There’s an excellent alternative
:
. The truck is heavily loaded with compressed plastic bottles. Since there is no industrial recycling facility in our state of Apurímac, the driver will likely have to transport the material all the way to Lima. Eventually, the bottles will be back on supermarket shelves, and the cycle will continue.
Hindus and Buddhists believe that human beings are subject to a similar cycle of death and rebirth. Karma determines what kind of being one returns to this earth as. A few years ago, a retired businessman invited me to his home for breakfast. His wife—an Asian woman—had passed away a few months earlier. He described the funeral rites performed by the Buddhist master of ceremonies. He wept and pleaded—with whoever might be listening—to finally free the deceased from the cycle of reincarnation so that she might find peace in Nirvana.
There are people who believe that all religions say more or less the same thing. Nothing could be further from the truth than such an assumption. In Christian worship services—like this morning’s—we worship Jesus Christ, who promises us eternal life in the presence of God. Our identity remains intact; heaven is a place without suffering or death. The idea of a deep lake of extinguished souls would not be appealing to me. One day, I would like to see my parents and relatives again. And my wife and our children, of course.
Throughout my life, I have wanted to do everything in my power to test the credibility of Christ. This explains the title of my fourth book, *An Experiment with God*. And my guiding principle since childhood has been a saying by the Apostle Paul: “This is all I want. I want to know Jesus Christ and experience the power of his resurrection!” (Phil. 3:10) /KDJ
