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I don’t know what heaven is – I don’t even know if such a place/concept even bears any semblance to some concrete ‘reality,’ which, in itself, is an interesting idea/word to contemplate! Heaven. Reality.
Geez, I guess both are somewhat in the eye of the beholder.
But all of this contemplating makes me ask, “What if?” What if a person invests their entire life obsessing over politics and political parties and heaven ends up being filled with people of the opposite party… they being the only exception? What if that person were you? How would you respond to this ‘mind-blowing-flabbergasting-God-ordained’ reality?
Even more, what if you are highly prejudiced regarding other races of people and heaven ends up being filled with those you detest?
What if you are a religious zealot and exclusivist and heaven ends up a habitation for ‘the other guys?’ If you’re a Christian, could you live in a place called heaven if it were really a place for all the Muslim faithful? How would you deal with such a turn?
What if you’re a staunch, by-the-book, fundamentalist and you suddenly discover that heaven is really filled with those irreverent neighbors of yours who chose a trip to the lake on Sundays over a trip to some ornate brick and mortar building you knew as a ‘church’?
What if you lived your whole life dedicated to ‘being holy as your heavenly Father is holy’… only to discover that the holiness of God was nowhere near your conception?
What if you had a pet-doctrine or belief for which you gave your all, only to get to ‘heaven’ and discover that you were wrong? Dead wrong. Harmfully wrong. Would it still be heaven for you? Could you adapt? Would you change then?
What if you don’t like off-color humor and upon arriving to heaven Jesus is doing some stand-up routine using what you perceive to be inappropriate language (humoring all the ones you didn’t think would be there – the prostitutes, drug dealers and murderers)? God loves it, roars with laughter, but you don’t… it doesn’t fit your image of the rules – it’s not, according to your view of things, appropriate. Would you want to stay?
In other words, what if heaven turns out to be the total opposite of everything you project it to be; the opposite of everything for which you have lived and dedicated your life? Would it still be heaven?
Could heaven be something God really likes but you don’t?
Most would answer that last question with a resounding ‘NO.’ Mainly because we all tend to think we know God – we know his character – his ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’… which makes me also want to ask – What if God is a She and you’re a misogynistic jerk?
In my best Dr. Phil voice, ‘How’s yer heven lookin now?’ ‘How’s that workin for ya?’
I have a couple of points here: One, I think much of our ideas of heaven are just as much a projection of our own likes-dislikes-beliefs as is our conception of God himself/herself/non-personal/personal/Spirit/energy. Two, I think most people make a list of all kinds of ‘good’ things and call that heaven and then make a list of all sorts of ‘bad’ things and call that hell. Then the goal of life is to try to do what is necessary to make it to heaven and avoid going to hell (this question is laying aside the myth of hell for a moment to get to a broader point here).
Siding with the idea of mystery and humility, I’d prefer to see my (our) journey here on earth as something more in line with transcending both our ideas of ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ In other words, being as in-tune with God and humankind as possible while also remaining fully awake to making adjustments along the way. Sometimes, radical adjustments.
And I’d prefer to leave all such discussions of the afterlife in the hands of Mystery as well – it just seems better that way. This approach helps me be more flexible and compassionate, open to change, learning new insights, becoming more nuanced in my understanding of a plethora of things I think I ‘already’ know but really don’t.
And what if one day I, too, come to discover that living for such an ethic missed the point by a country mile? Well, at least this ethic will allow me to respond with something I find myself saying far too infrequently as it is…
‘Sorry, I was wrong.’
That’s heaven.
6 comments to “I Got Your ‘Heaven’ Right Here!”
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I like to think about life as the opportunity to discover what is valuable. We learn and discover through experience. And beyond cause and effect, beyond reward and punishment, we discover things that are intrinsic, things that we value no matter what.
Some of the things I find intrinsically valuable are love, hope, and confidence.
When I see the beauty of those things, I am convinced that holding onto them is tapping into something eternal, moving into a “stream” of existence that never ends.
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As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie,
I know there’s something much more,
something even non-believers can believe in.
I believe in love, Alfie. -
I think the Westboro Baptist people will have the most awkward eternity ever.
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When people tell me what heaven is like, I ask: How do you know? Our imagination runs wild when we try to say what heaven is, as it does about many other things. To say we know what heaven is, is to hinder our enjoying it.
I love you man. I’m rolling on the floor. Thanks. A definite post to facebook.