Updated December 29, 2009
 www.lovecounts.net

A national pastime, perhaps even a worldwide pastime, is our human tendency to beat up on ourselves. We drink coffee, smoke, have a cocktail, don't exercise, don't eat well, we're too fat, too thin, not smart enough, always late… the list goes on and on and on. I happen to know about these things because I have spent the better part of my life giving myself a bad time for all of them (except the thin part - haven't had to worry about that one).

Our religions, for the most part, have not only bought into this mentality but have sponsored it. Take every no-no of every religion around the world and the list would most likely count in the thousands. As if we don't manufacture enough to feel guilty about all by ourselves.

So why do we do it? Why do we keep striving for this perfect being (whatever that is) when we fall so short? It is an irony of life that as individuals we recognize that we are not perfect. And yet, as a society, we expect perfection - nothing less will do. So what else can we expect except to have an obsession with being perfect?

Getting back to religions, I have a major gripe. How is it that the people behind these institutions got so caught up in form rather than substance? Do they honestly believe that the great God of the universe gives a fiddler's damn if you drink coffee, have your head covered to pray, wear one suspender or two? I don't think so. And I have evidence to prove it.

In virtually every account of near-death experiences the person talks about being able to see their life flash before them. Nowhere in the review was any mention of food or drink or clothes. No, the focus was on their interaction with other people. The measuring stick for how well they had lived their life was solely about how well they had given love, or not. It was about substance, not form.

So, am I suggesting that as long as you are a loving, kind person you don't have to make any effort at all to do anything?

Yes, and no.

The yes part is that God does not care if I drink coffee or smoke or don't exercise or eat right. I have seen enough evidence of this in my own life and others to know this is true. He does care when I do not love. I know that because I get this glitch in the pit of my stomach when I am less then loving.

The no part is that God set natural laws of cause and effect in motion.   For every action there is a reaction; what you reap, you sow. That just means that if I smoke, or drink too much coffee, or don't eat right that I have to live with the consequences. But these are all things in the physical world and the consequences remain in the physical world.

It is only love or the lack of it that goes forward with our soul into eternity.

November/1999