Notes from the Wayside: Lenten Reflection: Not for the Faint of Heart

The following is the fourth in a series of reflections on The Great Divorce.
For more reflections on this work, check out the hub page for the series.

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Not for the Faint of Heart

A reflection on chapter 3 of C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce

Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

Mark 1:14-15 (NRSV)

God, I want to dream again

Take me where I've never been

I want to go there

This time I'm not scared

From "Unbreakable" by Fireflight

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, then you know that, after I graduated from college, I began working as a software engineer for a casino vendor. Three months after I lost that first job, I began working as a programmer for a local technical college. What I haven't mentioned previously is that, while I was seeking a job, the dean of another college I contacted reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in teaching a course in basic computer skills. A few days after we met, I decided not to pursue the teaching job and to instead continue pursuing the programming job.

I don't regret my decision, for I like my current job a lot more than I liked my first one. Also, my current job has given me the opportunity to use my programming skills to help people and not to simply take people's money. Every once in a while, though, I wonder what might have happened if I had just stepped out of my comfort zone and pursued the teaching job.

The flying bus overtakes a cliff before it finally lands at its destination. The passengers disembark to find that they have arrived at a vast natural landscape, full of light and inhabited by flora and fauna of all kinds - nothing like the "grey town" they had left hours earlier. The protagonist looks around him and sees great forests and valleys, high mountain cities, and sunlight starting to peer over the mountains. The protagonist sees his fellow passengers in the light of their new surroundings and realizes that they are transparent. He looks down and discovers that he can also see through himself.

The people from the town are not people at all: they are ghosts.

Unlike the ghosts who just came off of the bus - and unlike the city they just left - everything in this new place is completely solid and as hard as diamond: the ghosts are unable to move anything. The blades of grass penetrate their feet as they walk, causing them a great deal of pain. The protagonist rubs his fingers raw trying to pick a flower, and he wears himself out just trying to lift a single leaf. One ghost runs back onto the bus, totally weirded out by her surroundings.

Later on, the ghosts notice, in the distance, a group of people heading toward them - bright, solid, healthy-looking people, totally unlike them. These residents of this new land - these spirits from Heaven - are actually able to affect the environment around them, for the ground shakes as they make their way toward the ghosts. Two more ghosts become frightened and get back on the bus, while the rest of them huddle together in fear.

In The Great Divorce, Heaven is a rather scary place, at least to those who travel there from Hell. Equally perplexing is the fact that Lewis's depiction of Hell doesn't really seem all that bad. The dank, dingy, drizzly town is a far cry from the depiction of Hell we are typically presented in various media - a lake of fire full of people writhing in constant agony. What if the things we've been taught about Heaven and Hell are overly simplistic? What if the truth about these two realities is much more subtle and complex?

What if, in some sick way, Hell is actually more comfortable than Heaven?

What if Hell is all of the bad things that bring us comfort, while Heaven is all of the awesome things God wants for us that initially frighten us?

What if Hell is the mediocre existence to which we often resign ourselves, while Heaven is the indescribably amazing existence we desire in the depths of our souls but are far too often too afraid to reach out and grab?

One of the first things Jesus says when He begins His public ministry is, "The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." What Jesus calls the "Kingdom of God" and what we normally call "Heaven" are not exactly the same thing, but they can both be understood as the place where God reigns. According to Jesus, whatever God has in mind for us will require some repentance on our part. As I have mentioned numerous times on this blog, the word translated into English as "Repentance" is the Greek word Metanoia, which literally means a change of mind, particularly one that results in an outward change in one's life.¹

So often we think about Heaven as a place of endless bliss where all of our happiest dreams come true. Maybe we're wrong. So often we forget that Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done," and not, "My kingdom come; my will be done." Whether we're talking about Heaven or the Kingdom of God, it is not the place where our dreams come true but rather the place where God's dreams come true. If we want to participate in what God is doing, then we might need to reconsider our dreams. Jesus says multiple times that, in the Kingdom of God, the first will be last and the last will be first.² That's not very good news for the people at the top, at least not until they can begin to see a bigger picture and learn to hold their status a bit more loosely.

The protagonist will eventually figure out that if he hangs out in Heaven long enough, he just might firm up enough to be able to actually live there. Confronting our darkness is only the first step: at some point we will have to do something about it. Whatever God has in mind for us will require some adaptation, some adjustment, some realignment, some getting-used-to on our part - in other words, some repentance.

I think that C.S. Lewis, in his depiction of Heaven, is making an important statement about the Kingdom of God: it is not for the faint of heart. We will be required to leave the safety of our comfort zones, and there will be growing pains along the way as we align ourselves to the example provided by Jesus Christ. Again, may we not be afraid.

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