Dying for a Paradox

Emptiness has accompanied humanity throughout history as men hunger for something more, something beyond the hollow shell of straight A's, a steady paycheck, and a luxurious retirement. Life has evolved into a desperate search for satisfaction. Our expectation for perfection, the common denominator of mankind, began the crusade for fulfillment, which kindled Buddhist meditation, the hippie movement, and Karl Marx’s utopia among many other religions and worldviews. Men sought crude trinkets of sex, drugs, and money in an attempt to reduce the emptiness, but only succeeded in exhaling shallow breaths of carbon dioxide into an ever-increasing void. 

Although we longed for a richer existence and for the supernatural to complete the mundane, we knew of no other method, and so we flirted with the earth. In the unholiest of romances, mankind wooed the world in sheer desperation, lavishing love on an earth that never gave back. 

We drunk but were not refreshed. 

We loved, but our love returned empty-handed, and our emptiness seemed all the more immense for our vain pursuit.

Yet, Christ promised “whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (English Standard Version, John 12.25). Love for the world culminates in a lifetime of emptiness and a future of eternal damnation. To satisfy our otherworldly cravings, we must die, tightly embracing self-sacrifice on earth that we might live eternally. Relinquishing our selfish desires, we must offer our living bodies upon a sacred altar of altruism that we might obtain infinite satisfaction. This paradox Christ commands in us exchanges death for life, humility for future glory, and an affair for holy matrimony.

*written for Advanced Composition from The Potters School*