SEEK 26 – Heaven
Question: Is Heaven boring?
Bible Reading: Philippians 1
Text: 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23 I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; (Philippians 1:21-23)
There is this really strange idea – that Hell is a fun place to be, and Heaven is boring. Hell is where you party with all your mates – and Heaven is an eternal church service. The devil is the father lies – and this is one of his biggest ones – and one of the most dangerous. Hell is hell. It is not possible to conceive of a worst place to be. Hell is not just darkness, torture and loneliness. It is also the most boring place you could ever be – the same endless hellish repetition. Heaven is heaven – it is not possible to conceive of a better place. And it is a place of joy, music, life and infinite variety.
We are sometimes so immersed in our culture and its memes that we do not realise how much it affects us. As a young Christian I was walking on the beach in Brora in the Scottish Highlands. I was at a missionary conference where the speaker was a wonderful man called Dick Dowsett. It was midnight and the moon was shining off the water. I turned to Dick and said – ‘Mr Dowsett, I have a problem”. “What is it, David?”. “Well, it’s all this. It’s so beautiful. I don’t want to leave it and go to heaven”. “Why? What do you imagine heaven is like?”. “” I’m not sure, but I think it’s a bit like a church service that goes on forever”. He laughed and again asked: “Where would you like to visit on earth before you go to heaven?” “I want to go to Beijing, Barcelona, Sydney and many other places”. “David, you need to understand that Beijing, Barcelona and Sydney will be in heaven – or at least the good that they represent, the beauty they have – without all the bad bits. Everything good on this earth is in heaven – this is just the beginning”.
It was an enormously helpful conversation for me. I began to learn to stop thinking of heaven as some kind of ethereal almost non-physical place. Instead, I came to see heaven as the ultimate reality and this world as what C S Lewis calls ‘the shadowlands’. In other words, all the joy, beauty and love in this world, is just a taster for the real party. That’s why we are told that the invitation to follow Christ, is really an invitation to the greatest wedding party in the universe. “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9).
That’s why Paul longed to go to heaven – because it meant that he would be with Christ. He knew that he had a job to do on this earth – he knew that Christ was in and with him on this earth. But that was always tempered by sin and its effects – both his own and others. Heaven is a sinless place. And it is the place of ultimate beauty, joy and interest – because Christ is there. You will never get bored – because it won’t be about you – it’s about Christ. And it is impossible for Christ to be boring.
Even the image of an eternal boring church service is wrong. Yes, there have been times when a church service seems as if it was going on forever and it was more like purgatory than heaven. But I hope you have had, or will have the experience, I have had a few times – where the sense of God’s presence, the joy and the beauty was so dominant that the time passed so quickly, it seemed as though heaven had come to earth, and you wished it would go on forever! It will. But not yet…. that was just a taster – wait until you get to the real party!
Another way of putting it is from the final book of the Narnia stories – The Last Battle. It is one of my favourite books ever. I don’t know how many times I have read it! Each time I read it; it seems as though I have learned something new. For me it has been most helpful about heaven.
At one point Jewel the Unicorn delights: “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!”
Our experience in this life is one of decay. Change and decay in all around I see. Everything is running down. . In heaven it is the opposite. Everything is being renewed. There is always something new to learn. A new song to sing. New experiences. It is never ending. And never boring!
Consider: Where would you rather be? In a place of endless boredom, misery and loneliness; or a place of endless variety, joy and company? Jesus came to save us from ourselves. He went to heaven to prepare ‘many mansions. Have you accepted his invitation to join him there? If you are a Christian – why do you long for the temporary, vain and fake jewels of this world, when you have the crown of Christ?!
Further Reading:
The Last Battle – CS Lewis
Prayer: O Lord, forgive us that we too easily listen to the lies of the evil one – as if life with you could ever be boring! Help us to get rid of the false images we have of heaven – and enable us on this earth to get a foretaste of what heaven will be like, so that we do long for it and you even more. Lord, take us home….Amen
SEEK 25 – 666- the Number of the Beast.
An article of lovely thoughts when considering Heaven !
Your picture of Mereweather pool has it’s appeal if considered a foretaste of Heaven , but watching the sun go down amidst the clicking of cameras on the Oban waterfront , as the setting sun kisses the sea on the Sound of Mull on an early August evening, is my perfection.
Alas, all the speech that is poured forth brings little recognition to the Artist , but speech indeed is poured forth !