I'll Take Another Slice

On those evenings when our family can all sit down around the table for dinner, one of our standard questions for our sons is, "How was your day at school?"  Often there's just the perfunctory "fine" or "it was school" but recently one of our sons told us that one of their teachers made a comment suggesting that being a Christian was easy.  My first reaction was anger, horror, outrage, annoyance, indignation (righteous indignation, of course).  How could anyone make the claim that Christianity was easy?  It sure isn’t easy for me!  But then I got to think about the claim and thought maybe the teacher was right!  Perhaps having faith is easier than not having faith.   After some thought I suppose it must be hard not believing.

It must be hard getting up on a beautiful morning, seeing the sunrise and feeling a sense of gratitude towards whoever is responsible for such beauty and then realizing that the feeling you have is just some neuro-chemical response that has evolved in our species for no apparent reason.  That must be hard.

It must be hard enjoying the companionship of friends and family and then realizing that this pleasure is simply a herd instinct also evolved over the eons in our species as a means to keep our pack alive.  That must be hard.

It must be hard welcoming a child into this world and being overcome with a sense of the miraculous only to be brought back to earth again when your rational mind takes control of the situation and reminds you that this "bundle of joy" is simply a mass of chemicals resultant of the sexual desire of two other masses of chemicals.  That must be hard.

It must be hard finding some reason to treat others with respect and kindness even when they are rude and cruel  knowing that humans have no more intrinsic value than a fly or even a rock.    It must be hard not to simply use people to accomplish our own means only to realize that we must conform to some sense of social norms in order to perpetuate our race.  That must be hard.

It must be hard going to the funeral of a loved one hoping against all hope that perhaps you will see this person again in some other reality and then coming to your senses realizing that this person is gone forever and whatever made this person appear like more than a mass of chemicals was just some coping technique our species has developed over the years to help us deal with reality.  That must be hard.

It must be hard with the passing of time seeing our hair go gray, our smooth skin get wrinkly, and our body wear out knowing that we will soon pass from this world never to be heard from again -- that we will follow the course of all humans and cease to exist and that eventually all humans, all life as we know it, will someday melt into the universe leaving no traces of our existence.  That must be hard.

Come to think of it, I agree with the teacher.  Compared to not believing, this faith thing is a piece of cake and while we're serving, give me another slice!