Possibly unpopular wisdom

"From December to February the harmattan wind blows sand and dust from the Sahara Desert into the skies throughout West Africa. It results in a hazy sky, reduced visibility and altered perception; the strange feeling that things are not what they were, or at least not what they seem.

There is so much I thought I knew before i came here. I knew my mind and its philosophy, my body and its limits. I knew religion but put my faith in science. I knew what it meant to be a white man and a Canadian. There was so much I was certain of and so many lines that I had drawn with a chisel in stone. now it is not as if the lines have been erased and redrawn. Instead, the stone has turned to dust and has blown away.

I am sure of one thing: The world does not need to be saved, only savoured"

- Marcello Di Cinto, "Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa"

I find this thought beautiful. Especially after too many years of trying to save the world myself.... I think in the church we see that Jesus died & rose again to save the world & then we figure we need to 'do something' to be productive or useful or helpful to 'help God' or 'do something for Jesus'.... and more often than not, it's that we end up doing something, often misguided though often with great intentions, that is really there to make us feel better, make us feel like we're 'useful' and can earn His love & acceptance (which are free gifts to all anyhow & don't have to be earned).

Instead, i think I'm learning that to save the world, and to find my salvation, a lot of life is laying down my attempts to prove myself as a 'somebody'.... I find that as I rest, as I savour the world around me, as I enjoy the richness of the moments of life, I find that is what makes me feel alive, what makes me want to live, and yeah, I wonder at times if that savouring of the world, of the moments of this gift of life that I live in, that we all live in, is really what ends up being the light that points to salvation....

I don't know.... I do know that the people who seem alive to me are the ones that make me want to live, the ones that remind me of what my heart of hearts longs for.....