Heaven is a place...

Yesterday the Pastor at the church I go to gave a sermon about hell. This is for me, a tricky subject. I know all the rational explanations for why people go to hell. But I find it so hard to believe, because it just sounds so horrific. 

However, I know one thing is true, and that is that the Gospels are the most accurate account of what Jesus said in his life, and he spoke about hell a lot.

When I was younger I went through a phase of reading a lot of near death experiences. Some were so amazing and full of bright light, meeting old loved ones, and blissful experiences. But there were occasional ones that were pretty dark, and that left me feeling uneasy. In alternative spirituality, it’s often described as if it’s all love and light, there’s no hell or darkness. I had a question in my mind that I couldn’t answer; why did some people have wonderful experiences, and others not?  

Now these days I’m not sure that near death experiences represent the actual afterlife. I think there may even be some deception in play during these dreams on the border between life and death. I don’t know if they accurately depict what really happens after death, as these people all came back to life. However, those negative near death experiences could point to the fact that there is such a thing as hell, and judgment. 

My Pastor talked about the way hell is depicted in Hollywood. How it’s all sex, drugs and rock n’ roll, a great party hosted by the Devil. Meanwhile heaven is some floaty place with angels playing harps, and it’s actually a bit boring in its perfection. 

When it comes to my sense of belief, I realise, I actually struggle to understand what heaven is really like too. We have been subjected to so many depictions in films, books and music. Just right now the lyrics ‘heaven is a place, where nothing ever happens,’ from the Talking Heads have popped into my mind.

Are our beliefs about God, the devil, heaven and hell our own? Or are they imprints from the thousands of movies, and music, and books that we have consumed? 

I am convinced that if we want to find truth, about the God, the devil, heaven, and Hell, we can find it in two different places. One is the mainstream culture, seeing how it spins things to glorify the darkness and dull the beautiful. Two; is the Bible. 

In our fallen nature, maybe the idea of heaven does seem a bit boring, and we opt for conflict and drama to make a good story. But Jesus shows us the way. Just as hell is so unbelievably horrific, heaven is unbelievably amazing.  

I pray I’ll see you there.