Friday, November 7, 2008

I woke up this morning with a stuffy nose and an achy head. There's lots of crud going around. I started the Zicam the other day so I am hoping that this is not going to hang around a long time.
The girls seem to be doing well with the 11 day challenge. It's not working so well for me, but I've been sick off and on and haven't really given it a fair trial. My blood sugar seems to tank a lot. I think I need to go back to what I was doing, and - as Nina said - find something and stick with it. Blood sugar issues are the main reason I have trouble doing that.

Hopefully I will be in a better mood tomorrow.


Gospel
Friday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 16:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward
who was reported to him for squandering his property.
He summoned him and said,
‘What is this I hear about you?
Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.’
The steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do,
now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’
He called in his master’s debtors one by one.
To the first he said, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of olive oil.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note.
Sit down and quickly write one for fifty.’
Then to another he said, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’
He replied, ‘One hundred measures of wheat.’
He said to him, ‘Here is your promissory note;
write one for eighty.’
And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently.
For the children of this world
are more prudent in dealing with their own generation
than the children of light.”

Thoughts from the cornfield:
If you look at history you will see that the most despicable despots and dictators were those who had a shrewd sense of human nature. Take Hitler for example. In order to accomplish his goal, he had to be a brilliant psychologist of sorts. He took a depressed county, found their weaknesses, played up them and rose to terrible heights. He gathered crowds when they were tired and hungry and most susceptible to his skewed philosophy. He sought out the disenfranchised youth and promised them power. He demonized a people and set them up as the "fall guys" for everything that was wrong with the world. In the end he was defeated, but oh what terror and destruction he left in his wake.

Those who would spread God's word need to be just as attentive to people as are the despots of the world. If we were to use that energy we have and operated from a place of love rather than from a desire for power - what marvels could be achieved in this world.



God bless our troops!