Living in the Spirit

June 18, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Jeremiah 20:7-13

O Lord, you have enticed me,
   and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
   and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
   everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
   I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the Lord has become for me
   a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
   or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
   shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
   and I cannot. –Jeremiah 20:7-9

I sense a bit how Jeremiah might feel. I tend to identify more, at least with the words, describing John the Baptist, as one crying out in the wilderness. I am stupefied wondering how I see the events of our world so totally different than others. Thus, my ideas of how to address problems are almost the very opposite of others with little room for compromise or negotiation.

• Solve poverty, including the provision of readily accessible affordable health care, and you will markedly decrease the incidence of none-medically necessary abortion. Making abortion illegal or trying to shame desperate people away from it just exacerbates the problem.
• Rewrite our immigration laws to make it simple to process work permits for needed workers ensuring that they are paid the minimum wage with benefits. They could even pay income taxes. The reason we cannot implement a simple system is because some people make a lot of money working undocumented persons below minimum wage with no benefits. This is not fair to them nor is it fair to USA citizen who must be paid minimum wage with benefits and pay taxes.
• Refugees exist because their homelands have become uninhabitable for a variety of reason. Helping to address those reason would let people stay where they are. In the meantime, we need to care for and protect refugees that come to our country for help.  Most of our ancestors arrived here as immigrants and some came because of oppression. We are the better for their contributions to our society.
• Regarding criminal justice, solving poverty will also positively impact criminal justice. Improving our mental health systems across the board will address many of the problems the police are not trained to address. Providing restorative services rather than punishment will also help. Eliminating private prisons will remove the greed that drives our incarceration rate to number 1 in the world.

 Prayer: Lord, help us find common ground for the common good. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.