Give 'em a Break

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Revelation 2:7

It has come home to me a lot lately, that my life has lived under a shadow of negativity. Not that I go around expecting the worst. I don't. But I know what the rest of the world keeps trying to tell me, and the message is all to often bad.

I remember distinctly back when I was a child, and people lived in fear of nuclear war. I grew up in the 50's, a scant 5 years after the close of WWII, but to my young mind, it was as ancient a history as the civil war, or the discovery of America. To a young boy, who had no reference point other than what he could remember in his short span of days, history was history. So I didn't understand the terror of Hiroshima, the Nazi's, or any other historical event.

In fifth grade, my friend tried to convince me that the race riots in Los Angeles were going to soon hit my hometown in Whittier. An enormous earthquake, "The Big One," would soon hit my state. In High School, we were all convinced that by 2000, the entire world population would be starving on this late, great planet earth.

My dear mother was, and is still, the greatest worrier of all time. She is constantly imagining different personal disasters. Plane crashes. Car crashes. She raised me in fear, and I confess, I still struggle with the spectre of some of those fears.

Some things terrible did come to pass. A Presidential assasination. Auto accidents. A Divorce. Terrorists flying planes into buildings. But none of these things were fortold to me. In short, the negative news I was constantly hearing seldom, if ever, came to pass, and all or most of the negatives that did occur, came without warning.

Today, we also live in fear. Terrorism is the big boogeyman. Politicians and scientists constantly tell us that environmental disasters and diseases will soon befall us all. You need it; they announce a fear to have about it. Money. Food safety. Etc.

Now, don't get me wrong. I do not advocate ignoring all these warnings. On the contrary. The warnings are legitimate. We do need to ensure our water supply remains healthy. We need to develop vaccines. We need to figure out how to provide health care to folks who can't afford it, and ensure that bad guys don't profit unfairly. Criminals need to be prosecuted, illegal drugs need to disappear, and we should be able to love each other freely, without someone making an issue of it.

But.

We also need to wise up, take heart, and appreciate the lives we have. Yeah. I know. Some of you have had some very awful things happen to you. But if you think about it, you have an awful lot of good things too.

I am simply proposing that we spend a little time seeking out things to appreciate. We have a society where we gain from the efforts of others. We pool our abilities. Take supermarkets: In the USA, few of us have to go out, milk the cows, feed the chickens, plow the fields, grind the grain, pick the lettuce, pluck the chickens, grind up the sausage, bake the bread, and do all the millions of things that get done on our behalf, and are brought together in a grocery store.

Certainly some of us have less glorious or fulfilling jobs than others. Some don't even have jobs. Technically, I guess I fall in that category.

But by God's rich grace, I know I have been blessed.

And by God's rich grace, I can tell you this: you have too.

Here is another one for you to consider. Virtually every religion in the world will tell you that in order to live a fulfilled life (often with a reward upon death), you must do certain things, uphold certain rules, practice specific rituals to find the ultimate satisfaction.

And every single one of them falls short, for one main reason. We are human. We cannot do it. Some time or another, we will fail attaining perfection.

So I am happy to announce something that my 58 years have taught me. I don't need to do it. Nope. I don't.

In spite of the decades of all the negativity falling down around me, I was fortunate to learn fairly early in my life that I could avoid all the religiosity, if I just chose to do one thing.

One simple thing. I have been told, through several good sources, that God offers a deal. Since I choose to believe in God, that had my interest.

In the Bible, he lays down the contract, with a rather detailed history lesson mixed in: He says, "These were the rules. They are impossible to keep. So I am going to become one of you. And I am going to do the impossible. I am going to personally come to you as the one person who can keep the rules. It is going to piss you off. You will be so mad, you will kill him. But even then, he is going to live. You cannot keep this good man down. He will rise from the dead. The deal is this: if you choose to believe it, You will be set free. Free of religion. Free of dogmas. Free of the bondage that sin keeps you in. If you believe in me, and believe in Him, and take the deal... that is all you have to do. I will take care of the rest, and transform you."

Oh, I hear you. You say, Bob, you are an idiot. There are lots of people who profess to be Christians, and are a big pain in the ass. I want no part of them or their hypocrisy.

Yeah. I hear your negativity. And I take note of it.

But for all the bad ones you point out to me, who spend their days being religious and condemning people, I can show you two who simply love. There are now, and throughout history, millions and millions of people who have taken the deal, and have been transformed into loving, caring, amazing people.

Millions. Millions of people out there, trying new stuff, trying to share the deal with others.

Give 'em a break.