የወሊድ መቆጣጠሪያ ሴቶቻችንን እያጠቃብን ነው (Updated)

“በፊታችሁ ሕይወትንና ሞትን በረከትንና መርገምን እንዳስቀመጥሁ እኔ ዛሬ ሰማይንና ምድርን በአንተ ላይ አስመሰክራለሁ፤ እንግዲህ አንተና ዘርህ በሕይወት ትኖሩ ዘንድ ሕይወትን ምረጥ“ [ኦ. ዘዳግም ፴:፲፱]

የእግዚአብሔር ቃል እንደሚያስተምረን ከፍጥረታት ሁሉ በእግዚአብሔር አርአያና አምሳል ተፈጥሮ ሰውን አመስግኖ ክብሩን ወርሶ እንዲኖር የተፈጠረ ክቡሩ የሰው ልጅ ሲሆን፤ ፈጣሪው እግዚአብሔርም እንደዚህ አክብሮ የፈጠረውን የሰው ልጅ ዘሩ እንዲቀጥል ፈቃዱ ነውና “ብዙ ተባዙ ምድርንም ሙሏት” በማለት የበረከትን ቃል ለወላጆቻችን ለአዳምና ለሔዋን ሰጥቷልና ፅንስ ከእግዚአብሔር የሚገኝ ፍሬ በረከት ነው።

መጽሐፍ ቅዱስ ለመጀመሪያ ጊዜ የሰው ሕይወት የሚጀምረው ከተፀነሰበት ጊዜ ጀምሮ መሆኑን ቢገልጽም ብዙ ሰዎች ግን ይህን የተፈጥሮ ጸጋ በመቃወም በራሳቸው ስሜት፣ በኃጢአትና፣ በድንቍርና በመጓዝ በብዙ ሚሊየን የሚቆጠሩ ሕፃናትን በአሰቃቂ መልኩ ከእናታቸው ማሕፀን በውርጃ መልክ ወጥተው እንዲሞቱ ያደርጋሉ።

‘ዮሐንስ‘ ገና በእናቱ ማሕፀን ሳለ የተሰጠውና ያገኘውን እውቀት ከ1450 ዓመታት በፊት የነበረው ኢትዮጵያው ቅዱስ ያሬድ፡ “ዮሐንስ ከእናቱ ማሕፀን ዐወቀ፤ ሰገደ ዘለለም” በማለት የፅንሱን ዐዋቂነት ይህ በመንፈሳዊ ጥበበ የተራቀቀው ሊቅ ቢያስተምርም፡ ሌላው ዓለም ግን ለብዙ ሺህ ዘመናት ይህንን ባለመረዳት እንደ እንግሊዛዊው ፈላስፋ ጆን ሎክ፡ “ሕፃናት ምንም የማያውቁ እንደ ባዶ ነጭ ወረቀቶች ናቸው፤ ከተወለዱ በኋላ በሂደት ከማኅበረሰቡ ጋር በሚያደርጉት እንቅስቃሴ ዕውቀትን እያገኙ ይሄዳሉ” በማለት ልክ እንደ ሌሎቹ ‘ሊቅ ነን፡ ሁሉን እናውቃለን‘ ባይ አውሮፓውያን ዓለምን ሲያታልሉና ወደሳሳተ አቅጣጫ ሲመሩ ቆይተዋል።

የእነዚህ ትዕቢተኛ አታላይ “ሊቆች” ልጆች የእግዚአብሔርን እውነት ለዘላለም መሸፈን እንደማይችሉ በመረዳት፡ አካሄዳቸውን እየቀያየሩ በአሁኑ ጊዜ ሞኝ ወደሆኑትና ወደ ደንቆሩት እንደ ኢትዮጵያውያን ወደ መሳሰሉት ሕዝቦች እየተጓዙ የእፉኝት መርዛቸውን በመርጨት ላይ ይገኛሉ።

“እከሊት መኻን ሆነች፣ እርሷንማ አስወረዳት! እንትናየማ ‘በዚያ በሽታ‘እኮ ነበር ያረፈችው!” የሚሉት አሳዛኝ ዜናዎችን መስማት በጣም የተለመደ ሆኗል። ነገር ግን ይህን ዓይነቱ አሳዛኝ መከራ እንዴት ሊከሰት እንደበቃ ወይም ጉዳዩ ከምን ጋር የተያያዘ ሊሆን እንደሚችል ለማወቅ ብሎም መከራው እንዳይቀጥል ችግሩን ለመቅረፍ ምንም ዓይነት እንቅስቃሴ ሲደረግ አይታይም።

ብዙዎቻችን ምንም አስከፊ ነገር እንዳልተፈጸመ፤ አላየንም! አልሰማንም! እያልን እራሳችንን በማታለል ነፍሳችን ቀስበቀስ ተመንምና እንድታልቅ ማድረጉን መርጠናል።

እራሳቸውን ለባዕዱ የዲያብሎስ ኃይል አሳልፈው የሰጡ ወይም እንዲሰጡ የተደረጉ ፀረ–ኢትዮጵያ ግለሰቦችና ድርጅቶች በሕዝባችን ላይ እጅግ የሚያሳፍርና የሚያሳዝን ተግባር በመፈጽም ላይ ይገኛሉ። የሕዝባችንን ቁጥር ለመቀነስ፤ ቀስበቀስም ኢትዮጵያውያንና ኢትዮጵያዊነትን ለማጥፋት ተልዕኮ ካላቸው ጠላቶች ጋር በመተባበር በተለይ የደከሙ/የወደቁ ክርስቲያን ኢትዮጵያዊያትን በመመረዝ፣ ‘በማኮላሸት‘ እና በመግደል ላይ ይገኛሉ።

የህክምና ተቋማት፣ የ ‘ቤተሰብ መምሪያ‘ ማዕከላት፣ የዜና ማሰራጫዎችና ማተሚያ ቤቶች ታይቶ የማይታወቅ የፀረ–ህይወት የቅስቀሳ ዘመቻ በአሁኑ ጊዜ በማካሄድ ላይ ይገኛሉ። የመድኅኒት ቤቶቹ፣ ቴሌቪዥኑ እንዲሁም ታክሲዎችና አውቶብሶቹ ሁሉ በስዕሉ ላይ የሚታዩትን ማስታወቂያዎች በብርቱ መልክ እያሰራጩ ዕውቀቱ የጎዳለውን ሕዝብ በመበከል ላይ ናቸው።

ለምሳሌ እታች በእንግሊዝኛ የተጠቀሰው የወሊድ መከላከያ ክትባት (Depo-Provera) ምን ያህል ጐጂ እንደሆነ፤ እንደ ኤችአይቪ ለመሳሰሉ ተላላፊ በሽታዎች በይበልጥ እንደሚያጋልጥ፣ የአጥንት በሽታዎችን እንደሚያስከትል እንዲሁም የጡትና የጉሮሮ ነቀርሳዎችን ሊያመጣ እንደሚችል አሁን በደንብ ይታወቃል። ‘ተማሩ‘ የተባሉትና በቂ መረጃዎችን በቀላሉ የመሰብሰብ እድሉ ያላቸው ግለሰቦች፡ በተለይ የዲያስፖራው የህክምና ባለሙያዎች እንዲሁም ምርምሮቹ በሚካሄዱባቸው የትምህርት ተቋማት ተበታትነው የሚገኙ ኢትዮጵያውያን ሁሉ ከዚህ ተንኮለኛ “የቤተሰብ አጥፊ ፕላን” ጀርባ ምን ዓይነት ሤራ እንዳለ በግልጽ ለማየት ይቻላቸዋል። ታዲያ ይህን መሰሉን ጉዳይ እንዴት በዝምታ ሊያልፉት ቻሉ?

ወደ አገራችን በረቀቀ መልክና በድብቅ የገባው ይህ የፀረ–ህይወት እንቅስቃሴ ከ1970ዎቹ ዓመታት ጀምሮ በትጋት እየሠራ እንደሆነ ባለሙያዎች ይናገራሉ። ከኢትዮጵያ ሌላ፡ ይህ የቤተሰብ አጥፊ ፕላን በጥቁር አፍሪቃውያን ላይ ብቻ ነው እየተካሄደ ያለው። ከሦስት ወራት በፊት ለንደን ከተማ ውስጥ ይህን አስመልክቶ እን ቢል ጌትስ አዘጋጅተውት በነበረው ስብሰባ ላይ ተገኝተው የነበሩት ከሳሃራ በረሃ በታች የሚገኙት አፍሪቃ አገሮች ሲሆኑ፤ የሰሜን አፍሪቃና አረብ አገሮች ጭራሹን አልተሳተፉም። 85 ሚሊየን ሕዝብ የሚኖሩባት በረሃማዋ ግብጽ የሕዝብ ቁጥርሽን ቀንሽ የሚል ሃሳብ ቀርቦላት አይታወቅም፡ እንዲያውም ምዕራባውያኑ የእርዳታ ገንዘቡን ያለ ምንም ቅድመ ሁኔታ በደስታ ይሰጧታል፤ የኢትዮጵያንም ውሃና አፈር በነፃ ታገኛለች፡ ጦረኛ የሆኑ ልጆችን መፈልፈሏንም ያለምንም ተቃውሞ ትቀጥልበታለች። ከ 1ቢሊየን በላይ የሕዝብ ቁጥር ያላት ህንድ እንደ ዶፖ ፕሮቬራ የመሳሰሉትን የወሊድ መከላከያ መርፌዎች ከልክላለች (እ.አ.አ በ 2002 ዓ.ም)

አዎ! የዲያብሎስ ሠራዊት ኢትዮጵያውያንን በረሃብ፣ በበሽታና በእርስ በርስ ጦርነቶች እንዳሰበው/እንዳቀደው ለማጥፋት አልተቻለውም፤ ታዲያ አውሬው አሁን ውስጥ ሠርጎ በመግባት መርፌንና፤ (“መድኃኒት” አልለውም)መርዛማ‘ቅመሞችን‘በነፃ በማደል መጠራጠር የተሳነውን ወገናችንን ወደ ወጥመዱ ለማስገባት እየሞከረ ነው።

ወገን፤ እህቶቻችን፣ እናቶቻችን፣ ጓደኞቻችንና ሚስቶቻችን እንደ ዓይጥ ተቆጥረው የህክምና ሙከራ ሲደረግባቸው እያየን እንዴት ዝም እንላለን? ይህን ይህን መሰሉን አስከፊ ሥራ ለማጋለጥ ካልተነሳሳን ከእንስሳ በምን ነው የምንሻለው?

የሚከተሉትን መረጃዎች ለሚመለከታቸው ወገኖች ሁሉ በሚያስቆጣ መልክ የማስተላለፉ ተግባር የያንዳንዳችን ብሔራዊና ሰብዓዊ ግዴታ መሆን ይኖርበታል።

ለምሳሌ፤ በውጭ ኃይሎች ‘ግፊት‘ኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ከተቋቋሙት ድርጅቶች መካከል “DKT Ethiopia (DKT/E)” የተባለውን የፀረ–ህይወት ዘመቻ አራማጅ ድርጅት ብንመለከት፤ ሥራውና ዓላማው ምን እንደሆነ በደንብ ለመረዳት እንችላለን። ድርጅቱ የሚናገረው ሌላ፡

የድርጅቱ ወቅታዊ ድህረ–ገጽ ላይ የሚከተሉትን ነጥቦች እናያለን፡

“DKT Ethiopia (DKT/E) prevents HIV and unwanted pregnancy in Ethiopia. Active since 1990, DKT/E ensures a consistent supply of and promotes high quality condoms, contraceptives and other health products throughout Ethiopia.” (ሳይንሳዊ የምርመራ ውጤቶች ይህን አባባል ሙሉ በሙሉ ይፃረራሉ)

“From 2002 – 2008, DKT/E distributed approximately 80% of all condoms in Ethiopia. DKT/E also distributed 45% and 41% of oral contraceptives and depo provera, respectively, and accounted for 44% of CYP over this period.

“DKT/E works with the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal and Regional HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Offices (HAPCO), and Drug Administration and Control Authority (DACA)”

DKT/E is funded by The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Irish Aid, the Department for International Development (DFID), the United Nations Fund for Population, and an Anonymous donor.”

“Most of the world’s health problems can be dramatically reduced by relatively straightforward behavioral changes, such as using condoms and other birth control devices in family planning and HIV/AIDS prevention. Social marketing is a key means of achieving this change.”

Source

(የህክምናው ዘርፉ ተመራማሪዎች ከላይ የተሰጠውን መግለጫ ሙሉ በሙሉ ይፃረሩታል። መጽሐፍ ቅዱስም ይህን በግልጽ ይቃረናል።”

““የአመለካከት ለውጥ” በማድረግ የወሊድ መቆጣጠሪያና ኮንዶምን መጠቀም አለብን” ይላል ድርጅቱ። በጣም የሚገርም ነው፤ ትውልዳችን የመጣበትን ከፍተኛ አደጋ ለማስወገድ ወጣቶች የአመለካከት ለውጥ እንዲያመጡና ራሳቸውን እንዲቆጣጠሩ የእግዚአብሔርን ቃል ከማስተማርና ለትዳር አጋራቸው በፍቅር ታምነው እንዲኖሩ ከማስረዳት ይልቅ እነዚህን የመሳሰሉት ድርጅቶች “በኮንዶም መጠቀም አደጋ የለሽ ወሲብን ለመፈጸም ያስችላል” በማለት ወጣቶች የኮንዶም ባርያ እንዲሆኑ ሰፊ ቅስቅሳና ዘመቻ በመጠቀም ኅብረተሰቡን ወደ አጕል አቅጣጫዎች እየመሩት ነው።

ሃቁን ለመናገር አገራችን ለተደቀነባት ለዚህ ከባድና አሳዛኝ አደጋ መልሱ ያለው መጽሐፍ ቅዱስ ላይ ብቻ ሲሆን፡ ይኸውም ከጋብቻ አስቀድሞ ከማንኛውም የግብረ ሥጋ ግኑኝነት ራስን መጠበቅና፤ በቃል ኪዳን ጋብቻ ውስጥ ከገቡም በኋላ ለትዳር አጋር ፍጹም ታማኝ ሆኖ በመኖር የእግዚአብሔርን ሕግ በመጠበቅ ብቻ ነው። የአውሬው ልጆች ይህን ስለሚያውቁ እራሳቸውን በአግባቡ ይጠብቃሉ፣ ዲያብሎስ አባታቸው ለእግዚአብሔር ልጆች ካዘጋጀው ወጥመድ ይርቃሉ። የወደቁ ክርስቲያኖች ግን አምላካቸው ያወጣላቸውን ሕግጋት በመርሳትና እራሳቸውንም ባለመግዛት አውሬው የሚቆፍርላቸው ጉድጓድ ውስጥ ሲገቡ ይታያሉ፡ ይህም በጣም ያሳዝናል፡ያስቆጣል።

ክቡራን አንባቢያን ይህን የ PDF መጣጠፍ ጊዜ ወስዳችሁ በትዕግስት እንድታነቡ በትህትና እጠይቃለሁ

My previous post on the subject: Injected Contraceptive Increases AIDS Risk for African Women

Some astonishing notes:

• One in five black teenagers using birth control in the US uses Depo-Provera, a far higher rate of use than for white teenagers. One activist, Dorothy Roberts, claims this is because black teenagers are disproportionately targeted for the least safe contraceptives.

• The Canadian Coalition on Depo-Provera, a coalition of women’s health professional and advocacy groups, opposed the approval of Depo in Canada.

• Since the approval of Depo in Canada in 1997, a $700 million class-action lawsuit has been filed against Pfizer by users of Depo who developed osteoporosis.

• In response, Pfizer argued that it had met its obligation to disclose and discuss the risks of Depo-Provera with the Canadian medical community.

• In 1994, when Depo was approved in India, India’s Economic and Political Weekly reported that “The FDA finally licensed the drug in 1990 in response to concerns about the population explosion in the third world and the reluctance of third world governments to license a drug not licensed in its originating country.”

• Some scientists and women’s groups in India continue to oppose Depo-Provera. In 2002, Depo was removed from the family planning protocol in India.

• Depo-Provera is also used with male sex offenders as a form of chemical castration as it has the effect of drastically reducing sex drive in males.

• One way Depo-Provera works is by reducing a woman’s chances of ovulating. However, since it changes the lining of the uterus, it also can cause early abortions when breakthrough ovulation occurs.[1] With perfect use the effectiveness of the shot in preventing pregnancy is very high—about 99 percent. But with typical use 3 percent of women become pregnant each year.

• Few drugs have a more controversial history than Depo-Provera. In the 1950s a scientist for the pharmaceutical company Upjohn was experimenting with the hormone progesterone, and he created depomedroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo-Provera). By 1960 the company received FDA approval for the drug as a treatment for endometriosis and habitual miscarriages. However, ten years later the FDA revoked this approval because there was no evidence that the drug worked. Instead it seemed to cause heart defects in babies.

Pharmaceutical Industry: Practicing the most stark acts of corporate inhumanity

Continue reading…

Please do take time to read this important PDF: AfroGenocide

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Updated Info

Kenyan Conference Challenges Aid Agencies’ Focus on Contraception

A series of speakers challenged Western relief agencies for their fixation on family-planning efforts, during a conference on bioethics and fertility held at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Robert Walley, the founder of Mater Care International reported that 330,000 mothers die in pregnancy every year worldwide, but more than 90% of those deaths are easily preventable. He denounced agencies that focus on preventing pregnancy rather than helping these women in need.

Dr. Henrietta Williams of Nigeria, the president of the Catholic Doctors association of Nigeria, also spoke on the problem of maternal mortality, noting that only 7.9% of the UN’s aid budget is devoted to maternal health, while millions are spent on contraceptives. Pregnancy is safer than abortion, she argued, when women receive proper care.

 

Continue reading…

 

Girls of 13 given birth control jab at school without parents’ knowledge

Girls as young as 13 are receiving birth control implants at school without the knowledge or consent of their parents, a survey by The Daily Telegraph has revealed.

The survey found that school nurses have provided contraceptive implants or injections to girls between the ages of 13 and 16 on more than 900 occasions over the last two years.

13 year olds have been given the implants or jabs on more than 20 occasions, and an additional 7,400 girls aged 15 have undergone the procedure at local family planning clinics.

Confidentiality

Under rules on “patient confidentiality”, teachers are prohibited from obtaining parental approval before offering the procedure, which involving placing hormone-releasing implants into pupils’ arms to stop pregnancies for up to three years.

The NHS service, provided in schools across Bristol, Northumbria, Peterborough, Co Durham, the West Midlands and Berkshire, is part of a wider strategy to reduce teenage pregnancy rates. But Anthony Seldon, the Head teacher of Wellington College, criticised the practice stating:

“Anything that trivialises or treats [sex] as something mundane or easy, particularly for young people, is damaging their ability to grow up and to properly form a loving lasting relationship.

“It devalues sex, it makes it like an ordinary, everyday thing like going to have a McDonald’s.”

Illegal

Dr Peter Saunders, CEO of the Christian Medical Fellowship, warned that sex before the age of 16 is illegal and “to facilitate such behaviour behind parents’ backs is unprofessional, irresponsible and morally wrong”.

The number of pupils who have made use of the service is likely to be even higher since full records have not been maintained by many NHS trusts, who claim that making the information public would also constitute a breach of patient confidentiality.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, said:

“This service usurps the role of parents, who have the primary responsibility for their children’s education and who have the right to raise their children in line with their moral values and convictions.

“Making contraceptive services available to young children at such ease will only increase levels of promiscuity with damaging and far-reaching consequences.

“Children need to be protected and made aware of the benefits of abstinence until marriage.”

 

Source: Telegraph

 

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Hurricanes: Nature and Nature’s God

“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” [Nahum 1:3]

“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they can’t see. They have ears, but they can’t hear; neither is there any breath in their mouths.Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.” [Psalm 135: 15-18]

“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, [Revelation 9:20]

My note: I was thinking about the above Bible verses lately – and this particular image which captivated New Yorkers exactly proves those words. The man-made collapsed crane which is now called, ‘Hurri–crane’ is dangling over New York City – while real state tycoon, Donald Trump ‘could see the crane from his apartment window’. Coincidence? Can he see it now? Well, hopefully he is not going to fire someone over this – I assure him that King Kong was not there.

It’s of course, a horrible tragedy what we are witnessing in and around New York these days. Hurricane Sandy, which disrupted the lives of millions of Americans this week, is “a reminder of what the world really is like. Sandy is short for Cassandra, the Greek mythological figure who epitomizes tragedy. The gods gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy; depending on which version of the story one prefers, she could either see or smell the future. But with this gift also came a curse: Cassandra’s warnings about future disasters were fated to be ignored. That is the essence of this tragedy: to know that a given course of action will lead to disaster but to pursue it nevertheless.

The so-called superstorm flooded New York City and battered much of the East Coast. At press time, the storm had killed at least forty-three people and caused an estimated $32 billion in damages to buildings and infrastructure—figures expected to increase in the coming days.

While affluent people can usually insulate themselves from the ordinary effects of nature, we are all ultimately vulnerable, as New York Mayor Bloomberg rightly said yesterday: “I think people don’t understand just how strong nature is”.

Somewhere in the future, each of us has an inescapable appointment with irresistible force. For each one of us, the waters will someday rise, the winds spin out of control, the roof will come off the house and the power will go out for good.

May God have pity on the souls of those who died, and may The Almighty help the victims of those who were lost to move on and readjust their lives.

 

Nature and Nature’s God

While the lights went out across Manhattan tonight, and the city that calls itself the capital of the world was cut off from the mainland as flood waters thundered through its streets, many people around the world watched the spectacle and were reminded just how fragile the busy world we humans build around us really is.

Manhattan is one of those places where nature seems mostly held at bay. Except for the parks, oases of carefully preserved nature deliberately shaped by the hand of man, every inch of the city’s surface has been covered by something man-made. The valleys have been exalted, the mountains laid low and the rough places plain.

Those who live and do their business there pay very little attention to the natural world most of the time. It can be hard to get a taxi in the rain, and the occasional winter snowstorm forces a brief halt to the city’s routine, but the average New Yorker’s attention is on the social world, not the world of nature. What’s happening to your career, your bank account, your friendships and loved ones, the political scene and the financial markets: those are the concerns that occupy the minds of busy urbanites on their daily rounds.

Into this busy, self involved world Hurricane Sandy has burst. Sharks have been photographed (or at least photo shopped) swimming in the streets of New Jersey towns; waves sweep across the Lower East Side; transformers explode on both sides of the Hudson as salt water surges into the tunnels and subways. For a little while at least, New Yorkers are reminded that we live in a world shaped by forces that are bigger than we are; tonight it is easy to identify with the sentiments in John Milton’s paraphrase of Psalm 114:

Shake earth, and at the presence be aghast

Of him that ever was, and aye shall last,

That glassy floods from rugged rocks can crush,

And make soft rills from the fiery flint-stones gush.

Soon, though, the winds will die down and the waters recede. The bridges will open, the roads will be repaired, the water will be pumped from the subways and service restored. New Yorkers will go back to their normal pursuits and Hurricane Sandy will fade into lore.

But events like this don’t come out of nowhere. Sandy isn’t an irruption of abnormality into a sane and sensible world; it is a reminder of what the world really is like. Human beings want to build lives that exclude what we can’t control — but we can’t.

Hurricane Sandy is many things; one of those things is a symbol. The day is coming for all of us when a storm enters our happy, busy lives and throws them into utter disarray. The job on which everything depends can disappear. That relationship that holds everything together can fall apart. The doctor can call and say the test results are not good. All of these things can happen to anybody; something like this will happen to us all.

Somewhere in the future, each of us has an inescapable appointment with irresistible force. For each one of us, the waters will someday rise, the winds spin out of control, the roof will come off the house and the power will go out for good.

We can protect ourselves from a storm like Sandy by taking proper precautions; at the Mead manor we have candles, firewood and food stocked against the possibility that our power will go out. But one day, dear reader, a storm is coming which neither you nor we can survive. The strongest walls, the sturdiest retirement plans stuffed with stocks and CDs, the best doctors cannot protect us from that final encounter with the force that made and will someday unmake us.

Coming to terms with that reality is the most important thing that any of us can do. A storm like this one is an opportunity to do exactly that. It reminds us that what we like to call ‘normal life’ is fragile and must someday break apart. If we are wise, we will take advantage of this smaller, passing storm to think seriously about the greater storm that is coming for us all.

A grand and powerful woman I once knew died after two encounters with cancer and a devastating stroke took her from the realm of normal life into the storm tossed waters that surround us all on every side. She’d never been a religious woman and, growing up in a segregated South where so many churches and churchgoers defended a brutal system of institutionalized injustice and cruelty, she was always a rebel against the conventional piety and ritualized religious life she saw around her.

But late in her life when the winds around her howled and the dark waters were rising, she was driven to face the truth behind the illusions and the pretense, and told the person she loved best in all the world that “I’ve made my peace with God.”

That is something we all need to do. It involves a recognition of our helplessness and insufficiency before the mysteries and limits of life. Like the First Step in the Twelve Step programs, it begins with an acknowledgment of failure and defeat. We each try to build a self-sufficient world, a sturdy little life that is proof against storms and disasters — but none of us can really get that done.

Strangely, that admission of weakness opens the door to a new kind of strength. To acknowledge and accept weakness is to ground our lives more firmly in truth, and it turns out that to be grounded in reality is to become more able and more alive. Denial is hard work; those who try to stifle their awareness of the limits of human life and ambition in the busy rounds of daily life never reach their full potential.

To open your eyes to the fragility of life and to our dependence on that which is infinitely greater than ourselves is to enter more deeply into life. To come to terms with the radical insecurity in which we all live is to find a different and more reliable kind of security. The joys and occupations of ordinary life aren’t all there is to existence, but neither are the great and all-destroying storms. There is a calm beyond the storm, and the same force that sends these storms into our lives offers a peace and security that no storm can destroy. As another one of the psalms puts it, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Accepting your limits and your dependence on things you can’t control is the first step on the road toward finding that joy.

Via Meadia hopes that all our readers survived Hurricane Sandy with their lives intact and their property whole. And more than that, we hope that our readers will take the opportunity that a storm like this offers, step back from their daily lives, and reach out to the Power who plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Getting the right connection with the highest power of all not only gives you a place of refuge when the big storm finally comes; it transforms daily life and infuses ordinary occupations with greater meaning and wonder than you ever understood.

The world needs people who have that kind of strength and confidence. Storms much greater than Sandy are moving through our lives these days: the storms shaking the Middle East, recasting the economy, transforming the political horizons of Asia. It will take strong and grounded people to ride these mighty storms; paradoxically, it is only by coming to terms with our limits and weakness that we can find the strength and the serenity to face what lies ahead.

 

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