Problems do not fix themselves , if ever there are going to be solutions to our problems those solutions are going to have to come from within us . Not from divine intervention, luck, or any other cosmic force we conjure up in our minds.
It is important to say I do believe there is a powerful force which created the Universe the Galaxies and all that’s outside the scope and sphere of our understanding and knowledge.
Whatever that force , irrespective of the name one has for him/her/it , that force is it, that which we reverence as God. It is that force which created us, which also empowered us to do for ourselves that which we so wastefully spend so much of our time on our knees begging him to fix.
I always fancied myself a pragmatist . I believe every last word of the foregone.
Things others acquire and take for granted I have always had to work doubly hard for, even so, some of those most basic things were not guaranteed. It was never for want of prayer either, I came from a family of praying people. Church for us was mandatory no questions asked.
As I read the Bible myself I learned that whatever I wanted out of life I was going to have to go get on my own.
I looked at the Biblical stories of the miracles Jesus wrought, and I found a common thread .
That thread was that whatever miracle he wrought the recipient/s of said miracle/s had to be a part of the miracle. They had to participate in the miracle, they weren’t allowed to simply sit and be handed the reward.
From his very first miracle . John 2 vs 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
The rest is well known , healing a man of the dreaded leprosy he told him, “go show thyself to the Priest’. The priest was the certifying authority , only they could allow cured lepers back into society.
“Pick up thy bed and walk ” after healing a man lame from birth.
To the man born blind , John 9, Jesus spat on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes. 7 Then He told him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.
Literally every single miraculous work was done through faith and obedience by the recipient/s . So I learned pretty early that yes I would pray , recognizing God as the source of my strength, but recognizing that ‑that strength was already in me .
I not sure whether not having a mother or father growing up was responsible for my hard nosed pragmatic approach to life, or it was simply a recognition that problems not fixed early only gets worse, they never fix themselves.
That tiny sapling , soft and pliant could easily be uprooted with a little tug or no effort at all. Left there long enough removing it requires an Axe and or much more.
I spoke about this approach which I brought to policing.
Remove a single guy selling weed and you don’t have to deal with fights for turf, communities ravaged by more serious drugs, thefts and robberies to support habits , murders from turf wars and communities decimated by drugs and violence.
Just move the first guy..
And oh… the ever constant “well it’s never that easy” .
Actually it is …
It gets hard because we convince ourselves that the things which needs doing are hard. What that does is make them harder, because not only does inaction emboldens those who are predisposed to doing wrong , it solidifies the problems they create.
As I said to a friend just today there is a reason that people surrender to bullies.
Fear !!!
Fear that the bully will hit harder if they fight back. Ironically fighting back may indeed get one beaten , but it actually discourages the bully from messing with you, ultimately the bully wants to control through fear not through having to fight.
Criminals who prey on the defenseless counts on their fear. That fear emboldens them to push the envelope further and further .
The fear withing the populace is an empowering component in the success of the criminal underworld.
The refusal and hand-wringing which characterizes Jamaica’s crime problem is exactly what the criminals want.
Bloody the bully’s nose and watch the difference. Yes brute force is an answer to crime , it is the only language these murderers understand.
It is folly to believe they fear getting arrested and brought before a court of law . It is even more laughable that anyone would believe the viscous murderers in Jamaica worry about being held accountable by the criminal enhancement system which exist in our country.
The Judges , prosecuting attorneys , defense attorneys and police all have vested interest in crime or are themselves actively involved in criminal conduct. It is a simple inconvenient truth that not many want to hear unfortunately.
How many times have you heard the saying that “killing criminals is not a deterrent” .
Have you ever seen a dead criminal return to kill anyone else?
Well I guess killing is a deterrent then , isn’t it ?
Of course it is to that one.
Oh one more thing, Peter did pull out his word and cut the ear off the guard who came to take Jesus Christ away from the garden of Gethsemane.
Please don’t preach to me that Jesus replaced the ear. I know that. The fact that Peter carried a sword even in the company of the pious Savior is far more significant to me than that Jesus replaced a severed ear.