There is no winner doing this, only losers. There IS a winning strategy to Life and Living, but these ain’t it! I recently wrote a Substack comment on a brief article on Daniel Pinckbeck’s Newsletter post: Revisiting Hopi Prophecies, in which it seemed to my first read to somewhat lament the fact that the Hopi prophecies and wisdom are not recorded in written form anywhere yet to be found but are only passed by word-of-mouth through the ages. I was reminded that The Holy Bible is “all of the above” with eyewitnesses to events unfolding, prophecies about things to come, why things happen as they do, etc., etc., etc. Quite the good read overall. (Hint: Go to Daniel’s Substack to read his excellent article/my comment and be sure to check out the end of it for my suggestion for you to have a really, really, really great Life…it’s so simple, you won’t believe it!)
Readers who Love me…
Thank you! And Blessings
But back to winning and losing (then with a lasting solution somewhere near the end here). So not only was I reading Daniel today, but I also read a piece by a herein-unnamed writer (just to prevent any chance that she should take offense, though none is intended or intimated by this). And the general theme was one that I’ve read a lot of, recently, by writers all over everywhere about the ups and downs/ins and out of Living Life. This writer was mid-30s, had one child, then one who had passed on due to genetic abnormality, joyous and tragic stuff, all rolled into one’s Life experiences. The piece was beautifully written, was empathetic to persons in likewise circumstances, made some of her readers cry (by their own comments reflecting such) and made me cry - and I’m a now-72-year-old man! It is a powerful, poignant piece.
Her approach was not one of “grave mourning, all hope is lost” despair, rather the approach that ALL of Life is an adventure, with the next breath unfolding a new event, some to be determined bad (didn’t work out how I wanted), some determined good (wow! couldn’t have been more perfect!) Such that with this attitude, Life is recognized for the challenges it represents moment-by-moment. She stated this is her definition of “Living”.
I completely agree with her wholeheartedly and that’s partly what made me cry: The humanity of it and the Godliness of it, all enmeshed so perfectly in their Balance, so closely tied together that you couldn’t fit a single molecule of a grain of sand between the two. The agony and the Ecstasy of Living. My God
Now, you knew that I was going to inject a caveat into this equation of good and bad in balance, which is EXACTLY how the universe is set up, there is:
Good-bad, up-down, over-under, around-through, black-white, day-night, yes-no, start-quit, noise-silence, ying-yang, peace-war, gravity-weightlessness. God Tells us in The Bible that even the worlds are hung/suspended in the balance. When imbalance occurs, things change, either for better or for worse: As long as there is status quo, “don’t rock the boat” then all is well in our Lives. But to grow requires change.
Now here’s the deal: I can change for the better or for the worse, MY CHOICE, but it can ONLY be a FAIR choice if I know ALL of the choices/options available to me. If I have only 10 poor options I know about and choose one of the 10, I’ve still made a poor choice (regardless of the gradation of “poor”). It’s at that point I say: “But aren’t there any better, even good, options for me?” as I go kicking and screaming down aisle 9 of Target AWAY from the chocolate there and begging “them” not to drag me to aisle 22 where the soup lives.
Okay, so you’re mid-30s today or 21 or 53 or age 72 - only God Knows my final year in this body - and tomorrow I die in a car wreck. Blunt, I know, but necessary. There are 56 million annual human deaths worldwide, breaking down into 153,425 daily, 6,393 hourly every hour of the year. I just don’t know my last day…soooo
I think it would be a brilliant move, indeed, to get onto the “good side” of Life, i.e., God, i.e., our Creator, with Whom we “hope” to be spending Eternity with. Eternity is a very very very long time. God IS Real, I met Them, in Person, just as Real as you and I. But we don’t have to “hope” - we can KNOW! It’s Promised we can know.
Our Creator Wants to do everything in Life WITH us and FOR us. I say: “Man I’d like to get in on that Deal!” And you can. Jesus Acknowledged and many people testified to His Divinity: He IS The Son of God. He stated: “I AM The Way, The Truth and The Life. No man comes to The Father but by Me. I am The Door and there is no other. Abide in Me. My Peace I Give to you, My Peace I Leave with You. He who endures to the end will be with Me in Paradise.”
And then the NEXT “Generation of the earth and the heavens” will ensue (the third generation), and God and we are going to populate God’s Universe - without the influence of evil this time around - and We’ll Build it out just like God Wants.
Here’s the very simple way to get on the correct side of Life:
State this (preferably to someone but alone is fine. too): “Jesus, I believe You are The Son of God, I believe You Lived on this earth, I believe You died on the cross for the sins of the world, to include mine, and I thank You for Saving me for Eternity to be spent with You.”
After #1, immediately say: “Holy Spirit, I’ve just received Your Son, Jesus, as You well Know, for the Salvation from my sin, have received Him as Lord and Saviour, and now I invite You to Come and Comfort me and Teach me all of the things You Want me to know about Him and You. Thank you.”
Be still and Know. Never doubt again. Live Life to the fullest. I’ll be sharing how to do that without sin in future posts - it’s simple when you know how God Set it up.