June 16, 2010

'Tis the Season

For many grocery shoppers the harvest season loses its impact because most foods are always available. I recently learned that in Afghanistan the end of the harvest season is simply the beginning of the fighting season. For these folks once the work of the harvest is completed they pick up their weapons and return to the battle field. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven…” (Ecc 3:1 NIV)

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----I saw a T-shirt this morning that read, “Think Global, eat local.” I had to chuckle inside at the confusion behind that message while I fumed at the treachery of it. The Afghans certainly eat local. Because of their warring, they do not have a vibrant enough economy to import an abundance of food from around the world. And, although they have always had local wars, global mayhem and bloodshed has been upon their recent minds. They envision the global supremacy of Islam.
-----Christians also envision the global supremacy of Jesus Christ. And international socialists envision the global supremacy of central control. But the difference between Christianity and these other examples is that Christians know Christ will make the kingdom of the world to become His kingdom at the blowing of the seventh trumpet without their help (Rev 11:15). In the meantime, they mind their individual affairs and respect the affairs of their neighbors. But it is the international socialist who must himself conquer the earth by deceit and the Muslim who must conquer it by the sword. This makes me fume.
-----What caused me to chuckle is that love thinks globally. I understand it is less by affection for the New Zealander that I buy an apple in the Winter. However, it is by affection for him that I honor his right to grow an apple and sell it wherever the demand for a fresh apple is the highest. This would be here in the Winter at the end of his Summer. And it is his affection for me which honors my right to sell my apple where it also is most demanded. That would be there at the end of my Summer during his Winter. My valuing his apple more than my dollar while my apples are not growing agrees with his valuing my dollar more than the apple he has growing. This makes us both strong because it expands the apple market to a global level.
-----Strength among individuals does not bode well for central control. Central control tried to ruin individual strength in the first half of the Twentieth Century by the edge of the sword, but a strong America spoiled their efforts. Now they are trying to use the treachery of environmental crisis to deceive us into valuing a peffy, half-year-old, home-grown apple more than our dollar which we will then owe to central control. So, “Eat local” is about abandoning free enterprise to become weak and needy. It fails to love because “demand” is just another way of saying “need”, and love is the struggle to meet needs. Although love can find a way for getting apples across the sea with minimal pollution, central control can not have us freely meeting each other‘s needs through love. For the resulting free market makes us too strong for the socialist’s ability to conquer and control both me and the New Zealander.

Love you all,
Steve Corey