Letter: Get your own soil!
Can you or I truly take claim to anything, and in particular, possess the land fully? Taxpayer ownership or not, the living, breathing soil, the land, is not ours. Many in our bureaucracy need reminded of this. It is probably one of the core differences between the people in the system, meaning the few people for the Mid-Sates Corridor – and the people actually stewarding the living land, meaning the people supporting the Property Rights Alliance.
Here’s a story for the brain to do some thinking:
Once upon a time, a group of scientists & government officials, who were proud of their advancements in technology and understanding of the world, decided they no longer needed God. This group picked a scientist to go tell God this news.
The chosen scientist approached God and said, “God, we believe we no longer need you. We figured out how you created things, so now we can do our own ‘miraculous’ things. We can clone humans, manipulate atoms, build molecules, and fly through space. Studying the microbiology of the soil has shown us effectively how to create life. So why don’t you just go away and mind your own business from now on?”
Our patient and kind God listened to the man. God replied, “Very well. How about this? Before I go away, let’s say we have a human-making contest.” To which the scientist replied, “Okay, we can handle that!”
“But,” God said, “we’re going to do this just like I did in the beginning with Adam.”
The scientist agreed, “Sure, no problem” and they bent down to pick up a handful of dirt.
God stopped the scientist, “No! You can start by getting your own soil.”
BOOM. AMEN.
The anecdote above is not new by any means. You’ve maybe heard it before. Actually, twenty-five years ago I borrowed it and spoke it as part of a speech to a panel of FFA judges at a District Leadership Contest. I won 1st place in the extemporaneous speaking contest. This was mere weeks after my Grandpa Seger died. During this period of time, the Holy Spirit was forming me for the land and guiding me to an agronomy degree (the study of crops and soils). The very land my Grandpa Seger purchased to grow his stewardship as a farmer is what this Mid-States Corridor MISTAKE intends to bulldoze away.
After working the brain a little, here’s a story for the heart to expand:
St. Augustine once preached a sermon in which he proposed a kind of self-test to see if we truly love God. He said:
Suppose God proposed to you a deal and said, “I will give you anything you want. You can possess the whole world. Nothing will be impossible for you… Nothing will be a sin, nothing forbidden. You will never die, never have pain, never have anything you do not want and always have anything you do want – except for just one thing: you will never see my face.”
Augustine closed with a question: Did a chill just rise in your hearts, when you heard the words, “you will never see my face?” That chill is the most precious thing in you. It is the pure love of God.”
Truly. What is it worth to gain all the possessions, wealth, and even fame, if you don’t have God in the end? Mark 8:36 says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” The Mid-States Corridor is forfeiting all that is good.
Saint Catherine of Siena is my example for how to handle the strife we are dealing with in the Mid-States Corridor MESS. She had horrible and corrupt leadership back in the 1300s of France. It was a MESS. She never stopped praying for the leaders despite their problems. My first letter to the editor: https://duboiscountyfreepress.com/letter-how-did-we-allow-a-select-few-to-push-the-majority-around/ detailed the MESS we have right now with the Mid-States Mistake Mess. We need St. Catherine of Siena to convert hearts to understand how God would want us in southern Indiana to care for the land that is truly only HIS.
And, perhaps St. Thomas More is another Saint to intercede on this issue. He had the COURAGE to stand up to the ruler of his time, King Henry VIII, who was behaving so immorally.
In the end, we will win and not the bureaucrats because we will have done all we could to properly steward God’s land while remaining respectful the way God wants us to remain. We are nothing without Him – to dust WE ALL RETURN.
Remember, GET YOUR OWN SOIL!
Laura Seger McAninch
St. Henry
