The Same Goal, Maybe, But on Very Different Paths

I have been listening to this "new earth" stuff, hearing some good goals within the teaching.

To be less of a slave to materialism, to live in the moment, to have this moment of awakening that begins a new life. To be compassionate etc. Sounds so much like the same goals of a very old message, one just over 2,000 years old. But, and the but is a big word in this instance, the new earth stuff has no need for a Savior, no Christ crucified and risen. There are his words, quoted for their wisdom and his example as how to live, but no Christ on the cross as the son of God. The divine in this new earth is you. I don't buy it. Too many times in my life miracles have happened that had nothing to do with anything divine in me. It seems that we as people are constantly trying to make things suit us, make us feel good. We redesign old teachings to take out the parts we feel uncomfortable with and make them "feel good". If that ain't ego, I don't know what is ! But the so near truth to it, can suck you in, make you question what you have always been taught. "What if it were true ?" sort of thing.

I was thinking this morning as I was lingering in bed, knowing that getting up meant I would start coughing, so I was putting it off for as long as I could.... what is it that we want, oh sure we know we all want to be happy but I was thinking particulars, for my family. I want my children to be happily married, never divorced. I want them to never get messed up in illegal activities. I don't want them to be poor or rich (remember the verse about it being harder for a rich man to get into heaven, than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle) I want peace in our hearts, I want the love Emery and I share to go on and on. I want health for everyone, I want my grandchildren to be sheltered from the stormy side of life. Find the right life mate without having all this trial and error thing. Know about community from experience and find joy in helping one another and being helped. To find value in the real things in life, to be confident enough that they don't need things to define them. I want them to have faith, belief in something greater than what they know on earth. I want them spared from the ugly side of life. I want them to have parents that have not put self advancement ahead of them and for them to be the same with their own families. I want them to be dependable people.

It hasn't been through "escaping", that we have planted the roots of many of these goals, it hasn't been through new teachings, but through living simply, old fashioned, and sticking to a narrow path while the children were growing. We have broadened the path some since then, not sure if its been a good thing or a bad thing, the verdict is not in yet on that one. But one thing remains the same, I may look once or twice at the new things out there, but it is the narrow path that I come back to over and over.