“Fear the damnation of Hell fire! Escape while you still can, and enter into the glorious presence of the Father in His heavenly kingdom.”

Ah, the soothing words of sermons gone by. Most Christians don’t talk like that anymore, though. We seem to have lost our gusto. We’ve gotten all nice and Canadian-like. In fact we don’t really talk much about what we believe at all. It seems that Consumerism has dressed this Christian generation comfortably in our death garments, and strokes our hair as we consider how relevant we have become. These days, Jesus is my homeboy, God is love, and Christianity can seem about as potent and life-changing as a half-hour with Eckhart Tolle. Sure, we’re into the social justice and environmental things now, but we’re just on the bandwagon, and barely. When it comes down to it, though, we still can’t get these ideas out of our heads–the dread of Hell and the glory of Heaven. Two far-away places.

I always had a hard time imagining either one. Being in the presence of God forever and ever and ever, praising him and walking on golden streets, and having all of my questions in life suddenly answered seemed terribly anti-climactic and dull. On the other hand–especially when I heard that the flames in Hell may be just a metaphor for the feeling of eternity spent apart from God–it was hard to imagine that Hell would be as terrible as they say.

Here’s why. Christian people always talked about how godless this world is, how awful and senseless. We can’t wait to finally get to heaven and leave this earth. We shouldn’t love this place too much, because God is coming to take us away, and he’ll destroy it altogether (for some reason–even though he made it and called it good). If this world is so bad that we just can’t wait to leave and go to heaven, if this world is as godless as we say, then if you ask me, Hell may not be so awful. If God’s “presence” here in this damned world is hardly worth noting, what difference does it make if God isn’t in Hell?

But in this life of mine I have found so much greatness and wonder all around, so much joy to take in.

If we consider that God shows himself in and through this universe, as the Bible says, does that make a difference? We can experience him around every corner and in every new day. So then, if God the Creator is actually, himself, revealed in the created world, if knowing goodness and beauty and true love is to truly know God to some degree, then that changes things.

Doesn’t it?

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