Afterlife

This past weekend, I was having a cup of coffee at a local Starbucks and reading "Many Lives, Many Masters" by Dr. Brian Weiss. There was a young couple sitting next to me and the lady inquired as to what I was reading. This led to a conversation about the after-life, reincarnation, and the fear of dying. The lady, who is Jewish, had read the book but wasn't too convinced in its main premise - we are eternal souls, protected and guided by "masters" and guardian angels, and reincarnation in the flesh is a way to purge our mistakes and elevate our soul. She admitted having flashbacks about certain experiences that she had never lived, or so she thought. She also knew some friends who had psychic abilities of "seeing or feeling things," but didn't want to understand them.

I really wanted to be left alone reading my book and enjoying my morning coffee. I didn't want to engage her in religious arguments, particularly the after-life. It is a topic that many avoid because of their fear of dying. So many people go to extremes to avoid death: desperately acquiring material possessions that in essence can't take with them, obsessions with their bodies and beauty (plastic surgery), constantly trying to beat Father Time, etc. They worried so much about death that forget how to live.

She kept giving me her views about everything from the environment to Obama. She believed that our birth was sort of like an accident and everything that happened to us was "luck." I asked her how then we pay our debts. For instance, if I decided to kill her at that point (the thought crossed my mind because she would not allow me to finish the coffee and book), how would I pay that debt......she had no answer.

I then asked her if she believed that God created and loved us equally. She agreed with this premise so I posed the following argument. She and I were given a chance to live in this great nation with all the technological advances, opportunities, and comfort never experienced by many throughout the world. We were sitting there on a Saturday morning enjoying a cup coffee, texting our friends, or reading the internet in a small portable device.....what a country! At the same time, somewhere in the middle of the Amazon jungle, there was this poor Indian wearing just a loin cloth, barefoot, illiterate, had no clue about the internet or who won the last American Idol (neither do I because I refuse to follow pop culture), chasing a wild pig with a bow and arrow so he could kill it and take it back to his family so they could have breakfast, lunch, and dinner the same day because they couldn't keep the leftovers in the fridge.

Was God playing favorites in allowing me to be born and live in the United States while at the same time "punishing" Mr. Bow and Arrow with a very short life of hardship and danger? Why was I born with both arms and legs while others don't have any? Why do some babies die at birth and aren't given a chance to enjoy life and at some point a wonderful latte at Starbucks?

Does God play favorites with some and punish others?

Stay tuned and in the next blog I will explain what I believe.

I have to go now with my "bow and arrow" and earn a living. I hope I am chasing a slow pig so I don't have to run that much.