Bailing Water From My Boat

Pondering today's news headlines stirs me.

I am forever met with stark contrasts between my deliberately carved life, and the happenings of the larger world, which pelt me with relentless percussive insistency. One the one hand, there is this abinding, fulfilling, whole faith I live through God, with my family. The enormous gift of innocent wisdom and profound truth I face every day as I navigate life holding the hands and hearts of my two children and husband. There are absolutes. There is peace. There is love. There is hope. There is life, abundantly.

And then on the other hand, there is this roaring outside world - existing in the same time and space, but vastly apart from that which defines me. The condition of my heart and life contrasts increasingy glaringly with the seemingly endless bombardment of societal chaos that sneaks into my life via news channels and current event information. Because it is my committment to pray and be involved in transforming lives, hearts, communities, and making a lasting mark for God's peace in the world, I find it prudent to know what is happening out there. But for me, often times this committment to staying informed is akin to opening a door leading from a toasty warm house and being tossed into a bitter cold, dark blizzard.

Balance is the key element here to surviving within a poisoned world without becoming infected to the point of inertia. Balance achieved by, I've come to understand, keeping my boat in the water, while never letting the water overtake and sink my boat.

So if I am to be in the world, but not of it - that satisfies. Especially lately, when I want to offer our dismayingly, overtly ill society some serious antibiotics. Or prayer. Or a swift kick in some region of the preverbial body where it might actually cause a bit of a stark wake-up call.

And then pull my covers up to my chin and comfort myself that God is bigger than the size of our world's problems, and I can find my rest and peace in Him. Even amidst the miserable levels of sin and depravity swirling around me.

What am I on about specifically? (this time...?) I am horrified at the news today. Horrified in the same way I remember feeling when it finally sank in that my beloved parents were getting a divorce - throwing my family into years of painful turmult. My heart hurts and I am moved to tears easily, enraged, disgusted, saddened - not overwhelmed, but sickened at our sick, sick world increasingly giving birth to more sickness.
This week began with an urgent emailed message from my dear friend and former pastor (now working to combat the AIDS pandemic in South Africa), soliciting prayers for a precious 4-year old neice of his colleague who was viciously raped by a neighbor over the weekend. My own sweet LaLa is 4 years old. That sends chills - this is a BABY. The kind of eroded soul who would do something like that to an innocent child is beyond my comprehension. To even think about this incident occuring damages me deeply. My prayers have become cries for this child I've never met, mixed with deep boiling anger at her attacker. I so clearly see the sickness permeating the world in events like these. And when I do, the strength of the Lord is made especially manifest to me. Which is good, because some the daily "current events" drilldown is enough to surely sink my boat if I were alone at the helm.

...Here is a sample of exactly what kind of shocking macabre news stories have landed me in this current pondering brood and inspired this entry:

More Violence Against Innocents

And Again

Yet Again

Latest In Iraq

The Increasing Futility of Voting At All, Apparently

Illegal Alien Crime Against Americans

More ACLU Anti-Christian Manuevering

If we are to seek solace within ourselves, I daresy was are coming up short these days. Our political, educational, societal, legal, and moral fibers are stretched mighty thin, aren't they?

I heard a compelling (for it's simplicity) statement from a priest being interviewed about the wretched Illinois slayings. With candor he eloquently stated, "Evidence of a sick society can be seen in the way in which we devalue life and devour innocence."

Whoa. Right on.

How chilling, though, given our current societal trends in which abortion on demand and protection of criminals' rights trump the sanctity of life and protecting the innnocent. The disintegration of family. The growing move to pigeonhole and degrade religious faith. The agendized public education system of indoctrination. Random judges overruling the will of the people at whim. The growing acceptance of moral relativism over moral fortitude and clarity. The devaluation of the cornerstones from which PURPOSE springs, among them: God, truth, love, family, responsibility, stewardship, and the sanctity of life.

Is it any wonder so many souls are lost - floating around out there as the wind wills? Is it any wonder we are peppered with increasingly depraved acts against the most innocent among us? In a morally relative world, defined by an anemic "what's good for you is fine by me" and abiding fear of the mere appearance of being discerning or judgemental, we are letting far too much garbage permeate our broken system of social and moral osmosis...and we have become seriously ill. As individuals, as a community, as a people, as a nation, and as a world at large.

Today is one of those days when I seem to have stepped into the "Bizarro World" episode of Seinfeld. Only much darker and with much deeper consequence. Ours is a sick world, indeed. But God has not left us, and indeed, this was promised. The journey of life is not meant to be an easy one. But witnessing firsthand the beauty and intention of this world marred by the ugliness sin-left-unchecked creates, I feel a sense of profound sadness and longing. I pray there are enough of us who stand against the tide of moral decay to keep the waves from overtaking the beach altogether.

I personally am going to start bailing out my boat in anticipation of launching it out again tomorrow. In hopefully less stormy seas.