Peace Possible or Not

So much of my life has been directed to the ideas of peace on earth.

To look around the world, it definitely seems that peace on earth is not even a flicker in the hearts and minds of most people. I weep for the constant tragedies that flash across the tv screens and incessant alerts on my phone. As my daddy used to say, "The world is going to hell in a handbasket."

From time to time I consider the idea that this world is 3rd grade for souls, and we cannot change its basic ways because the next batch of souls needs 3rd grade too.

Pick a time in history, any time, and see the same themes. The same themes for individuals span across all times and space on earth. People yearn for love, yet hate rises up. People yearn for safety but wars come regularly. People yearn for justice, but far too often injustice is what happens. The same themes bind together groups, tribes or nations in hopes and gross failures. This or that group has ideals and dreams, then some charismatic person rises up and tells them the only way is to destroy the "other," and then their dreams can come true. Then, once again everyone loses.

We seem satisfied with incongruity. We may say the words, "God is Love," but we then turn and act in unloving ways. We may admire those who try to bring us together to awaken spiritually, but we sit by and see them killed or silenced in some way. We may cry on certified times about how unfair it was to do this or that to a spiritually great person or group, but we keep on eliminating great and small anyway. Weeping for Jesus on Good Friday, for example, does not excuse us from "crucifying" someone today verbally or literally.

I'm not sure why all this keeps happening. Are we humans incapable from noting what causes reap what effects? Are we blind to history? Are we so ignorant and lacking in thinking skills that we follow any loud voice? What ails us?

I'm thinking maybe it's partially that no one told us that we need to practice spirituality just as surely as we practice the piano or the times table, or anything else we want to learn. I think we could each think of what touchstone idea/s is dear to us. Say, for example, compassion, which is generally accepted as being an essential part of any spiritually awake life. Then pay attention to ourselves to notice when we are or are not living as compassion - and then bring ourselves back into alignment with compassion. Practice living consistently the great ideas we say we hold dear until we actually are walking, talking examples of those very things.

I wonder how many people we could get into regular spiritual practice so that we all become the spiritual being God created in the first place and therefore produce a world that would exhibit all aspects of the Kingdom of God.

Lord, You show me so much, and my heart is troubled by what I see. Lead me to the ideas and actions that would open up the hearts and minds across this land to live as Your children. I know each person is Yours. Help me to cherish each person. each animal, each plant as Your amazing creation, imbued with a Spark of You.