Getting Away

Vacation is a time to get away, to escape from the daily grind, and the repetitive rhythm and sounds of existence.  For many who live in the crowded city, a place that sees hardly any cars and hears no traffic noises and sirens, that has no blinking lights and bright billboards, a place that allows stars to glitter at night, is a place to set aside all concerns, to relax and reconstitute the very being that one is, whose very carnal existence is fragile, temporary and ordinary.

Against the vast backdrop of Mother Nature and the universe above, nobody can claim to be special.  The human race is but a speck of dust in the course of eternity.  Man's mere existence is mundane, no matter how highly one thinks of himself or others think of him.  It is without significance or meaning.  A mere human life whose soul is not connected to the Creator is destined for nothing.  As such, man's biological process is merely part of an evolution which at some point, measured in light-years and distance, would be ancient history that is totally devoid of relevance to the then-present, in the same way as the extinction of certain creatures in the now-past whose once-upon-a-time existence we do not know of has no place in our consciousness.

However, man is not merely an assembly of cells that form and die in the course of time.  Every human has a soul that is connected to the Creator.  The incarnation of the soul is a gift and along with that gift of life is Free Will.  With the gift of Free Will, man has the choice to deny the existence of a Creator, and thus deny the existence of God.

Yet, many who do not believe in God, or hypocrites who claim they do, especially the secularists who have or have had power in this world, are the ones desperately clinging to this life they know, trying to write into history a legacy of their accomplishments.  They want the future to know about them and their contributions to the betterment of society.  These are people who thrive on the throne of power, not people of humility, and not poor in spirit. [1]

However intelligent, articulate, egoistic, proud, ruthless, devious and cunning some of those in power are, had been gifted with a soul that belongs to God.  Many have sold their souls to the Devil to realize their raw, insatiable ambition for recognition and power in this world at the expense of the public and the Truth.  Do not be deceived -- no power-hungry leader asking for your vote has any plans to serve you -- all of them are in it for themselves for selfish reasons.  Do not expect any of them to be like Christ, who came not to be served but to serve [2].  No politician has plans to die for you; instead, they expect you to die for them and if not for them personally, then for their own glory.

Not many leaders in power hold their offices for the glory of God; they are in it to glorify themselves.  They will last for as long as the lights are shining on them.  When they are switched off or turned away to light up another public figure, they are left in the dark, in the shadows belonging to the shades from the underworld.  The darkness haunts them, and they are forever trying to get an audience, begging for remnants of recognition.  Until their deaths, they are continually trying to secure a place in history, oblivious to the fact that time, whose existence is eternal, is forgetful of the past as it continuously looks ahead to the infinite future.  Only earthlings, those with no future and no hope for a Christ-filled tomorrow looks back at and yearns for the past.  Anyone who looks to the past to secure his or her future and find fulfillment in it is, in my opinion, already dead spiritually and not on the way to Heaven, to an eternal life in God.

At this point, this blogger will  be challenged immediately with this question:  You quote often from the Bible and speak of the crucifixion, are you not looking back at the past and therefore you have no future and no hope for a Christ-filled tomorrow?

Indeed, this blogger quotes often the words of Christ, but those are not words or lessons of the past -- they are words and lessons of the present that lead all to a future in Christ.

Admittedly, the crucifixion of Christ was an event that took place in the past, but the crucifixion of Christ is not so much about a death of a man, but about the triumph over the death of man by the Son of God that leads man to eternal life.  Hardly, therefore, is the crucifixion of Christ a historical event that is imbedded forever in the past to be forgotten, but is rather a present and continuing force of goodness that leads the souls of believers through the gates of Heaven toward God after death.

And when this blogger relies on the past, quoting articles and books written and published, he always strives to lift their meanings from a static place in time to give it relevance to the present, to give whoever cares to read his ramblings a Christ-filled life in the now, and eventually toward a Christ-filled eternity.

Before entering a Christ-filled eternity after death, one is able experience Christ-filled moments during life.  A Christ-filled moment is a gift by Christ of His peace.  The moment of peace [3] is complete fulfillment that one hope to have for an eternity.  To capture such a moment of peace sometimes requires one to get away, from the routines of daily cares and worries, to stand alone at a place of peace [4] in silence under distant planets and constellations, stripped of pretensions and totally vulnerable, to experience one's own insignificance in order to clothe oneself in humility before God, the Creator, to glorify the magnificence of all creation, to express with sincerity one's gratitude to be a part of God's creation and be given the gift of incarnation, and to pray with love that one would one day be united with God for all eternity.


[1] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+5%3A3&version=NIV
[2] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+20%3A28&version=NIV
[3] The moment of peace is also the name of the link to this blog, Le Moment de Paix.
[4] Place of peace is also the name of this blog, Place de la Paix.