Jay lived on an island with a large tribe.\u00a0 His complex culture had evolved over the centuries and included religious practices that were also complex, and at times, difficult to understand.\u00a0 Jay didn’t think too much about it.\u00a0 He just followed the culture’s lead and worshiped in a similar fashion to the vast majority of his tribe.\u00a0 He worshiped many gods, as did most of his tribesmen.\u00a0 Not even knowing the gods’ names, he just followed the rest of the tribe and made his sacrifices like everyone else.<\/p>\n
He did at times wish life could be simpler.\u00a0 Worshipping so many gods kept him busy.\u00a0 They constantly harassed him, wanting attention, demanding he sacrifice for them.\u00a0 They all yanked him about like a fish on a hook.\u00a0 Though he didn’t know their names, he could feel their pull.\u00a0 There was the god of Others’ Opinion.\u00a0 The god of “Jay is in Control.”\u00a0 He was closely related to the god “Have it My Way.”\u00a0 Then there were Appetite and Desire gods, and their very powerful relative, Lust.\u00a0 The Fame god, Pleasure god, Power, Riches & Security god . . . the list was way too long.<\/p>\n
On his stroll through the streets of Manhattan, Jay walked past the Madison Avenue Baptist Church.\u00a0 He was thinking about his to-do list and the sacrifices the gods were demanding this week when the joyous singinging of the worshipers in the church caught his attention.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He took a quick glance at the church sign.\u00a0 “Love the Lord God with all your heart.\u00a0 No one can serve two masters,” it said.\u00a0 He stopped for a moment and pondered the meaning of it.\u00a0 What a simple minded bunch, he thought.\u00a0 Did they not know about all the other gods? As he resumed his walk, his thoughts went back to his to-do list and the sacrifices all the gods required.\u00a0 His shoulders slumped a bit and his once purposeful steps degenerated into a slow shuffle.\u00a0 Life would be so much more peaceful, so much more joyful, if I could serve only one god, he thought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jay lived on an island with a large tribe.\u00a0 His complex culture had evolved over the centuries and included religious practices that were also complex, and at times, difficult to understand.\u00a0 Jay didn’t think too much about it.\u00a0 He just followed the culture’s lead and worshiped in a similar fashion to the vast majority of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[278],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2624,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions\/2624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markspruill.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}