So any of you who know me know that I’m a guy who takes the whole Zombie Apocalypse thing a little too literally. Not that I think we’re going to have the undead shambling through the streets feeding on brains. But I do expect an upheaval of life as we know it; a TEOTWAKI [tee-ought-wok-ee] if you will. That stands for The End Of The World As We Know It. The R.E.M. song by that name starts out, ‘That’s great it starts with an earthquake, Birds and snakes and aeroplanes, And Lenny Bruce is not afraid.”
This is not a post about R.E.M. or Lenny Bruce or even a post about TEOTWAKI. This is a post (and a site) about being prepared. Yes, I believe it is important to make some physical preparations for TEOTWAKI. The world is going crazy. Governments are out of control and the average person is more worried about pop culture than about the imminent debt spiral we seem to be heading toward. Yes, make some preparations for whatever worst case scenario you can conceive.
But this is truly not a site about physical preparations – although we have and will continue to sprinkle that in here and there. The primary focus here is to help you prepare yourself mentally, emotionally, and (most importantly) spiritually for whatever lies ahead.
Spiritual preparation is by far the most important. All major religions hold the belief that there is an afterlife and that we need to make preparations now that will determine our post life future – even Atheism. Yes, Atheism is a religion and virtually all Atheists demonstrate the seven dimensions of religion as described by Ninian Smart in Dimensions of the sacred: an anatomy of the world’s beliefs.
But this is not a post about Atheism either. That one comes later. In the meantime go check this out – http://creation.com/atheism-a-religion.
So what is this post about? This is a post about spiritual preparation, of course. My long term goal with this site is to move you one step closer to being like Christ or Christ-like (the literal meaning and original use of the term Christian). Wherever you are spiritually right now, I want to see you move one step. Are you an Atheist? What would be one step closer to Christian for you? Perhaps acknowledging that it is possible that the universe shows elements of intelligent design.
Maybe you are a Muslim and your next step is to listen with an open mind to the teaching that faith and not works, as prescribed by Islam, is the true path to Paradise.
More realistically (as many of my readers are at least cultural Christians), your one step may be baptism or leading a small group or moving toward total surrender to the will of God for your life.
I don’t know what your next step is. Only you and God can work that out. What I do know is that we don’t have long to figure it out and take that next step. Even at its longest, life is a vapor – a brief puff of smoke.
So spend some time in deep personal reflection. Discover where you are right now. Then begin working out your next step. Like I said, I can’t tell you what your next step is but I can listen and encourage you to keep digging for that nugget of truth. Let me know if you need some help.
Remember the Chinese proverb attributed to Lao Tzu, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Happy New Year,
Jeff