Nature Must Not Be Worshipped (The Case For Judeo-Christian Values, Part XVI) Dennis Prager Alert

We have to design systems suchy that market forces justly determine which property owners stay in the farming business versus which people go into the fisery habitat because that is what the market demands.

In the instance I was thinking of, it had nothing to do with market forces. It had to do with farmers who needed the water in order to stay in business versus rabid environmentalists who wanted to deprive said farmers of the needed water in order to raise the level of a lake for the fishies.

Personally, I'm on the side of the farmers. We need the food they produce a lot more than to preserve fish we aren't allowed to catch and eat.

They just don't get it.

At the risk of babbling and with awareness of the inadequacy of words....

I don't possess Truth so I can not give it to anyone.
For me the first direct experience of God was so wonderful, I felt compelled to share with others.
The Truth was so obvious that I naively thought I could point it out through words and descriptions.
(When all I really felt was needed was to just point.)
It was, as would be expected, frustrating.
Logic and reason can only take one so far.
Analogies only hope to strike a chord within others.
These days I'm more relaxed. I weave what good I can into Life but leave the rest to God
I'm happy to share if someone is interested but eschew prosyletizing.
Who can say how or when God will come to someone?
I sure wasn't expecting that first touch of Grace. What a surprise!!

It's a sad world where a person can't see God in everything. Especially in a newborns cry, or look.

I'm smiling and experiencing a sense of kinship with you....
My first encounter lasted weeks and was characterized by awe, bliss,
gratitude and communion with my Creator.
But slowly the awareness and good feelings faded.
I spent many months trying to 'get back' to where I had been.
I did not understand the inherent necessity of change built into the world.
Nor did I recognize the fearful self-seeking foundation of myself .
I left the present to live in yearning for the past.
Then one day my wife and I were laying on the bed with our newborn.
I looked into his face and the clouds fell away. My God was here.
I began to cry with joy.
I saw that God had not left me, that I had left Him.
Worrying, grasping the past, seeking ego-aggrandizement and pleasure,
I had closed my eyes to the Presence.

I can't force God to come to me or anyone else.
There are things I can do to open myself to God's presense.
The Bible gives some good advice, "Be still and know I AM".
But stilling my mind requires work and dedication, with as much if not more unlearning than learning.
Christ calls upon the disciples to stay awake with him but they fall asleep.
Staying awake is for me difficult, I tend to get lost in a world of my making, in fantasy.
I leave the here and now where God is, focusing instead on a non-existent past or future.
At times I catch myself and bring my attention back to God.
But some of my ego traps are subtle and insidious. Difficult to see.
Sometimes life will force me to see that my ideas do not reflect reality,
I recognize my inadequacy, humble myself and then my mind and heart open to the Truth.
I listen to what those that have walked before me recommend and try to implement their advice.
In the end tho' it is my journey home. Not Buddha's, not Jesus' nor anyone elses.
If I am willing to listen God will guide me.

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