Asleep

Human existence is a contradiction. In constant battle against ourselves, and each other. We wage war then promote peace, we create laws to be broken, we construct knowledge then doubt, love then hate, build up and tear down, proclaim perfection then search for flaws, find argument in friendship, hope for a thing then plan for the worst. We carry out actions without regard to the environment, then desperately campaign for conservation afterwards. We procrastinate then lament the short time. We judge the sin we see not in ourselves. Self righteous, critical, hypocritical. Not knowing the true path we go all ways. Not knowing balance, we take extremes. We do harm then seek atonement, although things may never return to such as it was before the harm was done.

We wage war in all forms be it physical, political, social, emotional. The winner stood for truth, but so did the loser. What consitutes a victory? A victor is but a name, a title given to the one who did not die. The last man standing/ the one with lesser losses/ or that the oppenent is rendered completely unable to retaliate or has given up hope. But this does not entail that the winner has not suffered loss. More often that not the winner emerges not unharmed. The dead of battle do not return. Overall, humanity has lost to the war mongering minds of mankind.

Are lives not important then? Is battle merely normal, for the cause of survival of the fittest? A normal process of selection by nature that only the good be left in the world. So we fight, kill and put down, all for the greater good of humanity and for a better future.

A well known poem, the paradox of our time:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; we've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, and short character; steep profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.

Given dominion over all the earth, [Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.] mankind has stooped to worship man no more righteous than himself, to worship the beasts lesser than himself, to worship the creations of his own hands. [Psa 115:4-8, Psa 135:15-18 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.]

Romans 7:

¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

¹⁵For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

¹⁶If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

¹⁷Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

¹⁹For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

²⁰Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

²¹I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

²²For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

²⁴O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

²⁵I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.