Hopeful Thinking

I don’t know when in my life I originally started to think about Muslims and their faith, but I know I did think of them. Probably young. Many years before September 11, 2001. Perhaps as young as 10 or 12. I no longer remember what my early impressions were. Perhaps from the movies. My later impressions were forced to be concluded against a social backdrop of war and politics, colored by personal experience. At the age of 23 in 1993, I was only a few blocks away having lunch when Islamic terrorists bombed the basement of the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. I felt the ground shake. I assumed it was an earthquake. I was wrong but correct. Eight years later, I had dinner reservations at the Windows on the World Restaurant on top of the North Tower scheduled for Sept 12, 2001. I was packing for my trip into the city when I saw the second plane hit the South Tower on the news. The restaurant where I was to have dinner the following night was already gone. Early th...

See those folks loudly arguing over there?  Observe them for a moment but don’t conclude what’s going on by what they say.  Look at other parts.  What do you think these people WANT?  Not what they SAY they want.  What is the underlying honesty beneath?  When people use God as an argument to do anything other than make friends they have another Want in mind than God.  What is it?  Figure that out and you’ll know how to help them.  It’s harder to be them than us.  But it’s ok.  They need this drama.  It’s important for them to experience it, in the cosmic sense.  We all of us have or shall spend time there ourselves to one degree or another.   The world has changed and they don’t have quite as much control over things as before.  The rules have altered a bit in our favor and they're scrambling.  Pray for them.  That's the best way to help them get caught up.  That's all we really want anyw...