He ain't heavy, he's my brother ~ Neil Diamond
I had to take a break from social media after checking my news feed a little while ago. I wish I could take a break from this world some time. America has just experienced the worst shooting attack in our history. 59 dead, over 500 injured in Las Vegas, Nevada, and the hate spewing out of our phone and computer screens seems to bury the victims even before they're in the ground. This is not the America I grew up in. This should be a time when we're focusing on the innocent lives that were taken by a mad man, grieving along with the loved ones and friends. Not focusing on gun control and all the political bashing going on ad nauseam. This...well, there are no words to describe what 'this' is. It is one of the most heinous, despicable crimes ever. I guess those are the words, at least the words I can use.
Sure, there have been a lot of horrific things that have happened since the beginning of time. The Holocaust, the martyrdom of Christians, other acts of violence in the streets of our country and around the world. But...there's a different feeling to these times we're living in. There's just so much hate involved for everyone and everything, it seems. And the world disasters...one after another after another. We don't even get time to recover from one before another one comes along to take its place. I grew up in the Cold War era. I was terrified of Nikita Kruschev and Mao Tse Tung. I dreamed about being blown off the earth by an atomic bomb. It seemed so far away, though. Where now with media coverage everywhere, 24/7/365, we can't get away from it. We have no emotional or mental breaks away from the stresses and misery in the world...it's just always there. And it isn't healthy. Hate breeds hate. Media, even in this country, has become nothing more than propaganda that just feeds into the poison, that saturates our minds.
I am a Christian and I believe it when I read in the Bible that the Lord is preparing a place for me, a mansion in Heaven. You can call me a fool, a dreamer. You can scoff at me. You know what? I don't care. Almost 41 years ago I gave my heart and my life to the Lord and He's proven to me every day since then that He's real. And I truly believe, not too much time from now, that He's coming again to carry me up to my glorious mansion. I even have a daydream of it in my mind...a simple little cabin high up on a hillside, with smoke curling out of the chimney, endless fields of alpine wildflowers carpeting the grass, and a rocking chair on the porch. I yearn for that in my heart now.
You may say there's no God. You may curl your lip at me and curse me. That's ok too. Because if you're right and there is no God you'll be fine in eternity. Either way, I don't lose. If all I've done is live a good clean life and die, that's fine with me, too.
But have you ever thought of this?
What if you're wrong?
Sure, there have been a lot of horrific things that have happened since the beginning of time. The Holocaust, the martyrdom of Christians, other acts of violence in the streets of our country and around the world. But...there's a different feeling to these times we're living in. There's just so much hate involved for everyone and everything, it seems. And the world disasters...one after another after another. We don't even get time to recover from one before another one comes along to take its place. I grew up in the Cold War era. I was terrified of Nikita Kruschev and Mao Tse Tung. I dreamed about being blown off the earth by an atomic bomb. It seemed so far away, though. Where now with media coverage everywhere, 24/7/365, we can't get away from it. We have no emotional or mental breaks away from the stresses and misery in the world...it's just always there. And it isn't healthy. Hate breeds hate. Media, even in this country, has become nothing more than propaganda that just feeds into the poison, that saturates our minds.
I am a Christian and I believe it when I read in the Bible that the Lord is preparing a place for me, a mansion in Heaven. You can call me a fool, a dreamer. You can scoff at me. You know what? I don't care. Almost 41 years ago I gave my heart and my life to the Lord and He's proven to me every day since then that He's real. And I truly believe, not too much time from now, that He's coming again to carry me up to my glorious mansion. I even have a daydream of it in my mind...a simple little cabin high up on a hillside, with smoke curling out of the chimney, endless fields of alpine wildflowers carpeting the grass, and a rocking chair on the porch. I yearn for that in my heart now.
You may say there's no God. You may curl your lip at me and curse me. That's ok too. Because if you're right and there is no God you'll be fine in eternity. Either way, I don't lose. If all I've done is live a good clean life and die, that's fine with me, too.
But have you ever thought of this?
What if you're wrong?
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