I'm not sure if you want to read this but I wanted to write it. You see I've had a mixed bag of a month. Some things were just right, some things were just wrong and somethings were neither right nor wrong. Those things just were.
A good friend of mine (Ern) who shall remain nameless and I were talking on the phone today Thurs 19th March and somehow it came up in the conversation as to whether I was happy with my life. Well it made me think and you know, I am very happy with my life. Sure there are things I'd like to change but am unable to at this time. Things such as Parkinson's Syndrome. I can't change the fact that I have it but what I can change is how I deal with it. I don't let it rule my life, sure it limits some of the things I'd like to do. But then again having PS made me realize some things that I might not have thought about if I hadn't had it, such as becoming a song writer and I would never have thought about putting my works onto disc and selling them.
I would never have met and worked with some of the finest vocalist in South Australia and I would never have worked with some of the best musicians in South Australia.
Have I made any mistakes? Yes I have. Some of them because I pressed a wrong button on my PC. Some of them because of poor judgment. And some I've still to hear about, I'm sure there is some one out there who would like to remind me of some thing I shoulda coulda aughta have done.
So what makes me like my life today?
When:
There are wars and rumours of wars. (that sounds very biblical doesn't it?)
There is famine in third world countries
Children go to bed hungry
Wives are being beaten by their husbands
When people in our own country (Australia) don't have any place to sleep at night
The list could go on and when you get to the end there will be more to add to it and as you add to it more will be added to it.
I could live my life trying to solve all these problems but the reality of it all is that I can't solve all the problems of the world. Neither can you. Neither can the organization or church that you are connected to. In fact no-one can.
What I'm saying is that no-one person is able to save the world from it's self. What I am also saying is that no organization, no matter how large or universal it may be is able to solve the problems of the world. How does knowing this help me be happy with my life? For a start it takes away the guilt that is forced upon us by those ads containing under fed children staring at us as we get stuck into our meals in the evening.
I supported a child in Africa for a year (I did this while trying to survive on a disability pension) but had to give up the support so that I could pay my bills. During the year however, I got, almost weekly, reams of paper asking me to give more and more and always the picture of the cute little girl or boy staring me down daring me to say no. I knew they were hungry but what could I do? I didn't have the means to give any more. Then it hit me why don't I write to the organization and see what they thought of this idea. So I wrote to them and said paraphrased. "Instead of sending me those begging letter why don't you take the money you spend on postage and the money you spend printing those pamphlets and the money that you spend on a person to compile the whole kit and kaboodle who possibly earns about $30.000+ a year or around $11 per hour or 19cents a minute. You could send an extra $10.76 a month to some other family and if you did that for all the people who currently support families your organization could do about 25% more than what you currently do.
They wrote back a very nice letter which basically said pull your head in and that was that.
If you are a Christian or a believer and you believe the bible to be the word of God then you need to know that God doesn't feel guilty about how the world has turned out. In-fact it's man's fault that the world is in the condition it is today. Genesis says that God saw everything was good.
It was man that sinned and consequently I sinned, then Jesus came and took away my sin so now I don't feel guilty.
But there are those who need us to feel guilty. Yes I said "Need us to feel guilty". You see most organizations work on the premise that if you feel guilty for such and such then you will work for them in a volunteer capacity.
The Church is good at having us do things by guilt. From the pulpit they say God has taken away our guilt. While saying, away from the pulpit, it is our duty to save all those who haven't heard the word. Now I'm not going to get into a discussion on the Great commission other than o say I don't believe in the Great commission (See my blog on The Great Commission) or to be more precise. I don't believe that the Great Commission can be applied to us today. But members of Churches are told over and over again that "The workers are few and the harvest is great" If that's not a guilt trip then what is. By the way I believe that to be one of the most misquoted passages in the new testament as well. Especially when it is applied to church goers today.
Guilt keeps the masses under control.
If you as a believer become what I'll call here a free thinker. That is, that you question the structure of the Organization that you are with. Then you'll feel the pressure of those who want you to conform and it will come to you in the guise of "Don't you think that what you are saying /promoting etc is going to cause some of the weaker members of the organization/group to stumble? That is called guilt.
How did I get onto this: Oh yes I was talking about why I feel happy with my life.
Well, since I still believe in the creator, I no longer depend on him to heal me of all my little and big ailments and, by the way, there is no proof of God healing anyone since the New Testament was closed off.
Since I no longer depend on God for my happiness. (See my bog on "The Secret")
And since I came to the realization that it isn't God who created the mess we now call earth and God isn't going to get us out of it by some war called Armageddon in the near future.
And since I realized that the Creator sent Jesus to die for all mankind and womankind and that when he said "it is finished" It was finished.
Well since I realized all that I became content because the power had been put back into my hands.
If I was going to be healed I would have to find the cure.
If I was going to be happy. I would have to initiate my happiness.
If I was going to live on this earth i would have to look after it.
And if God sent his son to take away my sin and set me free from guilt then "Why should I feel guilty?"
I'm content.
One more thing. When God said "I will remember their sins no more". Why do we insist on reminding him constantly that we have sinned?
See ya
