"What do we gain by all of our hard work? I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. I know the best thing we can do is always enjoy life, because God's gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do.
Everywhere on earth I saw violence and injustice instead of fairness and justice. So I told myself that God has set a time and a place for everything. He will judge everyone, both the wicked and the good. I know that God is testing us to show us that we are merely animals. Like animals we breathe and die, and we are no better off than they are. It just doesn't make sense. All living creatures go to the same place. We are made from the earth and we return to the earth. Who really knows if our spirits go up and the spirits of animals go down into the earth? We were meant to enjoy our work, and that's the best thing we can do. We can never know the future." Ecclesiates 3:9-13 16-22

We had a prayer meeting tonight. It was my first time to attend so I was in for a surprise. We start with a verse like the one mentioned above and then we have a mass prayer. Being from a strong liturgical background I assumed some form of organized prayer , what I got was truly a mass prayer where everyone prayed in their own language, at their own pace, about whatever was on the hearts. I had never experienced anything quite like it, all I could think about was the disciples speaking in tongues to the crowd. It was great.

I have been thinking a lot lately about power, greed, injustice, and violence. You might say I have been consumed by the concern about these problems and their presence in the world. When we read this passage tonight it struck me that things haven't changed, I have just been aware of them more recently.

It does not make it feel any better knowing that there are so many terrible things going on in the world and I can do little about them. However, there is some peace in knowing that I can do my little part, in my little community to make our lives a little more peaceful and a little more happy, and try to share and spread the love to those around me through work, food, and smiles. It is funny how food plays such a central roll in our lives, but only in the last 6 months have I realized how much it could effect us.

Peace and love

Mike