Have you ever thought seriously about why you are here on this earth? Was it just by chance? Is it meaningless? Supposing that having thought carefully about these questions you come to the conclusion that yes, I am here for a purpose then what is it? Is it to be a success at some job as a Politician, Banker or Business man? Is it to live in some ideal mansion with swimming pool and three cars in the garage and a big fat bank account? Is it to have the ideal family of two kids and an amazing wife or husband? These are very serious questions. One day sooner or later we will die quite unexpectedly in some instances and sometimes after a long terminal illness. We will then be forced to leave every red cent behind. Nothing material goes with us.
I once heard someone say that we are all old as any one of us could die at any time. So this question is not just for a seventy year old like me who could kick the bucket any day. This question is fore everybody and especially for you dear reader whoever you are.
In my job as a lay Roman Catholic Missionary, I meet scores of different people every day. Old and Young and Middle aged. I ask them the same question. "Do you believe in Jesus?" Or "Do you believe in God?" Or if those fail. "Do you believe in Love?" A few with a smile reply, "Oh yes I do!" A few say that they definitely do not and for the most part, the majority, seem to care little one way or another.
How about you? What of those categories do you fall into?
The problem with most people they do not have time and they do not take time to reflect and think. We are all so busy competing in the rat race and trying to be a success that time speeds by and before you know what has happened you are being carted off to the grave yard.
We used to play a very meaningful skit. It was about a fictitious character Mr Norm L Sucker. (Normal Sucker)
First he is a baby.
Then he is a young school boy.
Next he is graduating from the university
Then he is working hard every day in a job.
Next come marriage.
Then children
Then retirement
And then inevitable death.
This typical Norm L sucker never had time nor took the time to wonder about the reason for his existence.
The purpose of this short blog is to do the same as the skit. It is to wake us up from our Norm life and ask instead. "Why am I here?" Where am I going? Where did I come from?
In my seventy years of experience and in consulting with and hearing and reading from the words of many others, I have found out that we are "Wired for God". We have been so constructed that we will never find true happiness until we find and make contact with our Maker. Our Maker has also put in each of us not only a desire to organize and make a so called success for our lives but also more importantly a desire to know and find out the TRUTH.
We live in a four dimensional, linear world and we tend to believe in everything we can see and dissect and discover by science. But consider the following. When one gazes into the sky through a telescope or even on a clear night, the sight is just amazing and breathtaking. The sheer enormity of what one sees and the limitless distances are unfathomable by the human mind.
Or when you look at all the nerves and veins and arteries in any animal or human being, once again the sight is awesome. Far more complex than a sophisticated modern computer.
Even the fact that seeds of various plants look alike but each one is specially coded to produce a flower or a tree or a bush and then those categories are subdivided into thousands of different species and yet the ingredients to make a beautiful rose or a cactus or an Oak tree all come from the earth. Yes, brown, black, dirt. Think about it for a moment! Just reflect for a few seconds! It all depends on an extremely complex micro code embodied in a tiny seed.
Then think about yourself for the moment. Do you realize that you are the only you in the world. There has never been nor will there ever be a replica of you. Think of all the billions of people who have already inhabited this earth and will do so in the future. None will be a copy of you. You are the only you in the universe. Cars come off an assembly line and yes they are the same. They are pretty identical. Not so with animals and vegetation and especially not with humans.
Soon we will celebrate Christmas. The birthday of the Christ child.
2000 years ago there was a subversive action by God to slip in his own offspring and his program behind the enemy lines of the World and all its vainglory.
Caesar was on his throne flexing his muscles by imposing a censor and tax on the whole of his empire. Very impressive. The daily news papers were full of it and if there had been television it would have been the main headline story. Any Historian or Correspondent writing about those times would have surely missed where the real action was taking place.
On a lonely Judean hillside in a cave frequented by domestic animals an earth shaking event was slowly and marvelously unfolding. The only onlookers apart from the traditional cows and donkey and sheep were some shepherds that had seen a vision of Angels proclaiming the news of this undercover birth.
Soon they joined Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus bringing their simple Christmas gifts for the young child. 30 years later for 42 months approximately a young itinerant rabbi or teacher was astounding the onlookers of this small occupied country with his radical teachings on love and performing amazing miracles of healing and multiplying bread, fish and wine, defying the natural laws of Physics.
Not fulfilling the desires of the ruling classes in becoming their military champion, those same decided to put him to a most cruel barbarous and brutal death. 3 day later he rose alive and the world has never been the same since.
If you want to, and only if you really want to, you too can experience and find this risen Jesus whose birthday it will soon be. All you have to do is just desire and want this and it will be yours for the asking.
I found Jesus on a railway train traveling to work 44 years ago simply because I wanted to find out the answers to those questions listed above. Once I allowed the vacuum to form in my thoughts and in a simple prayer, then God filled it with Jesus through a very simple verse of Scripture from the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, Chapter 3 verse 20. "Behold I stand at the door (Jesus speaking) and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him and he with Me."
Now more recently I have discovered his mystical and well established Roman Catholic Church. I have found my way Home and yes, I am very happy. There is still so much more to discover as I continue to dig deep into this TRUTH. BECAUSE every day with Jesus is better than the day before. As the good old evangelical song so rightly tells us.
A very Happy and Meaningful Christmas to you all.
Vagabondfaith.
Michael King
Loading comments....
