Translating a World on the Edge

The Bell and The Switch

As a child, I didn’t want to hear The Bell. It resonated through the pine trees of the woods where I was building the perfect straw house; it caught me dunking a glass jar in the creek to catch the biggest tadpole I’d ever seen; it caused me to brake my Blue Schwinn bike on a red dirt road after I’d peddled all the way up a hill so I could fly down it again. The Bell instructed me to stop all that. The Bell commanded, “Come home. Now.”

A child, of course, comes into the world with irritating abilities. One of them is the ability to close her ears to what she doesn’t want to hear. A child wants to finish the straw house. She wants to capture the tadpole. She wants the excitement of flying down a hill, fast as the wind. A child wants what she wants. Still, The Bell beckons. And in the course of its annoying jangle, a child considers the consequence of not obeying its command.

For me, the consequence of not answering The Bell was The Switch. At first, I was able to choose The Switch. My mother, the bell ringer, pointed a stiff finger. “You did not obey the rules of this house. Now, go get me a switch off the Redbud.” This command, I chose to hear in its entirety, except I brought back the wimpiest branch I could find. When I laughed and told her it tickled, she resorted to finding The Switch on her own. A little stronger, a little longer, it laid as a symbol of consequence on the top shelf of the bookcase in our den. Even now, I can see it in my mind, and usually do if I’m considering something I know is wrong.

We can ignore the consequences, too, as if there will be none. But ignoring can be hazardous, because there is no peace in sin. There is only the fear of being caught, a cover-up, and then the consequences that come from all that.

The Law of Cause and Effect

Nothing happens by chance or outside the Universal Laws. Every Action has a reaction or consequence “We reap what we sow”. Ralph Waldo Emerson said the Law of Cause and Effect is the “law of laws”.  The most important lesson involving human conduct and interaction is seen in the Cosmic Law of Cause and Effect.  “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”.  Every human thought, word and deed is a Cause that sets off a wave of energy throughout the universe which in turn creates the effect whether desirable or undesirable.  The law states the effect must lead to physical manifestation.  This is why good thoughts, words, emotions, and deeds are essential for a better world for they all create good effects.

The law of cause and effect states that every cause has an effect and every effect becomes the cause of something else. This law suggests that the universe is always in motion and progressed from a chain of events.

WE ARE FREE TO MAKE DECISIONS, BUT WE ARE NOT FREE TO ALTER THE CONSEQUENCES OF THOSE DECISIONS. https://www.tfp.org/eternal-and-natural-law-the-foundation-of-morals-and-law/

Sin always has consequences. It may, at first, seem a small thing. It may even have a hint of conscience, until it becomes habitual and infectious to everyone around it. Love also begins small, becomes habitual, and infectious as well. Except love is honorable in the human person, while sin degrades his or her soul.

Of course, sin is all around us. It surely happens in politics since it is made up of many people with ambition, people who ignore goodness if it interferes with their political goals. A few examples of some politicians ignoring of goodness are these: the taking of a human life in the womb, the mistaken confusion that we can change our own gender, or the misrepresentation of what marriage truthfully is. These acts demean us as human beings created by God. And yet, each one of us can choose to agree, and even do, any of them. But there will be consequences.

Genuine love isn’t easy, has never been easy, and will never be easy. Obeying the rules, or even standing by our own beliefs, is a hard thing to do. Today, the rules are watery. Like children, we dilute them to suit ourselves. Our beliefs are spineless; we rarely consider their depth. And sometimes we call consequences of our own making, ‘unfair.’ We spout off platitudes, meant to show that we’re ‘okay’ people, but we don’t realize that we’re called to be much more than just ‘okay.’ No matter who we are, if we live on earth, we are being called to holiness, not immorality.

But, like a child ignoring a bell she doesn’t want to hear, what if we break the rules of God’s house? What if we kill a human person? What if we take what isn’t ours? What if we use others who are weaker than we are, and trample on their dignity as human beings just because we can? What if we lie to gain profit for ourselves? The consequence for un-repented acts such as these is the spiritual death of our soul. And if our unrepentant soul is dead . . . ?

The eternal nature of hell is stressed in the New Testament. For example, in Mark 9:47–48 Jesus warns us, “[I]t is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” And in Revelation 14:11, we read: “And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

Hell is not just a theoretical possibility. Jesus warns us that real people go there. He says, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13–14).