What Matters?
Jonathan Brickman
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Is this the idea?
We should all be very proud of the work that we do. We should set definite goals for ourselves, and we should work very hard to fulfill those goals; and when we achieve them, we should take pride in our work and our accomplishments. And even if we do not achieve some of the goals, the pride we took in our work will help us remember that the next goal is just a worthwhile effort away. After all, if we choose our goals carefully, and work hard, we can hope to do things of which we have a right to be very proud indeed. We might send rockets to Mars, or cure cancer, or provide electrical power to fifty million people by building a huge dam, or be the biggest basketball star ever, or build a really big football stadium with a retractable roof.
Or maybe this is better.
We might work to make a new nation in this world which gives its people freedom to do whatever they want. Or we even might help the people of an existing nation kill off the kings which those religious types say God put in power, and help them start to do whatever they want. After all, if the human race is to thrive and even just survive into the far future, it is up to us! It’s all very well for the religious among us to talk about God and morality and such things, but we need to live in the real world, and to accomplish anything really worthwhile in the real world, some people have to suffer and die, and often, others have to kill them.
And just think about it for a bit. Just think how many people were killed building the Brooklyn Bridge and the Hoover Dam, or died from radiation sickness and related cancer building the Atomic Bomb – and haven’t these three things been so very important for good in the world! Isn't the world just a tremendously better place since they were built? And all those wars – isn't the world just so much more peaceful since all those people died to make the world safe for democracy! We should do as all those people did, and aim high, towards such goals as makes us and our nation proud and important. If we do aim high and work hard like they did, we will make great achievements. And it is very good when a person takes pride in such accomplishments, because this is what makes a person’s life worthy of respect.
Okay, okay. Let's try something else.
No no no no no! All of the above is old-fashioned, out of date, and unrealistic. How are you going to get people on your side with that? We have to be with the times, and today, things are much different. We can no longer encourage people just to build things and improve their nation; we must legislate and, if necessary, sue, to force everyone in our nation to give to everyone else around the world first, and then if there is any money left, we can think about buildings and power-plants and stuff.
For instance, there are millions of people who have diseases which could be helped with drugs. Those drugs must therefore be sent to everyone who needs them, all over the world, free of charge. It doesn’t matter what happens to the people of the corporations that made them, because after all, there are always more corporations. There are also people starving elsewhere in the world, and since this nation has lots of food, it should use its food as bribes for political favors, all over the world, to ensure that this nation’s special interests are served and respected. The greatest shame, after all, is the fact that lots of people all over the world cannot do whatever they want to do, but instead have to struggle hard to get licenses and government permissions to do the most basic things, like have an assembly in a public park, or build a house, or open a little gift shop, or buy a gun, or teach history, or sell the timber growing on their land, or kill babies while they’re being born. When necessary, we must use all of our resources to kill the dastardly people who head and defend the governments that are denying their terribly oppressed peoples these most basic of freedoms.
Still not good enough? Maybe this one is it.
Now the above are all good for some people. But it’s good to remember that every single person in the world has God in them, and most importantly, every faith in the world really leads to the same place, to the same God. So no matter what anyone wants to do, you ought to respect them for it and cheer them on, because since God is in them, what they are doing and what they want to do really is always good. The best thing we can do, in fact, is to help everyone understand these concepts, so that everyone will love everyone else, and no one will be afraid, because after this life, we all go towards that white light, and we all end up in a wonderful place which some of us choose to call Heaven. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if the passengers on those jetliners had been loving each other and their replacement pilots, on their merry way into the towers of the World Trade Center? It’s not a bad thing, after all, when one realizes that all of those people really are God, and so will live forever, just like all of us! It’s sad that so few people understand all this right now, but that’s OK, because one day everyone will understand, and everyone will be happy with everything that happens to everyone, most of all themselves!
I hope that none the above are good enough for you. They are not good enough for me.
There is another way. There is a way in which we can and do have joy of a great many things, and yet have compassion with those who suffer. It is a way in which we can have many good and loving and helpful sadnesses, and angers, and loves, and hatreds. It is a way in which we can love all of God’s creatures, regardless of their fate, because we become proud of nothing. It is a way in which we care much about things that matter, and do not care about things that do not matter. It is a way in which we become aware that all that matters, remains forever, and will remain long after this world and everything and everyone in it are gone. It is a way in which our mission is simple and clear, in which we help God take people to life, and do not ever help take anyone to death, and yet do not fear, as we learn that some must be taken to death by its servants. But we cannot simply paste this way of life onto ourselves. God Himself must take us in, and take us out of that to which we have been accustomed. This is called the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. If this is not clear to you, please contact anyone who knows, and we will help.