Chastisement

I'm not one who is a big believer of a fundamental interpretation of Revelations nor am I a town crier that screams that the end of the world is at hand. However, being a parent, I am a believer in discipline and appropriate punishment. Messages from the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje have often contained warnings of impending punishment if the world did not change its ways and turn to prayer to Jesus.

And it seems to me that God has taken us behind the woodshed for a good whipping.

Over the past year we have seen the tsunami in Asia, killing thousands upon thousands, we've seen great earthquakes in the middle east and in Japan, we've seen the most active hurricane season on record with the strongest hurricanes ever. We've seen mudslides and fires and massive loss of life and property.

We're being punished.

I think God's trying to bring us back to him by stripping away all that we have put above him... material things, false idols, misinterpreted versions of His faith, moral relativism, the removal of God and a growing secular movement in Europe and the United States, continued oppression of religious freedoms in China and the extreme actions of terrorists under the guise of following God's Will.

After our homes are destroyed, our way of life damaged and, perhaps, even some of our loved ones taken from us... after all of that we can either turn to Him or from Him.

Are enough of us in tune with God to heed the warning, to learn from our societal mistakes? Or, like a frustrated parent, will He be forced to continue lay his firm hand of discipline upon our arrogant back sides?

I hope and pray that we have learned our lessons and move our focus away from the things of this world and on to those things in the next.