by Edward Hurcheson

Listening to talk shows we get a lot of useful advice about life and living and one of the nuggets we often get is heard in the adage of “prayer changes things”. We are reliably informed that it works and has good application when we wake up early in the morning and don’t feel like going to work, or we try to get to work and the car is not starting, or we get on the road and some idiot cuts us off in traffic or we get to work and the boss or a co-worker is intent on getting on that last “nerb” even before we have prayed to that first cup of coffee. We are told that if we do it correctly, we will have a change in attitude and things will go better and that this positivity will go a long way in promoting a sense of well-being within us and the community we find ourselves in. There is only one problem, it is not too clear on who we are to pray to and the “higher power” often referred to does not seem to have an interest in what is going on in the real world. The real world where the persons who cause all the mischief are very at ease in their surroundings and they attend the local Church where they claim God resides. Ironically, most of them drive into or drive out of the communities where their churches are located, every Sunday, and are not involved in their Church, residential communities.

The problem with “media” is that you can find a bandaid for anything that ails you, and there are voices, popular voices that inform us that things are not as bad as they seem or worse than they actually are, and, you have just got to pull your socks up and exercise personal responsibility. While that is commendable, there is an underlying problem that none of us are keen to deal with. What if there is a problem on the inside that is related to our emotional poverty and personal ignorance; the kind of poverty and ignorance that we promote within the community through our excuses and explanations. The other day I heard a talk show host whom I admire, agree with a local pastor, that the angel Gabriel fathered Jesus Christ; I surmised that his was a scientific explanation he arrived at based on the information that was before him.

Life can be a vacuous existence if we allow personal ignorance and emotional poverty to rule us and those we care for. If we allow its continuation we promote a culture where every “new thing” gets our attention and we have a case of the “itching ear”; content to scratch at what is outside of us instead of dealing with those internal issues that we should really be praying about and seeking counsel for. We have gotten so “dumbed down” that we believe that help from the “numbers man” and help from God are one and the same. The help I would like to see is the kind that is on going and not the seasonal promises that disappear into vapour if there is a change in public opinion. There are many Churches that have “established programs” in inner city communities that will result in the dispelling of ignorance and poverty and because these programs go against the grain of all the “fluff” we are hearing, they probably will not get the air or media time they deserve. But then, thankfully, there are some people who have to live in the real world and they really do not need coffee to wake them up, they have become fully aware of what is going on around them, and every day they get up, they really try to do something about it.

September 3, 2012