Yes, I am still reading Love Wins which is making me write all this stuff. None the less, here we go again.
We talk about Heaven as if we will be so much different when we get there. We say, "When you get to Heaven, you won't care about that." I pray that being in the presence of all that is good, true, and love will make me no longer long for what is rich, lust, and full of worldly pleasure. But what if that's not the case? What if you don't have a change of heart right when you die? What if you die and still feel exactly the same except you are not faced 100 percent with the your evil and selfish self?
If that were the case, Heaven would probably be more painful than joyful. But isn't being real always better than being fake? Think about when you have repressed pain. Once you finally embrace the pain and have that real hard cry, you know the one that Dane Cook talks about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVrW3zat2To (not for the faint hearted), it feels good. Yes, your heart hurts, but it's like being able to see for the first time. There is a birth to your healing which comes at the death of your denial.
Jesus allows us to die now. We can birth our healing at the moment we let the pain die. If we still love choosing ourselves right now, why would we suddenly no longer want to constantly satisfy ourselves after we die? Might as well start preparing now, because Heaven could be a very rude awakening.
I like this. The idea that there will still be come tension to be worked out. I loved that Rob pointed out that the gates of "New Jerusalem" are "always open." Others are free to come in, and "we" (assuming, of course, that it is we after all) are free to go--and, likely, based on the state of our heart, only those who subscribe to the Gospel (peace, justice, grace, love, probably not a magazine) would want to stay in "heaven," and only those who subscribe to the anti-Gospel (violence, pride, greed, lust, "I am my own god" mindset) would want to stay in "hell." There probably wouldn't have be much "banishing" by God necessary. Maybe?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have not had one of my friends make a Dane Cook reference since my awesome roommate in college and I stayed up to ridiculous hours watching Dane Cook on Youtube. Yes...this feels right.