History keeps repeating and we don’t learn or as Mark Twain said
History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.
We start another year – what does it hold? For us personally or big question ‘what does it hold globally?’ The book The Fourth Turning might have a focus on the USA and so its analysis of the rhyming of history might be looking at too short a period of time to rely on totally but it would indicate that we are overdue / coming to a time in the very near future when war will break out. Can we break the rhyme?
Occasionally Gayle has a dream where she meets a world leader and dialogues with them. This morning I was typing and she woke up with ‘I have just been with…’ In the dream she was advocating for another way and asked the leader ‘so when will war end’… ‘After this one there will be peace’. The leader was intent on being seen as a peacemaker but insisted that love is never the way and ‘this war’ will be necessary to bring peace.
OUCH!!!!
Jesus came at the fullness of time – not necessarily the most evil of times but at a time when the Greek / Gentile world has no hope and the nation that was called to be the redemptive nation was under its own curse. No hope for the world. And the Roman Empire was the archetype of, and for, all empires. As I have written before the Pax Romana was based on war. Building its temple to peace (Pax) on the field dedicated to the god of war (Mars). Peace for all who comply and have been conquered. And peace motivated to bring the resources of those territories conquered back to the centre (thank God we have the book of Revelation!!).
But can we see something different and the rhyme be broken?
We were in Augusta a military city in Sicily with a street that many cities have within them – a street called Via Garibaldi, but unlike the others we have seen it had a strap line: Eroe del Risorgimento: the hero! Does war bring peace? I appreciate that we live in a fallen world and there are horrendous choices that leaders have to make… maybe(???) war is a choice at times, but we have to measure everything against is it the most redemptive choice that can be made (my governing principle with regard to ethical choices).
Is there a hope? I am a big European advocate and am very grateful for the extensive time that John & Yvonne Pressdee spent praying over the numerous WWI & WWII battle field sites before the end of the previous century. Prayer and forgiveness can affect the rhyme.
Europe, a continent that many despair over. A continent that needs so much to turn within it… but maybe it can change the rhyme. Otherwise the new rising power will look to take its ‘rebellious island’ and the diminishing power that has inherited the Western imperial spirit (from Rome) will seek to take what it needs to take… but simply so as the resources will flow in the direction to the centre.
So I say ‘come on Europe… and little Sicily be a catalyst – you are in the centre of ‘middle earth’.
I wrote in a WhatsApp group a few days ago:
One aspect that we carry with us is a) we could be misled totally even coming to Sicily and b) our interpretation as we bumble along could be so far off… but hey ho!!!
So let’s push on with all the ‘hey ho’s’ that we can!!
I’ve been thinking a lot about another dream you have written about. You have mentioned the dream where the building facades drop even as, at least some people, seek a return to ‘normalcy’. I think, watching the events in the USA especially, that we are seeing facades get ripped apart. I think the Epstein file is a case in point. No matter how hard the Trump admin tries to cover it all up, news just keeps leaking out one way or another. The French media today reported on Epstein’s work with the Russians for example. With the renewal of American imperialism through Trump’s comments and actions (Venezuela), Americans are more aware of their own history with Latin America and banana republics. The mass deportations have made conditions clear about racism and the other countries who are willing to facilitate the actions. Obviously there is more, the exposure of the wealthy and how they fund it all. The exposure of the complicity of the military. The clear corruption of Congress and the majority of the Supreme Court. And on and on. And it just seems to me that a strong and very impressive facade is being torn down in all the chaos and belligerence.
And all of that is really important. It means Americans (and that includes members of my family) have to make choices about ‘normalcy’ and what that means for them. What their responsibility might be to fellow human beings within the USA or outside. And then, what actions they might have to take. My own family is an example of this. My 95 year old father has gone out on protests. While my nephews and nieces are heads down and hoping someone will rescue them all. One nephew works for the military as a lawyer. What is he going to do? Normalcy has a strong pull. It means we can just get on with our lives as is. No hard decisions. No new forms of action. Nothing difficult to ponder. And yet, Trump and his admin are literally on a mission to destroy normalcy globally. It puts a responsibility on all of us.
What will we do as normalcy breaks and the facades collapse?
It’s hard to hear what God is really saying a lot I find in my own life but I do know the kingdom does look so very different to both those right and left wing favourite ‘Asherah Poles’ and all that is idolatrous in empire building too. The stripping away of mercy and human value in the war making trajectory is demonic particularly when it tries to put its tendrils down into the religion of Christianity to legitimise ungodly behaviour glorifying death over life the very opposite of the redemptive work of Christ. Its power does not come from realm of light but that of darkness. So very sad. I love how different the kingdom is and how it’s quite unfathomable and surprising and has such a very big heart but is very scary and unpredictable too! I’m very glad you and Gayle are standing for what you do in Sicily that is very hopeful indeed! I see you both as a breath of fresh air breathing life over Europe.