A HISTORIC SHIFT
I have a personal calling in life: preparing myself for my life to come. Intimately connected with this, are my views on my physical fitness. I see my body as God’s unique gift to me to look after and treasure: It is this body that will carry me into eternity.
Thus, I try to eat well, sleep well, pray, exercise by following a daily routine, develop my mind, always open to new ideas and insights, and welcoming new people and new opinions.
One of these new ideas is Morphic Resonance: a somewhat controversial hypothesis proposed by British biologist Rupert Sheldrake. He e Hesuggests that nature possesses an inherent collective memory and that natural laws are more like symptoms that evolve over time rather than fixed, eternal rules.
I see an important analogy here with the Laws of ecology, one of which is: “Everything is connected to everything else.”
That’s also why I fervently believe that creation is a living entity, with feelings of her own, such as love and dread, with anxiety today dominating. I see today’s sudden political change in the USA as part of such a pattern. There is a distinct universal, yet seldom expressed undercurrent of anxiety in human thinking that ‘the times they are a’changing’, as an old song has it. And it is true: the cosmic weather patterns are rapidly altering, with global heat piling up and historic monsoons changing their perpetual paths, endangering the lives of billions.
Trump, personifying evil.
In the USA the Trump regime is not only defying these changes, but accelerating the meteorological modes, and so increases the imminent dangers. I also believe that global dread is an unexpressed feeling. It is never even acknowledged, and one of the factors why we now see a historic shift, an unprecedented period in global happenings.
But, there is hope for America!
The US election has been a revolution, not only politically, but even religiously. Take James Talarico, whose campaign slogan was “Love Thy Neighbor”. He emphasized that we as Christians are called to challenge the systems that brought great inequality.
This election also saw many gospel preachers succeed on the Democratic ticket, a party often vilified as the most anti-Christian political movement. Today these clergymen mirror Jesus’ views on ‘religion’: anti-establishment, drawing the ire of hundreds of their colleagues.
The DAY rushes on.
This shattering pattern is the more relevant, as, I believe, the DAY rushes on, with world-altering events happening, witness AI, Climate Change and War. The entire Bible, the Scriptures, from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, has been written with the TELOS in mind, the fulfillment of history.
The purpose of history.
The early church, the first gathering of Christ believers, as related in Acts 2, sold all their cashable assets, and gave the proceeds to their fellow ‘Christians’ in the fervent belief that Christ’s return was imminent.
That was 2,000 years ago, when the globe, with less than 300 million of us earthlings, was seen as enormous in size. Now we have 8 billion plus. And the globe is small: we can reach almost any point there in less than a day.
I increasingly believe that God wanted to see what humanity was capable of achieving, both for good and bad. History is nothing else but discovering both what fits in the Kingdom to come, and what should never be adopted. That’s why Revelation 14: 13 assures us that “Our good deeds will follow us.”
There’s a lot in our daily doings that will never become standard in the ‘renewed’ creation, for the simple reason that it is harmful, and leads to atmospheric death and climate collapse.
Remember, November is the month of COP 31, in which the world focuses on our detrimental habits that has brought us global climate change. It is encouraging, and energizing that last week’s US elections have given politicians an opportunity to reverse some of the detrimental Trump policies. I pray for courage and wisdom for the Democrats in congress to enact climate friendly policies, in tune with God’s love for the cosmos.
The renewed earth.
Of course, we will not see a totally new earth: The world we live in will simply be renewed, will revert back to its original state, a situation God called ‘good’ seven times when God surveyed what He had created. It is that ‘goodness’ we must rediscover and pursue.
That’s why we must “Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
“Ora et Labora”, is an old Latin expression urging us to “pray and work”. I like to reverse the order, and change it to the infinitive: Laborare est Orare. It expresses the idea that ‘working on the right thing is akin to prayer’.