"Though the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.  Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay."
     While the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk who wrote these words was doing so in the shadow of the impending destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE, his thoughts seem more relevant than ever to us today.
     The central issue is, whose vision?  As mass killings, terrorist and not, continue to happen around the globe (I think, this morning, of yesterday's attack in Nice, France), we wonder much about this question.  Even if we believe history has a point--and we all to some extent do--be it the outworking of a Marxist, humanist, or capitalistic, or other type of secular agenda or, from another standpoint, the eternal intentions of God, we struggle to understand precisely how, amidst the tumults of existence, it will happen--or if it will happen.  We wander in a sort of blissful finitude, aware of our presence but unaware, too, of where everything is going and what it ultimately means.
     When we therefore face the uglier faces of humanity, as we seem to be doing with increasingly greater frequency lately, we remember that there's us, little old us, full of hopes, aspirations, and dreams, and there's that in which we live, breath, and move:  a mystery beyond our knowing.
     Whether we believe in God or not, we cannot escape the truth of our human vision.