Theology | Time is Running Out
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Time is Running Out
(c) 2023 by Vernon Miles Kerr and VernonMilesKerr.com
Some tentative good news on the #CancerOdyssey front. The endoscopy, during my first post-radiation Doctor-visit this week, showed no signs of tumor—from the nostrils all the way to vocal cords, on both left and right. This still doesn’t rule-out cancer. It will still take MRIs and PET-scans somewhere in mid-February to get a final verdict. Meantime, I live with that possibility of an early death. Whatever time that I have left becomes precious: what do I do with it? Go on a quest to tick-off the items on my bucket list? What if I were graciously given another 20 years?
In the year 2043 I’d be marking my 100th Birthday. I could, right now, go back to where I left off in Law School at University of the Pacific-McGeorge. (I withdrew in good standing due to the influence of fear, induced by the pastor of our cultish church. And that, after making the first-year cut.) The school started holding classes on Saturday, the church’s Sabbath.
The Pastor says,
“Here, look at this scripture,” pointing, “Keeping the Sabbath is a matter of life and death. If it was (sic) me, I sure wouldn’t go to school on that day.”
Even though I was full of education by that time, and a recent atheist, I was intimidated by that big black, leather-bound, gilt-edged mystery-tome that he waved, with its thousands of onionskin-thin pages of tiny text. Surely, its very bulk and its generally-acknowledged great age meant something. So, that little doubt and the Pastor’s sly intimations—that I could enjoy the status of “minister” as much as I might have enjoyed the status of “lawyer”—was his coup de grace. I was all about status in those days.
Looking back, If I had that degree from what is a very prestigious law school (in California, at least, along with Stanford, USC, UC Bolt and UC Hastings) I could get involved in effectively promoting liberal and progressive causes during my remaining 2 decades.
But, is that humanity’s greatest need? No. What good is a predominately liberal, progressive country when its people are still cut-off from God—either by false religion, or by an aversion to all religion, caused by experience with false religions. By false, I mean any of them which are based on that “mystery-tome.” Irrespective of its bulk, and its great age, it is still the work of dumb humans. I admit that some of it was probably inspired—obliquely—by God, but like everything else God has tried to do with humans, we have messed it up. We can’t go by “Holy Books,” exclusively. That’s not unlike trying to base a religion on the Marvel Universe. No Holy Books! Holy Books are out. What is right there, for all to see, objectively and scientifically, is Nature and Nature’s God.
The prime mystery of human life is the Valles-Marineris-sized gulf between our minds and those of the next smartest Earthly animals. Did that evolve? Or was it added in one seminal event 3 or 4 Million years ago? One day we were simple primates, the next day something 180 degrees from a simple primate. In my mind, this was all for a purpose.
We, and Earth are one of God’s probably many “projects.” We may never see the end of this project of God’s, but there will be future humans who probably do. Will it be utopia or dystopia? Will Earth be a garden or a wasted, lifeless, spherical hulk, stripped of life, like Mars or Venus?
But the physical Earth will only be the stage. The “players” to use Shakespeare’s term ,will either have learned the way of peace and planetary cooperation or will have let it coninue to be something akin to today’s mess. That’s the real proect: the players, who give meanng to the stage. How can humans change their hearts, be more loving? By going to the source of love and communing with Him often. He is available without the need for “Holy Books,” or “churches.”
During each of our short, very short lives, here on this plane, will we contribute to utopia or dystopia? In reality, we all have relatively little time left on Earth. So, what am I going to do with my remaining time? Write. Keep writing. Try to share my writing with whatever means that I, or my supporters can afford. Is it going to do any good? Who knows? Who cares? Well, I care, but I don’t have to concern myself with the outcome. Knowing that I made the right choice is the only assurance I need to keep going.
What are your priorities? Entertainment? Gourmet dining? Greater status? Ticking items off your bucket-list? Or contributing in some small way to utopia? You choose.