Few know of my religious background or my beliefs. Mainly this is because I’m a fairly private person and I’m respectful of the religious beliefs of others. I would characterize myself as more of a spiritual person over a religious person. The person I speak to the most on religious questions is my mom. Her faith is deep and she is open to my questions, and my questioning, of her faith and beliefs.
A couple of months ago, I was worried about the behavior of my kids, of kids in general, and of how people are treating one another at the time I spoke with her, and behavior which continues now. She listened and showed me the following Bible verse:
This verse spoke to me, and in many ways comforted me, because of how it relates to what my observations are of life in general during this period of time.
We are living in a time when people only care about themselves. Think about the protests going on right now about having to shelter-in-place to help protect our neighbors and our society. It is more important to them to be able to get a haircut, have their nails done, or go where they want without regard of the people around them. These are also good examples of people without self-control.
There are examples galore about people being lovers of money. The man in the Oval Office wants to reopen the country because it is affecting the stock market and the economy. Billionaires pay little to no taxes and have tax laws to benefit their companies. Many billionaires, and even just plain old millionaires, do not give to charity unless it will benefit them or will get their name in the media. Rarely is it done just to be altruistic to care for the downtrodden.
The man in the Oval Office is an excellent, and sad, example of being boastful and haughty, has no natural affection and is puffed up with pride. This applies to more politicians than not as well, as well as many big business heads, media personalities and entertainers.
Children are disobedient to their parents. I am appalled at times how my own children have thought they can treat me, my husband and relatives. This occurs even after we have done as much as possible to show them right from wrong, how to be respectful, how important family is, and how we should treat everyone well and help those in need of assistance. I’ve been shocked more than once by how some of the students I’ve taught treated their parents as well, and the stories of many of the people I know and how their children treat them and others.
Having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power speaks to the behavior of so many of our religious leaders. Leaders who proclaim one should follow scripture, but give a pass to other religious or political leaders who do not follow the word of God when it suits their beliefs to do so. Televangelists who ask for more and more of people’s money, then use the money to go on lavish vacations and own multi-million dollars mansions, and yet many of their followers have a hard time making ends meet, is another example.
Just today there was an example of without love of goodness. The Tyson meat packing plant in Black Hawk Iowa is still open, even though many of its workers have become ill with COVID-19. The Iowa Governor won’t shut the plant down to allow time to clean the plant and come up with protocols in order to provide a safe working environment for its workers. Voter suppression falls under this to me as it is a blatant act of racism and classism to keep voters from the polls. Jeff Bezos, when he wanted Whole Food workers to pay for colleagues’ sick leave when they have contracted COVID-19, rather than doing the right thing and Amazon/Whole Foods paying for it, is an excellent example of being without love of goodness.
I’m not sure yet what any of this means. Are we in the end days? Well, I think we’ve been there for a while, but not in the biblical sense. Are we living through the beginning of Armageddon? I don’t think so, but I’m also not sure if I’m the right person to ask.
All I believe or feel, is that we are living this verse right now.
I welcome respectful discourse.
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 