Preparation

Most people follow some sort of general cyclical pattern in their lives.  I'm thinking of a yearly pattern. We have our basic holidays and summer vacations.  We have birthdays, weekends and schooling schedule.  And without fail, we plan for these things.  Most people do not simply "wing it", when they go on vacation.  They make not necessarily make a list of specific plans, down to the miniscule details, but they do plan.  Airplane tickets, hotel reservations, car rental, possibly some key places to visit.
But what about eternity?  We plan our schooling, we plan our vocations, we plan our retirements, but practically speaking, this is really only about about a 50 year period.  What about eternity?  What planning are we doing to be prepared for eternity?  Does sitting in a pew, once a week constitute preparation?  Does our thoughts about eternity or even simply things spiritual take place only on Sunday morning, for about 45 minutes?  And even at that, how often do we sit though a feel good sermon that we typically don't even "hear" anyways?
We plan an exercise regimen.  We plan a vacation.  We plan a retirement financial approach?  But do we plan for eternity?
Do we even have any idea what it means to prepare ourselves for eternity?  We have a basic understanding of what it means to be in shape, to exercise, to have a healthy heart, but do we have any idea what it means to have a healthy soul?  Do we do ANYTHING to feed/care for/ prepare our souls?
Or are we simply focused on the here and now?

What to do

It is the feeling of helplessness that is so bothersome.  The older I become, the more I realize just how powerless I am and how little I know.  As an idealistic youth and young man, the world was black and white.  What the pastor said in his weekly sermons were true and defensible. But now, as I have reached middle age, life is much more complex, every incomprehensible at times.  Sure, there is black and white, but the gray area in the middle continues to grow.  Circumstances change everything.
What then are we to do, when we are essentially powerless to really make any difference in the world around us?  Governments are corrupt, sex drives everything, people have become objects to be used and thrown away.  Abortion is common, abuse is common, euthanasia is common, neglect of reality and a focus on the temporal rules the day.
As I've mentioned in a previous post, the physical world around us, that everyone focuses on, to the neglect of the other 90% of reality, is painful to live in.  There is so much wrong, so much messed up, so much going the complete wrong direction, that I have to ask, "What to do?"
We cannot become fatalists, for we truly believe that prayer makes a difference.  We cannot simply stop caring, for we have loved ones that need us and that we need.  As Jesus said, "the poor you will always have with you."  So we have to get used to the idea of the persistent nature of evil and suffering.  As long as we are on this side of the final judgment, life is suffering.
The only answer I can offer, the only answer the church has to offer, is that of prayer and repentance. We pray for those in need and we strive after holiness, repenting as we go.

The Organic Nature of Reality

The reality and objectivity of Jesus' incarnation, death and resurrection doesn't seem to garner enough attention with the Protestant/Evangelical/Roman/Orthodox world.  For sure, these branches talk about Jesus and his work, but the objectivity does not seem to be embraced as it should. 
When we read in the gospels and the epistles that Jesus died to save the world or that God loves all men and sent his son to die for the sins of the world, we need to understand what is being said here.  The question should come to mind, "Did Jesus succeed in what he set out to do?"  Of course we will say yes, but how that "yes" is defined differs between branches.  The Calvinists will argue that Jesus' saving work only applies to "the elect", while the Evangelical/Roman world will argue that Jesus' work was comprehensive, the actual application only pertains to those who choose to embrace it.  But the Orthodox world sees it differently.
Far too often, the dichotomy of "universalism" or "unconditional election" is given as the only two options, but this is false.  If we take the words of the gospels literally, we would have to say, "Yes, Jesus died for all men", but that does not mean that all men will be saved.
To cut to the main point here, Jesus' work was not about a legal transaction or a fee paid to an angry God.  God is love, not a bank ledger or an angry judge. Man's problem was not about paying a fee, but about being in bondage to sin and death.  Jesus' death and resurrection was about defeating the power of sin and death and freeing man from that bondage.  Now that ALL men are free from that bondage, it is now each man's responsibility to make use of the tools that God has given us through the church by the power of the Holy Spirit, to transform his soul into the image of Christ. The Orthodox church calls this theosis.
So really what it comes to is two things.  First, Jesus actually accomplished all that he set out to do, he defeated the power of sin and death for all men. Second, man too has responsibility to transform his soul by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This two fold responsibility has always been the situation/relationship between God and man.
This is not a matter of man "earning" his salvation.  Jesus did that already, free and clear.  It is a matter of someone formerly in bondage, now freed, using the tools to transform himself into what he was created to be, that is, in perfect, loving communion with God.