Your Version of Heaven Sounds Like Hell

No one wants to die. No matter what comes next, it’s not a fun thought.

Now, as a Christian, the promise of heaven is supposed to make death more palatable. We attempt to comfort ourselves by believing that this life is not our ultimate destination - and while dying is understandably scary, we have a great source of hope.

Sure, on the surface, it sounds great - but let’s be honest: If I think about heaven for more than thirty seconds, the emotion it produces isn’t comfort, but fear. Maybe it feels sacrilegious to admit it, but I have generally coped with my angst about heaven by not thinking about it.

Until recently, that is.

I came across a video on social media of two guys on a subway having a casual conversation about the afterlife. One guy said, “I think heaven would suck. Eventually, you would get bored. It would become hell.”

This was not a deep philosophical discussion, and it’s unclear whether either of them actually believed heaven was real, but their arguments struck a chord with me.

Were they right?

For most of my life, I’ve conceptualized heaven as they do: a place of eternal good times. I’ve imagined this life, but without pain, disappointment, and suffering. This version of heaven was cool to dwell on for a few minutes, but then the doubts would creep in: Would that actually be cool to experience FOREVER?

Now, I’ve heard various rebuttals over the years, with my grandma’s being the least effective among them. She interrupted my out-loud musings in the back of their Chevy Lumina and simply said, “Oh honey, in heaven you’ll just be worshipping at the throne of God forever.”

That did not comfort my ten-year-old brain. Fortunately, my grandpa came to the rescue and gave me a reassuring shake of the head, as if to say without words, “I love her, but that sounds miserable to me, too.“

The most common response I hear is, “Well, we just can’t understand what heaven will be like; it’s way beyond us.” The “mystery” explanation isn’t emotionally satisfying, even though it’s obvious from an intellectual perspective. Still, have I had the right sort of “mystery” in mind?

Recently, I’ve had a paradigm shift that has dramatically impacted my view of heaven.

What I long for most is not the multiplicity of pleasures found here on earth; it’s for a substance of an entirely different kind.

The guys in the video are absolutely right. If heaven is just good coffee, sunsets, and jet ski rides multiplied by a million over and over, forever, that wouldn’t be paradise; that would be a cage.

My shift in perspective occurred when I began to view heaven as the consummation of a kind of intimacy that, here on earth, will always feel watered down and distant.

It will not be so in heaven. There, we will finally and fully have what we were created for - a perfect union with the One who made us.

Once and for all, we will have a kind of love that emanates from The Infinite Himself, which is inexhaustibly fulfilling. In short, we will never get bored of being loved by God.

It is this kind of satisfaction that relegates all other pleasures, even uncorrupted, infinitely multiplied earthly pleasures, to their proper place: an awesome bonus to be experienced from a place of total wholeness and joy.

‍He will satisfy our deep desire to be known and loved with such perfection that we will laugh at having thought that a good meal or vacation in the Bahamas could have ever stood in its place.

‍This new paradigm is no less mysterious, but it’s the kind of mystery that I can wrap my head around. Paradoxes aside, this was a necessary shift in my thinking.

So, yeah, my grandma was right. I long for God Himself, and I will never grow tired of being in His presence. She just could’ve described it a little better.