Thursday 28 March 2013

No hope for humanity


Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (NIV)

Is there still hope for humanity?  We live in a world filled with fear, hate and death.  We live among vile, self-destructive people.  We ourselves are capable of wicked, unthinkable actions, of which we are not yet aware.  These are harsh statements, but it is the truth.  We are natural born sinners.

Sure, we are capable of doing good. Many people have done good things in this world, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln are just a few of these iconic people.  But doing good is a choice one has to make, it does not come naturally.  

We can not save ourselves.  Every hero falls.  Shakespeare wrote about them; Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Brutus and Romeo.  I like to think of Hillbrow as a modern day Shakespearean hero.  In the heart of the city of Johannesburg, with so much promise, all that glory was too much to contain, it opened doors for crime which eventually led to its demise. These heroes all have good intentions, but those good intentions are never enough to keep them on the right track.  Look at modern examples like Anakin Skywalker; in an attempt to save his wife, a good deed, he turns to the dark side.  I am a huge fan of anime, my favorite is Death Note.  It is about a teenager named Light, who is disgusted at humanity.  He stumbles upon a book known as the Death Note. The book gives him authority to take lives by writing down the name of the person who must die in the book.  He decides to use the book to rid the world of evil people.  Eventually he becomes so consumed with this power that he starts killing innocent people who pose a threat to him.  He eventually becomes the evil he hates.  He started with good intentions, but his human nature destroyed him.  

I know it is important to watch the news, to know what is happening in the world, but sometimes, all that disaster becomes too much to bear.  I go through periods of not watching the news sometimes, just so that I can clear my head and detox from that misery.  I never want to get to the point where this kind of living becomes normal, because it is not.  We can not become numb to the injustices of the world, but when will it all end?  Never?

We are humans, the fate of the world rests in our incapable hands.  Our sinful, broken hands.  There is no hope for humanity because we will never change our ways.  You can not change your nature.  A lion may be raised in a tame environment, but his nature will come out eventually.

There will always be death, destruction and evil, wherever there are humans.  But there is a God and He is not human.  He is perfect, righteous, holy and completely blameless.  God knew we could never save ourselves and that is why He sent Jesus.  Only Jesus could save us.  He was the perfect sacrifice, He bore the sin of the world when He hung on the cross.  Jesus was enough.  Jesus is the hope of humanity.

Friday 22 March 2013

Conversations with Myself

 This is not a conventional recreational activity, in fact most people are discouraged from talking to themselves.  The thought of talking to yourself, this simple idea is so judged, but yet it is so inherent in the way we live.  Is not every thought you have a conversation with yourself?  

Remember the days when you use to believe in the power of imagination?  Those friends and those memories, all theoretical, all thoughts, but so alive and real within the limitless world of your mind.  Is it madness? Is it truth? Is it madness to think that everything you need to discover the truth is locked within you? 

One of my teachers spoke to us about our studying techniques.  She told us that we already knew what we had to know, the problem was retrieving that information and communicating it correctly when it was required of us.  Then again, how would you know, what you do know if you never asked yourself what you did not know you knew about?

As crazy as this sounds, I find conversations with myself to be quite entertaining.  In fact I have found myself to be quite humorous, sometimes strange, but it helps me process everything the world bombards me with and makes me more perceptive.  You should try it, you might feel lighter, sometimes heavier but always more sure of what you know.

One of my conversations: #689524731

Me:  What do you prefer? Vampires or zombies?
Me: Why are we having this conversation?
Me: Well, vampires drink blood and zombies eat brains, so decide, do you want to lose your brain or your blood?
Me: Vampires are less creepy, no wait I can't tell the difference.  They are equally creepy.
Me: I'd choose vampires; only because there are blood banks.  I would have chosen zombies, but there aren't any brain banks.
Me: That makes sense, this is a crazy conversation, but it still makes sense.