THE JOURNEY NEVER ENDS

My personal belief is that when we die, physically die, in this life, we are immediately with God forever in the life to come, whatever that life is or, perhaps, wherever it is. We believers call that state of life we move into after death “heaven”.  Yet no one knows what that life is like. Those who have had a near-death experience, which I believe are real, have only received a momentary glimpse of the life to come. What that full life is like, we have no clue.

Even Paul, who truly believed in life after physical death could only state that “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared” for us.” (1 Cor. 2:9) The life to come is simply beyond our human imaginations. We may use them at times especially when we think about those whom we have loved who are now living that new life, imagining, wondering what they are now experiencing and believing that it can’t get any better than that for them and, eventually, for us.

Yet between now and then, there is a life still to lead. It is a journey we are on that never ends until this physical life ends. This journey is not about doing everything Jesus says we should do in order to earn that next life, rather it is about being a disciple of Jesus. Being guaranteed heaven when we die does not give us a pass to do whatever we want in this life. In fact, for us believers, it almost, if not, often makes this journey even more difficult for us.

Those who believe that when this physical life ends, there is nothing, have no moral obligation to do good or refrain from doing what is not good. Whatever the consequences of their behavior is will be played out as the results of that behavior and be played out in this life. Of course, the same can be said for us who are believers. We pay for our sins in this life in this life and we are rewarded for our good behavior in this in this life. Payment does not await us in the life to come.

So what’s the difference? It’s all about discipleship. It is about teaching other about what we believe by the way we live our lives. It’s not about being rewarded for our good deeds either in the here-and-now or in the life to come. Nor is it about not doing good because we are afraid of being punished for our misdeeds sooner or later. It is about dedicating our life so that each day we become more and more like Jesus.

It is also about knowing we will never be perfect, not in this life anyway. No one is. No one ever was except the One whose disciple we are. But that is not an excuse for not trying to be our best each day. When we have not, what we have learned is that we have suffered pain for our selfishness. And when we have, we have learned that we were rewarded some home in some way.

Life in this life is a journey that never ends. In the meantime, heaven can wait.

WE BELIEVE WHAT WE WANT TO BELIEVE

Fake news. Conspiracy theories. Collusion. The moon landing was filmed on a Hollywood back lot. The world is flat. There was no Holocaust. There is no god/God. There is a God. There are many gods. Jesus was not God. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus was not raised. The list is endless, is it not? Each of us can add to it. And we do.

We watch the news. Or do we? It has almost gotten to the point where we do not know what to believe or whom to believe. Perhaps it has always been that way. Truth hucksters have been around from time immemorial. The snake oil salesmen we see depicted in old cowboy movies are only one version of the snake oil salesmen today who are trying to sell us their version of the truth.

So how did they get away with it back then, all those back-thens? The same way they do today. How is that possible? Very simply: we believe what we want to believe. If we want to believe that that bottle of whatever it is can cure us of some malady, we’ll purchase the bottle, take the medicine and trust that it will work. If we want to believe what someone is telling us is the truth and that the opposite is not the truth, we will believe it trusting that the truth is being told.

When that snake oil turns out to be worthless and the truth we believed to be true turns out to be a lie, when reality sets in, then what? Whom do we now trust? Or does what happen is that we no longer trust anyone? It happens so easily. Someone we trust deceives us and we either wonder if we can now trust anyone or we become cynical when someone tells us that we can trust what is being said.

All that said, the bottom line still remains the same. We believe what we want to believe because what we want to believe fits who we are. If we want to believe that most people are good, we will be trusting. If we want to believe that everyone or the government or our boss is out to get us, we will believe that without any proof or because of some slight or because (fill in the blank).

And so when we turn on the news and we hear others asserting what we believe is false, we wonder how they came to believe that nonsense. They believe it because they want to believe it. And if they asked us why we believe what they consider nonsense, we would have to reply in the same way: we want to believe it.

So how do we know what to believe? How do we know what is the truth and who is telling the truth? Do all we have to go on is what we personally believe until the truth comes out as it always does sooner or later? As with what we believe about God, so with everything else we believe: the truth will all come out in the end. That’s not much consolation but it may all we have at the present moment in time.

WEST POINT

Blessed and thankful once again. Arlena and I recently returned from a bus tour that took us to many Revolutionary War sites in New York and New England where the War really got started. We began, however, at the site that was, in essence, the end of the War, namely Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh, New York. Then we headed to what was one of the later results of that War: West Point.

Thomas Jefferson, almost immediately after his inauguration, directed that plans begin to establish a military academy at West Point, West Point being a strategic site overlooking the Hudson River during the War. Our stop there was probably the highlight of the tour, at least for me. What I remember most was one of the first things I laid my eyes on. We walked into the Visitor’s Center. I looked up and on the wall were pictures of five alumni in their cadet uniforms: Ulysses Grant, John Joseph Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight David Eisenhower and Omar Nelson Bradley. Wow!

Perhaps for my children and grandchildren these names mean very little. Even for me on a personal level there is little connection. The wars these men fought in and led were over before I learned about them. Eisenhower was President during most of my teenage years but there was no real connection. And there still is not. But that is not the point and that is not what made me stand there in awe as I looked up at their portraits.

No one knew, not even these men themselves, how their lives would turn out after they graduated and entered the military. They could not even have imagined it. Yes, they may have dreamed of becoming a general or leading a great army into battle as they were completing their studies, but those would only be dreams. My guess is that when they looked back on their careers, even then they could not believe who that young cadet in that picture became.

And then I thought of my children and especially my grandchildren, none of whom at this point in their lives has a similar photograph. They’re still too young. And then I thought of myself and my college graduation picture. Yes, I had a pretty good idea what my life would be like, dressed in my seminary cassock. But even those thoughts and dreams, in hindsight, were way off the mark.

Real life always gets in the way of our dreams and plans and expectations. It is what we do with that life as it comes our way that is important. Grant failed in almost everything he did until he became General of the Army of the Potomac. Eisenhower was a fun-loving cadet who once showed up for roll-call without his pants and who graduated in the middle of his class. Who knew?

Who knows about what life will bring? No one, that’s who. But what we do know is that, dreams notwithstanding, if we do the best we can each day, we’ll be okay.  Okay?