Tour 10

"The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure."
-Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7, verse 4

What grieves the wise?

"The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone?"
-Chapter 6, verse 11

The tour is being cut short. I will be coming home on August 7th, and would like to sit with you, my Philadelphia friend, and tell some stories. Some are good and some are bad. The summation of this journey is that there is much more destruction and brokenness in this nation than I could ever have imagined, but that God is more faithful, just, and good than I can possibly express or understand. This is the first time in my life that I have ever prayed with a truly excited gratitude and surprise over a meal served to me --- understanding that it literally came from heaven. There is no entitlement anymore, only abandon.

Receiving such daily bread, I grow continually more disgusted with privilege and its requisite opiate hedonism [the house of pleasure]:
"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep."

-Chapter 5, verses 8-12