Nature and Mourning Death

Today was an interesting day. I spent the afternoon going on a hike and the evening mourning the death of victims of some recent homicides.

Cut to this evening. I meet with a group on Tuesday nights called Access which is dedicated to spiritual formation and engaging in poverty. There have recently been some people on the periphery of our group who have been the victims of homicide. Tonight we gathered to mourn these deaths and to reclaim the places of tragedy as places of peace. It was a very powerful evening for me.

We gathered outside the Denver Rescue Mission and stated that we recognized that somebody was killed here and that this was a moment of injustice and a failure of peace. We stated as a group that we were reclaiming this spot as a place for peace and justice and would do our best to bring Jesus to this city, and to this place, so that these things do not happen as much.

As I stood in this location in the middle of the city of Denver so much made sense to me. I felt like if Jesus were here today (and please don't say "Jesus is everywhere") I mean if He was walking around in Denver today, I feel like He would have been there. Right by all of the drug addicts, where people were being killed, where women are prostituting themselves, etc...

It was interesting to contrast this with how I spent my morning hiking. I love seeing God in nature and wondering what He was thinking when He created that mountain, how he came up with the color blue for the sky, are there other spots in nature that God created that no person will ever touch?

But when I was in the city is where I felt Jesus. That's where Jesus is. At the end of the day I came up with the thought that God shows us beauty and we can worship Him in all of His creation, but Jesus came here to show us how to live. It's great to go see God in nature, but Jesus would probably be hanging out in the city most of the time.

Heaven might hurt a bit...

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.

Eternity Can Begin Now

The Perry Bible Fellowship is a hilarious online comic. The fact that they have the word Bible in their name and this comic is about Heaven is purely coincidental as religion is rarely a theme in their comics.

I am currently reading "Love Wins" by Rob Bell. The recent chapter on Heaven has had me asking serious questions already. I think that I will have to read this book twice in order to really grasp all of the concepts. But as I was reading the book last night, I remembered this comic. It still makes me laugh but I think there is a ton of truth to this comic.

We have this idea that Heaven is a far away floaty place where things don't exist there as they do on Earth. Is there really no billiards table in Heaven? Do people play the piano in Heaven or do we only play harps? Can I play basketball in Heaven? I like basketball, I want to keep playing it even after I die. If God responded to me, "Do you really need to play basketball?" I would probably mutter, "this sucks."

Does Heaven begin here and now? Does Hell begin here and now? Do we still have to work in Heaven? Where did we come up with the concept that we suddenly know everything once we get to Heaven? Where did we come up with the concept that we don't care about certain things once we get to Heaven (such as why people we love might not be there, how the Earth came into existence)? Do we still eat in Heaven? Do we sleep in Heaven? God created those things to be pleasing, I feel like we would still do those things. If we do eat in Heaven can you eat food that is terrible for you?

I don't necessarily have answers to these questions. But I do like to ask them.