Apologies for the lack ofr updates recently. I blame both computer problems and J.K. Rowling.
Here are a few pictures from our recent block party. It was a hoot. I also have some marvolous vidoe of Dutch dancing and Norm B. singing along with "Yellow Submarine". Ask nicely and maybe I'll post them.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Heaven
I've been thinking about heaven a lot the past few months. I've been thinking about what it is we want from heaven, what we hope it will be like, what exactly will make it so wonderful for us.
The Bible (and our culture) suggests many different answers to this question: we look forward to heaven because there will be no more suffering, "no more mourning, crying, or pain," as Revelation 21:4 so beautifully puts it. And of course, many of us look forward to being reunited with our loved ones (books like 90 Minutes in Heaven seem especially keen on this idea, from what I'm told). Or perhaps we simply look forward to heaven because we trust that will experience life as it was intended to be: a restored earth free of crime and pollution and all the brokenness, perhaps(depending on who we are and where we're getting our information) an eternal golf game* or the everlasting weekend in the mountains.
Those things may all be well and good. But I wonder, are they enough? Or ought we to be hoping for something more? Or as John Piper puts the question:
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?”
The "right" answer to that question, of course, (at least from a Christian perspective)ought to be "no." But my fear is that, too often, we talk about heaven (and about Christianity in general) in a way that suggests otherwise. Think, for example, of the way we may "pitch" Christianity evangelistically: we tell others that Jesus will relieve them of their guilt, give them the chance to see dear old aunt Sally again, or will get them some othe perk. Sure, these things may be true--but they miss the deeper point. The deeper point, as Piper puts it in the title of his book, is that GOD is the Gospel. The point is that true happiness comes from fellowship with HIM--which is exactly what he gives us in Christ and promises us for eternity!**
So why do I make such a big deal out of this? Well, for one thing, it's a simple matter of right thinking. Suggesting that heaven is more about forgiveness or lack of pain or some other perk than it is about life with God confuses the ends with the means.*** But more to the point--it comes back to T.S. Elliot's famous line: "In my end is my begninning." If our eternal goal is merely to be reunited with our loved ones, to live a pain free life, to ski for eternity--then that's how I'll live now. Those will be the things that we live for now. (And if that's how we live, I suspect we might be too earthly minded to be of much heavenly good.) But if my eternal goal is to dwell with God (and the rest is just details), than will have termendous implications for what--or WHO--I seeek and serve now!
*For some, this might only happen in that other, warmer , place!
**Since I've started thinking about this, I've realized that a much more central concern of Rev 21 (more central than the absence of sickness, crying or pain etc mentioned in verse 4) comes in verse 3: Now the dwelling of God is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God... It's more about the relationship than the "perks."
***I find Lewis helpful on this point. In A Grief Observed, he writes: Am I just sidling back to God because I know that if there’s any road to H. [Lewis' deceased wife], it runs through him? But then of course I know perfectly well that He can’t be used as a road. If you’re approaching Him not as the goal but as a road, not as the end but as a means, you’re not really approaching Him at all. That’s what was really wrong with all those popular pictures of happy reunions ‘on the further shore’; not the simple-minded and very earthly images, but the fact that they make an End of what we can get only as a by-product of the true End.
The Bible (and our culture) suggests many different answers to this question: we look forward to heaven because there will be no more suffering, "no more mourning, crying, or pain," as Revelation 21:4 so beautifully puts it. And of course, many of us look forward to being reunited with our loved ones (books like 90 Minutes in Heaven seem especially keen on this idea, from what I'm told). Or perhaps we simply look forward to heaven because we trust that will experience life as it was intended to be: a restored earth free of crime and pollution and all the brokenness, perhaps(depending on who we are and where we're getting our information) an eternal golf game* or the everlasting weekend in the mountains.
Those things may all be well and good. But I wonder, are they enough? Or ought we to be hoping for something more? Or as John Piper puts the question:
The critical question for our generation—and for every generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?”
The "right" answer to that question, of course, (at least from a Christian perspective)ought to be "no." But my fear is that, too often, we talk about heaven (and about Christianity in general) in a way that suggests otherwise. Think, for example, of the way we may "pitch" Christianity evangelistically: we tell others that Jesus will relieve them of their guilt, give them the chance to see dear old aunt Sally again, or will get them some othe perk. Sure, these things may be true--but they miss the deeper point. The deeper point, as Piper puts it in the title of his book, is that GOD is the Gospel. The point is that true happiness comes from fellowship with HIM--which is exactly what he gives us in Christ and promises us for eternity!**
So why do I make such a big deal out of this? Well, for one thing, it's a simple matter of right thinking. Suggesting that heaven is more about forgiveness or lack of pain or some other perk than it is about life with God confuses the ends with the means.*** But more to the point--it comes back to T.S. Elliot's famous line: "In my end is my begninning." If our eternal goal is merely to be reunited with our loved ones, to live a pain free life, to ski for eternity--then that's how I'll live now. Those will be the things that we live for now. (And if that's how we live, I suspect we might be too earthly minded to be of much heavenly good.) But if my eternal goal is to dwell with God (and the rest is just details), than will have termendous implications for what--or WHO--I seeek and serve now!
*For some, this might only happen in that other, warmer , place!
**Since I've started thinking about this, I've realized that a much more central concern of Rev 21 (more central than the absence of sickness, crying or pain etc mentioned in verse 4) comes in verse 3: Now the dwelling of God is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God... It's more about the relationship than the "perks."
***I find Lewis helpful on this point. In A Grief Observed, he writes: Am I just sidling back to God because I know that if there’s any road to H. [Lewis' deceased wife], it runs through him? But then of course I know perfectly well that He can’t be used as a road. If you’re approaching Him not as the goal but as a road, not as the end but as a means, you’re not really approaching Him at all. That’s what was really wrong with all those popular pictures of happy reunions ‘on the further shore’; not the simple-minded and very earthly images, but the fact that they make an End of what we can get only as a by-product of the true End.
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