Where God is Not
"'I have told you these things, so
that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take
heart! I have overcome the world.'" --John 16:33
"'My Father's house has many
rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to
prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.'" --John
14:2-3
"They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might." --2 Thessalonians 1:9
We often envision hell as a red-black cavern licked by
flames, a network of underground tunnels echoing with the sinister laugh of a
pitch-forked, life-of-the-party cartoon devil, a lake of unquenchable fire.
Perhaps these descriptions are true--but only partially.
Hell is the absence of God. Hell is the utter absence of
anything--anything--good.
We speak of hell on earth. Surely we know from experience that
in this world we will have trouble. Floods and earthquakes ravage. Disease
descends at random. Powerful people prosper. Innocent men die at the hands of others,
and vengeful men extract their pound of flesh.
Yet we speak of heaven on earth because we know joy and we
know goodness. We have the delight of rainbows, the smell of coffee, the squish
of chubby baby cheeks, and the tumbling warmth of golden retriever puppies. We
have heroes, first responders, defenders, and givers. We have blue skies to
which we lift our eyes and breathe. We have deep, black, diamond-studded skies
under which we stand in silent awe. We have oceans to lap away our stress. We
have the strength and companionship of friends with hands held out to uplift,
arms wrapped around to sustain, smiles and tears to share our human experience.
We have places to go, escapes, options, and lifelines. We have the restraining
hand of God and the presence of good alive in the souls of men to bring us
protection, joy, healing, relief. We have love. We have Christ, a choice in a
fraction of a breath, a mere eye-blink away.
I have joked that my personal hell would be an eternal
February, or an infinite series of photocopier jams, or an endless day trapped
inside a Wal-Mart. . . .
Some know, no joke, that the worst sort of personal hell
would be an eternal war zone, or an infinite moment of unspeakable silence in a
dark bedroom, or an endless loop of that time the phone rang. . . .
Hell is all lying. All cheating. All perversion. All getting
away with it. All violence unchecked.
Hell is innocent bystanders mowed down in cold blood but with
no one around sensitive enough to be horrified.
Hell is more oppressive than a thousand middle-school
bullies and lonelier than a car running in a sealed-up garage.
Hell is colder than blue-black February and hotter than asphalt
on bare feet in August.
Hell is only bad and only more and more of it.
Hell is the absence of God.
Hell is the utter absence of anything--anything--good.
There is no cartoon H. E. Double Hockey Sticks.
And as bad as this world is, it is not hell.
There is no filter in hell.
No restraint.
No relief.
But heaven? Heaven is
here, an undercurrent, a swell, a bright vein of eternity tucked deep in dark pockets
and glimmering up on the heights. Heaven
is always in reach amidst the happiness and horrors of this life. It is within
reach because Jesus Christ, God as a human, came here and extended his hand to
us.
Hell is where God is not.
But I have entrusted my soul to the One who has gone to
prepare a place for me where the Great I Am is.
ErinRMS 7/8/16
