My last post. Ever.

I have to admit, this guy got in my head for a few days. But he didn't bring anything new. The fear was already there. Just needed to be stirred up a bit.

When I was a kid I spent alot of time worrying about the end of the world. I grew up in the 80s during the era of the fall of the Soviet Union. At school we would watch civil defense videos. I can still hear the ominous, low pitched tone of the narrator explaining how to surround yourself with cinderblocks. You would need a few feet of concrete protection to absorb the radiation from the nuclear fallout. That is IF you were unlucky enough to not receive a direct hit. Yep, I and every kid at the school were forced to watch this at least once a year. It was so scary and confusing. I would go home and daydream about just where we could put our wall of cinderblocks.

I was lucky enough to not only get scared to death at school but also at church on Sunday's. The preacher would often take current world events and turn them into end time scenarios. On top of that, the Book of Revelation was preached literally. (Refer to the Left Behind book series for more info.) Now, if you've ever read the Book of Revelation from the Bible, you will know that it speaks of dragons, beasts and other extremely scary things. We were told by a few preachers that these terrifying events would happen literally and probably soon.

So, needless to say, I've spent many years working to undo the damage done. I seem to do welll until some "prophet" comes along and convinces a few people that this is it. Then my mind quickly goes back to that place of adolescent fear. And the "what if" gets stuck in my head and won't go away.

But what is really at the core of my fear?

It's a core belief about God that is fundamentally wrong and dangerous. It's the belief that he is angry at his creation and wants to destroy us. Except the few that behaved well. This is the core belief that those crazy prophets get to and bring to the surface.

So I'm replacing that core belief with a better one. God IS love. Everything about God is loving. He loves his creation. All of us. Including the earth. He is redeeming his creation and restoring it. He doesn't desire to destroy the earth or us! That's what I believe about God.

Sorry Herold Camping, but you're wrong. See you on the 22nd!