God

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a crib, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away. I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her: “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said: “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?” In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said okay.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’ Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it…. no one will know you did. But if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Dare to be different

Deep inside our hearts, buried somewhere in the center of our minds are the ideals and the philosophies with which we walk the corners of our lives. We are people of habit, only subject to change when we feel threatened or something we desire desperately requires our change. Often we are forced to think of different possible outcomes of our actions and sometimes we pledge our so called undying vows not to succumb to the usual pattern associated with human behavior as if we were capable of achieving it on our own. Time and time again we do the very things we pledge to not do. We fail ourselves first with our broken pledges and then fail others by actually doing it. We are humans; our nature is naturally flawed, and even though we are birthed innocent, we are flawed and worse, we live in a world that literally contaminates us. We have people breathing down our necks with their beliefs and convictions. Slowly but continuously, we are being contaminated and our values are gradually dissolving in this vast ocean of worldliness. Whatever happened to our beliefs and our constant need to be better? In a time like this, our lives see more hate than good. We are consumed from all corners by greed and selfishness, even love has become just a word we use to derive our earthly, temporal pleasures. We feign everything and secretly hate each other. Life use to be black and white but I get the feeling it's more like black and blue with a little grey area.

Perfection is what we aim for. But what does perfection look like? What portrait does our mental hands paint for us when it comes to perfection. Is our vision blurred with clouds of smoke or are we like smoke when the embers have died. Who are we and what are we striving to become? Are we following the worldly order of things? Why does everything have to be the way the world says it should be? Why can't we be the needle in the haystack, or why can't we be the black sheep in all the many constants. It's a beautiful life filled with natural thrills and moments of bliss and the perfection we seek comes from the source of our existence. Perfection eludes us because we've estranged ourselves from the source and now we are sitting ducks bombarded with the fast moving ideals and philosophies of the world which mentally corrupts ours. Sooner or later, we die from all the loneliness in our hearts because our selfish nature never allowed us to connect on a vulnerable level.






We all have a blind spot. It's in the human nature to have a blind spot. A particular spot which we cover and present better than we do other spots. We bear not the secrets out because it changes how people see us. We have become people of the masses and our approval addiction rate is climbing faster than a rocket. Why is it important that others see us better than we see ourselves? How do we see ourselves?






To be continued....

Shooting Star.

Last night, I found myself locked out of my apartment building which wasn't much of a surprise. It's almost winter and they say it's cold. I, on the other hand, don't feel anything; I haven't changed my summer wardrobe. I'm still me and maybe that might change in a couple of weeks but well....... As I stood there waiting for someone to be kind enough to swing those black iron doors open, my gaze turned to the night sky which was studded with constellations and smudged here and there with white cotton ball clouds. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Gazing upon such beauty, my mind drifted and finally settled on sweet thoughts of a certain special someone whose name I'll not mention. Sweet words were just pouring from everywhere. It was if all the words were carefully orchestrated to hit me in that pattern. It was simply lovely and I smiled. I had totally forgotten that I was locked out of that building and unless by a miracle or SOS signal, I may sleep outside for a change. This is what happens when you don't have a phone and you get locked out your apartment building, have unfriendly neighbors and worse yet, don't speak Arabic. That didn't seem to matter much considering my current thought process. I muttered the words like a young boy professing his love in gleeful anticipation of a positive response. And at each word my nimble mind created a mental picture of her smile as the words left my lips. My mouth kept whispering the words and then the most amazing thing happened. A shooting star! Goodness me, a shooting star?! I was shocked out the sweet words, and just for that second, I thought about nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. I've always wanted to witness a shooting star and last night I saw one. Ooh, the shivers that run down my spine and the excitement that made me feel like a hopeful romantic. This young man, however, didn't make a wish. Truth is, I couldn't think of anything to wish for. It was like my mind went blank, like a vast space of nothingness. I searched in that second trying to pull a thought but nothing.