Entries in A Long Listen (25)
Report from Dayton
A Friend observed, “We’re talking about changing human nature. It’s not an easy task.”
Incident at Covington
I visualized poor people, unemployed people lacking my own resources, passing through the field where I was standing in the sunset. Unlike me, they might not have had money for a restaurant meal or a motel room. The corn I was looking at would have been useless to them. Game would have been hard to come by. This was a rich land I was looking at, and yet it would be barren to the poor.
Report from Englewood
A Friend said, “Our mission as Friends is to seek truth. I wonder what is true about topics like global warming. I feel Jesus is crying for those who are pulled right and left, trying to understand what is truth. On the Net we can find things that support any number of opinions.”
Report from Richmond
…There were Indiana meetings very divided about how fast to move on the slavery issue. “When you’re living history, it’s messy. When something’s divisive, that doesn’t mean God isn’t in it.”
In Company to Richmond
We could see the clouds roiling and growing, and the veils of rain forming in the distance and marching across the land, as the winds picked up and tore at the trees around us. Soon we could pick out one area of rain upwind of us that seemed destined to overtake us — and I was fascinated by the way our connectedness with the landscape around us seemed to deepen as our concern about that approaching rain intensified!
Report from Cadiz
A Friend cited the first two chapters of the book of Ezekiel, in which God says to the prophet, “I’m sending you to a rebellious people who will not listen.” Looking at our numbers, the Friend said, there’s probably not enough of us (Friends) to make a big difference in the world. But Ezekiel goes on to say that whether or not the rebellious people listen is not the prophet’s concern. Sometimes we have to concentrate on being faithful, not on being successful.”
Report from Fall Creek at Pendleton
A Friend said that the only way to unite people is by opening hearts, showing them how to open their own hearts. We have to increase the love between us. Once that process begins, the power of love increases. People find it very hard to reject someone they love.
Report from Noblesville
A Friend asked, “How will my efforts to conserve water help women in Kenya?” Another Friend responded that how we use or exploit the environment has everything to do with peace and justice. … A Friend said that he was skeptical of the claims made on both sides of environmental debates….