First page of the Gospel of Mark, by Sargis Pitsak, a Medieval Armenian scribe and miniaturist (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Behold! A rather lengthy preface:

I wrote an article about isolation and greed.  And I am sure it is of value.  But I had added what follows.  The Lord showed me that what you are about to read should not accompany that article about desire.  This addition is harsh.  I will warn you of that.  Being a man, however, I feel it necessary to post this.  There is jail for criminals.  And the court system necessary to put them there is not kind and cuddly.  In this same fashion I present this for those who would ridicule the message about greed and desire.  I am obviously compelled to agree with the Lord in His wisdom.  It is His perfect right to divide what belongs among men from what is God’s.  Men are allowed to have words among themselves about what is right.

I say what follows as a man who will stand judgment just like the rest of you.  It is meant to shock. It is meant as an alarm to a heavy sleeper.  It is loud and does not pull any punches in the war against foolishness.  It is a very concentrated warning to the proud.  In my mind (perhaps the only valid place for such a message) it mirrors the messages which brought America to its knees in the early part of last century.  Truth is often so very unwelcome among us.  And this rings more true among the proud.

This message is not the kind, loving, and cuddly message that a father might give his dear child.  It is more like that message a judge might give just before rendering the sentence to a criminal.  I am not any man’s judge.  But I do feel compelled to offer this helpful tool in the rehabilitation of those who think they are beyond the Gospel’s reach.  That is to say, those who think they are better than everyone else and who do not need to learn about the restraint of greed or desire.

I suppose the Lord decided to leave this message apart from the other because such foolish men would not likely read it anyway.  And there is no need to shrink the heart’s faith of those who are striving to obey the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  On that note, it is likely a waste of time to post this.  But I feel the urge to scratch an itch.  Maybe that’s all this is.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the real ending to the post about greed:

Now, I know, there are some seriously hard-nosed people who will laugh at this message.  They will mock its author because they will say, “He just gives up because he can’t compete in the real world.”  Do you who laugh really think there is no message for you in this?  Do you think words can’t be produced and strung together so as to penetrate your hardened heart?  Do you think I had finished the message without considering what applies to you?  Prepare yourself and I will have a word presented for your sake:

Look at you.  Take a good look at who you really are.  You are like a driver on the interstate who wants to be first.  Look at how utterly foolish that concept is.  Were you the first one to ever drive on the finished road?  And you want to be first at what?  The construction crews even beat you to your perceived proper place in society.   You destroy the desires of others because you consider yourself to be more important.  You foolish man or woman!  You live in a world, which you call the “real world”, as one who travels where millions have gone before you, all the while thinking you are the only one who has ever gone this way.  Look at how foolish and wickedly stupid that idea is.  Yet you mock me because I say that being first is an utterly worthless and destructive endeavor, it is less than nothing.  Look at yourself for a change.  It will be like a fire if you have the guts to do it.  That fire already consumes you and you do not notice.  You rot like a dead pig in the hot sun.  And you can’t smell the stench of your ways.  Yet you mock what is true.

I am harsh with you because, if you inhabit that mocking attitude, you deserve harsh treatment.  The “REAL WORLD” is in eternity.  And eternity is now, as it has already been established in this message.  Yet you mock.  If stupid needs to be defined, I just did.  I would wager such people think that God will gladly receive them because they were strong enough to endure anything that stood against their desire.  Foolishness!  You endure against the Holy God of all eternity for the sake of your sinful and selfish desires!  And, rest assured, He will call you to account for that attitude and those actions.

You are the ones who wake in the morning, carry out your day, and plot on your bed, so that you will be “first” in your “real world”.  You consider anyone who defies your stupidity as a fool.  All the more then, you add to your self-made plight.  Selfishness is pure vanity.  Vanity is less than nothing; it is destructive, completely worthless; a drought of value.  It is worthless dribble from the slobbering mouth of a man who cannot tell the truth from a lie.  Harshness is what you deal to yourself.  I am only like a bird in a tree, chirping, singing what is true regardless the perception of the receiver.  You do not hear truth because your ears are filled with the song of “ME”.  And you chide this man for telling you the truth!  So be it.  Either listen to what has been spoken or continue in your way.  What is that to me?  It will be something to you.

What is spoken in the message about greed stands firm.  All your railing will not change one iota of truth.  I have some serious advice for you.  Perhaps I should say God has a message of advice for you.  Shut your slobbering mouth for a while.  Straighten your lips from a smile to a look of serious consideration.  Allow your ears to stop the song of “Me”.  Look around you and consider that you were born when you were.  You were never first!  And you will never be the last!  Nothing is available to you in which you can claim any ownership of “first”.  You will be lumped together with all humanity when God judges us.  And you will stand in that crowd of billions all alone, waiting your turn to give account of yourself.  Even in that place you will not be first.  All your strivings will amount to horror as you realize what you have done with the life God gave you, and now demands an accounting of.  And you laugh at me?

Do you still laugh?  Then have your fill.  Laugh and mock at these things.  Laugh till you vomit.  Enjoy yourself with the trash you hold so dear.  Again, what is that to me?  You have been warned (If, indeed, you had just enough unselfishness to read to this point).