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by Liz Glover
Everyone smiles when they hear the name of our LLC. Be Nice America describes the community where everyone wants to live.
Grady and I recently watched a movie called "7 Days in Utopia". What a wonderful little community deep in the hill country of Texas. What a wonderful place to live. Utopia. The idea of living in Utopia is so intriguing that I looked up the definition.
Utopia; an imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.
synonyms: ideal place, paradise, heaven, heaven on earth, Eden, Garden of Eden, nirvana, bliss
Who wouldn't want to live in a Utopian Society? The problem is that; A utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.
Great sadness! Key words: Imagined community. It doesn't exist. Not in Texas. Not in the USA. Not one place on this globe called Earth will you find a Utopian Society. My Dad was a Pastor and I've heard him preach, "If you are looking for the perfect church you will not find it. And if you do and you join, it won't be perfect any more."
I am not delusional. I clearly understand how imperfect I am. Even if I were able to project a seemingly perfect life and attitude and say all the right words (which I don't) I know the real me because I live in my head and I am well aware of my thoughts and heart responses that no one else can see or hear. They are far from perfect. I'm a little bit proud of how often I resist the temptation to speak my mind and I'm a little bit ashamed of how often I don't.
Grady and I founded a non-profit organization called The Jubilee Market which we managed for 11 years. During those years we encountered some of the most amazing saints that we grew to love like family. Unfortunately we also encountered some of the most artificial "saints" who were actually no more than embezzlers, chameleons, and wolves in sheep's clothing. (FYI, they are called hypocrites). When we turned 60 and decided to retire we released the nonprofit to a young lady and her team. Our lives took a completely different shift and we found ourselves literally re-routing our life journey.
Our CPA told us we needed to open an LLC to place some of our assets. I just needed to come up with a name. I grabbed a pencil and paper to start the tedious process of listing names for our new LLC. I asked myself some vital questions like, "If I could summarize my experiences in the nonprofit world what would I want to say or project?" Without even thinking I wrote on my paper Be Nice. Then I just sat there, pen in hand, waiting for more inspirational names to rise in my spirit. Nothing. So I went to my Domain name registration site and keyed in www.BeNiceAmerica.com. Boom! Available. WHAT? That can't be! www.BeNiceVarnville.com Available. www.BeNiceInternational.com Available.
www.BeNiceGlobal.com Available
I bought them all.
If I could send any message to my tribe, my community or my world I would say, "We just want you to be nice! We don't need for you to look like us, be like us, believe like us, vote like us, or worship like us. But we do want you to respect who we are, what we believe, how we vote and how we worship. And with everything that is in us we will try to extend the same courtesy to you." Apply the Golden Rule. Follow the 10 Commandments. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. These virtues are all a great start. But they STILL will not create a Utopian Society. They will only help us to live together in harmony as much as is possible on this earth.
FYI, I found Utopia. It is my future home. There is a pretty detailed description of it in Revelations 21 which is the last book in the Bible. You can't get there by being a good or nice person. There is only One Door where you can enter. I didn't make the rules about that. SomeONE else did.
A New Heaven and a New Earth
21 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bridebeautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
The New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plaguescame and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13 There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14 The wall of the city had twelve foundations,and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia[c] in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17 The angel measured the wall using humanmeasurement, and it was 144 cubits[d] thick.[e] 18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst.[f] 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lambare its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. 25 On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. 26 The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. 27 Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
This is my future home. My spot in this utopian world is already secure. Some day my travels will end at this destination and I will have arrived. I hope to see you there!!
Go with God.
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