Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Power of Humanity

I love how people ascribe greatness to human accomplishment; giving all the credit to mankind without so much as a tip of their collective hats to God. There is a phrase which always makes me cringe: triumph of the human spirit.

What keeps a person alive in a desperate situation? Is it determination? Physical strength? The power of humanity? No. It's hope. Where does hope come from? Circumstances? Positive thinking? The triumphant human spirit? Think again.

What makes people confident enough to share the road with other motorists, tens of thousands of complete strangers? Faith in other people that they will obey the road rules and drive safely, and faith that cars will do what they are supposed to do. Would people bungee jump without faith in the strength of the elastic cord? Does faith come from positive thinking?

What is it that makes people sacrifice themselves for others? Their time, their money, their very lives? Love. Is unconditional and sacrificial love a human quality? Does it emanate from within the almighty human spirit? Is it yet another accidental by- product of evolution?

What is the origin of these three life sustaining immortals: hope, faith and love? The motto of the Australian Red Cross is 'the Power of Humanity' but I don't think humanity is all it's cracked up to be. All goodness originates with God because God is good. All love begins and ends with God because God is love. On what grounds then can we boast of triumphs of the human spirit? We can help people, even save a few but we can't save everyone. We can heal people of diseases but in the end they'll still die. 'We spend all of our lives going out of our minds, looking back to our births, forward to our demise.'(They Stood Up for Love by Live)Desperately clinging to life because we know we cannot avoid death. Pretending we are the masters of our own destinies.There is no life without faith, hope and love and these three come from God. Therefore there is no life without God.

Humanity is not powerful. It is weak and foolish. Paul says that the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom , and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)

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