Saint or Sinner????    2016-38

I am NOT a saint and most definably AM a sinner. Let me define both. A Saint is, by definition, a person who has exceptional holiness of life and is recognized as such by the Christian Church and may be canonized as such. Well then, a sinner is probably the opposite in many ways, but is one that violates the will of God, or disobeys Him.

I would think that there are not many saints compared to the multitude of sinners around or have lived in the past. The Catholic Church has distinguished some saints, that is sure, and these people are indeed revered as such. So, we common people are in the groups that are not held in esteem by others as the saints are looked at in life.

I would think that all religions have people that could be looked at as saints. In the Lutheran religion, dear old Marty Luther could have been made one if Lutherans did these things. He was not a saintly person though, but I would guess he was a nice guy, regardless.

I believe that Theresa of Avilla of the Catholic Church deserved to be sainted as she was somewhat special for her time. I encourage anyone to read up on her.  Mother Teresa, of the 20^th Century, whose real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was nominated for sainthood and what she did probably will help her become one.   She was a nice old lady and supposedly did really great things in her life. There are those that think differently, but they don’t count in my mind. I wonder what God thinks about her?

I had to laugh (later) when someone told me they were not a sinner and followed a good life, even though they were not very religious (their words). At least they did not follow or practice any religious denomination at the time he said. I asked him, what he meant and he said, “I do not, and never did, any of those things in the Ten Commandments.” I just blinked and told him, I was happy to hear that; but thought to myself, he was full of self-righteous crap…

I believe that God of the Universe thinks ALL of us are sinners in some way. It really does NOT matter what WE think, it is what He knows. It is the same for me and for anyone. We might believe we are living a life in a good way, but if we look back we will probably see that there are some cracks in the veneer of life where we really are not spotless.

Guess what! God the Father, maker of Heaven and Earth STILL loves us; all of us. He might not LIKE what we do at times, but we, as His children, are loved by Him. Simple as that…. It is hard for me to fathom that He could love many of the humans on Earth, His children that do some of the things they do; but that it the way it is.

It does NOT give us a blank check to do what we want to do and expect Him to have a blind eye on what we do; just is NOT going to happen. I cannot tell you what will happen because every episode is different and He is the final say on whatever He decides. Sinners probably warrant a second look by Him perhaps and I guess that would be fair.

I also believe that any Saints are a creation of man and not of God. He may love those that mankind has decreed to be Saints, but that doesn’t cut the ice for how He comes to terms with them. We are ALL equal in His eyes and any judgements are His and not for us to decide the good and bad of what they have done. I would guess the Catholic hierarchy thinks different on this idea.

I guess, what bothers me is the feeling that many of us, just don’t give a crap about whether or not we are sinners, and instead just go about living and doing what we do without any thought of the repercussions. The feeling is to live life the way we do and sometime in the future we die; so what? OK, we might know we are doing bad things that are not good in the eyes of man or an unknown God, but so what? If we get away with it or don’t break the laws of mankind, so be it; let me alone. What I do is my business and not really anyone else’s, so, again, let me alone.

If I don’t fit the mold of others, that is their problem. I never promised great or think of myself as a Saint and know I am not close to being one, so let me alone. I may be looked at as a sinner in their eyes, but I will deal with that on my own and live with anything that comes down from my actions. So be it!!

The understanding that if God so decrees, I may have eternal life beyond the human existence is in the far future. Many of us look at that eternal life concept as the unknown and not really something to think about now in our human reality.

Eternal is a long time. It does not mean just 80 years on the average. To perhaps, get to see our parents again and kick around our memories, research our ancestry, question anyone of the past, and do an untold multitude of things is staggering to think about. Eternal, again, is a long time to be with God and those that have passed.

I am not a Saint but am a sinner and admit it. I join all the sinners of the world to contemplate my very survival of eternal life with God, His son Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit, now and forever more. I continually ask God for forgiveness of my sins here on Earth and ask that He consider me as one of His chosen ones to be with Him, again, forever, eternally.

Den Betts