I was reading an excerpt from one of my psychology text about a soldier and the gruesome things he had seen, especially in his first weeks in combat. He suffered from nightmares and during combat he was unable to control his bodily release functions. I wonder how he is expected to come back home and be able to stabilize into normal society. As we know or can assume, sometimes veterans have a difficult time readjusting to their home society. They develop psychological disorders and who can blame them! I was thinking that they would have to lessen their value for human life to be able to cope with seeing their comrades' head blown off, etc. But if they reduced their value of life-what the hell would they really be fighting for?
This got me to thinking about figuring out a balance between "not getting all bent out of shape because of death" and still having a purpose that acknowledges "the priceless and precious beauty of everyone's life".
This led me to looking forward to heaven but caring enough about others so that they could experience a piece of heaven here on earth-at least until they got to go upwards. Hopefully, each person who experienced a piece of heaven could do their best to help someone have that same experience. Layman's terms...I'm not sure but I think getting a piece of heaven on earth is about enjoying God's creation as close to intended as possible.
Now, with the whole fall of man and death and hell stuff-earth hasn't been as great as God intended, hence the whole "looking forward to heaven" thing. OK. We still need something to do in the meantime. Religion and faith is such a big deal because we are trying to make sure we are doing the right things to secure our afterlives. Now, as a Christian, I'm confident that my "heavenly" afterlife is on lock. What else should I be doing down here? If I just focused on "going to heaven" them I feel that I would start to lead a very boring and selfish life. That's lame and with all the drama we go through-that mindset could make someone suicidal. You get what I'm saying?
That brings me back to enjoying earth down here, as much as possible and as safely as possible as to preserve our mental and physical health so that we can help others enjoy/find heaven-down here and up there. BTW::::I don't condone reckless behavior as a way of "living life to the fullest. Doing 145mph on the West Side highway in a rented BMW after done-ing off a bottle of Ciroc from your man's 29th birthday bashment is not living life to the fullest-it's endangering countless others and could change many families lives in the unfortunate event that you crash/kill someone. Just wanted to clarify my take on "life to the fullest". Partying responsibly and/or any other enjoyment that doesn't selfishly put you at risk is dope.::::
I now understand why others fought for civil rights, why troops still enlist in the military and martyrs die for their faith. They all must have had some form of heavenly mindedness, even if it wasn't my idea of heaven. They were willing to sacrifice their life to help others enjoy this life as close to perfect as possible. It must have been to help others experience the love they felt in their being, which resonated from a higher calling or sense of peace. (What about terrorist? They must have received a much lower calling...unfortunately.)
There is much to be said about valuing life so greatly without not being too afraid of dying to help others experience the greatness that you know is possible.
