Since a snowstorm is raging, I thought it would be a nice time to reflect on a hotter target, say...hell.

Hell is a polarizing and often overly simplified aspect of Biblical Christianity.  

First it is referred to in sketchy contexts Biblically.  Certainly it has been fictionalized and expounded upon much more drammatically than its Biblical existence & description supports.  Second, it feeds into the unfortunate reality that we Christians do like tidy and devastating judgement to fall on others, don't we?  And how better to make our enemies pay than to imagine them floundering in constant fire?  (We'll get into the Bible of hell another time.  It will suprise some of you.)

The reality of hell is, like most eternal matters, uncertain and unknowable...until we are dead and it is too late to be pursuaded.  But it can be better understood by reflecting on God, Who God is, and therefor what God is not.

God is love, life, light, resurrection (fresh starts/ forgiveness) and truth...an ever-present counselor.  In all areas of living (and post-living) that we pursue those attributes of God, we are living in God's goodness and are likely experiencing characteristics similar to that of heaven. 

Conversely, despair, lonliness, the absence of relationship, darkness, absolute shame, death, and lies are not God and are therefor hellish whether it happens before or after death.  As I type that list I wonder if the much-touted fire was ever even a useful exaggeration as that all sounds completely miserable. 

2012.  I remember reading about THIS year in middle school a LONG time ago.  I was in middle school in the 80's.  Hearing the prediction that the world would end in 2012 sounded so distant, ominous, yes, and impossibly distant.

And yet, here it is. 

But the rub is this; we are all in the process of ending..."sentanced to death".  That was a line in a Dave Matthews Band song a decade or so ago.  For whatever reason, it takes me by surprise every time I consider it.  My world is going to end.  And soon.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe this year, maybe in 50 years.  Nonetheless, it is coming. Relentlessly pounding towards the end of my world.  I want to shake it off, and pretend like it won't happen to me...

The Bible describes shedding this body like a tent, like stepping out of the tent into what really exists beyond.  I like that.  I have always been a nervous camper, certain a bear lurked beyond my opaque tent windows waiting to eat me.  Or maybe instead a wonderland...a heaven with more love than I can even envision.

So if the Mayans or whoever it was got it right, against all odds, ridiculous as it may be...
then 2012 will be the year we exit the tent.  And if they are wrong, misled ancient prophets, then 2012 may still be the year we exit the tent.

Guess I better stop feeding the bears.