I'm becoming more and more fatalistic in my outlook at this world as I grow older. It's probably related to my lean toward apocalyptic theology as I have noted earlier in this space. It's also probably due to my understanding that this world, as Jesus noted, is passing away. As much as I enjoy life and the blessings from the Lord that I continue to receive, I do know that one day this life will end for me and then new life will begin. And many times I feel that when that time comes I must pass with joy onto the next life.

I say this again due to the Shiavo case. I'm feeling more and more that while the government needs to stay out of this and while I wish that the husband would just leave the parents to care for her, I also feel that they are holding on too tight to this life. (I think the time, money, and energy they are putting into this case could be better used to rescuing slaves from bondage around the world or sexually abused children from their parents or other adults. Those don't make as good of nightime programming though.) I don't know their religious convictions or beliefs, but I think if I was in that circumstance I would want to go and be with my Father. The following Scripture is on my heart:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Again, I wish I could look with optimism upon this world, but it's just not the case. I just finished watching "Cold Mountain" with Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellweger. (If you haven't seen the movie and plan on watching it, I am about to ruin the ending, so stop reading!) I really enjoyed the movie, and I was pleased to see in the end that Jude Law died. I say that because more often than not that is how life plays out. The main characters rarely live, we read about the happy stories but they are the exception rather than the norm. Same with Natalie Portman's character. That part almost brought tears to my eyes with the baby and the near rape. But in real life, I'm sorry to say that she probably gets raped and the baby probably dies. I read some time ago in the Sudan, particularly the Darfur region, the men will not leave the village to get food or supplies because they will be killed. The women have to go because the soldiers will only rape the women and let them return to the village. We know writing about the Nazi's in WWII that they would often throw the baby's in the air and use them for target practice. I'm sure that still goes on today. We know that in some parts of the world the children are forced to walk through the mine fields so they don't blow up the soldiers. If the children die, Oops, sorry! How terrible! Yet unfortunately, how true.

As I finish this blog, I am asking myself why I just wrote what I did. I really don't know, but this has been on my heart of late. I think by realizing the type of world that we live in and continuously coming back to the truth about it, we are more apt to reach out to the world and help those who have not been as blessed as I or most people in America are. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but it sure keeps coming up in my mind.