#preconditions

[momentsbeforemass]

But first…

Have you ever wanted to be frustrated with God?

Have you ever wanted to feel like your prayers are a waste of time?

Of course not. No one does. And yet, just about all of us set ourselves up to be frustrated with God.

It happens when we set preconditions on God. When we tell God how He has to do things. When we do, we’re not changing God one bit.

What we are doing is changing ourselves. Locking ourselves into our wisdom, what we think is best, our ideas. Getting our vanity tied up with how things have to be done.

Meaning that if God does anything other that exactly how we see things happening? We’re not able to receive it. Even if it’s better. Because it’s not how we’ve decided that it has to happen.

And you’re thinking, “That ridiculous, no one does that.”

You’re right. Because just about no one sets out to put preconditions on God.

And yet, this is still a problem. Because just about all of us do put preconditions on God. We just do it in much more subtle ways.

Like what we see in today’s Gospel.

Where the response to Jesus isn’t an outright “no.” But it isn’t exactly a “yes” either.

It’s more of “let me take care of this other thing, then I’ll get to you Jesus.”

Where, maybe without really meaning to, Jesus gets put in second place. Or maybe third or fourth.

Because they’re just so caught up in themselves and what they’re doing. That Jesus has to take a number. And wait His turn.

A point that’s so beautifully captured in the first two words of one man’s response to Jesus – “But first…”

Once we’re at that point, it’s a very short step (really, more of an unavoidable slide). From expecting someone who we (in our own minds) have already made wait on us. To do things our way.

Which is a great way to set ourselves up not only to be disappointed in God. When God doesn’t do things our way.

But also to miss God’s best for our lives. Because we’re so stuck in our own ideas about how things have to be, that we miss it when God gives us better than we could ever imagine.

Today’s Readings

[indizombie]

The Clinton Administration almost reached an agreement with Pyongyang when the clock ran out on Clinton’s term. George W. Bush elected to ignore North Korea and then imposed preconditions before being willing to resume negotiations. Pyongyang saw the Bush White House as dealing in bad faith and that the only way to gain American respect was to complete the development of a nuclear bomb. North Korea detonated its first nuclear bomb in October 2006, during Bush’s second term. The Obama administration, unfortunately, followed the Bush line: no negotiations without preconditions. To push for North Korea’s agreement, Washington bandied the threats of sanctions and solicited Beijing for help. In the 16 years since the end of the Clinton administration, Washington and Pyongyang have made no progress in reaching a common understanding. Each has accused the other of acting in bad faith. The US threatened more sanctions; North Korea kept testing weapons with bigger bang and missiles with longer range. This endless cycle is not going anywhere and the threat of an American shock-and-awe style attack clearly worries Pyongyang. Why can’t Washington soften a bit and show a willingness to talk without pre-conditions? What does it have to lose?

George Koo, 'Time to think and act differently on North Korea', Asia Times

[alivewithclive]

Putin’s response has created an impediment to the implementation of the ceasefire proposal. 🇺🇦💙💛🇺🇦

#Repost @kyivindependent_official with @use.repost_ . . . Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks about a 30-day ceasefire indicate that he is preparing a rejection of the U.S. proposal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his evening address on March 13.

“Putin is afraid to say directly to (U.S.) President (Donald) Trump that he wants to continue this war, that he wants to kill Ukrainians. That’s why they in Moscow demand such preconditions for a ceasefire that will make it impossible or will (postpone it) as long as possible,” Zelensky said.

Kyiv agreed to a temporary truce proposed by Washington during the talks in Jeddah on March 11, provided that Russia did as well. Days after, on March 13, Putin said he was ready to agree to the proposal but demands guarantees that Kyiv will not mobilize or train troops, nor receive military aid during it.

Zelensky described Putin’s response as “Russian manipulations.”

Read today’s full report at the link in bio.

Photo: Al Drago / Getty Images

9h

[shrinkrants]

Let me mention four . . . non-economic conditions for the possibility of a capitalist economy. The first is a sizeable fund of unwaged labour devoted to ‘social reproduction’. This labour includes housework; the birthing and rearing of children; the care of adults, including wage workers, the elderly, and the unemployed – all aimed at the making and sustaining of human beings. These activities of ‘people-making’ constitute an indispensable precondition for ‘profit-making’. Without them there could be no ‘workers’, no ‘labour power’, no necessary or surplus labour time, no exploitation, no surplus value, no accumulation of capital, no profit. Yet capital accords them no value, is unconcerned to replenish them, and seeks to avoid paying for them insofar as it can. The second ‘non-economic’ precondition for a capitalist economy is a large fund of wealth expropriated from subjugated peoples, especially from racialized peoples. This wealth includes dependent, unfree, and unwaged or under-waged labour, but also expropriated land, looted mineral and energy deposits, human bodies and bodily organs, children and reproductive capacities – all serving as inputs to capitalist production for which capital pays little or nothing. Expropriated wealth was an indispensable source of capital stockpiling at the start of capitalism’s history, as Marx maintained; but it did not cease with the system’s ‘maturation’. On the contrary, the capitalist economy relies even now on a continuing stream of free or cheap inputs as a major source of accumulation, alongside and inter-imbricated with exploitation. Absent such expropriation of subject peoples, the exploitation of ‘free workers’ would not be profitable. Yet capital disavows its reliance on such wealth and refuses to pay for its replenishment. A third ‘non-economic’ precondition for a capitalist economy is a large fund of ‘free gifts’ and/or cheap inputs from non-human nature. These supply the indispensable material substratum of capitalist production: the raw materials that labour transforms; the energy that powers machines and the foodstuffs that power bodies; hence, arable land, breathable air, potable water, and the carbon-carrying capacities of the earth’s atmosphere. Absent these natural-ecological conditions, there could be no economic producers or social reproducers; no wealth to expropriate or free labour to exploit; no capital or capitalists. Yet capital treats nature as a source of free or very cheap gifts to which it helps itself but fails to replenish or repair. A fourth and final ‘non-economic’ precondition for a capitalist economy is a large fund of public goods supplied by states and other public powers. These include legal orders that guarantee property rights, contracts, and free exchange; repressive forces that ensure order, put down rebellions, manage dissent, and enable expropriation both within and beyond state territory; a money supply that stores value and enables transactions across broad swaths of time and space; transport and communications infrastructure; and a variety of mechanisms for managing system crises. Absent these public goods, there could be no social order, no trust, no exchange – hence no sustained accumulation. Yet capital tends to resent public power and seeks to evade the taxes that are necessary sustain it.

Nancy Fraser, What Should Socialism Mean in the 21st Century?

[weelectronicstudentreviewstuff]

Iran ready to swap prisoners with US without preconditions | World News

Iran ready to swap prisoners with US without preconditions | World News

Iran is ready for a full prisoner exchange with the United States, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei was quoted as saying by Khabaronline news website on Sunday, adding that Washington has yet to respond to Iran`s call on a prisoner swap.

“We are ready to exchange Iranian and American prisoners and we are prepared to discuss this issue but Americans have not responded yet,” Rabiei said,…

View On WordPress

[humanismtoday]

Trump has said TIME AND TIME AND TIME again that he would meet with Iran with “no pre-conditions” and now he says when the media reports it as “fake news.”

Soon he will say that their reporting that he will have Mexico pay for a wall is “fake news” and that he has a daughter named Tiffany Trump as “fake news.”

We are in the novel 1984, right now.

[tv-boom]

Kabul declares its readiness to negotiate with the Taliban without any preconditions

Kabul declares its readiness to negotiate with the Taliban without any preconditions

[ad_1]

The spokesman for the Supreme Council for Peace in Afghanistan, Ihsan Tahiri, that Kabul is ready to discuss various topics during negotiations with the Taliban, without any preconditions, including constitutional amendments.

"Over the past years and the past administration, we have had a number of conditions, including adherence to the constitution, disarmament,…

View On WordPress

[investmart007]

MOSCOW | Russia's Putin suggests long-awaited peace treaty to Japan

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/moscow-russias-putin-suggests-long-awaited-peace-treaty-to-japan/169316/

MOSCOW | Russia's Putin suggests long-awaited peace treaty to Japan

MOSCOW— Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday suggested that Russia and Japan should sign a much-anticipated peace treaty formally ending hostilities from World War II before the end of the year.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing for a way forward in the dispute, with the two leaders holding numerous meetings and reportedly getting as close to solving the row as they have ever been.

Speaking at an economic conference in Russia’s Far East, Putin suggested that Russia and Japan sign the treaty this year and solve the territorial dispute later.

“Let’s sign the peace treaty — not now, but before the end of the year, without any preconditions,” Putin said, addressing Abe who was also sitting at the same panel. “And later we will continue to talk about all of our disagreements as friends on the basis of a peace treaty.”

Abe smiled at the suggestion.

For the past several years Putin and Abe have been discussing ways to solve the longstanding dispute, including making the four most southern of the Kuril Islands, which Japan calls the Northern Territories, a joint economic zone.

Speaking at the economic conference in Vladivostok earlier on Wednesday Abe said he and Putin share an opinion “that this is not normal” that the two countries still have not signed a peace treaty.

“Japan and Russia — both President Putin and myself — share the same position and determination to solve our territorial disputes,” he said in comments carried by Russian news agencies. “And to that end we need to meet more often and figure out common positions.”

By Associated Press