Ed, my neighbour next door, found out that he wasn't cut out for life on a cruise ship. "Partying for a week can get a fellow down," Ed explained. "I like to party as much as the next guy, but eating, drinking and having lots of free time to do whatever you want was too much of a good thing after a couple days," Ed informed me.
According to Ruby, Ed's wife, Ed is covering up the truth. He had a great time, but will never go on another cruise because he had to spend his money on drinks and tips. Ed did tell me that needing to tip and keep buying drinks became like a sharp knife cutting his fun to shreds.
"Don't you have to buy drinks when you are at home?" I asked Ed.
"Not like when you are on a cruise! At home no one is forever asking me if I would like something to drink. On a cruise everyone is drinking and there is pressure to keep up. You wouldn't understand," Ed said, "one case of twelve beers does you a year or two. When you are a normal drinker you have your reputation to consider."
"Did you really corner the captain and tell him that in Saskatchewan we hardly ever tip and that we don't even say thank you for good service?" I inquired of Ed.
"It doesn't matter because it didn't do a bit of good," answered Ed.
Even on a holiday we can find ourselves living on the cutting edge. We never know how, or who or what will have us uncomfortable, out of our element, and dealing with a reality that cuts us. It can be a little nick, or a deep scratch, or a wound that needs stitches. To me, Ed's buying drinks and tipping was a minor nick in his wallet. To Ed, it cut deeply and made it a first and last time cruise experience.
I find it interesting that life can cut us when there is too little and when there is too much. A cruise holiday is living briefly in too much luxury and self-indulgence. Many feel they have too little free time, too little being waited on and looked after and catered to. Too much work is crushing; too little work makes life pointless, like a car idling in park, burning gas but going nowhere.
Jesus talks of our lives being cut by the truth - they do not consist in the abundance of our possessions. Our goal in life is not to have plenty of good things so we can take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. We will die sooner or later and face the judgment of God and our possessions will go to another. Even in our death there is a cutting edge. Will it be heaven or hell for us?
Ed refuses to listen to any discussion of hell. He calls it a scare tactic of the clergy to force God on people. It doesn't seem to me God will force anyone into heaven with Himself. The cutting edge may be facing our eternal existence without Him. Without God it could be hell.
