The Tower of Babel – Redux
Categories: Inspirational
Tags: Gabrielle Giffords Jared Lee Loughner Christina Taylor Green
Yesterday, yours truly, talked herself out of getting out of bed, so that she could finish her devotions in time to listen to Dr. Bob Marshall, at approximately 9 a.m. PST. She made it, being only about three minutes late. In other words, she was going to follow her Saturday routine- learn from the Bible, and then learn health from Dr. Bob. The plan was then to do some cleaning. She never got to the cleaning. The routine of the day was broken by the news that an Arizona Congresswoman and others were shot and killed by a gunman.
There were conflicting reports about the condition of the congresswoman. I dropped to my knees to pray to God for all, including this country. I could not even try to imagine how the families were feeling. Life is truly fragile. One minute you are performing the “routine,” like making a speech at a local place of business, and within seconds, you are on the ground, a bullet shot through your head, passing out on the other side.
I went to Twitter and before even pulling up my specific page, the “tweets of the day,” and the “noteworthy tweets” prominently featured tweets, from news outlets and individuals, declaring that Sarah Palin, the Tea Party Movement, and anyone and anything considered “right,” were responsible. I did not see any tweets from those on the right, blaming the left, among either category of tweets.
I then moved on to doing a little housework – still not the planned cleaning. I stood looking at my clothing and decided to prepare my outfit for Sunday morning church attendance. As I was busy selecting the clothing, I realized that I was not feeling as despondent as I did when I first heard about the shooting. I began to feel hope for the country. I stopped the preparations and wrote the following e-mail to my friends:
Click here: YouTube - Be Thou My Vision
Click here: YouTube - Curt Coffield - Be Thou my Vision
I brought you the bad news about the shootings by the "nut." Now, I bring you good news from "The Real One." When I despair, as I did this morning, I turn to God, His word and His music. The hymn, linked above, is one of my favorites.
God performed a miracle for me this morning. I went to pull out some clothing for tomorrow, since I did not want to be frantically searching tomorrow morning. I decided to go with the purple look, as the nail polish is purple (shallow? definitely!).
Of course I then had to find the purple jewelry, which I could not find. So I did the best thing, after searching through two jewelry boxes, with no luck. I asked God to help me. He did. Immediately after saying "God please help me," I looked up right at the bag where I had "temporarily" stored the container with the jewelry, as I was unpacking weeks ago.
Last time when I was in storage and could not find something, I prayed to God to "help me with my stupidity." He did then. I learned this morning that whether I pray for help with my "stupidity" or not, He helps! He also helped me with the situation with that mega telecommunications company. That is for another e-mail.
That is my roundabout way of saying that I believe that He will help this country, if He took the time to help this lowly person. I feel much more positive than I did this morning. Ok, I was feeling downright despairing then!
May God bless (and preserve) America!
Ah, the title of this post – why did I use that Babel description? I used that description because that is what popped into mind. My idea of “going with the flow,” is typing what flows into my mind. “Tower of Babel,” probably entered the subconscious because this nation is beginning to resemble a “nation of Babel.” I went to "my go to source" About.com , my source for just about anything. I did not go to the Bible. I already know the story from there. I read it as recently as a few days ago in my "read through the Bible in one year" project. The description, “they wanted to make a name for themselves,” could have come right out of the script of 21st century America. Even with such a tragedy as this current one, the recriminations began, without being constrained by the facts. Have we stopped the usual “coming together,” and then “tearing apart,” after a suitable interval, as we did for 9/11? There are evil people populated all over this world, whose intentions are to destroy this country. We do not need domestic assistance. Those who want to “make a name for themselves” by destroying their country, have they thought this through? Where will they go? Where will any of us go? I do have an alternative – the island where I was born. As I keep declaring, I will not to use my alternative. I am not a “fair weather” citizen. I earlier referenced 9/11 and now coincidentally as I scanned the headlines for updates, I read about nine-year old Christina Taylor Green who was born on 9/11/2001. This is truly unbelievable. I looked at the smiling photo of that little girl and quite truthfully had to work hard to keep any thoughts of ill will towards her alleged killer, from cracking even my subconscious mind. I will leave him to God’s judgment. Here on earth, Jared Lee Loughner is receiving his right to habeas corpus as his corpus is still alive. Even in her short years, Christina was already making an impact. While her alleged killer was allegedly indulging in “pharmaceuticals,” Christina was active in sports, was smart, and was just elected to her student council. Even more importantly, she brought joy to her family and others. Rest in peace, Christina. I am not much for singing Kumbaya around either a real or virtual campfire, but can we at least unite and sing maybe “My Country, ‘tis of Thee"? I will get this going by providing the first verse of the lyrics, if not the marshmallows. Here you are. My country,'tis of thee,
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Who takes His licking (from us), keeps on ticking, and waiting to help us. No matter the attempt to rewrite history, this country was founded by Christians, based on Judeo-Christian principles. No amount of rewriting will change that. It has a unique Constitution which protects even the killers among us, by granting them habeas corpus , even if like Hannibal Lector, they need a napkin to wipe the leftovers of their victims from their lips. Are we willing to destroy all that this country has to offer? What other country do you want? One where for stealing, the instruments of your theft, are removed, to assist you in not being tempted again?
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!
Can we also sing “America the Beautiful:
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
May God heal the battered and buffeted soul of America. Only He can – if we let Him. May this country act wisely in the aftermath of this attack and not rush to figuratively eat one another. May the leaders act wisely and not in a panicked mode to curtail even more God-given freedoms from citizens. May the US Constitution not be trampled upon in the name of "safety."
God bless America!
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