It is hard to believe that the movie Forest Gump came out in 1994. It was a great movie, sort of a parody about life - something that almost everyone could relate to in some way. The most famous quote from the movie, "Life is like a box of chocolates," still offers insights into a true philosophy for life. Watch this clip and remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJh59vZ8ccc&feature=related
I am taking the same approach to this Sunday's message entitled: "Life is like a hockey game: you get three periods to play and the objective is to win." This raises the question: what does it mean to win at life? Wow! That opens a "box of chocolates" to a host of philosophies from economic success to simply staying alive. Of course this depends from what part of the world you may exist. I can only imagine what the simple dreams for life and success for a young child in Somalia might be: To eat at least one meal a day, to live in a house, and to have clean water to drink.
On the other hand the dreams of children from this part of the world (Canada) are much more extravagant. Success for them is to become something great, to have endless amounts of money to spend, and to own a beautiful home and an awesome car.
There seems to be a subliminal unfairness in the world when it comes to these type of philosophies for life and success. I say subliminal because for the most part we are not aware of the unfairness. It's not that we couldn't be but rather we choose not to be. How fair is it to say to an Ethiopian mother who is trying to nurse her child but her breasts are dry: "Well, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get."
Oh how I wish we could be more fair about life around the world and that there would be one common philosophy for life and success for everybody. We would each take from the same box of chocolates - a level playing field for all.
I haven't said much about my message title: "Life is like a hockey game: You get three periods to play and the objective is to win." But it will be much like Forest Gump's philosophical expression in order to be relevant to the life that most of us live in Eastern Canada. This is my world and my people and I am called to be the pastor of the sheep of this flock here in the Hatchet Lake area. For the most part we keep ourselves worlds away from the extreme sufferings of the world don't we. Hummm!!!
May God have mercy.
-Leo
Friday, January 13, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
A Cynics Sacrasm
The weirdest thing happened as I awoke this morning.
I guess it is an indication of what has been on my mind lately. I have been doing a lot of deep thinking about the predominant North American attitude toward the famine in the Horn of Africa. I read in an article the other day how in the 1980's there was a huge outpouring of support for relief in Africa from singers/song writers and other famous people. The song "We Are the World" alone made 64 million dollars. But nothing significant has happened of that nature in regard to the current famine in Africa.
The question is Why? The current famine is more severe than the previous one. Why is the world not responding as it has in the past?
Back to the weird thing. I am not typically a cynic, and I'm certainly not a lover of rap. But the words that popped into my head were of a cynical rapping nature. It went something like this:
People are starving in Africa
My breakfast is almost ready.
People are starving in Africa,
The toaster just popped, who cares.
People are hungry in Africa,
I'm reading the paper right now.
There's nothing in here about Africa,
Good gravy my stocks are down.
Who cares about the people in Africa,
Gotta get to work and make some bread,
Who cares about the people in Africa,
I care about myself instead.
I thought to myself, "Why have I become so cynical?" Lately I have been posting status updates on the Plight of the Horn of Africa on my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I have probably posted at least 50 updates over the last coouple of months. Hardly a single "like" has been registered or a "comment" posted in reply. So Monday I posted this status: "Over the summer months of 2011, 30,000 children under the age of five died as a result of starvation in the Horn of Africa. Doesn't anybody care?" I received two comments saying, "I do." One from a lady in Halifax and another from my eleven year old granddaughter.
I suspect that some of my friends on Facebook have blocked me because of my forthright approach. I once knew a lady who would turn off her TV whenever a Charity organization advertisement came on so she wouldn't have to feel guilty.
I must confess though I was once like that - if I could keep myself from becoming aware I wouldn't have to deal with it. I think, generally speaking, this is the attitude of our North American culture: "Out of sight, out of mind." Do the people of Africa actually exist? One would wonder when you consider the frivolous things that occupy our minute by minute thinking. Some of the Facebook statuses I've read over the years have been quite ridiculous: "I cut my fingernails today."
Forgive me for my rantings, but sometimes there needs to be a bit of sarcasm in preaching in order to face the cold-hard reality of what we are really like and who we really are (I'm speaking in general terms of course). "Doesn't anybody care?"
Later,
-Leo
I guess it is an indication of what has been on my mind lately. I have been doing a lot of deep thinking about the predominant North American attitude toward the famine in the Horn of Africa. I read in an article the other day how in the 1980's there was a huge outpouring of support for relief in Africa from singers/song writers and other famous people. The song "We Are the World" alone made 64 million dollars. But nothing significant has happened of that nature in regard to the current famine in Africa.
The question is Why? The current famine is more severe than the previous one. Why is the world not responding as it has in the past?
Back to the weird thing. I am not typically a cynic, and I'm certainly not a lover of rap. But the words that popped into my head were of a cynical rapping nature. It went something like this:
People are starving in Africa
My breakfast is almost ready.
People are starving in Africa,
The toaster just popped, who cares.
People are hungry in Africa,
I'm reading the paper right now.
There's nothing in here about Africa,
Good gravy my stocks are down.
Who cares about the people in Africa,
Gotta get to work and make some bread,
Who cares about the people in Africa,
I care about myself instead.
I thought to myself, "Why have I become so cynical?" Lately I have been posting status updates on the Plight of the Horn of Africa on my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I have probably posted at least 50 updates over the last coouple of months. Hardly a single "like" has been registered or a "comment" posted in reply. So Monday I posted this status: "Over the summer months of 2011, 30,000 children under the age of five died as a result of starvation in the Horn of Africa. Doesn't anybody care?" I received two comments saying, "I do." One from a lady in Halifax and another from my eleven year old granddaughter.
I suspect that some of my friends on Facebook have blocked me because of my forthright approach. I once knew a lady who would turn off her TV whenever a Charity organization advertisement came on so she wouldn't have to feel guilty.
I must confess though I was once like that - if I could keep myself from becoming aware I wouldn't have to deal with it. I think, generally speaking, this is the attitude of our North American culture: "Out of sight, out of mind." Do the people of Africa actually exist? One would wonder when you consider the frivolous things that occupy our minute by minute thinking. Some of the Facebook statuses I've read over the years have been quite ridiculous: "I cut my fingernails today."
Forgive me for my rantings, but sometimes there needs to be a bit of sarcasm in preaching in order to face the cold-hard reality of what we are really like and who we really are (I'm speaking in general terms of course). "Doesn't anybody care?"
Later,
-Leo
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