Fearing Loss?

Welcome back from vacation, good sir. I hope you enjoyed yourself and came back relaxed and refreshed.

I've not yet seen the Star Wars movie, and probably will not. I'm not much of a fan of that franchise, and generally not much of a fan of science fiction. As to what Yoda was supposed to mean when he said, "Attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is. Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose" ... I can't begin to guess. But it got me thinking ... is it fear of losing, or fear of realizing something that terrifies people?

I've always wondered about this question: if we could know -- with absolute certainty -- that upon death there truly is nothing at all, would people be more or less frightened of death? Put another way, are we afraid of death because of it's the end, or because it's a beginning? What's more terrifying: nothing at all, or a Holy God who will judge one's every act and every thought?

I've come to fear the latter more than the former, which leads me to appreciate gift of Grace through Christ. I'm no better at the "spiritual disciplines" as I was before (that is to say, awfully negligent), but there's something really pounding in my heart and head -- it's all about Christ. What I do with that realization I do not yet know.

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I saw a blog today that posed this question: "Is Christianity undermining American values?" I thought about that a bit, then I thought -- that question completely misses the point, doesn't it? What's the value of "American Values" if they're not God's values? And if one makes the assumption that "American Values" are a subset of "God's Values" (which is not necessarily a given, obviously), then Christianity by definition can't undermine those value. Unless, of course, the term "Christianity" means something different; or the values being considered aren't God's values. If "American Values" are opposed to God's values, then the true Christian must strive to undermine those values. The tough question is this -- what means may a Christian employ to resist those things opposed to the Lord?

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Netscape 8.0 is out ... it has a dual rendering engine -- Firefox and IE. Cool.