not very civil

 

the other day, I went to Brooklyn for a teacher's training. it wasn't until lunchtime that i realized we were sitting in the school library. so i took the liberty of perusing the shelves. i was aghast at how new all of the books were.  i was the first person EVER to open most of them! (i could tell at the crisp sound of the binding and saw the pages free of grubby fingerprints). well, God blessed me with 2 epiphanies for the day:

1) it made me really sad, not just for the books themselves (Toy Story reminds me that toys want to be played with and books want to be read; we must all live out our purposes!) but at the idea that the children in this school (among many others in District 75) will never EVER have the opportunity to enjoy the simple pleasure of reading a book.....devastation! they will never know the magical world of harry potter, the intimate details of the Civil War, the beautiful pictures in Horses & Ponies! it just breaks my heart.

and then i thought about how they would never be able to access God's living WORD. (of course, God's love transcends cognitive delays and the Holy Spirit works despite iniquity and disability because God is ABLE.) but the simple truth remains that some were created with more special needs which may or may not be fully met... ironic that the training topic was about AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) devices.

2) i picked up a book about the Civil War and this also made me very sad. how could so many men disagree about the very reason they traveled to America in the first place, to the point of slaughting each other? i guess both sides had very different ideas of freedom and opportunity. but the book reminds me that at one point, they were all on one team with one goal - then divergent ideas/misdirected desires/stubborn wills split one camp into two. and then they went down in history  for creating the bloodiest war ever fought in America. isn't it scary how much satan loves to create division; within the church, within families, within our friendships? the struggle, hate, resistance, self-importance, pride, withholding - that comes raging out of all of us... (and i can say that from much personal experience =/) this world needs a Savior SO BADLY. (sorry superman, batman, spidey - this is a job even too great for you guys!) honestly, it made my heart yearn for heaven on earth.