From a Rabbi

Harold Kushner, a Jewish Rabbi, spoke at a BYU Forum in 1994.
(He said BYU was the only place he got to be the Gentile.)

I wasn't there, but I love what he said:

"I am a traditional Jew, and I observe the biblical dietary laws. There are certain foods I don't eat. I suspect most of you assume I go around all day saying to myself, "Boy, would I love to eat pork chops, but that mean old God won't let me." Not so. The fact of the matter is, I go around all day saying, "Isn't it incredible? There are five billion people on this planet, and God cares what I have for lunch. And God cares who I sleep with. And God cares how I earn and spend my money. And God cares what kind of language I use.
"Do you see what this view of God does? I am not diminished by being told there are certain things I may not do because they are wrong. Rather, it enhances me. It turns me into a real human being, somebody whose deeds, whose decisions, whose choices matter at the highest level.”

If we sometimes wonder if what we do matters, if we matter, we can remember this.

Sometimes we think we don’t count for much, when the truth is that every thought we think, every word we say, every act we do, counts.

Sometimes we think that because God loves us no matter what we do that it doesn’t matter what we do, when the reality is, because God loves us, it matters at the highest level what we do.

“This knowledge endows every day, every walking hour of our lives, with a sense of our significance,” that what we do has meaning, that how we live matters, that our choices are of eternal import.

Isn’t that nice to know?