Darfur: Our life is entirely to address such needs

Wow. Wish you were here! Where, DC? :-) No. Here closer to the Kingdom.

"[The Kingdom] consists in fulfillment of the Father's will and that fulfillment depends on each man's efforts and striving that people might understand that life is given not for oneself personally but only for the fulfillment of the Father's will, which alone saves us from death and gives life...." Gospel in Brief, Leo Tolstoy. The Father? The Father of us all. Real? I hope not. Indespensible as an imaginary construct - yes. To my shock and utter delight - yes.

WOW. My experience of these recent days is that I'm pretty close to conforming with the above. Oh my God, it is awesome. YES, this is absurd from the perspective of the religion of our society - greed; Life is given for my personal pleasure and for that of a few people around me. Oh my God, this is such an empty, joyless way to exist - death, emptiness. Oh I grieve for the 4 decades I've lived this lie. Oh I grieve for my loved ones that fully buy into this lie. They are so close, some of them, but so far. I wish I could save them. I wish I could save everyone. I'll try. I'll keep trying.

Jesus did not save the rich young man. He tried. I suspect He never gave up. But to the casual observer it probably looked like He abandoned the young man. He did not. No, he didn't go after the young man. Counter intuitively, to go after the young man would have diminished the creative tension that their encounter created - and only that creative tension was the young man's hope. Many are called, but few are chosen. Only God, Good can save. We must be Good/God, as much of the time, as intensely as possible. There is no other hope than this. There is nothing else to be done.

Imagine what the world would be like if this is how we lived the seconds of our lives. Now. Imagine it.

Darfur is maybe the greatest opportunity, gateway, for us to learn that Life is not given for our personal amusement, but for the extraordinary adventure of healing the world.