information availability as we do. We are told that there is an information overload that is so great that we may be going in circles, arriving at some starting point again that sends us on another search. One of the reasons we like many sports games is because they have a beginning, middle and end that completes the hour, two or three that they may require. Games like Chess (requiring intellect for problem solving), or Monopoly (requiring perception of finance), or electronic games (requiring skill in maneuvering so to dispose of enemies to the end of winning) remain popular. They begin, pay out, and end with win or lose. Serious players of games know they will usually win because the amateurs have not given enough time to understand the game – to know when to hold, and when to fold. The concepts fit life. We find difficulty in holding and folding, and if that reticence is great enough we will likely lose, or achieve less than we thought we would with the effort given to life’s game.
I am greatly impressed by the number of organizations, schools, foundations, organized to meet nearly any problem, condition, need, interest, representing mankind. There are not enough days in our lives, even if we had the inclination, to review them all. The differentials in them are so great that often the most significant competition between representatives of a movement become the enemies of one another. The sheer size of the society can threaten even the most dedicated and ethical group to be done-in by the hypocrites infiltrating it. This can happen to persons and institutions in their work, and here we presume the objectives to be good. The losers often are those who had nothing to do with the machinations found in society. The complexity is becoming increasingly even more complex. The solutions may take from this group in order to provide for another. Even the vaunted objectives of freedom, of life sustenance, of peace for all are evasive in the complexities of different views, of inability to adapt to pluralism, of the vagaries of masses of human beings (including the misunderstanding of sin and the concoctions of values) – and so that story continues in a never ending circle of events that dilutes the affirmations by trying to dilute the negatives. Currently society is engaged in a casual life that includes broader permission in sexual practices, in the uses of drugs, even in the quality of language. This seems to disregard what history teaches us. The pressure is on to raise minimum wages so to lift the masses of the poor, when the solutions will not be found only in the management of money. What is being done, for example, in permitting the masses to benefit from the achievements of technology, so to work in fewer hours, or in teams, so to do the same work formerly provided but with fewer hours at the same wage, or within a wage growth that does not introduce runaway inflation. My first job out of college paid $15.00 weekly. From there my wife and I went along gaining a few cents here and a few there. Today my early weekly wage of seventy years ago would just pay for breakfast for two – if we ordered carefully and included the fair gratuity. Is it better today, after the decades? For me it may be, but for the society it is on the backs of the poor. The inequities are only met with a charitable society, and even then human needs are not adequately met.
If we lived in Christian values, and were to ask Christ about solutions, he would answer simply – God means for you to serve others. Is that really so difficult? No, it is not if we find in the order of God, the attitudes, generosity, discipline, perception, and institutions that use knowledge to wisdom, wealth to service of needs, modeling to offer examples to our children, and as awareness in the gifted and strong that God permits a society to include the weak, the hurting, the ill, the aged, the children, even the disgraced that need help, healing, provision, recovery and vision for themselves and the future. Therein is the hard part, the recognition that we belong to each other. We are of Adam’s race. Our differences are the needed enemies of boredom, blandness, attitudes and practices that rob us of creativity, respect, and that we were created to foster. We need to get cracking in society. God has made a level field for all peoples. We are the ones who erect the barriers. Our purpose is to carry the spirit of Christ: Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavily laden. He added: I will give you rest. We join those serving world needs. There is a mystery found in that serving others we serve ourselves in respect. Those who do are wholehearted to life. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020