In the news recently has been the story of the 200 plus kidnapped girls in Northern Nigeria. This story came out about 3 weeks before there was any reasonable response from either the Nigerians or the international community. Why it has taken so long is a big question considering the speedy responses to the Malaysian Airline and the Korean ferry disasters, but while it was very apparent that the odds of any survival in these cases was unlikely, in Nigeria the girls are most likely alive.

Is it because it is Africa, or that they are alive, or that they are girls or even that nothing regarding big business is involved or maybe a combination of all of these? It seemed to take the Nigerian President weeks to get any awareness of what is happening in his country or to his people that he is supposed to be taking care of. The West, basically USA and UK, are doing their predicable muscular response, following their masculine unconscious and riding to the rescue of these damsels who have obviously been in considerable distress, and uttering the rampant press and political one liners about evil and powerlessness.

However for me the main concern is the level of governance being revealed. There seems to be a stupefying level of denial around action and consequences, around action and reaction, around cause and effect. There still seems complete denial of the consequences of the Iraqi War and its effect on the Christian-Muslim relationship. The most surprising aspect of all this, to me, is how few such explosive events occur considering the standard of leadership and service shown by many of the political leaders in the 21st century; they seem to react by treating the effects, rather than going to the causes of the mayhem, giving up self interest and acting in the best interests of the people they have come to serve, give to and take care of.

After so often choosing to respond with fear, the best tool for those seeking political power, we now seem incapable of being aware of and responding to the causes of such acts of misguided madness. While this is so obvious on the world stage most of us do not have to look far to find very similar dynamics within our own lives. For me my health springs to mind, this issue having recently taken over from money. I now see that reflected all around me, with so many friends and family reacting to symptoms coming from a fear driven mindset. The cause is fear and that is what I am called to address until I come from a place of love and I see that reflected back to me by my world, rather than the reflection of the path of a fear driven madman with a machine gun!

Or thinking the best chance of finding those girls quickly is to crash a commercial airliner close to their last known whereabouts!!!

Let’s remember to choose love in every possible situation and while we will often fail at this that is never a good enough reason to stop making this choice until it becomes our first and only reaction because it is our only action.

With love, Jeff