It is an angry world I wake up to every morning.  As with all things human, I'm sure it is no more angry now than at any other time in history. We just have the ability to express that anger to a wider audience.  Our computers, our smartphones, and tablets become the vehicle of our anger, giving it greater distance than ever before.  The plumber who used to gripe to one or two people, go home, and live in relative anonymity can take their 140 character rants to a far ranging public and at least feel significant.  Instead of being some kind of cathartic release, though, it becomes the fuel for an ever increasing fire.  No one is spared the righteous indignation, nor is any fire too small to fan into a raging inferno. 
I've been writing these blogs as a release for my own need to be significant and relevant to a world that seems to be spinning out of control into chaos.  Finding the peace of God in the midst of an angry world is simply a matter of turning off the noise.  I no longer watch broadcast news of any persuasion. I did this a few years ago, and found my attitude became much better.  As an admitted christian conservative I found myself grinding my teeth, yelling at the TV, and despising people I didn't even know.  I could pick and choose what I wanted to read, or watch through the internet, so I became very selective.  Then came the 2016 elections!    I had to stop reading everything.   Then the campaigns found Facebook.  There was no place safe from the vitriol coming from both parties of our government.  So, two weeks ago I completely closed down my Facebook account. 
That doesn't stop me from being concerned about the direction our nation is headed.  While the 'left' would have us believe that there is a 'white supremacist' behind every corner, I see more evidence for an energized Anti-fa than I do for a sleeping KKK. 
Probably the greatest sorrow I feel is for the educators in our colleges, universities, and even high schools.  For being so highly educated, they have forgotten what happened to the educators in Russia, and China during their respective purges.  I mean, it's only minor history.  Something like the teachers being the first ones to be killed.  Anarchy is a monster that devours its own.  So, I pray.  I pray for love and compassion to once again rule the hearts and lives of Americans.  Will I see it?  I don't know.  Right now, as I'm writing this, I can see a squirrel scampering across the top of our fence toward a tree.  He is carrying a huge walnut in his mouth and looking for rival squirrels.  He isn't feeling the love at the moment.  This is the attitude I'm afraid will lead our young people to greater anger.  I can only pray I will be found worthy of the truth within me when the time comes. 

A WEEK OF TECHNOLOGICAL TRIUMPHS

For those who won't read earlier blogs, the reason I call this blog the Sparrow's Perch, is because of Psalm 84:3 and Psalm 91. I can imagine the Psalmist going to the Tabernacle, and wishing he could flit in and out of the Holy Place like the sparrows. The tender reference to being under HIS wing, and the thought of God as a refuge, ring out from the Psalms. So, it is when I sit up here in my office. The sparrows, pigeons, and crows don't usually wake up until I'm almost ready to leave. It is mid-fall, and the sun doesn't break over the horizon until almost 7:30. During the height of the summer, the birds are carrying on by at least 5:30 in the morning. I miss their chatter, and bathing in the puddles on the flat roof just outside my window. I've often thought about putting a bird bath out there, but they have a lake, Ha :) just across the street. It wouldn't be for them as much as for me.

This week in Science has been an exciting time. The Mars Rover Curiosity found a cool unexpected rock, and Felix Baumgartner became the first man to freefall faster than the speed of sound. These feats are amazing! These technological feats make it is easy for us 'human beings' to think we have it all going on. We THINK, and that makes us special. Yet, in many ways, we have sold our birthright for a pot of boiled meat. We no longer depend upon the Lord for our daily bread. We have our brains, and our hands to feed ourselves. Who needs God? It is why we spend billions of dollars going to a planet we know is hostile to us, hoping for that one glimpse of a microbe that would prove God isn't the creator of the universe. It is why we spend billions of dollars looking out to the Stars hoping to find the one conclusive piece of evidence that will prove once and for all that WE are right, and God is wrong. Those who deny God will be able to point out how “knowledge” has shred the last vestige of religion, and dissuade even the most ardent believer. The purist scientist will finally be able to declare that we were an inevitable process of the universe, formed of a primordial stew that is possible anywhere within any trillion of star systems in the millions of galaxies that populate our universe. (LONG SENTENCE ON PURPOSE TO PROVE HOW KNOWLEDGE IS WONDERFUL)

Freed from the chains of religion, what is man capable of?

NOTHING MORE than he has done throughout the history of his miserable existence outside of God.

So, while an amazing piece of technology creeps along on a distant planet, and a man leaps from the edge of space, the sparrows come to my window sill and amuse me. They know their provider is good, and so do I. They know the one who brings rain and withholds it all at the same time. They aren't concerned with the scientific process, because knowing is only knowing. It doesn't change anything. As someone who has always had a love of science, science fiction, and astronomy, I am always brokenhearted at the 'reason' for discovery. What a shame. So, let me offer this to those who might be sitting on the fence of doubt and faith. Faith costs you nothing, doubt steals everything. In the end, when this tent is rolled up and placed into the soil from which it came, my spirit will explore those worlds that loom just beyond my touch. Eternity will not be spent in useless nothingness. For even as science is beginning to discover, this universe is made up of stuff we can't see or explain. We know it is there, we think we know how it should behave, but every day we realize we had it wrong. We spend so much time, and energy exploring the universe around us, but so little time growing the eternal love that is within us.  Is eternity one of those things we want to get wrong?

I guess it depends upon your perspective. A little sparrow has just cocked his head and danced away.  His perspective is the one I like.