Attention, World: "Listen Up, Slow Down And Give Up Your Violent Ways" - God Almighty

This shows a only a tiny fraction of the thousands of abandoned war planes at 
Tucson's massive bone yard, a sign of our violence toward the earth and its people

God brings an end to war.

God breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

God burns chariots with fire.

Be still (Stop fighting!), and know that I am God!

Psalm 46:9-10

    I don't normally see death-dealing disasters as divinely ordained to teach us mortals a lesson.
    But I do believe that in God's economy nothing needs to go to waste, and that every terrible event can be transformed into something for our good.
     So what lessons might God want us to learn from the coronavirus pandemic?

Holy Week Lesson 1. We humans need to slow down and listen up. Listen to Jesus, listen to the apostles and prophets of the ages, listen to the wisdom in texts of scripture and in the words of God's children.

Here is a reflection by Kitty O'Meara:

And the people stayed home. And read books,

and listened, and rested, and exercised,

and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being,

and were still. And listened more deeply.

Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows.

And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.

And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous,

mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.

And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again,

they grieved their losses, and made new choices,

and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live

and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.

- O’Meara's website http://the-daily-round.com/

Holy Week Lesson 2. We need to cut back on the kind of overconsumption that is destroying the earth. Buy less, make and bake more. Ride less, walk and bike more. Hoard less, share and serve more. Plant more trees and grow more vegetables, maintain less lawn.

This from poet and writer Lois A. Saylor, written March 20 of this year:

Then Lent Came

we gave up foolish things for Lent

a bag of sugar, 

a pound of butter

we gave up the easy 

and found it hard

our soft underbellies glistening

like pride

then Lent came like an earthquake

and gave up foolishness for us

took hammer and nails, took

    excuses, took away normal,

took away soft living

good Lent, brave Lent

slapping us with sacrifice

rejecting our burnt offerings

demanding the fasting of doing justice

loving mercy

walking humbly with 

a God we dare to say we worship

Lent broke us apart

    let us bleed

and dared us, double-dared us,

to ask God why he had forsaken us

Lois A. Saylor

copyright 2020

Holy Week Lesson 3. We must begin now to reinvest the trillions we spend on armed terror and destruction into means of ending poverty, disease and hunger around the world. We cannot serve both God and militarism, cannot afford manufacturing ever more death-dealing bombers and drone missiles while not being able to provide enough ventilators and protective gear to help keep our COVID-19 infected people alive.

Isaiah 9:4-7 (NIV):

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,

you have shattered the yoke that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders,

the rod of their oppressor.

     Every warrior’s boot used in battle

     and every garment rolled in blood

     will be destined for burning,

     will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

     And he will be called

     Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

     Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

     He will reign on David’s throne

     and over his kingdom,

     establishing and upholding it

     with justice and righteousness

     from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.

     Meanwhile, there are already signs of some subsiding of war-making since the epidemic. And already the skies are clearer and air pollution is decreasing. Also, to my knowledge there have been no recent incidents of mass shootings in the US.
     Maybe some good can come out of this yet.