What a World we’ve created…
Honestly I’m glad this little site of ours isn’t too popular. It means I can write almost anything I want with no real consequences for making anyone angry or offended or sad. I can also write badly, with unorganized thoughts, just general rants, without drawing the wrath of those who actually write to inspire or entertain. So here you have it… Look around people. Look at what “we’ve” built for ourselves. Happy?
I’m always searching for some kind of meaning in all this. I remember as a child walking toward the gate to the playground/field at Cabrillo Elementary, Hawthorne California and this overwhelming state of uneasiness came over me. Mind you I was probably no more than 10 years old. Back in the 60s we were allowed to roam the neighborhood, alone, planning our mischief. But on this day I was staring though the chain link fence and I wanted to know something. Seems pretty specific, right, something? These were thoughts of “Where am I?”, “Who am I?”, What am I doing here?”… It was 60 years ago and I remember this one point in time like it was today. Now before you think I’m claiming some monumental revelation from God at the age of 10 (or so) I’ll point out that this overwhelming uneasiness was fleeting. It was over as soon as it started and I went into the school yard to play. Nuff said.
But, again, the quest for meaning has always been my search. I would imagine God is so tired of my prayers starting with the words “WHO AM I???”. God must be saying “Get a grip Will, you are mine, case closed, thanks for playing … you win.
I look around us at literature, entertainment, news and at times I just want to stay in bed, pull the covers over me and hibernate for a long time. For eons our (human beings) ideas of the value of others is a complete mystery to me. Our ability to look a someone else, make a comparison (almost always comparing them to ourselves) and think “that person has no real value” makes me wonder. We shake our head thinking how can a person walk into a crowded area and just start killing? What is going on? And the next thought is “things are getting really bad”.
Big news flash folks, guess what? Not so sure they haven’t been bad for a long long time. In 1099 (hope I’m getting my dates right) Pope Urban issued a decree that anyone heading to the holy land for the current crusade would earn complete absolution and ability to enter heaven. Never mind how a Pope could miss the simplicity of salvation and think it could be earned, but this enabled men to go to Jerusalem and commit acts of cruelty, violence and genocide that would make our current state of being look somewhat calm in comparison.
My point is simple. People are not progressing from bad to good. Yes, “things” are better now, we have dish washers, actually we have dishes!! But people are still searching for meaning. People, like me, want to understand who we are, what we’re doing, how we can improve. God, that being I talked about earlier, has not only given us a standard, God has provided a means to make sense of all this. It can be seen as complicated, but it’s not.
We are not some massive “mistake” that went right, figuratively speaking, after a Big Bang. I don’t know where God came from, don’t even think I want to know. But I know just by looking around that this is creation and not some natural event that happened to produce amazing beauty, millions of species of plants, animals and only one type of human with the capability of complex thought and language. Look at all the religions of the world and they are all centered around the concept of human bad, God good, do everything better. Only one faith is centered on God reconciling a creation back to God. Only one tells us that God came into a creation that God made to provide us (sinful, hopeless beings that we are) a way back to God.
I know, I’m supposed to provide all the churchy Christian thoughts and processes by which you can find salvation. This is a rant. I want you, and me, to critically look at what we’ve build here and decide. Is this where we belong? Is this what we want to become? I have problems with what I see out there. I want people to love one another, to help one another, to be kind. I want to smile when I see a little baby being cute, no matter what color their skin is, no matter who they come from. I want to stop crying when I hear people who claim they are Christian spouting hatred, and ire at anything they don’t understand. Do I belong here? No idea, but that feeling I got when I was a child is still with me. I want you to come to Christ and see … do it critically, but please check it out. Do it with doubts but think it through. If it’s not the truth it wont wash… just do it.
