Surprises of The God of Surprises Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Surprises of The God of Surprises - Essay Example The book is built around some of the cardinal pillars of traditional Christian spirituality. The aim of Christian spirituality is to establish an intimate partnership with God the Father, which encompasses the entire creation. Hughes analyses the spiritual malaise of the contemporary life and seeks to show the way to set it aright, drawing heavily on the Word of God and the perennial sources of traditional Christian spirituality whose relevance is undying and a valid tool for the moral reawakening of the sordid world of ours. interiority. There is a cleavage in our thinking, between the spiritual and temporal. This prevents us from achieving an integrated spiritual life. The book invites us to make a journey to our own inner self and there encounter God, the God of surprises. This encounter will integrate us to ourselves and to the world around and in the process, we will see how the creation is permeated with the all-encompassing touch of a benign Father. Through out the book Hughes seems to warn the danger of creating a God in our own image. The point that he reiterates in his work is the mystery of God's ways with the world and men. Some times God gives us the bread of adversity and the water of affliction. However to balance this view of God, Hughes has delineated the Prodigal Father. The chief delight of this Father is to share his everything in banquets to which all are invited. The invitees are not the best specimens of humanity, rather the poor, the cripple, the blind and in fact all who are interested in sharing His generosity. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father's prodigality towards the son who defamed the status of family in wasteful debauchery shocks the reader. To our prudent and well-measured dealing to others based on their merit and our future benefit from them, the God of surprises is foolishly lavish in his blessings, which is gratuitously given to all. The foolish prodigality of the God of surprises who leaves the ninety-nine to look for the one that is missing baffles our logic trained in the Aristotelian idea of virtue which is the choice of the golden mean avoiding extremes. Similarly the system of paying all who worked in the same measure at the end of the day, irrespective of the time they joined for duty, puzzles us who are used to time punching cards and attendance registers. Â  As we progress through the pages of The God of Surprises, the picture of God that looms large before us is that of a God who is more close to all of us than we can ever imagine in our wildest dreams. It is also a book of spiritual pilgrimage to discover the treasure hidden with in us. The book helps us to discern the unexpected ways in which God shows Himself. We see the image of God delivered to us by the stars and storms. Just like the Spiritual Exercises, the book is not meant for gulping at one sitting. The book can transform the person to enable him to surrender his will to the will of God, if relished in small meditative tonic dozes. Personal Reflections on The God of Surprises Gerard Hughes' The God of Surprises is one of the books worth reading a second or third time. The work of Holy Spirit is to renew the God's people constantly and to make them fit to fulfil the purpose for which God has made them.

The Police and Higher Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Police and Higher Education - Essay Example To consider any job a profession a person must go through rigorous academic training. The only reason we entrust our lives to a doctor is because we know he or she has gone through at least a decade of tough training. (Bueermann, 2006) A doctor treats people who are sick. To determine how sick the patient is a doctor must know all the symptoms, the medical history and the possible allergic reactions. Any one who commits a crime has a disease. A police officer is a criminal's doctor. To find out how sick the criminal is the police should look at the effect of the crime, the criminal history and possible future reactions to the both the police and the criminals action. For a police officer to do his job he must have some academic training because he must diagnose the criminal. The Chief of Police of Redland California says, "We need to advance the educational levels of police officers. Today's challenges-greater ethnic and racial diversity in the service population, increased outside scrutiny of police practices, added responsibilities arising from homeland security-require officers to be able to think critically."(Bueermann, 2006) The Chief believes that society today is way more complex and to meet all the challenges an officer must be able to critically analyze a situation and take action accordingly. 'Street smarts' cannot be acquired by a college degree but the ability to critically think can. "Higher education does not guarantee that a candidate will become a great cop, but it does promote critical thinking. And requiring a college degree of incoming police officers is an effective way to foster organization-wide critical thinking."(Bueermann, 2006) The basic purpose of college besides producing a professional is to teach a person to think outside t he box and to critically analyze a situation. Education diversifies people's thoughts and transforms ideas into revolutions. A high school education strengthens the bud's roots so it can go to college, receive proper exposure to sunlight and have enough water to bloom into a rose. Education helps the human brain bloom into a perfect rose. It should be expected of police officers, the guardians of our society, to not only have strong roots but an open mind as well. Although college education is the formal way of getting an education it is not always the only way of getting one. A police department in Connecticut has taken a different route to police education. Instead of having a military like building their institute looks like a regular college. Instead of wearing uniforms the recruits wear normal clothes and the head is civilian. They have also changed what they teach; initially the training focus was on the physical aspects of policing. (Travis, 1995) Now the emphasis is on problem-solving, conflict resolution, diversity training, and acquiring organizational skills. Previously, only the minimum State requirements were taught. Now, recruits study such problems as sexual harassment, bias and hate crimes, HIV-AIDS, stress, and violence against women conversational Spanish and American Sign Language [and