Monday, December 18, 2006

As the waters cover the sea

Why is the world such a mess? I heard a speaker talk about various causes of human suffering, and he listed a few sources: natural disasters (tsunami, earthquake &c), accidents (which can break a limb or a life), facts of biology (aging and the like), carelessness/misunderstandings, and a broad category that includes selfishness, greed, anger, wrath, malice &c — “evil” for short. And how to fix it? We've had thousands of years of trying to fix it ourselves, but today's reading includes a happy aspect of the future:
For the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth
as the waters cover the seas.
Habakkuk 2.14
Which sounds like good news to me, because of all those possible causes of suffering, "evil" seems like it ought to be the most preventable one — hence the most tragic.

But a particular subset of "covering the earth" involves covering people like you and me. In Blue Like Jazz, Miller makes the point that you can't fix the world without fixing the man in the mirror.

So this promise is good news, for the world in general, but also for my family, friends, colleagues.

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