Did you welcome the sunrise this morning with a sigh of relief…or a shrug of indifference?
The rapture did not come to pass yesterday as some had predicted. Whew! For most of us this means that life can go on as usual…as expected. Not so for some ardent believers in the impending apocalypse who prepared for it by divesting themselves of their life’s savings, who sold or gave away everything they owned, and spent their last days in prayer and reparation. The rest of us may scoff at them…some may pity them…but just think of it. Imagine living according to a passionate faith and committing your life to it. This would beat a sure path to eternal salvation…if only we could be sure of it. If only we could be correct about it. If only we could see into the future.
In fact, there is something to be said for blind faith. Some days this is the only thing that keeps us going…faith in our efforts, faith in our abilities, faith in our eventual success however we define it. Otherwise, why would we sit down at the keyboard every day with nothing but our thoughts for company? Without it, how would we survive rejection...after rejection…after rejection? Where would we find the strength and resilience and resolve to go on? What would stoke our hope that, in fact, the world is not coming to an end?
There are some who would welcome the end…the end of suffering, of pain, of hunger, of grief. There are some who would welcome the promises of heaven…comfort, joy, peace, and love. The rest of us simply welcome the sunrise and the hopes and promises that each day holds knowing that it could all end in a heartbeat.
In the meantime, we are called to be passionate about life…and about writing…and to commit ourselves to it with blind faith.
Did you sigh or shrug today?
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“In the realist, faith is not born from miracles,
but miracles from faith.”
--Fyodor Dostoevsky--
jan
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I think this whole rapture thing was less to do with people's faith in God, and more about their faith in the chap who claimed to know all the answers. Would God really entrust the revelation of the end to a self-important loud mouth? If he had I think that really would have
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@mooderino
Couldn't agree with you more. Still most of us have those moments when we're absolutely certain about something that couldn't be farther from the truth.
ReplyDeleteI love the sunrise of a new day, and yet, I think when "that" day comes it will be brighter than the sun rise of any regular day, and more beautiful. I am happy to live a life of faith in the muddle of the regular world, and for the sake of friends and family who don't believe in anything, I am relieved that they have another day to know the Lord. We never know the day or the hour, and yet, we are called to live passionately, faithfully, and in the circumstances that surround us.
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