Spirituality and religiousity...

IF I tell you a secret, is it a secret any longer? Will you pay me millions?

If someone purports to know this secret, prints a book, hires speakers, records and cuts a billion CD's - essentially telling the whole wide universe - are they ruining it for everyone else who already knew the secret?

If they tell you the secret, are they adding anything to the meaning of life?

So a group of people get together, all claiming to know this secret and all its tenants better than anyone else. Is it even a little bit arrogant to even begin to think that they know and the rest of us don't? This secret, it turns out, revolves around getting anything you want, and in these secret materials they talk a lot about material things and getting more money. Is it even a little arrogant to think that money and material goods are what the rest of us want? Is it a little rude to tell a secret that could cheapen the concept of hard work in favor of strenthening the idea of sitting around thinking about something until it happens?

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of___________. Social marxism. Entitlement. Laziness. Victimization. Foolishness. Fill in the blank.

If any group of people choose to criticize their current condition and then gather in a collective but exclusive understanding that they, and they alone, understand things better than the rest of us, I say beware. I ask why them? I ask them why not me? I ask why?

Religion, warts and all, bring us holy scripture, tell us stories about sacrifice, loss, miracle and redemption. Religion requires work and faith. Religion requires that a thought without an action is idleness. Religion abhores idleness.

Religion invites all willing to work, all willing to forgive, all who have not and all who have to be included in the discussion. It admits imperfection since it is created by men. It accepts change, even if over millenia.

Beware secrets. Embrace sacredness.

Life is brilliant,

Jarret