

FIND YOUR ANSWER
Restitution Road

How long will your journey be from your departure here on earth, until you reach the promised land?
Your journey begins from the very first moment you made a conscious decision (no matter what influenced that decision) you begin to set the time you will spend moving from this world to paradise. Our past does dictate our future: conscious decisions are the words we speak, and the actions we take, you should be aware that both have consequences. Our decisions are based on various motivating factors: good, evil, guilt, revenge, regret, shame, anger, and greed, to name a few. What motivates you? Taking the time to reflect on what motivated your decision, will help you answer the question, (How long will your journey be?) Only you can answer this question. We will all have to make some restitution for our decisions here on earth: to free ourselves from redemption. The Oxford Dictionary gives the meaning of redemption as follows: the act of saving or the state of being saved from the power of evil; the act of redeeming. How much restitution you will need to atone for, will be based on the intentions of your spoken words and actions.​ Sometimes we're unaware of how much hurt and pain we cause by what we have said or done. For example: we may have started a small campfire that got out of control and caused a forest fire, we are the cause of both the campfire and the forest fire, how much pain and suffering did the forest fire cause, should we have to pay for this or do we write it off as an accident? People's homes, cars, businesses and maybe even lives have been lost, is society owed some sort of restitution? We may have started our campfire with a lie, a rumor, or bullying and we have no idea how much pain it may have caused!  You must make restitution for all the pain and suffering you caused in your lifetime, (intentionally or inadvertently) no matter your intent the pain is the same. All the pain and suffering we have created here on earth must be wiped away from existence before our journey to paradise has been atone for, this could take days, months, years, or much longer each person’s journey will be different. The more power a person has increases the number of people that their words and actions will reach, and the pain and suffering they may cause has the possibility to become much greater and may never be erased. To decrease the time of your journey to paradise, you must make restitution here on earth or on your journey to heaven. (It is not a mystery how this is to be accomplished). Many scholars believe that we were born with a moral sense of right and wrong, morals are biological. It is also believed by many scholars that your ethical sense of right and wrong is determined by external forces, such as where you live, the customs you were raised with, who raised you, and so on. In today's society, there is so much conflicting information at our fingertips with the world judging each other from an ethical point of view. An ethical point of view is so much easier to believe because you can see it, hear it, and feel comfortable disputing it. The moral values you were born with are so much more confusing, they are based on faith, something we refer to as a gut feeling. Following your instincts to believe your gut feeling will cause lots of internal anxiety and confrontation. Following others' ethical points of view may make your journey to paradise much longer. Following your moral values should fulfill your biological need for right and wrong. Over your lifetime your ethical points of view will be changed many times by external forces, yet your moral values will always remain the same, no matter how hard you try your biological needs will remain. Your moral values are what makes you human. When we are being created, we are blessed with a soul, and your soul will remain with you over your lifetime. For God in us,not just around us: (If it is from this earth, in Heaven it has no worth). The belief that we all have a soul should comfort us in knowing that mankind knows the difference between right and wrong and is willing to live their lives to satisfy their moral values. It would be virtually impossible to track all the pain and suffering we knowingly or unknowingly caused over our lifetime. Our restitution should not be an eye for an eye, in other words, revenge is not the answer, revenge only creates more pain and suffering. To seek revenge, whether physical, spiritual, or financial is the foundation for creating evil. Therefore, wanting to hurt someone in any manner is evil. The true answer to achieving complete restitution is in forgiveness whether you are giving or receiving the forgiveness. We have all heard that your last words are what you want to be remembered for (Then Jesus, said Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do), this is the reason the Father sent his Son to forgive mankind's sins, forgiveness. While seeking to forgive or to be forgiven we may create more pain and suffering by bringing up things from the past that others have already forgotten or they were unaware that you were the cause of the pain and suffering. In both these cases it may be more prudent to make restitution using your moral values to forgive yourself for the evil you have created. How much restitution should you make, if the pain and suffering you cause resulted in someone committing suicide, a family breakup, or a loss of home or business how much restitution do you owe the family, friends, and society before your moral values will be satisfied? To answer this, you must be extremely truthful with yourself knowing what your intentions were, what was motivating your words and actions, greed, lust, selfishness, revenge, power, etc. While doing this examination of conscience we will create a great fear of the unknown, because of the conflict between our decisions and our moral values. As humans we believe living right is to follow our moral values and to do so we become much healthier, both spiritually and physically, we must understand that forgiveness will accomplish the same results. It should be natural for us to make a moral decision to forgive or to seek forgiveness, it is as natural as the need to love or be loved.​​