We are almost at the end of the second week of January 2021. If anyone had predicted twelve months ago what has happened since January 2020, they would have been laughed or scoffed at. The thing about a person of faith is that they have an inner understanding and acceptance that the universe is not subject to the will of human beings and that we are not the supreme intelligence and force of the universe. There is a creator that controls all things (those which we know and understand, and those we do not know nor understand) in ways we can never understand. Thus, no one can predict the future. However, the creator of the universe sent messengers and prophets to humanity since it was created to constantly guide it as to how to please our creator and exist in humble submission. In all of us, however, our creator has put the desire for goodness and submission, as well as the desire for evil and rebellion. To judge us all on the balance of our deeds in this material life, our creator informed us that there will be a Day of Judgement for humanity that will occur when the creator of the universe decides. Until then, generation after generation, human beings will live their lives in a daily struggle between right and wrong, submission to our creator’s will or rebellion against it, and fulfilling our selfish desires as we live or sacrificing and giving of ourselves to aid others and for the betterment of the world we live in.
The events of the last few weeks, months, and even years in America, and their reverberations throughout the world, have had tremendously high impact on how our future will be shaped. America is a very powerful country that can have great positive impact, or great negative impact, on the humanity - as the last century of history shows. Americans like to invoke ‘the founding fathers’ as though they are/were prophets. They were not. America has a terrible legacy in its white-supremacist slavery past, one that it has not yet resolved. We are continuing to see the tug of war between those that want to face the sins of that past and resolve its legacy for the better, and those that still want to fight the civil war and prop up a modern form of its slavery origins.
As human beings and societies, our values define us and control our actions. We are at a pivotal moment in America’s history, and that of the whole world in fact. Where will this country choose to go?
Why this reflection by someone involved in sustainable organic agriculture, environmental stewardship and healthy food access?
Because the basis of The Good Tree Farm project is to uphold and champion justice in everything. We engage in ‘justice activism’ through the areas we can impact - responsible agribusiness practices, environmental stewardship, and affordable access to healthy food - but we are supporting justice as a principle in human existence. The common saying is true: Know justice, Know peace - No justice, No peace.
We hope and pray America chooses justice, so more people in this world can know peace.