One of the saddest things about America is the benefits of technology. Okay, it’s not always sad. The medical field has certainly made great strides; but I have to confess to having a strong dislike of technology. (Ironic I know.) It’s not like I hate it in of itself; but it’s what it does to people. I listened to an episode on my favorite audio drama series in which one character talked about exploration. When we cease to reach higher, according to this guy, we cease to have the qualities that made America, America. When we become content with the way things are. I’m afraid that has happened to many people. In other words, we’ve settled.

We’ve settled for a life of hiding and escaping from our troubles through TV and other electronics. I see commercials frequently that show couch potatoes and phone addicts, (who look like zombies.) Work is hard, relationships are harder, life can be no fun; but we have our shows. We have the news to get our minds off our own problems. Yet…life has no mute or pause button, things tend to get worse the longer you leave them alone. Is this escaping helping us?

We’ve settled for passing instead of excellence. Most of us don’t think we can excel anyway, and it’s just too hard to try. But do the just-get-by-ers change things? Do they have the endurance to stand up to others. Do they have the respect of other people, better yet do they deserve the respect. (Ouch, I know.)

We’ve settled for acceptance of disabilities instead of helping each other to overcome them. Weakness can become strength if enough effort goes into overcoming it. But how can it be overcome if everyone just says it’s normal. Who wants to be normal anyway? (Sorry, Violet Incredible, but I think you figured it out at the end of the movie.)

I’m sure you can think of more things we’ve settled for. Or that you personally have settled for. I am not against contentment; but my definition of it is not just accepting that life sucks and trying to steal a little happiness. What are we accepting anyway? Pause for a moment and consider the world we live in…should we be satisfied? I for one am not. Happiness is a joke if this world is the best we get. Of course, I believe in Heaven. So, no matter how bad the world gets, I have hope. However, I also take this line from The Lord’s Prayer (found in Matthew six) seriously “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Verse 10) this is just one verse that tells me I need to be trying to make this world a better place. I will never fix all–or most of–the problems; but that is not the point. Sometimes it’s easier to look at the widespread “issues” than at the things we dub “microcosms.” The school in our neighborhood, the political correctness everywhere. (Does anyone even know what PC is? Isn’t it basically anything that doesn’t offend political people? Which is nothing.) People are not microcosms. They aren’t statistics. We each come into contact with countless individuals. And to be honest they scare a lot of us. We only see faces. But then someone smiles at us and we smile back. “Nice person” we think. Maybe someone will do a small kindness for us. Hand us something we just dropped, give up their place in line, tell us to have a nice day; and we feel better. these are real people, but they took the time to show a little kindness. That’s all you have to do most of the time. There will be times when the situation calls for more, but just a little kindness covers a lot. If you believe in prayer, than pray more instead of turning to entertainment. Don’t settle for a life of false ease. Fake happiness is just that: fake.

And that’s my thoughts for this article. I hope you enjoyed.

WHAT IS LOVE?

This is the second most important question anyone can ask. I want to quote a scene from my favorite movie Frozen.

The scene is set in a room in the Arindelle castle. Anna is with Olaf (the talking snowman). She is freezing, literally.

Olaf: Where’s Hans? What happened to your kiss?

Anna: It wasn’t true love.

Olaf: But we ran all the way here.

Anna: Olaf you can’t stay here you’ll melt.

Olaf: I am not leaving until we find another act of true love to save you…any ideas?

Anna: I don’t even know what love is.

Anna makes what I call the Great Confession. She doesn’t know what love is. We’re all in the same boat: We don’t have a clue!

I strike a snag here because I can’t explain love. Love is not explainable. You have to have it revealed to you. Through another person sometimes, or of course through God. But I’ll use two illustrations to help as much as I can.

Firstly, Anna’s story is a good one. She’s been shut out for years but she still has hope that things could be different. She slowly moves from blaming her sister, to accepting their differences, to appreciating said differences, to offering to start over with a clean slate; when still refused, understandably she doesn’t know what to do next. She has no idea what else she can try. Let’s return to her conversation with Olaf.

Anna: I don’t even know what love is.

Olaf: That’s okay, I do, love is putting someone else’s needs before yours.

With childlike simplicity Olaf sums up the basis of true love. We could just park right there because none of us are doing it. I don’t, you don’t, not all the time. When was the last time you did something for someone that didn’t benefit you in the least? Anna’s later act of true love is a perfect example. (SPOILER ALERT: She sacrificed herself for her sister.) Up till then she got something out of it if her sister, Elsa, returned, but that was the moment she put Elsa before herself. Just as Christians believe Jesus did for us on the cross.

Selah. (Pause and consider.) I have no words for how beautiful that kind of love is.

Example 2: “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures all things.” 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7

Is love a feeling? It can be. The Bible is full of scriptures like “My delight is in her” and “I am Zealous for Zion…with great fervor.” “Let me see your face let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face lovely.” (There’s some more manly verses for you guys, don’t worry.) I used to think love was all feeling, then I thought it wasn’t feeling at all. Now I begin to think it is both. Choosing to love will eventually turn into feeling; and if you keep it up you can begin to enjoy the other person, even one who used to drive you crazy.

But first you have to let go of needing everyone to want you and need you. You’ll never get it by whining about it or thinking about it constantly. Only one person can fix the leaky place in you that feels alone even around friends; or empty, when the day before you felt full; or afraid, when you were feeling bold as a lion. If you know you need the kind of love described in the two examples, then you know what I’m going to say. Or maybe you’ve never heard of that kind of love before, well now you have. And it is real, I know it. T.T.F. N.

It has been said that the greatest question anyone can ask is “What is truth?” This really ought to have been the first question in the series, but save for number five, I’ve put these questions in the order they seem to be asked. Sadly people wait far to long to ask “What is truth?” Some never ask it.

It is strictly necessary to address moral relativism here. Because this blog is about absolute truth, relative truth has no place here and I want to explain a little bit about why.

In one line moral relativism can be summed up: “If you believe something is true then it is true for you, therefore everyone has a different truth that works best for them.” Apparently then, this statement must work for everyone otherwise it wouldn’t be a statement but a suggestion…right? Right. How do we know that if you believe something is true then it’s true for you? By observation?

Well this statement really doesn’t work for me anyway, I don’t know about you. Though it is partly correct. If you believe something is true then it is true for you in that you could act upon it, tell it to other people, and live by it and you would not be guilty of hypocrisy or deceit. But that would not mean it was good or right. Suppose you convinced a child that slapping people was a way of showing gratitude. The child might believe you, but I bet it wouldn’t take long for him to figure out that his actions had adverse results.  At this point the child becomes responsible for choosing whether to believe it still or to move on.

That’s our choice friends, we are not guilty because we believed our culture’s lies. We are guilty if, after it becomes clear that it (the way of thinking) doesn’t work, we continue to believe it.

I think moral relativism clearly doesn’t work. It’s unreasonable because it denies reason’s existence. It is immoral because it denies that morality can exist. Think about it. If everyone’s truth is different, then everyone is always right, if everyone is always right then everyone is also wrong. What this will turn into is that the strongest will force their will on the weakest, because hey, there’s no other way to settle anything and man will not and cannot fight forever. I’m using reason by the way and I hate any philosophy that says my reason is worth nothing, why do I have it then?

Now I don’t mean that truth can never be personal, on the contrary the Bible clearly teaches that some things are left up to person’s own conscience. But mark this, things like what to eat, drink, and wear are left up to man–more or less, depending on which testament you’re in. Things like sex, worship, and words (far more important than most of us know) are not left to personal interpretation. There are clear wrongs and clear rights, and few people would argue about them nowadays. (I refer of course to people who believe in morality.)

In part 5, I discussed man’s need for God. Man’s need for God is demonstrated in man’s need for truth. Even the worst people make decisions based on absolutes. I take steps because I believe the ground will hold me up, that’s an absolute. Removing absolutes is like trying to walk on air. Who’d try it? In their right mind anyway. It grieves me that many of the elders of our time (represented primarily by the entertainment and public school administrations) are indeed teaching school kids that they must try to walk on air–that is to live while believing in no absolutes– they do try; but, as with all man’s attempts at flying; sooner or later they must come down. Often they crash.

People who don’t want God to tell them what to do will ignore Him. Using disbelief as an excuse. Others shove God into their own little box. Yet, they are miserable. You can train your brain to think with faulty logic, until it is nearly impossible for any real logic to get through, but you will never train your heart to not want solid things. How can there be depression or unhappiness if there are no absolutes? If that is the case then that’s the way it is, what is there to be unhappy about? But we are, aren’t we? And we’re scared too. One man has said “Either there is a God, or there isn’t, both (prospects) are frightening.” For my money, no God is much scarier than God. But for a lot of people God is the scariest idea because of morality. You see, people don’t like being bad, they like being selfish. Isn’t it true?

I could end there. But where would the hope be? If you believe in absolute truth, it probably saddens you that so many do not. But take heart, people do hate truth, but they also love it. There is a common ground between all men, that even bitter enemies may be friends for one moment, if they find one thing to agree upon. The same man who ignores truth may suddenly advocate it, and despite the seeming hypocrisy, that does give hope. Evil cannot win because man cannot be entirely evil.

To wrap this up, what is truth? A lot of adjectives come to mind. Truth is absolute, truth is good, truth is powerful (truth is power itself, every lie started with a true thing) but what is it? No man can make it, so either there is none (which cannot be or we would not seek it) or… or what? If something is real, but not of man, then I must conclude it is of a Being higher than man. God. God is truth. Pure truth. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6)

I’m back, now preparing to look at the question “Where am I going when I die?” I’m splitting this article into two parts. Part (a) is wrapping up a loose end I didn’t get to in the interlude and part (b) will serve as a preface to part (c) which will be the question. this’ll be long I’ll warn you, I’m at over 1400 words.

The Quest: Part 5 (a) Good=Evil?

In my  Quest interlude, I quoted C. S. Lewis about the moral law, and common moral points people agree on, such as fairness.

However, we really have no cause for morality if good and evil are equally powerful as some believe. I actually find this belief growing more and more popular. People have the attitude “Yeah, good and evil exist, and I wish good was around more, but sometimes evil wins, sometimes good wins, and we can’t do much about it.” We can try to promote good, but then it seems like we’re in the minority, so what’s the point? Besides which, we aren’t even sure which side we’re on, we do good things, and bad things, and many of us fall into the habit of weighing ourselves to see which side is heavier.

I’ll get to that in a second, but first, why do we suppose good and evil are of equal power? That’s just not true. It’s like saying lead and gold are of the same value, they may weigh about the same, but they are not alike. (And there were learned men who thought they could turn lead into gold, so this equal–no difference nonsense has appeared elsewhere than morality) Let me give a more modern illustration: Suppose a sports team won by cheating and the Referee knew it, and let it stand. The bad (their cheating, his ignoring) would seem to have won. If we go by only the physical circumstances. But good and evil are matters of the mind, and the opposing team would complain for a year about it, just as if the bad did not stand, even though it was enforced. (If it was the Super bowl, some people would probably complain for the next decade.) I’ll bet you that Ref wouldn’t stay in his job for long. You see it’s not a matter of wins or losses, otherwise good and evil might indeed be equal, it’s a matter of men’s hearts. Of what is most real to man. A good ref would play by the rules and we would agree he was a good ref. You see my point?

So, no one really considers good and bad to be equal. If good is greater, than I’d expect the Supreme Being (the greater power) to be on the side of good. Therefore the afterlife would contain rewards based on this premise.

But is there a set of rules to get there? Is there punishment if you disobey these rules.

The Quest: Part 5 (b) Needing a bridge.

It is engrained in the human mind that the most powerful person is not only the rule maker but the rule enforcer. So we can expect God to enforce His own rules. The only way to enforce rules is through punishment. Hell is a horrible punishment, so some might say “Why have rules at all? Why not just let everyone into heaven?” Rules (a crude term but I lack a better one) are the map to get into heaven, but why make it so hard to find?

I think there’s a misunderstanding in that. If Heaven is where God is, of course it is good; but good doesn’t stay good if even a tiny bit of bad is let in. Think of a garden. A good place, beautiful, relaxing; but if even one root or seed of a weed is let in, it grows, spreads, and if not checked it destroys the garden. God is a faithful gardener and will not let any weeds in His garden. Now consider, if people don’t want to follow God’s rules even on earth, and are unkind to the people who do (even one selfish act is unkindness) how will they be when God is constantly before them and they are surrounded by people who want to obey him. The rebels would be worse than ever and try to blot out the good. Some might protest that surrounding people with a good environment would change them;  okay, it might; but good soil flourishes weeds as well as flowers. The protest will not hold up. Pastor’s kid’s rebel and the children of criminals can choose to be honest people. Men cannot be measured as to how far they’ll go on either the good or bad side of the tracks, at least not by other men.

So if we follow the logic I used, no bad person should be (or could be) allowed into heaven. We might even agree on that, but then we still have a problem, no one of us is innocent of wrongdoing. If even a shred of badness can spread, then God could not risk letting a person with even one sin into heaven. (And that’s laughable because nobody has ever stopped at one.) It wouldn’t be wise. Or would it? If there was some way to guarantee that goodness would win out, then God could show mercy.

Here’s where we reach Christianity. Since we all find ourselves guilty and we cannot erase our bad deeds, we seem to be stuck. Yet we are almost compelled to try anyway, or to wish it were not so. To be doomed to eternal punishment and to be able to do nothing about it, that is the worst fear man can have. No–there’s one worse, that it wouldn’t matter. That we mean nothing to this God we don’t know and once we mess up, we fear that our death will not be mourned. The one thing worse than pain and punishment is being forgotten. Invisible.

So we’re in a pretty wretched state. People ache for a  place of complete goodness, no pain, no sickness, no sadness, and on Earth we never find it. If we are ever honest enough to admit we don’t deserve Heaven, we are worse off than before. Worst of all we fear there’s no hope. I believe this is the real reason behind the high suicide rate we see today. Also the many addictions (distractions really) people find themselves trapped in.

The Good News is Christianity provides hope. It says neither are we invisible nor are we forgotten. We are not stuck. Because Jesus–God in the flesh–died for us, took the price of all our bad. Which means we don’t have to be punished, then he rose again, which means we can have a new life. Start over. When I was little a Sunday school teacher illustrated this with a paper chain, first broken, and then fixed. Jesus is the real Missing Link. Our bridge across a chasm. I can’t understand it very well myself, but what the Bible teaches is that Jesus will cover us with  his righteousness. What that means is, sort of like delicious icing on a bland cake, God will see not our bad, but Jesus’ good when he looks at us. Covered, but with our human form intact.

(c) Where to go from here.

Concerning Heaven, Jesus said he would go to prepare a place for his followers. I find this a unique idea, only in Christianity, that I know of. It makes so much sense. Having a personal place. Picture it like this, you arrive at a beautiful vacation spot and the owner actually knows you, knows you as well as if you were related; and your oldest and dearest friend is there to welcome you and takes you to a room done just how you would do it if you could, only even better, because they added some stuff they knew you’d like, now imagine every other person there is someone you know, and the food is so good it makes other food taste like sand. Now imagine that this never has to end, and there’s never any mishaps. I believe Heaven will be all this and more.

I want to go, and I wish everyone did, but I’m well aware that the choice is every individuals. All that’s required is an agreement with the Owner, it’s his place after all. It’s funny that some people think they can go to God and say, “I did this and this good, so you need to let me in.” You pay how the owner wants to be paid. All he wants to start with is faith but that’s another story. One that I can’t fit in this series. Keep reading because I’ll have more good stuff posted soon.

The continuation of part two, today’s question: What is worthwhile?

After wondering what our purpose is, the next logical step is to wonder what is worth investing our lives, time, and money, in. World cultures each have different and yet strikingly similar answers. Wealth, power, and pleasure are common to nearly all, if not all. I even made up a saying ( I’m the kind of person who does things like that,) about the skewed value-system. Here goes: “We value too much what has little value, and we undervalue what has real value.”

For example: Beauty. We value a face and body, making a goddess of the woman who has what we think is the perfect look. (Ever notice that the perfect look changes from century to century? And it’s always what only a few women of the era can attain and not the mass population of them.) Chasing after the woman with the perfect look is something both men and women do, by the way. We then undervalue and even completely ignore whether a person has good, loyal friends whom she can pour out her soul to, or if she has the ability to be such a friend. And so on. Outward beauty is good, but it is not everything.

You probably knew I’d bring up that as an example, and you probably guessed sports would be next. I won’t go into a lot of it; and, again, I’m not saying either beauty or athleticism is a bad thing; but let’s just say it like it is: Just because the guy can do amazing things with (whatever kind you like) a ball, doesn’t mean he’s a winner in other areas of life. Do people care? I don’t know. Probably not, at least not all of them. Nonetheless sports, though great for many things, do not in of themselves make a man a man.

Okay, okay, I’ll stop at two examples.

Thankfully, cultures also share good qualities they value. The media and entertainment have done their best to destroy our values, and sense of right having any meaning, and wrong being an avoidable thing, but some values are indestructible.

Honestly is one. No one likes a liar. Everyone respects a person known for honesty (oh, except criminals, whose opinion I would hardly count as worth it.)

Loyalty is another quality you can’t help loving. People may exploit it, but that kind of loyalty is usually faulty, and a true friend will stick to all the good things in their friends and try to prevent the worst. (Not by being a fair weather friend, or trying to change people, but by bringing out the best in them.)

Generosity, when seen as genuine, is a quality most everyone is awed by. Because it does go against the grain. Even more so then many other virtues.

There are more, but you get the idea. I really hope you’re asking “So how can I apply this to my profession?”

Well, I confess to not personally having a lot of answers in this area, but I’ve heard good advice from people who have experience. (For a more thorough list please read my “Life Tips” Post.)

I’m going to start this off with a Bible verse that is perfect for the subject. “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:3.) This means do everything as if God Himself ( Perspective: An All powerful, VIP, Super-genius,) had told you to do it. Not complaining or criticizing, but with a sense of honor. I hope you believe in God, but if you don’t, keep reading because this is still good stuff.

You must have values, everyone does, you can’t help it. Perhaps some of yours are ones I’ve already mentioned. I want to clarify what I mean by value. A value is any state of being, or trait, that you respect and admire in a person, place, or thing. Core values are the major values that govern your life. If you find out what yours are, and then apply them to every little thing task, it’s so cool how it’ll change the way you feel about it. Martin Luther King Jr. said this:

“If it falls to your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music… Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”

If I might add a modern twist to that: you can scrub toilets and be great, if you do it nobly. If you realize every little thing done for another person can be a noble and unselfish act. Don’t complain because that devalues it, do not do it half heartedly because that denies importance, do it to the best of your abilities because that is who you want to be, and you will feel good about your work. I know this sounds like a tall order, and no one follows this advice (and I’m not the first one to give it) perfectly; but if you start trying, eventually you will see a difference.(Eventually sounds like a weak word, but it’s the truth that change can take time, so don’t be discouraged.)

If you still think that what you do is truly a waste of time then perhaps a different application of your occupation is in order. You can learn life skills doing almost anything. Being a waitress or waiter may seem like a waste of time (thought I don’t think it is) but take those skills to the next level. Wait on people like they’re royalty. Be creative. Or there’s always quitting, if you are honestly convinced it the wrong place for you. Nowadays quitting can be pretty risky, so unless you’re well-off it may not be an option. If it is, all I can suggest is to get into something you enjoy, or at the very least believe is important. That’ll be different for everyone.

So, when it comes down to it, almost anything can be worthwhile, this is one area where attitude makes it; (and personally, I want it to be God’s will.) I do encourage you to check out “Life tips” for some more suggestions on improving your situation. Or get some tips from wise people you know, whatever will work out for you.