Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Friday ADD Irregulars, WSN Curators & Contributors and all the rest of you wandering souls that find your way here.
In this morning's Office The Lord has had enough with Israel. They were on the very verge of entering the Promised Land and once again reverted to complaints, threats of death and a desire to go back to Egypt. Caleb & Joshua try to assure they people that we need not fear the residents of the land, the Lord is with them. The whole community threatens to stone them. Their complete lack of perspective on who God is and how God has been with them prevents them from entering the Land. The wander 40 years in the desert until every last complaining bellyacher passed from the community. None who left Egypt for promised freedom saw it except Joshua & Caleb. Moses saw it from the mountainside before he died, but he does not lead them. That will fall to Joshua and the generation born in the desert that ha learned to trust in the Lord and be patient under his guidance.
The sadness of the story is how many times God had revealed his presence to the people and how quickly they forgot. Not only did they forget, but with every obstacle they wanted to kill Moses, Aaron or others and then turn back to the good old days of slavery. It is a true lack of perspective and so illustrative of how fear can run your life into ruin. None of us in the community need that reminder, most if not all of us are outliers, skeptics and predisposed contrarians to the narrative.
While all of us are questioners and seekers; the outlier, skeptical and contrary side of that perspective has been nourished by repeated violations of trust and the paternalism of the Cabal. The Mommie-Dearest State and its cultural enablers do not appreciate your questions or lack of gratitude for all Mommie has done for you. It is not surprising that paternalism has disappeared from the talking points of the Left since they now embrace it whole-heartedly. "4 legs good, 2 legs better" as the sheep have always said. They know better - trust them. We know that has never worked in any other society, much like socialism or communism, but this time the formula will be right and succeed. Just say Yes.
NO.
NO opens the door of perspective, NO revives the spirit, NO frees the will from those who lie, control and bend your will to their own. Your life can't be all NO, but no to what is unworthy, demeaning and servile is the fruit of discernment, the treasure of thoughtful questions and earnest seeking. NO must always give way to what you want to say YES to. If you can't make the switch from being a person of NO to one of YES, you will never be builder of anything worthwhile but only a dissembler and complainer. Yes should be direct to the good, the true and the beautiful. Discern well, there are countless pretenders of goodness, truth and beauty. Not all are trying to misinform you but ignorance of reality is almost as bad as lies about reality. The ignorant like Mr. Magoo can wreck your life in their acts of kindness that are completely misguided and unaware. While they are not evil, like the liars and deceivers, their carelessness can bring just as much destruction.
Deliver us from evil, protect us from stupid and prepare us for striving for what is right and good. A few perspective quotes to round out my morning musing.
Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever. —Isak Dinesen
We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them. —Epictetus
Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. —Nido Qubein
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
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XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
