Lord, where do we begin? We want to talk about the dashing of hopes, the failure of inspiration, the death of expectation.
Afghanistan has fallen out of our consciousness as Ukraine falls into our attention, and now there is what’s happening in Iraq, as army and separatists clash and thousands flee.
Monoculture (rubber trees) has replaced the wonderful diversity of natural forest in Mozambique yet counts as “tree planting.” In India’s Uttar Pradesh state, millions of hectares of trees are reverting to scrub. The wrong mangroves, a kind that grows in muddy water not clear coastal areas, were planted in the Philippines and have died. We do so want the greening of our planet to work and despair when it is subverted.
Then there are the wildfires in New Mexico, USA, and killing heat in India’s Maharashtra state. There are deaths in collapsed buildings in Changsha city, Hunan province, China, and Lagos, Nigeria.
Oh, and there is the fuel problem – gas cut off to Poland and Bulgaria; habitat destruction in Garysburg, North Carolina, USA, to feed Europe’s biomass demand (an appallingly polluting renewable resource); massive unexpected profits for oil companies reflecting the changing demand this year.
In the USA, there’s an uproar of concern over the Supreme Court’s leaked draft ruling severely limiting women’s reproductive rights and casting doubts on whether the court will continue to uphold other human rights; there is mounting evidence that El Salvadoran authorities have been committing serious human rights violations since adopting a state of emergency on March 27, 2022; Russia President Putin continues to insist that attacks on Ukraine civilians and children are necessary for “liberty”.
Lord, it soon becomes clear, as we list all that we want to tell you, that these are all about us humans. We worry about the use of resources, the fairness of their distribution, the disasters we have caused by their misuse, overconsumption and misdistribution. Forgive us for worrying about resources, forgetting you are the source of all that is.
We celebrate all that we receive directly from You as source: the ability to create, to research and discover the resources you provide for ourselves and our world. For changing tests and treatments for cancer, we give thanks. For the pioneers understanding our climate, we give thanks. For the greater knowledge of space and the technology that benefits all our lives, we give thanks.
On the news, a teacher in Ukraine is asked, “What should they be taught now?” She responds, “Always to keep hope alive.”
Source, guide and goal of all that is: May it be so.
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