Mind Boggling
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Is there a God? I cannot prove it but my gut tells me that He is there. The gut feeling comes from my experience of the truth of the principles taught in the many religions and traditions I know of.
I don’t think that you have to be religious to believe in God. Too much religion is what religious fanatics suffer from. Too much religion has caused serious damage in the world. Look at the atrocities that have been committed in the name of religion. You do not have to go to church or practice any rituals. But you do need to explore and try to find out about God, who He is and what His purpose in creating you was. If you don’t have that gut feeling and instead choose to believe there is no God, do not accept unanswered questions in your life. Pluck up the courage to find out what your life is all about before it’s too late. In any case, God is simply the person responsible for creation and God doesn’t have a religion. He is the God of us all.
Those who believe in God and profess a religion do not necessarily follow the teachings of their religion to the letter. Many a time the commandments are bent or broken in the pursuit of our human urges. Even the great religious leaders in the Bible had big skeletons in their closets. I think religion is a personal matter. It is your choice whether or not to believe in God. It is however your obligation to find out where you came from and what your purpose is. The point is to live a meaningful life. I do not agree with King Solomon’s argument in the book of Ecclesiastes that everything in life is in vain. To me, everything in life has a valuable lesson to be learned. Those lessons will affect how you think and act and will change your life for good.
So now that I had chosen to believe in God, I could consider having Jesus as my mentor but after considering that option, I decided against it. In any case, Jesus is supposed to be God in the flesh. If God really was there and knew the answer to my question, He would lead me to it. I felt energized, like I was making a fresh start. Whereas previously I was traveling alone, I had now recruited a guide who was familiar with the terrain and knew how to get to where I was going. Great!
The first revelation I experienced on the journey amazed me. There are two types of things in the world. Things that can be acquired with money and things that money can never buy. Most of us have a clear understanding about the former. You can have that car, house, designer dress, holiday etc. when you make enough money to get it. The amazing difference between these two groups of things is that whereas not everyone can acquire the things that money can buy, EVERYONE can acquire the things that money CANNOT buy. Laughter can never be bought and it exists among the dirt poor and the filthy rich. Same applies to love, friendship, trust, good health, children and oh yes, life, and the like. Even the poor are alive and they have friends and spouses who they trust. Inspite of their unhygienic living conditions, they are healthy enough to create enough cheap labour to attract investors to the third world countries. For some reason, they tend to have more children than those who are monied.
The question here is this. Why do we choose to pursue the things that money can buy instead of those that money cannot buy when the former requires us to have money while the latter do not? Which group of things is more important to you: laughter, friendship, family, trust, good health, children OR television, video games, clothes, houses, cars, shoes and the like?
I love laughing. I can laugh a whole house down. Tell me a rib cracking joke and you are in trouble. A good comedy like ‘Wedding Crashers’ can kill me with laughter and leave me feeling like I have the world on my finger tips. So why do I not pursue laughter in my life? I enjoy spending time with my friends and family. That time almost always involves laughter, even when we are in hospital and one of us is injured or unwell. There was a time that I would join my family and friends at least once a month for dinner and every time I would laugh my lungs out. When I started my own law firm, all that came to a grinding halt. I chose to pursue the money making venture rather than the laughter making venture.
Do I make time for my family and friends now? Not as much as I should. Am too busy making money. Hey, am a lawyer!!
I felt stupid. Not so much because I was not pursuing the things that I loved and knew I could afford since they did not need money, but because I realized that the pursuit of the things that money can never buy generates money.
By Njeri Mucheru-Oyatta
Is there a God? I cannot prove it but my gut tells me that He is there. The gut feeling comes from my experience of the truth of the principles taught in the many religions and traditions I know of.
I don’t think that you have to be religious to believe in God. Too much religion is what religious fanatics suffer from. Too much religion has caused serious damage in the world. Look at the atrocities that have been committed in the name of religion. You do not have to go to church or practice any rituals. But you do need to explore and try to find out about God, who He is and what His purpose in creating you was. If you don’t have that gut feeling and instead choose to believe there is no God, do not accept unanswered questions in your life. Pluck up the courage to find out what your life is all about before it’s too late. In any case, God is simply the person responsible for creation and God doesn’t have a religion. He is the God of us all.
Those who believe in God and profess a religion do not necessarily follow the teachings of their religion to the letter. Many a time the commandments are bent or broken in the pursuit of our human urges. Even the great religious leaders in the Bible had big skeletons in their closets. I think religion is a personal matter. It is your choice whether or not to believe in God. It is however your obligation to find out where you came from and what your purpose is. The point is to live a meaningful life. I do not agree with King Solomon’s argument in the book of Ecclesiastes that everything in life is in vain. To me, everything in life has a valuable lesson to be learned. Those lessons will affect how you think and act and will change your life for good.
So now that I had chosen to believe in God, I could consider having Jesus as my mentor but after considering that option, I decided against it. In any case, Jesus is supposed to be God in the flesh. If God really was there and knew the answer to my question, He would lead me to it. I felt energized, like I was making a fresh start. Whereas previously I was traveling alone, I had now recruited a guide who was familiar with the terrain and knew how to get to where I was going. Great!
The first revelation I experienced on the journey amazed me. There are two types of things in the world. Things that can be acquired with money and things that money can never buy. Most of us have a clear understanding about the former. You can have that car, house, designer dress, holiday etc. when you make enough money to get it. The amazing difference between these two groups of things is that whereas not everyone can acquire the things that money can buy, EVERYONE can acquire the things that money CANNOT buy. Laughter can never be bought and it exists among the dirt poor and the filthy rich. Same applies to love, friendship, trust, good health, children and oh yes, life, and the like. Even the poor are alive and they have friends and spouses who they trust. Inspite of their unhygienic living conditions, they are healthy enough to create enough cheap labour to attract investors to the third world countries. For some reason, they tend to have more children than those who are monied.
The question here is this. Why do we choose to pursue the things that money can buy instead of those that money cannot buy when the former requires us to have money while the latter do not? Which group of things is more important to you: laughter, friendship, family, trust, good health, children OR television, video games, clothes, houses, cars, shoes and the like?
I love laughing. I can laugh a whole house down. Tell me a rib cracking joke and you are in trouble. A good comedy like ‘Wedding Crashers’ can kill me with laughter and leave me feeling like I have the world on my finger tips. So why do I not pursue laughter in my life? I enjoy spending time with my friends and family. That time almost always involves laughter, even when we are in hospital and one of us is injured or unwell. There was a time that I would join my family and friends at least once a month for dinner and every time I would laugh my lungs out. When I started my own law firm, all that came to a grinding halt. I chose to pursue the money making venture rather than the laughter making venture.
Do I make time for my family and friends now? Not as much as I should. Am too busy making money. Hey, am a lawyer!!
I felt stupid. Not so much because I was not pursuing the things that I loved and knew I could afford since they did not need money, but because I realized that the pursuit of the things that money can never buy generates money.
2 comments:
I love your blog and totally agree with you on religion and laughter.
Religion
Isn't it amazing how each religion claims to be the 'right' religion while in all religious texts, and even in our hearts God tells us that He loves us all?
Laughter
I stopped laughing too, at one point and regretted it so much I had to find it again.
Keep writing... and remember to laugh
Laughter is a difficult thing to remember to pursue. Yet, once we pursue it, our lives are so fulfilling. How do you keep laughing?
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