The multiplication of knowledge
and unceasing technological innovation is not equivalent to the multiplication
of wisdom. Indeed the rapid changes in technology, and its corollary of
increased complexity in human civilisation, means that our old maps to personal
fulfilment and happiness stand in need of radical re-visioning.
The ability to gratify every
material want will not, in and of itself, generate happiness. Such purely
material achievements cannot satisfy the souls’ deep need for truth, beauty,
goodness, meaning, value, love, hope, unity, belonging, peace, to mention but a
few of her necessities. We need to learn anew to ‘Seek first the Kin-dom’ - to
discover the Great WHY – to discover for ourselves, by ourselves and within
ourselves, the reality of the Father and His unending love. All other things
are merely husks.
Any nation that fails to affirm
and overtly promote the pursuit of wisdom as one of the first goals and primary
duties of every citizen is, by default, covertly dedicated to promoting the
pursuit of folly, thereby do nations and peoples court social, cultural,
economic and political disaster.
We are a ‘hard-headed and
stiff-necked’ people. Such stubbornness and pride can have only one outcome,
tragedy. By refusing to hear the words of the wise we invite unimaginable
suffering into our lives; in the greatness of our folly we explore every path
and thereby garner for ourselves every pain, suffer every heartache, and so agony – the great
enemy of apathy - will drive us in search of that peace which is the flower of
enlightenment. Thus do we see that it is ‘only through much tribulation that
many will enter the Kin-dom’. Consequently, I am left pondering – is world-wide
tragedy a precursor to world-wide enlightenment? Is world war a preliminary to
world peace? Is injustice, executed on a global level a pre-requisite to the realisation
of global justice? Do we really have to go that far before we
realise our folly? Do we really have to foist that much suffering on the heads
of our unsuspecting children? Must they suffer the consequence of our
selfishness, ignorance, and foolishness? How long must we wait before the ‘people will no longer say, ‘The
fathers have eaten sour grapes, but the children's teeth have been set on edge.’’
Jer. 31:29.
