“For human beings it is impossible but not for God. All things are possible for God. The definition of the good does not change; it is an ever-fixed mark. Therefore, it can be discovered.”
“I don’t understand your words.”
“Consider it this way. If a man’s family is starving because he has no money, should he steal bread to feed his family? He has two choices one of them must be good and the other evil.”
“Both could be evil.”
“In theory, but God would not put us in an impossible situation. Therefore, one must be the right choice and the other the wrong choice. If you discover the meaning of the good, then that man, and all humanity, would know what choice to make.”
“I think I understand, but you have to help me. I can’t do all of this on my own. It is too great a responsibility.”
“You must find it yourself, I cannot help you.”
“Can’t you at least give me a hint, a general direction?”
“I suppose I could. Reflect on Mark 10:14. God has small interpreters, the child must teach the man. You will find that every child is born in the right state.”
“I need more help than that.”
“You are already on the right path. You will find it when you must. Right now, the obstacle is the path.”
“What does that mean?”
“All I can tell you is, look to your own life and, when it rains, throw away your umbrella.”
“Great thanks for the help,” I shouted after him as he walked away.
Chapter 16: Stars
All others rest, but I cannot. Sleep will not embrace me. I keep turning Jacob’s words over in my head and I can’t even think of how to start looking for the answer. I roll around praying for sleep, but I cannot overcome sleep by any stealth. Twin night covers my open eyes.
After a while of restless turning, Mary comes over and places her hand on my shoulder, “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I mutter thankful the darkness covers up my burning face. “I’m just worried.”
“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark,” she teases.
“No, I’m afraid of the task Jacob has pressed upon me.”
“A secret mission? Here maybe this will help. Some fool gave it to me today while Jacob was preaching. She said it contained all the secrets of the universe.”
She hands me a beaten-up English to Turkish dictionary. A thoughtless gift. I will cherish it forever.
“He told me not to tell anyone but if you want-“
“No let’s talk about something else,” she says as she lies down beside me.
I am terrified because I have nothing to say. Nothing nothing nothing. Finally, I say, “Why are you here? Don’t tell me you are afraid of the dark.”
She laughs. A woman’s laughter is the most beautiful sound in the world. “Not me. I have always loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. As a child, I always wanted to be a star, to be so bright and glorious and powerful. How about you?”
“No, the stars may be large but they cannot think or love. Glory could not ever be as powerful as love.”
“So you are a hopeless romantic, huh? Do you believe in true love?”
“Sometimes. I guess, true love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about but few have seen. Since you can’t see love, you must have faith that it exists.”
“I don’t know if I believe in love. They say you can’t experience pain without love. Well, I have experienced lots of pain but no love.”
Just as I was about to ask her about this, I heard Simon walking towards us. “Hey what’s going on over here?” he said.
Mary gave Simon an angry look and said, “Go away, he’s telling me about the secret mission Jacob assigned to him.”
“I knew this would happen,” Simon groaned. “Wait don’t leave me. I have a secret mission too. I’m writing a term paper on the finer things in life. Can I interview you baby?”
“That old pickup line won’t work on me,” Mary said.
“How about this one,” Simon said picking Mary up, “Kiss me if I’m wrong but don’t you want to go out with me?”
We all laughed.
Even in laughter, the heart may be sad.
Chapter 17: Love?
“Consider this story.”
A man, a woman, and a child were traveling together in a foreign country. They had traveled a long way and they were thirsty.
They met an old man on the side of the road and he told them of a small stream nearby. He also said each should pick up a handful of pebbles from the stream bed. If they did this, he promised, they would be both happy and sad.
They did not reach the stream until nightfall. After they drank, each followed the old man’s advice and scooped up pebbles from the stream. They then found a place a small distance away and went to sleep.
The next day, the man woke up first. He reached into his pocket and brought out the pebbles. To his surprise, he held sparkling rubies. The man quietly left the campsite, for he did not want to wake the woman or the child, and ran back to the stream. He searched the stream but all the pebbles were ordinary now. He threw the pebbles down and ran up the road searching for the old man.
At nearly the same time, the woman awoke. She discovered sapphires in her pocket. She was overjoyed because she feared her husband and his terrible temper. Now she finally had the money she needed to escape.
“I should get more,” she thought, “why should I live like a commoner when I could be as rich as a queen?” She went to the stream and searched it but found nothing. “They must be jewels only at night,” she thought. She wanted to test this theory, but was afraid her husband would find her if she stayed until nightfall. Therefore, she left and vowed to return when she had spent her sapphires.
While the woman was at the stream, her husband found the old man on the road.
“Did you take the pebbles?” the old man asked.
“Yes,” the man said, “why didn’t you tell me they were jewels, I would have taken more.”
“I could have told you nothing,” the old man replied.
“Tell me how to find more,” the man said, holding a knife to the old man’s throat.
“There is no way to find more, all will be pebbles now.”
“You lie,” the man said and thrust the knife into the old man’s chest. When he saw what he had done, he ran away.
The child awoke. Finding his parents gone, he began to walk along the road, trying to remember how far it was to the river. He was thirsty. The pebbles, for he did not understand that they were valuable, pleased him because they were shiny.
Soon he met another family coming down the road. The family loved the jewels too. The child gave all of his jewels to the family. He was tired of them and was happy they could bring joy to others.
The child continued down the road searching for the river. He never found it again and eventually died of starvation because he had no money with which to buy food.
Chapter 18: Wisdom
After the day’s teaching, I waited until Jacob was alone and then sought his guidance. I found him fishing in a beautiful lake.
“Jacob I have some questions about your message,” I said.
“You have faith, but you need proof right?” Jacob laughed.
“No, it has nothing to do with faith. It’s Joel. I think he is hurting the spread of the message.”
“How?”
“Just by how he dresses. He looks ridiculous and he makes us look untrustworthy.”
“My son,” Jacob began, “Do you look at things only according to outward appearance? Do not consider his appearance. Man looks at outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. Stop judging by appearances but judge justly.”
“Well, it’s not just how he dresses. I mean, he’s borderline retarded, and I don’t know which side of the border he’s on. It’s like every day, inside his brain; they are having a mass funeral for the dead brain cells.”
Jacob
laughed, “But you put up with fools gladly, since you yourself are wise. If you think you are wise then there is more hope for a fool than for you.”
“I never said I was wise, but you have to consider the fact that he is hurting the cause.”
“I admit that he has faults. No one is born without faults. You must learn to deal with the faults of others as gently as your own. I chose him for a reason. Great men are not always wise. It is wisdom to believe in the heart, and he has great wisdom in that. Look without prejudice and you will see his true nature. Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.”
As Jacob was speaking, Joel ran by, screamed happily, jumped into the lake, and splashed us with water.
“Thank God for fools,” Jacob said, “theirs is the requiem of the unafraid.”
Chapter 19: Freewill
“I have spoken to you about Heaven. Now I must speak to you of God’s plan for us while we are in this world. God created us because he desires us to lead a joyous life. God’s love is so great He wants us all to be happy. He gives us, although we are undeserving, great gifts to ensure our happiness.”
“Why then did he put us into this world, where we often face unhappiness?”
“I understand your disbelief. There is something almost cruel about our being placed in a world that in every way pressures us to do the opposite of what God bids us to do. However, God put us here because He wanted us to have access to all of His gifts. In Heaven, God could not give us the greatest of all gifts, not because He was unable, but because it would destroy Heaven. That gift is freewill.”
“Why can’t we have freewill in Heaven?”
“Freewill can exist only if we are allowed to choose between good and evil. God did not want evil to exist in Heaven. Therefore, He created this world where we have freewill to choose between good and evil.”
“Why is freewill a gift? Freewill causes pain.”
“Freewill can cause pain, but it can also lead to great happiness. If we choose evil, we experience pain, but if we choose the good, we find joy. That joy is greater when we freely choose good, than when we are forced to choose it.”
“If we have freewill, doesn’t that prove God is not omniscient? If we have freewill, the future is not set and God cannot know it. Therefore, He is not all knowing.”
“Freewill does not lessen the power of God. He who knows all things before they exist still knows them after they are made. We have the freedom to make decisions. God knows each decision we will make because God does not live in the past, present, or the future alone, but exists fully at all times. He gives us freedom in the past and already knows our decision in the future.”
“I understand, but wouldn’t freewill make God evil? If He gives us freewill to choose evil, then He gives us the strength to choose evil.”
“No. God gives none a command to sin; to none does He give strength for lies. He is wholly good and wants us to become wholly good as well. The only way for us to become wholly good is for us to choose the good freely. Thus, he gives us freewill.”
Chapter 20: Good/Evil
“Today we will consider the nature of good and evil. During our time in this world, we always stand at the crossroads of good and evil. God’s gift of freewill allows us to choose which road to take.”
All those present were very interested. Finally, Jacob would tell us how to be good.
“Let us ask: Why does evil exist? If God loves us, why did He allow evil into the world? Some want to believe evil does not or cannot come from God. They want to believe evil stems from another source. This is wrong. God alone can create and evil is not contrary to the plan of God. God is not divided against Himself, nor can anything challenge his power.”
“Did not Satan challenge God. Is this not the reason evil exists?”
“No. God told his prophet, ‘I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.’ God did not lie to his prophet. God created evil just as he created good.”
“If God created evil, evil could not exist for God is not evil.”
“To say evil does not exist would also mean good does not exist. Good must co-exist with evil to have meaning just as light needs darkness to be seen. We would not have known the name of good if there was no evil. Good must exist before evil. Thus, there is no possible source of evil except good.”
“So you claim God created evil?”
“No. All things are, by nature, good. Nothing evil exists in itself. God put something noble and good into every soul His hand created. Therefore, no evil exists in us unless it comes from good. Evil arises when our goodness is diminished. For good to be diminished is evil; still, however much it is diminished, something must remain of its original nature as long as it exists at all. Therefore, God did not create evil, He only created good which could be diminished.”
“Why did God allow good to be diminished?”
“God wanted us to be happy. He knew we would be happier if we had freewill. He knew we would be happier when we choose the good than if no good existed for us to choose. God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist. God knew evil would complement the good making it even better.”
“I don’t understand how evil can make the good better. Do you mean because evil stands in contrast to the good?”
“In part. Evil is helpful because it allows us to understand the good by contrast. If you wish to untie a knot, you must first understand how it was tied. Likewise, if you wish to understand the good, it is helpful to understand the evil. But evil also complements the good.”
“How?”
“When we move from a state of unhappiness to a state of happiness, our joy is greater than if we had never been unhappy. Sorrows often come to stretch the dark spaces in the heart for joy. Just so, when we bring good out of evil, the good is much better. For example, if we turn a sinner from his sin and towards the Lord, God is pleased because our task was difficult. Further, the world is enriched, first because the evil has ceased, and second, because the evil has been turned to good.”
Chapter 21: Selfishness
“Now that you know both good and evil exist, I must teach you how to follow the good instead of the evil. First, we must ask, ‘What is good? How can it be defined?’ At this time, I can only reveal part of that definition. For now, we will define the good as anything which brings happiness to us on earth.”
“God wants us to be happy?”
“God wants us to be happy even in this life, and he has given us one commandment to ensure our happiness. All religions contain this commandment, which is, of course, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ I say to you, ‘Not one of you is a believer until he loves his neighbor more than himself.’ Whoever wants to do some evil against another does not remember God. To love only your friends is nothing. It is easy to be friendly to one’s friends, but to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of the truth. You must be merciful as your Father is merciful.”
“How can we keep this commandment?”
“It is difficult, perhaps the most difficult thing in the world. You can start by refusing to judge others. Never judge your comrade until you have stood in his place. If you want to criticize someone, first criticize yourself more than 3 times. Always think of your enemies as helpless and innocent. You would never pinch a helpless baby bird with a stick. Therefore, consider your enemies to be, as they actually are, helpless baby birds.”
“I do not disagree with what you say,” a member of the crowd said, “but I do not see how this will bring happiness. If we follow this commandment we will face a difficult and unhappy life.”
“No. God orders us to seek only our own individual happiness. Therefore, I command you to be selfish. Be selfish and give to others. Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier. Pray to God for such a burden. God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight. Bear o
ne and other’s burdens, and you will fulfill God’s commandment and receive, as a reward, true happiness.”
“How will burdens bring happiness?”
“I tell you, being greatly burdened myself, those with the greatest burdens are the happiest. The measure which you measure out will be measured out to you and still more will be given to you. When your burden becomes too great for you to handle, cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.”
“Will we not feel pain when others take advantage of our hospitality?”
“No. To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. If you follow this commandment no one can hurt you and nothing can bring you pain.”
Chapter 22: Desire
“Consider this story.”
There once lived a rich and powerful man. He was very arrogant, successful, and wise. He was proud of his many accomplishments but feared that they would not continue after his death because he had a lazy, fun-loving son.
“Is there anything on earth that lasts forever?” he asked his priest.
“Nothing, certainly, on Earth, but in Heaven,” the priest said.
The man was not pleased with this answer, for he did not believe in Heaven, and was, no doubt, unlikely to be received there. Therefore, he decided to hold a contest and offer a great prize to anyone who could show him something eternal.
Many proposed an answer, but we will consider only the closest three.
First, a virtuous man came to him. “I am a moral man,” he said, “but after my death, my story will not be told and I will have gone through everything in vain. However, a man who is very virtuous will live forever. With your wealth you could do many good deeds and your name would last forever.”
The man was pleased with this answer, although not too pleased because he would have to give away his beloved wealth. However, the priest disagreed.
“It is never the rich who are remembered for their good deeds. The poorest man who performs a good deed out of kindness will be remembered longer than one who gives away vast sums. Even if this were not true, memories of good deeds fade. Humanity has an exceedingly short memory.”
“Send him away,” the man said for the priest had convinced him good deeds were only transitory.