As most of you probably already know, karma is the notion that you get what you give; that what goes around, comes around. Karma can be either good or bad. What you do in life will determine what happens to you. Karma originated in the Hindu and Buddhist religions but it has become a very popular belief in the Western world as well these days.

The concept of karma is nice - that if I do good, I will receive good and if I do evil then I will pay for it. Justice. Who doesn’t like that idea?

But karma is just a fanciful idea; life really doesn’t work that way. And I believe we should ALL be thankful that it really IS just a fanciful idea and not a reality?

To believe in karma is to believe that the victims of 911 deserved what they got - that they all did something to make those men fly planes into a building. Or that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold only shot students that in some way deserved it. That any victim gets what they had coming to them because of their past actions.

The reality is that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. There is NO correlation. Think Princes Diana got what she deserved? Or Steve Irwin? Mahatma Gandhi - Martin Luther King Jr. - Abraham Lincoln - Cassie Bernall and countless others? I don’t.

So you’re saying there is no correlation — that I can be evil and still have a good life? Yes, it’s possible, but not probable. I believe that we are not punished for our sins, but by our sins. That if you do wrong and still have a soul that it will eat away at you. But, technically speaking, you can do wrong and still not receive what you deserve. I believe this is called Grace.

Grace is an amazing concept — some might even say divine. It is the gift to receive that which we DO NOT deserve. I must admit, that doesn’t sound like anything a human could come up with…

But doesn’t Grace, unlike karma, let people off the hook? Yes it does. And how beautiful is that - there’s an element of Grace that karma lacks; that of love. The pop singer Bono tells it like this, “Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.”

But then why should we do good if there isn’t any incentive? By incentive you mean like going to heaven or to stop the cyclical reincarnation cycle? I don’t believe that doing good works adds points to an invisible scoreboard where if we obtain enough points it will at some point swing the pendulum in our favor and we will then get into heaven or achieve nirvana. No, I don’t think there’s a scoreboard; and thank goodness for that because if there was, I’m afraid we would ALL fail. But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still do good…

I think that ‘most people’ - religious or not - would agree that humans are amazing creatures with exceptionally developed minds giving us an impressive range of intelligence. Because of this we have the ability to distinguish right from wrong. So because we have this ability we should use it.

So you’re saying that I should do what’s right just because I know what’s right? Yes, I am.

Now I would like to address a few more issues that I had after reading a recent blog post by Jonathan Fields. But first let me say that I am not trying to bash Jonathan here - I simply take issue with some of what he said in his post and feel compelled to address some of his comments.

Jonathan tells us that karma is, “Simply put — the energy you put out into the world eventually reflected back onto you.” So really it’s about saving your own ass, is it? It’s not about treating people kindly because it’s the right thing to do? But, because you don’t want bad things to happen to you - or because it really would be nice to stop that never ending reincarnation ferris-wheel and get off, wouldn’t it?

Jonathan also says that one of the benefits of receiving good karma is that it “positions you as a leader, a philanthropist, a visionary, a mentor and massive-success story” Yeah, that’s exactly why you should treat people kindly — so YOU can become a hero…

Jonathan would like us to believe that Buddhist teacher Michael Roach’s philosophy’s about karma are sound because, after all, his New York diamond business makes an impressive 9-figure income. To that I say the thickness of a man’s wallet is no indication of how sound his theology is.

Jonathan then ends his blog post with giving us three case studies. Each of which ends happily ever after with the person becoming a financial success. There’s nothing like treating people kindly and just waiting for financial success to come… But how do you explain all those poor devote Hindus and Buddhists? Are they not being “good enough”?

Look I’m sure that Jonathan Fields is a very nice guy and is compassionate towards others. That’s a wonderful thing and I want to encourage everyone to be compassionate towards others. Ultimately we have to look at the underlying motives behind the idea of karma. Are they only self-serving?

Let me conclude - I believe we should treat people with kindness because it’s the right thing to do. Period. Rich or poor - Hindu, Buddhist, Christian or otherwise - you know how to treat people, so do it.

When a chemist puts water in a test tube and adds salt, an angel comes along and dissolves the salt into charged particles called ions. Because we perceive the universe to be self-governing according to internally consistent and comprehensible principles, the angel in this story seems completely superfluous to us. We therefore cut it away with Occam’s razor.

He who lives without prayer, he who lives with little prayer, he who seldom reads the Word, and he who seldom looks up to heaven for a fresh influence from on high — he will be the man whose heart will become dry and barren.
-Charles Spurgeon

It doesn’t make me happy to say that. And yes, I do consider myself a Christian, even though in todays culture that word carries a lot of negative connotation with it. And any long time viewers of this blog will know that I am a music lover, from all genres. There’s currently over 4,000 songs on my iPod; some rock, punk, country, rap, blues, jazz and everything else.

Just about all music genres will have ’some’ good artist. Christian music is no exception, there ARE talented musicians within the Christian music genre; Shawn McDonald is one of the most played artist on my iPod and Mat Kearney is also way talented. But, the problem with 99% of Christian music is - I’m not buying it. Do these people really know what it means to follow Jesus? It’s not happy go lucky. In fact, anyone that has taken even a brief look at the Bible will conclude that people who follow Jesus do not end up with their life on easy street with all their problems solved. Most of the people that followed Jesus were ridiculed, martyred, imprisoned, or exiled.

So Christian musicians need to get real.

Elton John in an interview published Saturday said, “From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organized religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.”

While Sir Elton John’s statements may surprise many, they don’t surprise me. I have heard nonbelievers point out all the horrible atrocities done in the name of religion many times before. It’s an easy target. History is littered with men cloaking themselves in religion and using it as a conduit to achieve their own objectives. You see it everyday on the news.

What the news rarely shows and what most people never see is all the good the church does. I am willing to bet that if the media actaully did take the time to look, they would see that no other organization gives more and to more people than the American church. No other organizaion, not the government, not the Red Cross, not Bono, not comic relief, nobody, has given more to aid the victims of hurricane Katrina than the American church.

When 9/11 hit my church had a blood drive the next week to get blood to the people who needed it. I’m sure that churches across America did the same. But, there was no mention of it. Again, I’m sure that the contribution the American church made to the victims of 9/11 would dwarf all those made by all other organizations combined.

Churches around America right now are raising money and putting together Food Drives to ensure that less fortunate people have food for Thanksgiving and Christmas and clothes and blankets for the winter ahead. And all those Salvation Army stands you walk by on the way to the mall; well the Salvation Army is an evangelical Christian organizaion founded in 1865.

Most of the ‘Rescue Missions’ around the cities of America, like The Denver Rescue Mission are Christian organizations designed to provide food, shelter, counseling and hope to those that are less fortunate. In fact, almost all of the shelters that take in the homeless, that provide meals to the hungery, that provide counseling for the addicted and hope for the hopeless are all backed by the American church.

So while many people are quick to point out where the church has failed no one and I mean no one has ever pointed to the church as the place that does good. You may not believe in God, but trust me, you don’t want to see a world without those that do.

“Above all else, Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” ~King Solomon (Proverbs 4:23)

As I read this quote from, King Solomon, my mind travels to the thoughts of dating and relationships. I Believe that is what we have been trained to think. But I believe it goes so much deeper than that.

“Guard your Heart,” Common Sense would tell us to guard our heart with those we like, but was that what Solomon what speaking about? Now Solomon is said to be one of the wisest men if not the Wisest of men of all time. And to make a comment about such things as dating, I just can’t believe that is what he is meaning. You see dating wasn’t even something that happened in these days, so let us travel deeper into this thought.

In the heart of a man is the wellspring of life. “The wellspring of life,” Crazy words to put to a man’s heart. Jesus himself said he was the water of life, this is saying that our heart is a wellspring of life. There is something very deep in a man’s heart. So deep that it is said that life starts here- In the Heart.

“Above all else” Guard your heart. This is an important statement and so looked right past. This world has become a very shallow place to be, and the heart is not looked at as something important.

But yet why does your heart beat harder when you See or hear a story with someone truly living. When the hero wins the fight, when he kisses his bride, when he is captured by his enemy, you well up inside.

We are meant to live. Not die! Our heart is meant to have life. But if we don’t learn to Guard our heart it is going to die or possably it already has. Have you ever wondered why people are so cruel? I do believe that it starts here. People fail to guard their heart and so it dies. The Heart is the center of ones being. It is where the true man starts. Without heart a man is just deed or reputation or nothing more than a program with limitations. Without a heart you’re only a man chained to a wall.

Wake your hearts! Do what ever it takes to keep your heart alive, cause only then can you love. In which there is none greater than love.

from [ Shawn McDonald ]