Sometimes I get caught up in pondering this world and how it operates. I like to think about what comes next after this life is over. I enjoy musing in my mind of the various spiritual teachings that are out there. While in the shower tonight, I was taken back to one of Jesus’ final messages prior to his crucifixion. This verse always sticks with me and makes me feel sometimes that this is a world that we are meant to escape through becoming love as I do believe that love is the answer to every question.
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe. “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going."
When I was a child, I remember having this feeling that life was a video game that we were meant to conquer and overcome so that we could “level-up.” Maybe it was my competitive spirit or maybe it was just a deep inner remembrance of some type that I hadn’t lost hold of. As Christ is having his final discussions with his disciples prior to his death, he gives them the message above. Verse John 14:30 always troubles me because it sounds as though this world does not belong to God, but something else, something darker.
“I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going."
Christ also indicated:
Jesus asked, “Do you finally believe? But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
This verse always leads me back to my childhood belief. The fact that Jesus says, “Take heart, because I have overcome the world,” leads me to believe that we need to overcome this world by becoming love as Jesus was. It seems the purpose of life is to become one with God in a sense that we become love through our practice during our time here. As I read the Bible and look back in history, it seems many great prophets and spiritual teachers who spoke up in an effort to liberate and free the people of this world by preaching love in the face of hate were brutally murdered. I’m not typically a conspiracy theorist, but it seems that when people start getting others on their bandwagon of truth, freedom, and liberation through love their life comes to an unnatural end.
As I was in the shower, I was considering this and thought, maybe that is actually winning! Maybe, that is when we are promoted to the next level of this existence? Those who arrive sooner than others meet their ends quicker because they’ve “passed the tests” and graduated. It may be that the world as a whole will never be fully at peace. Maybe it’s not meant to be. Maybe this world is meant to challenge us, to grow us, to teach us, to allow us the challenge of darkness to see if we choose love despite the darkness that surrounds us?
Sometimes, I think my purpose in this life is about overcoming the darkness by healing not only myself, but the many thereby restoring the world back to love, peace, and happiness. While I have this large utopic vision that won’t quit these days, I also slightly fear the vision because I see how it ended for others who attempted to accomplish this with their lives. Maybe I offer this outlook on things to provide myself with some comfort to my fears. Maybe it is the balm I use to propel me to go for this goal despite the knowledge of how it ended, or almost ended, for people like Jesus, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Mahatma Ghandi, John Lennon, Abraham Lincoln, Pope John Paul, Nelson Mandela, Yitzhak Rabin, Malala Yousafzai, etc. With my theory, if true, it allows me to trust in the vision and just go for it knowing that if I can’t convert the world to love, then just maybe I’ll succeed in converting myself and beaming myself the heck out of here, hopefully to greener pastures, if the mission to transform the world is indeed a hopeless one.