In his book The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis poses a question that has captured the imagination of Christians and non-Christians alike: what happens to us after we die?  His answer takes the form of a fanciful story in which not everyone winds up in Heaven.  But, what’s curious is that while there’s a Heaven and a Hell, Hell’s not the result of a judgmental God who dooms people; rather, Hell’s a matter of choice. Lewis bases his answer on the fact that if Jesus Christ conquered death, then he didn’t do so for only one group of people.  Either we believe death is completely done in, or it’s not and there’s no other option.  So, according to Lewis, the only reason people stay in Hell is that they choose to be there.

 

But, if Heaven were open to anyone, why would someone choose to stay in Hell?  For one thing, Lewis doesn’t present Hell as a place of fire or torture, although it’s a place of great torment.  Hell’s a wide-open space laden with homes and streets, but oddly it’s never quite daylight and always misting.  Another thing about Lewis’ Hell is that there are lots of people, but no one is really nice to anyone else because everyone’s looking out for themselves.  So, whenever people gather they end up arguing and leaving each other.  Eventually, as the main character discovers, some people get so disgusted with other people and even themselves that all they do is move further away from others ‘til they live in houses as distant as the furthest stars in the sky.  For Lewis, Hell is absolute torment because there’s nothing to protect people from their completely destructive self-absorption.  So, again, I ask why stay in Hell rather than move on to Heaven?

 

In his story, people move from Hell to Heaven by taking a bus, and by the time the main character finds his way to the bus line there are far too many people to fit on the bus.  At first he’s discouraged, but eventually his discouragement dissipates because while waiting for the bus most of the people end up arguing, getting annoyed, and leaving in a huff.  For Lewis, Hell is an ongoing experience of people’s inability to put others before themselves.  If we look at the list of vices in Colossians 3, isn’t it interesting that at their core is a completely self-interested heart?  Hell on Earth is the imposition of self against another person, so why would it be any different in Hell itself?

 

Against Hell stands Heaven, which is where Lewis’ main character travels on the bus, and once there he discovers a place many times larger than Hell, and can barely see because of the bright sun.  He experiences Heaven as one emerging from a movie theater into the bright sun.  Heaven was a new type of pain, not of drunken self-interest, but of glory.  Of course, that only made some of the bus passengers angry and even more disgruntled than they were in Hell so they opt never to enter Heaven.  Lewis’ point here is that eternal life with God can be discomforting to those who prefer a self-absorbed life so they choose to avoid the things of God.

 

Besides his eyes having to adjust, his feet must go through a similar transformation as he grows accustomed to the feel of grass.  It’s like an infant who tries to walk on grass for the first time and experiences discomfort.  And Lewis is quick to point out that not everyone cares to make this sort of transformation, either in this life or after it.  If we want to experience Heaven then we’re going to have to face the hardship involved in getting over ourselves and getting into God.  But, because this demands a submission that many people find either too difficult or unsatisfying in the immediate sense, Lewis contends that many will simply prefer Hell over Heaven.

 

What then do those of us who believe Heaven is in store for us do with the notion that it will involve adjustments?  Quite frankly, we do our best to work on it while we’re still here.  An ancient Christian writer by the name of Thomas á Kempis observed something about humans.  He wrote, Thomas á Kempis wrote, “You are a man, not God; you are a human, not an angel.  How can you expect to always remain in a constant state of virtue, when this was not possible even for an angel of heaven, nor the first man [and woman] in the Garden?”  What Kempis is saying is the same thing that one CEO I knew in New Jersey said to me: “I am nothing; God is everything.”  Without God’s influence, choosing the things of God becomes impossible.  We’ll mess up, but if we’re moving forward in the ways of God then we have every reason to be hopeful.

 

Colossians 3:1-14 has two parts to it.  The part most of us probably focused on was the second part, which talks about the things we should do and the things we shouldn’t do.  It’s pretty common to think about heaven in terms of something we have to earn, which means getting rid of the sinful stuff like anger, sexual impurity, greed, malice, or foul and abusive language.  Instead, we try to be more Godly and practice things like self-control, compassion, patience, studying the Bible, forgiveness and the like.  But, this isn’t the point that Paul’s making.

 

For Paul, as it was for Lewis, God gives us the ability to put on Christian virtues as if He were showing us a wardrobe with new clothes.  God invites us to wear those clothes not because we have to earn our way into Heaven or prove to God we’re good enough.  Rather, these are the clothes we’ll be wearing for eternity as children of God and the gift we have is that on this side of heaven we can begin our adjustments to heaven.

 

The heart of Paul’s message is in the first part where he writes, “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”  When we dispense with everything but the basics our faith is grounded on three points alone: Christ was born, Christ died, and Christ was raised again.  Did you notice what was missing?  You and me.  Jesus is THE basis of faith; you and I are not.  The heart of faith isn’t saying a confession or creed; it’s not coming to church weekly; or having more credits than debits in your account by life’s end.  Faith stands above all this.  It transcends depression, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, or any illness that affects our mind or cripples our bodies.

 

As humans we have a fallen nature that will be with us for as long as we live.  All the battles of conscience we fight each day are part of that human nature.  As Christians we try to adapt to the clothes we’ll wear for eternity: peace, compassion, love, joy, absolute forgiveness, etc., but until we’re in heaven we won’t make the complete adjustment from fallen to glorified.  We may grow in peace, but we’re always going to experience days when someone who knows which of our buttons to push will push them and we’ll become restless, angry, and impatient.  We may grow in compassion, but we’ll always experience the weight of a project and become more concerned about the task than about the people we love.  Every temptation under the sun will square off with us, and we’ll give in to some of them.  Nothing will change that.  If salvation were up to us being good people then we’d taint the perfection that bought our redemption.  The good news is that God has done a greater thing than what our sin has done.

 

When you said yes to redemption, Jesus kept a part of you with him so that at your core no matter how much abuse, lies, impatience, turmoil, or deceit you face you’ll always be able to experience an unfathomable peace.  If you’ve ever found amazing peace in horrific trauma, Christ is giving you a taste of what your core being experiences every moment of every day so that you can have hope rather than despair.  It’s such a mystery to me that I can’t find the words to describe it other than to thank God for it.  But, with Paul, I’m not simply satisfied to leave you with the encouragement to thank God for your new life.

 

There are a myriad applications I could dig into, but rather than get all preachy I’ll let the Spirit speak to you as He sees fit.  What I will say is this: in the choices of love, always focus on the other person before yourself and you’ll never go wrong.  This is how our redemption was purchased, and it’s the source of our satisfaction on both sides of Heaven.  Hallelujah.  Amen.