Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Of Everything But What Really Matters
7-25-22
Fear. It's everywhere.
Everyone is squawking about some doom and gloom scenario:
DREAD LIST
Common Cold Bioweapon Viruses! Monkeypox! Climate Change! Global Warming! Global Cooling! New World Order! Depopulation! Food Shortages! Starvation! Drought! Violence in the Streets! Murder! Insurrections! Shot Mandates! Shot Deaths! All Shotted will Die Soon! All Unshotted will Die Soon! 5G! Chemtrails! Blood Clots! Concentration Camps! War! Nuclear War! Inflation! Recession! Stagflation! Depression!
Human beings sure love being depressed don't we? We love our doom and gloom, the world is ending stories. We love our fear porn. We love being afraid of everything we have no control over. We love the chaos.
Do you know what we don't love? Being afraid of the one thing we SHOULD be afraid of: the salvation of our souls. Or to put it another way: going to Heaven or hell for all eternity after we die.
Sigh… so Napoleon do you have to bring God into all this again?
Yuppers.
All of the fears in the Dread List above have one main underlying fear in common - the fear of our physical death. Yes, folks, we are all going to die in some manner some day. None of us can escape earthly death, and being constantly fearful of it does absolutely nothing but make our short physical lives not worth living.
But do you know what we should be fearing and also have ABSOLUTE control over?The fear of where we go for all eternity after our physical death here on earth. Somehow I don't see "Going to hell" or "Never seeing Heaven" on that Dread List of fears above. Why is that?
Well, geez Napoleon, everyone knows you just go poof when you die and God and the Devil are just made up, so why would we be afraid of things that don't exist?
If only. That would be the most merciful end for all us narcissistic heathens. Unfortunately, or fortunately, that is not the case. We don't go poof, we continue on, for all eternity.
God gave us this life on earth to live as a means to get to Heaven for all eternity. Why? Who knows, it is not for us to say. God created the universe and all that is in it. He made the crocodiles, He can do whatever he likes.
But being all Good, God also gave us free will, an Instruction Manual, a Teacher, and time here on earth to save our souls. He did not leave us on our own floundering. All of us can get to Heaven and live eternally with God. All of us can also go to hell and live eternally away from God. And unlike the fears in the Dread List above, it is all WITHIN OUR CONTROL.
How wonderful is that! The biggest fear that we should have is the one that we can do EVERYTHING about, and which makes life on this earth worth living. We are living here to get to Heaven and eternal bliss and peace, with no more fears, EVER. That Dread List above should be crossed out, totally. When the world wants to stress on earthly fears, just ignore the world and do something about the ultimate fear of saving your own eternal soul:
HOPE LIST
Believe in God Believe in Jesus as Saviour (the Teacher) Follow the Ten Commandments Practice Charity Practice Love Read the Bible (the Instruction Manual) Attend Church Partake in the Church Sacraments (especially Confession and Eucharist) Renounce sin Repent for your sin Pray, pray, pray
The Hope List of actions above is much shorter than the Dread List of fears isn't it? Additionally, everything in that list is within our control and makes life here worth living. Does the Hope List look like chaos, doom and gloom, or depression? Maybe to Satanists and some atheists or agnostics. But to most people the Hope List of actions is achievable over a lifetime, and in the end the reward is eternal life in Heaven where there are no more fears of any kind. On the contrary, if we do absolutely nothing on the Hope List of actions, and just live by the Dread List of fears, our souls are going to hell, which is the eternal absence of God and the presence of fear forever.
As Jesus said, † “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” † (John 16:33) Although we will always have trouble in this world, we can't live in doom and gloom 24/7/365. That is not living. We are on this earth strictly as a means to move our souls to their eternal destinations.
When I get caught up in the "be afraid, be very afraid" movement, I always go back to what Jesus said to his disciples, in a moment of sheer candidness:
† “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” † (John 14:2)
Heaven is there waiting for us. Jesus said so. He does not lie, EVER. We need to shove aside the Dread List of fears, pick up the Hope List of actions and get ourselves to our eternal dwelling places (I want the one with the big beautiful gardens)!
Yes, the fear mongers are doing a good job keeping the masses in dire straits. Faith in God is the key to happiness and peace and you have laid out the plan nicely.
Hi Napoleon,
An insightful piece - well done ;))
Don't you think it's more a case of the emptiness within and the absence of meaning that drives people to be fascinated by the gory details - a chronic rubber-necking loop - to use a highway carnage metaphor.
This is why people love celebrity gossip and scandal - because the only time their vacuous lives mean something is when the richer, better looking, way more successful god of the screen is brought down to earth with a thump. Then the individual finally feels a sense of equality and their unbearable existence has some meaning.
It's a malevolent psychopathology.
A wholesale mental illness.
Not sure if prayer will help such individuals. And I'm not knocking prayer my brother.
In Judaism, there's a teaching that God helps those who help themselves - this comes out in the story of Purim.
A substantial part of society does not want to help itself anymore.
It wants rules, government handouts, freebies, endless direction.
Hard work is simply unbearable.
Struggle is for peasants.
Consuming horseshit online about other people's lives is the biz.
I'm all sympathied out for lazy moaning people.