Hope elsewhere

If you have been awake anytime at all over the last few days, you have likely heard of the very sad events that happened in Connecticut where a crazed (bipolar/autistic) young person murdered teachers and 6 and 7 year-old children.  Disturbing does not even begin to describe the situation.  Then you may have heard the current president speak on the topic of gun control.  He hasn't been specific, but I hope by gun control he means give every public and private school teacher a gun and training so that they may protect the little ones in their care (since they do pretty much everything else for children, anyway).  Basically, it would be like having your teacher be a police officer and a teacher all in one.

Anyway, now that half of you fell out of your chair and onto the ground in utter disbelief, climb back up, grab a pillow and throw that on the floor so you can be ready to fall over again in the rest of the post.

Ready?  Great.

So here's the thing.  People react differently to tragedy, don't they?  Some people are the get-back-up-brush-yourself-off-and-keep-going types, some people are the lay-in-the-mud-for-days types and anywhere in between the spectrum of nonchalant heartless snakes to lay-in-the-mud-for-life types.  I am not suggesting you become either one of the extremes because this is serious stuff, my dearies.  But if you look deep inside, you know (unfortunately) that things like this happen because the world is full of crazy zombies on crack.  Horrible things have happened in our lives before this point, and I'm sad to say that they will happen to us again in the future.

So what's a person to do?  You don't want to lay in the mud for life, but you don't want to block out all feeling (unless you're enjoying your cold heartless snakey life).  

I propose a change in perspective.

When you see this world as temporary and the soul as eternal, you get this idea that this might only be a fraction of your total existence.  That could be really either good for you, or really really horrid.  

Now if you're not really a person who usually entertains such thoughts, just humor me for a moment.  What I'm telling you is actually good news.

No, literally.  I don't know if you've ever heard the word "gospel" but it actually means "good news".  

So the thing is, the good news starts out with some pretty obvious bad news.  Here's the bad news: you're not perfect.  NEWSFLASH!    Are you shocked?  Probs, right?

Hang on, I've got another one - God is perfect.

I know, I'm rockin' your world, eh?

So what does that have to do with us?  Kay, the bad news: if you're not perfect, you can't hang out with God in heaven.  So that kinda is stinko for us.  If that was the end of the story, I don't think it would be called the good news, it would be called the bad news.

But God was thinking about this ahead of time.  He had a plan.  So here's the deal - you can pay for your sin on your own (and the payment is eternal punishment so I'm gonna go with that might not be your number one best option) or you can accept the payment his Son made on your behalf.  Sin is so serious and horrific that before Jesus died as a sacrifice, it had to be covered over with only one thing - blood.  Maybe it sounds gruesome to you, but you aren't the one who gets to make the call for how it gets paid for since you're not, you know, God.

In our natural state, we just totally reject God and his ways.  That's because we want to do it our way.  We figure we are pretty amazing and we can probably climb up onto that throne and do a better job.  That's an old story, my friend.  That's what happened back in the day with Satan.  He's still recruiting and it's easy since it's our natural bent.

God is not going to share his throne.   It's not a free-for-all going on and it sure isn't Burger King (you can't have it your way.  Did you just pout?  Oh man.).

So here's the deal.  You mess up, you break God's law.  God sends Jesus to pay for you. You can say, "Wow, dude.  This is awesome.  Thank you.  I totally didn't desserve this." Did you do anything special?  Um, no.  You just were shown mercy.  You're not special, God is.  

Anyway, I just wanted to shine some light in that direction.  It's almost Christmas - the day Christians celebrate the lowly birth of their Savior - who would live a perfect life on earth and be killed at the hands of evil men that God's wrath might be poured out on his own Son as a sacrifice that can be applied to your account.  How?  Ask him.  Talk to God, ask that he would forgive you for your blatant waywardness that is deserving of eternal punishment.  

Thus, a hope is born.  A hope that this world (in all its craziness) is on its way out but eternity is the light and the direction for those who are filled with an other-worldly hope.  Not because of their own fancy pants or their brains or their choice in organic vegetables.  Nope.  Beause of the good news.

I know this may be a bit jumbled, perhaps, but I felt it was urgent to get it out to you.  After all, if you only can rest in your organic veggies, non-GMO foods (and you know I love that stuff), you've got a piece of a puzzle in your hand and I'd love to show you the beautiful big picture.  Organic and non-GMO foods are the best, but in the end, if you still die without the hope that comes from the life and death of Jesus, you're still dead and you've got a bigger problem than yellow dent #2.

Something to think about, maybe, eh?

Peace, love and I'm telling you because I love you and you ought to know,
Ms. Daisy