There is much to be said for living a life which is good and honorable. It takes a lot of work and continued effort - but in the end, if there is a heaven, it will have served you well. If faith is believing in what you can't see, then why do so many have none? Believing in what we can't see is all we do in life. We believe if we work harder we will earn a promotion. We can't see that promotion, however we believe in it. And that cruise around the Caribbean could be ours if we just have faith. When it comes to faith in a higher power we often scoff at such nonsense. I don't know if there is a heaven, and I don't know if when I die I will be carried by angels to the pearly gates - I don't know if this is true or just a story to make dying appear more pleasant - but if there is a heaven, and if there are angels to carry me away from here - If it does exist, I don't want to find out on that day when I die. I would rather believe it for all the days until then, and live my life attempting to earn a place there, so if it does exist I can go there. And if it does not exist, I have not lost anything-I will be dead. But I will have gained so much. I will have lived my life in a manner that made my parents proud. I will have lived my life so that I left things a little better for my having been there. Hopefully, I will have helped some people along the way and maybe opened some doors for others. I can "die" with that. I can rest eternally, however that is, knowing that I lived peacefully.
What is the real pain in my backside are those who claim to be living the "right way" while they judge and criticize and condemn others - If you are of deep faith and religious conviction - you don't need to shout it from the mountain tops. Live your life as such. Let your actions speak for you. Stop telling others how to live and just live your life better.
I believe there are those among us who have been called to a higher purpose, but they are not the ministers I see at 2:00 am on my television, they don't live in million dollar mansions, and they don't have private planes - Mother Theresa lived a life of such purity without a doubt she fulfilled a higher purpose, and perhaps even Princess Diana was meant for similiar greatness but circumstances were such and God took her home early just to save her the misery her life had become. It is not however only the famous, there are those who work with people dying of aids, and those who go to Africa, and those who serve our country, and those who teach our children, and those who feed our hungry, and those who cloth our homeless - Oh, yeah, I remember Jesus said something about what you do for the least of my brother - I don't recall him talking about having the biggest ministry, I think he liked to keep his down to 12 loyal people - and though he could of asked for anything he did not. He wore a simple robe and sandals and walked among the people - not surrounded by guards. Don't give me the BS about it being a different time. Yeah, it is a different time, if Jesus came back today he would be locked up in a psychiatric hospital. He might make the cover of some grocery store tabloid - but how many of you true believers could leave the comfort of your insulated ignorance long enough to walk the same streets Jesus would walk. He might be down here on Skid Row in Los Angeles, or over on Hollywood Blvd. with the runaway teens - I don't know how much time he would spend in Simi Valley but I am sure there are those there who are in need of help.
I have heard many "Christians" say what is wrong with the world will never be fixed until Jesus returns - you know what, he may already be here but you are too busy pointing out what is wrong you can't see him. Jesus may already be walking this great Earth and we don't even know it because he has already been locked up. And seriously, of all the lands why would he come to the US where we are nothing but a self-righteous, self-indulgent, pious, bighoted, capitalistic, ignorant lot of heathens if ever there were any. And that goes for all of us, Jesus would not come to the bible belt to tell ya'll to get off your self-serving behinds and start living your lives with a purpose and meaning. He already showed us how to do that - he already taught us, and we didn't learn. We couldn't possibly be like Jesus because we are just human - the truth is, it would be really a lot of work to be 1/100th of the man Jesus was - and we just don't want to do that much work when we can sit in fancy churches and give money and cry because we are weak humans. Sounds like a lot of excuses for failure instead of reasons for success. So you can hate me because I am a lesbian. (Whom God created in his image, by the so and so). And you can fault me because I don't get up every Sunday to go to church, and you can judge me for every time I fall down the road of sin - go ahead. Because in the end, when that time comes for me to go wherever it is I am going - I know, I know, I know I lived my life as close to what Jesus asked me to do. I lived my life with kindness, and forgiveness, and charity, and truth. I lived every moment of my life thankful for the moment, accepting of the challenges, and humbled by the mercy - so when it is time - I know Jesus himself might give me directions to the pearly gates. And I know this, if Jesus were to stop me and ask for a $1.00 - I would give it to him - Would you?
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