07-03-2008, 02:25 AM
This will be my final piece of writing for today (July 3rd). It is a little after 2 AM and it has been a slow night at work combined with an unusual amount of inspiration on my part for writing. Hopefully, these posts have provoked some to thing and have been enjoyed by some of you. My final reflection is not a theological one, but rather a matter of inspiration…something I write about less often but should do more. I have often wondered what it is that makes me get up in the morning…why is life worth living? In all honesty I have no answer to that question, other than the simple fact that I kind of enjoy living. I have work, education, dreams and goals, family, friends, things I enjoy doing, a myriad of interests, and a passion for a reborn Unitarian Universalism, healthcare, and…enjoying life. Life, to me, is just worth living. True I have been very lucky in my life…lucky, and blessed, beyond all measure to be born and raised where I have, to possess everything that I do, to have so many wonderful relationships. Religion has often focused so much on the matter of relieving human suffering and trying to solve the mystery of evil that it rarely focuses on a deeper matter: What is good about life? Why live? To me this question is not tied in with the meaning of life at all. Instead my answer is simply “God is life, God is good, therefore life is good. And because we are the Children of God, destined to grow in divinity, we are also called to live. It is what is meant to be.”
Too preachy? Maybe. But life is something is vastly underestimated by most people today. God IS Life itself. Over and over the Scriptures speak of “eternal life”, of the dead being called back to life, of Jesus stating “I came so that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly”. Jesus even states that he is the Way, the Truth and the LIFE. Life is found through the way of Jesus. What is life exactly? Life is freedom…from guilt, from pain, from suffering, from darkness. Life is energy, zeal, strength. Life is joy, passion, and love, in action. Life is Enlightenment, the attainment of understanding. Life is peace-the peace and contentment that passes all understanding. And life, of course, is the opposite of death. Yet the Scriptures promise that through Resurrection no death is permanent-not in eternity when God shall reconcile and restore everything and everyone; not after death where through karma and trials in other realms we shall be restored; or, most importantly, in this life. It is possible to attain all the dreams of life-and loose them. But even if lost, life is never gone permanently. The promise of Resurrection, whether described in the story of a Phoenix or embodied in the return of Christ from the dead, is that nothing is too dead too be brought back. Life-the freedom, the joy, the energy, the understanding, the peace-is never beyond reach for anyone.
[/align] Life brings with it happiness. God is Life, and those who know God will experience the fullness of Life. This is the essence of the human journey…to live. Somehow when I feel most alive I can sense God at His fullest, the greatest manifestation of divinity in the greatest moments of being alive. It is a beautiful, wonderful feeling-and believe me, it beats the alternative.
Too preachy? Maybe. But life is something is vastly underestimated by most people today. God IS Life itself. Over and over the Scriptures speak of “eternal life”, of the dead being called back to life, of Jesus stating “I came so that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly”. Jesus even states that he is the Way, the Truth and the LIFE. Life is found through the way of Jesus. What is life exactly? Life is freedom…from guilt, from pain, from suffering, from darkness. Life is energy, zeal, strength. Life is joy, passion, and love, in action. Life is Enlightenment, the attainment of understanding. Life is peace-the peace and contentment that passes all understanding. And life, of course, is the opposite of death. Yet the Scriptures promise that through Resurrection no death is permanent-not in eternity when God shall reconcile and restore everything and everyone; not after death where through karma and trials in other realms we shall be restored; or, most importantly, in this life. It is possible to attain all the dreams of life-and loose them. But even if lost, life is never gone permanently. The promise of Resurrection, whether described in the story of a Phoenix or embodied in the return of Christ from the dead, is that nothing is too dead too be brought back. Life-the freedom, the joy, the energy, the understanding, the peace-is never beyond reach for anyone.
[/align] Life brings with it happiness. God is Life, and those who know God will experience the fullness of Life. This is the essence of the human journey…to live. Somehow when I feel most alive I can sense God at His fullest, the greatest manifestation of divinity in the greatest moments of being alive. It is a beautiful, wonderful feeling-and believe me, it beats the alternative.
