Thursday 8 May 2014

The signs of the times

Friends, I think this is the most important article I have ever read.

I found it hard to read and hard to face. For some time I have been hoping it wasn’t true, wasn’t happening, could be avoided. I no longer think so.

Now I see I have to move my thinking on. The cultivation of simplicity, kindness, quietness, wisdom, understanding, spiritual strength, and peace, has sharpened from advisability to urgent necessity.


I am not at all sure I have the resources for all that lies ahead.  But I think of the words of Jesus: “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” (John 12:35-36)

7 comments:

Sandra Ann said...

Sobering reading. The author's take on the human mindset regarding threat was interesting, yes we are very good at playing down the probable effects of a crisis, I guess no-one wants to admit the stark reality ... anhilation.

Keep walking in the light must be our watch word.

Hugs San x

gretchen said...

hard reading. it's so distressing to realise what we have done to this beautiful earth that has been intrusted to our care. we need lives of prayer and simplicity and good stewardship.

Katrina Green said...

Thanks for posting this link Pen. I've been grappling with similar drastic conclusions about the inevitable collapse of life as we know it from a different source. Even after accepting the reality of the situation, it is difficult to prepare oneself for unknown ramifications or to bear it alone while others around are in denial. The article helps in this, especially part two. It's interesting how the writer links anxiety disorders and eventual depression to environmental matters. It makes me feel a bit more normal (ahead of the game instead of trampled by it!)

Jenna said...

Hmm. I read this and see prophecy becoming reality. And that's just flat-out exciting to me. I don't buy imprecise environmental science with its Uriah Heep handwringing and fear-mongering and, quite frankly, environmental idol-worship. Clearly, there are staggering changes occurring and now we get to blame humanity instead of judgment (for at the very, very least not abiding by giving the land its Sabbaths)--putting ourselves in the sovereign's seat to the very last.

Luke 21:36 Yeshua has just gone over quite fearsome events to come. In addition to telling us--commanding us--not to be terrified, He says, "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." I'm not a rapturist, but YHVH didn't say to people, "Come, be my Bride, so I can beat the daylights out of you and then we'll go to dinner." The children of Israel were bothered by only 3 of the 10 plagues that came to their Egyptian countrymen and, as a picture of The Greater Exodus, I think we can expect the same IF we are counted as His.

gail said...

Thank you for posting this Pen. I feel it all comes back to greed and the fact that we are content through laziness to think that our governments should fix all the problems. At this point I think it is up to us as individuals to do what we can and to keep educating our children to nurture this wonderful planet. We must start thinking how we have depleted the earths resources. To survive we would need a massive turn around and that would have to be a turning back to God.
Do I think that will happen? Quite frankly I don't and isn't that such a sad reflexion on us as humans.
So what can I do? I must be more diligent and tread very lightly with what we have left.
With God all things are possible.
Blessings Gail.

Anonymous said...

Whatever the future holds, I wholeheartedly agree that the cultivation of simplicity, kindness, quietness, wisdom, understanding, spiritual strength and peace are vital. Meanwhile, I continue to hold an open mind about the future of the planet. This is not what the author of this paper refers to as 'denial' so much as an acknowledgement that there is so much we don't know about climate change.

I remember my mother saying, back in the days of the cold war, when everyone was talking about the nuclear threat, that she didn't believe God would allow us to destroy the planet. Whilst I don't have the courage to make such an emphatic statement, it's something I have held in my heart ever since. Whilst I don't doubt for a second the destructive potential of human beings, it strikes me as somewhat arrogant to assume that (i) we can predict the future with any certainty and (ii) the future of the planet depends entirely on us.

Concerning climate change, it's worth noting that there are some inaccuracies in the article. For example, the following statement is simply untrue: "But if there is any pattern to climate revelations over the last decade (the hottest on record, with each successive year being hotter than the last), it is this: reality continues to outstrip our ability to model worst-case scenarios, and it is all happening much faster than anticipated." The reality is that, contrary to previous predictions, there has been NO rise in global temperature for more than a decade. Similarly, the paper touted by the media as predicting the reduction of summer Arctic ice to zero by 2016, simply emphasised that ALL current models (providing dates from 2016 through to 2100) were inadequate for the task. We don't know enough to make such predictions.

This doesn't mean that we should do nothing. It's more about cultivating wisdom in the face of a very uncertain future...

Alice Y. said...

Thanks for posting this Pen. It's hard stuff, and difficult for anyone to face up to in the midst of culture which seems to know nothing but 'business as usual'.

Whether humanity survives this time of crisis or not, I feel I must live as I understand God wants us to. Knowing others with a similar understanding of the times we live in is a real help.