Amazing Grace and my God the turkey vulture

Amazing Grace and my God the Turkey Vulture!
Today I woke up early to that annoying little beep from the smoke sensor in the bedroom. Annoying but necessary to keep the home safe. Kind of like the still small voice which guides each of us through life. In some ways it is easier to ignore the still small voice since you have a choice to just not respond. In the case of the smoke alarm, since it has a hard wired backup, if you don’t respond it will just keep beeping, screeching would be more appropriate, until you deal with the dying battery.
This past week I’ve been neglectful of this record of my thoughts. Not so much that I’ve not had them but just cause of being busy. We had the Presidents second “State of the Union” speech. I know that he is under a lot of heat on several fronts but I do hope that we as a nation can allow him to pursue the paths he seems to be led toward. I have said much about my confidence in his abilities but no one person can do all. It does take cooperation to just “Get it Done”. We all need a “can do” outlook. I am not naive to the tension of our two party system and to the fact that there are logical and valid reasons for both focuses of power in government. In an abstract world the concept of totally free market ideals could effectively run the world and reward individual initiative. I am however of the opinion that this abstract is less than practical in today’s nation and world picture. And after the past several years of something close to this abstract I believe the proof is there as well. And where is it stated so clear that incentive has to be of a pecuniary nature. It was just disappointing to see the degree of polarity so obvious still in the house chamber the other night. I hope his efforts to move the discussion and action out to the public forum will bear good fruit.
The last few Fridays I’ve been attending a discussion group at a SOU “off campus” location called the “Omega” house. Not sure why the name but the facilitator is very well read and quite the speaker. Most of the participants are very well read as well. As a matter of fact I’ve felt very much out of my league philosophically speaking but I continue to go in the hope that the exposure will help my knowledge quotient. This past week a woman who seems to work with Rich, the facilitator, in one of the “student” groups (as opposed to the old folks) made an interesting comment. She referred to the bottom line in many of these discussions as being “Duh”. As if to say that the answers are really very basic. I felt better with that comment as that would be my opinion as well. It is good to be knowledgeable of the work of all these great thinkers of our history, and the present, but due to today’s world condition I’m not so sure of the efficacy of all this great thought when it comes down to the bottom line. Maybe simple is better. Knowledge is good, Love is better!
I never cease to be amazed with my pastor at Grace. He has a truly God given ability to put together a great sermon. I know that he an I are approaching many theological themes differently. I am sure that is attributed to our different life experiences but I am also of the belief that at a very substantive level we are very similar. Probably most significant is in the area of the pervasiveness of God’s Grace present to is all. Besides him, that name of “Grace” is a prime reason for my continued presence at this church community. So today after that still small screech woke me up Pastor Tim was speaking of that mysterious nature of God in working with us as His creation in such a myriad of ways to help us experience His Grace. He drew a parallel, as I saw it, between a shipwreck of Paul in Acts(we're all in the same boat), the outreach of a secular college doing good works, the beauty of Jazz (think “Blue like Jazz”), and the ability of one of Gods creations(the turkey buzzard) to sniff out and glean good from the decay of life. The ability and willingness of our God to be with us in all of life’s circumstances via His Grace. Be it a mission to Mexico, an earthquake, a flood, the plight of the worlds poor and oppressed. I guess you just had to be there. To me it points up some of the many paradoxes we are faced with in this existence and I think I’ve written too much already for this posting so I’ll leave the rest of my thoughts for later. Peace and Love to all! Believe that! Please! Roberto