When I was a child in a small Catholic school I was taught that Jesus was going to come some day and save the world from itself. That, like so many other things I was taught about Christian doctrine scared me. It scared me almost as much as the thought that I would be in heaven but many of my friends would be anguishing it hell for thousands of lifetimes just because they weren’t Catholic like me. During those years I was very frightened of God and his wrath.

Now that I have many more years under my belt, it is clear to me that Jesus is all about love and empathy. The bible is filled with it, if you really look. So, why was I told to fear so much evil in the world in my early years? Why was I told about apocalypses?

There are many around today that say Jesus is returning soon. He is tired of all the boys wanting to be girls, and boys loving each other. He is tired of Christians being disrespected.

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A mere glance at history reveals the absurdity of this notion. For chaos and signs of doom are nothing more than business as usual for planet Earth. Jesus did not return when the Black Plague decimated the West. He did not return when war spread over the whole world and the Nazis executed six million Jews. The birth pangs were likewise hollow in the Civil War. None of these, it turns out, were birth pangs of Jesus’ return.

Any study of history reveals that apocalypses happen all the time. Nations, cultures, empires, gods, and religions rise, wax, wane, evolve, and crash or fade away. It’s only our own narcissistic myopia that fancies our country, our culture, and our gods as the center of all history and creation. We can prophesy the end of this world all we want, but my world follows a different script.

• I am no longer special.
• I am no longer chosen.
• I have no cosmic role in the fate of the world.
• I have no special knowledge about the future of mankind.
• I no longer expect God to rescue me from an apocalyptic catastrophe in my corner of the Earth.
• I am no longer responsible for the fate of anyone else’s eternal soul.

All I can do is try to survive and bring as much good into the world as I am able as Jesus taught me to do. I am so much happier this way. I would recommend it to anyone.