There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.
~CS Lewis
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.’
“Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me no food, I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
~Jesus, King of The Universe and my Best Friend, in Matthew 25
Oh beloved, it is true.
We think we know what we want. But our desires are far too small. Far, far, far FAR too small.
Stop for a moment. Think about it. What is it that you want? And then, amplify that to the largest quantity and best quality in the universe. What if you could have everything. Every. Little. Thing. Seriously, take this to the nth. Oh, many of us formerly lost boys from the Colony would even want good a few good things. But, for the sake of this little blog entry, indulge this writer and take it all the way up the scale. Take the knobs and crank them to 120 on a scale of 1-10….
What did you imagine?
Then take this quantity and quality of life, and stretch it across the billions of years that this universe has existed, and expand it on out into the billions of years she may have left.
Everything you want. Wealth, power, prestige, honors and pleasures flowing in galactic-scale waves through you, and anything else you may have wished to be part of this whole thing.
Now… Keep thinking on this. Give it a few minutes to let your mind stretch out across the light-years. Think about each thing you want. Then answer, “What is the logical outcome of any thing you have. What is the logical outcome of what I do with what I have?
What are you sensing?
Did you feel the dullness of it all? Did you begin to feel the vanity that Solomon did after he actually got a run at being far more wealthy that Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos (in inflation-adjusted Shekels)? Did you feel the dream kind of clank up against the side of something? Did you feel the let down?
Can we see it?
Standing on a rock in a river
Staring at the splintered sun
You could drown yourself in jewels
Like a thousand other fools
While you stand there looking down at what you’ve won
Sitting on a mountain of ashes
Face to face with past regrets
You could roll down to the canyon
Piss away this incarnation
But remember that you pay for what you get
And he (the devil) says, “But don’t you know
How hard it is
To hit the ground and mean it
And (really) mean it?
~ Bruce Cockburn
The liar, the devil, and the cheater of our souls, has continued to sell us one lie. And, that lie is that life is about ourselves. Oh yes! We were Designed for eternal pleasures. We have been chosen to enjoy the near Presence of our Maker, and to glorify Him forever!
But, the reality of all of this, is that all the things we thought would make us happy, were only only pointers to The Source of Happiness. They were the tipping points that drew us towards a Loving, Giving, Selfless, and JOYFUL Life. Or, they were the things that drew us away from The Abundant Life, and into the poverty of our own lusts and gluttonies.
Beloved, the judgement of the Sheep and The Goats is not about whether we ‘behaved right,’ or did enough ‘good works.’ This judgement will divide us along the lines of who we really are. Will we be people who simply want our own happiness? Or will we be like our Redeemer; those who find the deepest pleasure in relationships of Love?
Tonight is your night. What do you really want?
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
~CS Lewis
