Are we angry yet? Indeed we are! Rightly so. Is our anger justified? I think so. Even Jesus grew angry in the temple at man's greed and lust!
At this very moment millions of decent human beings are phoning, texting, twittering their anger. Most of us, I might add, are in a state of disbelief!
There are thousands of Internet discussions and posts and comments (not counting mine) happening right this minute concerning the Casey Anthony trial. Everyone is waiting for Nancy Grace to prosecute their screens.
The battle cry is JUSTICE FOR CAYLEE!
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Ah, justice! That evasive justice that dear little Caylee Anthony did not get nor Laura Kate Smither nor Savannah (who went to CCD with my 9 year old daughter, but no longer) . That spiritual justice that all those followers of Fr. Corapi won't get. That justice that evaded the victims of Jack the Ripper. Same justice that will not persecute the bullies of your past. Justice not found in the cars of drunk drivers. Same justice that haunts the thousands of babies abused and killed and tossed aside like garbage. The real world is seldom just and ideal. So why do we keep searching for a just and ideal society? I can only speak from personal experience.
I have always thought I was an idealist. I was wrong. I'm a realist. True, I love ideals and reading about them and striving for them. Seldom do I attain them; the reality is never as pretty as those ideals in my head. What worth are those ideals in the mind of a realist? I’ll tell you their worth. They’re put there by God to get me through the muck of this world. They keep me going forward in an otherwise un-ideal world. They help me to strive towards something better than I am or that this world gives me. They help make me a better parent than Casey Anthony.
My idealist side is always questioning my realist side: “Would you think differently if your child was kidnapped and murdered? Would you hate the sin but love the sinner?”
Honestly I can't say how I would react. My idealist side says I would be stoic and charitable. “Father, forgive them.” My realist side is probably closer to, say, reality. They, whoever ‘they’ are, would probably have to sedate me and put me away in a locked room. I would be on a cocktail of drugs just to get me through the trial.
If my granddaughter was dead and my daughter was on trial and there was a questionable doubt? Let me just say I can understand why Cindy Anthony tried to take the rap. But I've also heard too many people who have had family members murdered who come back to say they got to a point in their life when they had to let go and let God. Eventually they had to let go and forgive the offender otherwise the stress and anger would have killed them, thus giving the offender two victims instead of one.
There's no justice there! There is a valuable lesson and I like to listen to those quiet voices of wisdom over the voices of anger that rise up to silence the voice of God. It is a valuable lesson to be learned by the rest of us if we just stop our ranting and listen to God’s plan for us.
And what is that plan? I hate to disillusion you here but man’s justice is not part of it. The first murder in this world was between two brothers. How’s that for God’s plan? I'm sure Eve wailed and lamented this injustice within her family. But then she turned around and gave birth to another son. That is where faith begins. Faith in the face of fear!
We go on living and loving and learning. And trusting God’s plan justifies our own actions.
Why do we expect justice now, when it wasn't even present in the book of Genesis? I don't think we expect it...people never fail to disappoint us...as much as we long for it. Justice is not for this world. Justice is reserved for the Kingdom of God. That’s the plan!
Despite the realist in me, it is usually the idealist in me who posts on Facebook. Today was no different.
"Fr. Corapi and Casey Anthony aside...I'm going back to focusing on what matters in my life...my family and my God."
Most people understood my post and related to my resolve. Most shared their support by hitting the "Like" button, not that I expected anyone's support but it was reassuring to see I wasn't completely alone. A couple of my friends were, understandably, caught off-guard by my post. And I understood their anguish. I understood their defense. I sympathize. While I understand what other Christians are saying, do you suppose if I shout my offense and injustice of the world from the top of my Facebook soapbox, it will change anything? Anything at all? Will it change society?
Probably not. Like it or not, justice is often not found in this world. We have only to look at 9-11 and what has ensued since that date to witness the evidence.
What I'm saying in my Facebook ponder is that, instead of shouting from the top of our Facebook rooftop like the rest of society, we should face our own families and our own church communities, bow low, and vow to improve this world within our own backyards and homes and churches.
Forget the world at large!
Did I say that?
Yes! Yes, I did!
I'm sorry but I can't change the world. I can't! And, truth be told, I don't see many politicians and lawyers and superstars doing a much better job of changing it (much less making it better) though they all say they will. Today's age of instant media has us all believing that mass hysteria is the only way to change society.
I beg to differ.
Rather than climbing the pinnacle of Facebook pondering, can't we come down to where God has planted us and bow down to those within our homes in servitude and turn to the people within our churches in asking for and receiving forgiveness?
Does this mean we don't need to seek, strive, push, implore, and pray for justice here on earth? Does this mean we never go out into the world at large and beat a healing drum?
Yesterday was a day that reminded us to keep seeking, striving, pushing, imploring, praying, and pledging...
"...allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
The 4th of July! A great day for our nation. A wonderful day for remembering what men of faith and character were able to accomplish by going out into the world...without the Internet at their disposal.
Again, there is nothing wrong with the pledge we recite in our country. It's our ideal. An ideal put before us that makes us seek, strive, push, implore, and pray to make a better life for ourselves and our children.
That ideal is important. We need that. And, surprisingly, it’s attainable. Sometimes the ideal becomes the reality.
But when our ideals fall like lumped clay at our feet, that’s when the realist in us needs to step forward and say, “Be still! Listen! Where is God's plan in all this? What is God's plan for me?”
These ideals are made by fallen people much like us. People fail us. People disappoint us. In the real world we must focus on the battle before us, not the whole war around us.
To quote Kimberly Hahn, "I'm changing the world one diaper at a time." That’s where God has called me to serve Him and it's through obedience to Him that I am able to serve where He has placed me.
Because of my duties to my household, my church, and my friends, I have not kept abreast of the Casey Anthony case or the Fr. Corapi incident. Not that I was blind to either or hard or numb. I knew I couldn’t make much of a difference and I am, for better or worse, a believer in minding my own business. Sometimes I wonder about myself if, in fact, this makes me cold, hard, numb, whatever.
A friend sent me a private message today on Facebook and I very much appreciated the care she took in sending me a smiley face over the airwaves. She mentioned: "I'm just glad we only have to answer for our own actions and not others. I think when we get wrapped up in stuff like the trial and we become a part of what the world wants. God tells us to be different from the world."
That’s the crux of our anger. We all want justice and we want it NOW! But God's time is not our time. When one has a Christian worldview such as my friend mentioned...being in this world but not of it...it sometimes comes across as cold and a little unfeeling. People believe you have to be angry to be passionate about something, but anger is not of God. Christ didn't hurl his cross in anger and demand justice! He remained who he was, an innocent man who saw that God’s plan was greater than his own.
It's not to say that we all stand here and remain silent when other parts of Christ’s body are hurting. It isn't that we ignore the cry of the poor and suffering but, sometimes, in heeding to the call of so many we forget our own surroundings and leave our own souls unattended. That can prove disastrous. We must fight the battles within our own homes before we can expose the demons that run rabid over the whole world.
What happens when your life is grounded in Christ, is that you become sensitive not only to the victims but towards all God's children. I grieve for Caylee Anthony. I also grieve for Casey and her parents. I grieve for what happened and what will never happen. I grieve for the kind of mother Casey should have been but wasn't. I grieve for what the grandparents have lost in the life of that little girl. I grieve for their souls. I grieve for days spent in jail cells and dark thoughts and feelings of worthlessness. I grieve the hours of useless ponderings and regret. I grieve for tears shed and tears unshed. I grieve for the lawyers who live this reality every day. I grieve for the jury whose lives have been defined by the deeds of another. Mostly I grieve for Caylee and birthday parties that will never be.
What makes me saddest of all is that Casey Anthony portrays so many young mothers in America today. Not all but too many. Young mothers who leave their children to go to bars, strip clubs and drinking binges.Young mothers who don't want the commitment of having a child. Young mothers who continue to act like they are not mothers. Young mothers who move in with boyfriends who have no commitments or any ties to them or the child. Young mothers who have no respect for themselves or their children. Young mothers who think of their children to be dolled up and paraded then discarded. Young mothers who will look at Casey Anthony as a role model who gets a book deal then the movie deal and end up with the money, fame, and night life without the child to care for.
What makes me sick is the celebration of the defense team within sight of cameras. Smiles, laughter, hugs, high fives, ecstatic jumping, and cork popping champagne bottles.
What makes me cringe are all the dollar bills that will be spent when buying her book and viewing her movie and giving her the time of day that little Caylee was not given.
This is really not a case of whether Casey was found guilty or not. No one but Casey Anthony knows what truly happened. Still she is a marked woman. Just as Cain was marked by God, Casey Anthony will be marked for life. She may not stay in jail but people can make sure her life is a living hell...or not. People are the harshest of judges.
As far as the verdict, we are all guilty. Guilty of the attention, the time of day, and the book sales that we give Casey. We are guilty of public displays of celebration. That any of us (namely, the defense team) could celebrate so openly and proudly is a disgrace.
This is truly a case against society and its most defenseless citizens...the children.
At this very moment millions of decent human beings are phoning, texting, twittering their anger. Most of us, I might add, are in a state of disbelief!
There are thousands of Internet discussions and posts and comments (not counting mine) happening right this minute concerning the Casey Anthony trial. Everyone is waiting for Nancy Grace to prosecute their screens.
The battle cry is JUSTICE FOR CAYLEE!
I have always thought I was an idealist. I was wrong. I'm a realist. True, I love ideals and reading about them and striving for them. Seldom do I attain them; the reality is never as pretty as those ideals in my head. What worth are those ideals in the mind of a realist? I’ll tell you their worth. They’re put there by God to get me through the muck of this world. They keep me going forward in an otherwise un-ideal world. They help me to strive towards something better than I am or that this world gives me. They help make me a better parent than Casey Anthony.
My idealist side is always questioning my realist side: “Would you think differently if your child was kidnapped and murdered? Would you hate the sin but love the sinner?”
Honestly I can't say how I would react. My idealist side says I would be stoic and charitable. “Father, forgive them.” My realist side is probably closer to, say, reality. They, whoever ‘they’ are, would probably have to sedate me and put me away in a locked room. I would be on a cocktail of drugs just to get me through the trial.
If my granddaughter was dead and my daughter was on trial and there was a questionable doubt? Let me just say I can understand why Cindy Anthony tried to take the rap. But I've also heard too many people who have had family members murdered who come back to say they got to a point in their life when they had to let go and let God. Eventually they had to let go and forgive the offender otherwise the stress and anger would have killed them, thus giving the offender two victims instead of one.
There's no justice there! There is a valuable lesson and I like to listen to those quiet voices of wisdom over the voices of anger that rise up to silence the voice of God. It is a valuable lesson to be learned by the rest of us if we just stop our ranting and listen to God’s plan for us.
And what is that plan? I hate to disillusion you here but man’s justice is not part of it. The first murder in this world was between two brothers. How’s that for God’s plan? I'm sure Eve wailed and lamented this injustice within her family. But then she turned around and gave birth to another son. That is where faith begins. Faith in the face of fear!
We go on living and loving and learning. And trusting God’s plan justifies our own actions.
Why do we expect justice now, when it wasn't even present in the book of Genesis? I don't think we expect it...people never fail to disappoint us...as much as we long for it. Justice is not for this world. Justice is reserved for the Kingdom of God. That’s the plan!
Despite the realist in me, it is usually the idealist in me who posts on Facebook. Today was no different.
"Fr. Corapi and Casey Anthony aside...I'm going back to focusing on what matters in my life...my family and my God."
Most people understood my post and related to my resolve. Most shared their support by hitting the "Like" button, not that I expected anyone's support but it was reassuring to see I wasn't completely alone. A couple of my friends were, understandably, caught off-guard by my post. And I understood their anguish. I understood their defense. I sympathize. While I understand what other Christians are saying, do you suppose if I shout my offense and injustice of the world from the top of my Facebook soapbox, it will change anything? Anything at all? Will it change society?
Probably not. Like it or not, justice is often not found in this world. We have only to look at 9-11 and what has ensued since that date to witness the evidence.
What I'm saying in my Facebook ponder is that, instead of shouting from the top of our Facebook rooftop like the rest of society, we should face our own families and our own church communities, bow low, and vow to improve this world within our own backyards and homes and churches.
Forget the world at large!
Did I say that?
Yes! Yes, I did!
I'm sorry but I can't change the world. I can't! And, truth be told, I don't see many politicians and lawyers and superstars doing a much better job of changing it (much less making it better) though they all say they will. Today's age of instant media has us all believing that mass hysteria is the only way to change society.
I beg to differ.
Rather than climbing the pinnacle of Facebook pondering, can't we come down to where God has planted us and bow down to those within our homes in servitude and turn to the people within our churches in asking for and receiving forgiveness?
Does this mean we don't need to seek, strive, push, implore, and pray for justice here on earth? Does this mean we never go out into the world at large and beat a healing drum?
Yesterday was a day that reminded us to keep seeking, striving, pushing, imploring, praying, and pledging...
"...allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
The 4th of July! A great day for our nation. A wonderful day for remembering what men of faith and character were able to accomplish by going out into the world...without the Internet at their disposal.
Again, there is nothing wrong with the pledge we recite in our country. It's our ideal. An ideal put before us that makes us seek, strive, push, implore, and pray to make a better life for ourselves and our children.
That ideal is important. We need that. And, surprisingly, it’s attainable. Sometimes the ideal becomes the reality.
But when our ideals fall like lumped clay at our feet, that’s when the realist in us needs to step forward and say, “Be still! Listen! Where is God's plan in all this? What is God's plan for me?”
These ideals are made by fallen people much like us. People fail us. People disappoint us. In the real world we must focus on the battle before us, not the whole war around us.
To quote Kimberly Hahn, "I'm changing the world one diaper at a time." That’s where God has called me to serve Him and it's through obedience to Him that I am able to serve where He has placed me.
Because of my duties to my household, my church, and my friends, I have not kept abreast of the Casey Anthony case or the Fr. Corapi incident. Not that I was blind to either or hard or numb. I knew I couldn’t make much of a difference and I am, for better or worse, a believer in minding my own business. Sometimes I wonder about myself if, in fact, this makes me cold, hard, numb, whatever.
A friend sent me a private message today on Facebook and I very much appreciated the care she took in sending me a smiley face over the airwaves. She mentioned: "I'm just glad we only have to answer for our own actions and not others. I think when we get wrapped up in stuff like the trial and we become a part of what the world wants. God tells us to be different from the world."
That’s the crux of our anger. We all want justice and we want it NOW! But God's time is not our time. When one has a Christian worldview such as my friend mentioned...being in this world but not of it...it sometimes comes across as cold and a little unfeeling. People believe you have to be angry to be passionate about something, but anger is not of God. Christ didn't hurl his cross in anger and demand justice! He remained who he was, an innocent man who saw that God’s plan was greater than his own.
It's not to say that we all stand here and remain silent when other parts of Christ’s body are hurting. It isn't that we ignore the cry of the poor and suffering but, sometimes, in heeding to the call of so many we forget our own surroundings and leave our own souls unattended. That can prove disastrous. We must fight the battles within our own homes before we can expose the demons that run rabid over the whole world.
What happens when your life is grounded in Christ, is that you become sensitive not only to the victims but towards all God's children. I grieve for Caylee Anthony. I also grieve for Casey and her parents. I grieve for what happened and what will never happen. I grieve for the kind of mother Casey should have been but wasn't. I grieve for what the grandparents have lost in the life of that little girl. I grieve for their souls. I grieve for days spent in jail cells and dark thoughts and feelings of worthlessness. I grieve the hours of useless ponderings and regret. I grieve for tears shed and tears unshed. I grieve for the lawyers who live this reality every day. I grieve for the jury whose lives have been defined by the deeds of another. Mostly I grieve for Caylee and birthday parties that will never be.
What makes me saddest of all is that Casey Anthony portrays so many young mothers in America today. Not all but too many. Young mothers who leave their children to go to bars, strip clubs and drinking binges.Young mothers who don't want the commitment of having a child. Young mothers who continue to act like they are not mothers. Young mothers who move in with boyfriends who have no commitments or any ties to them or the child. Young mothers who have no respect for themselves or their children. Young mothers who think of their children to be dolled up and paraded then discarded. Young mothers who will look at Casey Anthony as a role model who gets a book deal then the movie deal and end up with the money, fame, and night life without the child to care for.
What makes me sick is the celebration of the defense team within sight of cameras. Smiles, laughter, hugs, high fives, ecstatic jumping, and cork popping champagne bottles.
What makes me cringe are all the dollar bills that will be spent when buying her book and viewing her movie and giving her the time of day that little Caylee was not given.
This is really not a case of whether Casey was found guilty or not. No one but Casey Anthony knows what truly happened. Still she is a marked woman. Just as Cain was marked by God, Casey Anthony will be marked for life. She may not stay in jail but people can make sure her life is a living hell...or not. People are the harshest of judges.
As far as the verdict, we are all guilty. Guilty of the attention, the time of day, and the book sales that we give Casey. We are guilty of public displays of celebration. That any of us (namely, the defense team) could celebrate so openly and proudly is a disgrace.
This is truly a case against society and its most defenseless citizens...the children.
I haven't kept up with any of it, but was saddened yesterday to hear that there was celebration over a verdict. Great post, Cay.
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