Life is complicated, but it all comes down to choices. Digital. Is a condition met, yes or no? Should I do this, yes or no? There is no other choice.
A condition is met, and the next process is acted on. A condition is not met, and the next process is to loop into something else.
Sometimes a complex choice is presented. Is the answer A, B, or C? The result is still digital. You can only pick one. There is only one condition that is true. All others are false. A loop can be set up to try to meet the condition again, but the false answer still has a consequence, a loop back to try again. The point, even a choice to make no choice, is to choose.
In electronics, a simplified way to look at troubleshooting a circuit is the black box theory. Signal goes in. Stuff happens in the black box of the circuit. Signal comes out.
Is there a soul? Where does it come from? Where does it go? It’s easy to know what happens to our physical body, it dies. It goes away, returning to the earth, never to be seen again.
Counting all of life’s complexity, and our physical life as the black box, Signal, the soul, goes in. Where does it go?
Some people say the soul only exists as part of the physical body. Somehow it goes into the black box, but when the box stops, the soul returns to the source, the earth?
Others believe the source of the soul is a higher power, God. If that’s the case, the soul leaves the body and returns to the source.
Wait. Does that mean that all people go to heaven, and enjoy a life of bliss as they return to the source of the soul?
Let’s return to that complex thing we call life. If we were all robots, or an unthinking set of programmed software, where there are no real decisions, but rather filtering conditions through a preset set of code, then yes. Our decisions would be a reaction to a circumstance. Truth tables strictly adhered to, and all false conditions disregarded. Unthinking, unemotional.
Is that what life is? No. Humans are highly emotional, sometimes irrational, and prone to making poor choices. Learning can come from applying truth as learned from others, or from experience. Success generally comes hand in hand with failure.
What do we do with choices? Are some good, and others bad? How do we tell? That’s a good topic for another time.
To be brief, we have books like the bible, God’s word, to explain what good and evil is. It tells us there isn’t one place, but two places that souls end up. The determining factor is what we choose about God.
Digital. Two places, depending on what we choose in the black box. Those choosing evil go to an eternal dark place of torment. Those choosing good, go to an eternal place of light, and bliss.
A no brainer, right? Who doesn’t want good things? Who would actually choose an eternal existence of torment?
The trouble is that people don’t recognize the choice. There is really one. Digital. To choose it, or reject it. There is no other choice. To not choose, is to reject it.
It isn’t a matter of discipline following complex laws. It isn’t a giant score card in the sky where having one extra good deed will out weigh the bad deeds. It isn’t really about living a life of kindness, or in living a life filled with evil choices.
The choice. Love God.
People make mistakes. We do it so well. Do you love God? Not just say you do, but in all honesty, love him from the heart? You know whether you do, or not. God knows it too. He has love that will forgive the most evil person, if they can find it in them to love God from the heart?
Do you do kind things, good deeds to your fellow man, but somehow you really don’t love God? You’re a pretender, a play actor, racking up smilie faces on that score card in the sky. Hoping your own efforts will win you a seat at God’s table? You do things for your self satisfaction, for pride, but there’s no love for God in your heart. You can deny it to me, but secretly, you know. God knows too.
The choice, the rejection of God, the indifference towards God, the slapping a new label of good onto an evil thing, the masking a favorite sin and calling it normal, the self deceptions that we tell ourselves. It’s all the same. Instead of feeling shame at the deed, we take pride in it and embrace it. People say they want change, but what they want is for others to change, and be dragged down with them. The more the merrier, right? If everybody is corrupt, then corrupt is the new norm, and therefore it’s good. right?
Actually, no. It only means that more people have fallen for a lie.
The choice. Love God. Even if the lie has drawn a person into evil, God forgives. He still loves. Does humility and shame cause you to cringe, and seek his forgiveness? He still loves you, do you love him?
Digital. Sin keeps us apart from God. It doesn’t have to. The way we choose, to love him, or to reject him, determines the path our soul goes next on the journey in the life that comes next. Whatever it may be, there is no coming back for a redo. Whatever it may include depends on one choice. Do you love God, yes or no?