Easter, Passover - Another Year - Same Message

For the millions of people in the world who have strong religious beliefs Easter weekend is one of the most powerful celebrations of the year. Millions of people around the world will gather and renew their faith over the next few days. This year Passover, the Jewish religious celebration, is also this weekend.

I've written about this almost every year since 2005 so instead of writing a new story, I encourage you to read some of the articles I've written in the past.

I could have created a brand new article, but I' only be repeating the same themes that I've talked about in the past. I don't think the Christians create a new Bible every year. Jews don't create new scripture. They keep pulling out the same scroll ever year. The scripture and themes that will be in sermons this Sunday will be the same scripture and themes that faith leaders have pointed to for over 2000 years.

In 2011 I wrote an article about the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. I'm not a Biblical scholar, so I did some searching and came up with this web site that provides a number of Tower of Babel articles worth reading.

I used this theme again last year.

As I look at all of the problems facing the world, I think of my own efforts to mobilize people and resources to help kids in high poverty areas have the range of supports they need to be more successful moving safely through school and into adult lives with jobs that enable them to live free of poverty.

I keep trying to attract a few eyeballs every day to focus on this problem.

This concept map illustrates that there are many problems that challenge all families.  People living in poverty areas have fewer resources to overcome these challenges.  Each spoke on this map represents a challenge families face. Making one service available for a short period of time, in a few places, really does not work, since the other problems still persist.

The story of the Tower of Babel was written more than 2000 years ago. It's a story about how people tried to work together to solve a complex problem. And they failed.

This is the text from Genesis 11:1-9

"Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 

Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.' So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.' Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth." (Genesis 11:1-9)

I highlighted nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them because this is where I struggle in my thinking.  If just a small percent of the people in the world focus on helping kids in poverty, much can be done.  If a similar small percent of people focus on each of the other issues we face, which are well defined in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, much more might be done.

Connecting and coordinating efforts so all of the nodes on the concept map are connected and learning from each other, has the potential to show that no problem is impossible to solve.

However, in the Bible story, GOD said "let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech".

Everyone understands the problem differently, and the words we speak have different meaning, based on different life experiences.

Does the story of the Tower of Babel mean that the GOD that many worship really does not want people to find ways to work together to solve the suffering and potential disasters to the human race that we are facing?

I don't want to believe that.

Read the articles I've written over the past 13 years about networks, network building, learning, innovation and collaboration.  Maybe there's a way to connect and put more eyeballs on each of these problems and use our technology to connect with each other.

8-19-2022 update. Below is an interesting Twitter thread about the Bible story about the Tower of Babel.

Why Read The Bible In Hebrew?

Let's talk about one of the most influential stories *ever* for thinking about the nature of human progress—the Tower of Babel.

What exactly did Babel's builders do wrong?

A thread (for non-Hebrew readers too!) 🧵 1 pic.twitter.com/Uv03uXinsi

— Ari Lamm (@AriLamm) August 19, 2022