A Lot of Questions, but Where Are Answers?

We’re leaving for the Holy Land and I’m wondering not only what we’ll find there, but what are we leaving behind.

I have never been a gloom and doom kind of guy. Wouldn’t say I’m a glowing optimist either. I try to look at things and see the possibilities, good and bad, and adjust accordingly. I guess if you put a gun to my head and said I had to choose one way or the other, I probably lean more toward the rosier side of things.

That’s getting tougher.

Our world is in a funk. The very foundations of who we are and what we stand for are being chipped away. Take elections. It used to be that the debate stopped and started with an election. If your guy or gal got in, you win. If yours did not, you saluted the flag and moved on. Oh sure, there have been a few instances here and there where the outcome was disputed. Those usually ended up in recounts. But now? Now politicians routinely throw the election outcome into doubt. Who knows if they honestly believe it’s rigged, or if they just have egos so large they can’t fathom the idea they failed to convince enough people to vote for them. All we really know is that if we can’t believe in our elections, we’re in a world of trouble.

It doesn’t stop there.

The idea that children, those under the age of 18, can somehow know enough at a very young age to make life-altering changes in their bodies in the name of transgenderism . . . and that they have support from adults . . .

I don’t have the words.

It’s hard to comprehend.

And then the news this week that North Korea fired an ICBM that experts agree could carry a nuclear warhead to anywhere in the continental United States. On top of that, North Korea officials say that this is practice for a nuclear attack on the U.S.

Can we play that out for a second?

Let’s imagine you’re sitting down for a cup of coffee and the warning sirens come on. They are on TV, the radio, your phone, everywhere. At first you think tornado. But hey, it’s 30 degrees outside. Then a graven voice comes on and tells you an attack is imminent and to seek shelter immediately. In the next few minutes, millions could die. Or, perhaps, our military heroes might shoot down the incoming threat. Either way, in that moment, life has forever changed.

First comes the question – if we knew a nation with nuclear weapons was practicing for this, why did we not stop them? Then the bigger questions – how did we get here? How did life, our country, our world, get so far off track?

Chances are, you and I don’t have those answers. I know for sure they won’t be found in the Republican Party, nor with the Democrats. The answers aren’t American, or Korean, or Russian or in any other nation.

We’ll arrive in Tel Aviv soon. After that we will visit Masada, the Sea of Galilee, the river Jordan, the sites of the birth of Christ and his death. It seems the right places to start looking for the answers.

Sagamore News Media’s Tim Timmons is on a pilgrimage to Israel and the Holy Land. He will be writing occasionally during the trip. Timmons can be contacted at ttimmons@thetimes24-7.com.