Love is still the answer

Corn field

Last week I was walking in Illinois where I saw fields ruined by drought and I could feel the sadness of the earth.

Then today I was reading from the book of Joel and heard the scripture speaking to me.  First all the destruction calls Joel the prophet to ask this question:

    listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
    or in the days of your ancestors?

I thought the same thing as I saw the earth struggling, and thought of all our war vets returning, the children who are hungry and the differently abled who are left to languish.  Although the exact situation in Joel is different the results are the same: war, drought, lack of care for the poor have resulted in extreme poverty across the land.

 The answer according to Joel then is:
 

Consecrate a fast,

Proclaim a solemn assembly;

Gather the elders

And all the inhabitants of the land

To the house of the Lord your God,

And cry out to the Lord.

Begin with a public prayer of forgiveness and then act on the words.  Don't just say them, love your enemy, care for the earth, give to the poor, but assign an action to each area and begin to actively take ownership for your involvement in this spiritual, physical and mental drought.

It is only too late when we forget who we are and what God has called us to do: Love, Love, Love. 

From I Corinthians 13: 4-13

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In the words of the great prophet the Beatles  "All You need is Love"

Peace to you,