As our leaders behave like clowns and lunatics on a world stage creating an aura of fear and giving us no confidence things will turn out well it isn’t at all surprising increasing numbers of people are dusting off Ouija Boards, buying crystal balls, burning prayer papers and incense, consulting astrologers, imploring whatever gods and goddesses they believe in as they try to find something to hold on to in these, to put it mildly, uncertain times. I continue to talk things over with God and departed loved ones and friends, but while I believe in the spiritual realm there is the day to day living requiring constant attention.
It’s surprising how many mundane affairs of life even at my age require daily attention, and while priorities shift considerably in old age some things remain a constant just to keep body and soul together, though I’m grateful I still have my own teeth and a full head of hair. At my age I’m grateful for what I’ve got and increasingly less concerned about what I don’t have; but I have always believed it is the better part of wisdom to not want much and therefore not need much. And with the increasing years so much has changed I come more to appreciate those things that do not, like the mountains surrounding me here in the Kern River Valley.
It is comforting to look at these mountains, seeing the same granite formations I recall from childhood, the very ruggedness and stability of these speaking a kind of peace to my soul much like looking at the stars at night. Loved ones and friends pass away, life changes, but there is always the need for some stability in our lives, something we can hold on to as a kind of center to the personal world each of us lives in, an anchor for the soul if you will that enables us to keep on keeping on.
America is in chaos because of a failed and betraying leadership, our borders wide open with no hope of their being secured short of cataclysmic events demanding they be closed, lawlessness abounds and our laws are a travesty of any form of justice as the rich and powerful use the courts for their own purposes while ridiculing those attempting to live honestly, our educational system is beyond any hope of educating the great majority of children as we are being told by government to expect the standard of living in America to decline.
It is remarkable when I think back to the America I used to know, an America that held so much promise for the future. Now, a rocking chair and a well-worn Bible in my hands, the mountains all about me and the stars at night, the memories of loved ones and friends now in heaven are the things that sustain me. Among the changes over a lifetime no longer having to blow out a coal oil lamp before climbing into bed, no longer having to use an outside privy or pump water by hand from a well, no longer having to use a fireplace and wood cook stove for heating and cooking, an icebox for perishables or a windup Victrola for music. I don’t miss the hardships of the simple life, but I miss the people and the things that made such hardships endurable, even pleasant at times.
Somehow I don’t think people today are going to wear as well as my generation did as the hard times begin to set in with a dreadful earnestness. Too many know nothing of the simple life with all its hardships I knew growing up, and too many do not have those loved ones with their unwavering faith in God now gone on before them to keep precious memories alive. People today are used to all the conveniences of modern living, but for the greater part are totally unprepared for really hard times. A society that has come to depend on government taking care of them is ill-prepared for a government no longer capable of taking care of them in the manner to which people have become accustomed.
There are those faulting Governor Sarah Palin for some of her Biblical beliefs, but such people are for the greater part ignorant of the Bible and most have no theological education in academic Biblical studies. And there are those that are downright envious of her having an anchor for her soul, for having beliefs that transcend anything this world has to offer, for her hope of a better world the Bible promises in the future for those whose faith in God is unwavering.
The scenario for the End Times is that of a one-world government. No one need be a Bible believer or theologian to understand this is the direction the world seems to be headed. After all, can the world afford to risk nuclear annihilation over the religious hatreds of nations like Iran and Pakistan? Can the world afford to risk nuclear Armageddon over oil? In the face of so much fear and uncertainty it is only realistic to accept the most powerful of world leaders will do what is necessary to thwart the risk of nuclear war, even if it means America should become a nation of slaves.
It isn’t possible the tiny nation of Israel could figure so prominently in world affairs, so much so that Iran’s mad mullah threatens to wipe it off the map even at the risk of nuclear war with Russia collaborating! But there it is, a fact that the Bible emphasizes and won’t go away, that Israel is a key element to the End Times of the Bible. But the Bible has much to say about the events that are coming to pass today, events that cause me to believe we are indeed living in the last days.
I have my rocking chair and Bible, the mountains all about, my anticipation of joining loved ones and friends in heaven, the old gospel hymns with which I was raised that continue to bless my soul, these alone are cause enough for many to be envious of me. Scholars are still puzzling over the pyramids and Stonehenge, there is the Doomsday Calendar and problems with the Large Hadron Collider, mysteries from the ancient past continue to confound, but for those of us just like Governor Palin there is assurance to be found in the Bible that God is still in control of his universe and will see it all comes right in the end. In the meantime all the children of God will continue as they always have, to put their trust in God though this engenders much hatred from the children of the Devil.
