Am I that unlikeable God?

So I have to admit that sometimes I really get confused about our understanding of God. When we dig down to the roots of God’s plan there is one fundamental concept that does not resonate well with me. Maybe you can help me understand why I should worry about it because on a practical day-to-day level I suspect that’s all it really does, makes us worry.

It has long been established in the Western tradition that God cannot look upon sin with the least bit of allowance. For some reason the god of the universe is not just emotionally but somehow physically repulsed by sin. Prophets infer that embedded within the natural laws of the heavens is a physical law in which perfection (water) and imperfection (oil) cannot occupy the same space. We don’t know why but apparently it is so.

This creates a dilemma for our loving God who has numberless children who will unfortunately be consumed by the flames of his goodness if they try to look upon him unprepared. This problem evokes a reference to the character of Rogue in the X-men comics who has been cursed with an uncontrollable mutation that causes her to absorb the energy of anyone who has physical contact with her. Even those people that she deeply loves cannot allow themselves to get too close to her in case, in a moment of weakness, they give in to their hearts to kiss or caress her and fall down dead completely drained of life. Her dilemma is truly heartbreaking because we all know if there is one thing that we all value it is love and connection with others. Since God is a loving God, we know that he must share that same desire. To see the pain in the eyes of all those people who want to be close to him but are by definition unclean must surely be a curse.

I think viewing this repulsion as a natural law of the universe is easier for me personally to reconcile with a loving God rather than believing that he just personally detests anything unclean or different from his image. The former God would love me as I am but understand that there is a barrier that I must cross to get to him. The latter does not like me right now as I am currently in an inferior phase of development. He would not stay in the same room with me. This God does not see complexity in the world but is willing to send me away to exist forever in unhappiness if I question one of his orders.

This barrier to reconciliation lies at the heart of God’s plan for our salvation, in fact the entire plan is established as a way to overcome this basic law of repulsion. We will not be happy unless we are in God’s presence after we die yet his presence sounds more like the flames of hell for all those who do not bare his reflection.

It’s interesting to note that many people living on this planet are unfamiliar with this law of the universe and the true nature of God. These people have been living and dying for millennia unaware that they are fundamentally flawed. It’s sad to imagine that hundreds of thousands of people could miss the real point of this existence and waste their whole lives just trying to be happy and wise.

How would things be different in my daily life if this heavenly law of repulsion did not exist? What if my God was not unlike myself raising my own children? I love them. I am affectionate, I guide them, and I do not expect them to understand everything. My sons make stupid decisions sometimes (which I expect) and they deal with the consequences. If my son Max jumps off a high chair that I warned him about and he splits his lip why should I take that as a personal insult? He’s learning from experience.

At no phase in his development would it be useful for me to tell him that one day I will leave him if he doesn’t become exactly like me, that I will no longer stand to be in the same room with him if he embraces another truth or another path to happiness other than the one I provided, that I will lock the door to my house if he is not sufficiently convinced or satisfied with my wisdom.

The times when I feel like a bad parent are the times when I am upset at a child because of my pride. They are not acting any differently than anyone would ever expect from a growing kid but the sin is mine when I think that I own them and I have full control over their path. It’s my problem if I decide to distance myself from them because of their natural flaws, not theirs. I can offer wisdom and love and hope that they learn to value the same things as me but they may not and yet still be legitimately happy or if they suffer because of poor decisions they don’t need to know that my love will be retracted in addition to the natural consequences they may already suffer.

Again, I want to hammer in that point: When your child exercises poor wisdom and brings suffering upon himself it is the parent's problem if he is ashamed and turns away from the child. Why would he be ashamed? Where would that shame come from? Both he and his son want to be happy but the son tried to obtain his happiness in a way that his father knew was risky.

Doesn't it seem plausible that the shame would come from the fact that the child simply didn't trust his father's wisdom unquestionably? Does this also infer a challenge about who is right? And what child has the audacity to challenge a parent? There are many things that a father can feel confident being right about, even if his child is a little behind but what type of a person feels diminished when their sole ownership of truth is questioned?.......... Well I do sometimes but I have to admit that I expect a little something more from God. If he really is a jealous God it makes sense why you deserve an extra punishment in addition to the natural consequences of your actions for daring to question him.

Shame........from the creator of the universe.........for what?

Let's repose the scenario just mentioned but this time we'll say that the child broke something expensive. The father is angry and starts to tell his son how he won't stand for such behavior and how he plans to send him far away where he can live with other idiots who break nice stuff. While the father is still fuming a neighbor, who has been listening from a distance steps in. The neighbor says,

"Excuse me. I'm terribly sorry about your situation. I can totally understand why you would be justified in sending this young boy away for breaking your expensive stuff. He obviously couldn't handle the responsibility of staying in your immaculate mansion in the long run without making more mistakes, but I have a very special empathy for your son sir. I have personally experienced the pain this child feels because I was a youth summer camp instructor and I saw sooo many boys make poor decisions and break lots of stuff. So I would like to cover the costs of any damage inflicted by your son in the past and I will cover anything he does in the future to lash out as long as he really thinks about his mistakes, recognizes how unhappy they make him feel, and then promises to do things that bring him and everyone else real joy. I will be happy to give him plenty of great advice and show him the love and empathy that you are justified in withholding. After all, you have a kickin house sir and I wouldn't want to see anything stain it. The father, recognizing that he now has nothing to lose begins to smile. "You really get me neighbor. You're the type of boy a dad could call his favorite". He is now pleased and everything is mended because he knows that whatever happens (son makes bad decisions, son embraces his father's way) he wouldn't have anything damaged in his kickin immaculate mansion.

Soooo....remember this story is only to illustrate an idea. It's not meant to be sacrilegious I promise. Does the father seem any more lovable in this depiction? But why not? Everything got fixed, even his unspecified expensive thing that got broken. It seems like eventually father and son will be able to occupy the same house (if that's what the son actually wants).

I'm sure at least some readers will be confused at what I'm really trying to get at here. Maybe I've lost your respect at this point for casting deity in the role of a grumpy abusive father in my story. Why should this matter to me? Why is a quirky person like me concerned about this idea? Maybe it's because I feel every one of my sons has been perfect since they stepped foot in this world. Their natures are not offensive to me. All I want for them is happiness and fulfillment. I certainly think there are other ways to help them find it besides jealous threats of abandonment. They simply need to recognize what they already are at their core. Perfect.

Anyway, while we acknowledge that the judgmental God with vanity issues must exist so that we can know we are right and others are wrong, It’s more useful for our day-to-day to think God is the unconditionally loving one. The one who will forever help you onto your feet when you fall, The one that will be there for you when you are in a self-made hell and not judge you for your foolishness. This is what I feel from God, acceptance, patience, and the purest unconditional love.

I certainly hope my Creator doesn't have issues with me that keep him at arms length when I see him again. In the mean time, I just plan on enjoying my family, being the best person I can be, and breathing in the beauty of this life.

You're so vain. You probably think this world is about YOU

Disclaimer: If you’re the type of person that gets offended this will probably offend you so please stop reading………..……and please stop being so offended all the gosh darn time! I hold you personally accountable if you continue.

Do you ever remember jokes or comments that you thought up as a kid that seemed so funny to you at the time but now you are a little embarrassed at how simple and stupid they were? You know that you are the only person on the planet that remembers them but you are little embarrassed nonetheless.

I remember back when I was in church, as a kid, with my chair leaned back against the wall (like ya did when you were too cool for Sunday school). During class I would try my hardest to think of something witty that would impress my friends (Sunday school teachers just love this compulsion for validation in boys I’m sure).

I have no idea why this memory popped into my head but I recall on more than one occasion asking my Sunday school teacher…

“Sooo…were Adam and Eve like Neanderthals cuz weren’t they the first people?” (Spoken like a seasoned class clown).

….Yeah that’s it. I know it’s not even really a joke is it? (But consider that you didn’t get to witness the delivery). I just thought it was hilarious for some reason. The teacher showed us pictures of a Ken and Barbie couple wearing classy cuts of animal skin hanging out in a garden. Wouldn’t it just be killer funny -thought my immature brain- to imagine Eve as a thugly cavewoman and not a hot blonde? I think my best friend even laughed but in hindsight a well executed fart noise may have stirred the crowd up some more. Boys will be boys.

I’m sure I had seen a National Geographic special on evolution and I probably felt cool that I even knew what a Neanderthal was ( It was a cool ass way of saying caveman that’s what it was!).

As a child you are given pieces of information on different subjects. There are of course many large holes in the picture that are sometimes deliberately left open (such as why or how daddy goes about putting that baby in mommy). It is your job to ask “Why why why why why why why….” To fill in the holes, like my adorable 4 yr old son does (and I never get bored of answering :) ).

It’s interesting how and from where your knowledge gets filled in as you grow. As a kid I knew that National Geographic seemed to know what’s been happening with people right up until the time that they became beautiful -and started living on a freshly mowed tropical golf course where whales unfortunately have very little wiggle room in the small resort ponds- but after that point my Sunday school teachers seemed to know where things were going as far as purpose and all that.



It seemed very important to remember that the whole Adam and Eve thing is where it started. That’s the line god drew when he decided that people are going to start mattering from here on out. Maybe everything before that just existed as a means to genetically grow some awesome bodies from scratch to be inhabited by Adam and his trophy wife just like in the movie Avatar. Who am I to say why things were done that way. It was like 6,000 years ago wasn’t it?

One very cool thing about the LDS religion is that it is very liberal or open minded in regards to the little details. Many Christian faiths do not allow themselves this sort of flexibility in interpretation which I think is a little unfortunate because they have to convince themselves that the Grand Canyon was created just a few thousand years ago. I know of many LDS members who have accommodated scientific discoveries about evolution into their faith with ease. I think there are also many others who feel that there is always something sinister brewing within the bubbling beakers of Godless scientists and we should probably not spend as much time paying attention to their hypothesizesezs as we should spend reading our scriptures.

For an LDS member an appeal to authority is not a good problem solver for the evolution discussion because there have been some Presidents of the church proclaim that evolution is evil garbage and others who are open to the possibility that god brings about his purposes through natural processes. If both President Joseph Fielding Smith and President Mckay (who had very differing feelings on the matter) were still alive maybe they could arm wrestle to decide the winner on this one. After all the hassle I think the LDS church has pretty much decided that what has happened on the Earth for millions of years before we showed up has little to do with our salvation and is not very important in the whole scheme of things.

Connecting these loose ends together about history, religion, and origins can be difficult for any person that’s really serious about figuring it all out. By it I mean THE IT; The unanswerable answer to life the universe and everything (42); The ultimate explanation that nobody will ever really know for sure about until after they take the one-way ferry ride across the river Styx...or you know…..…just….die.

When I start thinking about this amazing planet and why the hell I’m here there’s one question in the literal sea of questions (okay figurative sea) that keeps nagging at me…

“How do I even know that it’s all about me?”

Let me explain because I thought I’d thought about this but I don’t think I ever really did in any depth until recently. Actually I just read a novel titled Ishmael that brings this stuff up. It was a very thought provoking read.

There is one overarching theme in regards to the purpose of our existence that both Academia and religion seem to agree on and that is that nothing started mattering until roughly 6,000 years ago. This is when history began (or at least important history) which is maybe why everything before that time is referred to as Pre-history. When we think about our origins we always choose this as our starting place. This might be because we don’t know too many details about what people (or hominids) were like before then.

But we DO have some significant information about that time. We know that there were definitely bigger chunkier versions of ourselves extending back a long time before 4000 BC. By a long time I mean a LOOONG time. Right now the scientific community is drawing the line between primate and hominid around 5-7 million years ago (It’s wise to give yourselves a few million years flexibility in these things). But either way take a moment to absorb the contrast in timetables; 6,000 years and 5 million years. Our massive history extending all the way back to Samaria (or wherever) is just a dot compared to the long timeline that covers the progression of our species from monkey-man to agriculturalist.



When did they start being like us I wonder? When did they start feeling real feelings? When did they stop acting like animals and began to really observe their environment and culture in a way like ourselves? It’s hard to even pin down what attributes separate us from other animals. It seems like we are more capable of seeing the big picture and planning ahead in a way most animals can’t. We seem to understand concepts and ideas in much greater depth and we can talk about them (of course that is all just based on our perspective).

What is really the biggest difference between the “us” that began 6,000 years ago and the “us” that existed before that, the “us” that acted more like an animal?

I think one of the biggest differences is that we came to the conclusion that this whole creation was all about us. The whole friggin thing is ours. All the creatures and resources of this Earth are here as gifts to help us realize our destiny. It’s easier to understand why a cow was made for us more than a deep sea Angler fish but there’s got to be a reason why the Angler fish belongs to us as well (If not just to inspire awesome Sci-Fi monsters) right?

It seems like there could almost be a law that exists in nature that all creatures follow in which they are all allowed to compete for resources but never go so far as to hunt out and destroy all of their competition, but we are the first species to challenge that law. There seems to be a mutual respect and balance that exists in the natural world. If you have watched The Lion King recently Mufasa has expounded greatly on this issue.

This idea could be totally off base and over-idealized as well. Who says it’s not natural to ensure the survival of your species by any means possible? It seems like even viruses just want to live and multiply, but their time becomes limited as their resources for survival diminish.

The difference between the new “us” (4000 BC-->)and the old us (<-- 4000BC) is one of ideology. The new us is convinced that our species is the only one that should have no limits to its growth; That our species should have control over all the earth’s resources. We are convinced that the earth should bend to our will because it belongs to us. We are its stewards. God grew us like seeds in a garden over millions of years and we are the long-awaited fruit. Everything else is going to the compost heap.

If the earth was a micro-organism and you could observe it from a distance under a microscope how would you make sense of the growth and domination of one species over the entire organism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population_estimates) So we’re at a point where we are expected to add a billion humans to our population within 20 years. That number is just going to shrink exponentially). It used to take hundreds or thousands of years to double our small population. Soon we will be doubling that already massive number (6 billion) every 10-15 years. As you saw this growth in this population what would you think would be the motivation of those tiny humans and why wouldn’t they understand that the whole thing only really works in a state of balance? If anyone gets too selfish it all eventually falls apart (at least for the humans).

Well we know what our motivation is. We understand that we are fulfilling our purpose. Up until us I doubt any other creature thought there was any other purpose to their existence other than rejoicing that they were alive to experience something incredible. I don’t think they were concerned (or capable of being concerned) with the big picture, only with being happy.

I think fear also plays a role in our motivation to control. We are afraid that we might somehow be grouped in the same category as all the other ignorant forms of life on the planet and we know we are more special. We are also afraid that we are going to disappear in as insignificant a way as they seem to. We are afraid to die and we will do whatever it takes to become immortal.

Please don’t jump to conclusions. I’m not saying anything extreme about reverting to the wilderness to reclaim the glorious life of a caveman. I am not saying anything about who or what should live or die. All I am pointing out is what is. For good or bad, God’s will or not, this is our current situation.

This attitude absolutely does exist throughout most of humanity. It does not matter if you believe in god or not. There is an underlying foundational belief that we have the right to make all the decisions concerning the future of this earth. We have the right to position ourselves as the main beneficiaries of all of those decisions at the cost of any other living thing. Either that privilege was gifted to us from god or because we got smarter faster than anything else did. We are the most important. That is a perceived right that we will never willingly relinquish.

It does not take a genius to understand that this mentality is not sustainable. It may seem like it is a good enough game plan to span the existence of your family and your family’s family for a few generations to come but eventually the complications will snowball into something bad for mankind. I guess we just hope that by that time we’ve become smart enough to handle any curve balls thrown at us because of our tampering. Perhaps that will be the Star Trek phase of our growth.

Anyway, let me revert back to the original question.

“Is it really all about us?”….Really? When we see an ant crawling on the ground do we really think that the ant's existence really has something to do with us? Is it there to entertain us? To bite us? Is it's importance defined only in relation to ourselves? Does the life of a fish at the bottom of the ocean, that is totally unobserved by humans, still have its own purpose and significance or are fish just filler for the majority (71%) of the earth that doesn't have people running around? Why did God bother with anything that cannot be appreciated by us?

Are we certain that this is even the attitude that God would want us to have? Are we certain about the literalness of having dominion over all creatures and resources?

I don’t have any answers because it’s hard to imagine things being any different from how they are now. All creatures want to survive and we are the ones smart enough to ensure our security above all others, but we know we can’t continue like this indefinitely. Perhaps we will just keep going on until everything is so screwed up that god has to shake this planet like an etch-a-sketch or perhaps our species will eventually just destroy itself while some lower species continue to do their thing until we eventually get some higher forms of intelligence who might make better decisions.

Thoughts?

Judgment Day: Why I think God Has His Work Cut Out For Him written by Chris

Disclaimer: This ended up being a really long post. So you might not want to bother continuing if you don’t have a few minutes. I won’t be offended I promise. I need to keep practicing the art of the quick blog post I know. Anyway, don’t take anything too seriously. I just think it’s fun to think about this stuff.

One thing that I have always felt good about in my religious tradition is the belief in a truly compassionate, father-like God. A just, unbiased lawgiver who cares about everyone equally (the parable of the shepherd going after the few lost sheep comes to mind). It is so much easier to connect with a god who just understands everything perfectly. He has experienced everything and has perfect empathy for your situation. He can see the big picture and he knows when and where you have gone wrong and is interested in helping you find the correct path.

I have read about the various gods worshipped in the temple religions of the ancient world and they seem so emotionally detached and unconcerned with their loyal followers. They come across as very egocentric, requiring only demonstrable admiration and reverence. Interestingly enough personal morality was not even a requirement of the ancient polytheistic religions of the Middle East, nor the Aztec and Mayan religions, the early Hindu religion, or even the folk religions of Asia. These gods mostly just wanted to have lots of rituals performed and lots of animals killed and eaten by a devoted priesthood on their behalf. This was all that was needed to please them. They did not, for the most part, really care if you thought impure thoughts, lied, stole or dealt unjustly with your neighbor. This seemed so strange to me when I first read about it since I assumed that all religion has always been, in some way, about self-purification or refining your personal character to conform to a more celestial standard. Apparently I was wrong.

I’ve always been pleased with my understanding that god is personally involved with my progressive journey through life as well as the life of every one of his children. I was taught that he is not distant and unconcerned, nor is he interested in having his ego stroked by redundant rituals.

Part of God’s role is also to be a perfect judge. He is the only one qualified for the role because he’s the only one who has all the evidence. Many religions share the belief that after this life there will be an answering for your actions; A weighing of your good deeds against your bad, an evaluation of the purity of your heart, and then a consequential reward or punishment based off of your test scores. Often times the subjective nature of right and wrong becomes so unclear that we are happy to declare that we are unqualified to judge other people’s actions (judge not that ye be not judged). God is the only one who can see the situation in all of its complexity and make an appropriate verdict and we’ll leave him to it.

But compare the type of Judge that God is to say, a common judge that we would find in one of our court buildings. One of these judges is probably not declaring verdicts based off of a familial love for those on trial and a sincere desire for their future happiness. In fact we might be angered to discover that a judge is acting on such bias. I would assume that he would be more concerned with the safety of everyone else in society who might be endangered by the criminal’s possible future actions.

So how can God actually be totally empathetic with all of his children? Where does he draw the line and hold an individual accountable apart from the preconditions and involuntary factors that have contributed to their choices and personality? For example let’s say someone commits a murder motivated by racism. How much more is the situation complicated (for a loving judge) if it is performed by someone who has been indoctrinated since birth with the idea that it is God himself who has declared (in scripture) that violence is justified against certain groups of people? Is it then forgiven? Is part of it forgiven? Does he get any points for honorably observing the rules of God as he knows them, or nothing for just being flat wrong in the end?

Now, to further illustrate this dilemma, think of some of the most despicable sinners you can envision such as pedophiles, rapists, murderers, thieves, adulterers etc. We don’t need to speculate what awaits them after judgment do we? If the kids who shot up all those students in Columbine don’t have a world of hurt waiting for them in the next life then there is no real justice right? We may be wrong on some of the small things but truly evil acts are easy to spot and identify right? They happen to good people, and they are carried out heartlessly. They are chaotic in nature and make us feel powerless and afraid.

Imagine, for a moment, what the back story of one of these villains might be. How were they raised? What type of a home did they come from? What was their relationship with their parents like? Has their view of the world been molded in any way by anything a family member or peer has impressed upon them? Have they been raised in a racist culture? What about their biology? Have there been any chemical abnormalities that they have had to deal with or handicaps that limit their judgment? What about their ability to empathize? Are there any imperfections in their brain? Are they chemically depressed? How have these chemical imbalances influenced their view of the world? Did their mothers smoke or drink while they were developing? What other characteristics have been involuntarily chiseled into their genetic makeup by past ancestors?

Epigenomes, for example, record information such as how well your great, great grandfather ate as a child. That information is passed through to your DNA and your chemicals and appetites are adjusted based off of that information in order to increase your posterity’s chances of survival. Sometimes however within a short period of time our situations change dramatically and we are still programmed to get a lot of something if given the opportunity because it should (theoretically) be in short supply such as sex and food. Your desire for these things is strongly influenced by the living circumstances of your ancestors. If you struggle with your appetites it is, in part, because of these influences in your genetic makeup.

I’m not saying it is justified to indulge in these things, only that it complicates a truly fair judgment of your soul. Can an individual be judged apart from these factors? If not then it seems that your post mortal inheritance is a matter of how the dice fall for you. Guess what? You lack the brain function to properly empathize and relate with others. You are what we call a Sociopath. Enjoy hell. If god still loves the “real” you in the next life you can bet the victims you killed will be giving you the cold shoulder.

To me it often seems that the people we want most to rot in hell tend to be people who have been very unhappy and tortured during their existence. They may have succeeded in their efforts to destroy the happiness of others but the consequences of these actions (even during life) will not decrease their anxiety or personal conflict. Is festering hatred a form of suffering? Destructive behavior reflects such inward traits as fear, shame, hurt, or powerlessness. For whatever poor reasoning a villain might give for their actions, I’m pretty sure they, like everyone else, are trying to define happiness on their own terms and see their actions as justified based on their definition. We can hate them for their ignorance but how does God see them knowing exactly where that ignorance took root?

Do you ever catch yourself condemning someone who has just made really bad decisions? Does a chain-smoker, for instance, who forks out wads of cash every day to continue his habit, the whole while decreasing his over-all health and quality of life, really need our judgments on top of his own self-inflicted punishment? After suffering through lung cancer does God really need to give him an additional kick in the pants for disrespecting his bodily temple? Hasn’t he reaped the reward of his ignorance? Maybe somebody warned him that smoking leads to unhappiness and addiction before he lit his first stick but did he really know how foolish the decision was at that time? He was ignorant true, but wasn’t his flawed reasoning really attempting to secure future happiness, perhaps through acceptance by his peers?

I am not necessarily trying to justify wicked actions (BTW I don’t think smokers are wicked) but if you are like me, you probably think “It’s a good thing that god has the ability to take everything into consideration before making a judgment. I’ll just leave it to him to work out.”

But where do all those preconditions end and where do you (the one on trial) begin? How far does God have to dive into your background check files before deciding to try you as a spiritual adult? At what point can he say “you should know better.”

To complicate things further I think we should also recognize the influence of a force of unperceived, evil beings bent on our destruction who have the ability to influence our actions, or at least provoke situations and thoughts that target our vulnerabilities. If an evil spirit is tempting one person, doesn’t that mean that he isn’t tempting someone else? How does God look upon individuals who made a mistake based off of enormous unrelenting pressures from Satan’s followers while someone else is ignored? I think this would complicate things even more for God. You can’t say that in his final judgment he wouldn’t take into consideration the fact that some people are pummeled with Satanic temptations while some are not? Whose actions are on trial? yours or your tempters? I get the idea that Satan isn’t that concerned with tempting everyone in a fair, even-handed manner. But if God is to correct the chaos brought by Satan, his judgment must accommodate those tested unfairly. Is it better when you think a sinful thought or when it is placed in your mind from Satan? How come we seem totally capable of coming up with bad ideas unassisted (not that we can judge which ideas those are)? You might respond that the only thing that matters is your response to the temptation wherever it comes from but wouldn’t it be a tougher test for someone who is receiving more temptation?

Many of these thoughts may ring of cognitive dissonance. There may be no way of knowing if there is any substance to these ideas and they are quite possibly all bull crap. There is probably a simple explanation that could clear up all confusion on the matter and I’m sure at least one reader will have all the answers. Personally, I feel that it is still important to allow ourselves the freedom to explore such issues. I disagree with the idea that curiosity is dangerous. I think we should always be asking questions, even the ones that we know will more than likely never be answered. I even think we should ask questions that challenge and test the firmest beliefs we have. Sometimes it makes them stronger.

I don’t have a clue about how god judges people (Big surprise I know). I don’t know that he even does except for what I read in scripture and am told by prophets. Apparently it’s not that big of a concern that we know the details. Perhaps it’s for the best. What prophets do tell us is that God loves us and has the perspective to understand what really matters for us in the long run. He promises the most fulfilling and lasting happiness imaginable to us if we stretch ourselves. That is at least a very comforting idea.

Anyway I hope I didn’t waste your time if you were under the impression that this rambling post was leading somewhere. Sometimes it’s interesting to consider things from a different perspective though isn’t it?