Hey, What's Behind that Door Over There?

How curious are you?  Curiosity killed the cat, of course.  Too bad for that cat. 

Albert Einstein said, "Curiosity has its own reason for existing."  He also said, "Never lose a holy curiosity."  Maybe that cat had an unholy couriosity.  Who knows.

Walt Disney said this: "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."  Maybe that cat went down the wrong path.  You think?

According to Graham Swift, "People die when curiosity goes."  So maybe that's it, huh...cats and people are different.  That cat was done in by curiosity; I will be done in when I am no longer curious.

Hey, what's behind that door over there?
Are you curious?
What would it take for you to open that door and walk through it?

It sorta looks like there is a big cliff-type drop-off behind that door, doesn't it?  Sorta looks like that door might be sitting on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

Everything you know up to now is on this side of that door.  On the other side, you could find more things to know than are knowable now.  You may not even understand many of the things beyond that door.  (Not that you've understood all that many things on this side!)

Its relatively safe on this side of that door.  I mean, you are alive up til now, right?  Mostly unscathed.  On the other side of that door, well, don't forget about that cat.

Everyone you know, every relationship you enjoy, is on this side of that door.  If you open it up and walk through, it just might close behind you and you would have to start all over in the love and relationship areas.  You might do worse on the other side than you have done on this side.  Or better.  No guarantees.

Your religious faith in God is pretty much solid on this side of that door over there.  You have questions and doubts, of course, but when push-comes-to-shove you pretty much have it together in the Almighty department.  If you understand God thru Jesus, or thru the Tao Te Ching, or thru Buddha, or thru Muhammad, or thru the Bhagavad-Gita...or in some other way...on this side, its all pretty clear.  To you, at least.  And that's the only person it needs to matter to, right?  On the other side of that door, if you dare open it up and walk thru, the faith-view you hold now could be stood on its head.  Truth on this side could be falsehood on the other side.  Or not.  Nothing is for sure, is it?

Well, how curious are you?  You're not a cat, you know.  And probably its true that people die when curiosity goes.

Belief vs. Behavior

I believe in the reality of gravity.  And I behave accordingly.  I do not jump off tall buildings.  Or even short ones.

I also believe that when dinner is cooking on the stove that touching the cooking surface would be incredibly stupid, and painful.  And so, I behave accordingly.  I do not touch the stove top when it is in use.

What I believe, however, others may not.  Probably not in the case of gravity, or in the case of hot stove-top surfaces.  But probably in the area of religious faith...even just specifically in the case of the Christian faith...what I believe, others may not.  Probably there are many who do not.  I can, for example, produce Biblical material to support my particular set of beliefs.  Others have Biblical material to support their particular set of beliefs.  And our beliefs will be at odds with each other! 

Like FB friend, Mark Sandlin says, "The Bible is wrong.  Lots of times.  The Bible is right.  Lots of times."  Bingo, Mark.  Bingo.

Truth is that there are bunches of folks who have never heard of my beliefs, my God, or my Jesus.

And yet, most religious folks...heck, most folks in general...want to do the right thing quite often.  They want to treat people well.  They try to do no harm, and do all the good they can.  Really.

Good behavior is not complicated.  It may not always be easy, but its not complicated.  And you know it when you see it.  And you know it when you do it.  And me, too.

"What you do makes a difference, you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make," writes Jane Goodall.  What I DO.  Doesn't matter much what I do or do not believe...but what I DO (and that could be based on a set of beliefs I hold) matters much.

John Steinbeck wrote, "The object of love is the best and most beautiful.  Try to live up to it."  It suggests to me that how I love, how I act, how I behave will make me the better person I wish to become...belief may be important, but in this case it is beside the point. 

No Way Out...Not Anytime Soon

A Face Book friend (and a member of the very first church I served) reminded me recently that I had once described Hell as a big bowl of cold oatmeal.  Yeah, I really did that.  When she reminded me of it, I could actually recall having written that into a sermon. 

I do not remember any other details of that sermon...and like many I have written and preached over nearly 40 years, there is no reason why it should have been memorable over a great period of time.  I think what I was trying to express in that very old sermon was the thought that if someone were to imagine themselves in an eternally nasty place (like Hell) it would be like imagining someone being suspended in a really big bowl of cold oatmeal.  Yuck.  No up or down; no forward or back; no gravity; no light; no way to get a grip on something substantial and lift yourself out of the mess.  No way out...not anytime soon.  Not ever.

I have not been a believer in a traditional notion of Hell...as a place God would send folks to be punished in a fiery pit...for a very long time.  But that disagreement I have with what many consider to be a staple of faith is not the point, here.  What is the point here is the feeling that folks have from time-to-time, or maybe even too-much-of-the-time, that they are trapped in something...some job, some relationship, some circumstance, some illness, some state of mind...from which they believe there is no way out...not anytime soon.

That is a terrible feeling.  Its Hell.  And I am not qualified to offer counseling or direction to someone caught long-term in that no way out...not anytime soon bowl of cold oatmeal situation.  I do hope that persons who find themselves in that place have friends who will rally round them, and some form of hopeful faith to encourage them, and can avail themselves of professionals who can help with counseling and perhaps medications.

I hope I said in that old sermon that because being in a place like a bowl of cold oatmeal would be Hell, it would not be a good and loving God who would have put us there...and that the faith we share should be, for goodness sake, one of hope, and light, and beauty, and grace, and compassion for ourselves and others who find themselves in bowl-of-cold-oatmeal Hells.

Maybe the following picture offers a bit of hope in that regard...a little light off in the distance as we make our way through an otherwise stormy-and-not-so-bright situation.

 “The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death."   -Osho

 

“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.”
   -Carlos Castaneda

 

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.”
  -Frederick Buechner

 

A hellish bowl of cold oatmeal is no place to spend much time, if any.  I wish you better in this life.

 

 

Fearless

Today would have been Rosa Parks' 100th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Rosa, you done us proud.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa wouldn't move to the back of the bus.  Literally.  This act of defiance in the face of injustice and racism had been done before...three others that history records, all women, had done before what Rosa did in Montgomery, Alabama. And Rosa was the one that the NAACP thought could best endure a legal battle that would be the result of this act of civil disobedience.

You can Google her name and read all about Rosa Parks and the difference she made in this country.

When I think back on her, I think of a woman who was fearless.

And so, in honor and remembrance of this woman, here are some thoughts about "fearless."

"You never make the 'great' at anything by playing it safe." A line spoken by Jonathon Winters, playing the character Fats Brown, in "A Game of Pool" on The Twilight Zone TV show.

"If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls."  From Maya Angelou.

"Courage is the best defense you have now."  Gandolf, in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

"We wouldn't do much if we didn't do things that nobody ever heard of before." Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Long Winter.

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we might win, by fearing to attempt."  The Bard, Shakespeare.

Happy Birthday, Rosa Parks!