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May it not be long

May it not be long

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A prayer from John Bell …

May it not be long, Lord.

May it not be long
before there are no more beggars at the door
waiting for crumbs from the tables of the rich.

May it not be long
before northern exploitation
of the southern economies
is a fact of history,
not a fact of life.

May it not be long
before poor economies
cease to be havens for sex tourism,
child labor and experimental genetic farming.

May it not be long
before those nations we once evangelized
show us the larger Christ
whom we, too often, have forgotten.

May it not be long
before the governments of our nations
legislate against commercial avarice
and over-consumption which hurts the poor
and indebts them.

May it not be long
before Christians in this land
examine their economic priorities
in the light of the Gospel,
rather than in its shadow.

May it not be long
before we respond out of love,
not out of guilt.

May it not be long
before we find wells of hope
deeper than the shallow pools of optimism
in which we sometimes paddle.

May it not be long
before we feel as liberated and addressed
by your word
as those first folk did
who heard you summon the oddest of people
to fulfill the oddest of callings.

May it not be long, Lord.

Amen.

(From This Is the Day: Readings and Meditations from the Iona Community, edited by Neil Paynter, ©2002, Wild Goose Publications, Fourth Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH, UK)

living with less

living with less

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The Iowa State University Extension is offering a workshop in our area entitled “Living with Less,” giving folks advice on coping with the current economic downturn.

I think we needed workshops about ten years ago on “Living with More!” Perhaps if we had, if we had better learned how to use the good times to benefit our communities at large instead of “everybody for him/herself” … we might not be in the situation we are now.

thinking ahead about energy

thinking ahead about energy

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The U.S. economy depends heavily on oil, particularly in the transportation sector. World oil production has been running at near capacity to meet demand, pushing prices upward. Concerns about meeting increasing demand with finite resources have renewed interest in an old question: How long can the oil supply expand before reaching a maximum level of production, a peak from which it can only decline?

On Thursday, the U. S. Governmental Accountability Office released a report urging attention to the looming problems posed by a finite oil supply, the unpredictability of sustained production at current levels, and the potential for severe consequences, including a worldwide recession. The report recommends a strategy to coordinate and prioritize federal agency efforts to reduce uncertainty about the likely timing of a peak and to advise Congress on how best to mitigate consequences.

Read a summary of the report: GAO: U.S. needs a peak oil strategy.