A World Split Apart

Such was the title of an address delivered at Harvard University, June 8, 1978 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.   So is the reality of the world today. 

 

At 6:00 a. m. this morning (26 February 2015) my alarm clock went off with the NPR morning news.  I have never heard so much bad news pertaining to acts of terrorism and violence coming out of those twin dysfunctional regions of the world—the middle East and the African continent.  Our angst is that the Islamic violence will increasingly spill out of those regions into the still, comparatively, more peaceful regions of the world.  It is more than just a disquieting feeling; it is inevitable that it will.

But until then, provided that the terrorists do not get weapons of mass destruction (wmd’s) or atomic, biological, chemical weapons (abc’s), as they are called, their atrocities will be relatively limited—a “sting of a mosquito,” as described by one recent commentator, compared to what the West (including Israel) could do to their base’s of operations if the Western nations were provoked enough.  But the sting (more accurately ‘bite’) of a mosquito of the wrong kind (for us) can lead to a fatal disease.

That scenario, as evaluated by other commentators, is exactly what the terrorists want.  The titles of Solzhenitsyn’s address ‘A World Split Apart’ and evangelist Billy Graham’s book title of fifty years ago ‘World Aflame’ portend such a condition:  “The next war . . . may well bury Western Civilization forever” (A. Solzhenitsyn).  “I can’t explain 9/11, except the evil of man” (B. Graham), and, I add, the reality of Satan. “Auschwitz stands as a tragic reminder of the terrible potential man has for violence and inhumanity” (B. Graham).   Bible readers will know, and not be surprised that we are in the “last days” before the final great battle between the forces of good and evil:  “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of war” (Matt. 24:6), and from that most unpopular of Old Testament books, Joel, or of New Testament books, Revelation, the plagues of the last days leading up to Armageddon, which is all-out war—World Aflame. 

    

Though the Homeland Security threat level has been constantly turned up to level yellow or orange, ever since November 11, 2001, it seems that that will be our ‘new normal’; and maybe just as well, for great troubles are coming:  but, “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30).  [Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will want to review the entire 38^th Section; non-members who have any curiosity at all or real concern for their future  would do well to find and investigate this Latter-day scripture as well as the book of Joel and John’s Revelation in their Holy Bible.]

‘Today’

I have a nephew in-law, a great young man who is handicapped by brain damage, and who in conversation with me constantly asks me about ‘tomorrow.’  I constantly reply to him that we are in ‘today,’ so I steer conversation to talk about ‘today.’  Yet I, too, constantly think about ‘tomorrow,’ the future, the challenge that increasingly looms large.  And then I remind myself that tomorrow will be greatly affected by what goes on today—so I say to myself and to whomever might listen, ‘make the most of it.’  I know that the ultimate outcome and victory of a life well-lived a day at a time will be the greatest reward.

Besides that, "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength." (Corry Ten Boom)

Then my mind reverts to songs (as it so often does) that express or validate my conclusions. 

 

One of those songs titled Today, which you may remember, was featured on a 33 rpm New Christy Minstrels album I had in my young adulthood. 

   

The first three verses of this song are but sweet persiflage but the fourth verse contributes some substance:  

I can't be contented with yesterday's glory
I can't live on promises winter to spring
Today is my moment, now is my story
I'll laugh and I'll cry and I'll sing

[In double-checking the spelling of ‘persifage’ in the above sentence the dictionary supplied this insightful and contributory example:

     “The time straying toward infidelity and confections and persiflage he withholds by steady faith.”]

In the Christian-music genre another song of the same title, Today, sung by ’33 Miles’ goes this way:

Worry keeps waking me up
Calling me at 3 am
Fear wants to shut me down
Telling me what might happen
Doubt plays with my mind
Trying to twist the truth
All these distractions, beg a reaction,
So here's what I'm gonna do

Right here, right now
I'm living for You and nothing else
For yesterday is history
and tomorrow's gonna write itself
All I got is the moment I'm in
And I don't ever want to waste
This gift, this chance, right here, right now, today

And finally, another song from over a decade ago, One Moment in Time, sung by Whitney Houston still brings a tear to my eye when I think of certain loved ones who are letting the 'todays' of their life slip by:

  

Each day I live, I want to be
A day to give the best of me
I'm only one, but not alone
My finest day is yet unknown

I broke my heart for every gain
To taste the sweet, I faced the pain
I rise and fall, yet through it all
This much remains

I want one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me

Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel, I will feel eternity

I've lived to be the very best
I want it all, no time for less
I've laid the plans, now lay the chance
Here in my hands

You're a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time, make it shine

Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will be, I will be, I will be free, I will be, I will be free

Writer(s): John Bettis, Albert Hammond
Copyright: Albert Hammond Music, John Bettis Music

Giving (and taking) Offense

In a recent Church meeting we were encouraged to be ‘quick to observe.’  That is good advice.

Sometimes, though, people are ‘quick or easy to offend.’ That would not be good advice--neither as the giver of ‘offense’ nor especially as the one who is quick or easy to offend.  “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city; and their contentions are like the bars of a castle” (Proverbs 18:19).  The problem is twofold: “The scorner is consumed. . . that make[s] a man an offender for a word, and lay[s] a snare for him. . . and turn[s] aside the just for a thing of nought” (Isaiah 29: 20-21).  Hence, both are hurt.  Jesus said: “Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” Or, I might add, takes it.  (Matthew 18:7).  To paraphrase the apostle Paul, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God; [rather] I seek [not] mine own profit, but the profit [or benefit] of many, that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10: 32-33). 

 

Put into today’s terms, we should weigh our words carefully because many people are ‘thin-skinned’ and easily offended.  By offending them, they discount you ( they “turn aside the just for a thing of nought”) and they become more “consumed” or bitter and are not “profited” or receive the good you wanted to do them.  This occurs often because they reject your influence out of pride or defensiveness.   Alas.

The temptation, then, is to be so ‘politically correct’ that you offend no one—because you have essentially said nothing to them.  The problem, then, is that you may have given tacit approval to an action or behavior that you feel strongly very much against.  In not offending men, you have offended God, and have not been true to yourself. 

Know that though we are sometimes called upon to be a ‘voice of testimony or of warning,’ we will pay a price.  In the process we will always offend someone. Consider the price each of the men quoted today had to pay for their testimony. 

A person of integrity, however, will pay that price—the price of discipleship or of conviction.