In the prophetic book we know as Revelations it is written in Chapter 21 that, 'He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life."
Jesus is saying "It is done." And it is free for the asking.
This is a stark contrast to any religion who says, "we have to do this and we have to that".
Buddha requires: the right speech, the right action, the right livelihood the right awareness, the right concentration, the right efforts and the right resolve. And you achieve all that (hopefully) through several lifetimes.
Allah requires: sincere recitation that 'there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger', praying five times a day, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan, giving alms and completing the pilgrimage to Mecca.
The gurus of Dharma (Hinduism) requires that its practitioners act morally and ethically throughout their life. They have to follow 10 essential rules -- patience, forgiveness, piety, honesty, sanctity, control of senses, reason, knowledge, truthfulness and the hardest, absence of anger .They also need to repay debts -- debt to the gods, debt to parents and teachers, debt to guests, debt to other human beings, and debt to all other living beings.
Those who belong to certain sects who follow the God of the bible, require good works and good deeds to earn points for the next life.
In the same token, many of those who are non-believers of the divine also feel good to do their share of good works and good deeds -- advocating for a cause bigger than themselves or just plain helping the poor or the less fortunate.
Still Empty
But, none of these "good deeds" will really fill what feels like an unfillable hole within each on of us. It just feels like the "bad things" that we do cannot or will not be covered over by the "good things" we do.
And the worse thing about it is that the harder we try, the emptier or the guiltier we become. Because we eventually do fall back into our old familiar "bad habits", bad ways and bad choices.
No one can be righteous, not even Mother Teresa, not any of the popes, not Billy Graham, not Mister Rogers, and not even Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie or Michelle Obama.
We can help save the pandas, the tigers, the bears, the rhinos and the gorillas but we can only do so much and we can't help how the good that we did in one year's time can be undone by the environment, nature, catastrophes, wild animals and other people in a few seconds.
Nothing that we can ever do can really fully satisfy the emptiness that we feel. We can keep on going for the more dangerous or more grueling stunt every time we accomplish one. We can take on the more daunting task or project or we can even give away all our money to charity, but still leave us empty.
In contrast we can become the richest person in the world, the most powerful, the most famous, the most feared, but still have we heard a news conference from the likes of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merker, Tom Cruise, LeBron James or Floyd Mayweather saying they have enough money, they have enough power, they have enough fame, they have reached nirvana or inner peace or total satisfaction.
Nope, life will always be about "doing this and doing that" and going after this or chasing after that. And tomorrow you will wake up (that is if you ever did go to sleep) and it will be more of the same "doing" and "chasing".
Did you ever ask yourself, maybe I'm going about this all wrong. Maybe I could try something I have given up on, something I didn't give a chance to, or something I haven't tried yet. Did you ever think that maybe the key to filling the emptiness and to finding inner peace, inner joy and to finding yourself, might be to try Jesus.
Jesus said "It is done. And that it is free for the asking. Ask and you shall find."
