Horrific are the consequences of disobedience, lack of faith, lack of belief. Freedom to choose has come at great costs. The costs of being able to do it 'my way' continue to accumulate. We are all the victims of each other's choices. There is a rag torn parade, maybe millions, who have said this before. Death continues to come up from behind and swallow them, but new voices step into their place, pick up their placard and say it again. We are all in this thing called life together.

We have dear friends in Wenatchee. Years ago Arch had a boat he kept in the Puget Sound area. What a beautiful haven! Our few days with Arch and Colleen on Puget Sound are only equaled by the time we spent snowmobiling with Elmer and Missy at Crater Lake.

Arch, Colleen and Lily all love crab. Yech! As he was beginning to crab Arch had two crabs in a short bucket. There was a top, but Arch did not close it and I thought for sure they would escape. Arch said as long as there were two in the bucket neither would escape because they would both pull each other back. Since then I have called this crab-ology.

There will always be the rope holders like those who helped the Apostle Paul over the wall or those who drew Jeremiah out of the pit, but unfortunately the intentional and unintentional oppressors will always keep some of us in the bucket.

This is because for the most part we have a one life, my life perspective. To be sure, we want insurance for the family or friends we leave behind, but we don't live our lives as if everyone alive and everyone who lives after us is affected in some way by the decisions we make.

Carole Spencer, a professor at George Fox, used a ladder metaphor and explained it this way. God looks at all of us on the various rungs of a ladder. God is not looking up at us from the bottom of the ladder or down at us from the top of the ladder. Picture the ladder laying flat on the ground. Why do we struggle for places on a ladder that is not applicable to God's perspective? God sees those we think insignificant, at the bottom of the ladder, the same as those we greatly esteem, at the top of the ladder.

Thanksgiving will soon be here and many of us will try to do something or give something to help the poor. Are they less hungry or less homeless before and after Thanksgiving than they are on Thanksgiving? Do we pick this day and Christmas to think about the poor so we can feel good about ourselves? Food and shelters certainly help, but they are a band aid for a deeper problem, our problem.

Those on the edge of life are a constant witness that until we move from the center to the margins the margins will grow and the center will shrink. How much better if the center grew and the margins shrank?

Those who struggle to live need jobs so they can support themselves; feel good about themselves, and help others.

Maybe the only way the crab can escape is if all the crabs in the world are eventually put in the same bucket.