Across the world in little homes, in offices, in school playgrounds, in pubs, on street corners, in supermarkets, in villages and family gatherings, here, there and everywhere, mankind is at war. Whether it be road rage, street gangs, domestic situations, or school bullying, terroist orgainisations, such as Hezbollah, violence between our species must have reached epidemic proportions. Conflict between countries, religions and political factions and groups continues into the 21st century along with the brutality, cruelty and suffering. Now the war between Israel and Hezbollah Lebanon has drawn the world’s attention as people begin to consider the far-reaching consequences.
So often innocent civilians are trapped within a war they do not want to be a part of. Children are slaughtered and families suffer dreadfully on both sides. Land is destroyed along with the beauty of nature — precious creatures and plants and much more that we cannot see.
It is as if something is affecting us all. It is as if something is affecting our thinking, trying to make us irritable, intolerant, prejudiced, hateful. It seems that there is a part of Mankind that is weak, and prone to the influence of evil. We must all accept that evil really exists. There is a force of evil that stalks the Earth, hungry for destruction. We cannot see this force, but we can see the results of its deeds. If we look out at the world in any direction, we can see the tool it uses is ourselves, Mankind. Look at many things in life and you will see its finger prints; violence growing in many young children, cruelty to animals, bullying- youngsters filming brutality with their mobile phones, others attacking their parents and teachers, gangs and street violence, muggings, rapes and murders, paedophilia, violence for entertainment on T.V. in film computer and book ... it can be seen that evil permeates our society and our world, by the hand of Mankind.
Evil influences thought, because a person can then produce a negative action from this. Violent and destructive thoughts can be difficult to control, and this is just what evil wants, weak people vulnerable to these thoughts, to manipulate for their purpose. Destruction is its aim, destruction of all that’s good, of everything that is beautiful and innocent, of all that is strong and just, of those who are weak and vulnerable, destruction is the goal of evil and once this can be really understood, it can change how we see what is happening in our own lives, within our own heads and in the wider world. We may decide to change how we go through life, and guard our thinking more carefully.
What is happening in Israel and Lebanon with Hezbollah affects us all because it affects our Earth that we all share. It must be our concern to protect our precious planet from all harm and we can do this by keeping our thoughts good and wholesome, so that our actions reflect this. We will be helping the Earth by denying evil the chance to touch her, and we will be working for good.
Perhaps we cannot help the situation in the Middle East with the Israel and Arab conflict, other than sending our thoughts of goodwill and peace, but we can always diminish the chance of conflict within our own homes and work places. We must care deeply for the thoughts of children, they are the future guardians of the Earth. It is paramount that we nurture them well, and help them to understand themselves, teach by our example, to have temperance in anger, to be thoughtful, to regard all life as precious.
There is a force for good that works for the Earth ... and over everything is The Great Mind, our God. It does not matter which religion we are from, it only matters that we know He is there, as father to us all. All we need to do is live our lives as best we can, always aware that we must guard against evil in our thinking; to choose to be good to our brothers and sisters of the world, no matter our differences, we are all one family. We only have to walk our pathways with our hand in God’s hand for there is no better way.
© Pippa Ball 2006 The Erasmus Foundation.
The Erasmus Foundation, Moat House, Banyards Green, Laxfield, Suffolk. IP13 8ER. Tel: 01986 798682.