Volume 6, Issue 9, May 1997

MANAGING THE WORLD

In the power struggles going on around us and in our world today the individual often feels powerless and marginalized. Sometimes the power lies in the hands of selfish, even unscrupulous persons. Therefore, it is with surprise one finds the advice of St. Paul to the Christians of his day that "the saints will manage the world."

Although the apostle was focusing his thought on the management of congregational disputes and misunderstandings, the church was quite aware of its community and world-wide responsibilities. They had a sense that the world can be managed and good people can best do it.

By saints, Paul meant those who are kind, pious and humble. He realized that it was not those with dominance who ultimately control things, but the majority of persons who practice the virtue of meekness and goodwill.

Who can estimate how greatly the lives of noble characters have permeated human experience and influenced even the counsels of nations?

Our physical world is a puzzling place. It seems to be ambiguous; to have more than one meaning. We have to transcend it and to transform it. The good people see that our world is spiritual as well as physical. So they each become creative artists, contributing as they are capable and able to making the world and life better. They realize that life is a ministry and all can contribute to the realm of God.

Let none of us decompensate our sense of value, our worthwhileness in the total. If we can manage ourselves then we can help others to manage their lives and so the goodness spreads.

"If we cease to judge this world, we may find ourselves, very quickly, in one which is infinitely worse," states Margaret Atwood. Once we look down on others, cease to share with them, seek to control them, then anarchy and depression set in. Who better than the saints, the good, to manage the world?

A negative attitude is not just a state of mind, it can cause real harm

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.