Pratt: Honestly seeking God's wisdom
Sometimes we forget how nice it is to awaken in the night to the sound of rain with the weight of the drops on the roof indicating real intent.
It comes softly, without great noisy thunder and damaging winds as if to say to the lawns and trees, “I see your stress. Here, have a nice drink during the night.”
Life is like this too, so much so that we often fail to appreciate the gift of that which is so familiar and sustains us, be it nature, family, church and community.
When we become less aware, less thankful for our abundant blessings, our family, our neighbor, our employer or employees, our churches, schools and even our health, we need a wake-up call.
In some areas that reminder often comes with the tragedies that make the news cycles – floods in Kentucky right now, severe drought in Texas, random and vicious crime on the streets of our largest cities and wars or threats of war throughout the world.
It's little comfort to understand the cyclic nature of human failure when we are in the midst of pain and confusion.
For all our pontificating about how to live righteously and triumphantly in the world we occupy, we cannot “wish” away the evil that stalks about tempting us into all kinds of foolish and destructive behaviors.
It's usually not that we don't know better, but that we choose what looks like the “easier” way to achieve our goals of wealth, fame and prosperity.
Our political scene today reflects how far we stray from serving our fellow man to use and abuse others for our own benefit.
We choose entertainment over knowledge, excess food and drink over health, drugs to “feel” good over working to accomplish our dreams, devious tricks over honesty and then wonder why confusion and despair stalk us.
In our often-self-induced ignorance, we refuse to learn from past failed civilizations, who also took this route of making their own gods in their own images and then wondered what happened to their dreams of conquering the world.
How long do we have to repent of our wrong-doing and make amends? None of us knows the answer to that question. So, what do we do, give up and hide as best we can from responsibility?
Or, do we find some “good” that we can support? Even identifying what is good vs. evil poses some dire questions. One of those questions today continues to divide us: how do we decide what to do about abortion – is it murder or is it compassion?
One thing I do know – assuming abortion should be tolerated as a choice method of birth control is inherently wrong. A more difficult question arises when abortion is considered necessary to save a life. But even that argument is complicated in terms of what to do in cases of rape or incest.
There is no more difficult or personal issue than abortion unless it is assisting with a suicide, thus saying we should be able to choose whether we want to live or not. I don't take such decisions lightly because our human limitations mean none are “all-knowing.”
We are selfish and thus susceptible to making wrong choices to suit our own convenience, especially in issues of life or death.
When should we intervene to relieve suffering is another difficult question for families who must make decisions about end-of-life issues for the elderly or helpless.
Instead of beating one another over the head about such issues, we should honestly seek God's wisdom rather than build profitable enterprises that promote any killing field.
Otherwise, we become callous and disrespectful not only of the gift of life, but of the God who created us. We fraternize too easily with the enemy, whose main purpose is to destroy humanity.
Awaken, and pray Jonah's prayer from the belly of the whale: “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord … and my prayer rose to you.”
Beth Pratt retired as religion editor from the Avalanche-Journal after 25 years. You can email her at beth.pratt@cheerful.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Pratt: Honestly seeking God's wisdom
