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What's it all about Alfie?

What do I know? What do I believe? I know I know a lot and I know I know very little. Simply put I know two things, what I have been told and what I have lived. I know we live and I know we die. I have learned this from my grandparents: Steve Terrell and Rhoda Terrell, William Phelps and Julia Phelps. I have learned it from my parents: Lee Terrell and Nannie Terrell and from my brother Frank Terrell. I have learned it from my wife of 53 years: Patsy Terrell. I have learned it from my stepson Chuck Longnecker and from my son-in-law Jim Hering. And I have learned it from my friends: Gene Ervin, Bob Sargent, Don Cox, Joyce Anderson and many others from my class of Holmes High School 1954. I have learned it from my heros: George Washington, Ben Franklin, Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson the list goes on and yes from Jesus Christ as well. What else do I know? Maybe this is all I need to know.

Does it go beyond this?
Is there life after death?

I have been told there is life after death. I have been told that there is an eternity that awaits beyond the grave. I want to believe it awaits but only if it is what I want it to exist as. Do I know it exists? What I know becomes what do I believe. As I get older I find that I have come to believe that I now think more deeply then I once did. Do I really think more deeply or do I just have a greater need to know the unknown, a greater need to believe in things I want to believe in as I get closer and closer to death?

Today is April 16th 2013. Yesterday was the bombing of the Boston Marathon race. I'm sure it was all about what someone believed, not about what they knew. I was watching televanglist Joyce Meyer this morinig. Joyce was mentally and sexually abused by her father in childhood. She was saying that at the age of nine she went before the church and became a believer. She said that she prayed to God for help for years after she was "saved" but the abuse continued. God did nothing to change her life of persecusion but he gave her the will to overcome. The will to overcome. Something to believe in. The will to belitve that there was more to life then what was happening to her. It is often said that God works in mysterions ways. Meaning God does his miricles in his own time when he is ready how much we are suffering while he waits matters not. Does this mean that:

There is more to life then what is happening to us at the present moment. There is and will always be more. While we suffer someone else in life will be happy. While we are happy someone else in life will suffer. Happiness and suffering exist in this world at the same time. It has always been and always will be. Happiness and suffering exist together as one. We eat to live we kill to eat. Life itself depends upon death. We can't have one without the other.

We like to believe we are each here for a purpose. Are we? Or is it that existence simply exists. Those that are believers believe that we are here for a reason that God exists and has a purpose for our life. If so what is the purpose for God? Those that don't believe in God can only believe he doesn't exist. They don't know either. In either case it is belief. How do we know? We don't. Believers don't KNOW non believers don't KNOW. The will to overcome.

Something to believe in. We preach! We believe! We pray! We are told our prayers will be answered. If we believe our prayers are answered they are answered. Whether they are answered or not doesn't matter. Because we believe they will be. The will to believe that there is more to life then what is happening to us at the present time. Life will be better if not while we are alive then after we are dead. If not here on Earth then when we get to Heaven.

Was it that, what Joyce received by believing in God, was belief in life and the happiness that life can offer? Did her belief give her something she did not possess before, the ability to move on in life and to overcome her past suffering? Maybe it did. Would the non-believer be able to overcome what she overcame in the same set of circumstances? Yes the non-believe has also in many cases been able to overcome. In either case it is belief. Belief in God? Belief in self?

We all need belief in someone or in something. Belief in the real or belief in the unknown, for it is in belief that we will prosper that makes us prosper. If Heaven awaits then Heaven awaits. Life is here it is now and it will be at some time in the future gone for us, for others life will live on. Until their time of death comes as it does to each of us. So while we are here the first thing we surely need for happiness on Earth is belief in ourself. Without belief in ourself our life will be miserable. With belief in ourself we have a chance at happiness. Even then happiness is not assured but chances for happiness will be better. The need to believe. The more we believe, the better our chance at happiness. Belief in our spouse. Belief in our children. In our parents. In the company we work for. In our country in our government. In religion. And the ultimate belief in God himself.

Unfortunately none of the above insures happiness for things do not always go the way we believe they will. This leaves us forever asking the greatest question of all time.WHY? If we simply look we will know the reason but we will never know the WHY. The WHY of life. Who knows the WHY of God. Will it, will we, will they, will he, no one knows for sure. All we can do is better our chances.