The Entrance to the Exit

“Well blow me down.”  Popeye did not say, “I is what I is.”  He said, “I yam what I yam.”  My thanks to the many aficionados of classical literature that pointed out my misquoting the world’s most famous sailorman.  Since we are thinking of Popeye, please indulge me and allow me the luxury of sharing one of my favorite Popeye pearls.  “Where’s the entrance to the exit?”
 
For thousands of years mankind has been searching for the exit.  We long for a finish to the suffering we so blatantly foist upon each other.  Modern day Syria is just one of many horrors in the history of man’s intolerance of others who are different than they.  Diplomats fly back and forth and meet in highly orchestrated conferences seeking an entrance to the exit.  There doesn’t yet seem to be an exit sign over that door.  II Kings 6:8 says, “Then the king of Syria warred against Israel.”  That was about 3,000 years ago.  So what else isn’t new, except this round is Syria against Syria? 
 
However, it isn’t hopeless.  2000 years ago Jesus said, “I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”  There is an entrance to the exit!   And what is on the other side of the exit is an eternity of peace, prosperity and growth.  God has not abandoned us.  The exit is there and the exit is an entrance and its name is Jesus.  In John 5:24 He said, “Whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and . . . has crossed over from death to life.” 
 
“I am strong to the finich…Cause I eats me spinach.”  Popeye