You Just Can't Get There From Here!

Close your eyes. What do you feel? Distress? Worry? Anxiety? Those are feelings that we commonly feel these days. It takes a saint to be happy in these times, especially if you read and watch the news every day! Swine flu. North Korea threatening the world with nuclear war. Iran developing nuclear weapons so that it can threaten the world. An economic depression that approaches the Great Depression of the 1930s.

In some ways the situation of the world is like the insurance salesman from Des Moines on a drive throughout the country side without a map or GPS. He gets lost. Seeing a farmer on his tractor plowing his field, the insurance salesman pulls over his late model Mercedes and hails the farmer. The farmer turns off his tractor to hear. The city slicker from Des Moines asks the way back to the city. The farmer sits back in his seat, rubs his chin with his hand while chewing a blade of grass. "Well, seems to me, you just can't get there from here."

How much that is like us! We want to get back home but seems like we just can't get there from here! At least the Insurance salesman knew where he wanted to go. For us, we can never go back to better times. We have to go forward to a place we have never been before. That's really scary.

So, where are we and where do we want to go? What are the times asking from us and what are the opportunities that await us?

There are some who believe that 2012 marks the end of history, possibly the end of the world. I do not believe that the world will end or that our daily lives will change that much by 2012. But I do believe that we will experience a gigantic turning point in history. Especially two events will take place of monumental importance.

First, the Islamic nations of the Middle East will embrace democracy. President Obama's Cairo speech marked the beginning of a new era between the USA and Islamic nations. The recent protest demonstrations against the hijacking of a democratic election in Iran indicate an undercurrent of support for democracy in the Middle East. Iraq, on June 30th, celebrated a day of national liberation.

Iraq will experience many ups and downs in their democratic life. Democracy is messy. It is the worst form of government, except for all the rest. My money is on democracy, Islamic democracy, winning in Iraq over radical Islamic terrorism. They are walking a path pioneered by India. India recently held the largest democratic election in history with Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jew and Christian participating. If only Gandhi's efforts had succeeded in keeping Pakistan within Indian sovereignty we would have an even greater example of democracy among many religions.

Second, North Korea will collapse under the weight of the United Nations resistance to its nuclear terrorism. Korea will be united by the end of 2012 not by the force of North Korean nuclear weapons but through a collapse of their already bankrupt financial system. A tyrant can afford to starve his people as long as he feeds the military and arms them. North Korea is facing an immediate future without an inflow of supplies or money from other nations. That is the reason for the insane threatening of the world with nuclear war. They are dying, the regime is crumbling on the eve of the installation of Kim Jong-il's son.

So, where will we be on New Year's 2013? Rest assured, we will wake up and see the dawn of another day! The world will not end and our daily lives will continue. But we will have entered a new era, an era of building peaceful relations among the nations. Islamic nations will have crossed the threshold into democratic Islam. Korea will be reunited and posed to help East Asia and Southeast Asia enter a golden age.

Our generation and the next generation will have a tremendous responsibility to take the next step. Religious leaders, saints, and lay persons in every religion will have the great responsibility to live the teachings of their religions, to create a parliament of world religions. The generations following will have the task of creating one world community governed by a new world Constitution and government.

This would truly be impossible if we relied upon our own talents and abilities. The task lay beyond our talents and abilities. But God and the Heavenly Hosts have always helped us in the past and they will in the present and the future. We are moving toward the Kingdom of God on earth, the fulfillment of every religious person's dreams and hopes.

So, maybe we can't get back home from here. That's good. Because the new place where we are going together, the place we will create together, is much, much, much better.