Showing posts with label Wry observations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wry observations. Show all posts

Monday, May 24, 2021

No, the world is not going to hell in a hand basket.




 No, the world is not going to hell in a hand basket

I had a guy tell me the other day quite seriously that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. During his soliloquy he mentioned things like the increased polarization in politics, the socialists who are taking over, the Covid-19 excuse to take away people’s freedoms by making them wear masks, stay away from one another, shutting down businesses, preventing travel, etc.


The immigrants are taking over, the wall never got built, and the people who were standing up for truth, freedom, and the American way trying to prevent the theft of the election from Donald Trump are being prosecuted and punished for nothing other than being good Americans and standing up for what’s right. He went on telling me how white people are being picked on, discriminated against, and victimized.


I said, “My golly, it’s terrible. Just terrible. I don’t know how you stand it. Have you thought of leaving the country, or killing yourself, or at least arming yourself and fighting for your very survival?”


He said, “You’re one of the few people I can talk to about this stuff.”


I said, “Well, it’s on Fox news and there are websites on the internet that report this stuff.”


He said, “Yes, but not enough people listen to them.”


I said, “Well, that’s a crying shame. I wish only the best for you and people who feel as victimized and downtrodden as you do.”


“Thank you so much,” he said. “I feel a lot better. Most people don’t want to hear my thoughts and feelings. They tell me I’m crazy.”


I said, “I can see how you feel this way and think these things. These are scary times when our previous ways of life are being disrupted. This is very disconcerting, but we will see how things turn out.”


“You have a point,” he said.


I said , “No, I don’t think things are going to hell in a hand basket. It will all work out in the end.”


He smiled and said, “Have a good day, man.”


I said, “Coming back at ya.”


We both laughed.


Life is good; not in a hand basket on its way to hell at all..


Sunday, May 23, 2021

No, there is no hell




 No, there is no hell

A woman asked me the other day if I believed in hell. I said, “No. How could a loving Creator consign HIs/Her/Its creations to hell. That makes no sense.”


“So if there is no hell, do you believe in heaven,” she persisted.


“Yes, of course. Heaven is what God wants for everybody and sooner or later we will all get there,” I said.


“That’s not what my church teaches,” she said.


I said, “No, of course not. They want to frighten people with the threat of damnation so they keep coming back and will donate money to the church.”


“I don’t know,” she said. She seemed sad.


It is hard to believe that you are loved unconditionally when you have been told the opposite your whole life.


Some people die still frightened that they are not good enough. It’s a sad way to die, to end your life.


In the meantime we keep busy to distract ourselves from the self reckoning that we fear.


It is a sad way to live when we have a choice, a choice we have never been told about. The choice is a faith in Universalism which teaches that we are loved unconditionally by our Creator and that hell is of our own making here on earth. 


As Winston Churchill said, “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”


So, is there a hell which a god of some sort will condemn you to for all of eternity to burn in flames?


No there is no hell but the hell of our own making created by bad choices. 


The great Christian prayer which Jesus taught us to pray says in part, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Did you catch that “on earth” part?


How do we experience heaven? Jesus tells us that we experience heaven on earth when we do God’s will and not our own. One path takes us to heaven and the other to hell.


So, we can choose heaven or hell. It is up to us. God gives us free will and it’s up to us what we want to experience. In either event, God loves us always.


No, there is no hell.


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