We know these people exist because, if we are to be honest with ourselves, we all can remember moments when that person was us, when we fell short.
Rejoice always, but don't forget the admonition to pray without ceasing. We will always fall short, but we can search for the strength to pull ourselves and each other closer to that standard of loving through action and acting out of love.
That standard has never been more important, as we face the reality of life on the slope down. We may laugh at apocalyptic talk of the end times, but we are living in times that are marked by systems and ways of living that are coming to an end. It is the end of the empire, the end of cheap energy, the end of careless and carefree consumption, the end of so much that we have come to take for granted in the affluent world.
I am not nostalgic about those systems. In fact, I am glad to see the end of most of what we have come to call "the good life," for it never struck me as all that good, at least not for most people and other living things. The problem is that the unraveling of those systems and ways of living is likely to bring immense suffering and destruction -- beyond the levels we see today -- if not in our lifetimes then most certainly in the generation after us. Even if we are personally insulated from the worst of it, we will watch this human betrayal of Creation play out all around us.
If we can watch that and not feel anguish, then we will have surrendered our own humanity. To be human today -- to live fully alive -- is to embrace that anguish. I see no other choice.
We all need a philosophy, a theology, a worldview to deal with this. Call it radical humanism, as Abe did. Call it Christianity, as we do. Call it whatever you like, so long as you answer the call to live your own life in solidarity, as love in action. That task has never been easy for people, and it has never been harder than in the anguish of end times.
We cannot know what lies ahead, we can only love and act.
No matter what lies ahead, we can rejoice always. We can pray without ceasing.
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