Ever feel soiled by your day to day exposure to every day life? I mean like your very Soul is tarnished by constant bombardment of reality news: Murder, Rape, Child Molestation, War, Starvation, Violence, Lying Investment Scheme Managers, Deceitful Politicians telling every special interest group exactly what they want to hear...ACH, it all conspires to make me feel sick!
Then there are the cable news outlets spewing out their venom which is all about they're right and the rest of us are wrong...a total bunch of political hooey because nothing in life is that black and white...especially politics! It seems like our entire society is corrupt...we no longer teach our children...anything. No we let the Internet, TV, their school teacher and the video games they play do that...
I can see very clearly why people seek temporary escape, respite or oblivion through booze and drugs. We have a prescription drug epidemic happening here yet no one wants to admit it...it's one of our County's dirty little secrets! Certainly not the drug companies who profit from offering a pill, potion or shot for whatever ails you from a headache to sore feet to erectile dysfunction (Boner Pills? You've got to be kidding!) to Depression to simply just feeling tired?!
Now don't get me wrong...some medications are neccasary and I am not denying that. It's that we have taken this too far...we reach for the medicine cabinet the moment we have a symptom...any symptom. It really scares me to be honest. Granted, I'm coming from a different place being a recovering addict...because it's hard not to think "addiction" when the use or abuse of medicine comes up but I think we are way too reliant on pills as a society to FIX any old ache and pain.
I guess this post today is just me crying out for simplicity...We take or expose ourselves to everything in excess...no small doses of the evening news...NO, we are bombarded with a 24/7 hour news cycle. I think we are turning our own brains and those of our kids to freaking MUSH by our obsession with the TV, Video Games, Internet, Texting, etc. etc.
I do those many of those things as well but I also read, exercise, spend lots of time outside, have quiet moments of meditation with just the Creator and I. But I can get carried away too...I'm not saying that technology is bad, I don't think it is...I think it is really quite a good thing with great potential to reach people and help them. In the end it's what we do with it that determines whether it's a positive or negative thing or not.
For example, there is nothing wrong with a good bottle of wine. Making great wine is an ancient art and having a glass of wine now and again is fine....but if I drink 6 bottles a day it's not healthy and certainly not a good thing. It's the same with the Internet/Computers, TV, Cell Phones and other such things...addictive overuse or obsession is not good.
Obviously as human beings we have gotten away from what's important in life and tend to focus only on what stimulates (Read:ENTERTAINS) us. It becomes a form of Technological Masturbation, solely for our own entertainment pleasure and it's completely out of control.
Just try getting a teenager's (or their 45 year old Dad for that matter!) attention when they are engrossed in a video game...a grenade could go off in the room and they wouldn't be fazed. It's frightening really how locked in they get on that GAME. It's called OBSESSION!
OK, I typically don't RANT on and on about such things but I feel disillusioned by this obsession of SELF and Self-Stimulation. I think we are missing the point here. What about each other? What happened to loving our fellows? What happened to taking care of one another? I'm beginning to think that we human beings only interact when we are FORCED to...it isn't a choice.
I really began to lay off criticizing Christianity and attacking Jesus when I started to ignore what PEOPLE were saying about who and what Christians were supposed to be and read the WORD for myself...In the Bible, Jesus speaks pretty clearly and eloquently for All Time and the message I'm receiving from him ultimately is about LOVE. The giving of ourselves to helping one another...to glorify our Creator.
Perhaps I have it wrong. Maybe I missed the point...it's certainly possible...I am but a man, quite flawed, I've been rode hard and put away wet. I lived long and hard so maybe my point of view is skewed and I can't see IT. But I believe TRUTH is spoken in that BOOK and I believe it with all my Heart. Mostly because I've live it and seen it WORK for myself...
I lived for 48 years as a sceptical, doubting Thomas who mocked pretty much everything I didn't understand. I made fun of those people who professed their belief in Christ and belittled them as hypocrites and fools, mainly because I couldn't see it for myself. But I can honestly attest to the fact that you will NEVER see the TRUTH of the GOSPEL if you think and act like you are God. It just can not happen...And that was me, I thought I ran the whole show, I thought I was God.
It took a FALL, a real life beating at my own hands to drive me to a place of desperation and hopelessness where I came to God and begged HIM for mercy, forgiveness and asked him to save me. I don't know why...but he did.
And I can honestly say that since that moment, though I still have struggles and I still experience pain but overall, my life is different...really different. It makes sense today in ways that it didn't before. I never would have recognized the troublesome things I've posted about here this afternoon..because I just didn't care! I was too busy fulfilling my own desires of the flesh and entertainment: Drugs, Drink, Self-Satisfaction, Pride, EGO, Sex...you name it.
Today...and I can hardly believe I'm saying this myself but a simple focus on GOD and serving others is more then enough to sustain and fulfil me. As I've said before...I can hardly believe it myself.
(Painting by Claude Monet)
