As they say, I grew-up in church. I even lived inside a church for a couple years, but that's a whole other post. I've lived in three different states and I've met many, many Christians.

Some of those Christians believed God means life to be one messy struggle following another. Some thought non-Christians were disgusting and to be avoided. Others believed anyone who didn't agree with their ideas, were, well, stupid. 

Some thought that if you didn't attend church every single Sunday, even if you were sick, God would be mad at you. He'd also be miffed if you weren't perfect, didn't read the Bible every single morning and if you weren't disappointed in yourself, at least part of the time. 

Many of those Christians from my Past have, through the years, died. And you know? I believe when they reached Heaven they were shocked.

Shocked to discover that Life lived with God could have been peaceful, beautiful even in the middle of storms. Surprised that God loved everybody, even non-Christians and that He'd made forgiveness available (through Jesus) so they could freely love anybody, including themselves.

Probably their minds were blown away to discover that they, themselves, were wrong about things which others had gotten right. Maybe their eyes became huge when they discovered the joy of the Lord really was their strength and God was so passionately in love with them. That He didn't even get mad when they made mistakes, instead, He just provided ways to do better next time (except they kicked themselves so hard they never glimpsed those ways).

And they might have been horrified when they discovered God was more interested in loving them and having them love others than in making them perform intricate daily duties everybody proclaimed were the most important things of all.

As for me? I don't want to be shocked when I reach Heaven. I don't want to stand there on Judgement Day with a thousand regrets regarding the life I could have lived. 

Instead, may I live with God's present joy, love and peace, celebrate His nearness and stay open to all He wants to teach me. I want to remain pliable so that when I rush into His arms in Heaven, there will be as few shocks as possible. 

And may that first hug to simply to be an extension, a continuation of the hugs He and I share here, upon Earth.

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"The greatest of these is love..." From I Corinthians 13


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"Learn your lessons well ..."

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." ... copied


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