Chuckle, rotflmao! chuckle .. yup! .. Obama's, 'political realities while governing just DON'T MATTER!' .. yup, result is the only thing that matters .. all the .. Obama is no different from Bush .. the whole system is against us .. from the beginning .. and the other DeMint meme .. we will oppose no matter what .. yep, i remember the attitudes and invective of those 'libertarians' .. the paranoia of so many conservatives .. either totally delusional and/or disingenuous clap-trap .. FREEDOM! .. yes, as a post recently mentioned .. http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?Message_id=46333847&txt2find=authoritarian .. most of these people are authoritarian by nature ..
I'm horrified, just now, to read of the need to raid the militia .. at the same time 'happy' to see it happening .. no, not surprised, but sad to see the reality of the need ..
Assuming the militia are God fearing people they must be so disappointed that God is forsaking them again .. the most angry, most thoughtless who have this CONFLICT, the most OUR WAY OR NO WAY, have no other way out, but violence .. others handle their self-inflicted conflict in more reasonable and, less irrational ways ..
Many face 'Garden of Gethsemane moments' of doubt: Terry Pluto's Faith and You By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer March 27, 2010
Not long after Mother Teresa died, some of her letters became public. In them, she talked about feeling distant from God.
"The silence and the emptiness is so great," she wrote to her spiritual adviser. "I look and do not see ... Listen and do not hear ... the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me -- that I let Him have [a] free hand."
Time magazine cited that quote a few years ago in a story about Mother Teresa's "crisis of faith."
Other writers used her doubts about what God was doing -- or even if God was paying attention -- to dismiss faith entirely. Some even hinted that she was a bit of a phony because while she seemed so upbeat in her public appearances, it was a different story in the dead of night -- at least, based on some of her letters.
A reader that I'll call Sam to protect his privacy e-mailed: "My wife left me. She told me that she stopped loving me years ago AND that her heart told her it was time to go ... I wish I could make a deal with God: 'I'll give myself to you if you give my wife back to me ...' I know it doesn't work that way ..."
We don't know what triggered Mother Teresa's despair, but it's not hard to guess. Her ministry in India was to care for the poor, the forgotten, the sick, and finally, the dying.
For Sam, it was the death of a marriage, the feelings of regret, rejection and abandonment.
I thought of these two stories when reading through Matthew's account of the Easter story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus knows he's about to be arrested. He knows that his father in heaven has asked him to die on the cross. He asks his friends to pray, but Peter, James and John fall asleep three times.
Matthew wrote in Chapter 26, verses 37-38: "[Jesus] began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'"
But his friends remain asleep and after three requests through prayer, Jesus accepts God's will -- to be crucified.
When Mother Teresa wrote that "the silence and emptiness is so great," she seems to echo the feelings of Jesus in the garden. She asks her adviser to pray for her, just as Jesus asked his friends. And just as Sam asked me, in his e-mail.
Real, honest to God faith, is raw and uncensored. It's King David writing in Psalm 142: "Look to my right and see, no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge, no one cares for my life."
The book of Psalms seems to scream of despair. Sometimes they whine. Sometimes they weep. Sometimes they praise, but there seems to be far more pain.
Having recently written about parents who have children with disabilities, many of them confessed to have their own Garden of Gethsemane moments.
Tony e-mailed about how through prayer he and his wife moved from asking "Why us?" when their child was born with Down syndrome to recognizing "God has blessed us."
Tony wrote: "Not many regular kids who would say, in the middle of the day; 'Papa, let's pray for So-and-So' ... then sit and fold his hands in prayer. Or 'Papa, I think Mama needs a hug' (especially if mama and I have had words).... He also told the principal she had a nice butt!"
Sometimes -- even when our "friends" are gone or asleep -- prayer carries us to where we need to go. But it's also OK to admit the road is dark and lonely, just as Jesus did.
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