DO UNTO OTHERS

DO UNTO OTHERS

                Well, well, well… today we head for the coast with a car load of groceries for Bonnie’s sister, who it seems is feeding half of her neighbors. Yesterday we delivered a load of food to a homeless shelter down near the Port of Vancouver and found ourselves in the middle of tent city. For blocks around the shelter, the sidewalks are lined with hundreds of tents.

                We dropped off our foot at the kitchen, exchanged a few pleasantries with the locals who seem friendly and somewhat cheerful in spite of their plight and then we were off and out of there… trying to shed a suitcase load of emotions.

                This morning I read on the news that 2018 will be an apocalyptic year for retail outlets and shopping malls. Hundreds if not thousands of stores are on the verge of shutting down along with many of the anchor stores upon which shopping malls count to draw in the crowds.

                I think they would like to blame it on Trump and yet the economy has never been better, jobless rates are the lowest in 17 years, taxes are down and restrictive regulations are being removed. It’s not that our economy is slowing down…in fact it is booming. What we are seeing instead, is a change in the way people shop. They are now doing it on line and so retail outlets suffer big losses.

                Between replacing retail outlets with on line shopping and replacing factory workers with robots and in the near future, replacing Taxi drivers, and car drivers and truck drivers with self-driving vehicles, we are inventing ourselves out of jobs. And while AI robots are really cool and all of that, what good will they do us if nobody has a job and funds by which to buy the products they make.

                As new technologies come on line humans as employees begin to look very inefficient. We have sick days, vacations, health care, we make babies, we have emotional problems to deal with and we are only good for about 8 hours of work before we become cranky. But not so with robots… they can work 24/7 without the need for any of the above. And so the manufacturers replace the inefficient humans with efficient robots and this increases their bottom line.

                I don’t think George Jetson was very realistic. His robot did everything for him including dressing him and yet he never gained 300 pounds or lost his job.

                The thing that bothered me most about tent city was their seeming lack of purpose. In Christ we have an ever flowing sense of destiny and purpose. Even if we have nothing we can still show kindness and mercy. We can reflect the love of the One who dwells in our hearts.

                These days we never know what to expect. It seems that we are heading into a global apocalypse in nature, in politics and war, in finances, in technology   and in a hundred different areas of life. I feel a deep sense of change in the world even as I sense change in my own life. So, even as we ride this runaway train we call life, there are some things that become increasingly important to us:

                “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4.

                Many people live in tent city because they have sought escape from the troubles of life in alcohol and drugs or simply by checking out of society. But in the end there is really no escape and they end up paying the piper no matter how hard they try to avoid him.

                There remains only one real and valid way of escape from the things that are common to mankind and that is to die to this kingdom and to be born again into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But this is not an escape from reality… rather it is entering into a greater reality that swallows up all other realities and seats us with Him in heavenly places far above all rule and authority.

                In this kind of escape, we do well to learn how to function. After all, this life that we behold with our five senses is passing away and the real world is the one we can’t see. But the eternal realm can only be perceived by faith. Faith is the currency of Christ’s kingdom. It was by faith that He created everything that exists and that is why faith is the reality of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for. (Heb. 11:1) So from this perspective then faith is the most tangible thing that we could ever pursue and learning to operate in it will prepare us for eternity, where Christ has gone as our forerunner… the first fruits of the great harvest yet to come.

                In this present economy we can do unto others as we would have them do unto us; for it is not our works, but it is Christ in us doing that which is in His heart. We are just along for the ride.