eightyseven

THOUGHTFULLY DRIVING THE PORCELAIN BUS

A Column by John S Schroeder

July 31. 2004

I did my best to avoid the Democratic National Convention this past week, but some things could not be avoided. Take for example Ron Reagan's appeal concerning stem cell research. If you read the transcript, you will struck by how, at times, it sounds like a speech by some bad B-movie mad scientist set on taking over the world. At times it was just silly, much like you laugh at the mad scientist in the movie, I wanted to laugh at Reagan, Jr. The big lesson from everyone of those old movies is always, just because you can do something, no matter how beneficial it may seem, does not mean you should do it. This lesson was true in Mary Shelley's prototype and it has been true in every such story since.

I could write a lot about stem cell research, but that is not the topic I really want to address this date. Rather, I want to address the silliness of the whole thing. There did not seem to be a serious soul at the DNC. Oh, they tried to dress it up as serious, but then the star went through the litany of nutcase theories concerning the current administration and all appearance of seriousness disappeared.

How have we come to find ourselves in such a state? Where have we gone wrong that such a significant portion of the American populace can be so out-in-left-field? These people simply do not get it. Their priorities are so misaligned, their understanding of the world is so askew, that I am not sure the situation can be repaired.

I blame much of this state of affairs on how successful we are as a nation. People in this country now routinely go through life without ever being concerned about basic material needs. Hell, people in this country now go through life bathed in luxury. When you do not have to worry about food, clothing and shelter, it is pretty easy to get your priorities confused. The real priorities just are not a concern anymore, so you are going to replace them with something, often sex, but many times things sillier.

Then I had what I think is a spiritual insight. We all know that, "The wages of sin is death." We know it, but a lot of people are unhappy about it. Many people want to believe in a loving and forgiving God. How could a loving and forgiving God condemn us to death because of a little thing like sin?

Well, maybe, just maybe, death is not such a condemnation. We also know that if we are saved in Jesus we have eternal life, that death is only a transition. Thus under the right circumstances, death is not a condemnation at all. Remember Paul's letter to the Philippians, "For me to live is Christ, but death gain." But why did God have to introduce such a painful thing then?

And here now is my insight -- death is an effort to try and keep us focused. God introduced a transition into our lives, a transition that looked so horrifying and scary because it would keep us focused. Knowing that death is out there somewhere helps us to order our priorities. It should keep us from getting too silly. In the end, it should make us turn to God.

So many people; however, live in denial, they refuse to face that death is out there, so the priorities remain just as messed up. This is why Reagan Jr.'s speech was particularly silly. He was fighting death so hard, and he was fighting it at such a horrendous cost, that it was obvious he had lost all sense of propriety. One can forgive him given the tragedy his family has just concluded, but we cannot let our compassion take us down an ill-advised path.

Death is not the enemy -- it is just the fence. Death is meant to hold us in a safe and well place. Death should keep us focused on God. When we start to view death as the enemy and start to fight it, we lose our way. When we defeat death, which we do to some extent nearly every day, we risk moving ourselves farther from the source of life.

I do not advocate embracing death in some sort of bizarre necro-cult. I just think we need to keep things in perspective. Focus on God. Count on Him to take you through the transition. Do these things and most other things will fall into the proper perspective.

With Love,