Making a Difference

If I wanted to change the world in a big way, I probably do not have the time or ability to be successful in my desire. But if i'm happy to change the world in small ways then I have already been successful. And what more should we really hope for than to know we are saved for eternity? Beyond this what expectations should we have? If I believe that God is the great planner that many people think he is, I must humbly admit that I have no special knowledge of that plan. But I know that I can not make such a plan accountable to my own personal desires. If I have many expectations then I'll most likely be following a path of many disappointments. It's very hard for me to trust that anyone else would have superior insight, even though I believe we all share the one source for all inspiration. I trust what I myself have experienced before I would trust another person's account or claims; I prefer my own opinions in case there are any contradictions. But I'm willing to be proven wrong, our knowledge can never be made perfect by our own means. Popularity is no way to gauge righteousness; and I've heard other people argue that its alright for us to judge so long as we are righteous judges. But I really wonder how anyone can be certain of that; and it seems to me that meekness is favored over righteousness if they're not the same thing.

I have my own validation for believing that Jesus was successful in creating salvation, although I still don't understand the how and why of it. And I believe that he did this for everyone, whether or not we believed in it, and whether or not anyone else thinks we are deserving. One man claiming to be inspired with a divine vision suggested that a general resurrection was the ultimate end of prophecy, and i quite like the idea of it. And while that story has become very popular it might still be wrong, merely wishful thinking at best, and not within the realm of possibilities. But while I don't have all the answers myself, I'm generally willing to wait for the right answers. We can never be certain of some things until after it becomes a part of our personal history and experience, we just need to be patient. In the short or long-term there's nothing better than first-hand information. In the long run I don't think it really matters what we merely believe; but what we do and how we treat one-another might make a difference.

Interdependence and Personal Debt

Owing to our great interdependence practicly everyone will be left with a large number of unpaid personal debts at the ends of our motal lifetime. And I think its fair to say that some of our debts can never be satisfied via financial means. Countless numbers of people have made contributions to my own personal welfare with little to no monetary compensation. Some of them can't be rewarded because they're already long dead. Many of the individuals who's life work has benefited myself, may never get more than a pat on the back and "Job well done m8!" from me, but arguably that's good enough for recognition. Most of those people I may never have the opportunity to meet and thank personally, whether or not they were rewarded in life.

For example, everytime you drive a car you accumulate debt with all those people who built the roads and bridges and maintained them. Whether or not you supported all that work by paying taxes, I believe there should be an additional and more personal debt. We probably don't know anything about those people as fellow human beings, what personal accomplishments they cherished or how well they lived. Life should be more personal.

Of course there are a number of individuals who we did pay for services rendered, or were paid by our benefactors. For all those who have been rewarded financially, should we owe them any additional loyalty? I think not, because for all intents and purposes we are equally important. To consider our fellow human-beings as peers is the highest form of compliment that I personally can manage. Most of us are unwilling to go that far without discrimination and judgement, but if we haven't reached the level of maturity to learn it for ouselves, I think we must at least learn to be willing. To be willing is the greatest accomplishment whether or not we possess a level of personal ability to do a job.

Thousands of man-hours have been spent to stock our local grocery stores, a very minimal amount of labor is required by me in order to eat. As a practical consideration I would never be able to accomplish that much work myself, and do it in a timely way. I live in a house which I did not build myself, and I have not dedicated the many hours of my personal time to develope the skill to be able to do all the work. It doesn't really matter that the contractors were paid for the work, there is still a personal debt which goes well beyond that. And in order to make good on all these kinds of debts we really do need unlimited time, and we need some kind of after-life, or restoration to life.

We need enough time and opportunity to meet everyone and entertain a bit of conversation. There are a number of historical persons and personal hero's whom I'd very dearly like to meet and here them tell their own story. And whether or not they're personal hero's, I'm still willing to listen. There is a huge difference between being willing and simply being pre-occupied. We can sometimes excuse ourselves from making the effort because we are too busy, but within God's Eternal Kingdom, no such excuses can be made. And the way I see it, mortal life does take place within God's Eternal Kingdom. No place can exist in a state of seperation from that Kingdom, and the Spirit of God itself is ever-present. God touches all of our lives whether or not we are willing to believe it, without this intimate touch our self-awareness would be impossible. We can not choose to forsake this without forsaking our own continued existence as Individual persons, in this respect we are utterly dependent. We simply have no power or authority to chose seperation, we can not chose to have an end and rest in the peace of unconsciouness. If thats what we end up getting, it can never be due to a personal choice. Free-will has it's limitations when we are counted among a multitude of thinkers, and evidently we will always be counted as part of a greater whole.

The only kinds of personal rights which can be gaurenteed in life are those rights whigh our God or Creator does gaurentee. Its hard to say exactly what those rights would amount to if we share them equally and all things being considered. Evidently the right to life and happiness is not gaurenteed. While most of us would like to enjoy a guarenteed freedom from molestation, it does not appear that any one of us has ever had that gaurenteed. Any of our civil rights which are gaurenteed by a governing agency of our own, can easily be made subject to suspension, and for most rules we are willing to make exceptions. In order to become the most excellent judges in our own right, we must learn not to make exceptions, and we can never choose to enforce punishment. Violence in all it's various forms is the main part of our human dilema and can never be a part of the solution. When we've dedicated literally millions of man-hours to preperations for war, then war becomes a fair certainty lest all that work goes to waste; it easily becomes the means of choice. But i'm afraid its inevitable that all our current technology of arms will eventually be rendered obsolete, someone will discover a path to superior force.

This wonderful capacity for reason which we believe elevates us from the rest of the animal kingdom has not freed us from this kind of insanity. It appears that we are able to justify practically any deed, even genocide can make sense to one of us. Frequently we are able to justify murder or assasination when the ends seem desireable, and the threat of punishment will not serve as a deterant for many of us. We can not help but feel angry under certain circumstances, and it appears that our feelings will serve as our best excuse if we are ever to be made accountable. It's hard to account for the way we feel about differernt things, although in many cases we have been taught how we should feel. Who can take the blame if they were not favored with a quality education? We don't get to chose the circumstances of our birth but we need to be able to trust someone other than ourselves.

It's my personal belief that all manner of our personal debts can and will be paid in some way eventually. I believe in the durability of the individual human spirit because I trust God completely not to abandon us. At the very least we are gaurenteed to be remembered perfectly, all the events that surrounded us and intimately our personal experience of those events. It must be true because history is indelible, nothing can ever be changed about it. Even if I imagine that God has the power and authority to change some factual event, I can not imagine him using that power in order to show favor to a few and disfavor to others. I think that we will endure whether or not the world ever made sense to us, or whether or not we get any enjoyment out of it. We are ever a part of this great big Universe whether or not we felt that we belonged to it, it belongs to each of us. From our personal involvement and accountability there is no possibility of divorce, we may be pardoned from punishment but we may not be pardoned from existence and judgement. In the long run I believe that happiness is still a possibility for us, we shouldn't be too disappointed as the ultimate truth stands revealed to us; if we find ourselves very surprised the truth must still be better than we can possibly imagine.

Intervention

I believe that the Earth should be preserved indefinitely by some form of intervention; and it doesn't matter to me who intervenes. So long as they are able and willing to do the work I will consider them well motivated and a personal friend.

Clearly life on Planet Earth has a definite beginning, and is preceded by the Universe as a whole. Even the Universe itself has a definite beginning and we should assume is preceded by something else. I call that something else God's Eternal Kingdom, which i consider to be an undivided Kingdom. Our mortal lives take place within the greater Kingdom, and within the presence of God because God is ever-present within the Universe. To the best of my understanding, it is not possible to be separated from God's presence, we depend upon it for our ability to be self-aware. For every kind of historical event there must be at least one observer. From where we stand we can see a great multitude of Individual Person's, each one of them observes the Universe from a unique perspective. We appear to be separated from one another and we do not share a common personal experience. Whatever one of us has experienced in mortal life constitutes a measure of personal wealth, the experience has value. Whether we deem the experience to have been pleasant or unpleasant we might learn something that brings about personal growth. We progress along a path to maturity with no clear obtainable goal, at times we endure, and sometimes it seems we fail to endure. Many of us have struggled at times, we fought the battles that our survival seemed to require. Occasionally one of use chooses not to fight, we submit to the idea that some circumstances are beyond our ability to control. Our struggles may always seem to conclude with unhappiness, and some of us stop believing that we can be happy. Some of us have followed the noble path of personal sacrifice rather than making demands upon the lives of others. If we are unwilling to take a life in order in insure our own survival then we may not be preserved from another person's will to injure us. So a few have suffered injury while believing that the greatest battle had already been won. An uncountable number of human beings have proven that they were willing to die in the service of some noble cause, and in many cases willing to kill. For even one life to be saved may be noble enough reason to risk our own lives, or to demand the sacrifice of someone else's life.

All of the players in the Great Game of Life may be ranked in a variety of ways; but our personal rank matters less than the fact we participated. The human family is one family, and if we choose not to see it this way then we are out of touch with reality. There is a personal relationship between ourselves and every other human being, the matter can not be made subject to personal choice. These relationships bind us together whether or not we like the circumstances. Every single one of us was born here on Planet Earth and we belong to the Earth as much as it belongs to each of us. If we tried to change our world, or chose not to make an effort; if we have believed that we were powerful or powerless, we share a common fate. Our species succeeds or fails all together; as a species we either survive or fail to survive and become extinct. Whether or not the people are able to continue our world may fail us, if we do not destroy ourselves mother nature may still have the final word. In the long run we are unable to preserve the viability of Planet Earth. We can only hope that we are deserving of the intervention of a higher-power and a greater technology than we possess. And its hard to say what would make us more or less deserving. Perhaps we can by surviving perform a service valued by these higher-powers. The motivation doesn't matter to me, so long as the work gets done I will call it good.

Unlimited Responsibility - Pt. 2

While I am a kind of priest, it's not in my job description to take confession or offer absolution. However it is in my job description to take responsibility for your personal welfare; and I have to accomplish that without offering you material support. My personal ability is somewhat limited but my desire is less limited; and sometimes just being willing is more important than being able.

Our creators do not gaurentee that life will be easy and free of all hardship; and for the most part humanity Lords over itself. Whatever we may conceive as a higher authority and power, it seems content to let us govern ourselves. But of course none of us creates all conditions, our influence is mostly limited to an ability to make personal decisions. We create most of the world events that we deem to be important as we exercise what power we do have over reality. And we choose what we will or will not believe in, we define our own most fundamental truths in-as-much as we do feel comfortable with our own opinions. If we manage to put food on the table and shelter over our heads with a bed to lie in, that is a measure of success. And while we have enjoyed some successes we take comfort in the idea that our beliefs worked for us, why should we doubt what works? Whatever the nature of reality may turn out to be, we would like for it to make some kind of sense to us. We are all deserving of a Just Universe, but its hard to say exactly why we are deserving. We likely have some very definate ideas about what justice entails, most people agree that punishment should be a part of that equation. Unless the people can be seperated into more or less deserving groups there can be no meaningful justice because clearly we do not all deserve equal favor.

Individually the children of humanity do enjoy more or less favorable positions over the full course of mortal life. If we believe in our own durability and some kind of immortality, why should be believe that our future would be any different? It's good for us to be loved and we should be loved more as we grow and develope into our own personal maturity. IMHO everyone enjoys some capacity to learn from thier own personal experiences; and given unlimited time we are free to progress at a leisurely pace. With imperfect knowledge we must still act in every moment, and whatever we choose to do it's having an effect upon our environments and upon those who share it. I do believe that we would all like to be gaurenteed a personal freedom from molestation, to be isolated from violent deeds that others do. Let no-one impose his or her will upon me, let them not hold me up to their expectations, make no demands upon my time. Ask and then let me decide what to give, let me determine what my personal responsiblity demands of me. No-one else can make up my mind or determine how I should act. No human-being has superior rights, individually or collectively as a group. Still someone will always try to claim superior authority, superior intellect, superior education - people will even go so far as to claim divine insight and direction. The proponents of democracy may believe in some kind of providence, but they will never believe in the divine right of Kings to govern their world.

Who has ever been given instructions? Instead of instructions we get a measure of judgement, that we must exercies and develope to the best of our ability. The people have all been inspired with diverse and sometimes conflicting ideas, but the source of all human inspiration is somthing we share in common, it is a singular source. A few of us have gone so far as to claim that they did have guidance or instructions, but how can we trust the integrity of such claims? Human-beings are quite capable of perpetrating deceptions, even honest men may be self-decieved, our desire can be that strong. A true King is always self-directed and self-employed, he depends only upon a well-developed judgement. As revealed within the tale of Johnathan Livingston Seagull; the pursuit of personal excellence for birds is found within flight, for human-beings it is found within judgement. The most accomplished judge knows that he can not lay claim to superior knowledge for the matter can not be proven. He can only claim to know of events for which he has a direct personal experience. That personal experience would natureally include a great deal of testamony given by our peers. The whole body of testamony must be considered as evidence but often it is only evidence of beliefs being held. When someone says that they have experienced something that testamony must be given more weight. We found these things and we observed these things and we arrived at these conclusions. The physical evidence can never be excluded, it must always be accounted for. The excellent judge must keep asking the question, "What do I know and how do I know it?" He can not decide that an idea is valid based upon it's popularity and he can not make precidents upon decisions that have been made by other men in the past. Whatever has been done or said, cannot be undone. So given the limited power and authority that a single individual may possess, what can be done to change the world and what exactly would make it better for everyone. If we choose to be concerned for the welfare of all people without allowing for exceptions, exactly what outcome would be in everyone's best interests? It must serve the interests of the living and the dead and posterity and as a practical matter it must somehow be achieveable.

I decided a long time ago that the experience of Life on Earth is the very best thing for human-beings to have, and for everyone to enjoy more of that is my definition of the ultimate good. I don't know for certain that such a thing is achieveable but I believe it may fall within a realm of possibilities. It's difficult to rule out the possibility of a general ressurection even though our Universe doesn't seem to allow for any kind of permanence. The state of manifest things is constant change here and it's entirely predictable that our Sun will not last forever. The Earth will not be habitable forever; but in order for the ultimate good to be served as I perceive it, these things must be made to last forever. Clearly there is no Human technology that can moderate the forces which cause the Earth's magnetic field, or renew or Sun's supplies of fuseable Hyrodgen. In order for such things to become possible we have to imagine a superior technology and a superior personality to employ that technology in our behalf. In consideration of my own personal experiences, I'm convinced that such a person and technology do exist within our Universe, able to serve my great cause yet perhaps unwilling. Its hard to imagine how such a person could be convinced to serve a personal plan at the direction of one of us. Perhaps there is some service it requires that only a human-being may provide. Perhaps this is the way our Universe is governed, if we imagine a greater community of intelligent species and for every intelligent species there must always be one great patriarch or matriarch to serve as ambassador. A person who is able to make a durable commitment to be a companion and a peer, co-creator and servant. To do the job, one of us must win this great game of life decisively and overcome mortality in order to live and serve forever, or at least for a very very long time. In order to cover the cost of this great big piece of real-estate and become the Landlord our prospective saviour must be considered creditworthy. While many good people may prefere the salvation that Jesus offered, and prefer him for a King, he shows a preference to those people who should be considered meek. It appears that his version of salvation may be exclusive to true-believers and not all-inclusive. It appears to me that the most fundamental truth of creation that we have uncovered is it's underlying Unity. No amount of distance within the Universe represents meaningful seperation; there is always a relationship between ourselves and absolutely everything else. Now I'm well aware of a few idealistic individuals (and if i don't include myself in that group please forgive me) who believe in something called the Rapture. According to them our wonderful and remarkably strange Universe is meant to be a temporary thing only for the benefit of us human-beings. A true Heaven exists behind the world that we know, and that is the place we are truely meant to live forever, not here on planet Earth. But personally I like the Universe very much, the Earth is still a beautiful world despite human habitation, and perhaps it even has a purpose which does not depend on us. I guess that this is what faith is for.