A conversation about fixing the world
Sonja – It was a random conversation that started innocently enough one evening in a restaurant. It turned out to be a rather heated argument about religion. Normally, arguments about religion are a waste of time and gets nobody nowhere. The same with politics. We believe what we believe. But this particular conversation /argument turned out to be quite insightful. I’m only repeating it here because I keep bumping into the same idea, especially when it comes to the older generation.
- Who will fix the world?
We were talking about what we as ordinary human beings can do to make this world a better place. I was saying that we all make the choice everyday- either we build or we break down. It’s a choice between choosing to think or do positive or stir up the negative. When we come to the end of our lives do we want to leave the world that we lived in a better place or not? Sure, we cannot all be Ghandis or Mandelas, but surely there is room in our ordinary lives to create something better, even if we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the dysfunctional or negative events and people around us.
My conversation partner was quite disillusioned at this late stage in her life. All she was concerned about was living her life so that when she dies, her soul gets to God and into heaven. Her priority is to focus on her own life to ensure her own salvation. And that is all that matters.
Fair enough, we are all concerned about what happens to us when we die, but surely that cannot be the whole picture? We all eventually leave the world where we lived and functioned in for seventy odd years, if we’re lucky. At the end of a life, did we at least try to leave it a better place? No man is an island, nobody functions purely in his or her own little bubble. Like a wise man said, evil flourishes when good men do nothing.
My conversation partner leaves the world for God to fix, which will happen when Jesus returns.
Isn’t it one of the big drawbacks of religion – that we leave the world for God to fix? We somehow believe that it isn’t our job or our responsibility, and we certainly don’t believe we have the power to do it ourselves.
I have to ask myself: if we didn’t have this particular mindset for so many thousands of years – that we’re waiting for a messiah’s return to fix everything that is wrong with this world – wouldn’t we have been so much further as civilisations on this planet? More evolved, kinder, more caring, more responsible, more empowered?
I don’t want to make this a conversation about religion, and I do know many people who actively try to make a difference, but sometimes I catch myself wishing for some divine intervention – the Deus Ex Machina the old Greek tragedies loved so much.
The Wisdom Centre 
It’s an interesting and thoughtful point of view–that it is inappropriate to wait for God to fix the world–and I like it and I agree; at the same time, I don’t think this world is our real home. As beautiful as it can be, and although there is indeed the strong and wonderful element of love, the world is also, by nature, full of violence and terror. That may sound extreme but I’ve never been able to see it otherwise.
My understanding is that Jesus and others like Him, who come into the world, come to take us home, not to fix the world. However, the world is, oh so much better off due to their existence, and to their coming. I would like to qualify this by saying that I’ve not come to such a conclusion on my own. I’m only speaking of what I learned from my Spiritual Master, Sant Ajaib Singh.
Hi Jesse. Thank you for stopping by and leaving such a thoughtful comment.
I’m not dismissing the coming of spiritual Teachers and the possibility that we might be “taken away.
I’m really more concerned, or rather I question our perceived helplessness in the face of all the disfunctionality in our world. Mankind has been waiting for thousands of years for a Messiah to fix things, or remove the believers. In the meantime things go wrong. I may agree with you that this is only our second home, but we’re here aren’t we, and I believe we chose that, don’t you?
I do very much agree with your comments in the post, Sonja ji. I was only adding another dimension to the equation. Sorry if it seemed–and I can now see how it could have–that I was taking any exception to your idea.
No, doubt, we do have the responsibility of being good stewards of the earth, the world; I hope we will have the opportunity to fulfill that responsibility.