It seems like everywhere we turn there’s someone trying to sell salvation: a talk show host who wants to change who we are in an instant, creams, drinks, shampoos and clothes that promise miracles, a guru with a way to banish all our troubles.  Some of them can’t imagine what it’s like to be you.  Many of them try to exorcise their own demons by trying to cast out yours. A few are really trying to do their “civic” duty by you.  Most offer short term band-aids over a wound they can’t possible hope to understand. Others are trying to sell you something they couldn’t stand to embody themselves. The worst ones just want to take advantage of your personal strife for their own gain.  

Unfortunately, the real question isn’t: “Which one will work for you?” or even: “Who has the best intentions?”. It’s a property rights issue: “Is salvation really theirs to give?”   

Everyone was created for something beautiful .  No matter where you were born or to whom, your life is heading somewhere, regardless of what happens on the way you can do something incredible with the journey.  We are each made  and empowered with the free will to decide what footprints we leave behind.  Each person contributes to society as a whole and, as our society becomes increasingly global, our choices are growing to have a wider, broader impact. With radio, television, satellites and the internet connecting people hundreds of thousands of miles apart one person can change the world by his or her actions or inaction.

Is salvation theirs to give? In a world where little else is certain, the one thing we can each be positive about is that salvation is ours to create, and inasmuch, ours to accept.  It can’t be force fed to us through commercial endeavors, empty political promises, school books or even divinely inspired text.  It’s something we embody when we choose to live our lives to the fullest.  It’s something we personify when, instead of taking what we’re given, like Oliver Twist we get up and ask for ‘…s’more’. It’s symbolized not by pretty words, but by choosing in the here and now to do something beautiful with the life you’ve been given.