Good News: Part Two of Four

This is the bad news part of the good news.

You shouldn't be alarmed by that. If you've been around this world any length of time, you know all too clearly that there's a lot of bad news. You also know that much good news tastes sweeter because of the contrast between bad news and good news. As finite creatures, we experience the brilliance of light more deeply in its contrast with darkness.

So, what is the bad news? You don't need me to tell you. Famine; war; disease; oppression; murder; adultery; jealousy; hatred; greed; lust; pride. Good things tainted, twisted, warped, and broken. In the work of our hands, it means futility. Within our hearts and minds, it means self-centeredness. In our most sacred relationships, it means division.

This includes division between us and God. In our natural state, our self-centeredness is a slap in the face of the God whom we should rightfully consider the center of everything. This self-centered condition creates an enduring division between us and God, as we proclaim by both action and inaction that we do not need God. He is justifiably angered and grieved, and we continue in a state of empty narcissism.

This is hell. It is our just reward. It starts here on earth. If nothing changes about this state of affairs, it continues into the afterlife, where it will be robbed of the shades of light that can yet be known in this life. In our natural state of being, there is nothing we can do on our own to climb out of this pit.