Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas
Originally uploaded by paynehollow.

Happy Holidays, Blessed Break, whatever you celebrate, I wish you well.

Thank everyone for participating (those who commented and those who just read along) in the look at Jesus' famous, practical and beautiful Sermon on the Mount. The conversations took some turns I didn't see within those passages but I reckon we're all going to read what we read into it.

I was asked by someone recently: How do you see 2007, this Christmas Eve?

The person referenced me to a column by "conservative" Dennis Prager who pointed out the difficulties facing our world and the hope to be found - said he - in embracing Traditional American Values (TM).

I thought it a good question to ponder this time of year. There certainly is a lot to be pessimistic about.

Unlike Prager, I don't think those who say they value America's
traditional values offer much to make things better. I think those who
DO value many of America's traditional values have something to offer, but we have some serious debits working against us.

We have globally lived beyond our means. Or rather, we who are wealthy have lived beyond our means and the world desires to emulate us - an impossible and undesirable dream. The world can't support 7 billion Wealthy Western (ie, over-consumptive) lifestyles.

I have some hopes that our oil will peak sooner rather than later, but
in a gradual enough way that will allow for us all to tighten our belts
and re-order our lives in a way that doesn't result in the deaths of
too many millions of people.

Hopefully, gas prices will jump up another $2 or so in the next year or
two - shocking us with the realization of how dependent we have made ourselves on a resource that is disappearing. Hopefully, this will lead to folk abandoning the personal auto en masse, abandoning Stuff imported from around the world and embrace locally produced and self-produced goods and food.

Hopefully, we have already realized the folly of trying to defeat
terrorism by embracing terrorism and that we'll start treating
terrorism as the serious crime it is (with many complex reasons and
solutions) rather than a war to wage against some other nation. We must not feed the terrorism beast as Bush's policies have done.

It is a bleak picture, if one is inclined to accept bleak.

Despite the current state of affairs, I find great hope in my God, my family, my church and community. But humanity's foolishness is a force to be contended with and I'll have to agree with Prager at least in his assessment that times are tough.

Here's hoping to a Celebration of the Prince of Peace and an honoring of his Ways. Here's hoping to a wiser new year and a new Great Awakening.

And you? How do you see the world this coming year?