Dear People Whom God Loves:
Deep within us humans is the need for meaning and purpose in our lives. I believe that at some level we, more or less consciously, ask if there is any meaning to life. That is the blessing—some might say the curse—of being a human being.
We can search for meaning in ways which most people would see as bad. For example—making greed, lust, or power the center of our lives. I am not going to write about that. I am going to write about things which I see as good and which do give meaning to our lives. The problem is that they may become our ultimate meaning and thus become an ideology. That is, they don’t touch the deepest part of us. When they become the total picture to us, we easily become a part of an elite circle and lose compassion for those outside our circle. That lack of compassion can take the form of not caring for those outside of our circle or the feeling that we are superior.
I want to make it clear that this doesn’t have to happen, but there is a strong tendency to fall into it. That is why it is essential that we remain open and listen to those who are not like us. We must remember that we all share a basic humanity and that that humanity is basic for our most fundamental respect. All other respect is secondary.
I will be writing about the following: Science
Cult of Culture (e.g. art, music)
Nationalism
Religion
I see that all of these good things have the danger of being substitutes for God.
Smile, God Loves You,
Father Clay
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