I'm reposting it here because I think it's really good and deserves to be spread.  If you like this, do me a favor and click on the link (the title) below so that I can add your "vote" to my counter.  Thanks! -- CJ.

Laurel's Wager

I recently read about an interesting philosophical position called Pascal's Wager. Basically, it says that reason dictates that you should live your life as if God exists, whether you believe in Him or not. It's kind of on a par with the “chicken soup” theory, i.e. it can't hurt, and it might very well help, so go ahead and hedge your bet in this Grand Game of Life by either believing in Him, or at least acting like you do.

Well, here's "Laurel's Wager"....

Live every single minute of your life as if there is no God, whether you believe in him or not. Live it as if you do not get another chance at it. Live it as if you have to leave this earth a better place than what you found it because your kids and grand kids and moms and dads and sisters and brothers and friends and loved ones have to stay in it after you are gone.

Live it as if you need to savor every single drop of it... the joy, grief, laughter, tears, work, failures, successes...all of it...because you may not be reincarnated after you throw this one away, and there may not be either a heaven or a hell or a big loving Daddy Person in the sky passing out the warm fuzzies you just couldn't find a way to get while you were here.

Fight just as hard as you can to stay healthy; don't do drugs or abuse booze or fill your veins with fat and salt and sugar and nicotine. What if your body isn't just a temporary vessel to hold your spirit until it gets to go some place more fun? What if it happens to be the only medium by which you get to stay here for as long as possible, and when it's broken and battered so badly it no longer works, you end...forever...?

Hold those you love close to you now, and don't count on being able to smile down on them from some nebulous golden fairyland and somehow have them “just know” how much you really loved them. Spend time truly interacting with them instead of throwing away your minutes and hours and days and weeks and years thinking you either get a “do-over” or a piece of pie in the sky by and by, just as long as you embrace God right before slipping out of existence.

Do something with your life that leaves a lasting, loving legacy in this world, something that enables your children to lead better lives while they are here, something that people remember as a gift to this life, here and now.

So instead of buying into Pascal's Wager, consider Laurel's Wager. Think of it as “chicken soup”...it can't hurt and may very well be the only chance you ever get to experience incredible joy, sorrow, accomplishment, wealth, poverty, failure, success, and most of all, love. And if there is a God out there, and I tend to believe there is, I think She would be very pleased with your wager...

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