not brainwashed; heartwashed

i have great dreams, but lack the conviction to pursue them, the capability to achieve them. it is easy to desire a Utopian existence, world peace, equality among man, freedom from hardship, the cure for cancer; but imperfection, violence, conflict of interest, unpleasant circumstance, death—will always be there in the shadows, indeed thriving off of our better intentions to extinguish them.
to chase after "the American dream" would be, for me, to ignore the low standards by which so many in this country and around the globe are plagued to live. to focus on my struggles in turning a profit so that i can feel secure in future months is to take for granted a daily meal, a sheltered bed, a strong immune system. to take a political stance for freedoms i believe i'm being robbed of under a constitution whose jurisdiction is bound by hurricanes and earthquakes while my peers worldwide are killed for owning a Book, gathering with friends, considering faith of more importance than life—is to selfishly set up America to be a "safe haven for the oppressed" when it is the furthest thing from heaven.
the world has money and food and clothing and shelter and medicine in excess for all of us to be taken care of; the problem is its distribution. one end hoards while the other starves/ freezes/ withers away, and the rest of us either have the bare essentials or are headed toward an extreme. we are so consumed with giving men fish that we don't realize: we're not fixing the problem, but ensuring its continuance.
i believe the remedy is prayer. some do not believe in it—some fight to disprove its power, and others are unsure. but belief makes that great difference: for, if i do not believe in the healing properties of penicillin, i can choose from any number of reasons (even fabricate a few of my own) to support my belief of its ineffectiveness or harmfulness. but prayer is stronger than penicillin and chemotherapy and death. it is God's inclusion of us in His sovereign plan, "the big picture." prayer under God's will is the closest thing to heaven on earth.

Alfred: "Some men just want to watch the world burn."
-The Dark Knight

there can never be world peace, as long as this earth and its ways stand. no amount of prayer will change that fact, because God's will calls for the destruction of sin. God has promised world peace upon a new heaven and a new earth, and there will be no need for prayer because we will live in the presence of God, and there will be neither pain nor vain labor because there will be no sin.
we were all born under sin; we all have the capacity for doing evil and have done it to numerous degrees. our bodies are condemned to die because of it, and our souls as well according to God's wrath. then that world peace would be shared among God and Enoch, and 144,000 Jews, because the rest of us are born to die, right?
but God's message always points toward repentance, a choice to no longer live in sin. this decision crossed the boundaries of "religion" and "culture" even in the B.C. era. it was never about adhering to written laws; it was always about avoiding the cycle of sin. it was never about sacrificing our wants for God's needs; it was always about God's want for our need. in one of Israel's darkest hours, God called for the new order, His Spirit working in man against the cancerous growth of sin. and then, for 400 years, He remained silent.
then a star shone, casting its ray of hope within an expanding empire, and messengers cried out, "on earth, peace to God's remnant." in heaven, he was called the Son of Man; on earth, he was self-proclaimed the Son of God. he was God-incarnate, born under sin with the capacity for doing evil—but never having done so. by such an existence, his life would not cease; through plans and plots he would not die. the need he came to fulfill was foretold of in those dark years; indeed, the exile spoke volumes on man's decline by sin. following God had become a religion, but the Messiah showed its purpose as a lifestyle.

If I could change, I would,
Take back the pain, I would,
Retrace every wrong move that I made, I would.
If I could stand up and take the blame, I would,
I would take all my shame to the grave.
-Linkin Park

what we could not do, he did. he took upon himself the world population's burden of sin, as a sacrificial lamb would do when God's law had been broken; and by that, the one who could not die gave up his life, so he could take all our shame to the grave.
before his time, all who died lay waiting in the grave. during his life, he raised some and let others sleep. at his death, the sun was darkened, the earth shook, and God's heart was broken. upon his resurrection, many who were dead regained the breath of life. with his ascension (40 days later), God's Spirit came to minister to His believers.
so what? we still sin. there's still death. what did the Messiah accomplish if life is still so imperfect? therein lies the truth. life isn't fair, and it isn't going to be, so our focus should not be—as it should never have been—upon living the perfect life. the throne of this world belongs to Satan, and it was given to him. if world peace depends on the repentance of all from selfish deeds and godless ways, it will never happen. and if by your perspective repentance is nonsense and those who preach it are annoying at best, your perfect life of not being bothered by the notion will, also, never be achieved. conclusion? there's a perfect life waiting beyond this one, where Enoch and Elijah already dwell (to name a couple), and the Messiah opened those gates to all who wish to be cleansed.
just as the first Passover, the angel of death (God's wrath) passes over the doorposts (hearts) covered with the blood of the sacrifice (the Messiah's payment). without it, we are dead in our sins; within it, we will be raised to a perfect life. this life, this earth, these sins will meet their end one day. but to those who choose, God gifts with a multitude of blessings, the greatest of which can never be taken from us: eternal life. of the temporary blessings, His Spirit living in us trains us to avoid sin, convicts us when we do sin, assures us when we apologize for our sin, until the time when there will be no more sin.
upon those who do not choose—or rather, choose not—God's wrath remains, because there is one sin that cannot be forgiven: to desire a life apart from God is to get what you wish for. hell is as physical as that new earth will be, and God will not be there, nor any attribute for which He stands. and this is why we preach the "good news": because there is bad news whether we accept it or not.