When I was young I saw a movie, Logan's Run, about a domed city where everything was taken care-of from birth to death. Nothing was hard. Everyone had everything they wanted, but nobody could leave the city, and when they reached a certain age they were killed. Logan finds a way out of the city and sees the beauty of the world. He comes back and starts yelling to those who are headed in to be de-commissioned, "You don't have to die! You can live! Live!" They were able to escape the city and go out into the big, wide world where they saw the Sun and trees for the first time. Reflecting on that I thought that there would be many who would curse Logan because now life was going to be hard. Everything would not be provided. They would be subject to contrasts of cold in the winter, and hot in the summer. They would have to work for what they had, find food, feel hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Freedom, power, and life have costs.
Life is growth, and growth is hard so life is hard. All of the things that constitute life make it hard. Change is hard, growth is change. Those who are alive are learning and growing. Children whine constantly about growing up. Most have a hard time with growth -- they don't want to learn to take care of themselves, clean up, work, go to school or church, and do all of the things their parents want them to do so they can learn and grow. They want things to stay the same, play, have fun, do what they want to do, be taken care-of, and do what they already know. New things are hard to learn, because there is a period of awkwardness where you do it wrong, you fall, you mess up. The process of learning is hard so life is hard.
In the Eternal scheme of things there is life and death, good and evil, light and dark, and Heaven and Hell. These contrasts are forever, and they never go away. As long as we are growing we must deal with them all the time; there is no rest. The ultimate choice in life is to grow, or not. If we choose to grow, we will always be dealing with these contrasts, the highs and the lows in order to grow continually. If not, we die.
Death is not the easy way
Death seems easy. You die, and everything is the same. You have no responsibility. Nothing changes. You do what you're told to do. You don't grow. You don't learn. You stop, you're done. You finished school, pushed by your parents, and now you never have to go to school again. It's easy. People "grow up" and think they can quit growing. They are done. They want an easy life that goes around in a circle on the flats, not a life that is continually climbing up a mountain. They want to do their job, go home, rest, have vacation, weekends to do what they enjoy, and putter around just keeping busy doing what they know in the place that they know. There is no real challenge to overcome. This only leads to the ultimate rest: death.
However, the ultimate "rest" is no rest at all -- it's damnation. People choose to be damned, stopped in their growth, because of laziness. They don't want to go on. They don't want to live. They don't want to grow. They don't want change. They want rest and relaxation. However, what they get is boredom and lack. They have no freedom or power to do anything! If a two-year-old stops growing he will have no power in the world. His abilities won't allow him to even take care of himself, much less others. This is like being damned -- no growth, no power. It is marked by lack, needs that can't be filled, emptiness, and boredom. Those who are damned are only able to do what others tell them to do. They are servants, drones, soldiers, workers, and laborers. They have no freedom. They are suited to one task that they know well, and they do that continually, forever. The scenery never changes. They don't get new jobs. They don't have to learn anything new. They don't go to school. They stop. They're done. Life is over. Death. Damnation. It seems so easy to just stop.
Choose to live
Freedom is the ability to grow, or to choose how we will grow. Without freedom we only find death. Patrick Henry's statement, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" was a truth that applies to all. If you don't have freedom, you only have death, and, if you choose death, you have no freedom. There is no life without freedom because we cannot choose to grow in the way we need to. Not choosing to grow is choosing not to grow. Not using our freedom of choice is the same as not having a choice. We always need freedom in order to move on and gain more power.
Power is the ability to do work, to bring about change. Some have the power to build buildings, others heal the body, still others improve business, all are changing lives. Knowledge is power. Growth is gaining knowledge through experience in all areas. We really can't understand something we have not experienced. When we experience something, we know it. It would be impossible to explain the taste of bitter, it must be experienced along with the contrast of sweet and salty. In order to know how to do something, we must have actually done it. These experiences increase our knowledge, and power. Instead of avoiding, or pushing against new experiences, those who desire more power seek them. Life is continual improvement, always gaining more power and more abilities -- it's never-ending life.
The hardest thing of all is Eternal life. Eternal life is changing forever. This is not easy, it's hard! There is no rest, end, or stop date; we don't ever "graduate," we just have to keep going. Once we climb one mountain, and reach the peak, we see the other peak, even higher, in the distance -- and we go for it! The reward is the journey, through which we come to grow and learn continually. We are living and loving others and ourselves. The landscape keeps changing and we find beautiful vistas -- at times. Most of all, we continually grow in freedom and power.
God has freedom, all knowledge, and all power. God is life. He continually grows as He helps His children to grow. He wants them to choose to grow forever, but many don't. They are lazy, and will suffer the consequences -- they will suffer death, hell, and damnation, forever lacking power. It's painful, and sad. God cries. He has compassion, suffering with His children. He feels their pain -- not just knowing how they feel, but actually feeling their pain, suffering with them. This is the cost of Eternal life. If you want to grow, you will continually face the contrasts of good and evil. You will always have the weeds in your garden. You will always have the wind blowing against you. You will always be fighting against entropy, laziness, and evil. God does. There is no end, if we choose to live.
The value of "fighting the good fight" is freedom, knowledge, and power. But most of all, life brings joy. Helping others to grow, live, and find more knowledge and power is love. We make sacrifices of all the things we want, and experience pain and hardship just to see others grow. Parents suffer much for the growth of their children because they love them. Love connects us to each other with a bond that cannot be broken by death. We find fulfillment, peace, and happiness. This is joy. It cannot be explained, it must be experienced.
I would join Logan in saying, "You don't have to die! You can live! LIVE!" Choose life. Choose growth. Choose power. Choose freedom. The price we pay to learn and grow is small compared to the benefits. I thank my God for giving me life, for not letting me die when I wanted to give up. I could have had a cushy life, enjoying the benefits of my education, going to work and doing the same things, returning every evening to my nice house on the hill and doing what I liked in my time off. Instead, He took it all away and gave me a business to run and nine more kids to raise, a sick wife and not enough money to pay for it all. The learning has been tremendous, and the growth curve is steep. Though it is very stressful, hard, thorny, rugged, and difficult, the path I'm on is upward and onward. I'm increasing in knowledge, power, freedom -- and love. I have grown tremendously! I love life. I love growth. I love freedom. I love power. I love even the fight against evil, laziness, entropy, decay, and death. I love to help others grow, which brings great satisfaction, peace, and joy. Life is worth all we suffer to have it.
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