A WORLD GONE MAD!
MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY
“But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Numbers 14:21
In some ways it was just another week on planet earth. I was still debriefing from our trip to Shanghai last Sunday when gun shots filled the air on yet ANOTHER SHOOTING in New Orleans on Mother’s Day no less. Between the Benghazi attack in Libya, the acting commissioner of IRS resigning for targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and the Justice Dept. seizure of Associated Press phone records one can get dizzy on which scandal to get upset about. Then, buried underneath all that hoopla, we must and cannot forget the House of Horrors abortion clinic where they were killing and putting in the freezer precious babies without restraint for years. I was upset about the Christians in China being persecuted along with the babies that are abandoned because of the one child rule when in reality it’s just a world without Christ. To make us feel better the DALAI LAMA came to town and uptowners put up their Tibetan prayer banners to welcome him. Let us also not forget the ever constant tension with Israel. Yes, its another day on planet earth.
Isaiah must have faced similar issues when he cried out in the first verse of Is.64 these words: “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.” We too make this cry-please come down!
Yet somehow in all of this madness, I feel destiny all around me. It was such a surreal feeling to be standing in a city of 23 million people (Shanghai with 1.5 billion population in China) and be told that we couldn’t have our conference. All it did was empower all of us to go “boldly where no man has gone”. I felt destiny calling me when I get up in the morning to start my daily run through Audubon Park and onto whatever happens to come my way. Paul always relived his Damascus road experience and considered his life a race, an offering well pleasing to God as his spiritual sacrifice. Last Friday I had the honor of seeing a church member’s mother go on to meet The Lord. My sister had the glory of God all over her face as she retold the precious last days she was able to spend with her mom. Once again I was meeting destiny face to face.
How are you responding to this changing world that to be honest is getting quite out of hand? Sometimes I too love to keep my head in the sand. But when the world goes mad, we better find our place and feel the taste of destiny. It’s all around you.