Christian Living

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When the scientist who discovered the smallpox vaccine first administered it to a patient, he gave the patient cowpox. Your handy Funk & Wagnall's Dictionary describes cowpox as a skin disease found in cattle that when administered to humans effectively vaccinates them against smallpox. Cowpox is a disease, yes, but a rather harmless disease, and it keeps a patient alive by preventing a killer disease. The bad thing is preventing the worse, in this case.

Most people go through life keeping their noses clean, going to church, doing all kinds of good deeds, and avoiding all kinds of bad ones, thinking this is going to earn them a place in Heaven. They have a moral equivalent of cowpox, called moralism. Moralism has a lot of adherents in the world. It even has an anthem "My Way".

The human psyche, particularly the American (US) one, has this bootstrap mentality that got it out of the Depression and got on with life after WWII. It served a lot of good, getting buildings built, families started, etc. It got in trouble when it assumed that hard work made the grade with St. Peter, the Gatekeeper of Heaven. St. Pete's got a book, and it isn't filled with Green Stamps. It's filled with names. The names are of those that acknowledged that it isn't what you do, but who you know in life that gets you in to Heaven. Moralism is the cowpox, this time good, which prevented the best.

The maker and owner of all mankind laid down His standard for deciding who are His and who are not. The who that you need to know in life is Jesus Christ, and He must be known as Savior and Lord. That's how you get past St. Peter into blissful eternity. Otherwise you get eternity without the bliss.

The cowpox of humankind is the Great American Myth. If God is your copilot, swap seats.

Tell me what you think, I'm just thinkin out loud.

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