{{2015_04_23_t1.jpg}} {{2015_04_23_t2.jpg}} {{2015_04_23_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2015_04_23|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_vii|| Topics Collection vii ]] ======Blessing and Egoism ...====== Thursday, April 23, 2015. The discussion about blessing can be a way to hide your egoism. Let us talk about this, about the connection of the with to be blessed and about putting yourself into the center of your attention. {{2015_04_23.jpg }} **Refugees and Peace? ...** This morning I went by car to work, listening to the news. The discussion was about refugees which try to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat. Many of them drowned over the past week - a real tragedy. At the weekend we talked to someone who made it, years ago. He said: behind you there is death, and before you there is the sea. That is all what exists. What can you do, you have to try. How egoistic seems the discussion about blessing, when you confront yourself with the real problems of this world. There is so much war and poverty and corruption and killing and suffering! Mankind is not in a good state. When you live in a country with halfway reasonable legal system and a democratic government - how do you deal with the tension which is there, day by day? What can we do? How to deal with the problems? Of course we cannot ignore them and just continue. On the other hand we cannot stop all our normal activities either. They build our state. We are the state, with all what we do normally, with our business, our science, our education. Even our small challenges are part of taking care of our world. Handling our software systems, our churches, our institutions, our democracy ... all that is part of the solution, and it can be a part of our solution strategy. {{ 2015_04_23_2.jpg}} **Blessing and the World ...** You can take care of some of the huge problems which our world faces today. You cannot solve them all - now one can. Even the EU as a whole, or the US as a whole cannot solve the problems in a rapid way. We all live in economic systems which are tricky to control and to change. It has always been a goal of governments to lead their countries to prosperity, and you see how difficult that can be. So where is God's blessing coming into this? Where is he, the eternal Lord? He has long given us the command to help. He has sent us to be there, where others are in need. We should go and help. It is not a question of our will to do it or our mission. We have a mission. So we need to start thinking systematically. We need some fast steps and some long-term strategy at the same time. We need personal involvement as well as institutional involvement. All this is a big challenge for us - personally as well as for our society as a whole. We cannot hide ourselves, you are as responsible as I am. I believe that it is blessing when we can do something. It is blessing, when we can help. God himself is the great helper, the savior, the lover. He wants us to be the same - which is difficult enough, which is a large challenge. But he has promised to bless us, and that means that he promised that we would be able to significantly help if we would just follow his command and try, in full faith. Let us do that! (RWEP) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_vii|... more texts]]